Yup, I Sandra Dzielak camped on a beach for my last night of spring break and it wasn't too shabby. But a lot happened in between so i'll back track a bit.
Last time I updated we were in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. I wanted to go white water rafting or something there but we instead stayed a night and shopped lol...very exciting i know :P although i did stop by an art gallery and I really want to find more paintings by John Reed they were amazing. Can't wait to get home and break out my new paint set! :) Lots of fun stuff to do this summer for me time. Queenstown was also my first of many starbucks stops during our break...it just wasn't the same as home or at the Convent...i missed my french pressed yummy coffee lol. And Starbucks always was available at like 10 or 11 when we would drive into towns and by that time my head and my physiological needs were being denied haha. (Bridget, one of the students from last fall semester is visiting Lisa Bond and she explaind to me last night why we actally need coffee, its a physiological need! haha) Anyway...yea or i'd make instant crappy coffee at the camp site...either way i was denied goodness and i was quite unpleasant in the mornings haha.
The drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound was probably one of the best parts of the trip, it was BEAUTIFUL, so was the drive from Mt. Cook to Queenstown...so fine, one of the highlights, the drives were amazing. My absolute favorite part though was the miles of alpine trees. The forest was thick enough that the sunlight would break through the tops of the canopy onto sporadic trees and the shadows and different shards of light throughout the trees was just absolutely breathtaking to me. There were miles of it at a time but I would just sit and watch from the car window and my heart would beat really fast and I'd get all excited on the inside. And because of us driving fast being at the angle we were on the road at times it reminded me of Lord of the Rings when they are running through the forest, or Twilight. It was heart pounding for me, God was taking my breathe away and knows what i love and what catches my eye. So it was pretty wicked. I stopped a few times to take pictures but it just wasn't the same because the parts of the road you could pull off to weren't as dense and the light wasn't the same...lol..but i'll remember it it's engraved in my head :) wow ok i just took up a paragraph about trees :) lol
Milford Sound kayaking trip was beautiful! I've never really kayaked before so that was a first for me, and it was so relaxing! We saw a set of little waterfalls that were from Hobbit town, LotR, and two huge waterfalls that are the only two permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound cuz the others only come with ice and snow melting or rain. We got to ride under one of the waterfalls and it pushed us out and it was so powerful you could barely breathe and got soaked. Then we saw a little misty waterfall with beautiful rainbows and a baby seal :)
Then we drove to Dunedin where we saw the Larnich Castle, Cadbury factory and Baldwin street-steepest street in the world. At Larnich Castle i was honestly not amused at taking normal touristy pictures and i tried to find good shots and interesting ones around the grounds...it makes me sound snotty, but i've seen cool buildings traveling with my family to Germany or CA and another building was really cool, i liked it a lot, however taking 'normal' pictures wasn't appealing to me, so a few cool ones that i got i was pretty proud of :)
Cadbury factory! YUMBO AS! Amazing. The tour we couldn't take any pictures, because we tour the actual factory and you have hairnets and wash your hands and stuff. And as you go through each stage they give you a piece of chocolate to put in your baggy that is unique to NZ Cadbury candy :) And we saw the world's largest chocolate waterfall and they poured one ton or chocolate for us. and after we got to taste warm delicious melted chocolate in a little cup...ommmmyyy. It was proly the best chocolate i have ever tasted in my whole life..and i've had a lot of chocolate, but melted like that...omy yumbo! Yum :) heaven in a cup is what i called it :) lol
Baldwin Street was cool to walk up...but we took like 3 breaks haha. And then drove up it and it wasn't that exciting but for our camper van to do it it was exciting cuz it was so rickety.
So after Dundein we visited the Maeroki Boulders (spelling proly wrong) and it was sweet as! The rocks are round, just these random round boulders on a beach in all different spots and some are cracked open and others are just cracked and look like turtles, its just sweet :)
We stayed in Timaru that night, slept in the camper one last time and stayed up playing Farkle (dice game) and cards. Next morning we had to clean out our van and pack.
Last stop KAIKOURA! We took a bus home and Lisa picked us up from the bus stop and we had fish and chips on the beach :) We were going to make smores and I discovered that NZ doesn't have graham crackers, or large marshmallows available so i found cookies that were similar to graham crackers, and baby marshmallows that were green pink and white and then Cadbury chocolate :) We made a fire, smores and chatted and watched the stars. And Alyssa and I took some sweet as night shots spelling things out in the air with our headlamps and the stars as our backdrop :) First night camping, it wasn't too bad, like i said :) Alyssa and I laughed a lot before bed, and when we woke up at 6 for the sunrise we laughed SO much we were very tired and silly.
So basically the best road trip ever (also my only road trip haha) and I really really enjoyed the scenery and on this trip I got to see the beautiful side of New Zealand that I dreamed of seeing before the trip, but even more. So i'm excited to go home and print out my pictures, however i have a lot of editing to do cuz i have spots on my mirror inside and all my pictures have black dots in them...so yea lol. However i will work on it when i get home :)
Yup so i'm back in Kaikoura, survived. Need prayer, tired, lots on my mind, new class this week, and next week we leave for the West Coast for terrestrial ecology.
I'll try to post pictures on facebook sometime this week when i go into town!
OH OH OH!!!! I almost forgot!!! I went surfing after church yesterday!! Basically one of the most awesome things i've ever done! I went with Rhonda and Marty, two friends from New Life church, and Brian, Lisa their fam and Deb and her fam were out there as well. Rhonda taught me and I kinda learned as i went so it was a lot harder for me to do it that way instead of getting all the info first then a step by step as a i went, so i was like ...ohh..thats what i was supposed to be doing lol. First i suited up and used a long white foam board and we paddled out and sat out to wait for waves, it took me a little while to figure out how to balance and paddle correctly on the board, then sit on it, but i got it :) And the ocean is kinda scary to me, i've never been a fan of being in the waves, ever since i was little, but i definitly conquered that fear! haha. So basically God had his arms wrapped around me during this whole experience. I tried to catch my first wave and totally wiped out haha. Note: the waves were "3 feet" aka they are like 5 feet high at times, taller than a person, and it was high tide. (later i was told it wasn't the best conditions to be taught in...lol...yea) and after that it was really weird being tossed under the water, i never really did that before...well maybe when i was like 3 and almost drown...but since then i haven't gotten close to that experience for a reason, and when i went under i just had faith that the wave would evenetually fade out and i could swim to the surface, so i did. lol. i kinda laughed after i got on my board, my hair was all askew and i got on and paddled over to Rhonda and Marty lol. I sat and tried to catch some but they were flat on the side we were on, and then i caught one, not standing but i caught it and it was one of the BEST feelings ever, wow it was soo cool :) And i saw Rhonda and gave her a huge smile and thumbs up and CRASH lol, and i was fine, but then i didn't know what to do, the waves were coming at me and i was in between the white crashing waves and the rocky shore, so i kept getting pummled and it was to hard to swim back in, which i didn't really know how to do properly at that point, and i tried to get out of the water but kept getting knocked down, so i got out kinda, tried to get back in and i was praying like God please help me i don't know what to do and i was too tired to paddle, and then this big wave knocked me over off my feet, Rhonda said from shore she could see my feet above the water and I had this like outer body experience where i could picture what was happening to me like in a movie, where my board and my body was being tossed forward in a summer sault and i was so close to the shore at that point and the way i went forward i should have hit my head, it looked bad to me and i was in the experience and Rhonda said it looked really bad from the shore when she finally got back to it and she ran over and she thought i must have hit my head, and i stood up finally and i couldn't hear much cuz my ears had water in them and i had so much water in my stomach and lungs and she said i looked so disoriented she thought i must have hit my head, but i was just trying to recover from what happened, and God DEFINITLY had his hedge of protection around me because i wasn't injured in any way, my arms, legs, and thankfully my head were all fine! It was amazing! totally God.
After that i sat on shore with Rhonda and we waited for the swell to go down so i could get back in lol, but when we did it was just so big that i got really panicky and was so tired i couldn't paddle back in, so we went back to shore. Then come to find out, late, that it was high tide and the waves were narly for the other surfers. So i didn't feel so bad lol. When they all came in for lunch they said it was proly best i didn't go in until high tide was down because it was hard to learn in that kind of condition. So i sat and watched and loved it, i watched how people paddled in and how they caught the waves and etc. And I thanked God for protecting me and for the experience of hanging out with everyone etc. :) Brian said Sandy is a good surfer name ;) haha. I think so too. Rhonda and Marty said they'll take me out again this week when the surf isn't high tide and the little waves seem like nothing now! I'm ready bring it on!! :) I was so excited when i got back, i was on such a high, now i know why the guys come back from surfing and are all smiley and giddy :) haha. It's great :) I'm doing a lot of firsts here in NZ, kayaking, camping, real hiking, swimming with seals, and SURFINGG:)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Spring Break!! :)
Hey guys I'm safe and sound on my Spring Break :) Day two and it's awesome :) I already had Easter and it was one of the best easters ever. But to back track we got our camper van in Christchurch, drove to Mt. Cook and it was raining but woke up in the morning to a mist and a beautiful hike on Easter morning :) it looked like lord of the rings scenery and with the fog it was mysterious and beautiful. It was a 4ish hour hike and at the end there was a glacier and one of them was breaking into the water with this huge crash it was so cool :) so get this! we sat down to have communion, bread and purple vitamin water (with the flavor called revive ;)) and after we had communion someone said to turn around and the sky opened up this window and we saw the GORGEOUS snow capped mountains!!! they have been hiding cuz its foggy and we were all just taken away. It was SOOO awesome almost like God was like, hey thanks for being thankful, here's my gift to you :) It was ridiculous :) we all got pretty tired by the end and finally could take off our layer and layers of clothes, it felt like winter :) i loved it tho, i finally get to experience my winter weather, hats gloves, under armour and i'm in NZ...how could it get better? well at that point i wanted coffee cuz i hadn't had it that morning..but it's alright lol. We got back and made pbj sandwiches which tasted great at that point. And we dropped off Lance's friends that hitchhiked with us (friends from home no worries!) and said bye to them and started toward Queenstown.(I'm with Morgan, Lance and Alyssa, Lance our boyscout is our driver and well boyscouter with camping knowledge)
The drive to Queenstown was RIDICULOUS!! gorgeous, breathtaking, awesome, crazy. our breathe was taken away multiple times. we got to Queenstown had these great recommended burgers from Fregburger and now i'm at the internet cafe updating u! love you guys :) i'm safe, no worries ;)
Tomorrow we are heading toward Milford sound and kayaking there, then we will spend time more time there then head to Dunedin to go to the Cadbury factory, Maeroki boulders, penguins, etc...lots to do, but man the drives to the places are definitly worth it!! We are having a lot of fun so far and God is blessing us with good deals on our cars that we didn't expect.
We are staying in a camper van..basically the size of a van at home, not an actual camper. it has 5 seats, two in front, 3 in way back with storage in between that has a sink in the boot (trunk) and a table. Last night we made Ramen and i was so happy cuz i was hungry and cold. This is my first time camping and road trippin so i'm really really excited and loving it :) Camping relaly doens't seem that bad because of Samoa. Alyssa and I are sleeping in the van (lucky us :)) and Lance and Morgan are sleeping outside in tents. We lock the van so no worries mom. :) love you and talk to you soon!!
The drive to Queenstown was RIDICULOUS!! gorgeous, breathtaking, awesome, crazy. our breathe was taken away multiple times. we got to Queenstown had these great recommended burgers from Fregburger and now i'm at the internet cafe updating u! love you guys :) i'm safe, no worries ;)
Tomorrow we are heading toward Milford sound and kayaking there, then we will spend time more time there then head to Dunedin to go to the Cadbury factory, Maeroki boulders, penguins, etc...lots to do, but man the drives to the places are definitly worth it!! We are having a lot of fun so far and God is blessing us with good deals on our cars that we didn't expect.
We are staying in a camper van..basically the size of a van at home, not an actual camper. it has 5 seats, two in front, 3 in way back with storage in between that has a sink in the boot (trunk) and a table. Last night we made Ramen and i was so happy cuz i was hungry and cold. This is my first time camping and road trippin so i'm really really excited and loving it :) Camping relaly doens't seem that bad because of Samoa. Alyssa and I are sleeping in the van (lucky us :)) and Lance and Morgan are sleeping outside in tents. We lock the van so no worries mom. :) love you and talk to you soon!!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Samoa! Weeekkk 1! lava fields, food, traveling terrors
(i figured week one was so long i'd split it up)
Hey I’m back from Samoa! (side note: I was in Western Samoa just so ya know, not American Samoa, we did have weather warnings, but yea most of you looked at American…and American is more modern than western)
ANYWAYS! We experienced so much so you best believe this blog is gonna be beastly long!
Sooo I was really nervous for Samoa, packing, leaving etc. more nervous than excited, like I usually am when I travel. We drove two hours to Christchurch, took a flight to Auckland for an hour seemed like a breeze, 3 hours with movies! Finally finished watching the Proposal, I had like a half hour left of that movie. We arrived in Samoa in the early early am and had to go through security and stuff and man as soon as we got off that plane and walked down those steps it was like ‘yup…this is humidity…this is Samoa” (90 degrees, 90% humidity most of the trip) We got there at like 4am and drove to our hotel and people were awake, we were like uhh..wow people are up early in Samoa. We got to our hotel and they said there was a tsunami warning so we had to go to a different one at higher ground. Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous…possibly because I was really tired and just wanted to sleep, and cuz I knew God would keep us safe..i just didn’t have any fear. So we got to sleep at a crappy hotel…but not in a room but in the lobby..on the concrete floor..It was GREAT! Jk not really and I barely slept. We were supposed to “wake up” at 9 but that didn’t happen cuz well…there was a warning and I was up from the time we left Kaikoura til that moment. Now that I think of it, I really didn’t get much sleep the entire time in Samoa.
So we finally got to our sketch “hotel” we were supposed to stay at the first time, Tatiana. It wasn’t so great cuz it was hot, cement walls which wasn’t very ‘cool’ and when I went into the room I kinda felt like it was this NYC sketch place where the light flickers, flickers, flickers, til it comes on and makes a buzzy noise and then you hear someone say “oh don’t mind the blood on the floor…no one was killed” and “don’t mind the cockroaches and they won’t mind you lol. Jk. It wasn’t like that but reminded me of that…sketchy and uncomfortable. Stinky, one fan, two beds, one table and a small clothes line. Window for ‘circulation’ that led out to the hallway…not outside. Lol.
Um I couldn’t wait to get out of that place :P It all sounds very negative cuz well it is. I didn’t enjoy that place, and I wasn’t feeling well and I was over exhausted. And well that night i had just about one of the very lowest times in my entire life, i was up for 48 hours and laid onto a bed that was lodging its springs into my back, i was over heated, over exhausted, over tired and breaking down...i wrote a very depressing journal entry that night...i can semi chuckle about it now...but i was sad. i wanted to call my mom...however that was impossible. I prayed a bit and cried a bit. Jody came in later and switched beds with me cuz he got me lost, and i was so so thankful, and then she prayed and we drifted off...
The next full day in Apia at Tatiana hotel we were supposed to go around the ‘city’ and explore to buy a lava lava which is like a wrap, but you have to keep it below the knee and we’d wear them with shorts…every day. And you could only take em off for swimming or in the privacy of your room, and when we swam we had to wear a tshirt and shorts, after a while I really got used to it, I didn’t even care the very last day when they said you could take them off, I was comfortable. Lol. The first day we had to split off into pairs and Jody and I were together. We had fun, got out lava lavas, and hunted for a lunch place which basically took us forever cuz Saturday there wasn’t a lot open and we kept being pointed to other places and walked farther and farther….so we decided to finally turn around and found a place to get kebabs and we were happy to sit down. BUT the adventure began when we tried to head back to the hotel, I don’t know what we were thinking. I was following Jody cuz she seemed to have a good sense of direction and she claimed she knew where she was going, I just followed her and I would say out loud occasionally, this doesn’t look familiar, and at other points I’d say it inside…being more visual as I am…nothing looked familiar from the past two days. We asked a few people, one person led us very astray and one man was like “oh you’re very far” we’re like oh crap…great…according to the map we got with street names…but no actually physical street signs in samoa…not helpful…lol. We were very very far. So we tried to ask someone for a phone they didn’t have one. And we asked a lady how to get back and she may or may not have helped out a lot lol.
A few days later we went to Safua Hotel, which was in Savaii. Apia is on Upolu which is a different island. So we had to take a ferry and then drive to Safua. It was much much nicer than Tatiana. The girls all stayed in a fala (pronounced fa-lay) that was closed, and fit all of us, 7! Two bunks, one double, two singles. I made the mistake of sleeping in the room not directly under the fan and did not sleep at all, so I moved my bed and felt much better the next day.
The first day in Savaii we went to lava fields, which were basically hardened lava that stretched for miles til it got to the coast. And God provided a nice breeze during the whole walk and the coast was absolutely beautiful, I’ve never seen waves so big and GORGEOUS crystal blue. We also saw ocean arches and blowholes that day, very sweet. Ocean arches are well…the ocean wears and tears on the coast and creates a natural arch and the water flows underneath, its quite pretty. The blowholes not sure how they are formed but water shoots up from the ground like old faithful but its by the coast and is determined by the waves comin in. The guys that came along threw coconuts and we saw how ridiculously high they shot up. Warren, an 80 year old man who retired in Samoa, was our guide this first week. And in the lava fields he was describing how people degredate the lava fields and tear it up, someone asked ‘how do we stop the degradation’ he quickly replied ‘machine gun’ and walked away nonchalantly lol. We were all like…wow…can’t believe he just said that lol. We also got to hike up the second largest volcano in Savaii.
In Savaii we also got to swim in front of a beautiful waterfall in this cool blue pool, we saw how they prepared their food and traditional mats and handmade stuff. It was amazing! Just to make coconut cream is such a huge task, its crazy, I definitely appreciated my food after that…although I wasn’t too faithful eating it all the first week.
The Food! So if you were wondering what I was eating for two weeks it consisted of taro, breadfruit, bananas, rice, veggies, fish, tinfish and coconut and something else wrapped in taro leaves, lots of curry chicken, pork, bread lots of bread. That was at Safua. My stomach really had a lot of trouble adjusting, I couldn’t always eat it all. Taro is like a thick thick potato, it was only good in my opinion if you cooked it right or had coconut cream with it. Breadfruit actually comes from the tree and has the consistency of bread in a sense, but is only good in my opinion if its hot and baked. Curry was not how I excepted, but it was decent. I ate a lot of rice when I couldn’t eat the other things, and the fish and coconut wrapped in leaves was really oober strong, I liked it depending on how the host cooked it. But after my stomach adjusted a bit more I was so surprised how much I was able to eat. I feel like I’m definitely becoming a world traveler. I am able to tolerate pretty nasty situations now, I'm getting tolerate of low accomodations and little comfort and little comfort food.
Week two: part two: homestays and hurricane warnings coming soon!
Hey I’m back from Samoa! (side note: I was in Western Samoa just so ya know, not American Samoa, we did have weather warnings, but yea most of you looked at American…and American is more modern than western)
ANYWAYS! We experienced so much so you best believe this blog is gonna be beastly long!
Sooo I was really nervous for Samoa, packing, leaving etc. more nervous than excited, like I usually am when I travel. We drove two hours to Christchurch, took a flight to Auckland for an hour seemed like a breeze, 3 hours with movies! Finally finished watching the Proposal, I had like a half hour left of that movie. We arrived in Samoa in the early early am and had to go through security and stuff and man as soon as we got off that plane and walked down those steps it was like ‘yup…this is humidity…this is Samoa” (90 degrees, 90% humidity most of the trip) We got there at like 4am and drove to our hotel and people were awake, we were like uhh..wow people are up early in Samoa. We got to our hotel and they said there was a tsunami warning so we had to go to a different one at higher ground. Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous…possibly because I was really tired and just wanted to sleep, and cuz I knew God would keep us safe..i just didn’t have any fear. So we got to sleep at a crappy hotel…but not in a room but in the lobby..on the concrete floor..It was GREAT! Jk not really and I barely slept. We were supposed to “wake up” at 9 but that didn’t happen cuz well…there was a warning and I was up from the time we left Kaikoura til that moment. Now that I think of it, I really didn’t get much sleep the entire time in Samoa.
So we finally got to our sketch “hotel” we were supposed to stay at the first time, Tatiana. It wasn’t so great cuz it was hot, cement walls which wasn’t very ‘cool’ and when I went into the room I kinda felt like it was this NYC sketch place where the light flickers, flickers, flickers, til it comes on and makes a buzzy noise and then you hear someone say “oh don’t mind the blood on the floor…no one was killed” and “don’t mind the cockroaches and they won’t mind you lol. Jk. It wasn’t like that but reminded me of that…sketchy and uncomfortable. Stinky, one fan, two beds, one table and a small clothes line. Window for ‘circulation’ that led out to the hallway…not outside. Lol.
Um I couldn’t wait to get out of that place :P It all sounds very negative cuz well it is. I didn’t enjoy that place, and I wasn’t feeling well and I was over exhausted. And well that night i had just about one of the very lowest times in my entire life, i was up for 48 hours and laid onto a bed that was lodging its springs into my back, i was over heated, over exhausted, over tired and breaking down...i wrote a very depressing journal entry that night...i can semi chuckle about it now...but i was sad. i wanted to call my mom...however that was impossible. I prayed a bit and cried a bit. Jody came in later and switched beds with me cuz he got me lost, and i was so so thankful, and then she prayed and we drifted off...
The next full day in Apia at Tatiana hotel we were supposed to go around the ‘city’ and explore to buy a lava lava which is like a wrap, but you have to keep it below the knee and we’d wear them with shorts…every day. And you could only take em off for swimming or in the privacy of your room, and when we swam we had to wear a tshirt and shorts, after a while I really got used to it, I didn’t even care the very last day when they said you could take them off, I was comfortable. Lol. The first day we had to split off into pairs and Jody and I were together. We had fun, got out lava lavas, and hunted for a lunch place which basically took us forever cuz Saturday there wasn’t a lot open and we kept being pointed to other places and walked farther and farther….so we decided to finally turn around and found a place to get kebabs and we were happy to sit down. BUT the adventure began when we tried to head back to the hotel, I don’t know what we were thinking. I was following Jody cuz she seemed to have a good sense of direction and she claimed she knew where she was going, I just followed her and I would say out loud occasionally, this doesn’t look familiar, and at other points I’d say it inside…being more visual as I am…nothing looked familiar from the past two days. We asked a few people, one person led us very astray and one man was like “oh you’re very far” we’re like oh crap…great…according to the map we got with street names…but no actually physical street signs in samoa…not helpful…lol. We were very very far. So we tried to ask someone for a phone they didn’t have one. And we asked a lady how to get back and she may or may not have helped out a lot lol.
A few days later we went to Safua Hotel, which was in Savaii. Apia is on Upolu which is a different island. So we had to take a ferry and then drive to Safua. It was much much nicer than Tatiana. The girls all stayed in a fala (pronounced fa-lay) that was closed, and fit all of us, 7! Two bunks, one double, two singles. I made the mistake of sleeping in the room not directly under the fan and did not sleep at all, so I moved my bed and felt much better the next day.
The first day in Savaii we went to lava fields, which were basically hardened lava that stretched for miles til it got to the coast. And God provided a nice breeze during the whole walk and the coast was absolutely beautiful, I’ve never seen waves so big and GORGEOUS crystal blue. We also saw ocean arches and blowholes that day, very sweet. Ocean arches are well…the ocean wears and tears on the coast and creates a natural arch and the water flows underneath, its quite pretty. The blowholes not sure how they are formed but water shoots up from the ground like old faithful but its by the coast and is determined by the waves comin in. The guys that came along threw coconuts and we saw how ridiculously high they shot up. Warren, an 80 year old man who retired in Samoa, was our guide this first week. And in the lava fields he was describing how people degredate the lava fields and tear it up, someone asked ‘how do we stop the degradation’ he quickly replied ‘machine gun’ and walked away nonchalantly lol. We were all like…wow…can’t believe he just said that lol. We also got to hike up the second largest volcano in Savaii.
In Savaii we also got to swim in front of a beautiful waterfall in this cool blue pool, we saw how they prepared their food and traditional mats and handmade stuff. It was amazing! Just to make coconut cream is such a huge task, its crazy, I definitely appreciated my food after that…although I wasn’t too faithful eating it all the first week.
The Food! So if you were wondering what I was eating for two weeks it consisted of taro, breadfruit, bananas, rice, veggies, fish, tinfish and coconut and something else wrapped in taro leaves, lots of curry chicken, pork, bread lots of bread. That was at Safua. My stomach really had a lot of trouble adjusting, I couldn’t always eat it all. Taro is like a thick thick potato, it was only good in my opinion if you cooked it right or had coconut cream with it. Breadfruit actually comes from the tree and has the consistency of bread in a sense, but is only good in my opinion if its hot and baked. Curry was not how I excepted, but it was decent. I ate a lot of rice when I couldn’t eat the other things, and the fish and coconut wrapped in leaves was really oober strong, I liked it depending on how the host cooked it. But after my stomach adjusted a bit more I was so surprised how much I was able to eat. I feel like I’m definitely becoming a world traveler. I am able to tolerate pretty nasty situations now, I'm getting tolerate of low accomodations and little comfort and little comfort food.
Week two: part two: homestays and hurricane warnings coming soon!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Quick updates before Samoa!
Hey guys :) Sorry I didn't get on things are crazy! and no laptop=difficulties
However when I get back from Samoa you will get a wonderfully awesome update! pray for my safety and health!
So some quick updates about what has been going on.
After our homestays we had Marine Ecology, we did a lot of lecture time (not my favorite, but applicational) and lost of field work which was a ton of fun, I was with Alex, Sarah and Angelica and we laughed a lot :) We searched around for creatures and then found out their name and observed them, it was more fun than that may sound :P That week was alright, not my fav but i did good in the class, A- so that is half of my Science lab grade for school and it will be continued with Terrestrial Ecology.
The weekend after Marine Ecology, which i was i think the....20th? (Saturday) Alyssa, Morgan, Angelica and I went with Lisa Bond for the day! It was great, we went to Blenheim and Picton to see this beautiful waterfall, ridiculous scenery, shop at a "Warehouse" which is like Kmart, and Alyssa got her Big Mac from Mickey D's. lol. That evenining some of us went to play squash, its kinda like raquetball, and it was so much fun! Angelica and I just laughed the whole time really lol. on the way home we stopped at a back road and just layed down to look at the stars...ommiggoodness it was definitly one of my favorite moments of the trip. It was BEAUTIFUL! I've never ever seen so many stars and we can see the milky way from here :) It was Ridiculous! :)
Church was also pretty choice eh. Pastor Brent is an awesome guy, he talked about how our worth is not based on our performance but on our identity in God. Then Lysa, Morgs and Kelsey and I went into town and uploaded pictures and i almost had a breakdown cuz i thought the computer ate all my pictures!!! But i was safe..almost broke down...lol.
Then this past week was reading week, we did a lot of....dun dun dun READING! well we were supposed to, i didn't do very well at that, i got distracted, or napped...or yea..lol. But i'll be bringing some reading to Samoa for the plane ride and the free time we have i guess. We did however have some fun group activities during the week. On Monday we played Soccer and that was quite fun :) We have to bike to the field and back so it was lots of excercise. Oh and during the game someone corner kicked it adn i did this sweet hip check and hit the ball into the goal :) It was pretty sweet. lol. Then we threw around the frisbee for a bit and that was so fun :) love frisbee.
Somethng that has been pretty awesome while I've been here is that i get to enjoy some of my favorite things being: coffee, icecream and frisbee. I know those are small little things but its sweet as that i get to have them. Oh and just so you all know, sweet as is a very common Kiwi phrase here, like choice eh, sweet as, knackered as, lots of different phrases and Kiwi lingo. lol.
Oh also this week i did some picture uploading in town so go to my facebook and enjoy those! Sorry i couldn't put them on here i didn't have time. And I also had lunch with Lisa Bond which was fun :) it was at her work, she works at Whale Watch. Then i went shoppin and went on a casual bike ride which was good relaxing me time before Samoa.
Last night we played "murder in the dark" which is a really fun game where you have cards, like in mafia and one or two people are the murderers, you turn off the lights and the people go around and you "kill them" and whoever dies lies on the ground and when someone finds them we yell murder in the dark and turn on the light to figure out who did it. it was a lot o ffun actually, we played like 3 rounds with all the staff and students :)
Then...PACKING...packing so stresses me out but i figured it all out last night and Lisa prayed with me and that really helped to destress me. Today we're just finishing up and packing out dinners for the plane and cleaning our rooms..etc. Please pray for me I'm nervous but a little bit excited.
Week one in Samoa will be group things like 'class' where we explore and learn new things and go to the market. The first day we actually go to the Market and we have to buy 'lava lava's which are like wraps and we have to wear them everyday for modesty reasons, even the guys. We will be at Safua hotel, but it isn't a hotel lol, we have been reassured lol. And then week two we go with our homestay families huts with one other student, i'm nervous about that week the most. But i'm sure it'll be fun.
Pray for my safety, my health and just that God will bless us all on our trip. We get back the 13th of March! Can you believe its almost March!!? wow...
so yea..backtracking but we leave at 4 NZ time, drive to the airport, fly to Auckland, fly to Samoa, spend time in Upolu? then take a ferry to Savaii where we will do homestays. Yup i think that's about it! I'll come back and expect emails and loving things sent to me lol. I can't check facebook at the convent so please email me if you are trying to chat or just get ahold of me, and depending on the time difference i can set up skype chat dates or call! calls aren't expensive so just let me know! love you all :) praying for you all too! <3
However when I get back from Samoa you will get a wonderfully awesome update! pray for my safety and health!
So some quick updates about what has been going on.
After our homestays we had Marine Ecology, we did a lot of lecture time (not my favorite, but applicational) and lost of field work which was a ton of fun, I was with Alex, Sarah and Angelica and we laughed a lot :) We searched around for creatures and then found out their name and observed them, it was more fun than that may sound :P That week was alright, not my fav but i did good in the class, A- so that is half of my Science lab grade for school and it will be continued with Terrestrial Ecology.
The weekend after Marine Ecology, which i was i think the....20th? (Saturday) Alyssa, Morgan, Angelica and I went with Lisa Bond for the day! It was great, we went to Blenheim and Picton to see this beautiful waterfall, ridiculous scenery, shop at a "Warehouse" which is like Kmart, and Alyssa got her Big Mac from Mickey D's. lol. That evenining some of us went to play squash, its kinda like raquetball, and it was so much fun! Angelica and I just laughed the whole time really lol. on the way home we stopped at a back road and just layed down to look at the stars...ommiggoodness it was definitly one of my favorite moments of the trip. It was BEAUTIFUL! I've never ever seen so many stars and we can see the milky way from here :) It was Ridiculous! :)
Church was also pretty choice eh. Pastor Brent is an awesome guy, he talked about how our worth is not based on our performance but on our identity in God. Then Lysa, Morgs and Kelsey and I went into town and uploaded pictures and i almost had a breakdown cuz i thought the computer ate all my pictures!!! But i was safe..almost broke down...lol.
Then this past week was reading week, we did a lot of....dun dun dun READING! well we were supposed to, i didn't do very well at that, i got distracted, or napped...or yea..lol. But i'll be bringing some reading to Samoa for the plane ride and the free time we have i guess. We did however have some fun group activities during the week. On Monday we played Soccer and that was quite fun :) We have to bike to the field and back so it was lots of excercise. Oh and during the game someone corner kicked it adn i did this sweet hip check and hit the ball into the goal :) It was pretty sweet. lol. Then we threw around the frisbee for a bit and that was so fun :) love frisbee.
Somethng that has been pretty awesome while I've been here is that i get to enjoy some of my favorite things being: coffee, icecream and frisbee. I know those are small little things but its sweet as that i get to have them. Oh and just so you all know, sweet as is a very common Kiwi phrase here, like choice eh, sweet as, knackered as, lots of different phrases and Kiwi lingo. lol.
Oh also this week i did some picture uploading in town so go to my facebook and enjoy those! Sorry i couldn't put them on here i didn't have time. And I also had lunch with Lisa Bond which was fun :) it was at her work, she works at Whale Watch. Then i went shoppin and went on a casual bike ride which was good relaxing me time before Samoa.
Last night we played "murder in the dark" which is a really fun game where you have cards, like in mafia and one or two people are the murderers, you turn off the lights and the people go around and you "kill them" and whoever dies lies on the ground and when someone finds them we yell murder in the dark and turn on the light to figure out who did it. it was a lot o ffun actually, we played like 3 rounds with all the staff and students :)
Then...PACKING...packing so stresses me out but i figured it all out last night and Lisa prayed with me and that really helped to destress me. Today we're just finishing up and packing out dinners for the plane and cleaning our rooms..etc. Please pray for me I'm nervous but a little bit excited.
Week one in Samoa will be group things like 'class' where we explore and learn new things and go to the market. The first day we actually go to the Market and we have to buy 'lava lava's which are like wraps and we have to wear them everyday for modesty reasons, even the guys. We will be at Safua hotel, but it isn't a hotel lol, we have been reassured lol. And then week two we go with our homestay families huts with one other student, i'm nervous about that week the most. But i'm sure it'll be fun.
Pray for my safety, my health and just that God will bless us all on our trip. We get back the 13th of March! Can you believe its almost March!!? wow...
so yea..backtracking but we leave at 4 NZ time, drive to the airport, fly to Auckland, fly to Samoa, spend time in Upolu? then take a ferry to Savaii where we will do homestays. Yup i think that's about it! I'll come back and expect emails and loving things sent to me lol. I can't check facebook at the convent so please email me if you are trying to chat or just get ahold of me, and depending on the time difference i can set up skype chat dates or call! calls aren't expensive so just let me know! love you all :) praying for you all too! <3
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Hiking, Traveling and Sheep!
I have done a very bad job of maintaining my blog, and I'm sorry! There has just been so much going on, and my laptop died and i felt so behind to update, but i will give it a shot to semi update you.
First week was orientation, i kind of talked about that, we were shown around the city, biked a lot, hiked up a small part of Mount Fyffe then hiked a bigger trail up Sawcut Gorge, it was very pretty, we did a lot of stream crossings and there were a lot of mini waterfalls and boulders to climb up. It was beautiful! I liked that hike better than the other hike, we learned a lot about the trees but there wasn't much to look at. We also visisted the Topps sheep farm, which i will get more into later. We were out and about most days in the first week or were busy doing orientation, shopping for forgotten items, learning the ropes around the convent.
Our second weekend here we had our "pre semester break" lol. People at Messiah already had a couple weeks of school and we had a 'break" lol. It was really just a long weekend and they kick us out of the convent from thursday til sunday afternoon. The girls went to Christchurch and the boys hiked up Mt.Tappy (its like Tapunoku but my spelling is way off) Well and Jody went with her family that weekend. So it was Sarah, Morgan, Kelsey, Angelica, Alyssa and I. Scott, Lance, Alex and Caleb went campin and trampin (tramping is what they call hiking). We took a bus into Christchurch, it was like a 3 hour bus ride and our bus driver got pulled over for speeding lol. We found our hostel, which is like well...a hostel, a 1 star hotel lol. It's for backpackers and travelers. We stayed at "Charlie B's", in one room with three bunks, and co-ed bathrooms...it was kinda um, yea i ignored the circumstances lol. It was really loud at night and we were right above the main entrance on the second floor so the door slammed a lot. We didn't really sleep the first night. Every morning we would make pb&j for our lunches, and walk somewhere to get breakfast and sit in a park or cafe. We went to the Botannical Gardens and it was beautiful of course! TONS of flowers, every color rose you can imagine, and tons of crazy trees and scenic spots. I got stuck in a tree at one point lol. We ate at Dux de Lux the first night and i had a Salmon Salad it was great! and the fries were super good!. Salad was oober good too! On Sunday we went to a Catholic Church and i loved it actually. I asked God that morning to open my heart to whatever he wanted to say to me, and i was skeptical of it i thouht it'd be boring and all that. But God definitly showed up, it was really powerful. It showed me that no matter what kind of worship setting are in God's presence can be with you and you can be fed and hear from him and enjoy it. It was pretty sweet, the choir was heavenly of course, they had an all male choir ages ranging from probably 8-50, and the boys voices were so high!!! After church we shopped around and headed back home to Kaikoura. I could not wait to get back to the convent, being in the city for 4 days with 6 people with their own ideas about what to do got a bit tiring. but we did bond and it was fun.
Our technical second week we had our first class. I loved the teacher and the class, everyone agreed and it went by so fast! We had Mick Duncan, aka Michael Duncan, aka just Mick. Mick is a sarcastic Kiwi (Kiwi's are the New Zealand natives) who tells great stories and really dives into tough issues. It was great, the class is called Sustainable Development and we started off with the big picture ideas of statistics, why people are in poverty, what creates poverty, how can people build communities...etc etc, and actually a lot of spiritual application and life principle kinda stuff that was simple, real and profound that didn't necessarily apply to class but it was good. I also had a good one on one chat with Mick. We had to read 4 articles and write four papers on the summary, application to class and personal application. We all agreed as a community of students on a Friday internet fast, so we can have hang out time after class is over so we wanted to finish before thursday, and friday night we were going on our homestays. Our schedule for class was 9-12 with breaks, and 7:15-9 or later Mon-Fri. It wasn't that bad cuz Mick was good, at night we watched a movie, had a debate, did skits, and talked about deep stuff lol.
This weekend!! We had our homestays. it was GREAT. Some students went by themselves and some were assigned together. Lance and I went to the Sandy and Kevin Topps sheep farm :) We visited the first week and i was semi skeptical about staying there for a weekend but it was awesome:) I had a lot of fun. The first night we had a huge dinner of all these different meats and yummy grilled stuff. We played tennis and Sandy is a hardcore tennis player who is known for making fun of people but she just made fun of Abe's last visit and when i messed up i laughed at myself lol. We didn't really keep score, but I'd say if we did the Sandy's won ;) lol. That was quite confusing, having two Sandy's in the house but i loved them. They are really silly in their own way and sarcasm just makes things fun :) I got the chore of taking care of the chickens, aka chooks. I would change their water, feed them and collect the eggs. Lance took care of the dogs, they have multiple work dogs and three pet dogs. Two cats and two wild pigs. Oh and of course A TON of sheep, and cows that live way off. They have about 3,000 acres and are leasing more than that. The first night we also drove with Kevin to herd the baby sheep to a certain spot, they were so cute :) Oh and we had dessert, a Kiwi special, its this really really sweet almost marshmallow dessert with kiwis on top. Going to bed was an adventure actually. I didn't realized my window was left open and i had all these bugs so i turned off the light and turned on a little lamp and tonsss were in there, i ignored them and wrote in my journal and then this HHUGEE bug dive bombed me! It was huge, literally TTTTTTHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSS BIG!!!!!! Ugh lol, i almost woke up Lance to get it, but he was sleeping and so was Sandy and Kevin...soo it landed on this huge Bible and i put it out in the living room and rushed back in my room...but then decided to take a picture lol. I was up til 1 killing bugs and it took me a while to get to sleep lol.
Saturday we did a lot :) it was quite an adventure. They said I could sleep in but i woke up at 8:30 and ate breakfast and had nice chats with Sandy :) and did my chores and then spent most of the morning in the sheep shed with Kevin helping out :) He sheared the sheep and he had this huge table he puts the wool on and Lance and I helped go through the wool, you would have to pick out the pieces with dags (poop), dirt, thorns and the short pieces that didn't match the rest. The wool was kinda oily and would make your hands soft and stuff. It was really cool actually. We all just chatted a lot. OOOHH and I got to sheer a sheep! :) :) :) it was very cool, not a whole sheep, he did all the hard parts, but it was so cool :) i got pictures :) So fun ;) Then later we helped him rangle up the sheep because he had to sell 20 of the lambs. It was cool, watching the dog rangle them and stuff. Oh i gotta go i'll update the rest in a couple minutes!
Ok back! (Sunday night is community night so i had to go)
So where was i...ehem...um...so it was really cool so see the interworkings of what Kevin does on a daily and weekly basis, it's a lot of work. But it was a lot of fun and i was more comfortable being dirty then i thought i would be. I definitly have been way out of my comfort zone for this trip and I'm loving it :) When I was talking to God the other day he was loving when i am just messy cuz i'm carefree, it was cool :) Anyways
For lunch we had home made pizzas, one was just like spaghetti on top, sauce and noodles. and the other was fish, red peppers, some leafy stuff..it was good :)
OH but Jess (the cook) made these AMMMAAAZZIIINNNGG pizzas on Friday at lunch. Abe was ranting and raving about them (Abe is one of the leaders/staff members/RA type lol) The one pizza was bbq chicken but it had like mushrooms, chicken and this like ridiculously amazing bbq sauce that was way sweet totally not bbq sauce but man...man it was good lol. So no worries about me eating over here, I am being well fed and i feel like I'm constantly eating even just fruit and toast and tea and coffee. it's great...but....bad lol. At least we are active :P
In the afternoon was actually when we helped herd all the sheep and stuff and the man came to pick them up. But yea :)
Oh and it was an absolutely brilliant day, as they would say here, it was BEAUTIFUL! perfect weather, blue skies with scattered clouds and a dry wind...man it was perfect :) Oh and when we got all the sheep together we got to ride the 4 wheeler :) it was sweet as (another Kiwi phrase)
We all took a water break and Kevin and Sandy said we could do whatever but both Lance and I decided to go back to the shed with Kevin and we actually finished the entire pile of wool, we filled up two huge bins of wool, it was very fulfilling :) Then after all of the exciting sheep business i got a shower and it was wonderful :) i thought i put that bit in. And then played with the puppy :) Oh yea they have a chocolate lab puppy, when we visisted the first time they had two chocolate, one white and one black. They kept the chocolate girl for themselves, her name is Patience and she is ADORABle and i want one now...maybe not now...but maybe later on after college, maybe i'll get a puppy and a bunny :) together, to be friends :P lol. don't make fun. but i might. a Chocolate Lab puppy and a big gray loppy eared rabbit. :) yup. So Adam you can visit me with me and my dog when Mom still refuses to get you one ;P
Dinner was great of course, and Sandy always offers like 2nds and 3rds and is like oh here just finish it don't leave two! man i was so full, and then we had this yummy pudding type dessert...then later she offered coffee and cake! i proly gained 5 or so lbs this weekend! no lie. lol. After dinner it started raining and we took a walk around the garden, pond and property, and the dogs followed us, they have a jack russel, and three labs, one papa lab named TJ (who tried to help herd sheep but he just gets in the way lol and he tries to feel important when we were sheering sheep but he just sits there lol) and the mama is named Chrissy and the baby is Patience :) And crossing the pond the puppy fell in and at first she was excited but when she realized she was cold she wasn't too happy and we spoiled her and brought her inside and dried her off and held her :) and then my clothes were wet lol. All of us watched rugby afterward, we watched the Crusaders and the Highlanders. I personally likedt he color of the highlanders jerseys they are blue and yellow, but the Crusaders are from our area of Kaikoura and the Topps area of PuhiPuhi valley so we had to cheer for them lol, they have red and black. The best players from the small area rugby teams make up the All Blacks, which is one of the best teams in the world for Rugby. I like rugby actually, i think more than football maybe lol. Well i dunno maybe just cuz it's new but don't get mad at me :P i want to try to get an All Blacks jersey, they are kinda expensive but i want one or at least a tshirt.
Then I showed pictures to Sandy and Kevin and they said it was nice cuz they were able to put faces to the people I kept talking about.
SUNDAY we got up and rushed around to get chores done and get ready to go to church. kevin and sandy go to the Angelican Church in Kaikoura. It was cool they mixed in some more contemporary songs with older ones i didn't know, and they did a lot of the call and answer or whatever that is called...something and respond lol. i forget. they also do that at Messiah, and at the Catholic church from last Sunday. In the past three weeks I've been to an Angelican, Catholic, New Life and my church, all different and some very similar...i dunno its pretty cool :) Haha we did communion and i was denied juice! i was so confused. It was a confusing process, we had to grab these red dots and kneel at the altar and then they'd say something and hand us a little wafer..thinger like we have at my home church and i wasn't sure what to do, then she came around saw my little red dot that looked like a bingo piece and denied me drink and they ran out of juice...sooo denied juice :P lol. no blood. just bread.
After church we went to the penninsula by the ocean at low tide on a picnic bench and had lunch. oh before we got hot chips (here french fries are chips, you don't call them fries, and potato chips would be what we call chips) They also don't have 'ketchup' they have tomato sauce, and they say it like Toe maw toe lol. They make fun of our acceps by saying Tome A toe lol.
Then we walked up the trial of the penninsula and i was actually reallllyyy tired lol, my legs were like pulsating at the top lol. THEN! we saw seals and i was about a foot away from it taking pictures :) Then we went to the this Fyffe Whale House, which was like one of the original whaling stations or houses or whatever in Kaikoura. Then Sandy dropped us off and she was quite excited to be toured around and see my room. She was like well if you ever need anything please feel free to call, i can be a mother to many, and i'll see you soon! I can't wait to go back actually :) I'm hoping for some free weekends.
Courtnay our program director, said that as a result of the feedback from last semester they decided to go homestays early on so we could build relationships with them while we were here. so i'll be looking forward to seeing them and helping out :)
Back at the Convent it was pretty quiet for a while and i sat in the kitchen and journaled with some music on, for some reason i really like sitting at that high counter with a stool, its quiet and unless Jess is making something there isn't a lot of traffic in there. Then Abe and Lisa (our local Kiwi on campus) came and chatted and we all ranted and raved about this song that came on, one of my recent favorites actually, How He Loves, but David Crowder doesn't sing this one, but it was good. Anyway sorry I"m getting a big detailed.
Then we had community night, which is announcements for the week, and since every week its a new class the schedule could be very different. This week we have Marine Ecology and we will be having a lot of field trips and snorkeling trips :) so excited for that! :) This week is supposed to be pretty intense tho, last week was awesome, but this week we won't have a lot of free time so i gotta jump on the ball early so i don't fall behind. We don't get catch up time, we only have a week :P lol
We watched a video about the Pacific Ocean but i was actually super good, it was like somethng more intense and detailed and beautiful that you would see on Discovery Channel, not somethng boring, but it was sooo cool :) It was about the incredibly dolphins and whales here that i can't wait to see (we will see them later on in the semester not this week) Lisa, our local kiwi and one of my fav. ppl in Kaikoura, she works on a whale siting boat for tourists and she drove the boat that these men worked on to film the documentary, Deep Blue, i think that's what it was called.
So I had a pretty awesome week and weekend. Well....I had my highs and lows...In our town hall which is part of community night every Sunday, everyone goes around the room and says waht their high and low was, or highs plural and stuff. I had a pretty bad low but God blessed me with many highs and i was thankful. Talking to Mick and learning from him and talking to God was amazing, the farm was actually pretty relaxing even though we did a lot and community night just reminded me how comfortable i am at the convent and how i'm excited to get to know everyone better, i think we've all just touched on the surface. I do get home sick at times, don't get my wrong, i do miss my family and i do miss my amigos. I had had my moments especially before i got to talk to everyone on the phone the other night.
Oh and i have been hearing about ALLLL THIS SNOW!! How exciting :) i guess when I prayed for snow for my birthdya I forgot to tell God he could stop after i left ;) lol jk. But when everyone talks about oh yea remember that snow! I'll be like...oh yea! i was in New Zealand ;) :) Have fun playing in it! Think of me and make a snow angel and maybe a small snowman:) Oh and someone please please go snowboarding for me! :)
As you know my laptop died, so it's harder for me to get on to get on my blog but i can get on the student computer, and i'll try to be better about getting online, but i have to warn you it might be on the weekends because Fridays we have internet fast but during the week it'll be pretty crazy and devotions, journaling and homework should probably come first before blog, but I'll check the blog and my email a lot more often, now that we are in the Convent for classes we aren't as busy...however this week will do a lot of field trips and then in two weeks we are going to Samoa but i'll be good! If anyone wants to email me please feel free! you can email me on my fairlyoddchild04@comcast.net, i proly won't check my Messiah one a lot. And facebook not so much cuz it doesn't work on this computer. And i have a phone card that is super cheap to fill up so if anyone wants me to give them a buzz i can! proly around dinner time for you, US time, my time it'll be a day ahead at lunch and for you a day behind me at 6 or 7 lol. :) but let me know and during free time I'd love to chat!
Comments and emails are welcome! Emails preferably :)
I love you all and I'm praying for you all, valentines is almost over in NZ, it's 11:41 but by the time most of you will read this it'll be just starting or half way done sooo Happy Valentines day! It's not too exciting for me this year but hey i do have a lot of people I love :) and it's a good reminder to tell those you love you love them..and it's also a good way for singles to feel lonely and stinky :P lol But I actually barely heard anything about it over here so i guess it's not too popular, i saw one commercial when we watched frisbee and when we went to Christchurch i saw a couple posters, but in Kaikoura there wasn't much. ANYWAY. Happy Valentines guys, I hope this makes your day cuz i actually updated, and next time i go into town i'll try to upload pictures! :) Other people on facebook have but i'll try to do my own sometime!
First week was orientation, i kind of talked about that, we were shown around the city, biked a lot, hiked up a small part of Mount Fyffe then hiked a bigger trail up Sawcut Gorge, it was very pretty, we did a lot of stream crossings and there were a lot of mini waterfalls and boulders to climb up. It was beautiful! I liked that hike better than the other hike, we learned a lot about the trees but there wasn't much to look at. We also visisted the Topps sheep farm, which i will get more into later. We were out and about most days in the first week or were busy doing orientation, shopping for forgotten items, learning the ropes around the convent.
Our second weekend here we had our "pre semester break" lol. People at Messiah already had a couple weeks of school and we had a 'break" lol. It was really just a long weekend and they kick us out of the convent from thursday til sunday afternoon. The girls went to Christchurch and the boys hiked up Mt.Tappy (its like Tapunoku but my spelling is way off) Well and Jody went with her family that weekend. So it was Sarah, Morgan, Kelsey, Angelica, Alyssa and I. Scott, Lance, Alex and Caleb went campin and trampin (tramping is what they call hiking). We took a bus into Christchurch, it was like a 3 hour bus ride and our bus driver got pulled over for speeding lol. We found our hostel, which is like well...a hostel, a 1 star hotel lol. It's for backpackers and travelers. We stayed at "Charlie B's", in one room with three bunks, and co-ed bathrooms...it was kinda um, yea i ignored the circumstances lol. It was really loud at night and we were right above the main entrance on the second floor so the door slammed a lot. We didn't really sleep the first night. Every morning we would make pb&j for our lunches, and walk somewhere to get breakfast and sit in a park or cafe. We went to the Botannical Gardens and it was beautiful of course! TONS of flowers, every color rose you can imagine, and tons of crazy trees and scenic spots. I got stuck in a tree at one point lol. We ate at Dux de Lux the first night and i had a Salmon Salad it was great! and the fries were super good!. Salad was oober good too! On Sunday we went to a Catholic Church and i loved it actually. I asked God that morning to open my heart to whatever he wanted to say to me, and i was skeptical of it i thouht it'd be boring and all that. But God definitly showed up, it was really powerful. It showed me that no matter what kind of worship setting are in God's presence can be with you and you can be fed and hear from him and enjoy it. It was pretty sweet, the choir was heavenly of course, they had an all male choir ages ranging from probably 8-50, and the boys voices were so high!!! After church we shopped around and headed back home to Kaikoura. I could not wait to get back to the convent, being in the city for 4 days with 6 people with their own ideas about what to do got a bit tiring. but we did bond and it was fun.
Our technical second week we had our first class. I loved the teacher and the class, everyone agreed and it went by so fast! We had Mick Duncan, aka Michael Duncan, aka just Mick. Mick is a sarcastic Kiwi (Kiwi's are the New Zealand natives) who tells great stories and really dives into tough issues. It was great, the class is called Sustainable Development and we started off with the big picture ideas of statistics, why people are in poverty, what creates poverty, how can people build communities...etc etc, and actually a lot of spiritual application and life principle kinda stuff that was simple, real and profound that didn't necessarily apply to class but it was good. I also had a good one on one chat with Mick. We had to read 4 articles and write four papers on the summary, application to class and personal application. We all agreed as a community of students on a Friday internet fast, so we can have hang out time after class is over so we wanted to finish before thursday, and friday night we were going on our homestays. Our schedule for class was 9-12 with breaks, and 7:15-9 or later Mon-Fri. It wasn't that bad cuz Mick was good, at night we watched a movie, had a debate, did skits, and talked about deep stuff lol.
This weekend!! We had our homestays. it was GREAT. Some students went by themselves and some were assigned together. Lance and I went to the Sandy and Kevin Topps sheep farm :) We visited the first week and i was semi skeptical about staying there for a weekend but it was awesome:) I had a lot of fun. The first night we had a huge dinner of all these different meats and yummy grilled stuff. We played tennis and Sandy is a hardcore tennis player who is known for making fun of people but she just made fun of Abe's last visit and when i messed up i laughed at myself lol. We didn't really keep score, but I'd say if we did the Sandy's won ;) lol. That was quite confusing, having two Sandy's in the house but i loved them. They are really silly in their own way and sarcasm just makes things fun :) I got the chore of taking care of the chickens, aka chooks. I would change their water, feed them and collect the eggs. Lance took care of the dogs, they have multiple work dogs and three pet dogs. Two cats and two wild pigs. Oh and of course A TON of sheep, and cows that live way off. They have about 3,000 acres and are leasing more than that. The first night we also drove with Kevin to herd the baby sheep to a certain spot, they were so cute :) Oh and we had dessert, a Kiwi special, its this really really sweet almost marshmallow dessert with kiwis on top. Going to bed was an adventure actually. I didn't realized my window was left open and i had all these bugs so i turned off the light and turned on a little lamp and tonsss were in there, i ignored them and wrote in my journal and then this HHUGEE bug dive bombed me! It was huge, literally TTTTTTHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSS BIG!!!!!! Ugh lol, i almost woke up Lance to get it, but he was sleeping and so was Sandy and Kevin...soo it landed on this huge Bible and i put it out in the living room and rushed back in my room...but then decided to take a picture lol. I was up til 1 killing bugs and it took me a while to get to sleep lol.
Saturday we did a lot :) it was quite an adventure. They said I could sleep in but i woke up at 8:30 and ate breakfast and had nice chats with Sandy :) and did my chores and then spent most of the morning in the sheep shed with Kevin helping out :) He sheared the sheep and he had this huge table he puts the wool on and Lance and I helped go through the wool, you would have to pick out the pieces with dags (poop), dirt, thorns and the short pieces that didn't match the rest. The wool was kinda oily and would make your hands soft and stuff. It was really cool actually. We all just chatted a lot. OOOHH and I got to sheer a sheep! :) :) :) it was very cool, not a whole sheep, he did all the hard parts, but it was so cool :) i got pictures :) So fun ;) Then later we helped him rangle up the sheep because he had to sell 20 of the lambs. It was cool, watching the dog rangle them and stuff. Oh i gotta go i'll update the rest in a couple minutes!
Ok back! (Sunday night is community night so i had to go)
So where was i...ehem...um...so it was really cool so see the interworkings of what Kevin does on a daily and weekly basis, it's a lot of work. But it was a lot of fun and i was more comfortable being dirty then i thought i would be. I definitly have been way out of my comfort zone for this trip and I'm loving it :) When I was talking to God the other day he was loving when i am just messy cuz i'm carefree, it was cool :) Anyways
For lunch we had home made pizzas, one was just like spaghetti on top, sauce and noodles. and the other was fish, red peppers, some leafy stuff..it was good :)
OH but Jess (the cook) made these AMMMAAAZZIIINNNGG pizzas on Friday at lunch. Abe was ranting and raving about them (Abe is one of the leaders/staff members/RA type lol) The one pizza was bbq chicken but it had like mushrooms, chicken and this like ridiculously amazing bbq sauce that was way sweet totally not bbq sauce but man...man it was good lol. So no worries about me eating over here, I am being well fed and i feel like I'm constantly eating even just fruit and toast and tea and coffee. it's great...but....bad lol. At least we are active :P
In the afternoon was actually when we helped herd all the sheep and stuff and the man came to pick them up. But yea :)
Oh and it was an absolutely brilliant day, as they would say here, it was BEAUTIFUL! perfect weather, blue skies with scattered clouds and a dry wind...man it was perfect :) Oh and when we got all the sheep together we got to ride the 4 wheeler :) it was sweet as (another Kiwi phrase)
We all took a water break and Kevin and Sandy said we could do whatever but both Lance and I decided to go back to the shed with Kevin and we actually finished the entire pile of wool, we filled up two huge bins of wool, it was very fulfilling :) Then after all of the exciting sheep business i got a shower and it was wonderful :) i thought i put that bit in. And then played with the puppy :) Oh yea they have a chocolate lab puppy, when we visisted the first time they had two chocolate, one white and one black. They kept the chocolate girl for themselves, her name is Patience and she is ADORABle and i want one now...maybe not now...but maybe later on after college, maybe i'll get a puppy and a bunny :) together, to be friends :P lol. don't make fun. but i might. a Chocolate Lab puppy and a big gray loppy eared rabbit. :) yup. So Adam you can visit me with me and my dog when Mom still refuses to get you one ;P
Dinner was great of course, and Sandy always offers like 2nds and 3rds and is like oh here just finish it don't leave two! man i was so full, and then we had this yummy pudding type dessert...then later she offered coffee and cake! i proly gained 5 or so lbs this weekend! no lie. lol. After dinner it started raining and we took a walk around the garden, pond and property, and the dogs followed us, they have a jack russel, and three labs, one papa lab named TJ (who tried to help herd sheep but he just gets in the way lol and he tries to feel important when we were sheering sheep but he just sits there lol) and the mama is named Chrissy and the baby is Patience :) And crossing the pond the puppy fell in and at first she was excited but when she realized she was cold she wasn't too happy and we spoiled her and brought her inside and dried her off and held her :) and then my clothes were wet lol. All of us watched rugby afterward, we watched the Crusaders and the Highlanders. I personally likedt he color of the highlanders jerseys they are blue and yellow, but the Crusaders are from our area of Kaikoura and the Topps area of PuhiPuhi valley so we had to cheer for them lol, they have red and black. The best players from the small area rugby teams make up the All Blacks, which is one of the best teams in the world for Rugby. I like rugby actually, i think more than football maybe lol. Well i dunno maybe just cuz it's new but don't get mad at me :P i want to try to get an All Blacks jersey, they are kinda expensive but i want one or at least a tshirt.
Then I showed pictures to Sandy and Kevin and they said it was nice cuz they were able to put faces to the people I kept talking about.
SUNDAY we got up and rushed around to get chores done and get ready to go to church. kevin and sandy go to the Angelican Church in Kaikoura. It was cool they mixed in some more contemporary songs with older ones i didn't know, and they did a lot of the call and answer or whatever that is called...something and respond lol. i forget. they also do that at Messiah, and at the Catholic church from last Sunday. In the past three weeks I've been to an Angelican, Catholic, New Life and my church, all different and some very similar...i dunno its pretty cool :) Haha we did communion and i was denied juice! i was so confused. It was a confusing process, we had to grab these red dots and kneel at the altar and then they'd say something and hand us a little wafer..thinger like we have at my home church and i wasn't sure what to do, then she came around saw my little red dot that looked like a bingo piece and denied me drink and they ran out of juice...sooo denied juice :P lol. no blood. just bread.
After church we went to the penninsula by the ocean at low tide on a picnic bench and had lunch. oh before we got hot chips (here french fries are chips, you don't call them fries, and potato chips would be what we call chips) They also don't have 'ketchup' they have tomato sauce, and they say it like Toe maw toe lol. They make fun of our acceps by saying Tome A toe lol.
Then we walked up the trial of the penninsula and i was actually reallllyyy tired lol, my legs were like pulsating at the top lol. THEN! we saw seals and i was about a foot away from it taking pictures :) Then we went to the this Fyffe Whale House, which was like one of the original whaling stations or houses or whatever in Kaikoura. Then Sandy dropped us off and she was quite excited to be toured around and see my room. She was like well if you ever need anything please feel free to call, i can be a mother to many, and i'll see you soon! I can't wait to go back actually :) I'm hoping for some free weekends.
Courtnay our program director, said that as a result of the feedback from last semester they decided to go homestays early on so we could build relationships with them while we were here. so i'll be looking forward to seeing them and helping out :)
Back at the Convent it was pretty quiet for a while and i sat in the kitchen and journaled with some music on, for some reason i really like sitting at that high counter with a stool, its quiet and unless Jess is making something there isn't a lot of traffic in there. Then Abe and Lisa (our local Kiwi on campus) came and chatted and we all ranted and raved about this song that came on, one of my recent favorites actually, How He Loves, but David Crowder doesn't sing this one, but it was good. Anyway sorry I"m getting a big detailed.
Then we had community night, which is announcements for the week, and since every week its a new class the schedule could be very different. This week we have Marine Ecology and we will be having a lot of field trips and snorkeling trips :) so excited for that! :) This week is supposed to be pretty intense tho, last week was awesome, but this week we won't have a lot of free time so i gotta jump on the ball early so i don't fall behind. We don't get catch up time, we only have a week :P lol
We watched a video about the Pacific Ocean but i was actually super good, it was like somethng more intense and detailed and beautiful that you would see on Discovery Channel, not somethng boring, but it was sooo cool :) It was about the incredibly dolphins and whales here that i can't wait to see (we will see them later on in the semester not this week) Lisa, our local kiwi and one of my fav. ppl in Kaikoura, she works on a whale siting boat for tourists and she drove the boat that these men worked on to film the documentary, Deep Blue, i think that's what it was called.
So I had a pretty awesome week and weekend. Well....I had my highs and lows...In our town hall which is part of community night every Sunday, everyone goes around the room and says waht their high and low was, or highs plural and stuff. I had a pretty bad low but God blessed me with many highs and i was thankful. Talking to Mick and learning from him and talking to God was amazing, the farm was actually pretty relaxing even though we did a lot and community night just reminded me how comfortable i am at the convent and how i'm excited to get to know everyone better, i think we've all just touched on the surface. I do get home sick at times, don't get my wrong, i do miss my family and i do miss my amigos. I had had my moments especially before i got to talk to everyone on the phone the other night.
Oh and i have been hearing about ALLLL THIS SNOW!! How exciting :) i guess when I prayed for snow for my birthdya I forgot to tell God he could stop after i left ;) lol jk. But when everyone talks about oh yea remember that snow! I'll be like...oh yea! i was in New Zealand ;) :) Have fun playing in it! Think of me and make a snow angel and maybe a small snowman:) Oh and someone please please go snowboarding for me! :)
As you know my laptop died, so it's harder for me to get on to get on my blog but i can get on the student computer, and i'll try to be better about getting online, but i have to warn you it might be on the weekends because Fridays we have internet fast but during the week it'll be pretty crazy and devotions, journaling and homework should probably come first before blog, but I'll check the blog and my email a lot more often, now that we are in the Convent for classes we aren't as busy...however this week will do a lot of field trips and then in two weeks we are going to Samoa but i'll be good! If anyone wants to email me please feel free! you can email me on my fairlyoddchild04@comcast.net, i proly won't check my Messiah one a lot. And facebook not so much cuz it doesn't work on this computer. And i have a phone card that is super cheap to fill up so if anyone wants me to give them a buzz i can! proly around dinner time for you, US time, my time it'll be a day ahead at lunch and for you a day behind me at 6 or 7 lol. :) but let me know and during free time I'd love to chat!
Comments and emails are welcome! Emails preferably :)
I love you all and I'm praying for you all, valentines is almost over in NZ, it's 11:41 but by the time most of you will read this it'll be just starting or half way done sooo Happy Valentines day! It's not too exciting for me this year but hey i do have a lot of people I love :) and it's a good reminder to tell those you love you love them..and it's also a good way for singles to feel lonely and stinky :P lol But I actually barely heard anything about it over here so i guess it's not too popular, i saw one commercial when we watched frisbee and when we went to Christchurch i saw a couple posters, but in Kaikoura there wasn't much. ANYWAY. Happy Valentines guys, I hope this makes your day cuz i actually updated, and next time i go into town i'll try to upload pictures! :) Other people on facebook have but i'll try to do my own sometime!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Kaikoura- my new home
NOTE: we are 17 hours ahead in NZ so i arrived in NZ on Wed US time and Thurs NZ time
I'm here!! In New Zealand! It still seems really surreal that I'm here, but I'm already super comfortable with all of the people here and my new home. The Old Convent is where we are staying, it's an absolutely beautiful facility, it was an old convent for nuns and then owned as a home and then a bed and breakfast and now my new home :) It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and the grounds around it are quant and nostalgic. It is fillleeddd with flowers and lots of different trees and all these little spots to just get away and enjoy what's around you, a lot of benches, swings and hammocks :)
But I guess before I got here the flights was pretty rough. I got to Baltimore and met up with Kelsey, my traveling buddy and it was a relief to have here there :) And then we flew to Texas and I did Sudoku for about an hour and discovered I am terrible at it because I filled it all out..butit was wrong..so i think really i just created an alternative way to do that one haha. But it kept me entertained for at least an hour and a half! We met up with 4 other Messiah students and we all clicked right away and it was a lot of fun and lots of laughing and the time went by fast. Then a 4 hours flight to LA. When we got to LA we found a spot to chill and then intensly watched everyone to see if they looked like a college student who as potentially part of our group lol. We would read random names fromt he list outloud just to see if anyone would answer lol. Out of Messiah students it is Alyssa, Morgan, Scott, Kelsey and Me. Then we found Sarah from Wheaton cuz we were taking picture and looking like college students lol. Then we found Lance but we were mislead because Alyssa said he was blonde...nope lol. And then last but not least we found Alex from Cali. The plane ride was fun, we all sat close to each other but everyone fell asleep cept Alex, Angelica ish, Lance ish. Maybe like 2 hours...ish maybe. Soo yea...lol.
We got to Auckland, New Zealand and had to take an additional flight to Christchurch. In the airport we met Jody and Caleb the last two of the group and drove 2 hours to Christchurch. I was told from the east coast we left home and we traveling airplane and out of airplane for abour 36 hours. So no sleep and all that traveling i was pretty pooped.
When we got the old convent it was just breathtaking as described in the first paragraph.
We have done so much already since I've been here. When we got here we were shown our rooms and Alyssa and I are roommates and we were squealing like little girls we were so excited! We were shown around the Old Convent and then we went to the beach for dinner to have fish and chips, which is like fried fish and french fries but we were told that you do not call them french fries, you call them chips.
Then we had a dedication and it was cool, we wrote down what our fears were and stuff and then we burned them and then hugged everyone lol.
AND this was all on the 26th. Oh and cuz of the time zone the 27th was kinda skipped but all of the above took place from the 26th-27th(28th NZ time).
FRIDAY
We got up and did a tour and were shown the ropes around here. I learned how to change a bike tire for real and remove it and all and i would have never learned that otherwise. Then we did a picture scavenger hunt into town to become familar with it and that was really fun. I was with Angelica, Alex and Lance. Then we came back and ate an amazing dinner of like rice, vegetables and this amaaazing homemade mushroom sauce stuff to go on top. It was soo good. Jess the cook is definitly good!
Later on we were shown the southern cross in the sky, it's cool to see different stars here. The moon was SOO bright that we went outside and walked down the street and i could even see the settings on my camera. It was awesome with the mountain behind and the moon shining. Then we all sat downstairs and got on our computers and talked and stayed up til 12:30.
TODAY!
We got up and went to a farm, it was quite fun, it was a sheep farm where we watched Kevin the owner sheer the sheep and then got a tour of the grounds. It was breathtaking, it was between two mountains and had 3000 sheep, two wild pigs (boars), dogs, PUPPIES!!!! omg the lab puppies mad me want a chocolate lab...sooo much!! Soo cute :) So many pictures there too, lots of random thigs to take pictures of and it was bautiful. The owners wifes name was Sandy :) We both wore green today lol. I had fun walking around today.
After the farm we went into town, Alyssa, Morgan, Lance, Alex, Scott and I. we just shopped around and went to the beach. On the way to the beach we got lost, us girls, lol. We took an altnerative root to the swimming beach, we ended up having to carry our bikes and cross some water and go up a steep hill and then finally found the boys. the view was amaaazing :) i'll show pictures later, we can't really upload then here cuz it takes up too much on the network.
But eventually you guys will see them.
Dinner was chili, and usually i dislike chili but today it was yummy :) Then we did part two to big red chair which is where someone sits in the red chair and are asked questions for 5 minutes and have to answer them all. Its quite fun, lots of laughs :)
I've laughed so much so far while I've been here it's been refreshing and rejuviating :)
This week is basically orientation but it's just fun and getting to know the program and the people and I'm just super excited to get close to God and even the program mission and stuff is just to grow close to God and view education differently. It still sounds like it'll be intense but fun! So much adventure, I'm ready to just be completely out of my comfort zone and out of the box and rugged and fun and yea.
If you couldn't tell I'm super tired, and I really had to force myself to make the blog, but i wanted to let everyone know i was safe and sound and having fun. Maybe the next blog I'll be more coherent lol.
We're going to church tomorrow :) So excited, then we had a bbq :)
I'm not sure how to make this sound exciting but I'm tired and I miss you guys and love you :)
I'm here!! In New Zealand! It still seems really surreal that I'm here, but I'm already super comfortable with all of the people here and my new home. The Old Convent is where we are staying, it's an absolutely beautiful facility, it was an old convent for nuns and then owned as a home and then a bed and breakfast and now my new home :) It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and the grounds around it are quant and nostalgic. It is fillleeddd with flowers and lots of different trees and all these little spots to just get away and enjoy what's around you, a lot of benches, swings and hammocks :)
But I guess before I got here the flights was pretty rough. I got to Baltimore and met up with Kelsey, my traveling buddy and it was a relief to have here there :) And then we flew to Texas and I did Sudoku for about an hour and discovered I am terrible at it because I filled it all out..butit was wrong..so i think really i just created an alternative way to do that one haha. But it kept me entertained for at least an hour and a half! We met up with 4 other Messiah students and we all clicked right away and it was a lot of fun and lots of laughing and the time went by fast. Then a 4 hours flight to LA. When we got to LA we found a spot to chill and then intensly watched everyone to see if they looked like a college student who as potentially part of our group lol. We would read random names fromt he list outloud just to see if anyone would answer lol. Out of Messiah students it is Alyssa, Morgan, Scott, Kelsey and Me. Then we found Sarah from Wheaton cuz we were taking picture and looking like college students lol. Then we found Lance but we were mislead because Alyssa said he was blonde...nope lol. And then last but not least we found Alex from Cali. The plane ride was fun, we all sat close to each other but everyone fell asleep cept Alex, Angelica ish, Lance ish. Maybe like 2 hours...ish maybe. Soo yea...lol.
We got to Auckland, New Zealand and had to take an additional flight to Christchurch. In the airport we met Jody and Caleb the last two of the group and drove 2 hours to Christchurch. I was told from the east coast we left home and we traveling airplane and out of airplane for abour 36 hours. So no sleep and all that traveling i was pretty pooped.
When we got the old convent it was just breathtaking as described in the first paragraph.
We have done so much already since I've been here. When we got here we were shown our rooms and Alyssa and I are roommates and we were squealing like little girls we were so excited! We were shown around the Old Convent and then we went to the beach for dinner to have fish and chips, which is like fried fish and french fries but we were told that you do not call them french fries, you call them chips.
Then we had a dedication and it was cool, we wrote down what our fears were and stuff and then we burned them and then hugged everyone lol.
AND this was all on the 26th. Oh and cuz of the time zone the 27th was kinda skipped but all of the above took place from the 26th-27th(28th NZ time).
FRIDAY
We got up and did a tour and were shown the ropes around here. I learned how to change a bike tire for real and remove it and all and i would have never learned that otherwise. Then we did a picture scavenger hunt into town to become familar with it and that was really fun. I was with Angelica, Alex and Lance. Then we came back and ate an amazing dinner of like rice, vegetables and this amaaazing homemade mushroom sauce stuff to go on top. It was soo good. Jess the cook is definitly good!
Later on we were shown the southern cross in the sky, it's cool to see different stars here. The moon was SOO bright that we went outside and walked down the street and i could even see the settings on my camera. It was awesome with the mountain behind and the moon shining. Then we all sat downstairs and got on our computers and talked and stayed up til 12:30.
TODAY!
We got up and went to a farm, it was quite fun, it was a sheep farm where we watched Kevin the owner sheer the sheep and then got a tour of the grounds. It was breathtaking, it was between two mountains and had 3000 sheep, two wild pigs (boars), dogs, PUPPIES!!!! omg the lab puppies mad me want a chocolate lab...sooo much!! Soo cute :) So many pictures there too, lots of random thigs to take pictures of and it was bautiful. The owners wifes name was Sandy :) We both wore green today lol. I had fun walking around today.
After the farm we went into town, Alyssa, Morgan, Lance, Alex, Scott and I. we just shopped around and went to the beach. On the way to the beach we got lost, us girls, lol. We took an altnerative root to the swimming beach, we ended up having to carry our bikes and cross some water and go up a steep hill and then finally found the boys. the view was amaaazing :) i'll show pictures later, we can't really upload then here cuz it takes up too much on the network.
But eventually you guys will see them.
Dinner was chili, and usually i dislike chili but today it was yummy :) Then we did part two to big red chair which is where someone sits in the red chair and are asked questions for 5 minutes and have to answer them all. Its quite fun, lots of laughs :)
I've laughed so much so far while I've been here it's been refreshing and rejuviating :)
This week is basically orientation but it's just fun and getting to know the program and the people and I'm just super excited to get close to God and even the program mission and stuff is just to grow close to God and view education differently. It still sounds like it'll be intense but fun! So much adventure, I'm ready to just be completely out of my comfort zone and out of the box and rugged and fun and yea.
If you couldn't tell I'm super tired, and I really had to force myself to make the blog, but i wanted to let everyone know i was safe and sound and having fun. Maybe the next blog I'll be more coherent lol.
We're going to church tomorrow :) So excited, then we had a bbq :)
I'm not sure how to make this sound exciting but I'm tired and I miss you guys and love you :)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I leave on Tuesday!!
It seems very surreal that I'm leaving on Tuesday, where has the time gone?!?
I'm getting really nervous just thinking about it and I have about a billion butterflies, frogs and other soft creature running around in my stomach and nerves :P lol
Today church was awesome, it was like the entire message was for me, and worship was for me and then well my dad prayed for my travels in front of the congregation and that part was for me purposefully lol. But it was really good today :) Everything was right on and I'm ready to go to New Zealand renewed, refreshed, and excited for God and to come back so different, but different in how strong I am in Him.
My flesh and my heart will fail but God is the strength for my flesh and my heart, he is the remedy to my heart's desires, pains, weaknesses. It's going to be me and God in New Zealand, no one familiar, no family, familiar friends. i know I will make friends, but sitll, it's me and God..it's me and God and I think I'm ready for that part!
One more day to make sure I have everything and to clean my room and all that before i leave. I have to run to the store to get some snacks and a converter i forgot to buy and i forgot to pack socks, lol so i gotta do that too! Which means I have to get up at a decent hour :P Man one more day, my insides are like AHHHHH! lol.
Pray for my nerves!
It's raining pretty hard, it'll probably be relaxing going to bed tonight:) I better get used to it tho, i'm expecting a lot of rain in New Zealand and Somoa, hence the hardcore rain coats and pants we had to buy :P
I'm getting really nervous just thinking about it and I have about a billion butterflies, frogs and other soft creature running around in my stomach and nerves :P lol
Today church was awesome, it was like the entire message was for me, and worship was for me and then well my dad prayed for my travels in front of the congregation and that part was for me purposefully lol. But it was really good today :) Everything was right on and I'm ready to go to New Zealand renewed, refreshed, and excited for God and to come back so different, but different in how strong I am in Him.
My flesh and my heart will fail but God is the strength for my flesh and my heart, he is the remedy to my heart's desires, pains, weaknesses. It's going to be me and God in New Zealand, no one familiar, no family, familiar friends. i know I will make friends, but sitll, it's me and God..it's me and God and I think I'm ready for that part!
One more day to make sure I have everything and to clean my room and all that before i leave. I have to run to the store to get some snacks and a converter i forgot to buy and i forgot to pack socks, lol so i gotta do that too! Which means I have to get up at a decent hour :P Man one more day, my insides are like AHHHHH! lol.
Pray for my nerves!
It's raining pretty hard, it'll probably be relaxing going to bed tonight:) I better get used to it tho, i'm expecting a lot of rain in New Zealand and Somoa, hence the hardcore rain coats and pants we had to buy :P
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