FIJIME!
June 25th, 2010
After opening my journal tonight I couldn't wipe this grin off my face. Just sitting at the backpackers in Nadi (prounounced Non-dee) in Fiji I think back to when I left Minnesota. I have gotten to do SO many amazing things since February and I am truly blessed. I can't be sad that this journey has come to an end because it's only one of many. No, I may never get to take five months out of my life just to hang out in a different country but I can appreciate every moment that I had there.
It felt really strange to leave Auckland yesterday. I have no idea when I will come back. All I know is that I HAVE to come back. Mallory helped me bring my bags and stood by the bus stop with me. We were planning to see eachother in LA (we didn't...) I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be. I think I was numb to the fact that I was REALLY leaving. I had all my bags packed and WAS leaving, but it didn't feel like it. I stared out the window all the way to the airport trying to create one last picture of New Zealand in my mind. I teared up a little bit, but held it back. I knew that if Mallory and I would have said goodbye like for real I would have bursted out in tears. (Sorry to be so depressing!!) I don't know if it will truly hit me at some point, but right now I feel pur joy. This experience has helped me grow. Everyone grows at different rates...which is something to remember. For me, I accepted this along my trip. I could really focus on me. Favorite part of New Zealand? Don't have one. THE WHOLE NINE YARDS! I LOVE YOU, NEW ZEALAND!
Bula Fiji!
Welcome to Fiji! I got off the plane and felt heat that I hadn't experienced in quite some time. It's Fiji's winter so I didn't know how hot it was be, but it was HOT! Coming from Auckland I felt like I was experiencing hot flashes. No way...it couldn't be menopause! I am only 21! It was just Fiji. Whew ;) What a beautiful little island Fiji is. I get to Horizon Beach Backpackers, check in, bring my bags upstairs, and head toward the ocean. The beach was very charming. I asked the bartender what their funnest, most colorful drink was, and ordered it. I took my faboulous drink and found a spot on the beach, just listening to the ocean and sipping on a refreshing alcoholic beverage. I was pretty much the only one on the beach at this point...or so I thought. Suddenly, I see something in the sand move. A FROG! They have frogs here...not sure if they did in NZ. If they did I never saw them. I was so startled I started laughing. It crossed my mind that I didn't know what kind of creatures they have in Fiji. They also have GECOS! There was one in my room. I immidiately thought of The Parent Trap when Hali and Annie put one on Meredith Blake's evion bottle! I know, really Haylee? You would think of a movie! I usually get grossed out by little creatures back home, but here it's just the norm. We do everything to keep pests away when in reality they're probably trying to do the same. How did I get on this topic? Ok. Mom, you know more than anyone how random my mind can be...waking up in the middle of the night, waking you up to tell you unimportant information, getting off topic, and just being weird.
I cannot believe that I'm in Fiji though. Like really?! Some people only dream of coming to a place like this and I'm HERE! Now I'm most certainly not trying to make people jealous by being here or rubbing it in, but rather to awknowlege the fact that I know I'm lucky and to not take it for granted.
Right now I'm sitting at a table outside of Smuggler's Cove waiting for my salad and drinking a coca cola zero. Although I'm alone on this trip, I don't feel alone. There are so many other people doing the same thing and traveling by themselves. It's so fascinating talking to them. I'm not afraid of meeting people and making new friends. I may never get the chance to do this again and I wouldn't want to travel alone all the time, but it's a good experience nonetheless. You ever get the opportunity to travel by yourself for a weekend and just have "you time," DO IT! It's very freeing. Last night was my first night here and I had no plans, just wanted to relax. There were three guys sitting at a table and they said "Bula" to me which is not uncommon. I don't know how many times I've heard that here already! They asked me to come join and we got to talking. Apparently they are in the Fijian rugby team. We went out to Ed's Bar and danced!
June 26th, 2010
Today I was walking along the beach and a few guys were playing ball. This dark guy named Dan appproaches me and we start chatting. He eventually invites me to come to the church picnic they are having just down the beach. I was thrilled! "Really?" I said. "I'd love to!" I go over there and meet some people, play soccer, and hang out. I tried lamb and casava. Casava is their version of potatoes. Such good food! Everyone was so kind to me, too. So far...I'm lovin Fiji :)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Flying south for winter.
Connor and I decided to fly south for a winter wonderland. I have no finals so I needed something to keep me occupied so I was STOKED when Connor told me about this trip. I was game. Everything was all mapped out and it was time for us to leave already. I don't know where the time goes.
Note: If you don't read the whole thing at least read June 10th and 11th!
Monday, June 7th
Connor and I landed in Christchurch. We got a shuttle to Juicy Rentals to pick up our car. We named it "Elizabeth" (after the Queen.) Today was the Queen's birthday and we were so excited that because of the holiday there was free parking that we named our car after her royal highness :) Although I'd already been to the church we went there again. We went up to the top of the tower for a view of the city. Good stuff, kinda windy, but very beautiful city. When we got down we walked around for awhile trying to figure out what to do next. We get a wiff of something tastey...COOKIES!!! But where was it coming from? We had no idea. As Connor and I try to follow our nose we come accross Miss Higgins Cookies. JACKPOT! Two chocolate chip cookies pleeeease!! Nuuuum. After prancing around the city, and shoving our cookies in our face we take off in Elizabeth and head to Kaikoura. The next day was whale watching...we were so excited!! With the tunes going in and out we Connor and I haaaad to talk to each other...meh. Haha we had great talks along the way...some making sense and others...not so much! Love it.
The first backpackers place we found turned out to be a perfect fit. It was 22NZ$ which is 15 american. The place was called Adelphi Loddge. We ate next door which was really good. Had fush 'un chups!! (fish and french fries). There were two german girls that stayed in our room, apparently they were going whale watching as well. Connor and I watched Indianna Jones and the Last Crusade in the lounge. It was a VHS and the audio went in and out haha. It was all good though...we had JUST been talking about how I hadn't seen that movie! They also had shelves FULL of other VHS movies. They looked like they had all been taped by someone...not the originals. Haha...don't know if that's legal. Gotta love backpackers places!!!
Tuesday, June 8th
Connor and I wake up and go out for brekkie (what they call breakfast here) at a little diner. We go check out town a bit and some guy asked us what are plans were for the day. We tell him about whale watching and he was concerned about the weather. It was beautiful out...we didn't think there would be a problem. I guess the tides were bad or something so we decide to go to the whale watching center and ask about it. Sure enough...it was cancelled. We were incredibly bummed out, but at least we got all our money back. We just had a little more free time on our hands at the point.
We started our drive to Punakaiki. This took about five hours. Wonderful drive. Absolutely gorgeous. We saw the pancake rocks and blowholes. So awesome!! (Pictures soon to follow.) We stayed in Greymouth at this place called Neptune and brought Mcdonald's back for supper. We made friends with some Australians there and watche Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Wednesday, June 9th
Shanty Town! Haha since we had basically a free day on out hands Connor and I asked the people at reception what they reccommended for a day in Greymouth. We wanted to go to this miniature town, but apparently it would have been a dissapointment. Even though it's the guy's friend who owns it he told us to go somewhere else, but not to say anything. He said Shanty Town was awesome and also Wood's Creek. We take his word and go to Shanty Town. It was an old mining town. Connor and I got an old time photo taken and even panned for gold. (There just little flakes, but it was great! Must have been such a tedious task!) We also put pennys down so when the train went over them we would have a couple of flat coins! And it worked! After all that we head towards Wood's Creek. This was way more amazing than I even thought it would be! There were caves that we walked through...mine tunnels, and we saw glow worms!! The walk was like a mystical fairyland. One of the best walks I've been on by far. That night we drove to Fox Glacier and stayed at another hostel. We had dinner at Vivace cafe, then went to bed EARLY!
Thursday, June 10th
Before our Glacier Hike we drove to Lake Matheson and went on another awesome walk. We ate at their cafe and ate the BEST wedges of our life! We saw a rainbow on our way to the Glacier, and then did our Glacier hike which was...meh...it was alright. Just kidding! It was sooo cool! We hiked a glacier! Ahhh! After all our fun on the glacier and drinking glacier water and spring water along our hike we started driving to our next location. We wanted to end up in Cromwell (not the one in between Moorhead and Duluth!). It was pouring rain and we were runnin on about a half tank of gas. Instead of stopping...like we maaaybe shoulda we kept on truckin along. The next gas station we came to was in Makaurora or something. We were right on E at that time. Thank goodness, we're thinkin. Barely made it. Ummm...nope. What? The gas station is CLOSED! What the? It's 8:00pm! What gas station closes that early? Yeah...they closed at 5pm apparently. That's what you get for waiting until dinky town I guess. So we were stuck for the night. All the places were also closed for accomadations as well so what do we do? Oh, ya know...sleep in the car! Free night of stay I guess. We found out later too that we missed one of the most scenic drives too! Haha...go figure!
Friday, June 11th
Connor and I woke up and drove to the gas station and situated ourselves right by the pump. We were ready to fill up about an hour and a half before the place opened which was 8am. So we're waiting there...it's still pitch dark out and I have to pee. Nothin else to do on an empty tank of gas and no bathrooms in site but to pee outside :) I get out of the car and pee next to the car. After relieving my bladder I felt much better! I wondered it the place had cameras set up somewhere though. I couldn't help but laugh when picturing watching a security camera and seeing a little white butt on video. Haha...luckily the camera was on the other side of the car so I was safe. Whew! They finally come to open up the store even though they're about five minutes late. We wait a little longer and a lady finally comes out and says: "you do know that there is a power outage from here till blah blah" (whatever she said I wasn't listening at that point) Connor and I couldn't believe our luck! Like really? Haha what a random series of events. It wasn't but 45 minutes later though, thank goodness, that we got to fill up our car. When they said there was power I said; "get outta town! yay! that's what we're gonna do!" This funny old man says..."aww..don't be like that." Haha I didn't hear him, but that's what Connor said he muttered.
We were on our way to the Catlins!! Yeah baby, yeah! :) Cathedral Caves was closed so we drove to Puranaki Falls next and then out to Nugget Point where we saw a lighthouse, penguins and seals. The next stop was going to be Dunnedin. We drove there and stayed another night for free. We stayed with Liz, Jenny's friend. Jenny is Connor's friend and Connor is my friend so we're all friends somehow. I don't know why I thought that was funny, but anyways Liz was studying for finals so Connor and I went out to eat and I FINALLY got to buy him his birthday dinner. TWO months later. The place we ate at was the same one that Mallory, Robbie, Gray, and I went before.
Saturday June 12th
Woke up and headed out. We said goodbye to Liz and thanked her for letting us stay there. We had brekkie at the Donalds. Drove to Tunnel Beach. Apparently this guy dug out the side of the mountain for his family to have a private beach. They had there very own entrance to this beautiful getaway. I couldn't believe the view. Connor and I walked down there and went through this tunnel only to see the whitest sand, the prettiest water, huge rocks, and an enclosed area on three sides to the ocean. What we were seeing was unreal. Taking pictures of such places is so difficult. It's hard to capture on film. This place was breathetaking. We attempted to take a picture so it looked like we were surrounded by water on this rock, but we got all soaked! A wave came by and got our pants wet. Oh well. As we headed back we went out onto this rock that honestly looked like pride rock from The Lion King. We took pictures of each other holding up a sweatshirt and from a distance it was intended to look like Simba.
After that little adventure we drove to Lake Tekapo. Brrr!!! The lake was the bluest I have ever seen in my life. The mountains were covered in snow and were on either side of the lake. THere was a cute little brick church right next to the lake and a wedding was in session. It was a very cold day, but it would be a wonderful location for a small wedding. After freezing our tooshes off to get some good pictures of Lake Tekapo we drove to Methven. Prayer by Madonna was a reocurring song of the trip in the car. Haha. We got to Methven and stayed in a nice hostel. Breakfast was included and it was only 25 dollars! Sisco, a guy who works there let Connor and I borrow his laptop since the computer wasn't working in the hostel. It was very nice to be able to check email and see what the rest of the world was up to. We ate at this place called Blue Pub, reccommended by the man who owned the hostel. There was either Brown Pub or Blue Pub and he said Blue was best. I wanted to ask if the Purple Pub was any good... :) Anyways so we went there and I had the best chicken burger of my life and decided I should have dessert so I got Apple Rhubarb Crumble! De-licious!
Sunday June 13th
Today we went to Mt. Hut!!! Guess what we did. We went skiing! I had never gone before and I am in love with it. To be honest I would love if it was winter back home because I want to do it again. The climb to the top of the mountain was insane. It was completely white. We hired the chains for our tires luckily, because without that we would have been screwed. The drive was about 30 minutes to the top and Connor was driving. (he's afraid of heights!) Don't know how that worked out, but I'm glad he drove. I'm not a fan of winter driving to be honest. We finally made it to the top and took a before shot. Connor and I got all our gear on and we were ready to ski! We took a break and ate at the restaurant at the lodge then we took action shots. We went on the bunny hill about 3 times and then the blue hill 6 times. I think we had a good run. I fell about 3 times. I didn't think that was so bad...I was just getting braver and braver so I was trying things that were going to lead to disaster such as following a snowboarding and seeing him fall cause there was an ice patch and realizing I was in for the same outcome. He moves out of the way quickly as I'm sliding down this hill unable to stop. I felt so bad, but it was fine and we both laughed about it. I didn't want to be done skiing when it was time to go. Connor was like this one is our last and I was like...one more? Haha. I just got the hang of it and started to be faster and go down the whole slope without stopping and we have to leave? Oh well...we did it! One of my favorite days I think :)
night we drove to Christchurch. I could not believe how fast that trip went! It seemed like we had just left!! We stayed at a YHA Base and ate and Elements. (a restaurant next door). I thought about calling up Janet Slack and seeing if we could spend the night there. Remember Janet? The nice little lady that found homeless Robbie, Mallory, and I on the road and gladly invited us into her home? Haha that didn't happen, but Mallory and I want to write her a letter! Connor and I were really hyper before we went to sleep and we were just being weirdos and laughing nonstop. The Brazilian guys that also stayed there I guess said they wanted whatever I had cause I was laughing so much. Connor told me this the next day. I didn't get it. He said that they meant they thought we were high! What?! Haha. I guess they don't know us.
Monday June 14th
Ate breakfast at the cafe attached to the church in the city centre. We filled up the car and drove to the airport cause we couldn't think of anything else to do. The airport...where I'm sitting now. BORED! We have three more hours to go.
The Airport-Gate 3.
Connor and I have been at the airport since about 10am or so. We have been sitting at the airport, bored out of our mind! I can't wait to get home and sleep in my own bed. It's weird how fast our trip went by. I'm so glad I decided to go though. I saw/experienced entirely different things than my first trip to the south island. I have discovered that I've been to Christchurch a togal of 4 times. I'm excited to be back at the apartment, but sad that our trip has come to an end. I'm worn out, but it means the days here are dropping. I wanted time to fly by, however, because unlike my friends at Uni I don't have exams. Really nice, but I LOVED school so I already miss it. I wasn't going to do much until Fiji on the 25th so I'm glad Connor invited me with him. Thanks Con! I hope I didn't drive you too crazy! ;)
15 days/16 back home. The countdown is almost to just two weeks till I'm back in Minnesota. SO WEIRD! I'm really excited though. I miss everyone at home very much. Connor asked me what the ONE thing I wished I could have done in New Zealand was. I couldn't really think of anything. I didn't come here with major expectations. I just needed that time to myself and to focus on school and me. Everything I have done/experienced has been a HUGE bonus. However, if I had to say one thing I know what that is. I would like to have had someone from back home, anyone, come visit. It's so important for me that someone else back home can relate in some way. So yeah...it's not really what I would have done, but that I would have love a visitor!
I just got up and looked behind me. Amanda, Kathleen, Debbie, Mike, and Amanda were sitting right behind me! How funny! The flight got delayed twice. So we left a little after four instead of GETTING there at four. Bah humbug. Oh well. We finally made it home. I got to catch up with Robbie and Mallory which was wonderful. We sat in Mal's room and watch silly youtube videos. Good times.
That's all my little hand can write for now.
PEACE.
Note: If you don't read the whole thing at least read June 10th and 11th!
Monday, June 7th
Connor and I landed in Christchurch. We got a shuttle to Juicy Rentals to pick up our car. We named it "Elizabeth" (after the Queen.) Today was the Queen's birthday and we were so excited that because of the holiday there was free parking that we named our car after her royal highness :) Although I'd already been to the church we went there again. We went up to the top of the tower for a view of the city. Good stuff, kinda windy, but very beautiful city. When we got down we walked around for awhile trying to figure out what to do next. We get a wiff of something tastey...COOKIES!!! But where was it coming from? We had no idea. As Connor and I try to follow our nose we come accross Miss Higgins Cookies. JACKPOT! Two chocolate chip cookies pleeeease!! Nuuuum. After prancing around the city, and shoving our cookies in our face we take off in Elizabeth and head to Kaikoura. The next day was whale watching...we were so excited!! With the tunes going in and out we Connor and I haaaad to talk to each other...meh. Haha we had great talks along the way...some making sense and others...not so much! Love it.
The first backpackers place we found turned out to be a perfect fit. It was 22NZ$ which is 15 american. The place was called Adelphi Loddge. We ate next door which was really good. Had fush 'un chups!! (fish and french fries). There were two german girls that stayed in our room, apparently they were going whale watching as well. Connor and I watched Indianna Jones and the Last Crusade in the lounge. It was a VHS and the audio went in and out haha. It was all good though...we had JUST been talking about how I hadn't seen that movie! They also had shelves FULL of other VHS movies. They looked like they had all been taped by someone...not the originals. Haha...don't know if that's legal. Gotta love backpackers places!!!
Tuesday, June 8th
Connor and I wake up and go out for brekkie (what they call breakfast here) at a little diner. We go check out town a bit and some guy asked us what are plans were for the day. We tell him about whale watching and he was concerned about the weather. It was beautiful out...we didn't think there would be a problem. I guess the tides were bad or something so we decide to go to the whale watching center and ask about it. Sure enough...it was cancelled. We were incredibly bummed out, but at least we got all our money back. We just had a little more free time on our hands at the point.
We started our drive to Punakaiki. This took about five hours. Wonderful drive. Absolutely gorgeous. We saw the pancake rocks and blowholes. So awesome!! (Pictures soon to follow.) We stayed in Greymouth at this place called Neptune and brought Mcdonald's back for supper. We made friends with some Australians there and watche Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Wednesday, June 9th
Shanty Town! Haha since we had basically a free day on out hands Connor and I asked the people at reception what they reccommended for a day in Greymouth. We wanted to go to this miniature town, but apparently it would have been a dissapointment. Even though it's the guy's friend who owns it he told us to go somewhere else, but not to say anything. He said Shanty Town was awesome and also Wood's Creek. We take his word and go to Shanty Town. It was an old mining town. Connor and I got an old time photo taken and even panned for gold. (There just little flakes, but it was great! Must have been such a tedious task!) We also put pennys down so when the train went over them we would have a couple of flat coins! And it worked! After all that we head towards Wood's Creek. This was way more amazing than I even thought it would be! There were caves that we walked through...mine tunnels, and we saw glow worms!! The walk was like a mystical fairyland. One of the best walks I've been on by far. That night we drove to Fox Glacier and stayed at another hostel. We had dinner at Vivace cafe, then went to bed EARLY!
Thursday, June 10th
Before our Glacier Hike we drove to Lake Matheson and went on another awesome walk. We ate at their cafe and ate the BEST wedges of our life! We saw a rainbow on our way to the Glacier, and then did our Glacier hike which was...meh...it was alright. Just kidding! It was sooo cool! We hiked a glacier! Ahhh! After all our fun on the glacier and drinking glacier water and spring water along our hike we started driving to our next location. We wanted to end up in Cromwell (not the one in between Moorhead and Duluth!). It was pouring rain and we were runnin on about a half tank of gas. Instead of stopping...like we maaaybe shoulda we kept on truckin along. The next gas station we came to was in Makaurora or something. We were right on E at that time. Thank goodness, we're thinkin. Barely made it. Ummm...nope. What? The gas station is CLOSED! What the? It's 8:00pm! What gas station closes that early? Yeah...they closed at 5pm apparently. That's what you get for waiting until dinky town I guess. So we were stuck for the night. All the places were also closed for accomadations as well so what do we do? Oh, ya know...sleep in the car! Free night of stay I guess. We found out later too that we missed one of the most scenic drives too! Haha...go figure!
Friday, June 11th
Connor and I woke up and drove to the gas station and situated ourselves right by the pump. We were ready to fill up about an hour and a half before the place opened which was 8am. So we're waiting there...it's still pitch dark out and I have to pee. Nothin else to do on an empty tank of gas and no bathrooms in site but to pee outside :) I get out of the car and pee next to the car. After relieving my bladder I felt much better! I wondered it the place had cameras set up somewhere though. I couldn't help but laugh when picturing watching a security camera and seeing a little white butt on video. Haha...luckily the camera was on the other side of the car so I was safe. Whew! They finally come to open up the store even though they're about five minutes late. We wait a little longer and a lady finally comes out and says: "you do know that there is a power outage from here till blah blah" (whatever she said I wasn't listening at that point) Connor and I couldn't believe our luck! Like really? Haha what a random series of events. It wasn't but 45 minutes later though, thank goodness, that we got to fill up our car. When they said there was power I said; "get outta town! yay! that's what we're gonna do!" This funny old man says..."aww..don't be like that." Haha I didn't hear him, but that's what Connor said he muttered.
We were on our way to the Catlins!! Yeah baby, yeah! :) Cathedral Caves was closed so we drove to Puranaki Falls next and then out to Nugget Point where we saw a lighthouse, penguins and seals. The next stop was going to be Dunnedin. We drove there and stayed another night for free. We stayed with Liz, Jenny's friend. Jenny is Connor's friend and Connor is my friend so we're all friends somehow. I don't know why I thought that was funny, but anyways Liz was studying for finals so Connor and I went out to eat and I FINALLY got to buy him his birthday dinner. TWO months later. The place we ate at was the same one that Mallory, Robbie, Gray, and I went before.
Saturday June 12th
Woke up and headed out. We said goodbye to Liz and thanked her for letting us stay there. We had brekkie at the Donalds. Drove to Tunnel Beach. Apparently this guy dug out the side of the mountain for his family to have a private beach. They had there very own entrance to this beautiful getaway. I couldn't believe the view. Connor and I walked down there and went through this tunnel only to see the whitest sand, the prettiest water, huge rocks, and an enclosed area on three sides to the ocean. What we were seeing was unreal. Taking pictures of such places is so difficult. It's hard to capture on film. This place was breathetaking. We attempted to take a picture so it looked like we were surrounded by water on this rock, but we got all soaked! A wave came by and got our pants wet. Oh well. As we headed back we went out onto this rock that honestly looked like pride rock from The Lion King. We took pictures of each other holding up a sweatshirt and from a distance it was intended to look like Simba.
After that little adventure we drove to Lake Tekapo. Brrr!!! The lake was the bluest I have ever seen in my life. The mountains were covered in snow and were on either side of the lake. THere was a cute little brick church right next to the lake and a wedding was in session. It was a very cold day, but it would be a wonderful location for a small wedding. After freezing our tooshes off to get some good pictures of Lake Tekapo we drove to Methven. Prayer by Madonna was a reocurring song of the trip in the car. Haha. We got to Methven and stayed in a nice hostel. Breakfast was included and it was only 25 dollars! Sisco, a guy who works there let Connor and I borrow his laptop since the computer wasn't working in the hostel. It was very nice to be able to check email and see what the rest of the world was up to. We ate at this place called Blue Pub, reccommended by the man who owned the hostel. There was either Brown Pub or Blue Pub and he said Blue was best. I wanted to ask if the Purple Pub was any good... :) Anyways so we went there and I had the best chicken burger of my life and decided I should have dessert so I got Apple Rhubarb Crumble! De-licious!
Sunday June 13th
Today we went to Mt. Hut!!! Guess what we did. We went skiing! I had never gone before and I am in love with it. To be honest I would love if it was winter back home because I want to do it again. The climb to the top of the mountain was insane. It was completely white. We hired the chains for our tires luckily, because without that we would have been screwed. The drive was about 30 minutes to the top and Connor was driving. (he's afraid of heights!) Don't know how that worked out, but I'm glad he drove. I'm not a fan of winter driving to be honest. We finally made it to the top and took a before shot. Connor and I got all our gear on and we were ready to ski! We took a break and ate at the restaurant at the lodge then we took action shots. We went on the bunny hill about 3 times and then the blue hill 6 times. I think we had a good run. I fell about 3 times. I didn't think that was so bad...I was just getting braver and braver so I was trying things that were going to lead to disaster such as following a snowboarding and seeing him fall cause there was an ice patch and realizing I was in for the same outcome. He moves out of the way quickly as I'm sliding down this hill unable to stop. I felt so bad, but it was fine and we both laughed about it. I didn't want to be done skiing when it was time to go. Connor was like this one is our last and I was like...one more? Haha. I just got the hang of it and started to be faster and go down the whole slope without stopping and we have to leave? Oh well...we did it! One of my favorite days I think :)
night we drove to Christchurch. I could not believe how fast that trip went! It seemed like we had just left!! We stayed at a YHA Base and ate and Elements. (a restaurant next door). I thought about calling up Janet Slack and seeing if we could spend the night there. Remember Janet? The nice little lady that found homeless Robbie, Mallory, and I on the road and gladly invited us into her home? Haha that didn't happen, but Mallory and I want to write her a letter! Connor and I were really hyper before we went to sleep and we were just being weirdos and laughing nonstop. The Brazilian guys that also stayed there I guess said they wanted whatever I had cause I was laughing so much. Connor told me this the next day. I didn't get it. He said that they meant they thought we were high! What?! Haha. I guess they don't know us.
Monday June 14th
Ate breakfast at the cafe attached to the church in the city centre. We filled up the car and drove to the airport cause we couldn't think of anything else to do. The airport...where I'm sitting now. BORED! We have three more hours to go.
The Airport-Gate 3.
Connor and I have been at the airport since about 10am or so. We have been sitting at the airport, bored out of our mind! I can't wait to get home and sleep in my own bed. It's weird how fast our trip went by. I'm so glad I decided to go though. I saw/experienced entirely different things than my first trip to the south island. I have discovered that I've been to Christchurch a togal of 4 times. I'm excited to be back at the apartment, but sad that our trip has come to an end. I'm worn out, but it means the days here are dropping. I wanted time to fly by, however, because unlike my friends at Uni I don't have exams. Really nice, but I LOVED school so I already miss it. I wasn't going to do much until Fiji on the 25th so I'm glad Connor invited me with him. Thanks Con! I hope I didn't drive you too crazy! ;)
15 days/16 back home. The countdown is almost to just two weeks till I'm back in Minnesota. SO WEIRD! I'm really excited though. I miss everyone at home very much. Connor asked me what the ONE thing I wished I could have done in New Zealand was. I couldn't really think of anything. I didn't come here with major expectations. I just needed that time to myself and to focus on school and me. Everything I have done/experienced has been a HUGE bonus. However, if I had to say one thing I know what that is. I would like to have had someone from back home, anyone, come visit. It's so important for me that someone else back home can relate in some way. So yeah...it's not really what I would have done, but that I would have love a visitor!
I just got up and looked behind me. Amanda, Kathleen, Debbie, Mike, and Amanda were sitting right behind me! How funny! The flight got delayed twice. So we left a little after four instead of GETTING there at four. Bah humbug. Oh well. We finally made it home. I got to catch up with Robbie and Mallory which was wonderful. We sat in Mal's room and watch silly youtube videos. Good times.
That's all my little hand can write for now.
PEACE.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
It's here I see the truth.
I don't know where to begin so I'm just going to start writing. This post is dedicated to the month of May. Where did May go? I can't find it! It's June 3rd today and somehow I let it go by. Maybe it was all my coursework, maybe I was in a fibrofog. All I know is that I have 22 days left in New Zealand, 5 in Fiji, and then I must face the unknown. I don't know what will happen when I get home, how I'll feel, if anything will change. I know I've changed and I know what I want. Today I felt the stress of coming back home though. I want to see my friends and family more than anything, but I don't want things to go back to how they were. I can't lose site of what I know now. There's something about the United States that makes me stressed. Maybe I'm just overexaggerating, but why don't I feel it as much here? I don't worry about what people think, I'm focused on me. People here are relaxed and not overly busy. They focus on one thing at a time and maintain a relatively stable lifestyle...at least the parts I've seen and experienced. The "homour" here keeps life exciting.
Dance Camp
May 7th-9th
Cooper's Beach: up north about five hours.
For Community Dance, my class, we had a "field" trip up north.
My jounal: All my thoughts and the heart talks...
May 7th, 2010
We arrived at Cooper's Beach Christian Camp at 7pm on Friday May 7th. It was already dark so I haven't seen much of the scenery but the sounds of the ocean are very peaceful. We met Josie who lives nearvy. She is the leader of the dance camp for the weekend. She runs her own studio and was a student in Ralph's class years ago. While Ralph was cooking in the kitchen Josie took us for a walk on the beach. We stood in a circle and wrote our names in the sand. We all had to go around and dance out the letters that spell our names. We then just stood there and listened to the ocean and closed our eyes. We were instructed to listen and move any way we want, whatever we felt. Then we did a sort of follow the leader and danced on the beach in an Indian run. We came up with our own movements and the person behind would follow and copy. When we came back, Ralph had made us tortellini spinach, salad, break, cheese and crackers, apple crumble for dessert (with homemeade whip cream) So good! I didn't know was so swift in the kitchen! :) Annie, a girl in my class, is a massage therapist and she gave me a killer massage. I needed it! I'm excited for tomorrow. I miss Andrew (I hope you're reading this).
May 8th, 2010
I'm looking at a tree where half of the leaves are dead and half are still green. I'm not sure if the tree is dying or if it's just because here in New Zealand the season is changing to fall. (hey, I'm just writing what I wrote. It's kind of silly...don't laugh! haha ok...even I did when I read this.) Thinking about the mix of leaves got me thinking about life. (deep, I know...) Does one have to accept death in order to appreciate and experience the joy of life?
This morning was fun with all the activities. I wasn't really awake until awhile ago. (I was, but really wasn't, know what I mean?) It was relaxing to walk by the beach and listen to the sounds in complete silence. If I wasn't with the class and I was walking alone I think I would have responded more to what I saw and heard. I'm more into doing those activities without people around to keep me company. We got to see Josie's home/dance studio. It was a very old and eclectic. The studio was in a barn which made it super ruggid and rustic. I liked it. I'm enjoying the company, but I wish my friends and family could be here. I miss them, especially because the boys would LOVE all the forrests I've been through, volcanos and mountains I've climbed.
What I like about my classes is the fact that everybody understands it. I've never felt so much in the right place.
May 9th, 2010
Last day at Dance Camp
*The movements we make don't have to be technical, and it can still be powerful (Mishlea)
*The environment changed us (Andrew) ....not my Andrew ;)
*When you're put in a situation our of the ordinary it was easier to be on the same page with everyone and to be more creative. (Andrew)
*Within us/our class we created a community together. (Jazz)
*We can't influence the environment. (Laura)
*We can effect the feeling and energy while we're there, but once we're gone it's as if we were never there.
*Movement becomes organic. This experience gave us an opportunity to live, breathe, eat together for a short time...which created a closer community bond. (Annie)
*The environment effects us if we're open to it. (Anne)
*Elements of nature can move you (unknown)
*Freedom of the environment, uncontrolled, no lights, streets. It gave us the freedom to work. (Claire)
*We used the sounds, tastes, and sights to move us. (unknown)
*Much more pure to use all my senses to dance (Kate)
*The forrest was like a prop. (Emma)
*The environment can effect dance: mushroom example. Apparently mushrooms cannot be studied underground because all of these connections they have, they're there, but you can't see them.
*The environment opened my mind to the possibilities where dance can go. (Haylee)
I had no expectations for this weekend. I think that's what allowed me to be more open.
HIDE AND SEEK FOG
"The colors of this book remind me of you." (Lauren, 2010)...why I felt the need to site that, idk. Maybe it's due to all the research papers I've been doing ;)
Lauren, I feel like myself again. Tonight on itunes I downloaded probably more oboe music than my broke-self can afford, but I'm happy. It's me. Why do we sometimes compare ourselves? Why does it take us so long to believe that WE are worth it? I'm talented. Right now, that talent = wasted. I can't wait to start playing again. I need your help though. It's nevessary to have a routine. There is SO much time that I don't use. Really, time flies, but I have to stop this lazy attitude. Lauren, thank you so much for this book. I love IT and YOU very much :)
---listening to Concerto in D minor for oboe right meow!
No finals.
I'm one lucky gal when it comes to finals this semester. I have...yep...NONE! Zero, zippo, ZILCH! How the heck did I get away with that? ;)
By the way, I found MAY! I was doing research, writing essays, making videos, creating a business plan, writing a grant application, and doing seminars! May=SCHOOLWORK!
Who ever said I didn't do anything while I was here...that I was on a five month vacation. (ahem...Andrew!) lol. I did come here for school. I can honestly say it has fostered my creativity and I have never been this excited to wake up and go to class everyday. I LOVE it. Bungee jumping, skydiving, mountain climbing etc....that was all just a bonus ;)
It fees good to be done. However, I enjoyed not all, but most, of my projects I did. I was proud of the final results and excited to hand them in.
*Ava turns seven in a few days. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
*I leave for the South Island on Monday. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
*I go to Fiji on June 25th. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
Ok. So the rest of May? I know...I said I found it, but I lost it again. What else did I do. Oh, I went to Avenue Q with Connor and Mallory. Funny stuff. Look it up! The next day we went to Corimandal. Absolutely beautiful. We rented a car. And as in we I mean Mallory, Alex, Kevin, and I. We stayed at a backpackers place.
THIS WEEK.
I can't believe I made it. I thought it was going to take ages to write this. Ok...I may have left out a few details...more like a lot, but I don't know if my fingers can handle much more intensive writing ;)
As of Tuesday, yeah...doesn't May was no longer around. June, the FINAL month was really here. "All I know is that I have 22 days left in New Zealand, 5 in Fiji, and then I must face the unknown."
This week=last week of classes. All I've done is listen to seminars, watch performances, and fill out evaluations. Oh, I did go to Sex and the City 2 last night. I had a cosmopolitan while watching it. (not that tastey, but it was fun cause they drank those! what? I can be girly if I want to be!) The movie was worth seeing, but not as good as the first. I definitely ripped into certain parts and criticized it, but I won't say anything cause I'm not sure if my sista has seen it yet ;)
Tomorrow is this showcase thingy. I know...thingy shouldn't be in ANYONE'S vocab, but whatever. I don't know what the garsh darn "thingy" is called! Anyways...there will be a showing of all the "works in progress" and projects etc. from this semester. We will be showing our videos from Mark's class (Dance and Technology) and then I will be filling in for someone and being Alysia's partnet. I have NO idea what I'm in for yet :o) It should be a good time. Did I mention FREE pizza? Yeah...like I said....should be a good time!
Haylee-bop
Dance Camp
May 7th-9th
Cooper's Beach: up north about five hours.
For Community Dance, my class, we had a "field" trip up north.
My jounal: All my thoughts and the heart talks...
May 7th, 2010
We arrived at Cooper's Beach Christian Camp at 7pm on Friday May 7th. It was already dark so I haven't seen much of the scenery but the sounds of the ocean are very peaceful. We met Josie who lives nearvy. She is the leader of the dance camp for the weekend. She runs her own studio and was a student in Ralph's class years ago. While Ralph was cooking in the kitchen Josie took us for a walk on the beach. We stood in a circle and wrote our names in the sand. We all had to go around and dance out the letters that spell our names. We then just stood there and listened to the ocean and closed our eyes. We were instructed to listen and move any way we want, whatever we felt. Then we did a sort of follow the leader and danced on the beach in an Indian run. We came up with our own movements and the person behind would follow and copy. When we came back, Ralph had made us tortellini spinach, salad, break, cheese and crackers, apple crumble for dessert (with homemeade whip cream) So good! I didn't know was so swift in the kitchen! :) Annie, a girl in my class, is a massage therapist and she gave me a killer massage. I needed it! I'm excited for tomorrow. I miss Andrew (I hope you're reading this).
May 8th, 2010
I'm looking at a tree where half of the leaves are dead and half are still green. I'm not sure if the tree is dying or if it's just because here in New Zealand the season is changing to fall. (hey, I'm just writing what I wrote. It's kind of silly...don't laugh! haha ok...even I did when I read this.) Thinking about the mix of leaves got me thinking about life. (deep, I know...) Does one have to accept death in order to appreciate and experience the joy of life?
This morning was fun with all the activities. I wasn't really awake until awhile ago. (I was, but really wasn't, know what I mean?) It was relaxing to walk by the beach and listen to the sounds in complete silence. If I wasn't with the class and I was walking alone I think I would have responded more to what I saw and heard. I'm more into doing those activities without people around to keep me company. We got to see Josie's home/dance studio. It was a very old and eclectic. The studio was in a barn which made it super ruggid and rustic. I liked it. I'm enjoying the company, but I wish my friends and family could be here. I miss them, especially because the boys would LOVE all the forrests I've been through, volcanos and mountains I've climbed.
What I like about my classes is the fact that everybody understands it. I've never felt so much in the right place.
May 9th, 2010
Last day at Dance Camp
*The movements we make don't have to be technical, and it can still be powerful (Mishlea)
*The environment changed us (Andrew) ....not my Andrew ;)
*When you're put in a situation our of the ordinary it was easier to be on the same page with everyone and to be more creative. (Andrew)
*Within us/our class we created a community together. (Jazz)
*We can't influence the environment. (Laura)
*We can effect the feeling and energy while we're there, but once we're gone it's as if we were never there.
*Movement becomes organic. This experience gave us an opportunity to live, breathe, eat together for a short time...which created a closer community bond. (Annie)
*The environment effects us if we're open to it. (Anne)
*Elements of nature can move you (unknown)
*Freedom of the environment, uncontrolled, no lights, streets. It gave us the freedom to work. (Claire)
*We used the sounds, tastes, and sights to move us. (unknown)
*Much more pure to use all my senses to dance (Kate)
*The forrest was like a prop. (Emma)
*The environment can effect dance: mushroom example. Apparently mushrooms cannot be studied underground because all of these connections they have, they're there, but you can't see them.
*The environment opened my mind to the possibilities where dance can go. (Haylee)
I had no expectations for this weekend. I think that's what allowed me to be more open.
HIDE AND SEEK FOG
"The colors of this book remind me of you." (Lauren, 2010)...why I felt the need to site that, idk. Maybe it's due to all the research papers I've been doing ;)
Lauren, I feel like myself again. Tonight on itunes I downloaded probably more oboe music than my broke-self can afford, but I'm happy. It's me. Why do we sometimes compare ourselves? Why does it take us so long to believe that WE are worth it? I'm talented. Right now, that talent = wasted. I can't wait to start playing again. I need your help though. It's nevessary to have a routine. There is SO much time that I don't use. Really, time flies, but I have to stop this lazy attitude. Lauren, thank you so much for this book. I love IT and YOU very much :)
---listening to Concerto in D minor for oboe right meow!
No finals.
I'm one lucky gal when it comes to finals this semester. I have...yep...NONE! Zero, zippo, ZILCH! How the heck did I get away with that? ;)
By the way, I found MAY! I was doing research, writing essays, making videos, creating a business plan, writing a grant application, and doing seminars! May=SCHOOLWORK!
Who ever said I didn't do anything while I was here...that I was on a five month vacation. (ahem...Andrew!) lol. I did come here for school. I can honestly say it has fostered my creativity and I have never been this excited to wake up and go to class everyday. I LOVE it. Bungee jumping, skydiving, mountain climbing etc....that was all just a bonus ;)
It fees good to be done. However, I enjoyed not all, but most, of my projects I did. I was proud of the final results and excited to hand them in.
*Ava turns seven in a few days. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
*I leave for the South Island on Monday. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
*I go to Fiji on June 25th. HOLY SHMOLEY!!
Ok. So the rest of May? I know...I said I found it, but I lost it again. What else did I do. Oh, I went to Avenue Q with Connor and Mallory. Funny stuff. Look it up! The next day we went to Corimandal. Absolutely beautiful. We rented a car. And as in we I mean Mallory, Alex, Kevin, and I. We stayed at a backpackers place.
THIS WEEK.
I can't believe I made it. I thought it was going to take ages to write this. Ok...I may have left out a few details...more like a lot, but I don't know if my fingers can handle much more intensive writing ;)
As of Tuesday, yeah...doesn't May was no longer around. June, the FINAL month was really here. "All I know is that I have 22 days left in New Zealand, 5 in Fiji, and then I must face the unknown."
This week=last week of classes. All I've done is listen to seminars, watch performances, and fill out evaluations. Oh, I did go to Sex and the City 2 last night. I had a cosmopolitan while watching it. (not that tastey, but it was fun cause they drank those! what? I can be girly if I want to be!) The movie was worth seeing, but not as good as the first. I definitely ripped into certain parts and criticized it, but I won't say anything cause I'm not sure if my sista has seen it yet ;)
Tomorrow is this showcase thingy. I know...thingy shouldn't be in ANYONE'S vocab, but whatever. I don't know what the garsh darn "thingy" is called! Anyways...there will be a showing of all the "works in progress" and projects etc. from this semester. We will be showing our videos from Mark's class (Dance and Technology) and then I will be filling in for someone and being Alysia's partnet. I have NO idea what I'm in for yet :o) It should be a good time. Did I mention FREE pizza? Yeah...like I said....should be a good time!
Haylee-bop
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The past couple of weeks...
Running in the dark.
Robbie and I decide one night to go running. I was waiting until he was done skyping and losing my drive. It was 10:40 or so at night. When he finally comes to my room I think that I'm not feeling it anymore, but he drags me with him. We decide to run to Mission Bay. That's like 8 miles!! Well...we did it. We ran in the dark, I peed by the ocean halfway through, but our legs reluctantly did not fail us. I started to feel kind of sick so it took me awhile to fall asleep. I was surprisingly not that sore the next day though!
Geocaching.
Have you ever done this? It's SO much fun! It's all over the world too. What you do is search for little tins that are hidden in random places. You can find clues on the internet and coordinates as to where these geocahes are. Robbie pulls out his iphone and shows us where 5 geocaches are near campus. We found 2 out of 5 of them! What was in them was like miniature erasers, a little log, and a tiny pen. We wrote our name in the log. Some people come up with team names even for these. That night it was sprinkling so we did a rain dance-it worked! It started down pouring which made the night even more fun!
Sleepovers.
Mallory, Robbie, and I had been wanting to have a sleepover at our apartments. Well...this was the night I guess. We decided that we were going to take our mattresses from our rooms and bring them into Mallory's living room and watch Jurassic Park! SO GREAT :) The next morning we all slept in until noon and got up and had breakfast in bed.
The week.
This week I realized how much homework this month was going to have in store for me. I have two seminars, a manual to make, a digital installation performance, a paper, and a grant application for my class.
Movies, music, and more.
So I went over to my friend Matt's the other night and he gave me some of his itunes. I lost ALL my music when I brought my computer in to get fixed cause at the same time after four years my ipod decides to go kaput. He also gave me some movies and photoshop! I've been watching movies/shows nonstop I feel. I'm on episode 7 of Grey's Anatomy now and I watched Alice in Wonderland (the new one!) the other night :)
Today.
I'm all packed and ready to go! We're heading to Cooper's Beach today at 2:00pm with my Community Dance class. I'm super stoked!! It's about a 5 hour drive and we'll be staying at a Christian camp. Tomorrow we will be hiking and going through a river. I have no idea really what's in store for us, but I hear that everyone who goes just has a blast. That's what I'm waiting for right now in the Creative Arts lab on the 5th floor by the Dance Studies office.
Robbie and I decide one night to go running. I was waiting until he was done skyping and losing my drive. It was 10:40 or so at night. When he finally comes to my room I think that I'm not feeling it anymore, but he drags me with him. We decide to run to Mission Bay. That's like 8 miles!! Well...we did it. We ran in the dark, I peed by the ocean halfway through, but our legs reluctantly did not fail us. I started to feel kind of sick so it took me awhile to fall asleep. I was surprisingly not that sore the next day though!
Geocaching.
Have you ever done this? It's SO much fun! It's all over the world too. What you do is search for little tins that are hidden in random places. You can find clues on the internet and coordinates as to where these geocahes are. Robbie pulls out his iphone and shows us where 5 geocaches are near campus. We found 2 out of 5 of them! What was in them was like miniature erasers, a little log, and a tiny pen. We wrote our name in the log. Some people come up with team names even for these. That night it was sprinkling so we did a rain dance-it worked! It started down pouring which made the night even more fun!
Sleepovers.
Mallory, Robbie, and I had been wanting to have a sleepover at our apartments. Well...this was the night I guess. We decided that we were going to take our mattresses from our rooms and bring them into Mallory's living room and watch Jurassic Park! SO GREAT :) The next morning we all slept in until noon and got up and had breakfast in bed.
The week.
This week I realized how much homework this month was going to have in store for me. I have two seminars, a manual to make, a digital installation performance, a paper, and a grant application for my class.
Movies, music, and more.
So I went over to my friend Matt's the other night and he gave me some of his itunes. I lost ALL my music when I brought my computer in to get fixed cause at the same time after four years my ipod decides to go kaput. He also gave me some movies and photoshop! I've been watching movies/shows nonstop I feel. I'm on episode 7 of Grey's Anatomy now and I watched Alice in Wonderland (the new one!) the other night :)
Today.
I'm all packed and ready to go! We're heading to Cooper's Beach today at 2:00pm with my Community Dance class. I'm super stoked!! It's about a 5 hour drive and we'll be staying at a Christian camp. Tomorrow we will be hiking and going through a river. I have no idea really what's in store for us, but I hear that everyone who goes just has a blast. That's what I'm waiting for right now in the Creative Arts lab on the 5th floor by the Dance Studies office.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Weekend 'o fun.
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Since I turned in my business plan that day and WAIT to have a few minutes to chill. We played games and watched Oh Brother Where Art Thou.
Friday was really fun. I was in Alysia's video with Charlie for Dance and Technology. I'm excited to see it when it's all finished. It's supposed to be a baywatch theme! Lol. We filmed at the beach near her house. Afterwards I was supposed to have class, but I didn't want to go late so we went and had chinese on the beach. What a wonderful idea huh! :)
That night.
Mallory, Robbie, Matt, and I used the University car. Matt drove us up to Mt. Eden cause we wanted to see the city all lit up at night. It was gorgeous! Then he asked if we wanted to go back and play games or head to his favorite ice cream shop by mission bay. We were like...umm...ice cream!!! So we went there. I had vanilla brownie. YUM!!! That night was just all around fun. Really random and relaxed. Matt fell asleep on Robbie's couch. Mallory, Robbie, and I watched Man on the Moon. I didn't finish it. I fell asleep, then went to my room.
Saturday
Robbie and I went to a few thrift stores today to look for apparel for going out on the yacht. Didn't have much luck, but there are TONS of cool shops we stumbled across! So 80's. That night I had Beth, Chris, Mallory, Robbie, Matt, Jenn, and Connor come over to be in my video. That class starts in twenty minutes from now. The project is due on Thursday. I have a lot of editing to do. That night we had a tim tam slam! So good. You bite of the ends of a chocolate tim tam and then use it as a straw in hot chocolate or coffee. The chocolate melts in your mouth and it is oh so tastey!
Sunday
I'm on a boat!! Connor's Grandpa taught in New Zealand for a year back in the day. He told him to connect with this guy he knows and go out on his boat. He said he would be really jealous, but that he wants him to do that. He got to invite 10 friends and I was one of them! Lucky me :) We spent the entire day on a yacht just livin it up. My life is complete.
Since I turned in my business plan that day and WAIT to have a few minutes to chill. We played games and watched Oh Brother Where Art Thou.
Friday was really fun. I was in Alysia's video with Charlie for Dance and Technology. I'm excited to see it when it's all finished. It's supposed to be a baywatch theme! Lol. We filmed at the beach near her house. Afterwards I was supposed to have class, but I didn't want to go late so we went and had chinese on the beach. What a wonderful idea huh! :)
That night.
Mallory, Robbie, Matt, and I used the University car. Matt drove us up to Mt. Eden cause we wanted to see the city all lit up at night. It was gorgeous! Then he asked if we wanted to go back and play games or head to his favorite ice cream shop by mission bay. We were like...umm...ice cream!!! So we went there. I had vanilla brownie. YUM!!! That night was just all around fun. Really random and relaxed. Matt fell asleep on Robbie's couch. Mallory, Robbie, and I watched Man on the Moon. I didn't finish it. I fell asleep, then went to my room.
Saturday
Robbie and I went to a few thrift stores today to look for apparel for going out on the yacht. Didn't have much luck, but there are TONS of cool shops we stumbled across! So 80's. That night I had Beth, Chris, Mallory, Robbie, Matt, Jenn, and Connor come over to be in my video. That class starts in twenty minutes from now. The project is due on Thursday. I have a lot of editing to do. That night we had a tim tam slam! So good. You bite of the ends of a chocolate tim tam and then use it as a straw in hot chocolate or coffee. The chocolate melts in your mouth and it is oh so tastey!
Sunday
I'm on a boat!! Connor's Grandpa taught in New Zealand for a year back in the day. He told him to connect with this guy he knows and go out on his boat. He said he would be really jealous, but that he wants him to do that. He got to invite 10 friends and I was one of them! Lucky me :) We spent the entire day on a yacht just livin it up. My life is complete.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Adventures of Mallory, Robbie, and Haylee!
So it's been awhile since my last entry eh? I'm not going to date this trip, but it will be in order ;) I have been working diligently on a project for my class. My teacher required us to devise a business plan. Mine was going to be a dance studio. We had to be VERY detailed. Know how much venues were that we were pretending to book, where it was located, if we were going to start from scratch or buy, how much we were paying our emloyees, what our projected growth was, etc etc. It ended up being about thirty pages long and I'm quite proud of it. The teacher is a really hard grader so I wouldn't doubt that I didn't do that well on it even though I thought it was great. I don't think he likes me. I came late to his dance class once cause I got lost the first time I went. Dude...just let it go, but nope...mark me unfairly. That makes most sense :) I will stop there, but it's nice that the project is finished. I just got done filming my friend Alysia's video project for dance and technology. It was Charlie and I on the beach and he had to come rescue me from the ocean. Super cheesy, but I loved it. Tomorrow I will be working on mine.
South Island.
Mallory, Robbie, and I had our gigantic backpacks with all our essentials for the next eleven days as we headed to the south island for Easter break. We went on the shortest flight Ithink I've ever been on. It was like an hour long to get to Christchurch from Auckland. We got in around eight or nine at night-had no idea where we were staying. Robbie said there was a campsite just a 30minute walk from the airport so we start truckin along. We start walking next to this road that's like 80K. We think...huh, what's up with that? Robbie looks at his iphone and realizes...oh wait...it's 30minutes on the HIGHWAY! Ahhhahahhaa! We all laughed. What the heck were we to do. This was too great. We contimplated just camping in a turn around area. How funny would that be! We'd probably get kicked out of the country so we decided nay on that idea. We start walking down the road just thinking we'll just find a random spot, pitch our tent, and take off early the next morning. (had to get our rental car at 9am)
Suddenly, this lady in a van pulls over. She asked us if we were a part of YWAM. (Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.)
I told here we weren't, Jed, a friend from back home had just gotten back from New Zealand for being a part of YWAM and had an amazing experience. I just said we knew what it was, but we told her our situation and she said...oh....well you guys can just camp in our backyard! We have about eight other kids staying at our house as a part of this program. We get to her house and she decides it makes more sense for us to stay in the extra living room. We said no, we're fine out here, but she insisted! So generous! We had our own bathroom and everything. Made ourselves right at home. The other kids came and we met them and just hung out. There were some from America, Canada, and Norway and we had tea and hot cross buns!
The next morning she took us to our rental car place and we parted ways. She said if we ever see her son on the side of the road to give him a place to stay. (I realize that sounded like he was lost or something and she hadn't seen him in ages, but that's not the case) She just says she doesn't mind picking up people cause she would want others to do the same if her kids were traveling in a foregin place.
Eloise-the name of our car. Daniel, our navigator, was Robbie's iphone. Mallory and Robbie drove most of the way. Really like the whole trip. I drove for what...45 minutes. I didn't like the other side of the road okay? We drove to Queenstown. Our adventure begins! (Easter Day!)
Drivin along in my automobile....I wish I could tell you all the funny inside jokes we have. Mallory and Robbie MADE this trip. I couldn't have picked two better people here to go on this trip with! It was so much fun. We all have the same sense of humor and we're just open with eachother, always laughing and joking around. LOVE them.
Queenstown-Can I get a b-e-a-utiful! HOLY MACROL! This place was to die for. The scenery was incredible. I will try to post pictures, but even the best pictures don't do the place justice. That night we found a place to camp for the night by the water. Mallory and Robbie were going to go bungee jumping the next day.
We head to the AJ Hacket Bungee place and I'm wishing I had signed up for it. There were these 10 and 11 year olds RAVING about it. I was like...you guys did that?! Ugh. I have to now. It was kind of impulsive, but I decided I was going to do it. Best decision of my life! Well...you know what I mean. It was soooo fun. Better than skydiving in my opinion. I reccommend it to everyone. I know it seems scary, but it's so great. I think I'm a thrill junkie, but whatever. Ha. This was the main reason we came to Queenstown along with the scenery. The town was very pretty. We ended up staying in a hostel that night and met a lady from Holland and one from Sweeden. We had wine and hot cross buns in the kitchen. Robbie made his spam, beans, and rice for dinner. Haha. First time I have had spam :P Robbie woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but he kind of was half asleep. He got up and started petting Mallory on the head, trying to find the way to the bathroom. He opens a door, steps in, and the sweedish lady says: Just be careful, I put something on the floor. He realizes that is not the bathroom ahaha and finally finds the door. He comes back in and Mallory says: "Daaaad, did you touch my head?" (we call Robbie dad haha) He said yeah...he couldn't see in the dark.
The next day Robbie tells us about the sweedish lady and he says it in a russian voice though which made it HILARIOUS! So great. "Jest be cureful...I put somesing on zee flur" Needless to say this phrase was a recurring part of our trip. Still laugh everytime. It's THAT funny.
4 DAY HIKE.
We headed to TeAneu. We were in for a big suprise these next four days. We started the Kepler track hike. The first day we basically just camped at the start. There was a fire pit so we didn't have to use Robbie's little penny stove. It gets cold at night so Mallory and I really had to snuggle to stay warm. We went to bed that night at like 8 or 9. I woke up to go pee in the woods and came back in and Robbie said guess what time it is. We said...ahh it's gotta be like 3 or 4 am. 12:00. It was midnight only!! We couldn't believe it. The next day was going to be the day of hell. We had about 23K ahead of us, and the highest peak of the mountain. We decided we were getting up before the sun. We got up at 5am and left at 6am.
If you have ever been hiking, you understand the psychological effects it has on you. I honestly wanted to keel over at times, but we kept pressing on. It was mostly up hill so my legs were killing and we had our big packs on. Poor Robbie's pack was sooo heavy with the tent and cooking stuff! It's funny though cause I look back on it and forget ALL the bad stuff. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again...not the same mountain though. haha. But there's something about being on the top of the mountain that takes your breathe away. It's amazing. It's like you're on top of the world.
That night.
We were still a ways up the mountain and stopped at the campsite. We made Macoroni and Cheese that night to treat ourseleves :) It's amazing how food and water are looked at differently when hiking. We were out of water at one point and had to fill up at a stream and boil it. You treasure ever little bit you have. We knew it would be cold that night, but we didn't know HOW cold. Mallory and I slapt on like all the clothes we had. I had long johns on, leggins, capris, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, tank top, long sleeve, tshirt, sweatshirt, jacket, gloves, hat, and scarf. Still cold. Mallory and I had to snuggle the WHOLE night. If we moved from each other we would shake. It was intense. Haha. The next morning we didn't want to get out of our tent. It was freezing. We looked out our tent and frost was everywhere! Our shoes were white. Robbie heard someone say it got down to 28 degrees that night. Insane!
When we finally got ourselves going we resumed the journey of the kepler. We were soooo sore and had blisters all over our feet. I rented some hiking boots, but they hurt my feet this day. Felt like they were bruised everywhere and I would walk with a limp. We started playing movie games along the track where we thought of a movie and the others had to guess it. It took the focus off my aching feet. I ended up being a hobbit and walking in my socks. It felt soooo good! They thought I was crazy, but I could keep up way better.
Tented that night. Met some kiwis that lived across the lake. They let us use their bonfire. We made a nice meal with warm pineapples for dessert.
Day 4
We had about 6 or 7 more hours of hiking and we could see the end of the road. We made it! Could not believe it!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! We thought about doing another long hike, but this was long enough. Four days was good. We were dirty and all we wanted was a shower. Mallory calls her dad and he offers us to stay in a bed and breakfast. We take this up and are living in HEAVEN! IT was awesome. Thank's Mallory's Daddy :) We stayed in the cosy kiwi and had an amazing nights sleep. We had breakfast served to us. It was awesome. Loved every minute of it.
Millford Sound
The drive to Millford was unlike any other drive I have been on. There were site seeing stops along the way. Mirror lakes which had the mountains reflecting into the water, glaciers, beautiful mountains, pancake rock formations, and there was this super long tunnel we went through.
Kayaking Millford Sound. This is what I was most nervous for as I can't get my inner ear wet. I went with Robbie cause he has been Kayaking before, but this was something I'm glad I did. It was really fun to see the waterfalls and be right on the water.
That night.
Robbie camped in his tent and Mallory and I stayed and slept in the car. Eloise was quite comfortable! AND WARM! We didn't feel like freezing again. Slept really well. I have never seen the stars as clear as they were that night. Robbie took a picture and it turned out really well with his fancy camera.
Dunnedin
Our last big destination was Dunnedin. We had heard it's known for being like a miniature Scotland. Very old buildings, rolling green hills, etc. It was gorgeous! We kind of just wanted to see the town so we drove around, saw a castle and walked around in it. (of course...that cost money...doesn't everything?) We stayed with Robbie's friend Gray. That night we had fish n' chips and a little shop and then went to a bar before catchin a movie. We went to a New Zealand film called Boy. It was awesome.
The next day I went running through botanic gardens. It was beautiful. We decided to do a tour of a brewry which was really cool and then we went to the Cadbury chocolate factory. Also very cool. That night was "The Pacific." We watched that show and had popcorn :)
We couldn't believe that we were heading back to Christchurch. Our trip was coming to an end. SO SAD! It was amazing. Every second. We stopped in Omaru cause I needed to take a picture of penguins for Andrew. We saw a whole colony of them...they were so cute!!! We continued to Christchurch and spent the day there. We saw the cathedral which was really neat, and explored the town...very pretty. Mallory and Robbie had a different flight than me. They had to leave at 5am and I didn't have to go until 11. I decided not to sleep in the airport like they did and got a hostel. So glad cause the one I found was amazing. Transportation to and from the airport for 60nz dollars: 40american (or so). This place obviously was designed by a women. (take that however you want men) The rooms were gorgeous and everything had its place. There was a pool, sauna, and hot tub. I watched tv on a big screen and ordered pizza before I went hot tubbing and in the sauna. I had it made! Best night sleep cause I had a queen size bed to myself!
That was the jist of our trip. I hope it didn't bore you too much to read it. I could have written sooo much more too! I have to be done though. I'm going insane. TTFN!
XOXO
South Island.
Mallory, Robbie, and I had our gigantic backpacks with all our essentials for the next eleven days as we headed to the south island for Easter break. We went on the shortest flight Ithink I've ever been on. It was like an hour long to get to Christchurch from Auckland. We got in around eight or nine at night-had no idea where we were staying. Robbie said there was a campsite just a 30minute walk from the airport so we start truckin along. We start walking next to this road that's like 80K. We think...huh, what's up with that? Robbie looks at his iphone and realizes...oh wait...it's 30minutes on the HIGHWAY! Ahhhahahhaa! We all laughed. What the heck were we to do. This was too great. We contimplated just camping in a turn around area. How funny would that be! We'd probably get kicked out of the country so we decided nay on that idea. We start walking down the road just thinking we'll just find a random spot, pitch our tent, and take off early the next morning. (had to get our rental car at 9am)
Suddenly, this lady in a van pulls over. She asked us if we were a part of YWAM. (Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.)
I told here we weren't, Jed, a friend from back home had just gotten back from New Zealand for being a part of YWAM and had an amazing experience. I just said we knew what it was, but we told her our situation and she said...oh....well you guys can just camp in our backyard! We have about eight other kids staying at our house as a part of this program. We get to her house and she decides it makes more sense for us to stay in the extra living room. We said no, we're fine out here, but she insisted! So generous! We had our own bathroom and everything. Made ourselves right at home. The other kids came and we met them and just hung out. There were some from America, Canada, and Norway and we had tea and hot cross buns!
The next morning she took us to our rental car place and we parted ways. She said if we ever see her son on the side of the road to give him a place to stay. (I realize that sounded like he was lost or something and she hadn't seen him in ages, but that's not the case) She just says she doesn't mind picking up people cause she would want others to do the same if her kids were traveling in a foregin place.
Eloise-the name of our car. Daniel, our navigator, was Robbie's iphone. Mallory and Robbie drove most of the way. Really like the whole trip. I drove for what...45 minutes. I didn't like the other side of the road okay? We drove to Queenstown. Our adventure begins! (Easter Day!)
Drivin along in my automobile....I wish I could tell you all the funny inside jokes we have. Mallory and Robbie MADE this trip. I couldn't have picked two better people here to go on this trip with! It was so much fun. We all have the same sense of humor and we're just open with eachother, always laughing and joking around. LOVE them.
Queenstown-Can I get a b-e-a-utiful! HOLY MACROL! This place was to die for. The scenery was incredible. I will try to post pictures, but even the best pictures don't do the place justice. That night we found a place to camp for the night by the water. Mallory and Robbie were going to go bungee jumping the next day.
We head to the AJ Hacket Bungee place and I'm wishing I had signed up for it. There were these 10 and 11 year olds RAVING about it. I was like...you guys did that?! Ugh. I have to now. It was kind of impulsive, but I decided I was going to do it. Best decision of my life! Well...you know what I mean. It was soooo fun. Better than skydiving in my opinion. I reccommend it to everyone. I know it seems scary, but it's so great. I think I'm a thrill junkie, but whatever. Ha. This was the main reason we came to Queenstown along with the scenery. The town was very pretty. We ended up staying in a hostel that night and met a lady from Holland and one from Sweeden. We had wine and hot cross buns in the kitchen. Robbie made his spam, beans, and rice for dinner. Haha. First time I have had spam :P Robbie woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but he kind of was half asleep. He got up and started petting Mallory on the head, trying to find the way to the bathroom. He opens a door, steps in, and the sweedish lady says: Just be careful, I put something on the floor. He realizes that is not the bathroom ahaha and finally finds the door. He comes back in and Mallory says: "Daaaad, did you touch my head?" (we call Robbie dad haha) He said yeah...he couldn't see in the dark.
The next day Robbie tells us about the sweedish lady and he says it in a russian voice though which made it HILARIOUS! So great. "Jest be cureful...I put somesing on zee flur" Needless to say this phrase was a recurring part of our trip. Still laugh everytime. It's THAT funny.
4 DAY HIKE.
We headed to TeAneu. We were in for a big suprise these next four days. We started the Kepler track hike. The first day we basically just camped at the start. There was a fire pit so we didn't have to use Robbie's little penny stove. It gets cold at night so Mallory and I really had to snuggle to stay warm. We went to bed that night at like 8 or 9. I woke up to go pee in the woods and came back in and Robbie said guess what time it is. We said...ahh it's gotta be like 3 or 4 am. 12:00. It was midnight only!! We couldn't believe it. The next day was going to be the day of hell. We had about 23K ahead of us, and the highest peak of the mountain. We decided we were getting up before the sun. We got up at 5am and left at 6am.
If you have ever been hiking, you understand the psychological effects it has on you. I honestly wanted to keel over at times, but we kept pressing on. It was mostly up hill so my legs were killing and we had our big packs on. Poor Robbie's pack was sooo heavy with the tent and cooking stuff! It's funny though cause I look back on it and forget ALL the bad stuff. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again...not the same mountain though. haha. But there's something about being on the top of the mountain that takes your breathe away. It's amazing. It's like you're on top of the world.
That night.
We were still a ways up the mountain and stopped at the campsite. We made Macoroni and Cheese that night to treat ourseleves :) It's amazing how food and water are looked at differently when hiking. We were out of water at one point and had to fill up at a stream and boil it. You treasure ever little bit you have. We knew it would be cold that night, but we didn't know HOW cold. Mallory and I slapt on like all the clothes we had. I had long johns on, leggins, capris, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, tank top, long sleeve, tshirt, sweatshirt, jacket, gloves, hat, and scarf. Still cold. Mallory and I had to snuggle the WHOLE night. If we moved from each other we would shake. It was intense. Haha. The next morning we didn't want to get out of our tent. It was freezing. We looked out our tent and frost was everywhere! Our shoes were white. Robbie heard someone say it got down to 28 degrees that night. Insane!
When we finally got ourselves going we resumed the journey of the kepler. We were soooo sore and had blisters all over our feet. I rented some hiking boots, but they hurt my feet this day. Felt like they were bruised everywhere and I would walk with a limp. We started playing movie games along the track where we thought of a movie and the others had to guess it. It took the focus off my aching feet. I ended up being a hobbit and walking in my socks. It felt soooo good! They thought I was crazy, but I could keep up way better.
Tented that night. Met some kiwis that lived across the lake. They let us use their bonfire. We made a nice meal with warm pineapples for dessert.
Day 4
We had about 6 or 7 more hours of hiking and we could see the end of the road. We made it! Could not believe it!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! We thought about doing another long hike, but this was long enough. Four days was good. We were dirty and all we wanted was a shower. Mallory calls her dad and he offers us to stay in a bed and breakfast. We take this up and are living in HEAVEN! IT was awesome. Thank's Mallory's Daddy :) We stayed in the cosy kiwi and had an amazing nights sleep. We had breakfast served to us. It was awesome. Loved every minute of it.
Millford Sound
The drive to Millford was unlike any other drive I have been on. There were site seeing stops along the way. Mirror lakes which had the mountains reflecting into the water, glaciers, beautiful mountains, pancake rock formations, and there was this super long tunnel we went through.
Kayaking Millford Sound. This is what I was most nervous for as I can't get my inner ear wet. I went with Robbie cause he has been Kayaking before, but this was something I'm glad I did. It was really fun to see the waterfalls and be right on the water.
That night.
Robbie camped in his tent and Mallory and I stayed and slept in the car. Eloise was quite comfortable! AND WARM! We didn't feel like freezing again. Slept really well. I have never seen the stars as clear as they were that night. Robbie took a picture and it turned out really well with his fancy camera.
Dunnedin
Our last big destination was Dunnedin. We had heard it's known for being like a miniature Scotland. Very old buildings, rolling green hills, etc. It was gorgeous! We kind of just wanted to see the town so we drove around, saw a castle and walked around in it. (of course...that cost money...doesn't everything?) We stayed with Robbie's friend Gray. That night we had fish n' chips and a little shop and then went to a bar before catchin a movie. We went to a New Zealand film called Boy. It was awesome.
The next day I went running through botanic gardens. It was beautiful. We decided to do a tour of a brewry which was really cool and then we went to the Cadbury chocolate factory. Also very cool. That night was "The Pacific." We watched that show and had popcorn :)
We couldn't believe that we were heading back to Christchurch. Our trip was coming to an end. SO SAD! It was amazing. Every second. We stopped in Omaru cause I needed to take a picture of penguins for Andrew. We saw a whole colony of them...they were so cute!!! We continued to Christchurch and spent the day there. We saw the cathedral which was really neat, and explored the town...very pretty. Mallory and Robbie had a different flight than me. They had to leave at 5am and I didn't have to go until 11. I decided not to sleep in the airport like they did and got a hostel. So glad cause the one I found was amazing. Transportation to and from the airport for 60nz dollars: 40american (or so). This place obviously was designed by a women. (take that however you want men) The rooms were gorgeous and everything had its place. There was a pool, sauna, and hot tub. I watched tv on a big screen and ordered pizza before I went hot tubbing and in the sauna. I had it made! Best night sleep cause I had a queen size bed to myself!
That was the jist of our trip. I hope it didn't bore you too much to read it. I could have written sooo much more too! I have to be done though. I'm going insane. TTFN!
XOXO
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Associate Professor Ralph Buck
In one of the articles in the New Zealand curriculum that I read for an essay in Dance Education mentioned Ralph Buck, my favorite professor here. It immediately caught my eye and I thought that I would just mention what he has done, because it inspires me on so many levels! He is the head of the Dept. of Dance Studies and has worked in the dance education communities in NZ and Austrailia. Ralph has presented his research on teachers' meanings of dance and community dance in New York, Montreal, Melbourne, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
So cool! I just wanted to have that down. He has so many cool experiences but yet has this fun, energetic being to him. He is one of those kinds of teachers that make you think...no THAT is what a teacher is supposed to be like.
Ralph is hilarious. He doesn't give a piss about stuff sometimes, but in a funny way. He uses the word "things" and "stuff" all the time to explain ideas and concepts which actually do the trick! It's funny because we all are understanding what he is getting at. He is very casual about his teaching as well. It may just be due to the fact we are in college and can handle naughty words, but he uses swear words and it cracks me up! It's just a part of his personality so he gets away with it.
It's about 12:40 now and I'm still up. I finished my papers...woohoo!!! I'm not that tired which is why I decided...heeeey I'm gonna blog! :D
Hot lava.
Ok. So in my blog from earlier today I forgot to mention why I titled it hot lava. Yes. Me and my "meanings." I'm such a deep person ;)
When I was younger Jordan and I used to play this game we called "hot lava." We used this red and black plaid blanket (which I don't know where it is...Kristofer probably has it :P ) but we put it at the bottom of the stairs and pretend like it was LAVA! You couldn't fall down into the lava or you'd die. I know...kinda morbid. Kids....haha. So we would be falling down the stairs and the other person would have to pull them up and save them! That's about all there was to it. We would do it over and over and it never seemed to get old.
Basically the moral of the story is that anytime I think of volcanos or lava I go back to this little childhood game hot lava and it makes me smile :)
So cool! I just wanted to have that down. He has so many cool experiences but yet has this fun, energetic being to him. He is one of those kinds of teachers that make you think...no THAT is what a teacher is supposed to be like.
Ralph is hilarious. He doesn't give a piss about stuff sometimes, but in a funny way. He uses the word "things" and "stuff" all the time to explain ideas and concepts which actually do the trick! It's funny because we all are understanding what he is getting at. He is very casual about his teaching as well. It may just be due to the fact we are in college and can handle naughty words, but he uses swear words and it cracks me up! It's just a part of his personality so he gets away with it.
It's about 12:40 now and I'm still up. I finished my papers...woohoo!!! I'm not that tired which is why I decided...heeeey I'm gonna blog! :D
Hot lava.
Ok. So in my blog from earlier today I forgot to mention why I titled it hot lava. Yes. Me and my "meanings." I'm such a deep person ;)
When I was younger Jordan and I used to play this game we called "hot lava." We used this red and black plaid blanket (which I don't know where it is...Kristofer probably has it :P ) but we put it at the bottom of the stairs and pretend like it was LAVA! You couldn't fall down into the lava or you'd die. I know...kinda morbid. Kids....haha. So we would be falling down the stairs and the other person would have to pull them up and save them! That's about all there was to it. We would do it over and over and it never seemed to get old.
Basically the moral of the story is that anytime I think of volcanos or lava I go back to this little childhood game hot lava and it makes me smile :)
Monday, March 29, 2010
hot lava.
HELLOOOO!! I have not been very good about blogging. Lets just say I've been quite lazy, but also very productive. I guess I have been working on the things that I will be graded on so that's a smart plan. At the same time there is no excuse cause I still could make time. I will see how well I can remember about the past few weeks. Here I go...
Ok. This ones easy. Last weekend was our little excursion to Taupo. In the rental van it was me, Amanda, Mike, Mike, Robbie, Connor, Mallory, Kathleen, and Emma. We managed fit all of our junk and nine people in the vehicle. We were on our way! The drive was about four hours and when we finally got there the hostel was closed. We didn't know what to do so we just pitched our tents and thought awww...we'll pay in the morning. Lucky for us...the bathrooms were even open. It was perfect. We got up in the morning and people weren't at the reception desk so we each save 12 bucks. Ooops. Felt kind of bad, but at the same time it was nice. We were going to hike mount doom, but then realized we missed the bus. It only comes at like 6am and the wind was apparently really bad that day so they didn't even reccommend it. We devised another plan. We were going to go hike this other trail and see a waterfall and then go skydiving!!!
Skydiving.
This was the highlight of my weekend. Absolutely amazing experience! The guys that we were strapped on to were very experienced divers. Mine was 22 and had jumped mmm...like 1500 times! Holy! Anyways...they were hilarious. Very chill. I was freakin out cause my harness thing seemed to big and they joked around and all looked at each other like ohhhh crap. We were already on the plane! Ahhh...what am I supposed to do. They were like yeah...umm....did they give you an extra large or something? Jerks. Haha. It was fun though. Their sense of humor made the experience. I think my favorite part was jumping out of the plane. It's just like this big rush. You are like alright...we're next. Ok. GO! You don't even realize that you're free falling. I felt perfectly safe. So weird! When he let out the parachute he let me steer it for awhile. Now THAT was fun. The view of lake taupo was stunning. The scenery...yeah.
Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom)
Well...lets just talk about Mt. Doom, shall we. It started out fine...didn't really think much of the 7 hours hike we would be doing. Just one step at a time right? Oh. My. Gosh. It was difficult. I think about everything I do now and look back on that experience and go awww...this will be a piece of cake. I climbed a fricken volcano! So yeah...scenery was breathtaking...once again. It was different this time though...it was like we were one with it. There was no civilization. It was just hikers and the earth. Ok. That sounds way cheesy, but seriously! There was something really cool about it.
Alright...so we started off in a group then all started to go our own pace. For a few hours it was just me, Emma, and Kathleen. THEN we started to climb the mountain (volcano). We didn't stick together. There were soooo many times where I was like okay...I'm done. It seemed like we would climb and end up a few steps back from where we started. I was literally bear crawling hands and feet. There were lava rocks and sandy ash kind of stuff that I had to overcome. I looked at this mountain as something that I needed to do for myself. I could have turned back, but I'm glad I didn't. For me, it kind of represented life. You have to keep pushing forward, because if you go back you won't end up anywhere. You'll just be right where you started. It also represented this never give up sort of attitude. It doesn't matter if you fall down or scrape your leg (that's what i did) just keep going and in time things will heal.
The top. I can't believe I made it. This sounds ridiculous, but I really can't. I was so tired, but what makes me mad is that I wasn't as sore as I thought I should have been the next day! What the heck. We won't talk about it. I must just be in good shape, right? Whatever. So I didn't think I would make it after I thought I reached the top then realized there was more. I did though and I've NEVER seen such an amazing view in my entire life. It was literally like I was on top of the world. I mean...we climbed a mountain so we were basically.
Climbing down.
More like sliding, skiing, or falling down. This was better than going up, but it was still annoying. Mallory and I had to hold on to each other for a lot of it. I fell a lot. I mean a lot. It was so sandy and hard to stablize yourself. Sooo many bruises from that day. When we finally made it down I felt so accomplished. We climbed a mountain and survived. What a relief. It felt like life or death at times. It actually was a pretty dangerous thing to do.
YAY! WE DID IT!
Back to reality.
I really needed to buckle down this week with school. I finished my video project. Finally! It had erased like three times and I had to start over...along with the entire class. Technology. I had two papers to write which I'm still fine tuning, but am proud to say I'm about done with. (which is good cause they're due in two days). They are both about 8 pages long or so and were a lot harder to write than they should have been. Maybe it's cause I haven't had school since...umm...December! Yep. I'm going to blame it on that. It was our last week working with pegasis students. It was sad. I really got to know these kids and it was so special to build relationships with them!
This week.
I feel like I have been writing my fingers off with the essays I have been doing. I am proud that I wrote all this and have to call it quits for now.
Toodles!
Ok. This ones easy. Last weekend was our little excursion to Taupo. In the rental van it was me, Amanda, Mike, Mike, Robbie, Connor, Mallory, Kathleen, and Emma. We managed fit all of our junk and nine people in the vehicle. We were on our way! The drive was about four hours and when we finally got there the hostel was closed. We didn't know what to do so we just pitched our tents and thought awww...we'll pay in the morning. Lucky for us...the bathrooms were even open. It was perfect. We got up in the morning and people weren't at the reception desk so we each save 12 bucks. Ooops. Felt kind of bad, but at the same time it was nice. We were going to hike mount doom, but then realized we missed the bus. It only comes at like 6am and the wind was apparently really bad that day so they didn't even reccommend it. We devised another plan. We were going to go hike this other trail and see a waterfall and then go skydiving!!!
Skydiving.
This was the highlight of my weekend. Absolutely amazing experience! The guys that we were strapped on to were very experienced divers. Mine was 22 and had jumped mmm...like 1500 times! Holy! Anyways...they were hilarious. Very chill. I was freakin out cause my harness thing seemed to big and they joked around and all looked at each other like ohhhh crap. We were already on the plane! Ahhh...what am I supposed to do. They were like yeah...umm....did they give you an extra large or something? Jerks. Haha. It was fun though. Their sense of humor made the experience. I think my favorite part was jumping out of the plane. It's just like this big rush. You are like alright...we're next. Ok. GO! You don't even realize that you're free falling. I felt perfectly safe. So weird! When he let out the parachute he let me steer it for awhile. Now THAT was fun. The view of lake taupo was stunning. The scenery...yeah.
Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom)
Well...lets just talk about Mt. Doom, shall we. It started out fine...didn't really think much of the 7 hours hike we would be doing. Just one step at a time right? Oh. My. Gosh. It was difficult. I think about everything I do now and look back on that experience and go awww...this will be a piece of cake. I climbed a fricken volcano! So yeah...scenery was breathtaking...once again. It was different this time though...it was like we were one with it. There was no civilization. It was just hikers and the earth. Ok. That sounds way cheesy, but seriously! There was something really cool about it.
Alright...so we started off in a group then all started to go our own pace. For a few hours it was just me, Emma, and Kathleen. THEN we started to climb the mountain (volcano). We didn't stick together. There were soooo many times where I was like okay...I'm done. It seemed like we would climb and end up a few steps back from where we started. I was literally bear crawling hands and feet. There were lava rocks and sandy ash kind of stuff that I had to overcome. I looked at this mountain as something that I needed to do for myself. I could have turned back, but I'm glad I didn't. For me, it kind of represented life. You have to keep pushing forward, because if you go back you won't end up anywhere. You'll just be right where you started. It also represented this never give up sort of attitude. It doesn't matter if you fall down or scrape your leg (that's what i did) just keep going and in time things will heal.
The top. I can't believe I made it. This sounds ridiculous, but I really can't. I was so tired, but what makes me mad is that I wasn't as sore as I thought I should have been the next day! What the heck. We won't talk about it. I must just be in good shape, right? Whatever. So I didn't think I would make it after I thought I reached the top then realized there was more. I did though and I've NEVER seen such an amazing view in my entire life. It was literally like I was on top of the world. I mean...we climbed a mountain so we were basically.
Climbing down.
More like sliding, skiing, or falling down. This was better than going up, but it was still annoying. Mallory and I had to hold on to each other for a lot of it. I fell a lot. I mean a lot. It was so sandy and hard to stablize yourself. Sooo many bruises from that day. When we finally made it down I felt so accomplished. We climbed a mountain and survived. What a relief. It felt like life or death at times. It actually was a pretty dangerous thing to do.
YAY! WE DID IT!
Back to reality.
I really needed to buckle down this week with school. I finished my video project. Finally! It had erased like three times and I had to start over...along with the entire class. Technology. I had two papers to write which I'm still fine tuning, but am proud to say I'm about done with. (which is good cause they're due in two days). They are both about 8 pages long or so and were a lot harder to write than they should have been. Maybe it's cause I haven't had school since...umm...December! Yep. I'm going to blame it on that. It was our last week working with pegasis students. It was sad. I really got to know these kids and it was so special to build relationships with them!
This week.
I feel like I have been writing my fingers off with the essays I have been doing. I am proud that I wrote all this and have to call it quits for now.
Toodles!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
From Here to There.
Heyo! Ok...so it's been awhile since my last post. My apologies. Let me recap on my week last week. In Dance Education we had the Vou (pronounced Voo) dance company come and show us a traditional Fijian dance called the Meke. They did a performance and then held a workshop where we got to learn it and perform it. This was a really cool experience. It was a very tribal sort of dance. In order to get permission to perform this traditional dance and then change it so it was a more contemporary piece they actually had to go to a village and ask if it was okay. I really enjoyed having them come and perform because I felt like I got a taste of some culture. It wasn't New Zealand's but Fiji is close! The next day I had Community Dance. We went to this place called Pegasis. This "college" (what they call grade school) was for children with disabilities. We got to teach dance! It was so much fun to actually have hands on experience with working with kids. It was cool to see them get all excited about dancing. At the end a couple of students had their own solos to show the class. I had tears in my eyes. You could just tell how free they felt when they were dancing and singing along to the music.
Backstreets back, alright!
Connor had an extra ticket for the Backstreet Boys so when we were at the airport (before we really knew each other) he asked if anyone was interested in going. Me, me, me!!!! I LOVE the Backstreet Boys! So, Thursday night was the concert. We were PUMPED. Went and got us some Redbull and we were set. I have never been so excited to see a concert in my life. I cannot even tell you how obsessed I was/apparently still am with the Bboys. The concert was amazing. I've seen better shows put on, but I loved every minute of every song that they sang. It made my life complete I think.
Weekend
Just making this short and sweet. We went out for a bit...it was fun. I met Mallory's friend Beth from one of her classes. She is a really great person. We got to see her apartment...it was sooo adorable. We weren't really getting in anywhere without having to pay a cover charge so we didn't want to do that and ended up dancing for awhile, but then just going home. Still fun though.
Tired
I don't know if it was just the weekend or what, but I was exhausted. Exhausted=miss home/friends/family etc. It was all good though....caught up on some sleep. Got to talk to Mamma mia ;)
St. Pattie's Day!
I didn't really know if I wanted to go out, but I'm really glad I did. It was a little break that I needed. Mallory and I went out with our friend Matt and met his friend Shey. They were both really fun to hang out with. We ended up all dancing the night away. SO much fun :D
From Here to There.
Mallory and I went to The Royal New Zealand Ballet on Thursday night. We wore our new dresses. The ballet was absolutely breathtaking. My favorite was their second piece. It was a little darker...I like that though. The music was intense. It made me miss playing my oboe. Is that sad all I wanted to do today was practice my oboe? After that we went to this Irish pub that we couldn't get into the night before since everyone was wanting a taste of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. (also same day as Samuel Patrick Okland's birthday!) We had a cider. Those are really quite good! I thought about my friend Lindsey. She is in Ireland right now for her study abroad. I'm sure St. Pattie's day there is fun!
This weekend.
I'm going to Taupo. It's supposed to be absolutely amazing. I can't wait. We are renting a car. I'm kind of nervous about that, but it should be fine. It's about 4 hours away I think? We are going to be camping, hiking, and all that jazz. I want to go skydiving, but I think I might wait until spring break and do it at the South Island.
TTFN!
Backstreets back, alright!
Connor had an extra ticket for the Backstreet Boys so when we were at the airport (before we really knew each other) he asked if anyone was interested in going. Me, me, me!!!! I LOVE the Backstreet Boys! So, Thursday night was the concert. We were PUMPED. Went and got us some Redbull and we were set. I have never been so excited to see a concert in my life. I cannot even tell you how obsessed I was/apparently still am with the Bboys. The concert was amazing. I've seen better shows put on, but I loved every minute of every song that they sang. It made my life complete I think.
Weekend
Just making this short and sweet. We went out for a bit...it was fun. I met Mallory's friend Beth from one of her classes. She is a really great person. We got to see her apartment...it was sooo adorable. We weren't really getting in anywhere without having to pay a cover charge so we didn't want to do that and ended up dancing for awhile, but then just going home. Still fun though.
Tired
I don't know if it was just the weekend or what, but I was exhausted. Exhausted=miss home/friends/family etc. It was all good though....caught up on some sleep. Got to talk to Mamma mia ;)
St. Pattie's Day!
I didn't really know if I wanted to go out, but I'm really glad I did. It was a little break that I needed. Mallory and I went out with our friend Matt and met his friend Shey. They were both really fun to hang out with. We ended up all dancing the night away. SO much fun :D
From Here to There.
Mallory and I went to The Royal New Zealand Ballet on Thursday night. We wore our new dresses. The ballet was absolutely breathtaking. My favorite was their second piece. It was a little darker...I like that though. The music was intense. It made me miss playing my oboe. Is that sad all I wanted to do today was practice my oboe? After that we went to this Irish pub that we couldn't get into the night before since everyone was wanting a taste of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. (also same day as Samuel Patrick Okland's birthday!) We had a cider. Those are really quite good! I thought about my friend Lindsey. She is in Ireland right now for her study abroad. I'm sure St. Pattie's day there is fun!
This weekend.
I'm going to Taupo. It's supposed to be absolutely amazing. I can't wait. We are renting a car. I'm kind of nervous about that, but it should be fine. It's about 4 hours away I think? We are going to be camping, hiking, and all that jazz. I want to go skydiving, but I think I might wait until spring break and do it at the South Island.
TTFN!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Left side brain.
This weekend was Boyz Noize. It was packed on Friday. They had flashing lights, fog, and confetti everywhere! It started at 10pm and went till 5am. I knew I couldn't make it that long. We got there around 11pm and I left with a group a little after 2am. Saturday was the horse races. It was SO great! We all wore our 8 dollar hats and dressed up. Even the guys ;) A few of us girls bought a bottle of champaigne and it was a party. Blaire bet on a horse and won 75 dollars! Woohoo! We were all absolutely beat after a day in the sun. I needed to get groceries so I went to countdown. I walked all the way back up in my heels, jacket, and hat. It wasn't just a quick five minute walk either. It was more like 15-20 minutes. I was exhausted. I crashed for a few hours before we went out to celebrate Rebecca's 21st birthday. I got ready in 15 minutes after my nap. I almost didn't go out, but I was glad I did. It was fun to dance and be there for her birthday.
Today Mallory and I went shopping. I did some damage. The first store we go to I was just like hmm...let's try this on. BAM. The dress was perf. It fit like a glove. It's a more neutral tone dress, chiffon, lower cut in front with lines of "goldish" beading. The back has a few strands of those as well. I planned on getting a dress from New Zealand I'm pretty sure this was the one I "needed." Chaching. Got it ;) Can't wait to wear it out! I'm sure there will be pictures. Gosh. I'm such a girl!
I just remembered my dream. I think it was from the nap I just woke up from. I went to a movie with Ava and then it was girls night out so we went shopping. I don't remember everything we bought, but I got her a couple of cute oufits. I do remember there being something specific that we bought though that was important. Anyways...we ate our dinner at the food court and Ava was falling asleep on my lap. I asked her if we should go home and she said yes. I started carrying her back to the car, but then suddenly realized everything we had was missing. The bags, my purse, the car keys. We go to the last place that I may have set the bags down and he says they found someone by the name of Thompson's belongings. Ava was excited that they found our stuff, but I did not have a good feeling about it. The janitor dude comes back with a red vacuum cleaner! What the heck? I don't know what this dream is all about, but I vacuumed my room the other day. Maybe that's why that was in there. And then I kind of broke down because I was so tired from the day and I had my niece with me and didn't know what to do...maybe that represents being kind of tired and worn out from the weekend. I don't know. I thought it was hilarious though. I saw that dream in good detail. There was more to it, but that's the jist of it!
Today Mallory and I went shopping. I did some damage. The first store we go to I was just like hmm...let's try this on. BAM. The dress was perf. It fit like a glove. It's a more neutral tone dress, chiffon, lower cut in front with lines of "goldish" beading. The back has a few strands of those as well. I planned on getting a dress from New Zealand I'm pretty sure this was the one I "needed." Chaching. Got it ;) Can't wait to wear it out! I'm sure there will be pictures. Gosh. I'm such a girl!
I just remembered my dream. I think it was from the nap I just woke up from. I went to a movie with Ava and then it was girls night out so we went shopping. I don't remember everything we bought, but I got her a couple of cute oufits. I do remember there being something specific that we bought though that was important. Anyways...we ate our dinner at the food court and Ava was falling asleep on my lap. I asked her if we should go home and she said yes. I started carrying her back to the car, but then suddenly realized everything we had was missing. The bags, my purse, the car keys. We go to the last place that I may have set the bags down and he says they found someone by the name of Thompson's belongings. Ava was excited that they found our stuff, but I did not have a good feeling about it. The janitor dude comes back with a red vacuum cleaner! What the heck? I don't know what this dream is all about, but I vacuumed my room the other day. Maybe that's why that was in there. And then I kind of broke down because I was so tired from the day and I had my niece with me and didn't know what to do...maybe that represents being kind of tired and worn out from the weekend. I don't know. I thought it was hilarious though. I saw that dream in good detail. There was more to it, but that's the jist of it!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Week 1
Wish I had shade
So I just have to say I had class today from 9-10am and now have a break until 4pm. I'm sitting in the computer lab with my fake ray bans on because the sun is beating down on me. I'm so hot! Ugh. Gross. It fills up pretty fast in the lab. You can definitely tell that school is now in session. Today is Wednesday. Week one of class, third day in! I can't believe we have started school finally. I love my dance classes. (like I figured I would) My professor, Ralph Buck, is amazing. He is the reason I came to this school and I don't think I will be dissapointed. He did his undergrad in Physical Education, running around a track and doing all that sort of stuff. He ended up furthering his education and realizing that he could dance and did a dance studies major in London, England. After that he was writing curriculum's for dance in Australia. He ended up moving back to New Zealand and is now pretty much a head of the Dance department. I really like his teaching stlye. It's very laid back, but organized and fun. It reminds me of the teaching styles of Veronica and Julia. All have the teaching style I aim for. Yesterday we had our first class of studio work. We sat in a circle before class and played the name game. You know that game. Here's an example: hi, I'm Haylee, and I like hippos! Ralph could have stopped us when class started, but instead he let us be. We didn't officially start the class until 10 or 15 minutes after we were supposed to. It was cool, because it created a certain vibe for the class. Everything was relaxed and we were just getting to know each other. He talked about improvisation and the fact that even though he had a lesson planned, in his head he quickly improvised and changed it. We will always have choices when we are teaching. We did some other activities that made me think a little more abstractly. I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate the contexts of the lesson he had. I won't bore you with anymore of that, because that's what my other journal is for, but lets just say this is exactly what I wanted to learn about.
Fireworks!
I forgot to tell you about the AMAZING display of fireworks we saw on Sunday, the night before our first day of classes. The chinese new years festival had been going on all weekend at Albert Park and I believe it was the last night of it. There was food, live music, and lanterns that were lit up all over. It was one of the most unique festivals I've seen. The fireworks started out just being like normal fireworks, but the finale was the just outstanding. They shot off firework after firework. The sky was lit up with my favorite ones too. The ones that are just white and trickle down and sparkle. I don't know what they're called, but they're HUGE! Fireworks aren't always my thing, but I loved it.
So sore.
Yesterday I shouldn't have done the "Pump" class at the Recreation Center. I went to my first hip hop class after that from 4-7pm and had a hard time keeping my arms out to the side. Oh well, it's worth it. I actually enjoy being sore in a weird way. I feel like I really did something then! The classes at the wellness center are really intense. They sure like making you sweat. Although that's pretty easy to do especially when a gym is not air conditioned! Eek! Back to my hip hop class....it focuses on "breaking." Breaking comes from the bronx whereas poplocking etc was first started in California. Different styles. Not to be confused with one another. I learned about top rocking and how to go down to the floor. We did a six step, CC's, and some stalls. If you're looking for a workout, breaking will make you sweat! It's a three hour class, but it seems like it will go by pretty quickly.
Right now.
I have been thinking about this weekend. I'm so excited! We have our Boyz Noize concert, Rebecca's 21st birthday, and the horse races! I think we're goin to get big hats today if we can find some at a thrift store.
XOXO
Haylee
So I just have to say I had class today from 9-10am and now have a break until 4pm. I'm sitting in the computer lab with my fake ray bans on because the sun is beating down on me. I'm so hot! Ugh. Gross. It fills up pretty fast in the lab. You can definitely tell that school is now in session. Today is Wednesday. Week one of class, third day in! I can't believe we have started school finally. I love my dance classes. (like I figured I would) My professor, Ralph Buck, is amazing. He is the reason I came to this school and I don't think I will be dissapointed. He did his undergrad in Physical Education, running around a track and doing all that sort of stuff. He ended up furthering his education and realizing that he could dance and did a dance studies major in London, England. After that he was writing curriculum's for dance in Australia. He ended up moving back to New Zealand and is now pretty much a head of the Dance department. I really like his teaching stlye. It's very laid back, but organized and fun. It reminds me of the teaching styles of Veronica and Julia. All have the teaching style I aim for. Yesterday we had our first class of studio work. We sat in a circle before class and played the name game. You know that game. Here's an example: hi, I'm Haylee, and I like hippos! Ralph could have stopped us when class started, but instead he let us be. We didn't officially start the class until 10 or 15 minutes after we were supposed to. It was cool, because it created a certain vibe for the class. Everything was relaxed and we were just getting to know each other. He talked about improvisation and the fact that even though he had a lesson planned, in his head he quickly improvised and changed it. We will always have choices when we are teaching. We did some other activities that made me think a little more abstractly. I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate the contexts of the lesson he had. I won't bore you with anymore of that, because that's what my other journal is for, but lets just say this is exactly what I wanted to learn about.
Fireworks!
I forgot to tell you about the AMAZING display of fireworks we saw on Sunday, the night before our first day of classes. The chinese new years festival had been going on all weekend at Albert Park and I believe it was the last night of it. There was food, live music, and lanterns that were lit up all over. It was one of the most unique festivals I've seen. The fireworks started out just being like normal fireworks, but the finale was the just outstanding. They shot off firework after firework. The sky was lit up with my favorite ones too. The ones that are just white and trickle down and sparkle. I don't know what they're called, but they're HUGE! Fireworks aren't always my thing, but I loved it.
So sore.
Yesterday I shouldn't have done the "Pump" class at the Recreation Center. I went to my first hip hop class after that from 4-7pm and had a hard time keeping my arms out to the side. Oh well, it's worth it. I actually enjoy being sore in a weird way. I feel like I really did something then! The classes at the wellness center are really intense. They sure like making you sweat. Although that's pretty easy to do especially when a gym is not air conditioned! Eek! Back to my hip hop class....it focuses on "breaking." Breaking comes from the bronx whereas poplocking etc was first started in California. Different styles. Not to be confused with one another. I learned about top rocking and how to go down to the floor. We did a six step, CC's, and some stalls. If you're looking for a workout, breaking will make you sweat! It's a three hour class, but it seems like it will go by pretty quickly.
Right now.
I have been thinking about this weekend. I'm so excited! We have our Boyz Noize concert, Rebecca's 21st birthday, and the horse races! I think we're goin to get big hats today if we can find some at a thrift store.
XOXO
Haylee
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Camping at Motutapu
I woke up late and didn't have my poop in a group. I had to shove everything I needed into a backpack for the day/night in a half an hour. I was definitely scrambling around to get stuff together when I should have been taking it easy and getting ready with plenty of time to "scramble" some eggs! Oh well. We made it on the 9:15am ferry and realized there was going to be another one later...we didn't think there was so that's why we got up so early. It was going to be a LONG day. We got to the beach and settled down. I contemplated whether or not I wanted to head back at 4:30pm on the last ferry because all I had were nuts and pretzels and I was getting nervous about classes starting Monday. I ended up staying which was a good choice.
We ended up hiking to the other side of the island. We stopped and looked at old World War I bunkers which was awesome. I love history. So crazy. "Scottie" also known as Blaire (he's from Scotland) had a sakata on his shoulder. I was like why does that bug sound like it's sooo close. Sure enough it was because it was just chillin there. I thought those things were invisible cause you always hear them, but you never see them!
You never know what you're going to smell when you're traveling. Sometimes I smell flowers or mint. That is how I want to remember New Zealand. I have to admit though...sometimes it doesn't smell pretty. Even New Zealand has cows. Yeah...I'm talkin about cow dung. Mmm... :) It's pretty sweet though that the only wild animals they have are cows, sheep, and horses. The island that we stayed at was preditor free. Except cats or something? I don't know. It was creepy cause when we got there this dude was like...you guys probably know the drill, but get inside this shed and close it and follow the directions. Get inside a shed? Hmm...kinda "dodgy" if you ask me. We had just talked about how someone had gone to another country and they were locked in a room and the guy wouldn't let them out even though they were dying of heat. Literally. He died. Sad story. We were kind of weirded out by this, but it was just to make sure we didn't have any "stowaways." Such as mice, or other animals in our bags. I'm pretty sure that was more so for the people that had been traveling for awhile already, but we went in the shed and just stood there until we thought it had been long enough. I was pretty sure I didn't pack a rat in my bag, but I dunno...I WAS in a rush that morning ;)
When we went back to the campsite Robbie had already tested out his stove he made. He made it out of a beer can, had fuel, and a copper coin in it. It was amazing. We weren't allowed to have open fire or whatever so he created his own concauction. He made lamb and rice, and Mike made some ramen noodles. I was so jealous. Here I was sitting with my nuts and pretzels and he whips out a gourmet meal. Typical. I was so excstatic though that Rebecca gave me one of her apples. I didn't have one that day and if you know me....you know I don't go a DAY without them. It made my night.
Our tent consisteted of a tarp on the ground and a tarp hanging between two trees. It worked for us I guess! We were really roughin it ;) All I had for covers was a sheet, fleece blanket, pillow and a towel. I was a little chillin that night. Apparently Mallory was perfect and she just had a fleece. Between Robbie having a sleeping bag and me warming her with my bum I guess she was warm as can be. Turd muffin. Oh well.
That night was so fun. Just gazing at the stars, jokin, and getting tired so everything was funny and worth laughing at. Love those times.
The morning. So we wake up at the crack of dawn. El baile de perrito comes out again. (joke from last night) and a ranger comes by and says there is a tsunami warning and to get to higher ground. Apparently an earthquake hit in Chile. Where I come from we just worry about floods, and snow storms. This was new to me. We were kinda freaked, but also excited at the same time. The ferry wasn't running though so we were kind of frustrated. After all, we DO have school on Monday! Luckily we had a ranger take us to Rangitoto and we got on the 12:45pm ferry. We couldn't have been more thrilled! We got back to Auckland and ate mexican food and then headed home and passed out. I was one tired cookie!
What a weekend!
I ended up getting off the trail a little bit and walking on all the big rocks by the shore in my flip flops. Smart. Wear flip flops when you go hiking, really? Yeah...I woke up late okay! Couldn't bring everything I needed. Along the way I saw snails, sardines, a starfish, and crabs. Nature is so funny.
We ended up hiking to the other side of the island. We stopped and looked at old World War I bunkers which was awesome. I love history. So crazy. "Scottie" also known as Blaire (he's from Scotland) had a sakata on his shoulder. I was like why does that bug sound like it's sooo close. Sure enough it was because it was just chillin there. I thought those things were invisible cause you always hear them, but you never see them!
You never know what you're going to smell when you're traveling. Sometimes I smell flowers or mint. That is how I want to remember New Zealand. I have to admit though...sometimes it doesn't smell pretty. Even New Zealand has cows. Yeah...I'm talkin about cow dung. Mmm... :) It's pretty sweet though that the only wild animals they have are cows, sheep, and horses. The island that we stayed at was preditor free. Except cats or something? I don't know. It was creepy cause when we got there this dude was like...you guys probably know the drill, but get inside this shed and close it and follow the directions. Get inside a shed? Hmm...kinda "dodgy" if you ask me. We had just talked about how someone had gone to another country and they were locked in a room and the guy wouldn't let them out even though they were dying of heat. Literally. He died. Sad story. We were kind of weirded out by this, but it was just to make sure we didn't have any "stowaways." Such as mice, or other animals in our bags. I'm pretty sure that was more so for the people that had been traveling for awhile already, but we went in the shed and just stood there until we thought it had been long enough. I was pretty sure I didn't pack a rat in my bag, but I dunno...I WAS in a rush that morning ;)
When we went back to the campsite Robbie had already tested out his stove he made. He made it out of a beer can, had fuel, and a copper coin in it. It was amazing. We weren't allowed to have open fire or whatever so he created his own concauction. He made lamb and rice, and Mike made some ramen noodles. I was so jealous. Here I was sitting with my nuts and pretzels and he whips out a gourmet meal. Typical. I was so excstatic though that Rebecca gave me one of her apples. I didn't have one that day and if you know me....you know I don't go a DAY without them. It made my night.
Our tent consisteted of a tarp on the ground and a tarp hanging between two trees. It worked for us I guess! We were really roughin it ;) All I had for covers was a sheet, fleece blanket, pillow and a towel. I was a little chillin that night. Apparently Mallory was perfect and she just had a fleece. Between Robbie having a sleeping bag and me warming her with my bum I guess she was warm as can be. Turd muffin. Oh well.
That night was so fun. Just gazing at the stars, jokin, and getting tired so everything was funny and worth laughing at. Love those times.
The morning. So we wake up at the crack of dawn. El baile de perrito comes out again. (joke from last night) and a ranger comes by and says there is a tsunami warning and to get to higher ground. Apparently an earthquake hit in Chile. Where I come from we just worry about floods, and snow storms. This was new to me. We were kinda freaked, but also excited at the same time. The ferry wasn't running though so we were kind of frustrated. After all, we DO have school on Monday! Luckily we had a ranger take us to Rangitoto and we got on the 12:45pm ferry. We couldn't have been more thrilled! We got back to Auckland and ate mexican food and then headed home and passed out. I was one tired cookie!
What a weekend!
I ended up getting off the trail a little bit and walking on all the big rocks by the shore in my flip flops. Smart. Wear flip flops when you go hiking, really? Yeah...I woke up late okay! Couldn't bring everything I needed. Along the way I saw snails, sardines, a starfish, and crabs. Nature is so funny.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Uni
School.
So I forgot that I'm here for school. I have honestly had since December until well Monday is our first official day of class...so it's been my summer technically. At the "Uni" (what thie Kiwi's call the University) I am here for their first semester. It's sort of opposite of ours. I am officially enrolled in all my "papers" (classes). Such a relief! I am, however, still wishing I could just take dance courses. I went to the dance studies orientation today and met some of the students and faculty. I'm in love. It's exactly what I want. The professors are nice and seem to love their job. They make it interesting and it looks like it will be challenging. I hope I can open my mind and let myself be as creative as I hope to be! I like being an international student. Everybody here seems to love the way we talk. I don't know why, because I feel the same about them. Theirs is just...cooler! It will be funny to come home and think that I will still be the center of attention cause I won't be, or will I? That's kind of who I am so maybe. Haha...I am the princess! Just kidding, but it's really cool to know that they are just as intrigued by American culture as I am about theirs.
I'm a bit nervous about my business courses. I'm taking Macroeconomics and Marketing Managment. They have finals at the end of the semester and have two WHOLE weeks off before for preparation: a tad intimidating don't you think? I'm not very good at econ so I might be bustin my butt in that class, but many people like macro better than micro so I hope I'm okay!
Dance.
That's what I'm most excited for. I'm taking Dance Education....perfect if I want to teach dance, Dance and Technology, and maybe a Hip Hop "paper." I have to decide which ones I will keep yet, but Professor Ralph Buck saaaaaaaid that I could come to whatever class and get it all situated. Being here I just want to go ahead and major in dance. I could be done in no time at all. There are so many things you can actually do with it that people don't even think about. I won't go off about that, but it's a long list.
Orientation Week.
This week has flown by! Monday was the first day of orientation, but we felt like it was more for first year students so we just went to the welcome and got things taken care of that we needed. We ended up hiking from the East coast to the West coast. This was about a ten mile walk mind you. Worth it though. We got to see the Tasman Sea! Yeee dawg. We got to see Mt. Eden again which is the Volcano we saw on the first day. Tried to go in it, but someone ruined our bad-a behavior and was like "not supposed to go down there retards!" Psh...duh..we knew that dude! We were being total rule breakers. Whatever.
Anyways...we went to a place called Margharittas and got our dance on one night, went to another beach...I believe it was called Waheiki. The ferry was a little spendy...30 dollars, but the views were incredible. We laid on the beach for a few hours. I actually fell asleep it was so peaceful. I never fall asleep on the beach! Always too hot, but it was just right. This island had wineries all over. We hope to do a wine tasting at some point. Had a meat pie. Reminded me of Sweeny Todd so I was hesitant about trying it, but dang it was goooood! Try one if you haven't.
I don't know if I've mentioned their milkshakes, but they are the BOMB! I had one today. We went down to the harbor the other night and I got one too. This little Italian gelato place is our go-to spot. We love it!
Hung out with a Kiwi.
Yesterday while everyone and by everyone I mean my gang, crew, wolfpack, peeps, or friends, went surfing and got burnt, hit their heads on their boards and their muscles were giving out, I spent a relaxing day just shopping Queen Street. My friend Grant from Minnesota did AustraLearn last semester and studied at Waikaito and his friend Olivia added me to Facebook. She said she was from Auckland and would be willing to show me around when she was in town. I met her yesterday and she is such a sweetheart! Love her accent. We just talked about some of the differences, sterotypes of americans and kiwis. We didn't have time to go to the Auckland museum, but she said she comes home every couple of weekends and whenever I head to Waikaito to give her a ring! We both share a love for clothes so it was fun to see where she liked to shop here.
Boyz Noize
Mallory, Robbie, Rebecca, and I got tickets to Boyz Noize. No idea who this band is, but I decided to be a sheep and follow the others. It sounded really fun...kind of technoey (that's not a word) style of music. I don't know...I'm just super pumped for that and going to Backstreet Boys with Connor! That's like a dream come true.
Camping
Just booked our campsite for the weekend. We are going to take a ferry to another island. This place is supposed to be good to fish, hike, swim, and camp. This is our last hoorah before school starts. We are going to get children's sleeping bags so we can do this camping thing tomorrow night. I'm sooo excited! Haven't been camping in awhile. Well...we can't cause you all know it snows in Minnesota! I won't be by a computer for awhile, but I will let you know how the weekend goes! Ps. Anyone in need of children's sleeping bags?
Ouch. My fingers hurt.
♥ Haylee
So I forgot that I'm here for school. I have honestly had since December until well Monday is our first official day of class...so it's been my summer technically. At the "Uni" (what thie Kiwi's call the University) I am here for their first semester. It's sort of opposite of ours. I am officially enrolled in all my "papers" (classes). Such a relief! I am, however, still wishing I could just take dance courses. I went to the dance studies orientation today and met some of the students and faculty. I'm in love. It's exactly what I want. The professors are nice and seem to love their job. They make it interesting and it looks like it will be challenging. I hope I can open my mind and let myself be as creative as I hope to be! I like being an international student. Everybody here seems to love the way we talk. I don't know why, because I feel the same about them. Theirs is just...cooler! It will be funny to come home and think that I will still be the center of attention cause I won't be, or will I? That's kind of who I am so maybe. Haha...I am the princess! Just kidding, but it's really cool to know that they are just as intrigued by American culture as I am about theirs.
I'm a bit nervous about my business courses. I'm taking Macroeconomics and Marketing Managment. They have finals at the end of the semester and have two WHOLE weeks off before for preparation: a tad intimidating don't you think? I'm not very good at econ so I might be bustin my butt in that class, but many people like macro better than micro so I hope I'm okay!
Dance.
That's what I'm most excited for. I'm taking Dance Education....perfect if I want to teach dance, Dance and Technology, and maybe a Hip Hop "paper." I have to decide which ones I will keep yet, but Professor Ralph Buck saaaaaaaid that I could come to whatever class and get it all situated. Being here I just want to go ahead and major in dance. I could be done in no time at all. There are so many things you can actually do with it that people don't even think about. I won't go off about that, but it's a long list.
Orientation Week.
This week has flown by! Monday was the first day of orientation, but we felt like it was more for first year students so we just went to the welcome and got things taken care of that we needed. We ended up hiking from the East coast to the West coast. This was about a ten mile walk mind you. Worth it though. We got to see the Tasman Sea! Yeee dawg. We got to see Mt. Eden again which is the Volcano we saw on the first day. Tried to go in it, but someone ruined our bad-a behavior and was like "not supposed to go down there retards!" Psh...duh..we knew that dude! We were being total rule breakers. Whatever.
Anyways...we went to a place called Margharittas and got our dance on one night, went to another beach...I believe it was called Waheiki. The ferry was a little spendy...30 dollars, but the views were incredible. We laid on the beach for a few hours. I actually fell asleep it was so peaceful. I never fall asleep on the beach! Always too hot, but it was just right. This island had wineries all over. We hope to do a wine tasting at some point. Had a meat pie. Reminded me of Sweeny Todd so I was hesitant about trying it, but dang it was goooood! Try one if you haven't.
I don't know if I've mentioned their milkshakes, but they are the BOMB! I had one today. We went down to the harbor the other night and I got one too. This little Italian gelato place is our go-to spot. We love it!
Hung out with a Kiwi.
Yesterday while everyone and by everyone I mean my gang, crew, wolfpack, peeps, or friends, went surfing and got burnt, hit their heads on their boards and their muscles were giving out, I spent a relaxing day just shopping Queen Street. My friend Grant from Minnesota did AustraLearn last semester and studied at Waikaito and his friend Olivia added me to Facebook. She said she was from Auckland and would be willing to show me around when she was in town. I met her yesterday and she is such a sweetheart! Love her accent. We just talked about some of the differences, sterotypes of americans and kiwis. We didn't have time to go to the Auckland museum, but she said she comes home every couple of weekends and whenever I head to Waikaito to give her a ring! We both share a love for clothes so it was fun to see where she liked to shop here.
Boyz Noize
Mallory, Robbie, Rebecca, and I got tickets to Boyz Noize. No idea who this band is, but I decided to be a sheep and follow the others. It sounded really fun...kind of technoey (that's not a word) style of music. I don't know...I'm just super pumped for that and going to Backstreet Boys with Connor! That's like a dream come true.
Camping
Just booked our campsite for the weekend. We are going to take a ferry to another island. This place is supposed to be good to fish, hike, swim, and camp. This is our last hoorah before school starts. We are going to get children's sleeping bags so we can do this camping thing tomorrow night. I'm sooo excited! Haven't been camping in awhile. Well...we can't cause you all know it snows in Minnesota! I won't be by a computer for awhile, but I will let you know how the weekend goes! Ps. Anyone in need of children's sleeping bags?
Ouch. My fingers hurt.
♥ Haylee
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Playing catch up.
So I kind of touched base on arriving in Auckland, and settling in. I haven't, however gotten to the good stuff. I'm playing catch up before I forget all of it. I am at the computer lab with Robbie and Mallory and we were trying to think of what we even did on Thursday night when we arrived. Robbie replies back with; "What day is it?" That just shows how much everything is running together now. Thursday. Okay. We figured it out. When we got to our apartments, brought our junk upstairs, etc, we went to the warehouse. It's like worse than the old Walmarts, but it's cheap and we can get the things that we needed.
NEXT!
Friday. Friday we got up and went to get our classes figured out. They are pretty laid back here and said if I want to just walk into classes to figure out which ones I want to take to feel free to do so. It's a good thing too because one of my classes overlaps with another so I will have to find a substitute. After we did all that we went to "Slurp." Slurp is a cafe on campus, very good btw. I have to fix my computer still, but we went to a store and I spent about 75 bucks for them to instal a pointless program. Yeah...don't wanna talk about it.
Mallory and I needed grocery store so we went to O'Rorke Hall (right next to our apartments) and asked people at the front desk. They were very helpful, printed out maps, and even highlighted them. Matt, one of the RA's, said that he would be willing to take us to the grocery store even! So, we took him up on the offer. He drove us to "Countdown." Good thing too, because that would have been a mighty walk! He said he would pick us up in a half an hour. It was sooo nice! Mallory and I decided that we needed some wine with our meals for supper, because we were going to make dinner together. When Matt picked us up he took us out to Mission Bay and saw an awesome view of the ocean. He mentioned that he and some others were going to go to Phia on Saturday (the black sand beaches on the west coast) and invited us to join! We were ecstatic! Espessially since he was a kiwi and we were actually going to hang out with locals.
That night we made dinner: carrots, celery, and dip, apples slice (of course) and spaghetti with wine to drink! It was awesome. I "dined" with Robbie, Kathlene, Mike, Mallory, and Connor. We had a blast. That night we decided to go out and about. We went to the club called Crow. Let's just say Mallory and I danced our booties off! My body hurt the next day. Kiwi people usually don't go out till midnight and well....we were about done at midnight so things were just getting lively when we left, but it was still great. I think from all the travel and being so busy made us tired.
Phia-the black sand beach.
Can I get a b-e-a-utiful? Oh my word. I felt like I was on a different planet. Like serioulsy.
When Matt picked us up it was kinda funny cause my roommate, Zac, was there too! Small world. It took about 40 minutes to get there, but Matt got to take the "Uni" (university) car. Their boss is very chill and said to take people out and show them around. How fun that WE got to be those people huh?! Anyways...we just hung out at the beach for a couple of hours. Shaina and I went for a yawg, saw some jelly fish eggs or something, and caught some rays. I was like one of the only ones who didn't burn that day. Go me! Didn't your mother tell you guys to apply sunscreen? ;)
Nightlife
Saturday night was a blast. We went out on the town again. The group consisted of Mallory, Rebecca, Robbie, and me by the end of the night. We went to "Holy Beans" and danced some more. I got hit on a few times. One dude was just NOT getting the picture. He was like "do you want to dance?" and I was like no thanks...taking a break...maybe later. "Why not now?" I was like I'm tired and then I don't know if he didn't here me or what but then asked if I wanted to dance a couple more times. No buddy! No...I don't. I didn't say that, but I was just more persistent about saying no. Really? Come on peeps! Then he was like "can I buy you a drink?" And I asked "right now?" He said no...like tomorrow sometime. I'm busy...sorry! Haha wow. He was annoying. Then Robbie interupted and was like hey man do you know where we are? The guy seemed kinda pissed. (the kiwi version of pissed means wasted, but he was both that and the american version!) He didn't seem to understand what Robbie was asking so he finally stopped bugging us.
Went back to Crow to finish our night up, but before that we stopped at Nachos. Robbie stole a poncho, stuffed it in his pants. It was hilarious. He was like I want one of those...I'm going to the bathroom quick. Didn't think he was actually going to take it, but he needed a blanket! Haha
Stealing is bad. If you're reading this...don't do it!
(but not gonna lie it was pretty funny)
SUNDAY
We took a ferry to Rangitoto Volcano, took an hour to climb up and we were hot, sweaty, tired, hungry, and dying of thirst by the time we got to the top, but it was entirely worth it. The view was amazing. It is a small Island so you can see EVERYTHING around you, the city, other islands, the blue ocean. It was amazing. We then explored some caves that developed from the volcano. Cool stuff.
I'm tired of writing though, but I think I pretty much caught up. Today was orientation. That's all that's happend so far.
Over and out.
NEXT!
Friday. Friday we got up and went to get our classes figured out. They are pretty laid back here and said if I want to just walk into classes to figure out which ones I want to take to feel free to do so. It's a good thing too because one of my classes overlaps with another so I will have to find a substitute. After we did all that we went to "Slurp." Slurp is a cafe on campus, very good btw. I have to fix my computer still, but we went to a store and I spent about 75 bucks for them to instal a pointless program. Yeah...don't wanna talk about it.
Mallory and I needed grocery store so we went to O'Rorke Hall (right next to our apartments) and asked people at the front desk. They were very helpful, printed out maps, and even highlighted them. Matt, one of the RA's, said that he would be willing to take us to the grocery store even! So, we took him up on the offer. He drove us to "Countdown." Good thing too, because that would have been a mighty walk! He said he would pick us up in a half an hour. It was sooo nice! Mallory and I decided that we needed some wine with our meals for supper, because we were going to make dinner together. When Matt picked us up he took us out to Mission Bay and saw an awesome view of the ocean. He mentioned that he and some others were going to go to Phia on Saturday (the black sand beaches on the west coast) and invited us to join! We were ecstatic! Espessially since he was a kiwi and we were actually going to hang out with locals.
That night we made dinner: carrots, celery, and dip, apples slice (of course) and spaghetti with wine to drink! It was awesome. I "dined" with Robbie, Kathlene, Mike, Mallory, and Connor. We had a blast. That night we decided to go out and about. We went to the club called Crow. Let's just say Mallory and I danced our booties off! My body hurt the next day. Kiwi people usually don't go out till midnight and well....we were about done at midnight so things were just getting lively when we left, but it was still great. I think from all the travel and being so busy made us tired.
Phia-the black sand beach.
Can I get a b-e-a-utiful? Oh my word. I felt like I was on a different planet. Like serioulsy.
When Matt picked us up it was kinda funny cause my roommate, Zac, was there too! Small world. It took about 40 minutes to get there, but Matt got to take the "Uni" (university) car. Their boss is very chill and said to take people out and show them around. How fun that WE got to be those people huh?! Anyways...we just hung out at the beach for a couple of hours. Shaina and I went for a yawg, saw some jelly fish eggs or something, and caught some rays. I was like one of the only ones who didn't burn that day. Go me! Didn't your mother tell you guys to apply sunscreen? ;)
Nightlife
Saturday night was a blast. We went out on the town again. The group consisted of Mallory, Rebecca, Robbie, and me by the end of the night. We went to "Holy Beans" and danced some more. I got hit on a few times. One dude was just NOT getting the picture. He was like "do you want to dance?" and I was like no thanks...taking a break...maybe later. "Why not now?" I was like I'm tired and then I don't know if he didn't here me or what but then asked if I wanted to dance a couple more times. No buddy! No...I don't. I didn't say that, but I was just more persistent about saying no. Really? Come on peeps! Then he was like "can I buy you a drink?" And I asked "right now?" He said no...like tomorrow sometime. I'm busy...sorry! Haha wow. He was annoying. Then Robbie interupted and was like hey man do you know where we are? The guy seemed kinda pissed. (the kiwi version of pissed means wasted, but he was both that and the american version!) He didn't seem to understand what Robbie was asking so he finally stopped bugging us.
Went back to Crow to finish our night up, but before that we stopped at Nachos. Robbie stole a poncho, stuffed it in his pants. It was hilarious. He was like I want one of those...I'm going to the bathroom quick. Didn't think he was actually going to take it, but he needed a blanket! Haha
Stealing is bad. If you're reading this...don't do it!
(but not gonna lie it was pretty funny)
SUNDAY
We took a ferry to Rangitoto Volcano, took an hour to climb up and we were hot, sweaty, tired, hungry, and dying of thirst by the time we got to the top, but it was entirely worth it. The view was amazing. It is a small Island so you can see EVERYTHING around you, the city, other islands, the blue ocean. It was amazing. We then explored some caves that developed from the volcano. Cool stuff.
I'm tired of writing though, but I think I pretty much caught up. Today was orientation. That's all that's happend so far.
Over and out.
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