Not too shabby

Altogether this week was not too bad.  In fact, I'd even say it was quite good.

Volleyball was pretty fun, but it was rather interesting trying to play in glasses.  It's really awkward if the ball goes outside of my lens and back in.  Luckily, I should only have to experience that one more time, as I'll be getting some contacts when the 'rents come for a visit in a couple of weeks.  Yay!

I have three essays due within the next week (the first time I've really had to do work), and I'm almost done with two of them (I just need to edit really).  But I am kind of nervous about their grading system here... oh well, we'll see.  I'm not sure if y'all care, but I'm quite proud of myself.  Oh yeah, and it's quite annoying typing an essay in British because Word automatically corrects things like "organisation" and other such words.  Apparently I can fix that, but I think I'll just correct them manually or just go to the library and let their programme correct them back.  Yes, programme.

Thursday night was family night again, and it was a veritable feast.  Salmon, mushroom and spinach risotto, broccoli, and strawberry cheesecake all cooked to perfection (except the cheesecake as it was store bought).  We took a picture because it was just so damn beautiful.  

Friday night I went to a fundraiser for the volleyball club that was essentially a high school dance.  I guess the kids had their nationals in Palmy and when they're done they have a dance.  I didn't really want to go in the first place, but I'm glad I did.   As I've mentioned before, Kiwis love to dress up in crazy outfits and some of them were hilarious.  There were some guys that dressed up as hardcore nerds, girls in leopard outfits, both guys and girls in 80s style spandex suits, and everywhere in between.  It was our job to sell water for $1 (difficult, i know), and let me just say that it's quite disgusting handling the sweaty money that girls pull out of their bra or underwear.  Yeah, gross. 

Saturday morning Ray and I went to volunteer at the Manawatu Gorge right outside of Palmy with the Department of Conservation.  She did something with a wheel barrow and I pulled weeds for three hours.  It was quite therapeutic actually.  However, it kind of sucked carrying an awkward 50 lb bag of weeds back up the hill.  My triceps are sore today, but that's kind of nice actually.  

Later on, I worked on my philosophy essay in lieu of taking a nap, ate some dinner, played some uno, and when the time came we headed into town.  The bus ride into town was absolutely obnoxious:  fifty or so drunk, screaming, and chanting 18 year olds.  And you almost saw three americans and a canadian go after a kiwi who was making derogatory comments at our expense (one of the girls that was with us is a hard core feminist) and then proceeded to hurl asinine insults at us/about the US.  So that was fun...  Despite all that nonsense, the night was pretty awesome.  

On another note, I've been developing the strangest accent and word bank.  Occasionally I say things like a kiwi would, or say things like "heaps," "ay," "sweet as," "cheers" (or "chur") or "keen."  However, New Zealanders aren't the only ones affecting my speech.  Lindsay is from California, so I've started to use "dude" in every other sentence, and she also says her Os like someone from the midwest would, and I'm definitely picking that up too.  Yeah i don't know.  And finally, there's a guy in the court who says everything like it's a question, and I've noticed that I've started to tell stories where every sentence sounds like a question.  It'll be interesting to see where I end up after a few more months of this...