Kia Ora. In school I'm in a Maori class for my language option. Almost all of the other girls are Maori and have been immersed in the culture their whole lives, and they all have been learning the language for at least a year or more so it's really fun to be a part of the class and learning something new. We learn the language and watch cultural videos and sing Maori songs in class. There's a group of girls from Kings and Queens high schools that do something called Kapa Haka, where they do hakas and dances to traditional and new Maori songs. They also do poi dances, which are really cool. Poi are balls on the end of short ropes that you can do dances with. We have to memorize different things in the language, like what our timetable (class schedule) is, our favorite classes, and our favorite teachers. Then we say it all in a formal way, and perform it to the class. We've also done weaving with flax, and have made flowers and some girls have done baskets. The first subject we studied was whakapapa, or the study of our whanau (families). Whaea is mother, while Matua is father. Tuahine is the sister of a boy, Tungane is the brother of a girl. Then there are different words for older and younger siblings of the same gender, and it gets very complicated with multiple words meaning the same thing, or words that sound the same actually being different, because there is a line over the letter that changes the meaning. It's such a beautiful language and I love hearing people sing and talk in it. I just wish I were fluent.