I am now almost through my second week of school. The classes are in different buildings and lunch and break are both outside. There are four different "lakes" which are kind of like Harry Potter houses, but random. I am in lake Arapuni, the blue sharks. I am taking english, biology, outdoor education, food technology and hospitality, art, and high performance sport. Most of the people are super nice. I joined the two cultural clubs, Poly (polynesian dancing) and KapaHaka (native dancing). They are similar and both have dances to songs in Maori. It is super hot here and has been in the 80s and 90s this week. But, because the hole in the ozone is close to New Zealand the sun here is way stronger. The burn time is ten minutes! So it feels much hotter when you are in the sun. I spend most of my time at school with my sister from Brazil, Lis. I like her a lot and we have made a couple of other friends too. I am settling in and hoping to make more friends soon!

 Mural at my school

What you wear for the Polynesian dancing

Me and my parents daughters daughter, Mila. She is 18 months.

Me and some of the family at the beach

Me and Lis at the beach