School Vacation - or Holidays, as they say here Youppie! The kids are on vacation starting today for 2 weeks! They're half way through the school year. It was sad for Leilani yesterday as she had to say good-bye to her friends and teachers at her school. Starting next term (the school year here is divided into 4 terms), she will be in a new school closer to our new home. Not so easy for her - - - Here is a photo of her best friend Stephanie and herself in front of the school. Here is a photo to show you how Nathalie and Jeremie have been going to school every day. Their uniforms are not very warm, as you can see, and that's how they have to venture out into the frost many mornings, walking 10min. to their busstop. Good thing that it does get warmer later in the day. Can you tell their great excitement? We are quite amused at how "tough" Kiwis are when it comes to roughing the cold. When I am dressed in my very warmest winter clothes in freezing temperatures, I see people here walking around in shorts and barefoot - - - gggrrrrr.... don't know how they do it. I guess they get used to it from little on. And I learnt something new last week: when there is ice on your car windows in the morning, instead of scraping off the ice, like I used to do it in Germany years ago - what a nuisance - you just pour hot water over the windows and that takes care of it. Yeah! Why didn't I think of that earlier? I guess it's good to have a smart and practically inclined hubby :)