Food&Fun

The weekend was all around super relaxed. With nothing really planned we could wake up at 9, eat whenever we wanted, and besides our work duties, there was nothing we had to do. Except Sunday we all had to choose a time to go to church. I chose the morning slot since not many people were going then, so while they were all gone in the evening, I would have the shower all to myself. Smart, right? It was one other girl, me, and about 6 guys who went to the morning service, and it took us forever to get out of there because our driver kept on talking to people for like 40 minutes after the service had ended. I was talking with one lady while waiting around for him, and she had a Japanese exchange student who was  living with her family, and she introduced me to him. Apparently he didn't speak much English, and I was really cursing the fact that I could remember barely any of my Japanese, so I couldn't really carry on a conversation. We finally got out of there and were the last to get lunch, so it was kind of a free for all. Just for fun I tried avocado toast, not expecting it to taste like anything, but it was SO GOOD. I had at least 3 pieces that day. And since there are 2 avocado trees outside of the guys house, it looks like I'll be having plenty more in the weeks to come.

 Sunday evening right after a dinner of minestrone, I decided that since I had time and it was still light out I was going to go for a run. I had my ipod and got all decked out in my Underarmour spandex and long sleeves and stretched out and everything. It was a mile run max. I ran down to the college soccer fields nearby up the road, and back to the house. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Since I wasn't really satisfied with my workout and the house was empty, I decided to take advantage of this time and use the punching bag they have in the basement. Yeah that's right, they have a punching bag in the basement of the girls house. It's in this weird storage room thing and there's a box with boxing gloves in it and all, so I strapped them on and started going at it to Drake and Lil Wayne. Even threw in some crunches and front planks. It felt good to be doing something after a week where the most excercise I would get is walking to and from the guys house. It looks like Sundays will be my workout day.

Monday was back to classroom stuff and waking up at 7:30. Everyone was pretty much dead all morning. During the classroom though, we learned what kind of city outreaches we would be doing, since every Thursday we go out in the city and volunteer. Apparently it's stuff like helping out with an afterschool program at the YMCA, visiting with people at a local retirement home, and giving out fruit in a poorer section of Tauranga. All I was thinking was shit. I don't like children,  I don't like old people, and I would probably just want to eat the fruit. Apparently though, we were supposed to sign up after class and I didn't know that so I'll probably be stuck where no one else wanted to go. At the break time, I ran down to Patrick's Pies, which is an award winning pie shop close by our classroom, and I got a mushroom, ham, and cheese one since one of the guys said it was really good, and even though I don't normally like mushrooms, it still tasted great. I felt so official eating my meat pie in New Zealand.

Monday nights are our community nights, and all the staff, the director of the Tauranga YWAM, and other random people come for dinner and we all play games and hang out. After a hamburger and fries dinner, some staff took an "offering" and went to the local grocery store and bought a ton of junk food for us all with it and we just had a party with ice cream, Tim Tams (these chocolate covered biscuit things), gummi worms, marshmellow candies, fruit, and L&P which is a fizzy, lemony drink. I then played Polish poker with some people and came in third out of four players.(woot). Then a staff member and me and three students decided to walk to the grocery store just to get out of the house. I got banana milk, these coconut and chocolate covered marshmellow mound things, some chupchups, and had a nice time talking with the others that came along.