5.31.2007

Guess where we ended up... Days 104-105

Yesterday was another day of classes, I only had two though, and one was just a quick practical. I think I went downtown yesterday as well, but I don't remember why.

Today started off wonderfully, Heather and I went to this place that we keep passing on the bus, but never go to, called the Daily Bagel. It's supposed to be a New York bagel shop... since I've not been to a NY bagel shop... I can't judge, but it was delicious. Not as good as Elaine's... but really, what is? If you haven't had Elaine's Bagels... well you haven't lived. Anyways, we wound up down town for a little bit, just walking around the open air market and heading to a few shops. We went to a place called Centennial Park, which we expected to be amazing. It wasn't bad, but I've been to better parks, let me tell you. They did have an abundance of ducks though... and apparently they all thought that I was their mother. It was slightly cute. After that park, we went back downtown and had souvlaki for lunch, then went out to Queen Elizabeth II Park (QEII). Turns out it was a "golf park". Guess where we ended up? New Brighton. I know, what a shocker. We probably walked about 30 minutes from this park to downtown New Brighton, but it was fun, so that's something. I would like to mention, at this juncture, that NZ spells the word "tires" WRONG. Okay, that was judgmental. Anyways, it is spelled tyres here. I don't understand this, but alas, I must accept it. After hanging out a bit in New Brighton (I could call it NB from now on... but I won't), we caught the bus back to school. It turned out to be the most drawn out bus ride on the face of the earth. And it seems as thought it is getting darker out much faster here, it was dark by 5:30. I did manage to get a shot of the sky right before the sun went down. I was too late for sunset though. Alrighty, I'm off to sleep. Big day of... one class... tomorrow.

5.29.2007

Taylor's Mistake?... Days 102-103

Yesterday was by far the easiest day of classes, I woke up bright and early at 9:30 and had Margaret's class (Acoustic Phonetics) from 11 to 12, then I was done for the day. I ended up getting my Audiology report done in about 20 minutes, and then decided to go in search of a thrift store. Good times.

This morning I woke up bright and early, which is no longer shocking, now it just makes me sad. There was a time when I could sleep as late as I want. That time has left me. Anyways, Heather and I headed out around 9:30 to find Taylor's Mistake, which is supposed to be a really nice beach, and then move on to Boulder Bay, which is an hour past Taylor's Mistake, walking. Turns out Taylor's Mistake was not in our cards for today. We walked from Sumner Beach to the headland that juts out to the water. Then we began our ascent. We walked up the steep and windy path to the top of the headland, which took about 20 minutes and included some very sketchy stairs. Then we though we had won. Turns out we hadn't. We started walking down hill, continuing along Scarborough Trail. Then we started walking uphill again. This continued for a while. Finally, looking ahead and seeing no sign of Taylor's Mistake for quite a while, we decided to turn back. We walked back to the top of the first hill that we climbed and crashed on the grass for a bit, then started our descent. Even though we didn't get to Taylor's Mistake, we did have a good time and we saw some excellent views. We ended up getting fish & chips for lunch (and an excellent fried pineapple ring), as we had been talking about Sumner fish & chips since the last time we were there. From there, we went out to the beach again and climbed up to the top of the cave, which was pretty cool. After that, we just walked along Sumner Beach. We stopped a few times to take pictures and steal sea shells, but we also saw something kind of scary. As we were walking, I looked to my right and saw a shark. No joke. Granted it was a dead baby shark, but it was still a shark. We continued walking and saw another. Luckily we didn't see a third, but we were beginning to wonder if the apocalypse was coming or something equally as unnerving. We ended up walking to a small town called Redcliffs, which has some pretty sweet caves. It also has a horrible park. For some reason, still unknown, we decided that it would be a good idea to play on one of those merry go rounds that you push yourself. Bad idea, now we were just nauseous. We walked a little further down the road to where the caves were. The falling rock deterred us momentarily, but we ran into the cave in turn, to get photos. Then we escaped. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, although when we were riding the bus back, there was a young boy making strange faces at the people behind us, which was entertaining. What was not entertaining is when he decided to get his flute out and practice on the bus. I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my flat. Luckily, I woke up about two hours later, after having the most bizarre dream. I'll sum it up quickly. In the first part, Jason was lost in the woods for days and it made international news... then he came to NZ. Then I had a dream that Heather and I were on another adventure and we wound up on this escalator that throws people off at the end. Then George Bush punched her in the face. Now I'm going to sleep.

5.27.2007

Lazy Weekend... Day 101

If you didn't catch it from the title, this weekend was very lazy. There was a lot of sitting around watching movies with friends involved. I did go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie though, since Jeff paid for most of my ticket. It wasn't bad, I wound up slightly confused, but I'm really not one of those pirate addicts either, so I didn't hold on to every last word that was said. One of the reasons that I didn't do much at all this weekend was because it is getting to be that time of the seasons when everyone is kinda sick. It's strange, really, because it's that beginning of fall sniffles and such, even though it should be going into summer. I know I've been drinking way more tea than is recommended, but it makes my throat feel nice. These last two weeks of class are going to be the easiest on record, by far. This week I have three classes canceled, so I only have one on Monday, two on Wednesday and one on Friday. Then I don't have class again until the following Wednesday, as we in NZ observe the Queen's birthday (June 4) and do not seem to do anything productive. So from now until the end of classes, I have 8 classes to go to. That seems quite exciting. Now all I really have to look forward to is my final exams. Woohoo.

5.26.2007

I would walk 8760 miles... Day 100

So I looked up exactly how far I am from home right now... turns out that I am 8760 miles away. Interesting.

5.25.2007

Don't stand between me and the flowers... Day 99

I had one class and one practical today, it was a painfully easy day of classes. The practical consisted of me testing 4 fellow students' ears. I was done by noon, as usual on Fridays, so I went back to my flat and hung around for a bit, then decided to cook up some food for the next few days... so I wouldn't have to do it later. Then I stepped outside to chill on my balcony... and look at this guy's horrible haircut. Anyways, Heather walked up & we talked for a minute, culminating in deciding to go to the Botanical Garden, since it would look pretty cool in the fall. Well, we got there, walked around for a bit, then before we knew it, we were lost. Not too lost, just a little disoriented. But the leaves were changing colors nicely, so it was all worth it. Oh and the rose garden was still slightly in bloom. At one point, I had to use the restroom, but when I got in there I couldn't help but take a picture of the toilet... which is equal parts disgusting and funny. But seriously, there isn't a seat, its just these two black things. I can't imagine a little kid trying to use it, they'd just fall in. I didn't do much else honestly, went back and watched some TV w/ Jeff, Jia (pronounced: Ja) & Heather, then I wound up back in my flat, very sleepy.

5.24.2007

All Adventures Lead to New Brighton... Days 97-98

This morning I did the same thing I have the last few mornings... I woke up early, then went back to bed. It's almost like I have the will power to wake up, but then I lose that and fall back into my slumber. Yesterday was just another normal day of classes, nothing special, except that I didn't have to go to Audiology. Today, as with every other Tuesday and Thursday, Heather and I went on an adventure to a destination unknown. Eventually we decided to go to Queens Park/Waimairi Beach. We took the bus down there, then the bus driver made us get off, because we were at the last stop. Turns out we went a little bit out of our way, but we ended up walking through a subdivision that looked eerily like Florida. Then we made our way to the beach. First we stopped off at this park and it had a Flying Fox (read: zip line). Let me tell you, we tried it out. It was copious amounts of fun. Then we continued on to the beach. It looked quite similar to New Brighton Beach. Then we looked south and guess what we saw. New Brighton Pier. So naturally we walked towards it, because New Brighton was proving to be cooler than Waimairi. We got there about 1/2 hour later, as we stopped to take ridiculous photos. Upon our arrival, we went out into town for a bit to grab some lunch... more fish and chips. I figure I have to ingest as much fish as possible here. Then we walked around town for a bit more, before going back to the pier. When we got there, we looked down and there was a man making a really amazing drawing in the sand. Turns out what he does is called "Sand Dancing". Anyways, it looks really neat. He made me want to make my own art. We stuck around for a while and watched him. We actually stayed in New Brighton until the sun started to go down, since the sky was looking absolutely gorgeous.

5.22.2007

Lyttelton... Day 96

Today I woke up early... again. Then I slept some more. I'm sensing a pattern. Anyways, after I woke up for a little bit, Heather and I went on another adventure, we seem to have a pattern going, since neither of us have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We decided to go to Lyttelton today, which is a cute little port town. I've been there before, it is where I went to get to Quail Island at the beginning of the semester. Anyways, we walked around Lyttelton for a bit, then we decided to catch a ferry to Diamond Harbour. On the ride there, the captain was intent on splashing us. When we got there, we found a walking path that led us to a cute park and a whole bunch of really good views of the town. We ended up taking a bunch of photos, before heading further up the trail, which led to a really small town. I've never seen a town this small, there is a post office, cafe/general store and a hall. Cute though. We had a little break and got some ginger beer from the cafe, it was pretty good. We hopped back on a ferry and got outta town. Lyttelton is nice, but it's really small and full of pubs, as any port town should be.

5.21.2007

Sometimes photos don't do justice... Day 95

Today was fairly ordinary for a school day, although I did wake up an entire hour and a half before my class was due to start, which is unheard of. I usually will wait until I cannot possibly wait any longer to wake up. My classes were alright today, Anatomy & Physiology was boring, but that's nothing new. The weather today was absolutely gorgeous, the wind was blowing, but it wasn't cold at all, just cool and breezy. I love days like today, it smells like a nice fall day, a lot like the beginning of October. While walking across campus, I looked up at the top of the library, as there were people staring and pointing. I did not expect what I saw, there were people abseiling (read: rappelling) down the side of the building. That's something you don't see every day. But I always see things here that you don't see every day. I realized something else kind of cool today, NZ has a very high tolerance for skateboarding. Everyone seems to do it and they don't get a bad rep like they do at home, where there are signs everywhere against skateboarding. Here people do it all over the place and no one bats an eyelash. After classes today, I ran up to Countdown to grab a few items for dinner. When I got back to my flat (read: apartment), the sunset was absolutely amazing. I really wish I had taken better photos, because mine really do not do it justice, but I'll put up what I've got.

In search of Courtenay... Day 94

Today started off very early... 6:46am to be precise. It was a horrible time to wake up, but I had been having a very involved dream involving airports and such. It felt as though I had not gotten to sleep at all, which is not conducive to actually waking up. I fell right back asleep and woke up about once an hour after that, until 10:30, when I finally willed myself out of bed. I moped around for a bit, since I still did not want to be awake, but eventually I got it together and Heather and I went on a small adventure, west of the city. We were looking for Courtenay, NZ. As some of you may know, one of my best friends is Coop... also known as Courtenay Cooper. I bet a few of you didn't realize she had a name besides Coop. Either way, you may have noticed that it looks like I spelled her name wrong... nope, that's how it is supposed to be, although we don't hold that against her. Anyways, I found out that there was a town in NZ (which I should tell you is pronounced N-Zed, not NZ) with the same name. Upon reaching it, we found that it was in fact a bunch of farms all lined up next to each other. Anyways, we drove on Old West Coast Road for about 25 miles after we found Courtenay, as we decided to go on a road sign hunting trip. It turned out to be super, since the road was pretty deserted... we could stop the car whenever we wanted to and get out and take pictures. We may or may not have abused that power. You decide. We also found copious amounts of sheep... And of course, when you see sheep on the side of the road, you need to stop and take photos with them. Who knew sheep scared so easily?

In other news, I would just like to reiterate the fact that even though I am a world away, doing things I never saw myself doing in a million years, I miss everyone so much! I guess the whole thing about taking your life for granted is really true, you don't know what you have until it's gone... or until you temporarily abandon it to pursue your education in a foreign land.

5.19.2007

The Abel Tasman Adventure... Days 92-93

I didn't do much on Friday, we had an Audiology test that I am actually quite confident about, so that's a change. Saturday, on the other hand, was fabulous. Jeff, Heather and I went on a road trip to Abel Tasman National Park, which is on the top of the south island. The drive there was a lot of fun, we had a quick stop in Kaikoura to take photos, then we continued on through the craziness that is Highway 1. This is the absolute hilliest, curviest road I've ever been on. You are never driving in a straight line for more than a few minutes. Oh, and did I mention that we left around 7:20am. Yeah, that's early. About halfway into our journey, we stopped at a McDonalds and Heather tried the Kiwi Burger. Ewww. It looked so unappetizing... but it was fun to watch. Anyways, we got to Nelson, the nearest city to Abel Tasman, so that we could get a hostel for the night, then continue on our way to the park. We got slightly lost, due to my poor sense of direction, but moments later, all was well. We continued on to Abel Tasman, only to find that there wasn't much more than a really humongous beach, unless you wanted to tramp (read: hike) far into the woods. Nah. So we ended up walking the beach for an hour, which was pretty nice in itself. We wound up taking some slightly ridiculous photos, I'm not going to lie about it. After Abel Tasman, which took loads less time than we expected, we drove back to Nelson to turn our room key in and drive back to Chch, so we didn't have to spend the money on a room if we didn't need to. It worked out nicely, we drove for a bit, then we found an electronics store so that we could get a converter for the radio, so we could listen to someone's Ipod. The trip became loads more fun then, since we actually had music to sing along to, instead of having to make our own. Sidenote: Riding in the back seat is horrible on these mountain roads, you get thrown around like nobodies business. On a slightly better note, my camera worked for part of this trip! Anyways, we arrived back in Chch around 11pm and I promptly went to sleep. Oh and this is what it looks like when you eat a Kiwi Burger. You have to put all of it in your mouth at once to get the full effect.

5.17.2007

Sumner in the Winter... Days 90-91

Yesterday was quite a bore, I didn't do that much other than going to class. I did get some great news though, I was speaking with Gia (pronounced with a hard 'G'), previously noted surrogate mother, and told her of our upcoming road trip. She offered up her spare car like it was nothing! I am so excited, this is saving Heather and I at least $100, as car rentals aren't that cheap. Gia is such a sweet heart. Anyways, I didn't do much else, save studying a little bit for my upcoming Audiology exam.

Today I was quite burnt out on studying, so Heather and I went to Sumner Beach to hang out, since she had not been there thus far. It was a lot of fun, although I realized that my camera might be completely tits up (read: broken beyond repair). Every time that I go to take a picture, I press the button, then the camera shuts off. It's not so good. I've changed the batteries too, but I'll do it one more time before I completely disregard it. I felt slightly bad, but Heather's camera had to perform double duty. We walked around the town for a while, which was pretty cool, we went to a store that reminded me of Archie McPhee's, in Seattle, on a much smaller scale. We ended up getting some fish and chips (pronounced by some Kiwis as: fush 'n' chups), then walking down to this huge rock that's just sitting in the middle of the ocean. I don't think we got a picture of it, I'm going to have to go back before I leave and take one, it looks so bizarre. Anyways, I may have purchased a small souvenir for myself... I couldn't help it, I bought a purse. I know, I know, I have enough purses to last me a lifetime. I really couldn't help myself. It's just so pretty. I'll take a picture when I have a working camera.

Look at this cool picture: We're shadow people. I've never thought to take a picture like this. Although next time I'll make sure that there are no awkwardly placed sea shells, like there is in this one. Yeah, I know you're going to look for it now, I'm sorry. I'm on the right, by the way.

Okay, I have one more observation, then I'm off to sleep. I've noticed, whilst traveling, that you kind of make friends really fast. You pretty much skip all the normal friend making experiences and just dive right in to hanging out in a new city, like I did in Kaikoura, or going on road trips, like I'm doing now. While doing the crazy stuff you sort of fit in the normal sort of stuff, like having actual conversations. Everywhere I've gone, I've done this and it is pretty cool, I have good friends that I've made in a lot of new places.

5.15.2007

The Great and Mysterious Kiwi Burger... Day 89

Today started off early... for me anyways, I was awake no later than 8:30. Well... then I went back to sleep, but really, it wasn't for that long. I had to go to an Anatomy & Physiology lab today, which proved to be extremely boring. Later on, I decided that I needed to go on an adventure to the thrift store. I ended up getting Heather to go with me and we walked around the thrift store for a bit, I got a few shirts and that. Then we went down to the pier, which was super cold, since it's only about 10 degrees Celsius, so that's somewhere around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, plus the wind off the ocean was freezing. My right eye was crying the entire time... stupid wind. We were ridiculous... I now have a photo of myself posing with a giant fake whale. There's another item off of my list of things to do before I die. We got back to the flats about an hour later... but not before seeing a sign (on the back of a bus) for the famed Kiwi Burger. The Kiwi Burger is an iconic NZ food... though I am thoroughly afraid to try it. It consists of a regular burger (and no, it's not the highly endangered kiwi bird) with lettuce, tomato and cheese... then come the bizarre contents... beetroot (read: beets), pineapple and a fried egg. I can deal with the pineapple... I think I could even deal with the beetroot on a good day... but fried egg? There is no way I could get that down. I don't think I will be trying one of these... I will go so far as to watch one of my friends eat it... maybe. McDonald's is even selling a version of this burger, minus the pineapple. So take the level of disgusting that the original Kiwi Burger is at and compound it infinitely.

Looks like the destination for the upcoming road trip has been changed from Dunedin to Abel Tasman National Park. It seems a lot nicer there and as a bonus, it is still relatively warm, since it is quite a bit closer to the equator than we are now. I'm excited... we might be going this weekend. Woohoo!

5.14.2007

Golf Cross... Day 87 & very early Day 88

So yesterday I went on a souvenir hunting extravaganza with Heather, even though I didn't end up buying anything. I did find the most peculiar thing though, I was looking at golf related items, since Bean & Ferzy golf, and I see this crazy golf ball... but it's not shaped like a golf ball. The closest shape that I could compare it to would be a rugby or an American foot ball. I thought it was a joke, then I was proven wrong, there was a book in display called Golf Cross. Basically, you use a golf club to hit this oblong ball off of a golf tee that is shaped much like an egg cup, only smaller. As if this game isn't bizarre enough, instead of aiming for a hole, you aim for goal posts. I kid you not. I'm tempted to buy a ball... or two. In other news, I was introduced to the movie Anchorman today. It was painfully stupid, but there were a lot of funny one liners in it. Other than that, I have nothing to report. Wish me luck on my exam tomorrow!

5.12.2007

NZTV... Day 86

So I've recently become acquainted with the television in New Zealand. It's not that great, to be honest. We have thirteen or so channels, some of them come in, some of them don't. In my friend's apartment, they have to use antennas (antennae?) to get most of their channels. Blast from the past, no? I remember when my parents' TV had antennas on it. Quite a bit of time ago. All of the NZ and Australian programming is kind of painful to watch, as the acting isn't up to par. And I'm not just saying that because I'm an American that is used to American TV, I'm saying that because everything that is shown on TV here that is made in NZ/Oz is based off of soap opera acting... and we all know how great that is. There are quite a few American shows on that I had not watched before, which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because when I am bored out of my mind, I have something to do; a curse, because I keep finding television shows that I really like. Anyways, my computer is acting up, so I should go before it deletes this post again.

5.11.2007

All the cool kids call it ChCh... Day 85

New Zealand is starting to get really cold, I can only pull off wearing jandals (read: flip flops/sandals) for another week or two, my toes are getting frosty. I think I'm going to go downtown tomorrow and have a picture taking frenzy, everything looks pretty in autumn. And I need to go to the open air market at least once more, its a fun little place. Oh and I've updated all of my photo albums, I've put all of the photos from Fiji, Australia and Franz Josef Glacier up. I found this one, it's all the way from the start of my program in Roturua, NZ on the north island. This place had so much geothermal activity, one part of a neighbor hood got swallowed into the earth by a small eruption. Anyways, the entire city smells like boiled eggs. But the pools looked really cool.I'm coming up on my exams soon, I have two next week and one the following week I believe. Yuckkkkk. Other than that, I think I'm going to try to fit in one more road trip before I leave, to Dunedin I think. It seems like a cool place and it boasts having the steepest road in the world. Awesome. Oh and ChCh is short for Christchurch...

5.10.2007

The Time of my Life... Days 83-84

I cannot stop listening to the sound track from Dirty Dancing. Someone must stop me. Because I had the time of my liiiife, oh I never felt this way before... Oh someone help. In other news, I think I've gotten off of my insane sleep schedule. Last night I passed out around 8pm... that is a new record. I set my alarm for 9pm so that I would say hi to my mom online, then go back to sleep. I cannot remember if I actually did that. But I did sleep for 14 hours. That is disgusting, I must be dying or something. I really don't have anything exciting to report right now, sadly, I have class tomorrow, so that's exciting. Oh and I think my finger is done being infected, so that's also exciting. Okay, this is going nowhere, I'm going to go the gym or something. I'm looking forward to the summer though, look at my girls from last summer. Sadly, Steph is going to be in Louisiana... & Coop might be gone too... looks like it's up to Cat and I to maintain the fabulous four.

5.08.2007

Creature Comforts... Days 81-82

So, being in a civilized country, I expect to be able to find Neosporin + pain relief. I went to the chemist (read: pharmacy) and could not find it anywhere, nor could I find anything even slightly reminiscent. I ended up getting some sort of iodine based substance, since it turns my skin and subsequently, everything I touch, a putrid shade of orange-brown. Anyway, I had to find this stuff because the exploding eczema on my hand got infected. It's really quite disgusting. But yeah, this stuff is actually working, so my finger will not end up falling off.

Something really crazy happened this weekend. Apparently a party got out of control somewhere around here and a guy drove, on purpose, into a crowd at a party. I think two high school students ended up getting killed, someone in my classes knew one of them. There seems to be a lot more violence in the news lately around here.

On a much lighter note, I absolutely love the signs for trains here. They look like toy trains. It might as well just say "Choo-choo!" on the sign. Oh oh oh and one more thing, we drove on the craziest bridge on Sunday. First off, it was one lane. Second off, it is also a multipurpose bridge, trains use it too. You have to look first to see if any trains are coming before you can use the bridge. Talk about nerve wracking.

5.07.2007

12 hours, 3 people, 1 car, no gas... Day 80

This morning started with a bang. When I threw my alarm clock on the ground for waking me up to early. I snoozed for a bit, then got dressed and ran out the door to meet up with Heather & Jeff for our adventure to Franz Josef Glacier. Our shuttle picked us up at the corner and we rode off to the car hire (read: rental) place. Fast forward to driving down Riccarton to get on the main road to Arthur's Pass. Quick note: There are no interstate type highways in New Zealand. I think that there is one expressway, but it's definitely on the North Island, near Auckland. Anyways, we drove out to Arthur's Pass and enjoyed the few radio stations that we had. Then we got into the Southern Alps. No radio reception what so ever. So we made due by singing any song that came to mind. It was really entertaining actually, we got all the way through Bohemian Rhapsody without missing a beat. Whilst driving through Arthur's Pass, we saw where the battle scene from The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed. Really cool stuff. A good hour or more later, we got to the west coast. Not all that exciting, but we stopped to get gas, so I took over the wheel. What a weird experience. I drove on the proper (read: right, as in correct, left, as in direction) I'm just happy it wasn't a stick shift, I'm not confident in my left handed gear shifting skills. I drove all the way to the glacier, which was cool. When we got there, we walked down to the viewing platform, then we decided to hop the fence. We're allowed, there's a trail. Don't worry, you're just not supposed to if its typhooning (no, that is not a word), because the glacier could split off or something. Anyways, we walked for a good twenty minutes towards the glacier, although I decided not to climb up to physically touch it, as my shoes were not nearly sufficient. I did get to hold a piece of the glacier that had broken off (a baby piece).

Hours more singing and driving, we were back at Arthur's Pass. Then the unthinkable happens. Our petrol (read: gas) light goes on. Can I tell you that we had a collective panic attack? Turns out it was probably because our car was at a weird angle. We've finally made it out of Arthur's Pass alive. As we continue to sing merrily, Heather says something, not sounding happy. "You guys. Gas light is on." Let me tell you, we did not sing after that, the car was silent. We had assumed that we could fill up once we got over the alps. WRONG. We passed empty gas station after empty gas station. New Zealand has something against 24 hour gas stations. The little stick is fluttering around E. Only 50km to go until civilization. We really start to panic after we've gone 20km more, the car is exactly on E. The gas light is on with a vengeance. Back to the collective panic attack. But it was a silent panic attack. Then we see lights. City lights. I've never been so happy to see city lights. We're getting hopeful by now. Then, all of the sudden, I see an illuminated Shell petrol sign. We're in business. As we pulled in to the station, we had a massive sigh of relief. We agreed that we totally wouldn't have made it to the uni (read: university). The rest of the drive was uneventful, we were only about ten minutes away. We arrived back at Ilam around 8:30pm, which is really good time for driving that far.

I've got the lovely task of bringing the car back to the shop tomorrow morning before classes and topping off the tank. Shouldn't be too much at all, since we put in 3/4 of a tank at the Shell Station. I'm exhausted, going to sleep now. Oh and by the way, I think my voice in this video sounds really strange. But that's just me.

5.06.2007

Cinco de Mayo... NZ style... Day 79 (+very early Day 80)

Today was pretty chill, I woke up late, then went downtown with Heather, from Massachusetts, to sort out our car rental situation. I believe we have a Toyota Corolla, which isn't bad. I would have preferred a car that looked more kiwi than that, but Toyota will have to do. Later on in the day, I went to Heather's place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with her and her roommate Jeff. He's a pretty cool guy from San Francisco, who's probably joining us on our trek to Franz Josef. Our celebration consisted of making some choice (read: good) tacos. All of us being non-Mexicans, we just kind of ended our celebrations there, as we did not have sombreros or anything exciting like that. We quickly turned on the television and hung out with their other roommate, Ja, from China. I left around 12:30am to come back here and work on my essay. Until I realized that the new episode of Grey's Anatomy was available. Ready? I'm going to rationalize that. So communication disorders is a health profession, Grey's takes place in a hospital. They are similar, thus I can have one while neglecting the other. Anyways, I work best under pressure and I already have all of my research done, I just need to put it into paragraph form. Fast forward to the present, 3am, where I am going to sleep for a few hours before getting up to go on the most ridiculous adventure ever. Or at least the most ridiculous adventure to take place in less than 24 hours.

5.04.2007

Boys on bikes... Day 78

Today was pretty fantastic. I am also very proud of myself for still being awake right now (10:14pm), as I went to bed around 5am and had to wake up at 9am. That's less than four hours when you take into account actually laying there for a bit before going to sleep. I feel like last night's mediocre amount of sleep may have broken this vicious sleep cycle that is taking over my life. After classes today, Gia, who is the closest thing us exchange students have to a local mum, took myself and my friend Heather to lunch at a Malaysian restaurant. I was pleasantly surprise, minus the fact that my chicken still had skin and bones... you can't win everything. After lunch I went downtown to find out about renting a car for the aforementioned trip to Franz Josef Glacier. The rental car Gods are out to foil my plans. Luckily, my aforementioned friend Heather is going, so it worked out. Something about me not having a credit card. Whatever. I am pleased that I could rent a car at the tender age of 19... if I had $2000 for a security deposit or a credit card.

I saw something pretty cool today. I shall first tell you that it was a chilly fall day. I will proceed to tell you that people everywhere were still riding their bikes, because that's what the good people of New Zealand do. They aren't as lazy as our countrymen. The next thing I tell you, I wish I had a picture of. It was two college boys on one bike. One guy was doing the riding of the bike and the other was sitting on the handle bars. I didn't even know that people above the age of ten could do this successfully, as in without falling off. And they rode some distance, they passed me when I was at my bus stop, then my bus passed them approximately 15 minutes late. High five for economical travel. I was only confused by one thing. Only one of the guys was wearing a helmet, the one sitting on the handle bars. I guess he was most likely to be accidentally catapulted into traffic if they made a quick stop.

In other news, I became facebook friends with one of the ladies that I was on Vorovoro and she tagged me in a photo, which I am wavering in between liking and disliking. I like it because it is a picture of myself, and frankly, who doesn't like pictures? But I dislike it because while I am smiling, I have a slight pained expression. Not like I'm in pain, but like I do not want to be in this photo, so my face is protesting. I am quite proud of my improvised hair tie, which is a palm frond. Zoom to my shoulder and you can kind of see it. Oh and I added the black and white, I think any photo looks better in black and white, hands down.One thing I am grateful for... Leftovers. I made an amazing dinner yesterday, which I am now finishing for dinner today, consisting of chicken risotto (okay, the rice part came out of a box, but I did the rest) and corn, which I sort of combined into a crazy mixture of food and added a thing called "tasty" cheese, which is actually a flavor here. "Hello delicatessen employee, may I have 100grams of tasty please?" But really, how can you turn down a food that has tasty right in the name? It's practically a guarantee...

5.03.2007

Sometimes NZ is just as boring exciting as home... Days 76-77

I think I'm going to go on an excursion soon to take pictures of roadsigns. I really like them and they have different ones here. That's what this is boiling down to, taking photos of roadsigns... I'm thinking about seeing of one of my friends wants to rent a car & go down to Franz Josef glacier for a day, I really want to go there and see this glacier. It is one of the few glaciers that is still growing... It's supposed to be amazing. I can't imagine going by a glacier, it seems like something you can't do. Either way, I'm excited. Although I'm going down there in the winter time... which is stupid. But hey, at least I get to see it. And I'm excited to drive on the wrong side of the road. Hopefully I end up doing this, but if I don't, I will still have had an amazing time on the other side of the world. I did something slightly exciting last night, I tried Pad Thai. Not bad, but probably something I'll never eat again.

Even though I'm still here for a while, I only have 15 more days of classes to go to, spread out over the next five weeks. How weird is that?

5.01.2007

Spider... Day 75

Since I posted very early this morning, I don't have much to say today. One of my friends from Vorovoro posted some photos on facebook and she has a picture of one of the monster spiders.Shockingly, this is a fairly small one. The ones I came across were about twice this size. Oh and it doesn't have wings, it is actively killing a giant moth. In other news, this morning, just after I woke up, a giant spider (read: normal sized spider) crawled down the wall right next to my bed. I flew off the bed so fast. Some of you might know the story of when I was watching Are You Afraid of the Dark when I was a little kid, and my mom poked me with her foot and I elevated off the bed. This was like that.

The continent controversy... Very early morning Day 76

Australia, to be or not to be a continent? It seems as though it is losing this battle. Granted it is the largest of the South Pacific islands, but does it really deserve the title of continent? The term used by the United Nations is Oceania, which is inclusive of most of the South pacific. Oceania is split into the sub continents of Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. I've been to all but Micronesia, as I've been to Oz, Fiji (Melanesia) and New Zealand (Polynesia). There is still more controversy surrounding these continents, sometimes the subcontinent that NZ sets on is referred to Zealandia, which is a submerged continent. (Yes, totally my handiwork...minus the map)While we're talking about NZ, I'd like to point out that the man (Alan Dale) that played Caleb Nichols from The OC and plays Bradford Meade on Ugly Betty (he's someone on Lost as well), is from Dunedin, NZ. I heard him talking on an interview and he has an unmistakable New Zealand accent, so I looked it up.