'When will you realise, [New Zealand] waits for you'

Nothing too exciting happened since the last post, except a couple of friends and I went to a bonfire for some military guys who just got back from Afghanistan.  It was a pretty good time, except when one of the dogs ran under some of the brush for the bonfire that hadn't caught fire yet.  Don't worry, after several minutes of grueling uncertainty, someone was able to grab the little guy and pull him out.  The dog was pretty lucky as he escaped with minor burns on one of his paws and tail.  We slept in the car that night, and let's just say that it was freezing and terribly uncomfortable.  That was Saturday, and three days later, my hip still hurts from lying in the back seat.  My hip!?  How old am I, really?

On the way home on Sunday I had my first experience driving on the left side of the road.  I did pretty good, save for when I was only halfway in the road when I first started.  I'm just glad I've had a lot of practice looking right and then left when turning, otherwise I might have freaked out a little. 

So today is Cinqo de Mayo, and in case you were wondering, no it is not celebrated here.  I have no idea why... However, we made the best of it, having Old El Paso burritos, which is the best Mexican food we can find.  As you may have guessed, there aren't any Mexican food restaurants in Palmy, and just as a generalisation, Kiwis don't really like spicy foods.  We got some "hot" salsa once and it was probably the mildest salsa i've ever had.  It was basically tomato chunks.  Boy oh boy do I miss On the Border.

I realised when my parents were here that I've gotten much better at understanding people here.  I felt pretty cool when I could "translate" things to them when they couldn't understand a Kiwi.  Of course, if I hadn't gotten better at understanding people here by now, I would just be pathetic.  

As you may have noticed, their spelling has become quite natural to me for the most part.  Maybe it's because the "s" is easier to type on the keyboard than the "z"... It probably drives my mom crazy :)

And while it's not absolutely official yet, I'm planning on staying here until the end of August after volleyball nationals.  I'm working on getting my flight changed and getting a visa/holiday work permit at the moment and let's just say it's a process.  

Sorry about the lack of videos/photos on here lately, it's crunch time.

South Island and Volleyball

Well after my overnight stay in Palmy, I took a taxi to the airport on Sunday morning.  The day didn't start too well, as my original flight scheduled for 10am to Christchurch was cancelled, and Air New Zealand put me on an 11:40 flight to Wellington and a 1:10 flight to Christchurch.  She assured me that I'd make the flight to Queenstown that was set for 3ish.  It probably would have been ok if my Christchurch flight was on time, but it wasn't, so the first time I see my dad in NZ is him frantically asking me where i've been and rushing to try to make the flight.  It was too late to check in so I missed the flight.  I had a brief moment of panic, as my parents didn't have a phone and if i couldn't find a flight that day, it would be rather difficult to contact each other.  Luckily, however, I was able to get on a different flight a little over an hour later.  I thought I was pretty resourceful telling them what was going on via my voicemail greeting.  Clever ay?  haha

After that near disaster, the trip was pretty awesome.  We stayed at a sweet bed and breakfast in Queenstown:  they had wine and cheese, pesto and crackers every night, and some absolutely delicious, fresh brownies at the front desk.  Our first full day in Queenstown we did a jet-boating/funyaking up and down the river, which was cool (in both the literal and figurative ways).  Apparently the surrounding mountains were the site of a lot of the Lord of the Rings scenes, as well as some scenes in the Chronicles of Narnia.  I haven't seen the LOTR, and I don't remember what part of Narnia it was in, so it wasn't as cool as it could have been.  I should have done some movie research before I came here...

The next day we took a plane ride to Milford Sound, which was quite gorgeous, and then took the "gondola" up the mountain to see a Maori show.  We missed the show we were originally going to see, so we had some wine and cheese while we waited.  Anyone picking up on a theme here?  The show was cool:  I went on stage with some other people and did the "poi", which is basically a dance with a ball on the end of string, and the Maori music is so awesome (they're great harmonizers).  

On Wednesday we packed up the car and headed for Kaikoura, a small beach town on the east coast.  I have to say it was quite hilarious watching my parents go to the wrong side of the car every time we got in... I'm not sure they'll get it before they leave...  In Kaikoura we went whale watching, which, despite a quite boring sperm whale, was pretty cool.  After we saw the awe-inspiring flip of the tail by tutu the sperm whale, we saw a pod of orcas.  Now those are some cheeky little fellows:  they seemed to be putting on a show for us, swimming around and underneath the boat for several minutes.  They probably enjoyed watching us just as much, as we were running around the boat like idiots trying to see them.  I'll try to get a video of the big boys up reasonably soon.  After the whale-watching adventure we went to a winery and had some wine and cheese and crackers/bread.  Ok, surely you've got the theme by now...

If not, wine + cheese and crackers + beautiful scenery = a pretty awesome week.  :)

Friday it was time to jet, as I had to be in a town just outside of Wellington the next day for a volleyball tournament.  We took a 3 hour ferry ride from the South to the North Islander, which would have been agonising if I didn't go watch Slumdog Millionaire in the boat's cinema.

So volleyball is quite different here.  At the most basic level, the competition isn't terribly strong, but perhaps the biggest difference is, not surprisingly, the fact that it is so laid-back:  there weren't any real refs, we didn't even have an official coach, and it was pretty much just for fun.  It was reminiscent of rec league play the way it was set up.  It's been so long since I've played that much volleyball though - 6 matches in two days.  Needless to say I'm pretty sore.  The only match worth mentioning was the final, against the NZ Institute of Sport.  Apparently most of their players are on the NZ national team and are our big rivals.  The match went to five, and we lost, but it was a fun game.  Aaaaand it's been a long time since that has happened.  The bad part about the league we're in is that we play the same teams at the 5 tournaments until nationals... so it might get rather monotonous.  Oh well...

On another note, I played basketball (an actual game) tonight for the first time since 8th grade and I was ballin'.  I probably scored 14 points.  Not that it was super serious but it makes me feel pretty good.  :)

here's an album i made on facebook- it's mostly just scenery, so you may not be interested, but it's there if you want it!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143193&id=38706249&l=c30392117a

Wellington

Well, this is going to be pretty short, but I figured I'd save myself the trouble of having to include this in the next post, which will probably be much longer.

So, Wellington is quite awesome.  It's right by the ocean, the night life is pretty stellar, the shopping isn't bad, and there's heaps of outdoorsy stuff to do.

I finally saw a kiwi bird!  It was at the zoo, but still.  I have to say those are the funniest animals I've ever seen- they were just running around like chubby idiots.  Don't get me wrong, I love 'em, and they just might be my new favourite animal.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures because it was dark and I wasn't sure what the policy on flash photography was.  Here's one I got from the internet, and you can't even try to tell me you that you wouldn't laugh if you saw one of these guys running around.

We went bowling and it was "Texas Thursday", so that was fun, but it didn't really have anything to do with Texas except that there was a Texas hold 'em tournament or something.  Actually, they did have the Mavs/Rockets game on, but I have a feeling that was just a coincidence.  

Apparently calling children "cheeky buggers" is the equivalent of calling them little shits.  Haha, oops.  It sounds like such a cute term of endearment...

Well, I meet up with the parents tomorrow, so that'll be exciting!  Hopefully we do some killer stuff in Queenstown and where ever else we end up.

Here's a link to an album I made on Facebook:  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2142138&id=38706249&l=d869982546

The pictures aren't all that awesome, but if you're bored...  It includes stuff from the Botanical Gardens, the zoo, and Te Papa museum, along with some other random pics. 

Mid-Semester Break

Well, it's time for mid-semester break!  Yeah, it's hard to believe.  I'm heading to Wellington and staying at a friend's house and doing random stuff around the city for about a week, and then I'm meeting up with the parents for a killer week in the South Island.  To wrap things up, I'll go back to Wellington for a little volleyball tourney.  Sounds pretty sweet ay? :)

That being said, I'm not sure how active I'll be with updating the old blog.  I'll probably be able to make a post documenting my adventures in Wellington next Saturday, in which case I'd still be keeping up with my usual schedule.  No guarantees though, and if I don't make a post, be prepared for a hideously long one at the end of the break.

Nothing too exciting has happened since my last post, and this is about to get pretty random - sorry for the lack of organisation.  Dang it!  Their spelling is getting to me!

Carrying groceries back from town is the opposite of fun.  Especially if you bought milk, laundry detergent and two bottles of wine.  Let's just say my traps were sore the next day.  I think I'll make sure I catch the bus next time.

I still have one essay to finish- luckily I'm a little over half way done.  Who makes an essay due in the middle of a break?!  It makes it that much more difficult to get motivated.

So it's Easter weekend, and for such an ostensibly secular country, they take it pretty seriously.  It's against the law for anything to be open on Good Friday and probably on Easter as well.  Last night everything closed at midnight, and they'll close again at midnight on Saturday.  However, it is rather amusing because the bars open at midnight tonight, because it'll officially be Saturday... On a related note, I'm fairly upset that I'm missing "Via Dolorosa" (and the entire Good Friday service for that matter) back at Bethel.  I'll just have to settle for the Sandi Patty version on iTunes.

I've been downloading some of the embarrassing techno/dance music they like here, and I'm not gonna lie, I like it.  It's especially good running music too, so yeah, that's my excuse...

I forgot to mention that last week I was serenaded by a Maori rugby player when I was in line for the bathroom.  It was really awkward albeit kind of funny, but it's a good story.

It's starting to get pretty chilly here - especially at night.  Where did I get the impression that it would be relatively warm year-round?

While I already held this to be true prior to this week, it became all the more abundantly clear that "it's not what you say, it's what people hear." - Dr. Frank Luntz (I wouldn't want points taken off for plagiarism)

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...

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.