The Lost Tooth

We are settled in and our internal clocks have adjusted. The best thing about being here is the daylight. It is light enough to be outside at 5:30 in the morning. The jet lag has helped us be early risers. Mark and I have been getting up early to do our exercise. This is a really good place to swim, cycle, and run. We are right on a 10K trail and road that goes along the Auckland waterfront. People here are outdoor exercise crazy. You see them everywhere, all the time. You wouldn't believe how many runners and cyclists I saw out at 5:30 this morning. The swimmers all came out about lunchtime, which is high tide.

The girls have adjusted to school. The kids love their accents. They are more popular here than they are used to being. We'll see how long that lasts. They have been assigned to a house, which is a four-way division of the whole school. Families are kept together in the same house. They use it for intraschool competition. The other day, when I gave all the girls their uniforms, Hannah wanted hers to smell nice so she started to go spray it with some body spray that she had stashed away somewhere. I told her she didn't need to do that. Then the next thing I heard was a spraying sound from the bathroom. It was Esther spraying her uniform with Glade so she would smell nice. Well, she has smelled like Glade for days. The girls only have one uniform, so they have to wear them a few days before they get cleaned.

Speaking of laundry, I'm doing it today. No one here dries their clothes in a dryer. Everyone, even the most expensive homes, have a clothes line in the back for drying their clothes. I really like it because I'm a little greenie at heart. I'm nothing compared to the Kiwis. The regular garbage container is tiny. On the other hand, the recycling container is twice the size of the regular container. They have figured out how to get people to recycle. I'm giving Emma the recycling job. She's a natural.

Last night Hannah lost a tooth. What do you know? The tooth fairy comes to New Zealand too. She brings a $2 NZ coin, which is about the same value right now as the US $1 coin. Let's just hope that the US $1 coin keeps gaining on the NZ $2 coin for a few more months.