Ketchup

Oh what a busy 4 weeks it has been here in Te Kauwhata! I arrived to TK with a warm welcome from my new family. They have provided me with so much it almost feels like a dream (still pinching myself). Their home is so cozy and inviting; it is definitely a home away from home. Can't say I ever saw myself living on a cow farm!

So.... What have I been up to? Well, day one I of course wanted to checkout the house and explore the town a bit. Roman, the middle child, took me out on the farm with Yve, the youngest, to introduce me to some farm friends. Since I am a Floridian and from a beach town, I am all but used to interacting with cows. We trudged through a mix of mud and poop (I pretended it was all mud so I wouldn't throw up) and arrived at the edge of the lake where about a hundred cows are grazing. All of the sudden they start mooving towards us and corner us against the trees. They were only feet from us when Roman starts saying over and over again "they are going to charge!!!" Me being the most clueless person about cow behavior, I started freaking out inside (trying to play cool in front of the kids) and backed up against the tree as far as possible with little Yve behind me. Roman ditches us and climbs up high in the tree, out of "harms" way. Trying not to lose my cool, I call Mareet and like I'm in a horror movie, she doesn't answer. The cows are now sniffing at my face and my heart is about to pop out my ass while Yve is screaming behind me and Roman is hollering from above "don't look them in the eye!" I close my eyes and start praying when my phone starts to buzz. "Mareet! Oh my gosh! WE ARE SURROUNDED!! They look like they are going to charge! What do I do!?" She begins to giggle and says "oh, they won't charge, just walk forward." I take one step towards them and they shy away. Idiot. That's what I get for listening to a 7 year old. We easily walked straight through the herd back to the house. What an experience...

That night we had chicken for dinner and as we were eating I asked Grayson, the oldest, to pass the ketchup. He looks at me sideways and says "the what?" Does anyone know why the heck we call it ketchup? Because I definitely couldn't tell them when they asked. After having a 5 minute conversation about how it is "ketchup" not "tomato sauce," Grayson and I agreed that he would call it "ketchup" and I call it "toe-MAto sauce" from now on. I never knew that the phrase "tomato-toemato" would ever come into play in my life! I then told them about some other differences in food names like jelly vs. jam and jell-o vs. jelly as well as weird things that we have, like cheese that squirts out of a can (this sounded disgusting as I explained it to them). Love the differences! I am definitely getting used to hang drying my clothes as well!

The kids are an absolute blessing to my life. Week one and two I got to spend a lot of time with them and really got to know them because it was a school holiday. We went to the park and local bakery; they also taught me a lot about rugby. I even got to tag along on father-sons movie day and saw Monsters University (pretty sure I laughed harder than they did). The family has provided me with more than I could ask for. Mareet even hooked me up with a couple of tickets to The Chiefs rugby semi-final game! Which I will tell you more about soon :)

I am so happy to be here in TK and very much looking forward to the next 5 months with this family! :)