Cultural Experiences

We have been very luck this week to have some Maori dancers from New Zealand come and stay with us. We are a host family for two girls, one is 17 and the other is 20. They are in the US with there dance group from there preforming arts school back in New Zealand. I have had the chance to meet all of them and they are a great group of people. Nick and I love to expose and teach our girls about different cultures, so this has been a great experience for them. For most of them they have never been outside of New Zealand before so they are learning just as much from us as we are from them. They have been very sweet and loving. They have welcomed us in as part of their family. (a lot of them call us cousin) They got here on Tuesday and they will be with us until Saturday. It is funny to me how different our cultures are. They said that everything here in the states is bigger and faster. They also said that our food is much sweeter. You should have seen their shock and excitement when they saw my van door open all by itself with just a push of a button. It was so funny. They are just very simple people. Last night we took a big group of them to the mall after they were done with some of their workshops. When we got there we had to rummage thru the trunks of out other friends car to find shoes for them to wear. It is just so common to us to always wear shoes, but it is just as common for them not to wear shoes. It is no bid deal for them to walk around their towns and go shopping with no shoes on, but here that would be looked at as weird and you probably wouldn't get into a lot of places. It was just very funny. I am also learning quite a few new words since they have been here. Yesterday morning I had baked some cookies and as they were eating them I heard them say, "These biscuits taste just like the biscuits from Subway." I never knew they called cookies biscuits. There have been a lot of other examples like that, but I can't remember all of them right now. Tonight they are putting on a big show at the Bonita church building. I watched some of their practice last night and I am really excited about seeing the whole show. It looked really cool. If any of you would like to come I will post the flyer below. But if you are going to come try to get there a little early because it is first come first served for seating. I am sure I will have many more stories to share with you guys by the end of the week. But in the mean time we are having a lot of fun getting to know our new friends.