I have lost track of the days...

Today was a pretty chill day. I met up with my host family and had lunch, hiked a non active volcano, visited the grocery store, and did a lot of talking about education. My host family is awesome. I am staying with a principle of what we would call our middle school. However, they call middle school intermediate and the age grouping is a little different. I learned a great deal about how funding works for schools. Parents are required to donate money to school!!!! Wow!!! Depending on the economics of a community depends on how much money the school receives from the government. For example if a school is from an area that is considered poor, the government gives more money to the school and the parents contribute less. If the school is from a wealthy community the government supplies the school with less funding and the parents are supposed to contribute more money to make up the difference. A lot of the principle's job is to fund raise.

The hike on the volcano was pretty cool. Auckland has several volcanoes around Auckland city. They are not active, instead they are covered in green grass and appear like they are just hills. From the top you can view the city and the ocean surrounding the area. I also got to try a strange fruit which grows like crazy here. They taste like the soda 7up. Weird..but tasty. There are many sheep on the volcanoes. Another interesting fact I learned is there are no dangerous insects or animals....no snakes...no piousness spiders...no bears....the worst they have is mosquitoes and possums. There are no screens on the windows or doors. Many families leave the doors and windows wide open.

There is so much to tell all of you about New Zealand...my battery has died on the camera and I am struggling with charging it...but hopefully I will get it working again soon. I miss Vermont...but New Zealand is incredible! I think there is a lot we as Americans could learn from this amazing country.