Balloon Overload!

For the enjoyment of my followers, yes all four of you, I woke up at 5:30 this morning to drive out to Hamilton lake for the hot air balloon festival.  With my toes a-freezing and fingers a-shivering, I managed to get some great photos.  I also got postcards so I promise to send those out shortly!  Anyways, this three day festival features hot air balloons from across the world, and today they took off at 6:00 am.  And yes, I was there right there from the beginning!  Plus, the first 2,000 people got free breakfast! Who can say no to that?  The balloons will be on campus later, so hopefully there will be close up photos coming soon :) Enjoy!

How could I forget St. Patty's Day Pics?!

Welcome to Orchard Park!

And we like to do it big!

Easter break is so close I can almost smell it!

What is the distinct smell of Easter might you ask?  Besides the stench of overpriced chocolate, there are hints of unrest throughout the university walls.  With the break only three weeks away, it would probably be a good idea to start planning.  No worries, I've already gotten started! Guess who's gonna be a world traveler? I am!  Over the last few days, Elizabeth and I have started planning our grand adventure throughout Australasia.  Wish us look, as two girls new to the world of adventure, this will be most interesting.  Our trip includes red-eye flights and bus trips across mountain passes as we start off at the base of New Zealand hiking a glacier and arrive in Cairns, Australia only a week later.  We have all of our flights booked, Australian visa applied for, and hostels to book over the next few days.  All of this on top of three tests next week, and you may be asking yourself, "how is she surviving with such a flourishing social life?"  The answer is that I am in fact super woman.  Everybody told me just how far I could go in life and of course I must go further!  I would like to thank everyone for their love, support, and of course their beautiful funding to back me up :)  I wish I had new pictures for ya'll, but I promise more will come soon!

I love everybody very much!!
P.S. I can do a great southern accent "impression" (gotta love the south!)

oi

It's raining outside, and I'm a bit homesick.  It's a weird kind of homesick though.  If I had to choose between never coming home and starting fresh here or leaving today, I don't know which one I would choose.  It's hard making friends when you now that in 3 months you may never hear from them again.  I miss family and having dinners together.  The amount of work I have to do for class is just piling up, but it's the last thing I can think about.  I'm in New Zealand, I want to go climb a glacier and jump off a bridge and have a cup of coffee at the top of a cliff.  This whole independence thing is tough.  At least there's people back home who love me for me :)

Taranaki :)

I hate to brag, well actually no I don't, so here we go!  Hamilton is the armpit of New Zealand and everywhere else on this island belongs to the goddess of all things beautiful and amazing.  The trip to Taranaki went by really quickly, and I had a great time bonding with Jess and Elizabeth from California and the other Jess from here.  Two hours into the trip, we set eyes on the most amazing sunset ever and to our surprise the mountains we had been travelling next to were separating us from the beach.  For about ten minutes we had been trying to get a good picture of the sunset from the car, but Jess only giggled and said "don't worry, in about five minutes we will have the best view ever," and sure enough we rounded another corner and came across the most gorgeous sight I have ever been lucky enough to gaze upon.  The mountains cleared and a bay connecting to the ocean opened up.  

By the time we finally arrived at Jess's house, we were all pooped, so headed to bed pretty quickly after hanging out with her family.  Her parents were very gracious and kind.  It felt great to be around a family and have a BBQ together the next day.  I got to meet Jess's twin sister and a lot of her friends from highschool.  Over the next two days, she took us around New Plymouth to see everything her town had to offer.  (This just happened to include a Rugby game her boyfriend was playing in.)  We climbed mount Paritutu, and had no idea just what to expect.  Jess had never climbed it before and it's a rather small mountain, so we decided to just hike up in our flipflops, assuming it would only be steps.  Halfway up, the steps turned into rather rough terrain and we were literally climbing straight up holding onto a chain for support!  In the end, our shoes came off and we made it up the last half barefoot, but the view from up top was worth any bruised feet.  According to the weather, it was supposed to be rainy all weekend, but mother nature smiled upon us and decided that sunburns fit our complexions better than raindrops. The following are some pictures from the hike, the drive, the river, and the rugby game.  I wish I could describe this dreadfully manly game, but from what I can tell, it is just a bunch of overly aggressive men in short shorts fighting over an awkwardly shaped football. 

sorry the pictures are a bit unorganized, this program doesn't give me much to work with!

Ready to get out of Hamilton!

So this weekend, my lovely new partner in crime, Jessica, will be taking me and a few other girls home with her to Taranaki, about 4 hours south of here.  If I had known how long the drive would take, I might have thought twice, but doubt it..  At the moment, I am sitting happily at my computer with a box of cookies and a jar of nutella.  (Some people might call that living the life)  But I promise I won't look down on anybody who can't share in this life-changing experience.  I looked at the nutrition facts today though, and almost shed a tear... "Great source of protein" does not outweigh the 30 g of fat.  Guess I will just have to keep up this running thing. UGH ;)  I opened up a New Zealand bank account today, which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  When you come with cash, you get what you want haha  Since I haven't traveled yet, I have started a wish list.  It's growing by the day.  I met a girl named Elizabeth who transferred up here from Christchurch after the earthquake and she is here studying from California.  Luckily, we both share the love of making plans in advance down to the very last detail.

First, we have the Waitomo caves about thirty minutes south of here.  Let me paint you a picture: tubing through a pitch black cave on a river with glow worms hanging from the ceiling and a hard hat on your head!  Sadly I had to steal the pictures from their website, but we won't get into copyright issues.

After that, we want to head up to Cathedral cove before it gets too cold and go on a day cruise.  This may look familiar because this is where a scene from the Chronicles of Narnia was filmed. Pretty gorgeous, eh?

Now, I'm going to keep the rest a super secret surprise, mostly because there is just so much pretty stuff to see here that we can't even decide for ourselves!  I'm keeping up with the lingo, and if you ever hop on a plane and end up in New Zealand you must learn the saying "Sweet as."  Sweet as what, you might ask?  Well interestingly enough, nobody knows.  It's another one of those weird kiwi things.  So while I am sitting there waiting to hear what is just so sweet, perhaps sweet as chocolate, or sweet as cotton candy, I am left with strange glances because sweet as just means "cool." Like, "oh you celebrate Saint Patrick's Day back in America? " Me: "DUHHHHH, It's so much fun!" Crazy Kiwi: "Sweet as." the end. I got to drive on the left side of the road for the first time yesterday!  I must admit, I was somewhat scared for my life.  I survived though.  The turn circles kinda messed with my head.  We are going bowling tonight for St. Patrick's Day, but I hear its nothing like back home.  But then again, we Americans like to throw a party for everything!  I need to go buy green though so I don't get pinched all night.  Ok, I must get back to homework and nutella, since I have a love-hate relationship with both!  much love guys!

Hello Jet lag, pleasure to become acquainted with you

I'm SoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo tired.  Like, I'm talking I could sleep for 14 hours and still be a bit sleepy.  Also, I keep forgetting to shut the windows before I go to bed which has created quite a sinus headache :(  On a lighter note, I got to see a waterfall!  Long story short, here's pictures.  I'll finish this up another day.  much love! but before I forget, the Waterfall is called Bridal Veil and I climbed 261 steps!  Then we went to the beach!

Oh what is there to do here? drink legally!

 

Well I am not saying that drinking is the only form of recreation, but it sure is fun!  The great thing about the school here is that they actually condone it!  Welcome to O-week everybody!  Ok, enough of the exclamations, let's get to the point, (tehehe pardon my pun)  I live in this great little place called Orchard Park, which seems to be where everyone awesome ends up, and then any leftover Asians get thrown in here too.  So of course the lovely people in charge have arranged a nice meet-and-greet.  What this actually means is that we get to go on a scavenger hunt across the city in crazy outfits and then end up in a bar.  Our team wore togas and did a damn good job!  This lovely scavenger hunt included singing outside stores for money, fitting 9 people into a telephone both, and climbing onto any object in sight (yes this includes human beings)!

So this was quite the fun night, but the next night the University pulled out all the stops.  That's right they let the other residence halls be graced with our presence!  No more togas though, this time we had to dress up with something that started with the same letter as where we live.  Confusing, right?  (No worries, I didn't understand either at first, so let me lead by example...)
I live in Orchard Park, so I had to dress up as something that started with an O or a P.  Now just in case you have gotten a bit bored with my rhetoric, We get to play a game, called guess what on earth these people are wearing!!

Above to the left we have Pippi Longstocking.  Perhaps you were thinking prostitute?  It's ok we all were.  We then move on the the pirates, how original!  Now we have two wild cards in the next picture.  On the right, is the lovely indian princess Pocahontas.  Which is interesting because Michelle is actually a native Canadian and her mom is a Cheif!  Now on the left we have a pink octopus, no comment... And finally, last but not least, perhaps you are wondering what on earth I might be.  I honestly hope not because I was really proud of my idea.  Coolest peacock ever? I would hope so!!



Now, if you have a chance, run to the store and buy some Nutella because it tastes good on everything!!  And if, by the grace of God, you can find this movie, buy it!  It is called Boy and was made right here in New Zealand.  SUCHHH A GOOD MOVIE!  My fingers have begun to go numb, so I am off to work on the massive pile of homework that I would rather ignore.  But you know me, I always come out on top! much love everybody, peace out from the opposite side of the world!