Is a total trip. Today Val, one of the teachers, tried teaching the kids about telling jokes. She gave them some guidelines about what makes jokes funny, how to tell them, etc. Of course, it didn’t really sink in, and we had lots of kids making up jokes like: “Knock knock, Who’s there? Knock knock, Knock knock who? No, I was knocking on my head!” Which is funny mostly because of the enthusiaim they put into it. Then we told the kids some jokes, and one kid kept not getting them. I know this, because he kept saying “I don’t get it,” and looking very concerned. Until finally either one sank in or was explained to him, and he stood up, arms raised, like he was gonna testify to the lord, and yelled “I get it!” Read the rest of this entry »

story by kids I work with. This time it’s by some 2nd and 3rd graders. And as with last time, I have only done some smoothing of edges.

There once lived a man named Bob who lived in Ye Olde Town of Medfield. He was a hobo, and would wander the town looking for work. Sometimes he found small jobs to do, but he never had enough work to have a place to stay. One day, as he was walking around, he noticed something odd. There was a mouse on the corner, and it was singing! Bob stopped, amazed. Read the rest of this entry »

So I awoke this afternoon (yes, afternoon, don’t pretend to be surprised) to find that mike had discovered some free internet! Hooray! We’re staying in the city garden lodge in Parnell, a fashionable suburb just outside Auckland. The house used to be the Queen of Tonga’s many years ago. Now all of the rooms have been converted into bedrooms, save the kitchen, dining and lounge areas. There are a plethora of showers, toilets and washrooms; most of these being entirely separate rooms. Currently we’re in our very cute vaulted ceiling, peach and blue painted, incredibly cheery room, which is the most luxurious room we’ve had so far this trip (no offense meant to our other hosts of course). There is a double bed, which is a bit small for mike and I, but we are absolutely in love with it despite this. It is by and far the most comfortable bed I think I have ever slept in. The mattress is some soft foamy stuff, and it’s piled with 3ft of blankets weighing several pounds. Which is good, because it’s a bit chilly here, definitely a moderate to cool spring with a bit of occasional rain thrown in. It’s so nice here though, and everyone is friendly but not nosy, which I think is perfect.

Yesterday once we got into our room around 11, we took very hot showers and very long naps in order to recover from our very very long flight. (I actually managed to sleep most of the time, thank god.) About 7pm we got up and headed out to find some dinner. The little info book that came with the room suggested a place called Wisconsin Burger, which I thought would be funny and also delicious. Supposedly it was located just a short walk from the side street the hostel is on to the main drag, Parnell Rd. Well, we walked quite a way down Parnell one way, passing many sushi, thai and trendy restaurants out of our budget, but no Wisconsin Burger. So we turned around and walked even further the other way, up into the less trendy area of Parnell I guess. Once we’d walked another 5 or 10 minutes we decided that there was no longer a Wisconsin Burger. Across the street from us was Al & Pete’s Burgers & Chips; a small takeaway type place with a few small tables inside.

The menu seemed okay, and there were a variety of things listed under the heading “burgers” on the menu board. Actually, I thought the “burgers” they offered were a bit strange; ham, egg, steak and egg, seafood, not things that we’d put on our burgers back home. But I found one that was bacon and cheese, listed under burgers, so I thought I was ordering a bacon cheeseburger. Mike ordered a Chili Burger, we both ordered some chips, and waited for our orders. When the came up we realized that we could’ve easily split one bag of chips, but they were oh so good it didn’t matter. We opened up our paper-wrapped sandwiches to fine that “burger” didn’t mean what we thought in meant. Mike’s was okay, a real hamburger on a bun, but with salsa – not chili. He says it was good, but not at all what he was expecting. Apparently chili = salsa, perhaps with chilis in it? Anyway, he made out better than I did, because I had a number of discoveries with my meal. 1) Burger doesn’t necessarily mean a beef patty; it’s apparently anything they can think of placed on a hamburger bun. This explained the weird listings on the menu. 2) Here, bacon isn’t anything at all similar to bacon. Closer to thinly sliced ham, but not quite. Sort of fatty, salted, and on the tough side, but not at all the burnt crispy deliciousness of american bacon. The sandwich that I got was this sliced ham stuff, piled 3 high, slathered in cheese, with lettuce and tomato and some sort of sauce similar to a bbq type thing. Not a hamburger, not bacon, and the cheese was a lot of cheese.

We ate it regardless, and after the initial shock it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t finish mine though, because it was a lot of “bacon”. Walking back down Parnell to where we’d seen an irish pub, we mused that they probably are horrified by what we consider bacon, or chili maybe. From here on out I am going to be very careful what I ask for, and make sure that I fully understand what I’m ordering. Luckily I’m not that picky, but I really don’t want any more food surprises either.

So we woke up this morning to the sounds of screaming coming from outside. We opened the door to the deck to see a couple of people gathered around two dogs. The larger, orangeish/brownish dog was attacking the little black dog, and a couple of the people were trying to pull them apart. One woman was standing off to the side, screaming. Within seconds, the crowed had doubled, including someone who pulled up in his car, and there were three or four people wrestling with the dogs. And the woman was still screaming, a high pitched, horrible scream.
Fortunately, the dogs were seperated, and the little one was fine. He was given back to the screaming woman, who was his owner, and she calmed down when she saw he was alright. One of the people who had rushed over was still holding down the bigger dog, presumably calming it down. At this point, the crowd was starting to disperse. The woman holding the little dog started talking about how she was “fine, don’t worry about me.”
The man holding the dog finally let it up, and was talking with its owner about different leashes and handling advice. The two owners started talking and joking, and the one with the little dog even said something about “I don’t feel guilty, it’s my fault.” At this point, it looked like a couple of friends just hanging out, walking their dogs. The big one was even wagging his tail, almost as if to say “that was fun! what can I chew on now?”
And then everyone just went on their way. The whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than ten minutes. Good morning, LA.