21km later...

look how far out those waves start!

I can’t believe this weekend was my last weekend in New Zealand :(  I’m sorry, WHAT?!?!

After my NZ history exam on Thursday (SO glad that’s over), I headed up to Clark’s Beach to stay with Barbara and Garth for the night.  The next day, they took me about an hour or so north to Muriwai Beach to show me the Gannett Colony.  All I know about gannetts is that they’re birds.  This beach was easily the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in my life.  The waves were HUGE and they crashed against the rocky shore that was below the hills that led to the ocean.  The gannett colony viewing area was high above the water so it gave a great view of everything, not just the birds.  On one side of the gannets was the rocky shoreline and on the other side was miles of black sand beach.  The waves looked like they started forming about a mile away from the shore.  Amazing.  Of course the gannets were pretty cool, but I could have just stood there, watched the ocean (especially as it crashed against the gigantic rocks), and thought about how cool life as a water molecule would be.  There were a few surfers out and they looked like wee little ants compared to the massive waves.  Anyways, I have LOVED getting to go to Barbara and Garth while I’ve been here.  Barbara reminds me so much of my Mamaw and I could’ve just talked to her for hours and hours.  So blessed to have random family that I’m actually kind of not really related to here in NZ who are so willing and delighted to take me places and let me stay with them!

the gannetts

Garth, Barbara, and I taking it all in

On Saturday, Loren and I headed up to her house to stay the night before running the Auckland Half Marathon this morning.  We picked up our race packets and numbers in Auckland, went on a little run, made some yummy risotto/stirfry dinner, laughed off as many calories as we burned running 13.1 miles today, and just hung out.  I set my alarm for 4am as we had to be in the city at 5:15am to take the ferry over to the starting point.  So I went to bed around 10:30, buttttt... didn’t actually go to sleep until after 1:15am.  You know when you just lay in bed and no matter how comfortable or tired or warm or cozy you are, you just can’t go to sleep?  Well that’s definitely on the list of the top 5 things that annoy me, and that’s what happened last night.  Oh well though, I got up at 4am and we made it to the ferry!

a pic of the Harbor Bridge

Started at Devonport, went around, over the Harbor Bridge, and into Auckland!

We went from Auckland (where people were still out partying from the night before, sheesh people!) to Devonport by ferry and watched the sun begin to rise on the way.  Yep, that’s how early it was.  The sun was JUST NOW starting to rise.  Eventually we got things all squared away, ipods in their position, and began the 13.1 miles/21km at 7am!!!  The first ~8k were great, then I got a little tired, kept going, got passed by speed-walkers, caught up to them again, ran up what seemed like HUGE hills, felt the joints in my knees cracking as I ran down the other side of those hills, ran over the Harbor Bridge (so incredible!), saw the water station that seemed close but was actually like 4k away through winding paths (not cool), got REALLY worn out at about 16k/10 miles (highlight of the run: at 16k there were people standing on the sidewalk with a sign that read ‘NEKMINNIT…FINISHED!’  Made my day and I literally laughed out loud, to myself. Haha, so great.), kept going though, thought the finish line was around every single turn in the last km, was disappointed when it wasn’t, and after playing the same 6 songs that have the perfect beat to run to (and playing Air Force Ones by Nelly probably 18 times alone), I FINALLY FINISHED!!! My first half marathon: COMPLETE!!!  My first thought after crossing the finish line was ‘Oh my lands, I am NEVER doing that again.’  But I think I just might (after my body heals and I can walk right again).  I ran the whole thing minus walking a few times when I got really tired and at the water stations until I was done drinking (total probs less than 1km) :)  SUCCESS!  For 2 weeks of training, I’d say it was a pretty good first go.  The atmosphere of the whole thing was really neat as well… all along the way, on the sides of the streets, there were all kinds of people cheering, giving high fives, and just being encouraging in general! How sweet!  I ended up coming in 4478 out of 15,000 which is top 30%.  Fine by me, just glad I finished and pretty much ran the whole thing!

Sunrise over Auckland

We did it!!  Nekminnit... can barely walk.

Loren and I came back to her house, practically limping (me at least), and laid by her pool for a good bit of the afternoon.  So to add to the overall soreness of my whole entire body, hellooo sunburn! Great.  Just in time for winter though, right?!  We made some delicious smoothies and eventually headed back to Uni!

YUM.

On another note, can we please go over how many days I have left in this country?!?! SIX. 6. S-I-X.  What the heck?!  Is this real life?!  Here’s the plan for the rest of my time here:  Geography exam on Wednesday (then I’m officially a second semester senior. Get out of town.), Dinner with the Hemmes’ family from church on Wednesday night, hang out time with Shannon, moving out of my room at Uni and off to Loren’s again on Thursday, fishing with Kelsey, Loren and Loren’s dad on Friday, then AIRPORT on Saturday.  I’m not counting down the days, I’m making the days count.

Prayers for saying goodbyes :( and safe travels home would be just great!

Muriwai Beach

A Weekend of Roadies

Roadtrips. Since the longest you’d ever have to drive to get to a beach in this country is about 1.5 hours and a drive from the top to the bottom of the north island would only take about 8 or 9 hours, kiwis consider roadtrips (aka roadies) to be pretty small distances compared to American ones.  On Saturday, Ryan, Loren, and I “roadtripped” to Ryan’s house about an hour away in Rotorua for the day.   Ryan and I had talked about doing this a little earlier in the week, but it was a pretty spontaneous, but great, decision.  We decided to spend the afternoon crafting and making bracelets so we drove through the city and stopped at a craft store to get some embroidery thread on the way to Ryan’s.  Ryan and Loren have a class together, so I was in charge of quizzing them for their exam on Tuesday, which ended up being hilarious because part of the time they tried to talk in American accents when they answered.  Anyways, we got to Ryan’s house, which seemed like it was pretty much out in the middle of the green rolling hills; he has sheep, cows, chickens, and tooooons of land.  We hung out and made lots of bracelets/anklets for most of the afternoon :)  

Loren and Ryan creating their masterpieces

Later on Ryan took us out on his 4 wheeler.  It was SO cool to just be out in the middle of all the hills with no buildings or development in any direction whatsoever.  Out of all the touristy activities I’ve done (which actually isn’t that many I don’t think), these are the kinds of things that I really love.  We rode around Ryan’s huge yard, up through the hills, through gates, and next to cows and sheep... SO wonderful.  They probably thought I was really weird because I kept taking pictures and saying “this is so in my top 5 NZ moments”.  Ryan’s sweet mom made us chicken kebabs and mashed potatoes for dinner, so we ate up, made a few more bracelets, then headed back to Uni!  Such a great spontaneous afternoon roadie with some awesome friends!

Ryan and me 

Loren and me on the back!

This weekend (yesterday, Sunday) was the Rugby World Cup FINAL: New Zealand vs France.  On Sunday as I was about to get ready for church, Loren popped into my room and asked if I wanted to go up to her house (a little bit outside of Auckland) for the day/night to watch the game.  Um, YES!  After we got to her house, we reluctantly took off for a run with her dog (who walked to my running pace) through the farm filled backroads to an air field (Sheesh these 2 weeks of half-marathon training are kind of starting to get to me… only one more week to go though!).  We got back and sat in her hot tub for at least 2.5 hours (oops) and it felt so great.  Her family had a bunch of friends and neighbors over for the game that night, so it was lots of fun to just hang out all low key and watch it!  It reminded me of when I was in high school and all my cousins and everyone used to go watch the super bowl and my Aunt Paige’s house… lots of food, fun and people.  And then we all grew up and went to college :(  The game was a wee bit stressful to watch though as the final score was 8-7, New Zealand.  It’s so weird that all the RWC hype that has been going on since the beginning of my time here is finally dying down.  But how awesome that I got to be here during such an exciting time, right?!

SO EXCITING!!!

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast (yummy ham aka bacon, sausage, and eggs), baked two delicious batches of cookies, studied a bit, went tennis shoe shopping (aka my heaven), and headed back to Uni.  I am SO thankful for Loren; not only for her generosity, but also for all the laughter that being around her creates, and also her constant help with my kiwi accent that is absolutely horrible and her explanations of kiwi lingo that I don’t fully understand (gracias amiga! Nekminnit…).  I know it’s not really that hard of a task to make me laugh, but this weekend I feel like laughed more than I talked, which is a good thing.  Maybe all the chocolate and desserts we ate had something to do with it as well…  Loren has definitely been one of my most favorite friends here and has been so sweet me over the past 4 months.  Ahhh I don’t want to leave!!!!!  Good thing she’s coming to visit next summer :) right Loren??

the view of Auckland from Loren's deck

It’s so weird to think back to 4 months ago when I literally knew NO ONE here.  How cool that the Lord has revealed his faithfulness to me in so many different ways, one being friendships.  He has provided me with friends who are so willing to include me in activities, hang out, and get to know me.  He has used these friends to guide me to where He wants me to go and what He wants me to see and be exposed to.  Even though I struggle to put my hope and trust in the Lord each day, His love is unfailing and so apparent through the people that He has surrounded me with a million miles away from home and familiarity.  I am so thankful that this whole experience, lack of old friends and the chance to make new and wonderful ones, has showed me more of Christ’s love and that it’s not my job to try to figure everything out, but to just trust in Him and the plan he has set out for me!

Interesting Observations:

-a braid=a plat

-They say “can’t be bothered” a lot.  Example: “I should get up and go for a run but I really can’t be bothered.”

-They also say “meant” in place of “supposed” Example: “I was meant to study today, but I really just can’t be bothered” or “You were meant to put spaghetti on my toast but you forgot!”

-The summer Olympics are actually in the winter here, how sad.

-These obnoxiously awesome shoes Loren and I found today:

And now I leave you with a video of the bikkie Haka performance at Loren’s house:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength…”

            Ephesians 1:18-19

Also... SO proud of my mom and my aunts for conquering the Susan G. Komen 3-day, 60 mile walk for breast cancer this weekend!!! Wooooohoooo yall did it!!!

You can call me a WWOOFer now!

Orewa beach

the view from the house!

And I’m back.  A day early… but I’m back.

My WWOOFing week in Red Beach went well and it was fun to get to explore another beautiful area of NZ and live with a kiwi family for a week.  There was a German girl, Senara, there WWOOFing as well for the first half of the week and I really enjoyed getting to know her.  She had just gotten to NZ in September and is going to be here for a YEAR just WWOOFing and couch surfing around the country.  The family that I was with had 2 kids, 9 and 10, and lived in a regular house in a suburban type area outside Auckland, not a farm.  I won’t go into the boring details of each day, but the usual routine was: wake up and be upstairs for breakfast by 7:30 (I had no prob with this one bc there were no curtains in my room. Cool.), spend a big chunk of the morning doing whatever Leonie wanted me to do (usually weeding the garden, planting veggies, building beanpoles, doing housework, vacuuming, etc) or go with them if they went somewhere, do whatever I want in the afternoon (aka explore, run, bike, walk, study, basically anything), eat a delish dinner, do the dishes, watch tv with the familiy, go to bed.  It was nice that Leonie really wanted me to feel at home in her house and help myself to anything and everything.  It took a few days for me to get comfortable though; I guess I’m just not one to kick back and put my feet up on someone else’s couch when I first meet them.  Eventually, I think I managed to make myself feel at home (which I will be ACTUALLY and TRULY be feeling in 2 short weeks!).  Leonie also was not very strict about the working hours, but I always felt like I should be doing something.  I probably annoyed her because I asked so often if I could do anything—better that than the other way around though, right?  Oh well.  Their house was about a 5 minute walk to Orewa Beach so I spent a lot of time walking/running/admiring.  There was also an awesome 7k trail around the estuary through the hills and backroads, so I also took advantage of that in the afternoons as well.

best trail ever 

weeding the garden

the bean poles I constructed

Here are some highlights from the week:

-On Sunday, Leonie took the kids to visit her sister in Takapuna.  She dropped Senara and I off in the city and told us to hang out and then eventually walk to her sister’s house via the beach.  Don’t mind if I do!  Senara and I found the Saturday market in Takapuna and it was GIGANTIC.  I’d say there were at least 150 tents set up.  Clothes, souvenirs, yard-sale type stuff, food, fruit, etc.  I caved and got some delicious donuts pictured below. YUM!

the HUGE market

my mini donuts :)  YUM

-One morning, after Senara and I had weeded the garden, I said to her, “So what do you think we should do now?” Her response—“I think we bake a cake now!”  Girlfriend, you may be German and have broken English, but we sure do speak the same language.  We ended up baking delicious cookies! YUM!

-On Tuesday, Senara and I made pancakes for lunch.  These weren’t just regular pancakes though, they were filled with apples and bananas and FOOD COLORING.  We definitely went a little overboard with this, but it was absolutely hilarious.  As we settled down to eat, Senara said, “I had not laugh this hard in long time!”  The pancakes may have looked disgusting, but they were sooo good.  I shall continue the trend at the end of each paragraph… YUM!

-I’ve never really considered myself a picky eater, but I know what I do and don’t like.  The “don’ts” include tuna and olives.  Well, I ate pasta with tuna and olives on Wednesday.  And I LIKED it.  WHO HAS THIS COUNTRY TURNED ME INTO?!

-One afternoon, I went hiking with one of Leonie’s kid’s friend’s family.  We did a perimeter track around a reserve that was right on the coast a few towns down from Red Beach.  It was MUDDY and I had dejavu of that hike with Shannon in August.  I almost cried, once again, because of the amount of wet, nasty mud on my tennies (Lindsey, you feel me right?).  I decided to stick it out and suck it up, and thankfully, it got drier on the other side.  There were gorgeous views out from the green rolling hills into the pacific ocean along the way, with islands scattered about and the coromandel peninsula in the far distance! Amazing!

-On Thursday morning, my answer to Leonie’s task request was: “Yep, sure, I’ll build you a life-size teepee out of bamboo, no problemo.”  Sure enough, about 15 bamboo sticks and 10 zip-ties later, there it was…my teepee masterpiece. 

-A conversation I overheard between Leonie’s 9 year old and his friend:

“Who is that girl anyway?”… "She stays here and does housework and we give her food and a bed”… "Oh that’s cool”… "Yeah, she’s pretty much our maid”

OOOK, kid, NOT cool—I even played connect four with him!  And that’s when I decided to leave a day early.

Overall, I’m glad that I went on this little WWOOFing escapade and got more of a glimpse of the kiwi lifestyle (morning and afternoon tea, not wearing shoes in public places, not having central heating in the house, etc…), but I definitely liked exploring the area and beaches more than doing the housework and dishes, duh!  I was supposed to stay until late Saturday afternoon, but I decided to leave on Friday morning because I felt like I had seen and done all that I wanted to do and didn’t feel like being a 9 year-old’s maid any longer.  I took a bus to Auckland and then caught the NakedBus back to Hamilton and got back just in time to squeeze in a run before dinner!  One of the reasons why I’m glad I WWOOFed with Leonie’s family is because she gave me 2 free entries for the Auckland half-marathon next Sunday! YES PLEASE!  My friend Loren will be running it with me (yeah Loren!)!  We’ll see how that goes with 2 weeks of training… yikes.

Interesting Observations:

-How are you going?=How are you doing?

-“bugger off” = “go away” Example: “You’re really annoying me.. I wish you’d bugger off”

-“Taking the piss” = “Making fun of” Example: “I can’t tell if you’re being serious of taking the piss” or “He’s been taking the piss out of me all day long”

-They call red and green peppers capsicum here.

-There are no traffic lights hung on wires, they are all on stands at the edge of the road.

-“stuff that!” = “forget that!” Example: “Stuff this lame board game, let’s play the computer game” or “No way, stuff that! I don’t want spaghetti on my morning toast!”

-bikkies=cookies.  I think bikkies is short for biscuits. I like this one.

Senara and I

The 4 Stages of Being Abroad

And just like that, classes were over. For good. One whole semester. Done.

Yesterday we had a barbeque and a huge water fight in celebration of the last day of class. I saved my camera from death by water, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, but I (and everyone) was absolutely soaked from head to toe.  It started out with innocent little water balloons and turned into buckets full of water getting thrown and dumped on people.  F-U-N.  That night I ended up hanging out with the other kids in my hall on “the hill” and then got persuaded to go out with them, but escaped back to Uni before I got dragged into town (success).  A movie sounded like a muchhh better idea.

This morning I’m headed to Auckland via the trusty NakedBus.  From Auckland I will attempt to find a bus that will get me to Red Beach.  Assuming that I make it that far, I will then be picked up by my WWOOFer host!  All I know is her name is Leonie.  We’ll see how this whole things works out, but hopefully I will actually physically make it there.  I will be staying with Leonie and her 2 kids, working around their house and in their organic veggie garden and just being a part of their family for the week!  I guess I'm just trusting that this family is sane and not crazy... I guess we shall see.

Pip and me

Piggy back from Pep

Last semester, when I first knew that I was officially going to be spending the fall semester in New Zealand, one of my Furman friends, Whitney, gave me a little tutorial.  So here I give to you…

The Four Stages of Studying Abroad

Stage 1: “Dang! This is AWESOME!” 

When I first got here, that was exactly what I said and thought.  Of course, there were LOTS of adjustments to be made, but overall, I was so taken aback by the rolling hills, beautiful sky, surplus of rural-ness, sheep, and everything else.  I’d say this stage lasted about 2.5-3 weeks.

Stage 2: “Ok, so I’m actually going to be living here for a while. I better start figuring things out.” 

I think stage 2 officially began when my computer took the dive off the deep end.  For the first time here, I had to figure out streets, phones, buses, etc.  Besides that, this stage consisted of getting acquainted with the city, transportation, hostels, inter-city buses, and locations of cities around Hamilton.  I think the fact that I was going to be here for so long really hit me when I started to get into a school/everyday routine.  It started to feel more like life and less like a vacation when the assignments piled up.  The thing that really helped me during this stage (and stage 3) was finding the church that I have been going to for the past few months.  It was such a blessing to be able to add that (and Sunday lunch at the Hemmes’) to the weekly routine.  As a rough estimate, I was in stage 2 for about 6 weeks.

Stage 3: “AM I EVER GOING HOME?!”

Oh gosh. This one was HARD and I am beyond glad that it’s OVER! Hallelujah! You know that feeling when something just seems SO far away that it will actually never ever get here?  Like New Years or the Super Bowl or Anna starting kindergarten or that huge exam or the dreaded dentist appointment or just the weekend… Most days, and still, it felt like November 5^th was an eternity away (I’m making it sound like I came over here just wanting to go back home, but that’s not how it is/was at ALL!).  My stage 3 was probably lengthier than most people’s and it was definitely happening in conjunction with stage 1 and stage 2.  It seems like the thought of home and how much I have missed it came especially during downtime.  I tried to keep busy on the weekends and during the day, but there’s always going to be downtime, and I actually love downtime, but I don’t love being homesick—so unfortunately this was a hard balance and maybe actually impossible.  Anyways, during stage 3 I longed for home to the MAX.  Knowing myself, I KNEW I was going to get homesick over here long before I even left… I mean, after all, I was that girl who always had to have my mom chaperone school field trips and didn’t stay the night at friends’ houses until about 10^th grade. Let’s be real here, it was expected.  I was prepared to just get over it over here though I guess.  It’s not like I could just hop on a plane real quick and go home or anything. It was definitely a blessing that I wasn’t able to be home in an instant though because after watching that Braves game a few weeks ago, I would’ve done that in a heartbeat. Stage 3 may have lasted the whole time, but especially the month of September.  Oh home…

Stage 4: “But wait, I’m not so sure I want to leave yet!”

And now stage 4 is in full swing.  Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I’m not so sure I want it to be coming at me so fast.  It’s an even mix between wanting to be home and not wanting to leave at the same time.  It’s starting to hit me that the friends I’ve made over here are going to be staying here and not coming back with me.  I’ve also started to realize that I’m still getting to know people and it’s so hard (and rude) to just up and leave in the middle of that whole process.  It’s sad to think that I would have to fly all the way back here (and empty my bank account) just to hang out with the people I’ve met.  Thank goodness for technology!  I don’t think I could stand to be away from my family for any longer than I have already, so I will indeed be going home, but I just wish I could bring NZ with me.  I guess I’ll just have to come back :)

Interesting Observations:

-wardrobe=closet

-“neckminit”=”and then the next minute” Example: “The last thing I knew I was standing up, and neckminit…” or sometimes the word is just blurted out randomly.  I like this one, but I'm not quite sure I fully understand how to use it.

-“hard out”=”really intensely” or “INTENSE!” Example: “She was biking hard out yesterday” or it can be used just as a response to something intense someone says.

 study time in town the other day

Weekend at Kelsi's!

the pacific ocean on the coast of NZ

I started out the weekend with a beautiful drive up over the kaimais between Hamilton and Tauranga, heading home with my friend Kelsi for the weekend!  The town that Kelsi lives in is called Papamoa, which is right on the coast in the Bay of Plenty region of NZ.  She has lived in the same house, which is about 3 mins from the ocean, all her life and she’s a real big surfer.  As soon as we got to her house, she checked the “surf cam” online, saw that there were some waves, and asked me if I wanted to go out surfing.  Um, YES!  Good thing she told me to bring my togs (aka swim suit)!  We changed real quick, grabbed some wet suits, loaded the surf boards (2 of the million that her family owns) in the car, and we were off.  When we got there, I made my first mistake... putting the wet suit on backwards. Cut the landlocked American girl a break.  The only time I’ve worn a wetsuit was at water ski camp when I was 10 (yes, I went to water ski camp) and that was a long time ago.  Who knew the zipper goes in the back?  After a quick in-water lesson, Kelsi launched me onto my first wave... but I only got up onto my knees.  It was SO hard!  Eventually a few other surfers came out and I got really intimidated, so I ended up just kind of laying on the board out in the middle of the ocean (because I was scared to get in their way) and watching Kelsi surf for most of the time, which was TOTALLY fine by me.  It was SO relaxing to just lay there as the sun was going down over the dunes.  I felt like I was in the movie Blue Crush! Even though I didn’t stand up on the board, I’d say it was a success.  I may never try surfing again in my life, so now I can say that I’ve done it… and in the southern hemisphere! Check!  It took me longer to take off the wet suit than it did to take a shower, but after all that, we ate some delicious burgers that her mom had made for “tea”! Yum!

Kelsi and Me

soooooo close...

Kelsi had to work all day Saturday just as she does every weekend, so I spent most of the day hanging out with her mom!  I went for a walk on the beach that morning, passing kids playing cricket on the way out there.  I guess that’s equivalent to Saturday morning youth soccer in America? Weird.  It was so beautiful on the beach and I found so many non-broken conch shells!  Kelsi’s mom then took me to “The Mount” aka Mount Manganui, which is a little beach city about 10 mins away from their house.  We went for a walk out onto this little island thing that wasn’t actually an island because it was connected to the shore, but jutted out into the ocean (that made no sense, but I don’t know how else to describe it) and checked out some shops in the town.  Then we went to the grocery (which was in the mall? What?) and got ice cream on the way (yes!).  Before going back to their house, we gave Kelsi a surprise visit at the gym where she works.  We had delicious chicken with pasta for dinner and Kelsi made some “chocolate pudding” for dessert (don’t worry, I took a pic of the recipe), which we ate later while watching some movies.  It was fun to spend the day with Kelsi’s mom and so cool that she has lived in that city her whole life.  WHOLE LIFE.  I feel like that never happens in America!

On Sunday, Kelsi and I headed back to the Mount and climbed up it!  There are 200 sheep that live on the bottom, grassy area of the Mount and we passed lots (and their poop on the track, ew) on the way up.  There was one that had just been born the night before and was SO small.  And then we passed a sheep placenta on the way as well, TMI sorry, yes it was gross and all dried up, yuck.  Anyways, the views on the way up and at the top were absolutely stunning.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much ocean in my life.  It was cool to see where the town divides the ocean and the harbor and all the islands that surround this area, so close, and some way out.  Kelsi has lived here all her life, so she knew lots of details about everything that I asked about!  It was like having a personal tour guide.

Kelsi and me on top of The Mount 

We came back down and – surprise surprise – got ICE CREAM!  We sat by the harbor and ate it then headed back to her house to hang out for the afternoon.  Later on, Kelsi’s dad took us out on to river in their boat.  It was so fun and relaxing to go for a boat ride and it sure made me miss the lack of boat rides and lake time I had this summer at home.  I guess I had places to go and people to meet... really.  Anyway, he drove us up the river, passing little shack docks, cows, and hills, to where it connects with the ocean!  So fun!

We spent the evening watching rugby and eating fish and chips. <-- That sentence is SO New Zealand.

where the river meets the ocean

This weekend was another great one and I’m SO thankful for Kelsi and her family’s generosity!  I did so many things that I may never get to do again in my life… SURF, see where a river meets the ocean, see a sheep placenta, etc.  I’m so glad that I’ve gotten to know Kelsi through our group projects and in class and such.  She is definitely someone that I’m going to miss, but keep in touch with, when I get back home!

A view of the Mount from Papamoa
 

Interesting Observations:

-Pasta is pronounced “paste-a”

-“bloke”=general ‘ol kiwi guy. Example: “Is that bloke of yours coming for dinner tonight?” or “I’ve seen you around heaps with that bloke”

-All the world maps here have NZ in the middle, which puts America on the right side.  I know what you’re thinking—What?! America isn’t really in the center of the world?!—no, it’s not.  

Things are winding down, but still exciting!

It’s pretty unbelievable that I only have 3, THREE, days of class left for the semester! WHAT?!  Things here at Uni have definitely started to wind down.  I turned in a NZ History paper and a strategic plan for a case study in Health & PE on Monday, and then gave a presentation on my strategic plan on Tuesday (and presented 18^th out of 18. Dead last.).  Now only 1 education paper, and 2 final exams sit between me and America.  But until then, I’m a busy bee during the weekends and week-long study break. 

Some highlights from this week:

-In my presentation on Tuesday, which focused on Northview aka a pretty typical American high school, I included some info on pep rallies, letter jackets, championship rings, tailgates, etc.  This caused some confusion to the kiwis and after I was done, one person suggested that we have a pep rally next week to celebrate our last day of class. Haha! Maybe I should’ve explained all that stuff a little better…

-On Wednesday, I joined Lisa (from church) at her youth group, which gets together at different church (kind of like a sister church across town I guess).  I looked up the address and decided I could just take the bus so I wouldn’t have to bother anyone for a ride.  After some confusion between maps and real life roads, I finally made it!  It was cool meet more of the youth and see how they do youth group and the differences between it and the youth group that I went to at home.  They are having a “ball” this weekend, so after the bible study/discussion, we did some decorating for that, then Lisa brought me back to Uni! Success!

-Remember Dani, my cousins’ second cousin that I stayed with in Christchurch during the 2 week break?  Well she has a cousin (who is another one of my cousins’ second cousins) named Tarryn who lives in Hamilton!  Dani had given me Tarryn’s number, so I randomly texted her and thankfully she didn’t think I was some crazy long lost relative.  I met up with her in town for coffee yesterday and it was so cool to meet yet another random family member over here!  Tarryn recently graduated from Uni and is a lawyer in Hamilton.  She was so so sweet and fun to talk with, so hopefully I’ll have a chance to hang out with and get to know her more before I go back home.  I have been so blessed to have these very distant family members over here! Thanks Aunt Rozanne!

-I had my last NZ history tutorial (aka designated discussion time) yesterday!  My tut group has about 12 or so people in it, so it’s been a small enough number to get to know some of them better over the course of the semester, which has been really fun.  Anyways, yesterday the windows of this 4^th story room were cracked open just for some fresh air, and A HUGE PIGEON FLEW IN!  This room is only about 10ft by 15ft aka TINY.  I was sitting right by the window and it was so scary, but hilarious at the same time.  Finally after flying into the glass on the window about 10 times, this giant pigeon made it out.  Ha!  We decided maybe it smelled our “lollies and biscuits” that people had brought in celebration of our last tutorial. (sidenote: lollies and biscuits=candy and cookies)

-Last night, Kelsey and I took an adventure to a nearby dairy for some ice cream.  Double scoop for $2... Yes, please! Good thing we just now figured out that there’s such an amazing deal so close to Uni… I also just figured out that the video store about 2 mins from my dorm sells DR. PEPPER. Why has Hamilton felt the need to keep such secrets from me?!  As we were walking back to Uni, we passed some of the crazy yet hilarious boys from my hall hanging out on one of the fields near the dorm. They had started their Thursday night partying a little early.  Kelsey and I decided that it was pretty entertaining so we climbed up a tree and spent about an hour talking, observing, laughing, and watching the sun set behind the mountains!

If only I had a dollar for every ice cream picture :)

check out this double scoop cone! hilarious!

a few kiwi boys 

This afternoon, Kelsi (different Kelsi, the one from my HPE class) is taking me home to Tauranga with her!  I’m really excited and it should be a super fun weekend.  I’ll be sure to report back with all the deets!

Interesting Observations:

-Kiwis have never heard of snickerdoodles.

-Instead of saying “knock on wood”, they say “touch wood” and actually just touch it instead of knocking.

-Tax is already included in all the prices in NZ.

-You know you’ve been somewhere new for a significant amount of time when you realize that you’ve found the type of granola bar you like and have stuck to it for over a month.

-When kiwis pronounce years like 1999, they say ninety like “nauny”.  So 1999 would be “nauny-nauny-naun”.  Also, 13 or 14 is pronounced like “thur-deen” and “fau-deen”.  Sound it out and hopefully that makes sense.

-The porridge and baked beans at BREAKFAST: