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| It's a great feeling to walk up to someone, hand them a hot chocolate, and, when they ask "So what's the catch?," smile and say, "Nothing. Wanted to wish you luck on exams. Have a great day!" I wish I could give out free stuff more often, or maybe I should just do nice things for people more often and not expect anything in return... I'm sure that's an area in which I could improve. On another note- it's so cold in NZ! I'm sitting in my room wearing 3 layers, plus my jacket, scarf, and hat! And I feel guilty for wanting to turn on the heat. But forget that- I'm American and I'm going to make it nice and toasty in my room! I like having control over the temperature!  No offense to anyone who doesn't want to use their heater. It's a good idea to save money and energy, but back in the states I wouldn't think twice before cranking the heat up. One thing I do feel bad about- it's really not that cold outside! I mean compared to those icy, windy, ABSOLUTELY FREEZING (You knew it was cold when the snot in your nose froze) days in Chicago, its just a little chilly outside. I should be able to handle this, but apparently I'm a wimp. I'm blaming it on not having had cold, wintery days for almost a year now. It's not even really winter or the coldest part of the year yet... The worst part though- everything is always damp! My windows have water dripping down them (on the inside) from condensation every morning. My laundry washed 3 days ago is still slightly wet. My towel I use every morning is always still a little wet from the day before. I never thought in my life that I would miss the dryness of winters in America, but I do now. I'd take dry skin over wetness everywhere any day! So this sounds like I'm really complaining, and I guess I am ranting, but I'm definitely not unhappy. Cold, wet weather is the perfect time to curl up on a couch sipping a hot drink and have a chat or read a book- I love that! Laura's sister is here! It's been really fun to meet her, but it makes me really miss my sister... In 2 days I have to officially make my decision on where I will be next year... | | |
| So my parents came to visit me, and it was sooo good to see them and so much fun to get to travel around NZ with them. I thought I'd post some fun pictures from the occasion, so that you may see how cool it was to have them here and that you too may be inspired to come visit me  
I love this pic! My parents really loved Burger Fuel!  
At the rugby game... Mordor! So Lin, who's living in Wisconsin, got to hang out with Joanna, who's living in England, in Germany! And Maylea, who's living in Chicago, got to hang out with Jess in UGANDA!! It's crazy my friends are travelling all over the world. I'm telling you- NZ needs to be the next stop on your list! | | |
| So 6 months ago today I went to my first staff meeting in New Zealand. It was our 2nd day in the country, and they even had a cake for my birthday! Crazy... I can't believe it's been 6 months! That just seems like a really long time, and yet it's flown by! I remember way back in September, when I first started my xanga, writing something about really craving fall weather. This weekend really felt like Autumn! Autumn air just has this feeling about it- I don't know how to describe it really. I think crisp is the best word although I'm not even sure what that means. It just feels different when the air starts getting colder, and you can start wearing sweaters and drinking hot drinks and sleep with lots of blankets on your bed. I love it! I just hope we get to see some leaves changing colors... We went to a rugby game on Friday and the Chiefs won! It was quite exciting, and I've decided I like watching rugby in person much better than on tv. One of the highlights was definitely once again getting our picture taken with Toby Lynn, aka Rugby Jesus. I thought I needed to put the picture online. We missed you Eve, Jen and Claire! I'm sure Toby missed you too!   | | |
| I'm skipping talking about staff conference at least for now. There will probably be mentions of it later. So finally Chandra, Laura, and I made it down to Wellington! This time we didn't risk taking our lovely car, Pancho. We opted for a bus which we ended up taking from Rotorua. So way back on Feb 1, we got up early in the morning and drove 2 hours to Rotorua and waited at the i-site for the bus. You should have seen our faces when our "bus' finally turned up. It was actually a 12 passenger van pulling a trailer! It ended up being a comfortable ride however- which was good considering it took 9 hours! So when we got to Wellington, Alex and Sarah- two of the Stinters from the US working at Victoria University down there- picked us up and started driving to an undisclosed location. They wouldn't tell us where we were going, so after driving around a bit, pulling over, and being told to get out and start walking, I was a little skeptical that wherever we were going was going to be a good thing. We start walking through a path through some woods and even ended up half walking/half sliding down a hill to finally get to the path we needed to be on- still not knowing where we are or where we're going. Finally Alex said "look around- does this look familiar?" They had taken us up Mt. Victoria and we were in the woods where they filmed the "Get off the road scene" in the Fellowship of the rings! You know where the hobbits hide from the black rider under the big tree root? It was my first LOTR actual movie site visit! So here are some pictures of us pretending to be hobbits:  Here we are being scared hobbits   Can't you just see a Black rider coming down the road?
That evening we got to walk around the city some. I just love being in big cities! and especially big cities near water! Wellington is located on a harbor, so in some ways it reminded me of being in Chicago when we walked along the water. It was so pretty though with mountains in the distance- chicago definitely doesn't have any of those! While we were there we got to walk around the Victoria University campus. It's so different from Waikato's campus. It's definitely city-like with hardly any green areas to be found. But the buildings themselves were prettier and with more interesting architecture. One of the afternoons we were there, Laura, Chandra, and I just decided to split up and go our own ways exploring the city. I love just walking around (pretending that I'm not a tourist and that I know what I'm doing) big cities! Its just so interesting to watch all the things that are going on, and it always amazes me that you can feel so isolated even surrounded by so much busyness. Being in Wellington made me wonder what it would have been like to work there instead of Hamilton. It would have been so different! Part of me wishes I could have been there because Wellington just seems like such a cool city, but at the same time I feel like I wouldn't have learned nearly as much as being in Hamilton. My lifestyle in Welly would have been pretty similar to mine in Chicago- probably not driving, taking trains and buses everywhere, etc. and the movement on the Vic campus is at a similar stage to U of C's- just a few students involved, trying to get things off the ground. I really am glad to be in Hamilton afterall. Isn't it great to look back at events that you don't understand at the time and then, looking back, see God's sovereign hand at work? I love it! So all in all, Wellington was amazing and heaps of fun! Hopefully I'll get to visit again soon!  The famous cable car and downtown view!
 panorama of the harbor and the city in the distance
 Laura, me, and Chandra standing in front of a pretty view of the harbor
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| We were just talking today how weird it is for it to be February and summertime. It's also crazy/exciting that summer is drawing to a close and soon university students will be heading back to Autumn term. That means I should really update people on what I've been doing this summer, so by the time Uni starts I can talk about all the exciting things going on there. So I guess I left off at Beach project... We barely had time to recover from exhaustion from project before heading down to New Plymouth for a couple of days. Joseph and Nigel- two Kiwi guys on staff with us organized the trip, so that meant that Laura, Chandra, and I pretty much just had to show up- which was really nice. We really had no idea what was in New Plymouth, but it ended up being a fun time. It's actually a cool little city that's right on the beach but also really close to mountains- New Zealand has it all! There was also a park that has a light display over the summer where they project colored lights onto all the trees and plants around the park. A lot of the time it seemed like we were just in a photo shoot so instead of explaining all we did of our trip, I'll just post some of the fun photos we took. We must have been really bored when we first got there.  Chandra and Laura attacking an unsuspecting Joseph. That might be a bridge they used in the movie The Last Samurai? Its somewhere in that park.
Some of the lights at Pukekura Park   Group shot in the lights- we look like a band or something?
We don't know what we're looking at either.   Chandra and Laura on the hike on Mt. Taranaki
Mountain! Lookout? we could only see trees.  And some beautiful shots of the scenery! I think you can just barely see Chandra and I on the beach there.    This might be my favourite
Where did Sara go next? Tune in next week- or until I get around to writing about it... | | |
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