Hosting: New Zealand Grammar Students

This was the first year that our family hosted boys from New Zealand. We hosted 2 boys who were part of the water polo team from Auckland Grammar School doing training in California over their summer vacation. Since water polo is my sport, it was interesting to learn New Zealand’s aspect of the sport. Since we are a Chinese American family and learning that while there is a decent size Asian community in Auckland, Tom, and Harry, have not experienced many different types of Asian food. Since Japanese Ramen is one of the hottest Asian food in Southern California with many different Ramen restaurants opening in Pasadena, we had to take them to try it. Both Tom and Harry were gamed, but Harry was more adventurous of the two. They were not adept at using chopsticks so we tried teaching them but hunger won out and forks were bought out. The pork broth Tonkatsu Ramen was a hit with Harry but Tom was not a fan, but he tried it. We took them to experience Korean BBQ with the various side dishes of kimchi, radishes, bean sprouts, marinated tofu, etc. The loved the bulgogi, marinated beef and had plenty of that, wrapping them in the rice wrap. They also tried pork belly and seemed to enjoy that too. It was interesting for them to see that they had to cook their own meal but they learned fast and took to it as they enjoyed the meal. To change things up, our final dinner was at a Texas BBQ restaurant. Neither Harry nor Tom have had baby back short ribs and tri-tip beef that Texas is famous for. This particular restaurant also served the Carolina shredded BBQ pork, which we also ordered for them to try. Being a British Commonwealth, the boys mentioned that they have baked beans with breakfast, like the British, but not very often. The BBQ baked beans were a little sweeter than the beans that they were used too. During the few nights, Tom and Harry spent with us, I learned that their training for water polo is a lot more intense than our training at Poly. While they were here, they would train at least 3 hours every day at the Poly pool, sometimes longer, before they go and tour sights of Southern California. In Auckland, there are also club teams which Tom is a part of while Harry only does the sport in school. In school, they have to take Maori, the language of New Zealand’s indigenous people, this was of interest to me. It surprised me that the government of New Zealand wants its people not to forget that they took over the land that once belonged to the Maori people and wants to maintain its culture and language by making students learn the language of the original people of the country. This was very impressive to me. I showed them a videotape of the HAKA dance that the water polo team did last year. The HAKA is a ceremonial dance in Maori culture with vigorous movements and stamping of feet and shouting to see if we did it right. They laughed and said we were quite good! (I think they are just being polite) I enjoyed hosting Tom and Harry but was a bit bummed out that I was not able to spend more time with them as I was sick during the time of their stay.