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!