One month down!

One month ago today I was having my last meal at home with the fam and cousins!

 Four more months to go!

Some views from campus this afternoon

This Sunday, I walked up the road about 3 minutes to Hillcrest Baptist Church.  The greeters at the doorway knew I was new and were very friendly.  One of them showed me to a seat next to a NZ girl who also goes to my school.  A few other people came up to me on the way to my seat and introduced themselves as well.  The NZ girl that I sat near was named Callie.  However, for the past 2 days I thought her name was Kelly because that’s what Callie sounds like with an NZ accent, but I saw her picture on the tutors board near our dorm and the name under it was Kelly… good to know.  It’s so hard to tell what they’re saying sometimes!  Anyway, the service was more of what I am used to back home except that it was almost 2 hours long! They spent a lot of time praying for different people in the church, calmly sang some songs (with a guy playing the keyboard, not a big banging band), had a children’s moment, scripture readings, and a sermon.  There was a wide age range at this church, but I noticed a LOT of older people, probably 70s-ish.  I would definitely go back to this church, but I think I’m going to continue visiting some more and see what else I find! Prayers for the church search would be awesome!

This coming Sunday, however, I will be at the beach! Some American friends and I booked a hostel for Saturday night in Raglan, which is about and hour west of Hamilton.  Fortunately there is a $5 bus that leaves from the center of town, so we’ll catch that Saturday morning.  The hostel we’re staying at offers free kayaks and bikes!  We’ll definitely be trying out those two things and probably doing some beach walking and some hiking.  I’m excited for this little trip and I will be bringing my sleeping bag that I just bought (on SUPER sale like 60% off!) for the 2 week break trip (SO thankful I won’t have to sleep on those hostel sheets), which brings me to my next point…

WE BOOKED THE CAMPERVAN AND PLANE TICKETS FOR MID-SEMESTER BREAK!! On August 20^th, me, Megan, Kelsey, and Nate (all Americans) will be heading up to Auckland to fly down to Christchurch where we will get the campervan and start our 10-day journey around the south island!  We will spend a few days afterwards in Christchurch and fly back to Auckland in one of the first days of September.  We’re not sure what exactly we’ll be doing and seeing yet, but we have a few weeks to get a plan sorted out, or I guess we could just wing it.  That’s a big thing to wing, I’m definitely going to need a plan.  The campervan we’ve reserved looks like this...

It’s so weird to me that when I’m on this 2 week adventure (as if I’m not already on a 5 month adventure!) my friends will be heading back to Furman to START their fall semester.  I will already be half way through mine!

Today was a LONG day of class.  Five hours of straight lectures from 12-5pm today.  I stopped by the “UniMart” (aka a gas station type store on campus) to get a vanilla coke, which is the next best thing to Dr. Pepper that is pretty much impossible to find without Shannon’s help, to help myself get through the day.  It worked.  I made it.  ALSO, I GOT MAIL TODAY!!! Two letters, from my mom and Diane, were in my little slot! The lady at the desk asked if it was my birthday… I guess people don’t get mail for fun here…?  I also used these letters to bribe myself to get through the day.

Interesting Conversations:

-Some kid asked me if I’m ready for a “sunny Christmas”.  No, 1) fat chance I’ll spend Christmas in a foreign country by myself and 2) Christmas and summer will always be opposite.

-Another kid got on a US kick and asked if people really had loud lifted trucks… yes.  If fried chicken was really the staple meal in the south… yes.  If there were really football jocks…yes.  If there was really a prom queen and king… yes.  I guess the movies he’s watched have been accurate.  He then asked me if we really had college football songs/cheers and demanded for me to teach him Furman’s.

Interesting Observations:

-People here think that it snows everywhere in the US.

-Universities here don’t have school sports teams, everyone is pretty much on their own for finding competitive teams.  It makes for not much school spirit.

-NZ people say "eh" a LOT.  "…eh?"="…ya know?" or "…isn’t it?" example: "spaghetti on toast is quite gross, eh bro?"

-I saw a girl put the spaghetti served at breakfast (what?!) in a mug.  I lost sight of her, but sure hope she didn’t drink it.  Spaghetti at breakfast is gross enough, no need to make it worse by drinking it!

-Yesterday at the gym, Miley’s “Party In The USA” was playing, followed by Usher.  Aka their mainstream music here is very American. 

-It’s really common for people to wear simple Keds type sneakers, any color, male and female.

How could you NOT miss that face?!

Drew and Diane: Just put Anna on a plane to NZ, she flies for free!