Adventures of New Zealand: Past Couple Weeks

Hey,

So it's been a couple weeks since I updated. I'm really bad about keeping up with this thing. I guess it has to do with the fact that I've been crazy busy the past couple weeks. On the 16th I had my final for my Vertebrae Biology Class, so that took up most of the beginning of that week and then I had to get ready for Wellington! That was such a fun weekend!

I left for Wellington (the captial!) on Friday at 2, and got there at like 4.30 or so. I met up with Erica and Tom who had left at 10.30. I would have gone with them but I had class that went until 10 and that was just cutting it too close to take off time, so I opted for a later flight but not the really late flight like a bunch of the group did. We stayed at the YHA in Wellington, which was more like a hotel than a hostel. It was 6 floor and had two kitchens, but both of them were pretty small. Since so many people took the later flight, Tom, Erica, and I waited around the hostel for them and made some spaghetti with corn on the cobb for dinner. It was really good! Finally we met up with everyone, and then the festivities started. We went out to a couple bars but didn't really find anything that held our interests. So we went back and went to bed.

Saturday we all got up and went to Te Papa, the awesome museum there to kill some time before we went to the All Blacks game! After the museum we went for Mexican in a food court in town. It was ironic cause I had Asians make my Mexican food, and when I get Chinese food from a food court back home it's usually made by Mexicans. I know that it sounds bad but it's true. Anyways it wasn't that bad, but it was funny cause the lady didn't say quesadilla right. She said it like Napoleon Dynamite's grandma does! Haha! So that was fun. I then split from part of the group and went with Rebecca, Fabian, Alissa, and Alex to wander Cuba Street. Rebecca decided to get her ear pierced so that was an adventure. The place we went was a really cool tattoo shop and the guys there were so cool. After that we went back to the Hostel to get ready for the game! We all painted ourselves with some kind of war markings, or just our whole faces. Tom and I were the last to leave so we walked to the stadium by ourselves, and ran into some people dressed up as pirates. We found out they were from Hawaii, it was international talk like a pirate day, and that they had extra eye patches. So Tom and I took their eye patches and were pirates for the rest of the game.

We had some really good seats for only 70 bucks. We were 3 rows back from the field but we were sitting behind the end zone, which was alright but it would have been better if we were at the 50 yard line. The haka was awesome to see live, and there were fireworks that go off at the end of it. The All Blacks kicked ass, beating the Wallabies 33 - 6 (what now Aussie). We had so much fun, especially since there were like 11 of us sitting together. After the game, Tom and I went to a bar called the Bull and the Bear where we ran into some Aussies. The one guy asked if we were from "Canadia" (yes I did spell that wrong), we told him no that we were from the States. He asked us why we would wanna admit that, and we both looked at each other and then asked if we should be ashamed for being an American? He said no but just most people wouldn't admit that. It was a strange conversation but I felt offended by that comment. I'm not an overly patriotic American but I am proud of where I come from. After our chat with the Aussies Tom and I headed back towards the hostel to find everyone else. By the time we got back everyone was pretty much asleep so we called it a night too.

Sunday I slept until 1, which kind of sucked cause I was going to go back to the museum but it worked out better in the end. Erica and I went and just walked around town. We ended up at the wharfs watching a pigeon with one leg fend off seagulls and a group of Asian girls leave because the pigeon came close to them. It was kind of funny. After that we continued our walk and ended up finding a really cool, really old cemetery. I'm talking graves from the 1860s! It was really interesting, we tried to find the oldest grave but some of the tombstones were so worn that the writing was gone so we couldn't tell. After that we met up with everyone and headed out to explore the town a little more at night, a group of us ended up playing pool at a pool house. The guy working there gave us a couple vouchers for buy an hour get an hour free on one of the bigger tables. It was a really nice gesture of him.

Monday morning I flew back to Christchurch, and had to get ready for class right away. I was so tired that night and all of Tuesday. I didn't think I could get that jet lagged that fast; maybe it's worse on shorter trips, cause your body doesn't have time to get used to it before you've landed again. I don't know. Monday night all of us got together and watched the 1st Lord of the Rings movie, and it was great cause we could tell where scenes of the movie were shot cause some of us have been there. Tuesday I pretty much slept all day cause I was still exhausted from the weekend. Tuesday night we went to Cartel to watch The Hicks, which is a two man band consisting of a fiddle, a guitar, and a harmonica. The singer was really good. Wednesday and Thrusday were lame because I had to write a paper that was due on Friday. Friday I turned in my paper and just relaxed for most of the day. Tom, my flatmate, and I got some quality flatmate bonding time this weekend because most of our friends went on a trip to climb the glaciers on the West Coast. Saturday I went and had Denny's for breakfast with a group of friends, and then came back and slept most of the day. Sunday was homework day along with researching what I can do in Gold Coast when Erica and I have our adventure in November.

The weather lately has been sort of spring like, lots of rain but it's also been cold, which is not fun! I want the warm weather of spring to come quickly! Today (Tuesday the 29th), it's been sunny and fairly warm, but not warm enough for me. Soon the summer weather will be here and I might complain that it's too hot but then I don't know what the range of temperature is down here. It's just going to be a pain when I have to go back to Chicago, because it'll be super cold and possibly have snow on the ground. I'm only getting glimpses of summer this year! Haha.

I will admit I think I'm starting to miss home a bit more. But I think it's because school is back in session so I miss having class with all my friends, and going to football games, and I'll be missing hockey season for the most part too. I do miss the prices on food, and having the convenience of having everything available to me, but that's what I get for being brought up in the States. Everything is available to us whenever we want it, and it's been an eye opener being down here. I think I'm also anticipating the date I have when I get back home. I'm really excited for it cause it's with a good guy that I've known for a while now.

This weekend I have another Operation Friendship get together. There's going to be a picnic at one of the family's houses. It should be a good time. I think Sunday I might go with one of my other friends to Kaikoura. I've been there but only for a couple hours and I'd love to go back and explore a little more. I also have postcards that I'll hopefully be sending out soon. The hard part is what to write, cause I have this blog, and there's not much space on the card to describe and tell about everything. I'm still working on my movie so please have patience I did a lot those two weeks, and I want it to be really good.

That's all for now.

Love you guys! <3>

I had to walk out onto the tarmac to get to my plane to Wellington...