Matt Rhine
Horn Player, Student
Traveler (I wish)
2
Hello all, here's a continuation from yesterday, I've got a ton more coming, this writing project of mine was far more undertaking than I had expected, but it's no matter, more for all of read, right?
Matt
But did we know whether they were scary serial killers? Or super cool host family people?
Fortunately for Jon and myself, they were wonderfully nice people. Mr. Jordan had sought me out right after rehearsal, by a stroke of luck, and more likely his perception he saw my name on my folder, and from there I was able to seek them out and them the same to us. Unfortunately, we weren't able to leave, as Jon is a percussionist there is an unwritten rule stating that must remain longer after rehearsal than everybody else. However, by another stroke of luck, we were able to leave the place in good time.
At the time I was largely confused, "were these people actually my host parents?" A question which was fueled by the larger question, "Wait… I'm staying with host parents, wow, I'm in New Zealand, what am I getting myself into?!" I was concerned about leaving a good impression upon America, and many other small things which I had hoped I wouldn't botch (which I still think I did, but I suppose you are your own worst critic, at least, I hope.) Jon and I gathered our stuff and managed to say goodbye to Becca, Kate O., Kate A, Jenny, Lauren and Lee (That was our group, and I suppose if I tried I could say that ten times and fast, but I'm typing, so it's a moot point) and we were off.
We walked down to the path, put all of our baggage in the trunk (it fit, I was glad to have packed light) and hopped in car. Mrs. Jordan hopped in the left side, I don't gender-cast roles but I just had a loose expectation that Mr. Jordan would be driving, it was just a small thought in my head, but then Mr. Jordan hopped in the right side of the car as well and started it. I had a moment of shock, and remembered (as well as observed) that the driver's side is on the right side, as the Kiwi drive on the left side of the road. Nine heart attacks later, we had got back to their house. I don't backseat drive or anything of the sort, but man, coming from America, taking a left without slowing down so much is a rather stressful moment, again, it was my forgetting that they drive on the left side of the road (that was a big thing to me! Of course, I got used to it right as the trip ended, just in time to go back to the right-side, aka: not left, of the road America.) I had noticed that there was a driveway that branched into multiple driveways, as opposed to the Elm Street America where everybody has a tree lawn and drive straight to the street. It appeared as though there was one house, and one by one, developers would plop down another house in the lots making for an interesting cluster of houses in these lots with one driveway connecting to the road. (Whew, I hope that made sense.)
From the car we obviously went to the house, and it was starting to get dark. Jon and I were quite lucky to be staying with the Jordan family. Their house was located on the highest point in Hamilton, and upon that, their house is drop dead gorgeous on the inside. But before we went in we overlooked the city (from the highest point in Hamilton mind you) and saw city and house lights twinkling. It finally dawned upon that New Zealand air was amazingly clean. It hadn't been totally apparent as we were nearly always around bus exhaust, but now it was clear, the air too. The view was amazing, now it only need to be say, dawn, and it would be perfect, it turns out that I'm lucky a kid. Time passed quickly, but not that quickly.
Jon and I spent the night acclimating ourselves to the house and our host parents. I spent hours being fascinated while Jon spent hours being tired (and bad because he didn't want to be tired.) The house had pine wood panel for all of the walls, and by all, I mean all. All of the floors were carpeted, including the toilet room and the bathroom. Needless to say, we had plenty to brag about when we met up with the rest of CYWS the following day.
When I had dropped my stuff off in the room, after being shown to my room by Mr. Jordan (Jon took the room with the bigger bed, however, little did he know that I had the more comfortable bed) He asked me if Jon and I were church going folk. I found it kind of odd, I ended up thinking, "It's Friday, oh wait, we crossed the dateline, never mind, it's Saturday, the question makes sense." Yet another wonder of far and wide travel, anywho, Jon and I decided we would much rather take a tour of wonderful tour of Hamilton and its places than to go to church, if we burn in hell for the choice, at least we can be well-justified (in my opinion at least.)
We got our stuff into place, and felt like we knew our way around the house (we didn't know about the downstairs) We learned the difference between the toilet room and the bathroom, it was simple, just new to us. We learned that the toilet has two buttons, for reasons best described by Mr. Jordan, "Well, one is for number one and the other is for number two… I give him full credit for describing an otherwise awkward subject. Dinner was then cooking and we settled into the family room, and we talked, and waited for dinner. Jon and I met Hannah, one of the Jordan's grandchildren. She was our age, which was interesting for us, we were able to find out more about the youth culture in New Zealand, as well as the fact that the Kiwi like our accents (which seemed unfathomable, because we didn't have an accent, all kidding aside, I was still surprised, I thought we were boring, I suppose not.) I pressed onward in the dangerous territory of politics, which didn't become heated, more rather it was an interesting session of learning about New Zealand and Australia. I had learned about the rivalry between the two, and along with that some of the jokes (imagine blonde and brunette jokes, and you're on the right track.)
Sooner than I had expected dinner was ready, it was Lamb with mint sauce, sweet potatoes, potatoes and pumpkin, and some other vegetables. It was quite good, and I was informed that the meal was a Sunday family style meal, quite like how we do it in America, or vice-versa, I won't be the one to say. We had the lamb, and we were told by Mrs. Jordan that we should put the mint sauce off to the side and dip the lamb in it, in the tradition of the Kiwi. After which Hannah mentioned (quietly) that she never uses mint sauce. After dinner, we talked quite a bit more, Mr. Jordan drove Hannah home and we all went to bed.
Come morning I got up early, jetlag of course, and looked out the window, from there I took many many pictures, it was dawn upon the city, and it was breathtaking. I went to sleep again after taking a satisfactory number of pictures, and woke again to Mr. Jordan reminding me that we were going to go tour the town, I was kept awake by roosters. Roosters, which are evidentially illegal to keep as pets because they are annoying to some. However, if they just happen to always be around, there's not much anybody can do. It was a mighty good thing that Jon and I liked them, and more importantly, that the Jordans liked them too. After Jon and I rolled out of bed we went outside (it was bloody cold, there was frost) and got some wonderful pictures of their backyard. It was absolutely stunning, they have hills and forests in their backyard, it's amazingly pretty, and it made getting up to see the fog rolling over the hills worth it alone.
We had a good breakfast of Weet-Bix (imagine a crushed corn-flakes bar,) toast and kiwi (the fruit, not people, or birds for that matter.) And then we were off to see the town, we drove around saw the sights (it was again, absolutely beautiful) and stopped off at a Mormon temple. Personally I had not seen anything like this before. It was a pristine white building, with a well kempt garden in front, we took a moment for explanation and a few pictures, and then moved onto other parts of town.
We took the backroads (at least I thought they were backroads, New Zealand isn't a dense country) to a cultural garden. I had mentioned that we had cultural gardens as well in Cleveland, but this one went way past the scope of the gardens in Cleveland. These gardens were actual garden from a time period in the history of a country, Japanese meditative gardens, Roman amphitheaters, Indian palace gardens, it was wonderful and interesting (and winter, the flowers were not in bloom, which is yet another reason why I need to go back to the down under) While wandering the garden complex, I noticed a little girl carrying a Pikachu, which may otherwise be unimportant, but to me, I found it quite fascinating. It showed me once again the mind boggling amount of globalization that we have in our world. We finished our rushed tour and went to the main building for a pit stop. In there we saw a Maori (at least, I think it was Maori) wood carving, which was intricate and interesting. We weren't able to see the cat show happening in the main building of the garden complex, a shame, but we had practice and a concert to go to.
After hopping in the car, and driving back to our host home, changing, and hopping back in to the car and driving off, we shortly arrived at St. Paul's Collegiate School, yet another learning institute with a gorgeous campus. We held a rehearsal for the concert, and then waited outside while the Waikato Youth Symphonic Band rehearsed. The sun was out (it was out everyday as a matter of fact) and it was Lee, myself Lauren and a few other standing around and talking, comparing families and waiting for the concert to begin.
At last, the concert began and it started with the WYSB playing a few songs, they were quite good, and had an enjoyable performance, I can only hope we had done the same. Regardless, we went up and performed, playing such songs as the Irish Tune from a County Derry (Danny Boy,) Be Thou my Vision and The Third Symphony by James Barnes. It was fun, and we had a wonderful and receptive audience of Host Parents and parents that had come along from America. After we performed (which I thought we had done well) we had combined band effort. We played Hanover Festival (which showcased our horn section quite well methinks) and Sabres and Spurs. It seemed like it was all done, save for one more song, a song Dr. Ciepluch expressed in his own opinion that should be made into our national anthem, Stars and Stripes Forever.
The poor piccolo section from WYSB, they were sight-reading this march, and any good American knows how the piccolo solo goes. At any rate, it was an exhilarating concert and I was glad to have done, however, the day was not over at this point, it was starting.
After the concert we had a teatime of sorts, a Sunday custom in New Zealand. I got to meet the sole horn player from WYSB, and learn more about her, her English was a little strained, not due to the accent, but rather she was from China, and had recently learned English, our American dialect didn't help I can imagine.
After tea time, we put our instruments away on the truck and we said our goodbyes, to the Kiwi in WYSB which we may never see again, and to our friends, and "group" which we would see tomorrow if not before that (I spotted Alex, from our horn section as she was walking through the gardens that morning.)
I'll have more later, I just need to keep writing writing writing.
Matt
