reporting in

Hello again I went silent yesterday but I was so tired so I went to bed at 10:00 pm (that is 2200). A shame really that I got a phonecall in the middle of the night from a school in umea where I did my last practice period…I almost answered the call but realised in time that it might be hard to do any teaching in Sweden while I’m here. Anyway I have had two more days at school and it looks like I have a rewarding time ahead of me.
Math was a subject which I spent a lot of time with in upper secondary school but I’m afraid it was a rather long time ago. I still felt rather stupid when I helped a boy with a few questions. One question was about reflective geometry. I have never heard about it not in English anyway. I asked the boy about that word and he said he didn’t remember as he was five (!) the last time he worked with it.
I guess most readers know that my back is not the healthiest one in the world but I have lately learnt some really good stretching exercises and I usually use the floor while doing them. Alas, I’m not sure if I could do it any longer since the whole house was sprayed with pesticide this morning. But I guess it is a rather unpleasant experience to be awoken by a cockroach in the middle of the night.

I love your comments :)
Bye

Spinning round round round

The first day at a new school in a new country contained lots of new impressions and I was dog tired when I came home around 1630.

It all started with a powerful staff- meeting where the headmaster had a short speech over how excited he was about the new term. It was, after he had finished, possible to raise different topics by raising your hand. This is interesting since it created a positive atmosphere and it was clear that the headmaster had a clear vision for “his” school. Anyhow, I’m not the only teacher trainee at the school there are namely 5 girls from the Auckland area that are doing their practicum at the same time as me. My tutor seems like a nice person and we will have a lesson plan meeting on Wednesday since I’m going to carry out a couple of lessons then(!)
It was obvious who was in charge in the classroom. The teacher did every now and then tell the students off when they misbehaved in some way. It could for example be when they talked too loud or when they didn’t listen to what she had to say. It felt rather odd as I didn’t think their misbehavior required a rebuke from the teacher. But the class is rather noisy so doing nothing might not be a very good idea either. I think that I’ll find the right balance after the first week. It will be fun to tell them about Vikings, blizzards, November, and polar beers ;)

All for now
Markus

p.s I was tempted to taste one of the citrus fruits on my way to school...

lost

Today I set out to find the school I’m going to be at for the next four weeks. I got some instructions from Barbara (the mum) on a piece of paper and I manage to find the school without any difficulties. I cannot come up with a better place to build a school, the view is just awesome (they say that a lot here). It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to get there and I felt comfortable when I started going back. But in some way I managed to get lost after roughly 10 minutes. It is a bit hard to explain exactly what went wrong but there was a pathway that I couldn’t find. The two girls I asked looked a bit amused when I explained to them that I had found my way to the school but not the way back. They directed me to a pathway but it turned out to be the wrong one, but I didn’t want to turn back and make a complete foul of myself so I continued... A ten year old girl was the next to be asked (I had by then started to feel slightly worried). She gave a direction which I knew was wrong but I started to walk in accordance with her instructions anyway but I man had apparently overheard the conversation and he knew that I was going the wrong way. It took me a while to explain my situation for him (a mess really) but he managed to explain where I should go.

So all in all I had a little adventure on my own today…please take your time and check out the video and pictures from the school.

I’ll be back with more stuff from New Zealand tomorrow much

Kiwis

All the texts on the blog will from now on be in English and I hope it is alright with you :)
Anyhow, this is my second day in Kiwi land (lots of things are called Kiwi here, the strange bird, the fruits and the people) and I feel slightly more refreshed than yesterday. However the jet lag will probably haunt me for another couple of days.
I did, as a true explorer, bring my camera with today when I went for a walk and is it not without reason people fall in love with this country. I managed to take a few nice pictures on my one hour beach walk. I also visited a big mall outside Auckland. My host family live around about 15 from the city centre so it didn’t take more than five minutes by car to get to the mall. Nothing of interest happened at the mall apart from the fact that I bought I can of expensive chlorella powder 40 kiwis which is around 220 kr (yes also the dollar is sometimes called kiwi)…it is supposed to clean your system and contains lots of healthy stuff. It remains to be seen if I’ll feel the difference.

Stay tuned for more!


p.s I must regrettably say no to the request to import a kiwi from New Zealand...yes it is illegal.

Get me a Kiwi

Markus, det ska verkligen bli kul att få följa dina äventyr på andra sidan jordklotet. Kom bara ihåg att fixa mig en Kiwi fågel, ett löfte är ett löfte ;)

Erik

I Nya Zeeland

Sa antligen har!
har inte fatt igang natet pa min dator men det kommer nog snart. Ar sjukt trott men det kanske inte ar sa konstigt med tanke pa 3 timmar somn de senaste 50 timmarna. (tank er en Zoombie pa valium..) Nej nasta gang far det bli forsta klass sa att jag far plats med mina ben. Hur som helst verkar familjen trevlig och huset som de bor i ar fint men KALLT.
Det verkar som om mitt losen till facebooken blivit stulet...i och med att "jag" skickat ut massa konstiga saker om viktprodukter. Vet inte om det kan ha att gora med losenordsstolden fran hotmail. Har iaf bytt nu sa jag hoppas att det inte blir nagot mer.

Ha det gott
Markus now in kiwi land

Resan har börjat

Så då sitter jag på Hong Kongs flygpllats återhämtar mig lite. Det tar verkligen på krafterna att flyga och min resa startade 0800 från nävekvarn för att fortsätta till London kl 1540...och sen vidare till HOng Kong. Här är kl kl 1815 och mitt plan till Auckland går kl 2101. Sov nog inte mer än 2 timmar på planet...det har sina nackdelar att vara lång. Lyckades döda fyra timmar med två mindre bra filmer tranformrs 2 och angels and deamons.

Jag postar en bild på solen som har lite asiatisk mystik över sig.

Ha det gott!