I told you I'm horrible at this...

So I was without internet my last week in NZ and didn't write about the last few days in the country. Here's the highlights:

11/9 - Sunday

woke up 7:30 in wellington at my flat

taxi came early

went to rental car via train kaiwharawhara

checked in at berkenhoff 

sky dived at 2 instead of 3.

met Sancos and Alex

ate Thai food couldn't find restaurant

Isaac came over

went to bed

11/10 - Monday

slept in, reception told us to leave. coco on floor

packed and left

touristy shit

huka falls

went to the dam

got honey

got lost going to craters

turned around

wound up in wellington

returned car and waited at station after getting gas.

stayed at nomads on wakefield st

danced on tables all night :)

11/11 - Tuesday

Left Welli and drove through flat hills and got lunch

Drove to Taupo

watched the others do the Taupo bungy

Stopped in Rotorua

Saw the thermal mud pools

visited the Huka Falls

set up in Marae

walk to river

dinner - chicken, kumera, garlic bread

talk to sean

slept in Main House of Marae

11/12 - Wednesday

thermal marae village

watched the haka and poi

Went white water rafting with Pete

-over a 7 meter fall!!!

walked to/around town 

hot tubbed it with coco and becca

jumped on the trampoline we found in the back yard

ate dinner at the shed - kumera fries and quesadillas

back at hotel afterwards

11/13 Thursday

Drove up through Auckland 

Got a Kebab for lunch!

Picked up new people

Drove to Pahia and set up in a hotel

Ate pasta for dinner

Hung out at the hotel for the night

11/14 Friday

Slept in and took a ferry over with coco to Russell

toured Russell and climbed flagstaff hill and saw the oldest church in NZ

Did gravestone rubbings

Ferried back to Pahia

Jet skiied in the bay =)

Walked to the place where the treaty of Waitangi was signed

(but didn't pay $20 to go in)

Ate dinner with the rest of the group, and it was delicious fish

Went out for the night and danced forever

I may have had a guy dancing with me, but when the night was over i leaned in and just said goodnight and walked away =) hahaha he ran away with his friend afterwards.

11/15

Left real early and drove back to Auckland

Met up with Jackie and left Becca after going to the hostel.

Coco, Jackie and I went to the market that is at the top of Queen street, 

Then I got my bags and headed to the bus stop to start my 20 hours home!

My flight left at 7:30pm and I was at the airport way too early as usual, but I had to pay an excess charge of $200 for one extra bag. It sucked!!!

I was finally on the flight back. The flight to San Francisco was long, about 12 hours but I slept a lot which was nice, and I had 4 hot guys next to me so that was helpful. I then jumped to a different flight and waited around for over an hour, but got sushi for dinner =)

The flight to Boston went well and I got to watch more movies. 6 hours later I was in Boston where Jamison and Kat picked me up!

Whew. It was such a long journey home, but I made it safe and sound and now I am home and back to work at the gap.

AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh

I JUST JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE 15,000 FEET UP!! Woo what a rush. I think I blacked out for most of the jump, but after about 30 seconds of sensory overload I caught up with myself and felt the breeze blowing =)

We drove to Taupo leaving real early to pick up a rental car. Then we drove 5ish hours and checked into the Burkenhoff lodge. They called Freefall to say that we had arrived and they moved us up to a 2pm jump! AHHH it was so scary at first but before I realized what had happened I was being told to hold myself up by a railing and to "come sit on my thighs," hahahaha. LOVED ANDREW. He was my tandem partner. It was great. I jumped second, Rebecca was first and Coco was third. As I said before I didn't really know what was going on for at least 20-30 seconds, but then suddenly it caught up with me and I felt the wind whizzing past me so fast! The first drop over the ledge I felt a bit sick, but then I got acclimated to falling and I wasn't nauseous as much. CRAZINESS.

After the jump we were talking with some of the guys who also jumped and we ended up going out for dinner in the park (aww) and had a blast. Then it was off to bed early, completely crashing. 

The next day we went to see the Huka Falls and see the dam open. It was pretty neat, but soon enough we were back on the road driving a few hours back into Wellington.

Our last night in Wellington was AMMAAZZINNG! We stayed at the hostel where we'd be picked up in the morning, Nomad's Capital. We went to the bar with a few guys who were staying in our room with us and saw a group dancing on tables and having a blast. So we joined in and soon enough we figured out that this crazy group was the tour group that we were joining the next day! It was such a fun night of dancing like crazy and were later told that we "destroyed the place," in a good way of course. We got looks from most of the girls and had the best time making them all jealous. I have no clue why they were jealous of us, but I think it had something to do with the American dancing that we knew how to do. See Kiwi, Aussie, and Brittish girls just kinds jiggle themselves weirdly, while we American's know how to get down properly, ha ha ha ha. (and I'm a bad dancer for home, so this was great.)

We got about 3 hours sleep that night then made our way back to Taupo and saw the exact same things that we saw the day before... oooh well. It gave us time to sleep.

Invercargil

Tonight I am staying in a hostel in Invercargil. I started today in the rain again and stayed inside as much as possible. We had a busy morning as we were planning to leave at 12 to go to Balclutha. I made a few more journals while Diana and Keith went to cover the veggie garden from the frost that was supposed to be coming. We then had a lunch of samosas, last night's tea (which happened to be tea again today) and were soon on our way out of the Catlins. I was sad to be leaving but I seriously can not wait for Laurie to come tomorrow! In town we had to run some errands and soon it was 2:15 and they were on their way up to Dunedin leaving me behind to catch my bus. We were in a small cafe so I stayed there until 4 when they closed and I waited in the i-site until 4:35 when my bus came. The ride here was a pretty long and slow 2 hours, but I am now here and my bed is paid for and made. I have called ahead for a taxi to come at 6:45 a.m. tomorrow (UGH!) and I'll catch my plane at 7:30. It takes about 2 hours to get back up to Wellington, and Coco will be waiting there when I arrive a bit after her. AMAZING things are in store for us in the coming days, so I think I'll leave it here for now.

Snowflakes falling...

It's still snowy outside and I am painting again today. We had a bit of a shock yesterday morning that I forgot to mention before. Diana has arranged with a family for them to stay in a rental house near by and has been talking with them for awhile. Chris and Luisa will come with their 2 children in a few weeks to stay for 6 months. Just yesterday morning Diana realized that she received a picture of the family in a previous e-mail so she opened it and when I came out of the shower she looked quite pale and confused. When I went over she had the picture opened and explained to me that she hadn't realized that Chris was a Christina and that the Spanish were a lesbian couple. It was quite funny I thought but she was unsure how the town would react to them coming here. It is quite conservative here and since its a rural farming town they are strange out here. The people would be very nice and welcoming to the children but the parents both being mothers would be confusing to most as they would have never thought about this type of family. It has been the talk of the small neighborhood and it is laughable how many times Diana has told the story to people.

Obama?

Today I woke up early to hear if the Presidential elections have been decided or any news about it. I turned the radio on about 7 then was woken by Diana who told me to look outside. I checked out the window and it was snowing! It was surprising for snow because in the Catlins, November is spring, close to summer even. I stayed in bed for awhile since it was warm, and listened to the radio, nothing was going on. Once I got up I watched the snow get heavier and heavier and soon it turned to hail. We were making journals today, and I thought that meant that I would be writing things, which I am horrible at, so I was nervous. It turned out that these journals were vintage books turned into bound blank journals that Diana sells in posh stores in Wellington, Auckland and a few other cities. She goes to book sales and picks up hard cover books with jackets for around $0.50 and brings them home and cuts the bindings off. She then selects a few exciting pages, maybe 5 and takes them out as well. Then the jacket's are cut to size and the front cover along with the inner sleeves are kept to glue back on. I was gluing so I had to make sure that the front picture fit properly, then placed the inner sleeves inside the hard cover. These hard covers are sent off with the inner pages to scatter within new recycled pages and are bound by a man in Balclutha. It is about $7 per book total and Diana adds $10 to each selling the books for $17 to vintage-y stores. They then sell for up to $40 which I thought was crazy! But people can not get enough and she is making new books all the time. The snow worsened as we worked and a neighbor, Carol, stopped by however she was stuck in the hail and needed to seek shelter under a bush along her walk. We took a lunch break and I soon got back to work. In the afternoon Diana and I walked up the road a bit and went to cut down flax. We took the leaves and I cut them up and used them to weave a basket. It was a little difficult to get it perfect, but I think I did a good job of it. Hopefully they will allow me to take it back into the states.

Oh and I have figured out, I think, what is wrong with my ear. The rest of my body is once again covered in bug bites and I itch all over, but my right ear had small bites along the top. They are really little but you can see the bumps and my whole ear is inflamed because of this. It's really annoying and I do not like being bitten, but I guess that is just to be expected when you are out in the wilderness.

We were listening to the radio and soon enough they announced that Obama was leading enough to call him a winner. We quickly went over to Mabel's house to watch the news and saw Obama's winning speech! I was truly hoping that he would win, not just to have a nice change, but because the area I am currently in would have had a fit if he did not. I liked being in a different country for the elections because it has given me a different perspective on the USA. 

Tea tonight was delicious, Keith made falafel which was wonderful and Diana made fresh tubule from things in the garden. We ate that over bread with lettuce and it was a great meal. I am starting to get used to having fresh foods from a garden and really want to have a garden of my own when I get home. Too bad it will be winter when I arrive. Next summer I will start a veggie garden so that I can make salads and things for myself. 

They are almost self sufficient here, as you may have guessed. Keith works 1.5 days a week teaching and Diana is a writer who has written enough in the past to not need to write more unless she wants to. The journals that I helped with today do not take a profit as Diana takes the money that she gains from selling them and invests in others through www.kiva.com which loans small amounts of money to people in third world countries so that they can start their own businesses. They live very simply without a television or much for internet and heat the house and water supply with the wood stove. They do not have an oven or cook top but instead cook either over the fire of with a hot plate or electric pan which I never knew existed. It has been really neat to get to experience life like this, I would never be able to see this side of the world from home.

Catlins again

This morning I woke up to an empty house and a list of things to get painted. Soon Diana and Keith returned, before I had started, and they explained that Mable was feeling ill this morning so they went over to make sure that she was all right. I started painting the cabin first, with a red jump suit on, and soon finished the two large sides and headed back to the house. I was going to finish the other sides but Diana said that was okay and I had a small snack of cashmerey-naan, which is sweet bread baked with coconut, coconut milk, banana's, apricots and cinnamon on top. It was delicious, we made it last night for a late night snack after dinner.  After that I started to paint a few directors chairs, two needed a primer and a color coat, and the other just a second color. I had finished painting the primer on, which they call the undercoat, and I was called in for lunch. When I went back to paint the color on, it started to rain so I only did two of the three chairs. It's pouring now so I do not think that I will be doing any more work today. Later, maybe after tea, we may head down to the donkey's paddock and bring them to the closer plot of land where they usually are, but that is all. When I got up this morning I noticed that my ears were itchy, meaning my ear ring holes were most likely infected, so I took the 2nd holes out but my left ear is really puffy and it hurts when I pull on it. I am not sure why, but the top is thicker than normal and I would really like it if it fixed itself.

Tramping

Today we started the day kind of late and went for a 2 hour tramp along a really beautiful area in the Catlins. At 10:30 we took a ride about 4 km away to the start of a road that went up into the hills along many farms. We walked up that road and along with the sheep for quite a while, 1 1/2 hours or so, then made our way to the top and got a great view of the whole valley. From there we walked down to the ocean and beach and walked on the beach for probably less than 30 minutes. We had to ford the river that we came to and it was cold and up past me knee's! I was numb from the cold after a short while and although the river was only about 30 yards wide it took awhile to cross. After that I kept my shoes off and walked back along the rest of the beach. It took just about 2 hours to go the whole way and I am not sure how much ground we covered, but I got some great pictures and surprisingly didn't get tired until the very end when the water woke me back up.

Now we are off to the Donkey's far paddock with a load of cut down trees. Hopefully they will not run away from me like they did yesterday when we went poo collecting. They didn't even let me get close enough to pet them. We have to load all of the cut tree's and branches that Keith has been cutting onto the trailer, then bring them to the paddock where there is a massive pile that will be turned into a bonfire mid-summer.

Dunedin re-cap

I just left Dunedin yesterday and I had a blast there. When I arrived Ashleigh had to take an exam that afternoon, so we went into town for lunch, then she went back to study while I explored some more. When I returned to her house she was still studying so I relaxed and soon she went to take her test. After dinner we went out to this great lookout area and I could see all of Dunedin including all of the stars. It was a great way to end the evening. The next morning we decided that we wanted to go out for the day and we planned a trip to the CADBURY FACTORY! It was Halloween that day and it was really fun to get to the factory because every time we stopped I got to fill my bag with more candy, trick or treat style! That night was Halloween so we went shopping for costumes after we returned and we both pulled together some great things. Going into the $2 store was our best bet, so we headed off in that direction and I bought an apron and Ashleigh got a construction neon yellow vest. We went to the toy store next where we found a tool belt for Ashleigh and a spatula for me. The costumes were almost complete and once we added the final touches of a workers helmet from the attic and a hair net from the Cadbury tour we were ready to go.

After the wonderfully yummy smelling factory and costume shopping, we went over to Baldwin street, which is the steepest street in the world! I climbed up the stairs along the side of the road and man was it steep! It was not any steeper than most stairs cases in Wellington, but for a road it was incredible. After walking down the hill again we got to the bottom and Ash pointed out that there were certificates that you could buy saying that you walked up Baldwin street, which I thought was ridiculously funny. (There were many azn's doing solo-peace-sign-pictures and I am sure that they bought certificates because that's that they do.) Walking back was great, but long, as we walked through the botanical gardens and covered what felt like half of the city. We then ate dinner and started to dress up! We went first to a party at a near by flat where we found the news 4 anchor team (from Anchorman) including Veronica, an ewok (or however you spell it), Alice from Wonderland, Ace Ventura and several other colorful characters. It was a great time meeting everyone and one guy's mother was there as well. She was dressed up as an "Ice Queen" which consisted of her in a skirt and top wearing a tin foil crown and wand. I ended up meeting someone from my school who I had only known by reputation, which was hysterical, and we were soon off to Mars Bar to play laser tag and mini golf. On the way to the bar we encountered a group of Kiwi's and they dumped beer on Noah. He was extremely drunk so he reciprocated by going to punch the kid, which started a whole street brawl. This was a little tricky to break up since most of the party was wasted and the few who weren't were female, but after about 20 minutes of talking we dragged the boys away and off to the bar we were. The laser tag was great fun, it was two stories, and mini golf was a good time as well. I saw a few people that I had met during orientation, but soon Ashleigh and I were getting sleepy and the crowd was moving on to the next party, so we split off. 

On my final day in Dunedin I was alone since Ashleigh had to catch a flight and left at 11:30 am. I decided to take the bus out to the peninsula since I was told that there was a penguin and albatross colony there. I soon realized that the bus didn't go out far enough and that it would have been an extra 11 km to get to see anything but some random birds. So I sat on a bench for an hour then took the bus back again. This worked out alright, but I was quite disappointed that even the closest thing, the Aquarium, was 2 km away. None the less it was pretty and I got to take a few pictures of the area. I was soon back in Dunedin and needed to get my own shuttle. Overall it was a great Halloween weekend! I loved Dunedin and I am very glad that I had a tour guide to show me about!

I am now at my new home for the week the Olsen's. I am wwoofing with them in the Catlins, which is a beautiful area. I am not sure what all I will be doing for work, but I am sure that it will involve the garden. They have a lovely small home which reminds me of my camp out on Lake Winnipesaukee, I am staying in their son's old bedroom and I have a great lookout over the ocean. They are close to the ocean and behind the house on the other side are tons of trails going into the rain forest. I can not wait to explore the area with their help. Last night I met Mable, who is their 91 year old neighbor which they watch Midsomer Murder with every Saturday night. We had a delicious vegetarian meal of spinach, potatoes, chick peas and a bunch of flavouring. I will have to get used to not eating meat, but I do not think that will be very difficult, especially for just one week. I have to get going to work now, but will soon have many more stories to tell I am sure!

The Beginning of the End

Last night was the last time flat 9 would be a whole. Early this morning Phil left for his adventures around and I will not see him, peyton or Claire after the 29th when I leave. I know I'll see Sketch (Justine) and Jay because they live close to me, but it is just really sad to know we had our last outing together. So last night we had a rager and invited lots of people over to celebrate the fact that people are leaving, Phil, not flatmate, was turning 21 and Sketch had done the impossible - posted 200 facebook albums. 

At 7 I was picked up by Matt and we, along with some of his friends went to the Wellington Lions rugby game. It was a great game, but we lost 6-7 to Canterbury. Once we all arrived back at my flat the party was just getting started and it went on from there. We stayed in the flat until well after midnight and hit the clubs in town, which turned out to mostly be BOOGIE WONDERLAND! Phil loves that place so we danced along with the cougars and old men for hours. It was a late night, not getting back until  after 3, but SUCH a good time!

I am so terribly sad that I am leaving such a fun place in just 3 days. On the morning of the 30th I will fly out to Dunedin and spend Halloween with some friends. After that I will be wwoofing again with a different family down in the Catlins. It should be fun to travel to the southern most city, Invercargil, not to mention that the Catlins are a gorgeous rain forest. I will fly back to Wellington for one last day on the 8th of November, and Laurie will come over then too! We are travelling to Taupo which should be so much fun! I can not wait to go SKY DIVING! We have lots of things planned for that next week, and have had these plans since before I flew over in June, but I still can't believe that I have 3 weeks left in New Zealand.

It all seems so surreal.

CLASSES AND FINALS ARE DONE!

On the 10th of October classes wrapped up and I just handed in my last paper Monday!! I only had one exam that was outside of class and that was the 18th, Saturday. After that Physics exam I was completely exhausted but I got my Media final done and that was that! WOOOOO!!! 

I am officially half way done Junior year. Okay maybe not so much with the woo. Where'd the time go?

Some catching up to do!

Okay so starting from last week, I travelled down to Christchurch with Alex and we had the best time together! We flew in early in the morning, after having our flight delayed half an hour, and we went straight to the i-site. We booked ourselves into the girls suite at the hostel that is right in the middle of the square and headed out to explore the city a bit. We decided to go 'Punting on the Avon' and were pushed down an adorable river through the botanical gardens by this AMAZING older gentleman. He knew all about the ducks that were on the Avon river and told us all kinds of stories. One pair of paradise ducks, who mate for life, have claimed the best plot of land on the river. They had the cutest little babies too which floated along right next to the boat. I was tempted to scoop one up, but I thought it may bite me so I didn't. After our lovely girl date, Alex and I went back on the town for a little while, getting dinner at a cool Mexican restaurant called  the Flying Burrito Brothers where we had tasty fruity margarita's. 

The next morning we caught a bus to a near by ocean town called Akaroa (a bit to the north of Christchurch) and booked ourselves onto a cruise of the harbour. We first walked around town and went to all kinds of neat artisan shops and saw lots of great jewellery and glass blown things. We grabbed some fish and chips for lunch before the cruise and ate by the waterfront, and got attacked by seagulls. Here they are way more evil than at home and even have red rings around their eyes. They were growling and doing this weird thing with their heads where they would flatten their neck out and point their beak upward then growl and squawk. On the cruise we got to see Hector dolphins and little blue penguins, who are ironically not blue. It was the neatest thing to see the dolphins so close! I had never seen any before so I loved it way more than anyone else. After the dolphin tour we jumped back on the bus and went to Christchurch for the evening. We went around town some more and decided on this nice restaurant, I forget the name, and I had really yummy chicken meatballs on spaghetti. We headed off to bed that night a little bit early, but it was a long day so I just passed right out!

Whew.  Okay so for our last day we woke up relatively early and went out into the main square where we found a small market was set up. It was strange since it was a Wednesday, but we poked around then went back to the i-site and got tickets to ride the gondola up the mountain and mountain bike back down. After arriving at the gondola we rode up and walked around the top for awhile. When we went down the find the bike area it was only a guy with a trailer filled with bikes on the back of his truck. Kinda sketchy. But anywho, we got our bikes and started the adventure! It was hard going up hill at first, but after a short while it was all downhill. The brakes were most likely worn off by the time we got to the flat area where town was, but we got to see some beautiful sights along the way. In a town called Sumner we stopped off for some ice cream and a little beach walking. It was really cute there, but nothing too exciting. We continued biking along the highway this time and finally got back to the gondola. That afternoon my butt was so sore from riding all day I basically couldn't walk. Once we were back in the city we discovered that the market we saw that morning was there for a car rally, the Silver Fern Rally, which now filled the lot. There were more than 100 rally cars all around and a stage where a woman was singing in Gaelic. A Maori group joined her for a song and it was the neatest sounding music. I loved it.

We flew out that evening and I crashed immediately upon arriving to my room.

It was an amazing whirl-wind 3 day adventure!

Such a Busy Week!

The past few days have been truly AMAZING! To start the weekend off early, Jackie flew in from Auckland! We lived on the same floor freshman year at SMC and she is studying abroad here in NZed, just like me, in Auckland at AUT. So she arrived Thursday, and since we were both tired from being in classes and such all week, we decided to stay in. Friday was Claire's 21st birthday so we toasted her at midnight then stayed up talking and filling each other in about our lives. Waking up early on Friday for my last class in NZed I went off and when I was back, Jackie was up and ready to go. Around 10:00 we went for a looong stroll up to the Botanical Gardens, as I had no clue how to get there and we didn't bring a map. We got a little lost, but the walk was still nice because it was so sunny and warm. Walking through the gardens was really beautiful. All the tulips were up and colorful and there were super cute little ducklings in the pond. After our morning with the flowers we headed towards the waterfront and walked around the beehive parliament building. We got some lunch at Mac's Brewery, I had the fish and chips and I discovered my love of ginger beer! It was so tasty I decided to buy some from the grocery store the next time I went.

While we were in the gardens we saw a sign for a glow worm tour that happened each night, so we went back to the gardens later that night. When we got to the spot where the guide was supposed to meet us, we were greeted by no less than 50 tourists with camera's ready. I am not sure what they were all doing there on that Friday night, but we happily joined the group and got away without paying the $5 admission. The tour guide was not too informational, but since Jackie had seen glow worms before in Waitomo she told me all that I needed to know. 

When the tour was over we headed back to my flat for Claire's 21st birthday party. We had so many people over that it was great! After lots of ping-pong ball tossing and tequila shot taking we headed off into town for some dancing! I wasn't planning on too late of a night, as Jackie and I were exhausted, but we managed to stay out until about 3 I think. 

Saturday was a day for tramping, so Jackie and I headed up Mount Victoria, and I have to admit that the 4th time up is much easier than the first. We rode the rope swing, I had to convince Jackie for a few minutes, and got some great shots. After coming back down we walked through town and got yummy crepe's and smoothies =) It was the perfect treat after some hard work.

Jackie flew home Saturday night and I went to bed early since I was real tired.

Sunday was a day of rest, which I really needed, so I just went out to the market for some fruit and came home to relax the day away!

No more scabies!

So I went to the nurse the other day because I had these weird bug bite bumps on my left ankle, right hand, bottom my right foot and around my waist. When I asked what it was she told me she had no clue. That was so nice to hear (NOT) so I made an appointment to see the doctor and thankfully he knew what it was. He told me that I had scabies, which is a form of bed bugs. I guess it's really gross because the females burrow under your skin and lay eggs and that makes you get a small red bump and it's wicked itchy! So in order to get rid of the eggs and itch, you have to put this cream, like sun block consistency, everywhere from your neck to in between your toes. It smells like plastic, but I still put it on and had to get help with my back. I felt like such a loser, but hey now the bugs are gone! (I hope!) I also had to bleach my sheets and blankets and iron my mattress. It was quite the process, but thankfully it is just one treatment.

Other than that my LAST WEEK OF CLASSES has been going normally. One exciting thing about today is that JACKIE CAIN IS COMING TO WELLINGTON! I am so pumped to see someone from my homeland =) That being SMC. I have been majorly missing all of my friends from home and since she is staying in Auckland, she's flying in tonight! I can't wait!! I have tons of fun planned, starting with a party which starts before she even gets in that we'll jump over to later on!

I guess that is all that is up with me for the moment. I hope all is well with everyone else and that no one has had to deal with bed bugs!

We Have Internet Back!!!

Weeeee! So we have the internet back in our flat and it is wonderful, because I am getting really sick. I have stayed in the past 2 nights (I'm aware that it was my second to last Friday and Saturday here) and it is not getting better. I even broke down and bought a $10 bottle of cough syrup. I don't buy that stuff too often, but it seemed a little pricey to me. Whatever, I need it. So I am pretty certain bronchitis is relapsing in my chest, and not only that, I have weird bug bites all over my ankles and on my hand. They are itchy like no other. I took some of Dr. Jay's hydrocortisone cream and that helped with the itch, but I have no clue where they came from! (I should say that Jay's not a real doctor, but because he's studying neuroscience we have given him that title.) I asked my dad what to do and he said maybe it is bed bugs. BED BUGS!!! What? That is gross, so I bleached my sheets and hopefully I won't get any more bites. 

Other than that I have had a boring week. I handed in a paper on Friday, and I have another two due next Friday. And a test Wednesday. And another paper due the 20th. I love having finals. NOT. Last night I really wanted to go see this band called dDub playing at Bodega, but no one responded to my texts, and because I am sick I didn't want to go alone, so I stayed in. Again. I guess it is for the better since it took me 3 hours to fall asleep since I was coughing so much.

I think I am falling apart.

Day Light Savings (Or end of it?)

This past weekend was day light savings time, so I jumped my clock ahead one hour and lost that hours sleep on Saturday night. I am still trying to figure out how this relates to what time is it at home, since back in MA the clocks didn't change. And soon the clocks at home will fall back an hour making us even further apart. But... what does this mean for our time difference? We were +16 hours from EST here in NZ, but now we are +17 hours. Once the US does the annual falling back of time we will be +18 hours. That's a huge time difference. It only takes 14 hours to fly to LA from here then another 5 or so to Boston, meaning I can relive an entire day by going home. I guess that makes up for losing a whole day coming here. I literally went to sleep on the 25th (on the airplane) and woke up on the 27th in New Zealand. It was unfair. At least it was not my birthday. That would have sucked. All of the long hours calculating when to call home and what is an appropriate time for calling/IM-ing friends has gone to waste. 

I have also had a few of my classes end. Dramaturgy of the Avant Garde now only has tutorials, (no Tuesday or Friday class) and Myth & Ritual finished the tutorial last week with a final huzzah at the student union bar (class is at noon mind you.) So my schedule is very confusing as I keep packing to go to class when it does not exist and for some reason in the midst of all these ending classes physics still is there, 3 mornings a week at 9 AM. 

I called home last night, well yesterday afternoon for me, but I was an hour early... and I thought I was an hour late. Man oh man, I need someone teach a course on how to tell time in different countries. I think it would make for at least one interesting lecture. That or I could wear two watches in the afternoons so that I know when to call. I also called home a day early last week. I don't know why when it is Wednesday for me it can not be Wednesday for home too.

Today was a good day though, physics went well (I knew what I was doing for once) and then in Dramaturgy I got to sit and not say anything while others debated a whether the America Play is Avante Garde or not. 

Yesterday started off a bit disappointing however. There is this wonderful program here at Vic where the SA gives out free loaves of bread on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Now the sign reads, "Free bread from VUWSA, 8:30 am Wed & Fri." Which leads me to believe that when I show up at the SA office at 8:30 on a Wednesday there will be wonderful loaves of bread waiting for me... this is not true. Here in New Zealand they are several hours ahead of the rest of the world, but they are always somehow several minutes behind most schedules. So there I was waiting around for my bread and no one else was in the room. I asked a lady behind a desk if maybe I was in the wrong building or room, but she assured me that I was correct and that they should be there soon, maybe at 9. I had class at 9 so I left empty handed and a little sad. I saw Jay however in passing and gave him the heads up that bread was being handed out and he went over and sure enough at 9 the bread arrived. He got like 4 loaves for the flat and that made up for me having missed out.

When you think of bread I am assuming you'd think that they would have stupid sliced loaves of white bread in baggies that you can grab and take home, but this is not true! The bread is full loaves of wheat and French and multi-grain wonderfulness! I am very pleased and a little disappointed with myself that I did not go get this bread earlier in the year. Oh well, next week I hope they are on time so that I can have more.

One last remark, since this is getting pretty long: Kiwi's have no style. I mean this seriously. I know I am not the most stylized person back home, but I know when things look okay on and I can go for a week without wearing the same thing if I want. Well here in Kiwi-land the girls always wear tights or spandex. With everything. I was talking with Jess (Fellow American) and she told me that she saw a person wearing spandex pants under jeans, under a skirt. Are that many layers necessary? It was a bit of an overkill. I can understand how when wearing a skirt in Wellington that something underneath is desirable, necessary even, but 3 layers?! That is point one. Point two is that girls do not wear sneakers. Unless they are converse. EVER. Anyone who has ever seen me before knows that I wear sneakers all the time, I switch it up with different types, but most of my shoe collection involves a rubber sole. Here girls wear boots with everything. Skinny jeans tucked into boots. Skirts and tights with boots. Shorts, spandex and boots. I am currently looking out a window to a girl wearing a bright red button down shirt, a khaki skirt and black tights and red boots. Right now. She just walked by. I could keep going on and talk about the man I saw in the gym the other night working out in cargo shorts, but I will end here. 

At least they have jandles to wear when their calves get too hot. 

Oh and I still don't have internet at home, so I am back at the library. There is not even enough to log onto skype. It's painfully boring at my desk.

Okay. 

Rant over.

Adjusting

I've decided to come to the Library today since our internet has run out. This means that between 5 people we went through 20 gig's of internet in the past 3 weeks. I am not sure how this happened since last month we didn't even go over 18, but none the less, we no longer have internet access. I think it will be refilled or whatever on the 3rd of October, but for a facebook and e-mail addict like myself it is torture to have to sit at my desk and do actual work without distractions. 

Some people come to the Library and use the computers to do work, or print things out, but I have been here for the past hour and I have yet to accomplish anything beyond talking to some friends and downloading my assignment for Media.

This past weekend was LEAP back at SMC and I am very sad to have missed it, but I heard good things about the weekend. I managed to make my presence known even from so far away and I am thankful to those who helped me. I am extremely vague with all of this but if you are a fellow LEAP-er then you will know why. I got an email back from someone who went on the weekend and it put the biggest smile across my face possible. The other people in the library must have wondered how I went from being really bored and staring off into space to so very happy in under one minute, but I'll let that remain a mystery, unless of course they happen to read this blog. Which is very unlikely. And that would be weird.

The library is pretty nice here, but it could use more computers. I brought my own and linked onto the network and wireless just fine, but there is a line against the wall of people waiting for an open computer so they can work. I have heard of people waiting an hour just to have access to a computer. They put a couch against the wall where the line is, which seems to just exemplify the fact that they need more computers and are aware of the bad situation. I think that Saint Mike's has just about the same number of computers on campus as this library which is saying something because Victoria University has 10 times  as many students as Saint Mike's.

I think that I will head home soon and finish writing my lab report for physics. I wrote half of it yesterday, which consisted of my copying and pasting a bunch of graphs and tables, and now I have to fill in the gaps and describe what all the tables are for. It is different having to write scientific papers for class, but I think I have finally got it down. We'll see when I get this back graded.

I got a 71 on a paper the other day and I was quite disappointed with myself. I thought that I worked hard and deserved better, but then I noticed that next to the 71 was an A-. I am not sure how it works, but the grades here are scaled so oddly. Over a 50% is a C and over 60% is a B, leaving 70% or higher as the A range. A D is considered failing, so you have to watch out for that, but outside of physics I can't imagine not getting an A or at least a B+ on work. It would be almost impossible to fail any of my general courses here, which is great news for me. The bad news is that in physics I am the one who doesn't get it and the professor has no intention of helping me to 'get it.' I e-mailed him to ask if there was anything  I could do to improve my grade and that I know that I need to get a C- for this class to count for me. He wrote back to me saying that if I study and review the notes I should do just fine. That is not what I was looking for. I even stated that I am not looking for a hand out, but I would like to do work to improve my grade and all he has to say to me is to study. I knew that before I even came here. Studying is one of those things that I thought was obvious, apparently in NZ it is not.

I have now wasted a bit more time, so I suppose I should go do real work. Not that blogging isn't work, because it is.

Flat 9 does KAIKOURAAAAA!

This past weekend was AMAZING!

Justine bounded upstairs to Claire's room on Thursday and announced that she wanted to go away for the weekend. So she Claire and I decided on a weekend adventure to the south. The boys joined in last minute and booked the later freight ferry. We jumped a ferry Friday night and stayed in Picton, where the ferry arrives in the south. We went out on the town, which is about 4 square feet, and waited around till the boys got in. After checking into the hostel we pretty much just crashed from exhaustion. That next morning we got up early and rented a car for 5.. but we are six (Me, Jay, Claire, Justine, Phil and Kevin) so Kevin and I waited while the others got a car. 

We then drove south for about 2.5 hours and got to the most beautiful place on earth. In Kaikoura you can see the monstrous mountain ranges pushing up through the earth, right next to the ocean. It was truly outstanding. 

Once in town we went to the i-site and booked some fun for the weekend. We planned to go kayaking with seals and fishing early the next morning. We got a hostel and moved everything in, then went back to the i-site where we got picked up for the kayaking. It was so neat to get to kayak with wildlife right around you. I saw only one penguin... and it was dead, but tons of fur seals were out! There was one seal that was swimming around us so we followed it and it found an octopus to eat. it was the neatest thing to experience. I have never seen anything in the wild like that besides on the discovery channel. I felt like I was on some kind of cool seal show.

After Kayaking we spent the rest of the day exploring town and discovered that there was going to be a rail jam that night. Jay, being an almost pro snowboarder, was way too excited and we made him sign up for it. That night we went to eat dinner and got the tastiest pizza I have had in awhile then went off to a bar to the rail jam. Jay rode for awhile on a borrowed board and ended up winning best trick for going down with one foot out of his bindings. We stayed in the bar awhile longer till we got kicked out for taking the really awesome Monteiths pint glasses... they frown upon stealing here... Oh well! We did manage to get an air horn and a salt shaker somehow tho.

That night was a long one, so the next morning came way too early! We went out to get some breakfast before our 8 am fishing boat headed off shore. We first went to collect the crayfish pots that were laid out the night before, these pots only ended up having 3 crayfish in them, one pregnant female, one small male and one big enough for us to take it. The big crayfish was worth about $100, which is pretty amazing. I did not know it but crayfish are actually pretty big, about the size of a lobster, but without the claws.

We then put the rods out and went fishing for about an hour. We caught over 15 fish, mostly perch, but one blue cod. They then filleted them for us right on the boat. It was about that time when 50% of the group lost it. It being their breakfast. I surprisingly did not get sick, but Claire was first to go, followed by Phil and Kevin. We headed back to shore after 2.5 hours of being on the water, and all anyone wanted was to sit on solid land for awhile. 

Because everyone was feeling a little off, we put off hiking and decided to drive around to see what we could find. We stumbled upon a real great lookout and saw the whole town. After that it was about time to get going and we made the long trek back to Picton then on the ferry and home.  That night Jay cooked up the crayfish and we had a feast. Then I passed out from exhaustion, a weekend well spent in NZ.

The Zoo, Rugby and Jess's 21st

Saturday was quite the busy day. On Friday Claire and I decided that we wanted to get the to zoo this weekend, so we checked out the bus schedule and sure enough the bus that stopped by my flat went right to the zoo as well. Saturday morning Claire, Alex and I bussed over to the zoo and saw some of the cutest animals around. They had the usual lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) along with wallaby's and kangaroo's and giraffe's. The giraffe's were eating and we were able to get so close I could touch it's head! The monkeys were the cutest thing, about 6 inches long I just wanted to carry one around in my pocket.We even saw a lion while it was eating... a horse leg. There were 2 females which were really close to the window, the picture is not zoomed, and then the one male was further away, but all were chewing on legs.. ew.

After the zoo I had about an hour before I was off to the Wellington Lions Rubgy game. Kailah, Julie, Aldi and I walked over to Westpac Stadium just in time, and it was an awesome game! We were in the 2nd row back and got to see all the action from about the 50 yard line. A few others joined us less than a quarter in... we won by a long shot and it was an amazing game! 

When I got back to my flat tons of people were over starting to celebrate Jess's 21st birthday. It was a surprise so we were all waiting on the b-day girl to arrive. After freshening up, it was only about 20 minutes until she arrived. It was a long night of celebration, which ended with a walk into town.. down random alley ways and through barricaded areas, haha.

Needless to say, Sunday was a complete day of rest. Only leaving the house to travel down to the big farmers market on the waterfront followed by a stop off at the New World super market.

Email Number Deux

I sent out a second mass e-mail the other night so here it is, if you aren't on the list and want to be, let me know:

Hey there everyone!
I just got off of my two week break and decided its time for another email. Since I last wrote I have been wwoofing- world wide organization (of) organic farming- and been through 7 weeks of classes and adventuring!

First with the wwoofing. I decided to join this (very credible) group, and through them I was able to work on a winery in exchange for amazing food and a place to stay. I lived at the Celtic Winery in Levin and during the days I would bottle and label wine, and relax around the property. I got to read 2 books, start on some homework and just chill out. It was an amazing way to spend my break. I was there for 10 days, and then spent the last 4 in Wellington. 

While at the winery Malcolm and Deb cooked great meals for me and the Japanese exchange student who they were hosting. They have two daughters (19 and 21)who conveniently live in Wellington as well. I felt right at home here and loved having that homey feel.

Before wwoofing, I had been in class for 6 weeks. My classes are all going very well, with physics challenging me more than ever. In my drama class I got to read a bunch of plays- Ubu, Waiting for Godot, Eiffel Tower Wedding Party, and The America Play (ironically). For the last few weeks we will study the America Play in more detail, so this should be a good time. American history and racial relations being a few of the topics. In religion, I got to play Javanese instruments last week and have been learning about tons of different religions which is really neat. I am taking a media class as well and we have been talking about US politics and the Olympics a lot. Having been in New Zealand for more than 2 months I am starting to realize how much of an influence the US has on the rest of the world which I didn't ever think about before. I did a project recently and cut out newspaper headlines about Obama and the rest of the political debate. Almost every day I check the paper and find the front of the world section to contain at least one US story, along with a few more contained inside. I like being so connected to home, but I feel that a bunch of New Zealand culture is somehow connected to America. Almost every television show is from home or the UK and I never go a day without hearing several American accents.

I have also climbed Mt. Victoria twice now, it's a really beautiful climb. I am currently planning what I will be up to after I finish with classes in about 4.5 weeks. I want to go wwoofing to more places and I have been e-mailing with a family (with horses :D) who would like someone to watch over their little girl and possibly do some house painting and tend the veggie garden. I may be heading off to do that, as well as getting down to the southern tip of the country visiting Dunedin and some friends who go to Otago University, as well as wwoofing for another week down there, right next to a rain forest in an area called the Catlins.

Back at the end of July I travelled to the south island for a long weekend with my orientation group. We went to the Marlborough sounds, specifically the Queen Charlotte sound. There we got to kayak for a few hours in the bay then took a water taxi across the sound to our lodging. We stayed at a backpackers and left the next morning for a day tramp. We hiked for about 4.5 hours all around the sound in a ring and eventually got to a point where we could look across the water to where we had started. After stopping for lunch and the carrying on again, we took the water taxi back to the ferry, and the ferry back home to Wellington. The ferry here is very large, think ocean liner, but we took a smaller one back than we did over. I got sick coming home, since I always get sick-as those who travel with me know... but it was mainly because there were 15 meter swells. It was an intense couple hours.I have been going to the farmers market every Sunday to get fresh fruit and vegetables, then heading to the food store for the necessities. It is quite the hill back up as I said before, but slowly it is getting smaller. I am getting used to the stairs, but I am waiting on the day that I am not out of breath by the top... it WILL happen someday soon!

This Friday I am looking forward to a Wellington rugby game! I have only been to the one All Blacks game, so this will be my second rugby event, and a first time seeing a Wellington team play. Hopefully it will not rain this time!! I have found some great friends here finally and I am loving going out and about on the weekends. My flatmates and I have been getting along well, even going out together (minus one girl) it's been great! I do have one strange flatmate.. but that is to be expected. Overall I am still loving New Zealand, but I truly can not wait to be reunited with everyone in the spring!

Thanks so much to everyone who e-mailed me back last time! I love hearing about everyone else and their adventures! Oh and welcome back to school, since you've all had at least a week there already!

xoxox love and miss you all!

Meghan

Here I am crossing a rope bridge on the Queen Charlotte Track:

The whole orientation group who came out with me:

The Interislander Ferry from the trip over:

Betty Crocker Style

I made shepherd's pie tonight and it was amazing =) A little taste of home that was much needed. And the best part was that I didn't even need a recipe! I just mashed some potatoes with chicken broth (I didn't have beef) then layered some cooked beef then corn, then the potatoes, then beef, corn, potatoes, and Voila! Shepherd's pie! I am quite proud of myself for this one. I have been surprising myself with my cooking abilities here. I have made potato leek soup, and the pie, and all kinds of stir fry's... it's been great! I am not really looking forward to getting back to alliot food. However I feel like I am super prepared for senior year cooking on my own. It's sweet cooking for yourself, except dinner tonight ended up being enough for 3. My only complaint is that I have no one else to cook for here, I just have left overs for a few days then another wonderful meal! Oh and I never made it out last night... it rained from the time I was considering going out (about 8 when it began) until this morning well after I got up (maybe 3 when it stopped). And when I say rain, I mean a complete downpour that made me worry if the sewer system was up for the challenge. Having not left the house today, I will soon find out as I am off to Kailah's for a night of socialization!

Tequila Wednesday= Drunk in 9 am Physics

Wednesday night I decided since I hadn't been out in over 2 weeks and, well, there was free tequila being offered, that I should out. It was most likely against my better judgement since I had class the next morning at 9, but I will get to that later on. So there I was walking with 3 of 4 of my flatmates over to Jessica's place waiting for the night to begin. It was tequila Wednesday so when I arrived a margarita was placed into my hands... which I happily consumed in not too much time. The night went on and the marg's kept coming, and I kept guzzling the delicious liquid down.. then we went out. In town I was a very good girl, spending no money at all, and danced the night away. It was all going great and I was having quite the time, but sadly it got to be about 1:30, so I meandered home. Because I was falling over I decided to shower to wake myself up a bit before attempting to 'sleep it off.' Now, after sleeping a few hours one would think that the tequila would wear off and I would be up and at 'em ready to go for 9, and this is kind of true, minus the fact that when my phone alarm went off I bumped it off my bed. And not only was it off my bed it was between my headboard and the wall. So I reached down, squeezing my arm to get it only to get my elbow stuck on the way out. (I, of course, could have got out of bed and reached 2 feet down to where my phone was, but I didn't think of this.) That was when it first occurred to me. I am still drunk. I can not function and standing up may result in falling down again. But physics is one of those things that I just can't miss so I got up, having thankfully showered the night before, and put some clothes on. Off to class I go, stopping off in Claire's room to check if she was still drunk too. No dice. She is just slightly hung over with a large glass of water next to her bed. I kept tipping backwards which was a weird sensation, but slowly I gained my balance. Physics wasn't too bad, I managed to get some notes out and I went straight over to my next lecture which happened to be a debate over something I actually cared about. In drama we are deciding which play we should talk about for the next 5 weeks and, having done Beckett until I wanted to die before, I decided to pick the other play. The America Play. Literally. I know Kiwi's aren't real fond of Americans, having pretended to be Canadian once before, but do they have to hate anything with our name attached? One girl did and we got into a fight. A drunken fight with good supporting information on my side and a pissy hormonal 14-year-old fight on her end. I won none the less when another person told her not to use my words against me and that I had very good points and everyone in the room was telling her to shut up... it was great. (this is a tutorial class of about 15 mind you)

Then I got hungry and went home. Good story. 

Thursday happened without me realizing it had passed, and today is Friday. I had a big project due today which I had minimal work done on, so I spent most of the day working to get that completed. It was due at 5 and from about 11 to 5 is a blur to me. Class, library, project... stuff.... class.... project. However I got it done, and quite well I do believe. I think I may go out tonight, but I will stay away from the tequila for awhile. It likes me to too much to indulge in it often.

Today is Wednesday

I saw a boy in class today wearing leather chaps. With fringe. And a leather jacket. And a bright yellow Spongebob t-shirt underneith it. I kinda wanted to chunder. (That's what the Kiwi's call puking.) But all this was happening when I was in my religion course learning about the Javanese culture and how to play their instruments. I got to play a thing kinda like a xylophone while others were banging on drums and gongs and weird little metal pots. It was sweet. Oh and I finally got postcards so I can mail some off soon. I first have to decide who gets them, then I will write them and those special people will receive them. Besides getting up for my 9am class, which was pointless as usual, and having 3 more hours of class after, it was a good day. I am just now sitting down to that work I was going to do on Monday before I got distracted by Oprah. AAAAnd I got to talk to Sarah this morning which was wonderful since she lives in a land where the internet does not reach and she has basically been MIA since May... off to homework land now!

Take me ouuuuuuut tonight.

So I went out with Tawney last night and we had a lot of fun just trolling around the city. At one point we were at JJ Murphy's and I ordered a shot and she got a beer and they guy turned to me and asked if I had my ID checked on the way in.. and I said yeah but pulled it out to show him anyways, then he asked if I wanted anything else, like a water. A WATER? Did I really come off that drunk? I didn't think so, but okay. As we left there we went to another Irish pub and listened to a band play, then they ended and I saw someone from one of my classes who I had been working on homework with earlier so we started to talk and I realized that he brought along this creeper that I had meet a little while ago. I mean creeper in the best of ways too. When I first met him I was printing out a paper in the physics lab and it wouldn't print, so I asked for help. He came over and we got it printed, and obviously that was an invite to walk me home? Yeah so he said he was headed out too so I walked with him... trying to avoid his every prying question, and finally he asked for my number. REALLY?! I didn't really know what to say... so I just gave him what I thought was one number off of mine, but I accidentally gave him the real thing. Ooh well. Later that night he texted me asking if I wanted to get a drink in town and I just didn't respond. Anywho, he was there with this other nerdy boy and they wanted me and Tawney to go with them. THANKFULLY Jay walked by as they were "walking us home" and we sprinted away as fast as possible and danced the night away with my super-duper flat mate who saved us from what was becoming a very awkward situation. Boy's don't take hints easily, do they? 

OOOH! And I got to sleep through the night because the boyfriend of the girl across my hall didn't stay over =) I was uber happy for this.

Today I got up at 11:23 and was out the door at 11:36 and off to the farmers market which I love going to. I got a whole bunch of kiwi's, some potatoes and carrots and pears and a lemon, which I mistook for an orange last week. They are little round orange things, but taste like lemons. Weird. Yeah then I went to the food store, Metro, and walked up a bagillion stairs (If this is 2 flights, in total there are 8 before my hill.)

and now I am back... with tons of physics to finish because the boy from my class that I met with yesterday and saw last night had no idea what he was doing. He spent the whole time we were in the library together on his computer trying to google the answers... woo!

But today is sunny and warm and I have a celtics shirt on, so I think it will be a good day =)

I Should Be Doing Homework

I had every intention of researching The America Play, which I have ironically read in one of my classes here in NZ, but I don't want to. I suppose I really don't have anything to post about either, but so far today I hoofed it into town to get some food, then ate some Weet-Bix, which I just found out about and actually really enjoy, and now I'm here on my couch with my notes out and my title page staring me in the face. But the news is on, so I'm going to watch that instead. I find it very interesting how the Democratic Convention is all they talk about lately. After the Olympics finished up, the DNC is always talked about. I enjoy keeping informed about American politics, but why should they follow us around as well? Malcolm, from the winery, said it is because we are the most powerful country in the world. Which I guess is true. What a scary thought. So that was on and now they are talking about Kim Kardashian. I suppose that I am on ET right now, so that makes sense, but still. I saw her advertised and questioned what New Zealand must really think of Americans. They think we are crap. We are all rich bitches who do whatever we want and go wherever the wind blows us. Without our underwear on. Wait no that was Britney. Eeh they are like the same person. Why wouldn't they want to come over for a visit? Seriously! Is that not appealing to you? I truly enjoy it.

Back to the play. Its about a black man who apparently looks just like Abraham Lincoln. So he gives up his life, and wife and child, and moves out west to pursue a career in impersonations. He does well by letting people shoot him in a booth similar to where Lincoln was shot then dies (but not for real)... But when he does finally die of old age, his wife and kid go out west to find his body and whatever he has left over. Lucy, his wife, is a listener, and Brazil is a digger, just like his daddy... digger... they say it a lot and it wasn't until I read it a second time that I realized this was a black family and digger sounds just like another word. One of the lines actually says, "Youre uh Digger. Youre uh Digger. Your Daddy was uh Digger and so are you." It's real strange what you pick up on when you read the play the way it is meant to be read. I am not sure how I didn't realize that the black man dressed as Lincoln on the back cover actually meant that the actors were black. 

Anywho I am going to work now... Maybe.

Wwoofing

This past week I have been living in a winery in Levin (near Palmerston North) and helping out around the place in exchange for food and a place to stay. It is called wwoofing, meaning World Wide Organization of Organic Farming. I had a total blast staying at the Celtic Winery. I bottled some Feijoa and some Green Ginger wines, and labelled every kind that they make! I would work for a few hours in the morning, then read and chill out all afternoon. It was a really sweet trade! I lived with Malcolm- the man in charge/dad, Deb- his wife, and Kyoko- the Japanese exchange student staying for the year. They had 2 sheep, Bill and... another one, and a nameless goose and a dog Molly. For a few days Malcolm and Debs' girls came home from staying in Wellington. Zoey is 21 and Emily is 19, and they were both really cool! Since we all live in Wellington we changed phone numbers and hopefully they can show me some cool kiwi things to do here in town! The Celtic Winery is fully organic and everything is done in the traditional Celtic method. I bottled the wine with a small pump and then used a cork press that was over 100 years old. There are similar presses in museums which I think is very neat! The 10 days flew by and I am so so happy that I went wwoofing at the Celtic Winery. They even took me out to the movies, to see Mama Mia, and Pierce Brosnan sang? What? It was not okay, but the movie was entertaining none the less. And it was fun to go out with Malcolm and Deb and 2 of their friends. Also, when the girls were home we went to the beach and walked around for awhile with Molly, their doggie. I got some cool shells there and saw some great views, too bad I forgot my camera =( I loved getting home cooked food and just having that homey feel.  Here are some views from the winery/house:

The house looked out over Lake Horowhenua. It was the most gorgeous place to relax. I had a great break =)

I should do this more...

I have decided that blogging is better than just trying to remember it all and tell it later. I'm going to still do mass emails, but this is an easy way to write down my thoughts and the excitement of each week!

Here is the first email I sent out:

I am so excited to be writing everyone from New Zealand! I arrived 3 weeks ago and I am finally getting settled. I arrived first in Auckland (on the north of the northern island.) and we spent the first full day and night there. I arrived at 5-am New Zealand time after sleeping about 7 hours on the plane. The flight was surprisingly quick, I watched a movie, passed out, then watched another movie and a half and we were descending into Auckland. After getting acclimated we went tramping (hiking) up Northhead to see the full city. It was really beautiful up there. We could see the entire city, all sorts of houses and right out over the water, we were surrounded on 3 sides. After walking all over the city we went to dinner as a group. Later that night we hit the town and went to sleep by about 11- completely wiped out. The next day we spent the day exploring the city by foot a bit more and visited the Aquarium. We got to see penguins and all kinds of fish. We saw them feed a sting ray which was about 4 feet wide, with a 3 foot stinger as a tail. It was the coolest largest sting ray I had ever seen! Later on that day we went on our large tour bus (with driver Mark) and drove a few hours to Rotorua. The town of Rotorua is known mostly for its... smell. It smells like sulphur extremely strongly and it's the first thing that hit me as we walked off the bus. It's like a wall. Seriously. The first day in Rotorua was more of a night, so we went out for dinner all separately. That next morning we went out in the smelly air to visit the sulphur pools and we visited the geyser. There is a geyser in Rotorua and it can only go off once ever 24 hours or so, so each day they put some kind of soap into the geyser and a few minutes later out comes shooting mass amounts of water. They discovered that the rock heap was actually a geyser a way long time ago when prisoners were staying at a local prison went down to the water to wash their clothes. They rinsed their clothes and put soap on them and a few minutes later the water spring was shooting way up about 50 feet into the air... needless to say they went back every week and set it off for fun. We also went to a Zoo type area, it wasn't so much animals in cages as it was a nature walk through an area with many types of trout and birds in the area. We got to see many animals and even got to see the infamous nocturnal Kiwi bird! There was only one that was awake when we were there, but it was really neat to see, since there are only a few left in NZ, their only native land. Before heading home we made one final stop at a ZORB place! It was the neatest thing that I have ever doe. Seriously! I rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball with two others and some water inside with me! It was such a blast! You will have to check it out online! I think I have discovered my new favorite recreational sport!! If it is a sport that is... That night we went to the Polynesian spa and soaked ourselves in mineral pools of all different temperatures. It was a great relaxing way to end the evening off. That next day we flew to our appropriate schools.. me to Wellington along with 16 others.

Arriving in wellington in the morning we were all dropped off at our separate flats each one in a different location across campus and town. I am right next to campus, just down the hillside/steps, and most of my friends are up the hill some more on either end of campus. My flat is really great. Two people were moved in already when I arrived in the morning and helped me drag my bags up to the third floor of my townhouse style flat. Two girls moved in after me and the five of us started to find out more about each other. I am living with Jay from Wayland, MA (literally right down the road) and he goes to Bates College (and knows a bunch of people that I know) Phil is a British boy from Brighton, England. Claire is from California and goes to Colorado State, and Peyton is a girl from Texas. We all get along pretty well for the most part.

Just after arriving in Wellington I got the chance to attend an All Blacks game! They are the national rugby team for New Zealand! I arrived just in time too, since they only play in Wellington twice a year, this being the final time! It was such a blast, besides the rain which soaked me through then later turned to hail... but that is besides the point! I got to see them do their Haka ritual and the game was just great! I ended up leaving before it ended since I couldn't feel my toes, but I watched the rest from a local pub which was totally worth it!

I started classes one week after arriving in Wellington and I am taking 4 classes. I am taking Electromagnetism - for physics, duh, and a religion course called Myth and Ritual which focuses on different religions and is something that I can not get at SMC. I am also taking a course Dramaturgy and the Avant Garde, which is a Theater/ English course that is really 4 classes combined and broken up by the work load. Each of the classes have tutorials associated with it which are like little lab classes of about 10-15 people. I have 13 hours of lecture/tutorials each week and then 4 sessions of a 4 hour lab over the semester. The course load is a lot, but I start early and get out early each day.

I have already climbed Mount. Victoria twice and I have been down to the waterfront wharf several times. Going into town is a trek since its down a giant hill, coming back up is worse since its up a pretty steep hill, up 178 steep stairs and then up another slightly less steep hill and around a bend to get home. There is a cable car that brings you from downtown up to right beside campus taking the hill away which is a great help when I am carrying groceries.

Ooh and I have a picture website at www.photobucket.com/mcary1088, so check it out!

NEW ZEALAND!

I'm in New Zealand! I'm in New Zealand! I'm in New Zealand! 

ahhh its so beautiful here! I LOVE my flat and the people here are great! I haven't met too many kiwi's but the few I have are awesome! I started classes yesterday, after having my first one cancelled on Monday. Oh yeah, it's tomorrow here already. It's weird to think about but its true. I have been so many places and seen so much already that I can not wait for the next few months to happen!

Off to class now!