Not too much has been going on these past 2 weeks, just classes and hanging out. This week starts the 2 crazy weeks full of papers. I have 4 papers due within two weeks, and one of my good friend's 21st birthday is next week so I have to get an early start on everything. Her boyfriend is coming to visit as well and wants us all to take him to a bunch of places so I don't want to be worrying about writing papers! I doubt I'll get a lot done though...
One of the requirements for Loyola when abroad is that you do an immersion project while abroad. You can either interview a kiwi, or do community service. My friends and I all decided to do community service, planting trees! On Sunday we went to this island (I dont remember how to spell it) that is about a half hour ferry ride from Auckland, and met a group of people that are incharge of the whole restoration project on this island. No one lives there anymore, but it used to have a whole bunch of different things, like POW camps and a place for alcoholics to stay while they were sobering up and things like that. But, as of right now, there are hardly any trees or native birds or animals on the island bc it all got destroyed. So, for the last 10 years or so they have been going around planting trees and bushes and bringing back the native wildlife. Some lady told me that in Nov. of this year they are going to bring kiwi birds on the island too! She seemed very excited about it, and it seemed like a big deal since you can hardly find wild ones around anymore.
Anyway, we got to the island around 11 and planted little baby trees in this one section for about 3 hours, and then had lunch and were able to walk around the island for another hour before the ferry came back. It was a nice island, but it was raining some of the time so that wasnt too fun. It was a nice day though, I am glad we did it. Now I just have to write a 5-10 page paper on it! ew.
I think thats all that is going on here, I will write more when something exciting happens. Love and miss you all
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
2 months from now I'll be in Fiji!
I was on the phone with Mom today and she made me realize in exactly 2 months from today I will have finished all my finals! I cant believe how fast the semester is going by. I feel like I just started classes, but I guess thats what I was expecting to happen.
This weekend in Rotorua was okay, but nothing too special. We had dinner at another Marae, but this time they had the chief and the son and the women of the Marae sing and dance for us! They even did the Haka (the thing that the All Blacks do at Rugby games) It was cool because they dressed up and had the boys in our group go up and perform it too. It was hysterical, they were sticking their toungues out and yelling and chanting and they had no idea what was going on! Besides that, we went to a few lectures on tourism and marketing which was boring and pointless, and went to see geysers. They were pretty cool, but nothing like the ones in Yellowstone or anything like that. The whole town of Rotorua smelt like sulfer! It was horrible, the bus and all our clothes and everything stunk! We also got to see kiwi birds! We went to some park to seefish and trees and a few native animals and they took us in to see kiwi birds! We werent allowed to take pictures, or even talk when in the room, but it was nice to see them so close... there wasnt even glass inbetween us, just a wall 2 feet high. The kiwis are so cute, bigger than I thought.
The coolest part of the trip was ZORBING! google zorbing and you might get a better idea of what it is than how I am going to try to explain it. It is like a big plastic hamster ball, and they put warm water in it, and 3 people fit in. Then they push you down a hill and you roll all the way down with the water getting you soaking wet. You dont flip over or anything though because you float on top of the water. It was so much fun and definately something different. I am surprised NZ is the only place in the world so far that has it.
Besdies that, not much going on. Classes are going well, I am going to have to start writing more papers soon, but I can relax this week. I miss everyone and can't wait to see you all!
This weekend in Rotorua was okay, but nothing too special. We had dinner at another Marae, but this time they had the chief and the son and the women of the Marae sing and dance for us! They even did the Haka (the thing that the All Blacks do at Rugby games) It was cool because they dressed up and had the boys in our group go up and perform it too. It was hysterical, they were sticking their toungues out and yelling and chanting and they had no idea what was going on! Besides that, we went to a few lectures on tourism and marketing which was boring and pointless, and went to see geysers. They were pretty cool, but nothing like the ones in Yellowstone or anything like that. The whole town of Rotorua smelt like sulfer! It was horrible, the bus and all our clothes and everything stunk! We also got to see kiwi birds! We went to some park to seefish and trees and a few native animals and they took us in to see kiwi birds! We werent allowed to take pictures, or even talk when in the room, but it was nice to see them so close... there wasnt even glass inbetween us, just a wall 2 feet high. The kiwis are so cute, bigger than I thought.
The coolest part of the trip was ZORBING! google zorbing and you might get a better idea of what it is than how I am going to try to explain it. It is like a big plastic hamster ball, and they put warm water in it, and 3 people fit in. Then they push you down a hill and you roll all the way down with the water getting you soaking wet. You dont flip over or anything though because you float on top of the water. It was so much fun and definately something different. I am surprised NZ is the only place in the world so far that has it.
Besdies that, not much going on. Classes are going well, I am going to have to start writing more papers soon, but I can relax this week. I miss everyone and can't wait to see you all!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Spring Break!
Hey everyone,
Sorry I haven't written in forever. I'vebeen so busy with everyone coming to visit and in the South Island for Spring Break that I haven't been by my computer at all. I just got back this morning from my spring break, and I leave tomorrow for Rotorua for 3 days! This will be our last Loyola sponsored trip, we get to go caving and zorbing so I'm pretty excited!
I had so much fun when Mom Ang Keith and Uncle Mikey came! They got to Auckland pretty late on Sunday night, so I took them to a nice Italian place that I have been to, and then to the ice cream place up the hill that I always go to. After that we all just went to bed. On Monday I took everyone to Waiheke Island for Mom's birthday present. It ius about a 45 min. ferry ride away from me, and it is a beautiful island! I had a tour guide pick us up and show us around the whole island for like 2 hours. We took a ton of really nice pictures, and it was a really nice day out which was perfect. I think Mom really liked it! Then for dinner we came back to Auckland and had dinner at the Sky Tower. It was a buffet type of resturant but the food was so good! It reminded me of things you would see on Top Chef on TV.
The next day I took Ang to my psych class! She seemed to really enjoy it, she was taking notes and everything. Then we met up with Mom Keith and Uncle Mikey in the city and walked around, and got tickets for the ferry to the South Island. I was able to introduce them all to my friends too which was nice. After that we went to this place called Newmarket. It is about 15 mins from me, but you take a bus to get there. It has some really cute boutique shops and cool resturants. We had dinner at a fun Spanish place, and came back and went to bed.
The next couple of days we were in the South Island. That was a lot of fun. We drove down (about 6 hours) to the ferry, and then the ferry was 3 hours. We stayed in a hotel that night, and went to Christchurch. Christchurch is one of the 2 main cities in the South Island, and reminds me of Key West when it is nice out. They have a bunch of little shops so we walked around and had dinner there. The next day we went to the Antartic Centre.. They had a bunch of penguins swimming around and eating, and a whole 'antartic storm' that you can go in.. its gets to like -7 degrees in the room! We took a gondola ride to the top of Christchurch after that and could see for miles! It was really pretty there too, so we hiked around a little. Thenext place we went to was Kaikoura. It is beautiful! Its my new favortie place! You look out onto the Pacific Ocean, and right up agaist it are the snowcapped Southern Alps! It looked fake. We got to see seals laying like 3 feet infront of us, and watched the sunset. The next day we rode ATVs on a farm that overlooks the ocean and the Alps, and there was a spot where the guide said up to 500 seals come to! It was so funny seeing so many so close to us. We started our way back up to Auckland after that, had a nice dinner, and the next day everyone left for the airport! I am so happy that I got to see everyone, it was so much fun and I am glad I got to see Mom for her birthday too. I think everyone had a lot of fun. Definately a once in a lifetime thing!
Spring Break was great! There were 7 of us in a 6/7 person RV for 9 days! It was a little tight, but we managed. They picked me up from the airport on the 27th and we headed to Kaikoura. There we did whale watching and seal kayaking. It was so cool to see the whales pretty close to the boat.. we saw 5/6 of them. The seal kayaking was fun too because it was a different way of seeing the seals than I had done with my family. After that we drove to Nelson and rode ATVs to the top of this mountain where they had a skywire. It looks like a circular cage and it speeds across a wire at up to 100km/hr. It was so fun to do because we were so high abouve everything else you got a different perspective on the scenery. And it was fun because at times it would go so fast. The ATVs were fun, we got to ride around on them.. right past sheep and cows! The next day we went to Franz Josef where we climbed a glacier. Everyone kept saying that it was the coolest thing they had ever done! You really felt liek you were in a different part of the world when you were climbing it. It was so cool! We went through little crevacies and in holes and all sorts of stuff. It took a total of 6 hours to do the whole tour. It really was amazing and definately worth the money. It wasnt even that expensive. Unfortunately, on our way to Lake Wanaka that night, our RV broke down on a hill! We were half way up it, 1130 at night, no cell service, in the middle of nowhere! We were all really calm though and decided to have the driver back down the hill so she wouldnt have to keep her foot on the brake (the emergency brake didnt do anything!) and also so we wouldnt be in the middle of the road anymore. We got the RV to a clearing on the side of the road, and 10 mins later an RV comes up the mountain.. it was the other RV from Loyola! We were so excited to see them, because they were able to drive 2 of us to the next town where we called a tow truck and the RV company. Noone was able to come get us til the next morning, so the RV came back for us, we got our van working, and made it to a car park where we were able to plug in and sleep for the night. It was a good thing too, because I got sick. I started gettiing sick around midnight, and was throwing up all night at the car park. In the middle of the night, 2 of my frineds also started getting sick. We think that we were dehydrated from the glacier climb because there is no other way the other 4 girls would not have been sick. Because the RV broke down, we needed to stay in Wanaka for the day. The Rv company paid for us to sleep in a hotel for the day, so me and the 2 other sick girls just slept the entire time! We had the Rv the next day, and the 3 of us felt better, so we started on our way to Queenstown, the other major city in the South Island. We didn't miss out on much luckily, beacuse we were supossed to go skydiving but there was too much wind so it was cancelled anyway. When we got to Queenstown, it was raining and gross out, but we still walked around. It reminded me of Vail because it is a cute little ski town. The next day we were able to go skydiving!! That was amazing! We jumped from 12,000 feet. It was so cool, I felt like a was just flying above the clouds! We all ordered the DVD and pictures, so I have all of that to show everyone which is really nice to have. After that we just had a nice big dinner to celebrate our 2 month anniversary of being in New Zealand, and came back to the RV and hung out with the other group since they were all there too. The next day we just hung out, and then drove back to Christchurch. Our flight was at 7am this morning so we got into Christchurch in the morning and hung out, went in shops and stuff liek that. We didn't get to go hot air ballooning like we had planned because it was snowing apparently! I was really disappointed about that because I was looking forward to it so much. But I am sure I will go some other time.
Other than that, it was an amzing trip. I had so much fun and took so many pictures. I am so tired now, and I have to pack for another trip tomorrow! Imiss everyone, and I will see you all soon. I am halfway done my semester here! I cant believe how fast it went by. Talk to you soon
Sorry I haven't written in forever. I'vebeen so busy with everyone coming to visit and in the South Island for Spring Break that I haven't been by my computer at all. I just got back this morning from my spring break, and I leave tomorrow for Rotorua for 3 days! This will be our last Loyola sponsored trip, we get to go caving and zorbing so I'm pretty excited!
I had so much fun when Mom Ang Keith and Uncle Mikey came! They got to Auckland pretty late on Sunday night, so I took them to a nice Italian place that I have been to, and then to the ice cream place up the hill that I always go to. After that we all just went to bed. On Monday I took everyone to Waiheke Island for Mom's birthday present. It ius about a 45 min. ferry ride away from me, and it is a beautiful island! I had a tour guide pick us up and show us around the whole island for like 2 hours. We took a ton of really nice pictures, and it was a really nice day out which was perfect. I think Mom really liked it! Then for dinner we came back to Auckland and had dinner at the Sky Tower. It was a buffet type of resturant but the food was so good! It reminded me of things you would see on Top Chef on TV.
The next day I took Ang to my psych class! She seemed to really enjoy it, she was taking notes and everything. Then we met up with Mom Keith and Uncle Mikey in the city and walked around, and got tickets for the ferry to the South Island. I was able to introduce them all to my friends too which was nice. After that we went to this place called Newmarket. It is about 15 mins from me, but you take a bus to get there. It has some really cute boutique shops and cool resturants. We had dinner at a fun Spanish place, and came back and went to bed.
The next couple of days we were in the South Island. That was a lot of fun. We drove down (about 6 hours) to the ferry, and then the ferry was 3 hours. We stayed in a hotel that night, and went to Christchurch. Christchurch is one of the 2 main cities in the South Island, and reminds me of Key West when it is nice out. They have a bunch of little shops so we walked around and had dinner there. The next day we went to the Antartic Centre.. They had a bunch of penguins swimming around and eating, and a whole 'antartic storm' that you can go in.. its gets to like -7 degrees in the room! We took a gondola ride to the top of Christchurch after that and could see for miles! It was really pretty there too, so we hiked around a little. Thenext place we went to was Kaikoura. It is beautiful! Its my new favortie place! You look out onto the Pacific Ocean, and right up agaist it are the snowcapped Southern Alps! It looked fake. We got to see seals laying like 3 feet infront of us, and watched the sunset. The next day we rode ATVs on a farm that overlooks the ocean and the Alps, and there was a spot where the guide said up to 500 seals come to! It was so funny seeing so many so close to us. We started our way back up to Auckland after that, had a nice dinner, and the next day everyone left for the airport! I am so happy that I got to see everyone, it was so much fun and I am glad I got to see Mom for her birthday too. I think everyone had a lot of fun. Definately a once in a lifetime thing!
Spring Break was great! There were 7 of us in a 6/7 person RV for 9 days! It was a little tight, but we managed. They picked me up from the airport on the 27th and we headed to Kaikoura. There we did whale watching and seal kayaking. It was so cool to see the whales pretty close to the boat.. we saw 5/6 of them. The seal kayaking was fun too because it was a different way of seeing the seals than I had done with my family. After that we drove to Nelson and rode ATVs to the top of this mountain where they had a skywire. It looks like a circular cage and it speeds across a wire at up to 100km/hr. It was so fun to do because we were so high abouve everything else you got a different perspective on the scenery. And it was fun because at times it would go so fast. The ATVs were fun, we got to ride around on them.. right past sheep and cows! The next day we went to Franz Josef where we climbed a glacier. Everyone kept saying that it was the coolest thing they had ever done! You really felt liek you were in a different part of the world when you were climbing it. It was so cool! We went through little crevacies and in holes and all sorts of stuff. It took a total of 6 hours to do the whole tour. It really was amazing and definately worth the money. It wasnt even that expensive. Unfortunately, on our way to Lake Wanaka that night, our RV broke down on a hill! We were half way up it, 1130 at night, no cell service, in the middle of nowhere! We were all really calm though and decided to have the driver back down the hill so she wouldnt have to keep her foot on the brake (the emergency brake didnt do anything!) and also so we wouldnt be in the middle of the road anymore. We got the RV to a clearing on the side of the road, and 10 mins later an RV comes up the mountain.. it was the other RV from Loyola! We were so excited to see them, because they were able to drive 2 of us to the next town where we called a tow truck and the RV company. Noone was able to come get us til the next morning, so the RV came back for us, we got our van working, and made it to a car park where we were able to plug in and sleep for the night. It was a good thing too, because I got sick. I started gettiing sick around midnight, and was throwing up all night at the car park. In the middle of the night, 2 of my frineds also started getting sick. We think that we were dehydrated from the glacier climb because there is no other way the other 4 girls would not have been sick. Because the RV broke down, we needed to stay in Wanaka for the day. The Rv company paid for us to sleep in a hotel for the day, so me and the 2 other sick girls just slept the entire time! We had the Rv the next day, and the 3 of us felt better, so we started on our way to Queenstown, the other major city in the South Island. We didn't miss out on much luckily, beacuse we were supossed to go skydiving but there was too much wind so it was cancelled anyway. When we got to Queenstown, it was raining and gross out, but we still walked around. It reminded me of Vail because it is a cute little ski town. The next day we were able to go skydiving!! That was amazing! We jumped from 12,000 feet. It was so cool, I felt like a was just flying above the clouds! We all ordered the DVD and pictures, so I have all of that to show everyone which is really nice to have. After that we just had a nice big dinner to celebrate our 2 month anniversary of being in New Zealand, and came back to the RV and hung out with the other group since they were all there too. The next day we just hung out, and then drove back to Christchurch. Our flight was at 7am this morning so we got into Christchurch in the morning and hung out, went in shops and stuff liek that. We didn't get to go hot air ballooning like we had planned because it was snowing apparently! I was really disappointed about that because I was looking forward to it so much. But I am sure I will go some other time.
Other than that, it was an amzing trip. I had so much fun and took so many pictures. I am so tired now, and I have to pack for another trip tomorrow! Imiss everyone, and I will see you all soon. I am halfway done my semester here! I cant believe how fast it went by. Talk to you soon
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