Epic

Epic.  That's the word for this weekend.  There wasn't anything too terribly out of the ordinary, but it was awesome.  This is a long one, so you can read portions at separate points in time if you'd like.  I won't judge you.

I finally got some vision correction in the form of glasses on Thursday, and it just kicked off the weekend right.  Yes, Thursday is the weekend.  We made some excellent chicken parmesan, as a part of our newly instated "family night" consisting of my flatmates and me, and then we eventually headed out for a little karaoke.  Ray and Lindsay did a stellar dance while i rapped to "men in black" and it was quite hilarious.  Yes, they did practice the dance specifically for this performance.

Friday was our R.A.'s birthday, so we had some bbq in the courtyard with everyone in the court, followed by some classic American games.  I was planning on taking it easy, so I went to take a nap after dinner, but i was awoken shortly later by some prolific losers of beer pong and was convinced to go out.  We hit up some new places, and i very much enjoyed chillin by the fire and having a solid conversation with Ray.  After that, we went yet again to the karaoke bar.  You know you go there too much when the bartenders laugh when you walk in, like "are these people really back again?"  yeah... After a rousing rendition of "piano man" we headed off to do a little dancing, and on the way, we thought it would be a good idea to continue "singing" (it was more just shouting than anything else) the song as we trekked across town.  

Saturday afternoon we went to a Super 14 rugby game (the Highlanders from Dunedin in the south island, and the Bulls from South Africa).  I actually enjoy watching the game, but as you may know, the fans are a little rowdy- at least the fans that go to Massey and are completely hammered before the game.  I guess it would be like going to any big university sporting event.  I don't know, I was slightly annoyed after about 20 minutes.  Since none of us have any transportation, we were just going to hang out in town, but Ray and I went to get cash and just decided to cab it back to the hostel (they call dorms hostels).  We eventually ventured back into town and checked out a live band for a bit and then hit up the karaoke bar for the third night in a row.  It was great fun as always.

This morning I went to check out the Lutheran church.  It wasn't the most convenient trip as the busses only run once every hour or more, so I hung out with the ducks in the center of town for about 30 mins.  It was pretty small, and it was contemporary style with the praise band and the powerpoint.  The church didn't really seem very Lutheran to me.  The service was fine and everything, but it was extremely casual (granted it was the "family" service).  There was definitely a small child playing on the altar at one point and that was totally ok with everyone.  I could hear people murmuring in their pews from across the world.  Also, and if you're not familiar with the Lutheran church this probably won't mean anything to you, but there was very minimal responsive reading.  And the weirdest thing was the fact that we didn't sing the part before communion (pax domini perhaps?), you know, "the Lord be with you, and also with you..." and "holy, holy, holy".  It was hard just reading it and not singing it.  After the service, there wasn't a bus for over an hour, so I opted for the 45 minute walk instead.

Just letting everyone know, and this might be slightly disconcerting for some, but I'm trying to figure out a way to stay.  I know everyone says that, and maybe I'm just saying it too, but I absolutely love it here. I just feel amazing in every way - physically, mentally, socially, and whatever else there is.  I'm not sure when the last time I was this happy and this content.  Look, I used italics, I must be pretty serious.  Maybe it's just infatuation, I don't know.  However, the urge to come back for an extended period of time is definitely present, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

here's a picture of some rugby action, as well as me in my glasses.  I feel a little silly putting a picture up of just myself, but i wanted to show off my super-sweet spectacles.  they say spectacles.

good on ya!

nothing new

So there hasn't really been anything too exciting in the past week or so.  I tried surfing again at Castlepoint and still wasn't able to actually get a good ride of a wave.  I'm going again this weekend, and i'm going to try the longboard.  If I can't do that maybe I need to just face the music... nah, i'll probably keep trying in vain.

I had anchovies on pizza.  Not on purpose- they messed up our order.  It wasn't as bad as everyone's always made it seem, but then again, i don't think i'd ever order them.

I started research for my sports history paper... my topic is  cricket and muscular christianity.  I'm a big fan of cricket.  I'd like to try it one of these days...

I've noticed that people love their sweets here, but I rarely see an overweight person.  I guess it's all about being active after all...

My version of "me and bobby mcgee" is quite popular at the karaoke bar.

Sorry, this was just a bunch of random thoughts, but I figured I should let y'all know I'm still alive.

gear

here's the stuff that i got.  though it may not look like much, bear in mind that $1000NZD is about $500USD.  nothing else new for now.

lake taupo

this weekend we headed for lake taupo- the largest lake in new zealand.  friday night we camped out, and let me just say that my flatmates and i are not very good at setting up a tent.  i'd like to say because it was dark outside, but i honestly don't think it made a difference.  needless to say, it took a while, and it would have taken longer had there not been people who actually knew how to set up a tent.

we got up around 7 and went to huka falls, and then we headed to the skydiving place.  it was an pretty awesome experience, but it wasn't as big of an adrenaline rush as i had thought- sitting on the edge of the plane with my feet out was probably the scariest part.  i'm not sure if it would be worth the money to do it again, but i enjoyed it and am glad that i got the dvd and pictures of me in the air. 

after the jump, we went to "craters of the moon," which reminded me of yellowstone a little bit. 

craters of the moon, huka falls, skydiving

oh stereotypes and other fun things

yesterday was an interesting day.

First of all, i went to Kathmandu to claim my $1000 worth of prizes.  i got a $600 rain jacket, which may seem silly, but it's pretty sweet.  i also got a fleece jacket, a sleeping bag, a cooler, some gloves and a water bottle.  it doesn't seem like much, but i'm pretty happy with my purchases.

around 3pm i went to the police station for questioning about the bridge jumping accident, so that was interesting.  the policemen were oddly friendly, making jokes and casual conversation- not something i'd expect in the US.  i was there for about 2 hours, but i got some snacks that were pretty good, so i wasn't going to complain.

So, finally i had a couple of encounters with some kiwis that i found quite entertaining.  one guy asked me if there were cowboys out on the open range, and some other guys asked me if i owned a gun.  and here's my absolute favorite, "so you're from texas, why aren't you fat?" HAH!  classic. i told myself i'd mess with these people and go along with it, but i didn't... next time for sure.  i also had a nice long conversation with a kiwi about politics.  it was so awesome, in a funny way.  he pretty much bashed everything about our government- from iraq to bush to obama.  it was interesting to finally get one of "those" opinions.  this time, i had fun encouraging him.. but then again, maybe i should have been an obnoxious american... hmm... i'm devising some devious plans for future conversations... oh, and he also talked about how racist americans are.  he goes, "texas, that's pretty racist eh?" anyways it was quite an interesting conversation.

these pictures are in backwards order.  oh well...

Monday afternoon after i got done with class, i checked my voicemail and found out that i had won a drawing for $1000 worth of camping gear.  i was a little sceptical (that's how they spell that here... gross), but i went to the store yesterday and sure enough, i had won!  so i'm pretty excited about that.  i think i'm going to get a tent, a sleeping bag, a chilly bin (cooler), and some jackets.  i like kyle's idea- once i get it all, i'll take a picture and post it up.

Monday night i had volleyball "tryouts" and it was pretty awesome.  there were a few decent players, but most of them weren't very good.  but it was so laid back, and i had fun.  plus everyone was really nice and seemed pretty cool, so i'm going to stick with it.  it'll be nice to just have FUN playing for once.  our coach played at UCLA and in germany for several years so he knows what he's doing, but at the same time realizes that it's all for fun.  oh, and he let me set so that was fun.  and i jump served just for the hell of it.  

When i said that there was reason to worry about bridge jumping, here's the reason:  after everyone in our group jumped, people started to go for a second time.  i was planning on going but i decided to get something to eat first, and while i was eating, ray and another friend came running over to us saying that the rope had snapped on a girl (although it was because the rope wasn't retied properly and there was no slack).  not really realizing the severity of the problem, i eventually ambled over only to find the girl lying motionless on the ground below.  I don't want to go into too much detail out of respect for the girl, but she ended up dying the next day.  It was (and still is) an extremely surreal situation for everyone involved, knowing that it could have been any one of us and thinking about her and her family.  i was stoked about jumping again.  i'd like to ask you all to pray for her family and those who feel in some way responsible for the accident.  

baking, jumping, and surfing

Last week a bunch of us really wanted some cookies (or biscuits as they say here), so we decided to try and make them from scratch.  Ray was put in charge because she wanted to stretch her cooking muscles.  It probably wasn't the best time to try this, as we were missing quite a few ingredients essential to baking cookies (baking powder/soda, vanilla) as well as things like beaters to mix the stuff together.  It was quite hilarious watching the whole scene unfold, and long story short, the end results hardly resembled cookies, but instead we got some pretty awesome pancakes.  who knew...

we went to karaoke again on thursday... i love karaoke

saturday morning we went bridge jumping (swing, not bungy), and i had  pretty awesome time on my jump.  i did more or less a swan dive off the bridge.  it was quite the rush, and i was impressed with my composure and lack of hesitation on my jump... and by the way, i didn't tell anyone because i didn't want y'all to worry.  turns out there was reason to worry.  i'll explain that later.

saturday evening, we borrowed a friend's car and trucked it on over to the east coast to castlepoint for a little surf club camp out action.  lindsay (one of my flat mates) drove us and i was the navigator (bad idea p.s.).  the directions the surf president gave us were a little esoteric, incomprehensible for people who don't know the area, but we still got to the camp site a little after midnight.  we hung around the campfire for a while and then headed off to "bed".  everyone else had their nice tents set up, but we came, knowingly, ill-prepared and tried to sleep in the car - it was too windy to sleep comfortably outside.  that didn't really go well, but i did get to see a lot of stars and the sun rise so no complaints there.  around 8am we all started rummaging around and eventually headed to the beach.  i briefly did some boogie boarding, and then tried to surf.  i wasn't able to actually stand up on the board, but i sure did have fun trying and i can't wait until surf camp in two weeks to try again.  i feel like i was pretty close to getting it, but we'll see.

this should be an exciting week- volleyball starts tomorrow, possibly netball or fire club on tuesday, and lake taupo this weekend. 

sunset

just wanted to put these pictures up.  i'll make a new post after the weekend

observations 2 and other stuff

here's some more random stuff i've thought of since last week...

kiwis love theme parties.  i've told y'all about the foga party, but last weekend i also went to a neon(fluorescent) one, i've heard about a foam party and a general costume party, and i saw some people walking around in superhero costumes or something like that

they don't say "bless you" or anything else after someone sneezes.  i thought that was odd

i haven't seen very many diet cokes, not to mention any pepsi or dr pepper, and sprite zero is more common than the regular stuff.  there isn't gatorade, powerade monopolizes the sports drink category.

they call mcdonalds "mackers", or at least a commercial does.  on that note, other fast food places i've seen are kfc, pizza hut, and burger king.  however, they are definitely not on every corner like they are here

most toilets have "half flush" and "full flush" options

in general, the guys wear shorter shorts than the girls.  the guys shorts are mid thigh or a little higher, and the girls' are usually knee length

the guys like to walk around barefoot everywhere- on campus or in town

in case you're interested, my classes are pretty small, having around 15-20 people in each.  and we're supposed to address the prof by his/her first name

this is from a long time ago, but it's worth still putting up.  silly sheep.  sorry about the lady's head in front of me.. haha