I've been back in New Zealand for a about a week now, and it's been pretty full on, but really good. There's about six new staff members that weren't in my school that came from other bases, a married couple, a Texan dude, two American girls, and a guy from Lyons, France which is kind of exciting. His accent is pretty cool. So along with getting settled in is getting to know all of them. We have classes most morning and afternoons where we'll discuss plans/general structure for the school, do some leadership training, and discuss our roles in the upcoming school. I will be general DTS staff (hopefully on the adventure DTS), and I'll help out in small groups and be a one-on-one person which every new student has, which just means I meet with my students every once and a while and see how they're doing. I'll also be one of the staff that helps out the cook. Since our base is going to be on a bible college campus this time and our previous cook just got married, we will be working with the cook already at the college and assisting her. There's going to be around 70 students coming in from 19 different nations, which is both kind of exciting, but also pretty nerve wracking. Not only will it be a lot of people to cook for, but it will also be a lot of people to have to get to know. One bonus (on the cooking side of things) is that a bunch of farmers are donating some sheep, pigs and cows for meat for the DTS which is awesome because that saves us a bunch of money but also gives us delicious meat.
Outside of our classes, we have a bunch of free time. Especially since everyone has to buy and prepare their own food for the week before the students arrive so there's no dinner prep or one hour dinners since people can just eat on their own time. I figured since I could only eat food I bought, I would force myself to be healthy by buying only healthy food. It's been going pretty well, I'm even avoiding carbs in the evening (staying strong Marie). Although I did buy a package of these really good spicy Indonesian ramen, and since my salad froze in the fridge the other day, I ate that for lunch and dinner. In any other situation I would take that as a sign that I've hit rock bottom.
I'm kind of struggling trying to fill all the free time we have. I'll pluck a guitar, go on the internet maybe go for a run, hang out with other staff, but there's really like 6 hours each day where we can do whatever. Yesterday we went to the beach which was a fun time fill, and some of us girls played a game of pick up soccer. Basically things are pretty loose and lazy now, but they're just going to take off as soon as the students come in, which I believe is in like five days. Also, I figured out that I can watch NBC on the NBC app, so my plan of watching Jennifer Lawrence on SNL a couple minutes at a time is going pretty well. So take that haters.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Trouble in Paradise
As you may have already read about, I had a little "situation" at the Frankfurt airport, but if not, just to catch you up, basically I was told that I needed to either buy a ticket out of New Zealand at the airport, which I didn't have because I was planning on working out a visa when I arrived, or I couldn't fly. So, we went over to this travel agency and bought, I believe (though it was hard to make complete sense of it since the guy was talking to Anna in German) a ticket that was immediately refunded so I had to pay the guy 150 Euros in cash upfront to get the "ticket". I also had to sign something saying that I wouldn't try to fly with the ticket and was told not to show that piece of paper to NZ immigration. Sketch, but whatever. I needed to get there. I was flying Air Korea, and I could count the number of white people on the plane on one hand. The food was also kind of weird since it was not only Korean food, but airplane Korean food. Big bonus though, they had all 3 seasons of Sherlock on the plane TVs and I brought some trail mix so I managed. After 20 hours on planes, I arrived into New Zealand at 8 in the morning. I woke up a little before sunrise on the plane, and let me tell you, sunrises are way prettier at 35,000 feet. Got through security fine, almost too quickly, but not worry. The trouble I ran into later more than made up for that.
To start, I realized that I didn't buy a bus ticket from the Auckland airport to Tauranga, I bought a ticket from a bus station in downtown Auckland to Tauranga, so I had to buy another bus ticket to get to that station. Once I got there, I still had a couple hours before my bus arrived so I walked around with my two rolling suitcases looking for food that looked both delicious but also cheap. Finding nowhere else, I just settled for McDonalds, which wasn't even that cheap, though it was pretty delicious. Unfortunately, there was an iron man taking place through Auckland that day and the stop that my bus would normally go to was on the iron man route, so it was moved to a different bus station. That message was written on my e-ticket, so I was aware of that fact. Unfortunately, I guess my bus driver wasn't aware of it because they parked across the street from the stop and I didn't see it. I was told this when I tried to board a bus that I thought was mine because it was actually on the correct side of the street but they informed me that my bus had already left. What. The guy did say that I could board the next bus at 5 and I could use my same ticket since it was the company's fault and not mine. This meant that I had to contact staff in New Zealand and let them know that I would be arriving much later than expected, so I guesstimated around 8.
There were two other girls about my age whose bus also missed them, so we all stuck together for the 4 hours before the next bus. It wasn't so bad since there were other people. And, funnily enough, one of the girls has a cousin who, get this, moved to Champaign, Illinois last year. She also happened to attend the university that was literally right next door to the DTS house I stayed at and she even knew this one girl that I'd met before. Pretty cool, I think. We went to this park nearby, browsed shops, and hung out by the pier to pass the time. We made sure to arrive at the bus stop a good half an hour before it was supposed to leave, and since the guy who we talked to before was there, he made sure we got on the right bus and let us on first. Due to a bus change and a roundabout route I ended up arriving at the Tauranga station around 9:30. It was pretty dark out, not many people other than a weird looking guy with a beard and a couple of other passengers waiting around, but no sign of my ride. I waited around for about 15 minutes or so, then decided I should ask to borrow a phone. The first guy, who I think is Italian judging by the language on his iPhone and accent (#Sherlockskillz. Jk.), had no credit left for calls, so I asked a lady passing by next. She said she didn't have her phone but that her son, who was just getting off a bus that just came in might. He came over and he didn't have enough credit either, but the lady asked where I was from, and learning that I was doing a program in Tauranga and that I was from America and had no idea where my ride was at, she offered to I've me a ride, adding "that is, I mean if you trust me enough to get a ride from a stranger." Yes, yes I think I do. Better than waiting around the bus station at night. So she and her son gave me a ride to the DTS house, which was really awesome of her, and luckily people were at the house.
Kind of a hectic day, which I right away hopped into bed and ended, but I made it!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Back :)
Why hello again. It's been longer than I had planned, which I apologize for, but I was having too much fun to start blogging again, but now that things are winding down a bit, I figure I can catch you all up. Soooo, here we go.
Outreach:
Awesome. Much warmer than I expected, we didn't even see temperatures near freezing until we traveled back to Istanbul in December to fly to New Zealand. The food was delicious, we had fresh Turkish delight available at all times, and I realized that we in America haven't even met a good pita before. They're supposed to be warm and soft not dry and crumbly, people. Over outreach did a lot of serving to other organizations and people that my leaders had contact with, played some soccer, and did some sight seeing and shopping. I had so much food and clothes that I was trying to bring back that I had to leave a pair of pants and the fitted sheet I brought behind. Well worth it. We also had some relaxation days (well, plans fell through so we hung around our apartment) which I really enjoyed because we would bake, play cards, watch movies, and eat a lot on those days.
Post-Outreach:
My team was the last one to return to New Zealand so we go right back into it as soon as we arrived, everyone was there and we had a barbecue, heard everyone's stories, and basically hung out all week. We went to the beach one day and I got to try surfing which I discovered requires more strength than I thought it did and I'm not very good at it. The last couple days one of my friends in New Zealand who lives really near by our base invited me and a couple other girls to stay at her house and ride her horses and hang out. She has like 6 horses that she trained herself and they're really good horses. One of them is a miniature pony named Nugget that's basically just for kicks and giggles and looks really cute when it tries to gallop around the pasture. I enjoyed riding her normal sized horses, but in doing so I nearly cantered into a tree, though luckily my Kiwi friend ran out and stopped the horse just before.
Champaign/Christmas:
I had a really great time in Champaign seeing everyone, making cookies, watching SNL, shopping, eating at all my fave places, and enjoying the presence of all my pets. I met my parents new Siamese cats, one of which has half a tail and bit me, and the other is slightly crosseyed, but in an adorable way. I kind of like them. I had to fly with my family to DC for Christmas, which was pretty uneventful. Basically a lot of pool playing and TV watching. Though we did go to the national zoo one day and I saw they had a kiwi bird exhibit which I was really excited to see because I still haven't gotten to see one yet. So we went to that, but it was really dark in the kiwi cage because they're nocturnal, so if I wanted any chance of seeing them I had to look real hard. I didn't see anything. It was a short time in Champaign, but I got to end it with a bang since Leah and I spent the morning I leftt trying out my dad's new pellet gun on cans, eggs, and a paper plate target. Watch out, CU.
Germany/Austria:
After a 10 hour flight on an airline that has no TVs because crappy airlines are cheaper, I finally arrive in Frankfurt and are greeted by Marie and Anna. We left for Austria to go sking a few days after that, and it was awesome. Gorgeous mountains, good food, lots of different slopes to go down, and most days we would play a game or Marie and I would watch Sherlock to end the day. Marie and I spent one afternoon that we ended early because the snow was pretty crappy to ski on that day at a indoor waterpark which was a pretty interesting experience. We looked all over for a hot tub because we really wanted to just relax, but the closest thing they had was this separate salt water pool that was a little bit warmer than all the others. They did have all these foot jets on the bottom of the pool which were fun. And Marie and I did some arm workouts on this rope-monkey bars area. Then after 6 days it was back to Germany, and since Anna was starting school, Marie and I would tag along for half of the day and then we would stay at Anna's house and drink tea and eat chocolate for the other
half. It as pretty fun attending a German school, though unless it was English class I usually had no idea what the teacher was saying. I did get to practice my German a lot, and I learned a bit more in
the process.
Yesterday, Marie and I took the train to Frankfurt for the day to do some sightseeing. It was pretty cold out, so we were glad we missed the 3 hour walking tour that we had originally decided to follow along in. We saw a couple famous churches and then decided to go to the modern art museum, because usually those are pretty interesting. Usually. This one was a little creepy, just plain weird
exhibits, and it didn't help that Marie and I were basically the only people there. There was this one room next to one of the exhibits, that behind a half wall you could see a pair of men's legs that were in a suit and dress shoes sticking out. We couldn't tell if it was an art piece or not and when we tried to go in an look at it, the door was locked so we couldn't. So we think it's possible it was a dead body. One of the museum's exhibits was a room full of photos of tragic things in America (a retarded tiger that was inbred, a decomposing body in the woods, KKK members, etc.) which was basically a "look
how much America sucks" exhibit. I probably liked that one better than all the rest though just because it was in English so I could understand it, and it was pretty interesting.
Now:
Currently still in Germany, though today is my last day. Waking up late, going to school with Anna for a couple hours, lunch, and then Anna is driving me to the airport at 4 where I will fly, not back to the US, but to New Zealand again. For those of you who don't know, for the second semester of my gap year I am planning on returning to New Zealand and helping staff the program I was apart of. Most of the people in the program are returning as well because the next school is going to be around 100 students because the tuition is free for this one and they could use all the help they can get, which is really nice that I'll be with the same people. I'm very excited for my second semester. Though I'm not entirely certain what my role will be in the program. Guess we'll both find out. I am planning to continue blogging while I'm in New Zealand, so keep reading!
Outreach:
Awesome. Much warmer than I expected, we didn't even see temperatures near freezing until we traveled back to Istanbul in December to fly to New Zealand. The food was delicious, we had fresh Turkish delight available at all times, and I realized that we in America haven't even met a good pita before. They're supposed to be warm and soft not dry and crumbly, people. Over outreach did a lot of serving to other organizations and people that my leaders had contact with, played some soccer, and did some sight seeing and shopping. I had so much food and clothes that I was trying to bring back that I had to leave a pair of pants and the fitted sheet I brought behind. Well worth it. We also had some relaxation days (well, plans fell through so we hung around our apartment) which I really enjoyed because we would bake, play cards, watch movies, and eat a lot on those days.
Post-Outreach:
My team was the last one to return to New Zealand so we go right back into it as soon as we arrived, everyone was there and we had a barbecue, heard everyone's stories, and basically hung out all week. We went to the beach one day and I got to try surfing which I discovered requires more strength than I thought it did and I'm not very good at it. The last couple days one of my friends in New Zealand who lives really near by our base invited me and a couple other girls to stay at her house and ride her horses and hang out. She has like 6 horses that she trained herself and they're really good horses. One of them is a miniature pony named Nugget that's basically just for kicks and giggles and looks really cute when it tries to gallop around the pasture. I enjoyed riding her normal sized horses, but in doing so I nearly cantered into a tree, though luckily my Kiwi friend ran out and stopped the horse just before.
Champaign/Christmas:
I had a really great time in Champaign seeing everyone, making cookies, watching SNL, shopping, eating at all my fave places, and enjoying the presence of all my pets. I met my parents new Siamese cats, one of which has half a tail and bit me, and the other is slightly crosseyed, but in an adorable way. I kind of like them. I had to fly with my family to DC for Christmas, which was pretty uneventful. Basically a lot of pool playing and TV watching. Though we did go to the national zoo one day and I saw they had a kiwi bird exhibit which I was really excited to see because I still haven't gotten to see one yet. So we went to that, but it was really dark in the kiwi cage because they're nocturnal, so if I wanted any chance of seeing them I had to look real hard. I didn't see anything. It was a short time in Champaign, but I got to end it with a bang since Leah and I spent the morning I leftt trying out my dad's new pellet gun on cans, eggs, and a paper plate target. Watch out, CU.
Germany/Austria:
After a 10 hour flight on an airline that has no TVs because crappy airlines are cheaper, I finally arrive in Frankfurt and are greeted by Marie and Anna. We left for Austria to go sking a few days after that, and it was awesome. Gorgeous mountains, good food, lots of different slopes to go down, and most days we would play a game or Marie and I would watch Sherlock to end the day. Marie and I spent one afternoon that we ended early because the snow was pretty crappy to ski on that day at a indoor waterpark which was a pretty interesting experience. We looked all over for a hot tub because we really wanted to just relax, but the closest thing they had was this separate salt water pool that was a little bit warmer than all the others. They did have all these foot jets on the bottom of the pool which were fun. And Marie and I did some arm workouts on this rope-monkey bars area. Then after 6 days it was back to Germany, and since Anna was starting school, Marie and I would tag along for half of the day and then we would stay at Anna's house and drink tea and eat chocolate for the other
half. It as pretty fun attending a German school, though unless it was English class I usually had no idea what the teacher was saying. I did get to practice my German a lot, and I learned a bit more in
the process.
Yesterday, Marie and I took the train to Frankfurt for the day to do some sightseeing. It was pretty cold out, so we were glad we missed the 3 hour walking tour that we had originally decided to follow along in. We saw a couple famous churches and then decided to go to the modern art museum, because usually those are pretty interesting. Usually. This one was a little creepy, just plain weird
exhibits, and it didn't help that Marie and I were basically the only people there. There was this one room next to one of the exhibits, that behind a half wall you could see a pair of men's legs that were in a suit and dress shoes sticking out. We couldn't tell if it was an art piece or not and when we tried to go in an look at it, the door was locked so we couldn't. So we think it's possible it was a dead body. One of the museum's exhibits was a room full of photos of tragic things in America (a retarded tiger that was inbred, a decomposing body in the woods, KKK members, etc.) which was basically a "look
how much America sucks" exhibit. I probably liked that one better than all the rest though just because it was in English so I could understand it, and it was pretty interesting.
Now:
Currently still in Germany, though today is my last day. Waking up late, going to school with Anna for a couple hours, lunch, and then Anna is driving me to the airport at 4 where I will fly, not back to the US, but to New Zealand again. For those of you who don't know, for the second semester of my gap year I am planning on returning to New Zealand and helping staff the program I was apart of. Most of the people in the program are returning as well because the next school is going to be around 100 students because the tuition is free for this one and they could use all the help they can get, which is really nice that I'll be with the same people. I'm very excited for my second semester. Though I'm not entirely certain what my role will be in the program. Guess we'll both find out. I am planning to continue blogging while I'm in New Zealand, so keep reading!
Friday, October 12, 2012
Bye For Now!
Well, today's the day! It's outreach time. These 2 months have flown by so quickly, and it seems like this is the end of the program, but really I've still got 2 months to go. A team left for Korea/Japan at 4 this morning, so we all said goodbye to them last night. Everyone was up until 1 hanging out or watching Despicable Me (I love movie nights here). My team leaves today at 12 for the airport to go to the Middle East so we have quite a bit of time to hang out this morning. We're flying on Emirates which I hear has awesome service and food, and they even give us unlimited free chocolate (big win). I'll be stuffing my bag with that ish all day. So anyway, because of circumstances I can't blog or Facebook while I'm in the Middle East, but fear not, I will return to both when I get back to New Zealand in early December. Plus, I can still Skype and text, so hit me up. I believe I will be 8 hours ahead this time.
Luv yhu giys,
Abby
Luv yhu giys,
Abby
Monday, October 8, 2012
Bungee Jumping
Time before I leave for outreach is just ticking down. Less than a week already! It's been kind of sad going through all the "lasts", even though we will come back for a week before I return to the US. The transition to living with the guys actually has been suprisingly good, other than a more crowded kitchen, it's been nice having everyone around the house. It's near impossible to keep track of your own personal food though, so I've taken to stashing mine in my sock drawer. This past weekend was our last adventure outing, and they left the most extreme, craziest, and scariest for last: bungee jumping. I was quite nervous all week about it, I'm not the biggest fan of heights, but I couldn't just not do it. I mean, it was already paid for and how often do you get to go bungee jumping in New Zealand? Answer: almost never. Therefore I was determined to go through with it. The bungee jumping place was in Taupo, so we had to drive like 3 hours to get to it, but it was good because we got Vs to get us pumped and we just listened to music on the way up.
It was kind of windy and cloudy when we arrived in Taupo, and since we were somehow half an hour late, they said they could let half the group jump before their lunch break and then half after. The bungee place was really beautiful even though the weather wasn't that great. The bungee platform was over a beautiful turquoise lake that I heard someone say was in an old volcano crater which is pretty cool. The jump was 47m and you could choose to either just touch the water with your finger tips or plunge in up to your waist and then be pulled back out. Only one guy chose the second option, it was scary enough as it was. We all got weighed first thing so they could calibrate the bungee cords so we didn't plummet to our death, and then we signed some waivers and were ready to go. They had an option to do tandem bungee jumping which is where two people are strapped in and go together, and since it seemed more comforting to jump off with someone else, I decided to do a tandem jump with the staffer Madeline. We were hoping to go in the first group and get it over with so we could eat our lunch during the break, since I definatey didn't want to feel sick. We were placed in the second group which turned out to be better because after lunch the weather got a lot nicer. We were the first to jump after lunch though which was good. We got our harnesses on and were sitting on a bench on the platform as the guys that worked the checked through all of our equipment. The bungee cords looked like they were just a cluster of a bunch of those tiny elastic strings tied together which wasn't very comforting.
I was completely terrified the whole time, but I had watched the first group go and it looked pretty sweet so I just kept telling myself it would be awesome. They had us grab onto these loops on each others harnesses and then step up to the edge of the platform with put toes on the edge. On three we were to lean out and drop. We slowly leaned out and went off the edge and after about 2 seconds I closed my eyes. The whole thing was kind of a blur really. I remember looking down at the water then getting to scared and closing my eyes, then reopening them and seeing something hit the water, which I soon realized was one of my shoes so I start freaking out and pointing down at it. Then I closed my eyes again unil we started to slow down. Pretty much the entire time I was screaming and it was a really good thing I had someone else to go with because when I got super freaked out I just grabbed onto them. We finally slowed enough to grab the pole that the boat that would take us to land was offering then they slowly lowered us into the boat and got us unhooked, amd I got my shoe back which was really good, though it was soaking. So crazy, I can't imagine who ever thought up such a concept, but hey. I bungee jumped for the first, and probably last, time.
It was kind of windy and cloudy when we arrived in Taupo, and since we were somehow half an hour late, they said they could let half the group jump before their lunch break and then half after. The bungee place was really beautiful even though the weather wasn't that great. The bungee platform was over a beautiful turquoise lake that I heard someone say was in an old volcano crater which is pretty cool. The jump was 47m and you could choose to either just touch the water with your finger tips or plunge in up to your waist and then be pulled back out. Only one guy chose the second option, it was scary enough as it was. We all got weighed first thing so they could calibrate the bungee cords so we didn't plummet to our death, and then we signed some waivers and were ready to go. They had an option to do tandem bungee jumping which is where two people are strapped in and go together, and since it seemed more comforting to jump off with someone else, I decided to do a tandem jump with the staffer Madeline. We were hoping to go in the first group and get it over with so we could eat our lunch during the break, since I definatey didn't want to feel sick. We were placed in the second group which turned out to be better because after lunch the weather got a lot nicer. We were the first to jump after lunch though which was good. We got our harnesses on and were sitting on a bench on the platform as the guys that worked the checked through all of our equipment. The bungee cords looked like they were just a cluster of a bunch of those tiny elastic strings tied together which wasn't very comforting.
I was completely terrified the whole time, but I had watched the first group go and it looked pretty sweet so I just kept telling myself it would be awesome. They had us grab onto these loops on each others harnesses and then step up to the edge of the platform with put toes on the edge. On three we were to lean out and drop. We slowly leaned out and went off the edge and after about 2 seconds I closed my eyes. The whole thing was kind of a blur really. I remember looking down at the water then getting to scared and closing my eyes, then reopening them and seeing something hit the water, which I soon realized was one of my shoes so I start freaking out and pointing down at it. Then I closed my eyes again unil we started to slow down. Pretty much the entire time I was screaming and it was a really good thing I had someone else to go with because when I got super freaked out I just grabbed onto them. We finally slowed enough to grab the pole that the boat that would take us to land was offering then they slowly lowered us into the boat and got us unhooked, amd I got my shoe back which was really good, though it was soaking. So crazy, I can't imagine who ever thought up such a concept, but hey. I bungee jumped for the first, and probably last, time.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Soapy Slides and White Waters
There's only 2 weeks left in my program before we all leave for outreach, and although that's crazy enough in its self, there's also going to be some big changes for the last 2 weeks of lecture phase. There's an internship starting at the Tauranga House of Prayer, and so the director of our program decided to give the guys house to them to house their interns and staff, so they decided that the boys would be moved into the girls house basement, and the staff that were living there will move to the guys house. So basically all of the students in my program will be living in one house with no staff living with us. It's going to be a pretty crazy and trying 2 weeks. The director also announced that for the last two weeks we would be partnering with a couple other bases in Tauranga, and something called Circuit Riders is coming in, and instead of regular casses we will be working with Circuit Riders. I don't really know what that means or what the Circuit Riders do, but I guess I'll find out. The main thing that I got from that announcement is that we'll have to have classes with I think 50 more students which kind of sucks because I hate interacting with people I don't know/small talk. So yay. I also still have to get clothes for outreach. I predict it will be a stressful couple of weeks.
On Saturday, everyone had to help clean the boys house to get it ready for the interns coming in. Not just a light clean, but a full blown scrub down. I volunteered with a couple other girls to clean the kitchen area, which turned out to be an excellent decision because that involved going through all the food in the pantry and we got first pick at any food without names or food that the cook didn't want to use. I was the big winner of the day (well, in my opinion at least. I don't think the other people I was working with were as enthusiastic about the free food as I was.), going home with a packet of Uncle Ben's ready rice. We also got a container full of nuts and dried fruits so we took that back to the girls house, but it turned out to be one of the internship staff's so we had to return it. It was quite sad. I was almost going to be healthy. After a long morning of making the house spotless and a lunch of spicy leftovers, I headed back to the girl's house (now I guess it's everyone's house). I was planning on making some caramel slice, which is a delicious treat that I shall make and share with all of you at home, when I looked out the window to the back yard and saw several of the guys and they motioned for me and one of the other girls that was in the kitchen to "come go on the slide".
Intrigued, we stepped outside and beheld a monster of a slip n' slide that the boys had set up in the back yard, using large black tarps, which I have no idea where they got, and they had put a 2 ft. ramp in the middle of it. All the guys were soaping up then sprinting down the slip n' slide and flying off the ramp. It looked awesome, but the other girl and I waited until they had worked out all of the kinks with the ramp before we joined in, since there was a lot of thunking to be heard when someone would hit the ramp. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon slathering soapy water all over our bodies then sprinting down the slide, and after recovering from the ramp, sprinting back up the hill to get in line again. People were getting pretty fancy with it after a while, doing twists in the air and flipping from going on your back to on your stomach which I wasn't nearly coordinated enough to do, I tried but it strained my hip a bit (I'm such an old lady) and ended up just landing on my knees. It was a completely awesome time, but my body was aching for days after. One of the other girls and I were planning on having a final "girls night" before the guys moved in and we wanted to watch The Emperor's New Groove, but since it's such an awesome movie, a lot of the guys wanted to watch it so we just had a house movie night in the living room. I had snagged 3 packets of jello from the free food box so I made that to share at the movie night, and the girl who lives in the house next to us brought over these delicious biscuits to share. Once again, I. Love. Saturdays.
On Sunday, we did our adventure activity for the week, and for that we went white water rafting. It was my first time going since it's not like there's many places in Champaign County to do that, so I was stoked. It was a level 5 with a 21ft. waterfall in it that we go down. That made me a tad nervous, but still stoked. We got suited up and headed down to the river, and I got put in a raft with 6 other students and a guide, who was super nice. It was a short course, but so much fun. We did this thing called "surfing" where after we had gone over a waterfall, we turned around and paddle straight into it and the water would crash into the front of the raft and push the raft outward. We ended the day with a trip to KFC and I got a free kitkat milkshake because the workers there were so overwhelmed with all the customers and accidentally made an extra. Choice.
On Saturday, everyone had to help clean the boys house to get it ready for the interns coming in. Not just a light clean, but a full blown scrub down. I volunteered with a couple other girls to clean the kitchen area, which turned out to be an excellent decision because that involved going through all the food in the pantry and we got first pick at any food without names or food that the cook didn't want to use. I was the big winner of the day (well, in my opinion at least. I don't think the other people I was working with were as enthusiastic about the free food as I was.), going home with a packet of Uncle Ben's ready rice. We also got a container full of nuts and dried fruits so we took that back to the girls house, but it turned out to be one of the internship staff's so we had to return it. It was quite sad. I was almost going to be healthy. After a long morning of making the house spotless and a lunch of spicy leftovers, I headed back to the girl's house (now I guess it's everyone's house). I was planning on making some caramel slice, which is a delicious treat that I shall make and share with all of you at home, when I looked out the window to the back yard and saw several of the guys and they motioned for me and one of the other girls that was in the kitchen to "come go on the slide".
Intrigued, we stepped outside and beheld a monster of a slip n' slide that the boys had set up in the back yard, using large black tarps, which I have no idea where they got, and they had put a 2 ft. ramp in the middle of it. All the guys were soaping up then sprinting down the slip n' slide and flying off the ramp. It looked awesome, but the other girl and I waited until they had worked out all of the kinks with the ramp before we joined in, since there was a lot of thunking to be heard when someone would hit the ramp. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon slathering soapy water all over our bodies then sprinting down the slide, and after recovering from the ramp, sprinting back up the hill to get in line again. People were getting pretty fancy with it after a while, doing twists in the air and flipping from going on your back to on your stomach which I wasn't nearly coordinated enough to do, I tried but it strained my hip a bit (I'm such an old lady) and ended up just landing on my knees. It was a completely awesome time, but my body was aching for days after. One of the other girls and I were planning on having a final "girls night" before the guys moved in and we wanted to watch The Emperor's New Groove, but since it's such an awesome movie, a lot of the guys wanted to watch it so we just had a house movie night in the living room. I had snagged 3 packets of jello from the free food box so I made that to share at the movie night, and the girl who lives in the house next to us brought over these delicious biscuits to share. Once again, I. Love. Saturdays.
On Sunday, we did our adventure activity for the week, and for that we went white water rafting. It was my first time going since it's not like there's many places in Champaign County to do that, so I was stoked. It was a level 5 with a 21ft. waterfall in it that we go down. That made me a tad nervous, but still stoked. We got suited up and headed down to the river, and I got put in a raft with 6 other students and a guide, who was super nice. It was a short course, but so much fun. We did this thing called "surfing" where after we had gone over a waterfall, we turned around and paddle straight into it and the water would crash into the front of the raft and push the raft outward. We ended the day with a trip to KFC and I got a free kitkat milkshake because the workers there were so overwhelmed with all the customers and accidentally made an extra. Choice.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Narnia!
After delaying our big backpacking trip into the mountains for two weeks because of storms, we finally got to go this past weekend. The place we were going to was called Pinnacle Huts up in some mountains, and the trip definitely did not go as expected. We had to pack an overnight bag with a sleeping bag, as well as any clothes we would need, so I stuffed my pink Jansport ridiculously full. I felt like a turtle with it on. As usual, everyone showed up at the guys house to make sandwiches in the morning and we then loaded up to go. After about five minutes of driving, the drivers realized they forgot the map at the house so we had to turn around and go get it. They couldn't find it anywhere so they decided to go off and buy a new map and left us all at the house, so we helped ourselves to a second breakfast. An hour later than we had planned, we were on our way. My van was pretty fun; we all were passing around bags of chips and other snacks, and one girl gave me a can of V which is kind of similar to Red Bull but it tastes fruitier, and I was jammin' to music on my iPod the whole way up. I was pretty pumped for this.
We got to the site and headed down some trail, which eventually took us to a river that we had to cross. We all had to take off our shoes and be crreative with our packs so nothing would get wet as we walked/bear crawled across the river in the cold water on the slippery rocks that kind of hurt your feet. When everyone finally got across, we determined that we weren't quite sure where we were supposed to go so we waited on a hill while one of the staff members headed up the path a ways to make sure we were on the right path. About 10 minutes later, he comes back with two hunters and their dogs. As they got closer, we realized tnhat one of the hunters was giving a piggy back ride to big, black, furry, dead boar that they had shot. Only in New Zealand. Don't worry, I got a picture of the thing. The hunters told us that it would take us too long to go up the trail that way if we wanted to reach the Pinnacle Huts by nightfall, so we decided to head back to the vans and drive a bit furthur up the road to another path. Of course, that meant re-crossing the cold, rocky river.
Eventually, we did get on the right path up, even if it was like 2 hours later than planned, and trekked up the mountains. It started out pretty light with some fun river crossings (this time on bridges), but then we hit the "Rock Staircase" which was basically an hour of climbing up this big, uneven steps that were carved into the rock in the mountains. Since we were trying to beat the sun, we had to book it, which meant no time for pictures and less breaks, which really kind of sucked. It also started to rain a bit about halfway up. I tried my hardest not to stoop to my XC complaining level. We finally reached the top, shaving like an hour off the estimated time, though I can't say it was entirely worth it, and discovered that Pinnacle Huts was more like Pinnacle Hut. It was a big building with two rooms that were stacked with bunk beds that had room for 80 people, a grill on the porch, and an inclosed dining room. It was nice and all, we brought hamburgers for dinner and Monopoly Deal to play, but it was pretty unfortnate that it was a communal sleeping area, especially since some people were crazy enough to bring their kids on this treacherous hike.
After a not-so-satisfying night's sleep, we woke up to more cold and rain. Luckily it only took an hour and a half to come down the mountain. We were all super hungry, so we stopped at a little mall with a food court and ate there. I walked around the mall a bit with another girl and felt so out of place. I hadn't showered in like 2 days and I was dressed like I rolled out of bed and into a mud puddle. I didn't know anyone there so I wasn't super concerned. Now we get to the title of this post, to Narnia. Well, at least where they filmed a scene in Prince Caspian We went to Cathedral Cove which was a beautiful beach with huge rocks, a stone archway, and torquoise waters ( I'm sure you all saw the pics on facebook). They shot the part in Prince Caspian where they arrive in Narnia and find themselves on the beach, and the stone archway is in the shot. I am loving it here in New Zealand, and I leave for outreach in only two weeks!
We got to the site and headed down some trail, which eventually took us to a river that we had to cross. We all had to take off our shoes and be crreative with our packs so nothing would get wet as we walked/bear crawled across the river in the cold water on the slippery rocks that kind of hurt your feet. When everyone finally got across, we determined that we weren't quite sure where we were supposed to go so we waited on a hill while one of the staff members headed up the path a ways to make sure we were on the right path. About 10 minutes later, he comes back with two hunters and their dogs. As they got closer, we realized tnhat one of the hunters was giving a piggy back ride to big, black, furry, dead boar that they had shot. Only in New Zealand. Don't worry, I got a picture of the thing. The hunters told us that it would take us too long to go up the trail that way if we wanted to reach the Pinnacle Huts by nightfall, so we decided to head back to the vans and drive a bit furthur up the road to another path. Of course, that meant re-crossing the cold, rocky river.
Eventually, we did get on the right path up, even if it was like 2 hours later than planned, and trekked up the mountains. It started out pretty light with some fun river crossings (this time on bridges), but then we hit the "Rock Staircase" which was basically an hour of climbing up this big, uneven steps that were carved into the rock in the mountains. Since we were trying to beat the sun, we had to book it, which meant no time for pictures and less breaks, which really kind of sucked. It also started to rain a bit about halfway up. I tried my hardest not to stoop to my XC complaining level. We finally reached the top, shaving like an hour off the estimated time, though I can't say it was entirely worth it, and discovered that Pinnacle Huts was more like Pinnacle Hut. It was a big building with two rooms that were stacked with bunk beds that had room for 80 people, a grill on the porch, and an inclosed dining room. It was nice and all, we brought hamburgers for dinner and Monopoly Deal to play, but it was pretty unfortnate that it was a communal sleeping area, especially since some people were crazy enough to bring their kids on this treacherous hike.
After a not-so-satisfying night's sleep, we woke up to more cold and rain. Luckily it only took an hour and a half to come down the mountain. We were all super hungry, so we stopped at a little mall with a food court and ate there. I walked around the mall a bit with another girl and felt so out of place. I hadn't showered in like 2 days and I was dressed like I rolled out of bed and into a mud puddle. I didn't know anyone there so I wasn't super concerned. Now we get to the title of this post, to Narnia. Well, at least where they filmed a scene in Prince Caspian We went to Cathedral Cove which was a beautiful beach with huge rocks, a stone archway, and torquoise waters ( I'm sure you all saw the pics on facebook). They shot the part in Prince Caspian where they arrive in Narnia and find themselves on the beach, and the stone archway is in the shot. I am loving it here in New Zealand, and I leave for outreach in only two weeks!
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