Random musings by Aidan and Jasper

In no particular order, Aidan and Jasper talk about their experience in New Zealand, thus far

J: I like seeing blue penguins in New Zealand

A: I liked the little posts in Napier, and I liked doing the rubbings of the Art Deco tiles in the square in Napier.

J: I like sea salt crackers

A: I loved the Sky Tower in Auckland with its glass floors.

J: I like all the hills and mountains in New Zealand and that there are so many farms.

A: New Zealand feels very small to me. At least the North Island. It feels easy to navigate and everything is pretty close.

J: We do more art in school in NZ than we did in America. We're much more creative.

A: We feel more "out there" -- on boats ,airplanes. It feels more like being in the large world.

J: I like how every night we get a beautiful sunset.

A: I love the cherries.

J: I like the plums from Frank's tree.

A: I like the Te Papa museum in Wellington -- especially the giant squid.

J: I like how there's so much nature everywhere. There's tress and bushes wherever you are. Even in Auckland.

A: There's lots of natural scenery like the mountains and tree ferns.

J: It takes me a little while to process what people say here. Not like in America.

A: It feels like a weird mix of the past -like the internet service is really slow, the houses have poor insulation and heating -- but it's present day.

J: I like how the outlets here have "on" switches.

J: It's funny being a day ahead of everybody.

J: I liked the Waitomo caves.

A: I love the wildlife.

J: And lots of them are native to NZ, like tuis.

J: I like how at school they have three breaks - even if some are short - like brain break is only fifteen minutes.

A: It's weird - the school year and calendar - and the way they teach things is different than home - like decimals and fractions they do it in a different order.

J: I like that it's still just a short walk to school.

A: I can't help mentally correcting  spellings of words like "kerb," "tyre," centre," and "practising."

J: I liked having a big chain of people visiting us every week.

A: When we got to New Zealand we started watching more movies.

A: I've been reading more New Yorker cartoons.

J: I like seeing the lake from our window.

A: I like the different coffee names.

A flat white

J: We got to know our grandparents better because we spent more time together than usual.

A: We play more board games and card games together.

J: We brought the game that I bought [a plastic chess set] with my tickets at Chinese school on this trip!

J: I like it that we've got one library in Taupo and one library in Turangi so Mommy can come home from work with books for us.