27th August

27th August 2007

Well Monday was a day to continue settling in and get to know my host family.
I woke up very early as I mentioned but once the sister's woke up my day begun, They made a Ham sandwich for me, because obviously I have said all I eat is meat and potatoes. I was so gutted to see it as I dont like Ham usually, but i was hungry and of course didn't want to be rude so I ate it. It wasn't as bad as i thought it wasnt real ham it was more like luncheon meat. The bread was very thick though. I am just thinking maybe I should be changing the title of my blog to "The food Chronicles" or something Lol.

After that we walked back to my host family's place. Yelin(my host mum) and her sister were on the computer so I went on mine for a while. After that they said they were going to the supermarket, of course it took about 10 minutes to figure that out and then another 5 to figure out they wanted me to come. We set out, i discovered that when its sunny they all walk around with Umbrellas and while this may seem silly its actually a lifesaver in this heat. We walked to the bus stop which is very close. The bus was just like any other bus i guess except everyone was staring at me. The supermarket was just around the corner, when we walked in it kinda looked like maybe a Kmart or something, but then we went down the escalator( which is very steep) and there was the supermarket i was expecting. the first thing i saw was some crazy shellfish that were still alive and waiting to be taken away from their families. All of us had a dictionary or other form of translations in our hands and we walked around trying to figure out what Yelin could buy for me to eat and how i liked things cooked. Explaining how i like my eggs cooked was entertaining, fried eggs, i was acting out how to do it and then pointing to the word fried in the books, eventually Yelin's sister figured it out, the lady working was watching and probably getting a good laugh out of me. So we walked around the supermarket, Pointing to things and saying yay or ney. Surprisingly I found a couple of things. Found some snacks too. I wanted shampoo and conditioner and this began another epic translatorthon as did deodorant. After that we caught a taxi home, we drove through a market and on crazy dirt roads. I was surprised at how close we were, it was really just around the corner. What is really cool is that the Taxis charge 10yuan (about $2 NZD) for the first 10 k's so you can actually get quite a way on this, and even better if you ask them to stop and wait for someone they will, and they don't even get stroppy or anything, and of course because you aren't moving it doesn't hike up the price.

When we got back we all went back to our computers. Just as I logged on I saw that my dad had logged onto Skype so i said Hello. It turned out not to be my Dad but my brother so i chatted to him for a bit and told him how to hook up the skype phone so we could actually hear eachother. Then he got Mum, the 3 of us spoke for maybe an hour, which was really cool. I still wasnt feeling very well though so i wasn't quite myself. I also managed to chat to Laura H which was awesome. woot. Yelin bought out some lunch for me to eat, It was noodles with meat and potatoes, haha she is so sweet. The noodles weren't what I am used to but i tried hard to eat as much as I could. Of course this task was made harder by still feeling sick.

After I had lunch i had a lie down as i was really tired, i wasnt even thinking of it but Yelin (pronounced yea ling , i think) asked if i wanted to, i think she knew i needed it so i did. I woke up just in time for tea. we had chicken nibbles (hallelujah) and potatoes and some veges but i ignored those, lol. I had a couple and some potatoe, They cook potatoes very differently to back home, obviously much more healthy, will take some getting used to. Again couldn't eat much. It is very interesting watching everyone eat with Chopsticks and even Tonya was amazing with them(canadian girl). The most impressive thing i think was the chicken nibbles, the whole nibble goes in the mouth and the bone comes out, it's crazy and oh so clever.

After Dinner we played wii all night till about 11pm. OMG what a freaking work out it is, Its so bloody great and truly amazing how everyone gets involved and is really good at it. We played tennis, we boxed, dodged, golfed and bowled the night away. Our arms were so soar afterwards. If you want a fun way to exercise seriously Wii is the way to go. I went to bed early as i knew i had an early start.