I got my grade back on my history proposal and it was a 65% which is a B here, so I was kinda nervous about my grades in general. I am awaiting the grade I got on my essay (which I'll find out tomorrow), but I figured, it's the last day of break, perhaps my religion test (on HINDUISM) is up. So I checked and Lo and Behold, THERE IT WAS! I got a 79% on my test (which I thought I bombed) which is an A- here!!! It was the 5th highest grade in the class!! So exciting! I just wanted to share.

Here's an educational bit for you. Their grading system is different here. Here's the grading scale:

85% – 100%  A+

80% – 84%    A

75% – 79%    A-

70% – 74%    B+

65% – 69%    B 

60% – 64%    B-

55% – 59%    C+

50% – 54%    C

40% – 49%    D

0% – 39%    E

You would think, oh, then I would have a 4.0 if we had this at home. WRONG. They grade much harder here. Only 1 person in our class got an A+.  But nonetheless, I am more than happy with my A-. I thought I got at most a C+. Yaaaay! Ok, that's all. Just wanted to share that bit. If I get a good grade on my essay, perhaps I'll share that tomorrow too.

Hope all is well! Peace, love and blessings!

So I left off in Queenstown. Instead of doing a narrative, for to spare my fingers and your eyes, I will just list off everything major we did in each city, as to give you a brief sketch of our break. Sorry i didn't have more time to update as I went along, we were just too darn busy!

Queenstown (8 Apr)

-- The other girls bungy jumped... I didn't quite build up the guts for it... yet...

-- We went to a Jewish Seder Dinner, as it was the start of Passover. My friend Arielle is Jewish and really wanted to go so we found one real close to our hostel and went. Everyone except us an a couple others were Israeli... there were about 75 people there. It was completely in Hebrew. It made me sad that my skills from last semester were not up to par here. But it was still cool to see a real seder dinner.

Queenstown/Te Anau (9 Apr)

-- Woke up to try to do laundry: failure!

-- Left to get to Milford Sound

-- Drove to Te Anau to get lunch and fill up on gas. We stopped at a subway which was next to the gas station and good thing for our location because our car battery died while we were getting lunch. Luckily somoene from the gas station willingly came and jumped us. 

--We got to Milford Sound just in time (as we were pressing it with the laundry and car battery dealios) We kayaked for about 4 hours. The mountains surrounding us were MASSIVE. It was so beautiful with waterfalls, seals, calm waters.

-- We were frozen to pieces but had to drive a couple hours in the dark back to Te Anau. It was a good time. The hostel was nice but FREEZING! We ate dinner at roughly 10pm... woops!

Te Anau/ Franz Josef (10 Apr)

--I drove the whole way to Franz Josef!!! It was so ridiculous! We started at about 9am and got there at roughly 9 pm. It was a long day of driving.

--We stopped in Wanaka, ate lunch, bought more groceries and went to the Puzzling Museum. I didn't really post pictures, but it was very cool. THere were all sorts of visual illusions. It was cool.

--Our least stressful drive of the trip was probably from Wanaka to Franz. We had a good time singing, looking at the scenery, going around mountains, etc.

--Again, at dinner at roughly 10 30!

Franz Josef/Punakaiki (11 Apr)

--We climbed a glacier. The Franz Josef glacier is one of three unique glaciers in the world as it is surrounded by a rainforest and green mountains... I can't remember why they said that happens, but it's amazing. We spent 8 hours in the ice. It's something that is a nice once in a lifetime thing, but I would never do again only because it's so painful!!! If you ever come, you should totally see it and hike it if you're in decent shape, but the altitude and steep hikes definitely get to you. It was fabulous though... really an unbelievable mass of ice.

--We ate dinner at a local cafe and headed to Punakaiki.

-- We stayed in the one of the coolest hostels ever. It was a house in the rainforest and where we slept, there were 6 mattresses on the floor in a loft on the upper floor. It was just so homey and unique. We all said we wanted to come live there and help clean so we could stay for free. Too bad it isn't close to anything!

Punakaiki/Nelson (12 Apr)

-- Since we were going to the pancake rocks we found it only right to make pancakes. So we had pancakes and really good muffins for breakfast (banana and chocolate chip).

-- We then packed up and headed to the pancake rocks. Check out the pictures. The rocks are shaped like stacks of pancakes. Scientists aren't completely sure how it happened, but they're so cool!

-- After, we head to Nelson. WE checked into our hostel and cooked the rest of what we had for food (pasta) and then jumped in the hot tub for a bit.

Nelson (13 Apr)

-- Got up and called my parents to let them know I was still living after everything!

-- We drove to Moteuka and stopped at an iSite to talk to the people to figure out how to get to Abel Tasman and where to go. We made it an American kind of day and stopped at McDonalds because we needed something fast to eat.

-- We then headed to Abel Tasman. We stopped first at Split Apple Rock, took pictures, jumped around (literally) and attempted to get to the rock... there was too much water in our way :[

-- Then we drove down the road a bit to the actual National Park and we did about an hour and a half long hike to a beach and back. It was so beautiful. I wish we had more time to see more of hte park. We just missed the Aquataxi... that would definitely be the way to go next time.

-- We headed back into town, ate dinner at a chinese restaurant and we to the movie theatre to see Slumdog Millionaire. SO GOOD! If you haven't seen it, YOU NEED TO! No wonder it won so many awards!!  The theater was one of 9 there and it was a "Platinum theater" which meant it had roughly 18 seats that were leather and HUGE! It was awesome. And only $11 which is like $7 at home... better than what we get for that price!

Nelson (14 Apr)

--We got up and ate the free breakfast the hostel had and then got ready to go on a Groovy Day Wine Tour through Nelson. I tried almost every wine they offered at the 4 vineyards and then we went to a microbrewery but I decided I'm not a fan of beer, so I just drank Ginger beer there (which is non-alcoholic more sparkly ginger ale).  It was fun and good experience. It was also very neat to see the different grapes and stuff used to make wine.

-- After the tour we needed a good dinner to round out break on so we went to Lone Star... different than Lonestar at home... and had an amaaaazing quesadilla! So good.

-- After that we headed to a bar to wait for a couple of our friends from school (who ended up not able to come). It was called The Vic. We sat in a nice seating area which had comfy leather seats and was more upscale than most of the bars in Hamilton.

--We went to the gas station after to pick up something sweet for dessert and sarah and I split Tim Tams and milk. Tim Tams are delicious double decker chocolately cookies. mmm. We played cards and ate them. It was wonderful.

Nelson/ Picton/Wellington (15 Apr)

-- We got up the next morning to pack up all our stuff before we needed to head to Picton to catch the ferry.

-- We sadly returned Sunny, our car, and headed to the ferry terminal.

-- It's like an airport! It's small but has the same busy, but clean feel that airports do. There were two gangways. We ate lunch and then got on the ferry. It's so cool. It has 3 decks, I believe, which includes a movie theater, several lounge areas, a couple food stores and a gift shop.  I attempted to journal the majority of the time and then the Ellen show came on so I watched that!

-- We arrived in Wellington, got dinner at a Backpackers cafe and then got on the bus to make the long journey back to Hamilton. It was a 9 hour bus ride that started at 8pm and got us into Hams at 5am. What a long night of uncomfortable in and out sleep.

Boy does it feel good to be back though. Now I just have to get working on my homework!

So I'm on our two week break traveling the south island. I was going to refrain from updating until the end, but I know you are waiting on bated breath to hear about my life... so I have 20 minutes. I will post what I can...

Well, if any of you saw my facebook status it says, "Emily Labrecque is moving to Christchurch. Effective: immediately." Christchurch was the first stop. We flew in and spent two nights there.

Here's what we did there::

--Visited and purchased items from the Market in Cathedral Square.

--Toured the Christchurch Cathedral

--Ate Greek Soulvaki

--Beaded jewelry for loved ones

--Went Punting on the Avon

--Rode in a Gondola up a mountain and hiked another part of the mountain

--Ate lunch in and toured the Botanical Gardens

--Went to the Cathedral for PALM SUNDAY!!!

(And those are only the highlights!)

Then from there we rented a car and drove to Lake Tekapo. We intended to see Mt. Cook but it was supposed to be rainy, plus we can't hike it, so we would have driven 1.5 hours (out of our way... kinda) to take a picture. So, we decided to ditch it. We then just saw the lake, which was beautiful and then went on our way the next morning. Halfway we stopped at Mauraki boulders on the beach to see boulders that are perfectly spherical.

Then we headed to Dunedin. What we did there::

--Cadbury Chocolate Factory (SO GOOD)

--Speights Brewery Factory ( gross! :])

--Climbed Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street.

Then we headed out this morning to come to Queenstown. We first stopped in Ranfurly and at lunch on the grass. Then we stopped for a bathroom break in Cromwell where we brought out our inner child and played on a playground. It was so much fun.

Then we arrived in Queenstown early afternoon.

Here we have just kinda hung out. Went to The Cow which has amazing pizza and garlic bread.

Sorry it's so brief... But hey, what can I say... I'm  busy seeing God's green earth. Leave me messages/send me emails!

Love to you all!

OH here's an inspirational quote: Blessed are the cracked... for they let in the light....

Wow.. I thought last week was huge. This week was fabulous. Again, I'm going with the day by day format::

Saturday. So last saturday I did homework all day and we went to the Rugby game that evening. It was a huge game: Hamilton vs. Auckland. WE WON! 63-37. It was such a good game. There were trys (goals) back and forth. It was wonderful

Sunday. I went to the Anglican church downtown. Let's just say it will be the church I go to if I can't find another one. It was a beautiful church up on the hill, but I forgot how "high church" Anglicans are. It was a good experience, just different. People were great though, but that's usually the case.  That afternoon some of us from my residence hall went to Raglan for a while. We get to the beach and the driver dropped us off at Manu Bay, not beach, so we climbed across (I'm guessing) a quarter-half mile of rocks. Big ones, little ones, four times the size of my head, the size of my body. Heaps of them lined the shore to the beach. It was an adventure. (The picture up top of my flip flops on the rock was from when I paused for a few moments to catch my breath :)) It was funny... when we got to the beach we set our stuff down, went into the water, I went back to take off my tank top so i could actually get in the water, and then we got kicked from our spot to the more central area of the beach so the life guards could see us, then when we got there I went out to the water (our stuff was about 100 yds from the water) and realized I had my glasses on, so I went BACK to our stuff put them down, went BACK to the water realized 1) I couldn't find anyone because they had drifted. 2) I couldn't find anyone because I could see. Awesome. So I body surfed for a bit then went back. We were only there for about 2 hours.

Monday. Monday was epic because WE FIGURED OUT SPRING BREAK!!! I won't bore you with details now because I will tell you all about it when I get back or even during break. Then you can hear all the excitement. We leave this coming thursday (the 2nd).

Tuesday.  Nothing exciting. Class and homework. We booked our hostels for break. That was good.

Wednesday. Maybe this week wasn't as amazing as it was. Today and Thursday I really just did homework. Nothing exciting.  I will give you the lowdown on all my work I have to do though:)  (THis is all for this week). My paper on first wave feminism is due Thursday. My History proposal for my paper on ordaining women in the Episcopal church is due Thursday. My Eastern Spiritualities test is Thursday. An essay I'm writing for Elmhurst for the Goetz Essay Prize is due...yup that's right. Thursday. Luckily I'm done with my first draft for both essays, my test shouldn't be too bad, and my history proposal should be done tomorrow. I've been working really hard to get all this done so I didn't leave it for this week. It worked out well :)

Friday. I got work done in the morning and then met with my history prof to go over my proposal for my paper. She is really cool and really helpful. We could carry on good conversation.  Then I went and sat in our Lady Goodfellow Chapel. It's quaint, cute, and intimate. I just sat and worked on my Goetz essay which is about prayer for about 2 hours. Then I went to dinner and went with Kristen to get a movie. We rented Baby Mama. So funny. After the movie a couple kiwi girls came in and we watched American Idol.. I finally saw Matt, who is from Kalamazoo. As much as I hope for his success, I hope he is done with Idol and doesn't get all famous so he can continue working at Monaco Bay and be there for my birthday! But no, I really hope he succeeds. AND THEN I had this conversation about cultural differences from the US to NZ with the two kiwi girls and they suddenly got all excited about "red cups." Do you really drink out of those red cups!? they asked. yea, they're talking about Red Solo plastic cups. They drink out of bottles here, so the idea that you would drink out of something else is quite foreign. AND I explained (in as much detail as I could) Beer Pong. (Again, I dont play it so I couldn't explain it very well but they thought it was a great idea!) SO funny!

Saturday. This was the day we went to Mt. Maunganui in Tauranga (for those phonetic types, here's a rough estimate of how you say them... mount moun-gu-new-ee. in tar-ain-ga) .  It was wonderful. I climbed the mount, swam in the water, saw a stingray with Kristen (AND RAN) ate gelato and laid out in the sun. It was a good day. THEN we went back and did the balloon thing. See the pictures... it shouldn't take too much explanation.  If you want more info on any of this stuff feel free to leave comments or email me.

Sunday.  I thought it was going to be the day I die, but here I am alive! I went White Water Rafting on a Grade 5 river called Kiatuna! Well, it wasn't completely grade 5 but had those kinds of elements. LIKE A 7 METRE DROP! Yes, that's right folks, 23 feet. We were skeptical because it didn't seem that far, but I think it takes into account how deep you go when the waterfall, yes, waterfall, swallows you at the bottom. It was so crazy! There were 7 of us on the raft including our guide. It was awesome. We did a 2 meter drop, 1 meter drop, then the 7 meter drop. Then we "surfed" which means going front first into the falling part of the waterfall and letting the water push the front under and soaks us! It was crazy! I got water up the nose at one point, which is no fun, but it was all in all an amazing time. It didn't last for more than an hour, hour and a half so it was quick. But it was so fun!

I think that's all! Things are going well. I'm excited for spring break because I don't have too much I'll need to be doing (i say that but that probably isn't the case!) Hopefully we'll be getting back with a few days to spare so we can get some work done!

Well, check out pictures. There are comments so you can see what's what! Enjoy! Cheers!

OH Fun Fact: Can't think of anything right now, so instead, I'll give you the name of a band/cd that I am hooked on and you should look it up and listen to them.  The Wailin' Jennys- their cd 40 days.  

[Sing to "Oh what a night" by the Four Seasons.)

"Oh what a week. Mi-id March back in 'ought nine. What a very crazy time for me. And I remember, what a week!" I'm not sure where we left off. I'm thinking last sunday. So here's a recap since then!

Monday: I had class in the morning, but nothing else so in the afternoon we went shopping. We looked at clothes for St. Patricks day, Backpacks for Spring Break, and more! I bought just a couple things and am returning a pair of shoes. BUT I got an amazing scarf, so there you have it!

Tuesday: St. Patrick's day. One of my favorite days because I get to wear green! In our group of Americans/Canadians, we had three people whose birthday were either the 17th or 18th. Crazy! So we had a "St. Patty's Extravaganza." We went to a fancy dinner at Coyote, which was basically an attempt at Arizona/New Mexico-esque decor, with a Mexican hint in their food. It was for sure interesting, but REALLY good. My friend Sarah (From South Carolina) and I shared a dessert: Mississippi Mud Cake. So. Good. It had raspberries on one side and strawberry ice cream on the other. Then we went to Bar 101, Hamilton's student bar, as we usually go to dance and drink. It was fun but after a while we got bored with it and went to Lucky Leprechaun, an Irish Pub. This was my favorite part of the night because there was a band playing Irish Jig music and unlike Bar 101, you could actually have conversation at the table without yelling: something we all enjoy. After they had their Irish Car Bombs (don't ask...) we headed back to 101 to see what the scene was like. It was PACKED. We didn't stay for much longer. I get tired real quick, so it got to be too much. Plus Wednesday's are my really long days (Class from 10am-4pm with a one hour break for lunch), so I was looking forward to bed. (The pictures at the top of this page are from then: the black and white with green accents, and the one with the 4 of us girls.)

Wednesday: So I had classes all day. Then in the afternoon, a couple of my Kiwi friends recruited me to do Quiz Night with them. This was an activity for Student Village residents. You could pick a theme to dress up in and then perhaps win best dressed. Well, we called ourselves the Sixty Beasts-- a play off of Sexy Beasts since we dressed up Sixties-like. It was all Estee's idea. So I wore one of my friend's dresses and had to put on ridiculous make up. We lost big time after 6 rounds, but I did find out that Albert Einstein won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921. Who knew? Not us. So that was a good night.

I also found out about housing at Elmhurst for the fall and I'm super excited! Same set up as last year only I'm in a single with one of my really good friends from the golf team and her roommate, and possibly another wonderful golf member, if she decides not to go abroad in the fall. AND I'm across the hall from one of my really good friends as well. All good. 

Thursday: Today was normal. I had two classes and was done for the day by 3. I spent the majority of hte afternoon doing homework, i believe. Or maybe not... Oh well, I do remember really starting after dinner. I sat at my computer for about 3 hours doing research for my history paper. I'm in Aspects of Social and Cultural history which is a wonderful class and my research paper can be on almost anything. So, I'm going to write about the leadership, or lack thereof, of women in the Church in America. I have to find a time period, or something more specific to write about, but that was what I was researching. I'm really excited about it. Our extensive proposal is due two weeks from yesterday- same day as my Women's and Gender studies paper... OH AND my religion test. Awesome. It's all good though. So at 9 i went to go get a drink from the vending machine and my next door neighbor, Nate, stops me asking if I was any good at english. I told him I was no expert but that I'm decent. Well, for the management school you have to take several compulsory online tests, including one on grammar and punctuation. He had 10 attempts and was down to 2 left, but the sytem had reset so he had 10 left. Thank God because it took us THREE TIMES to get it. He had to get 8/10 correct and I failed him twice! I felt so bad, but we went through and the first time got 5/10. We were bummed. Then the second time we got 7/10 (remember how we needed 8?) and then we finally got 9 the last time. It was a good, yes, HOUR, of bonding time. I got my drink (and a snack because I got hungry in that hour!) and came back to continue my research. That was thursday.

Friday: Nothing major during the day... just layed out and did some homework in the sun- trying to get my shoulders, which I'm sure have lost pigment due to all my golf, a little sun. However, last night was ridiculous. We went out. Sarah, RaeLynn, Lacy, Arielle and I went out for cocktails (I had water in a cool glass with a wonderful bendy straw), before we were going to go to a Reggae Concert. The place we went first was called "Easy Tiger." It had a cool atmosphere and an even more awesome dance floor. (I'll try attaching a video of it if I can.)  We were there until 10 when we headed to a bar/club called "Flow." It is underground and has a very creepy atmosphere, but it was fine. :) The reggae concert was awesome. The band was called "Cornerstone Roots" and I have found that when listening to reggae, here's what you must do: loosen up your neck, bounce, and sway all at the same time, and you're good. That's it. I really like reggae, I'm finding. However, the ground was so gross that the bottom of my flip flops got disgusting, so when we got to Bar 101, I found myself nearly cemented to the floor because the floor there was covered in sticky beer. I was trying to twirl and dance with my friend Max (from Iowa) but it was so difficult because of the stinkin' flip flops. Then he told us (a couple of times... oopsies!) that he brought his Chinese friends from his hall and he wanted us to dance with them. I tried to say no, but because I did, I probably had the best night yet. I was doing ridiculous dances and they were trying to spin me and dip me and all this crazy stuff. It started off kind of embarrassing, but I'm finding it easier and easier to let myself go and just do what I want instead of worrying about what other people are thinking about me. It helps when they aren't pressuring me and I'm doing it on my own time:] Because of all that, I had the best night out, YET. It only took a month!

Speaking of which, I left home a month and 5 days ago. Holy cow. It always seems to go by slow in the moment, but looking back at it, I can't believe a month has gone by already! It makes me excited for the next couple of months! Spring break is coming up soon and I still have no idea what I'm doing for it. I think I'm sitting down with a few friends on Monday and try to figure it all out.

I think that's all for me. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that I'm missing. OH I'm getting into techno music. I hate that they make remixes of songs that shouldn't be remixed (like Jason Mraz "I'm Yours), but I'm starting to like it. I just downloaded "Call on me" techno version and love it :)

Remember, ask me questions to post on the side!!! I'll post some pictures and video to this too so check them out!.

FUN FACT: Mullets, Mullet-hawks, wearing socks with flip flops, and boys/men in short shorts are all very popular things here.... yuck!

So, another week at Waikato has come and gone. I am making notes in a planner I have so I remember what I do on certain days, otherwise I would have to blog every.single.day. in order to keep track. So, let's recount the week, shall we?

On Sunday, my friend Aasha (From S.C.) and I went to Raglan (some of the best surf in the world) for the day. We did not surf, unfortunately, but we went to an old schoolhouse to peruse (i think that's how you spel it...) the arts and crafts at the, you guessed it, arts and crafts fair.  It was really small and cute, had some great food, great jewelry and other hand made items. We both bought some stuff. It was fun. Then we walked to the other side of the city to explore the downtown area. It was so fun because we saw exactly what you would picture when you think of a "beach city's down town area." Sorry, thats a really lame descriptor... Anyway, it was so cute. Lots of little shops with souveneirs, more hand made items, etc. We went to a restaurant called Blacksand for lunch. I had a great burger with a couple different sauces on it and amazing chips. (They call french fries: Chips. And they come with EVERYTHING here.) So after that we felt the need for a nap so we ventured over closer to the beach and laid on the grass. We weren't close enough to nice beach so we just laid down and fell asleep. Well, Aasha fell asleep; I did homework... typical. So we came back to school. That was sunday.

Monday and Tuesday I just had classes which are going pretty well. I LOVE my history class and am just liking the other two. They both seem over my head at this point, so I'm trying to keep up, but we're getting there... hopefully.

Tuesday night I bought tickets to go to an A Cappella concert. There were three groups which performed: Mighty Waikato Harmony, Waikato Rivertones, and Philly's own A Cappella Pops. All three were wonderful. They each performed songs from various eras and genres. It was fabulous. I talked with the American performers afterward and found a guy who was originally from Michigan. It's always funny when you have to go to a different country to hear or meet someone from your own. It was a fun evening.

Wednesday is my day from hell, to say in the least. I have class from 10-4 straight, minus an hour for lunch. I make it through, but it's painful. I don't have classes on Fridays, so I suppose this makes up for it. It's a good thing I don't hate all my classes :)

Thursday...   Class again during the day, just three hours of class total. Thursday night Arielle wanted to go out but she was all alone on that one. So instead, Aasha, Arielle, Amber and I all went and rented a couple movies, got some candy and popcorn, and relaxed. We watched the movie Keeping the Faith. I LOVE IT. So good. It's about these three best friends who happen to be a jewish boy, a catholic boy and a girl (religion unknown:]). They grow up to be a Rabbi, a Priest, and an important business woman. From there it becomes a romantic comedy. It may end up being a purchase when I get back to the states. FUNNY STORY: Ok, so here the three of us are sitting in the lounge. We're not in for long before I realize that I want something to drink from the vending machine. We have machines here that have both drinks and snacks in them. They're great. Anyway, I look over and it looked as though it had been robbed. There was hardly anything left! So I get up and go to look and I exclaim, "FREE FOOD!" I looked down and in the machine was allllll sorts of snacks and drinks that seemed to have been shaken from the  machine. Well, karma kicked that kid to the curb becasue when i went to open it to partake in the goodness, the door was jammed. HAH. So for the rest of the night we proceeded to crave such snacks and drinks, so we tried so many things. We tried shaking the machine, running into it, prying it open with butter knife. OH and my favorite: I had said earlier in the night, "Oh, if we had a hanger, and could get the door open just enough, we could move that coke can that is blocking the way and release the door." So what happens later in the night? I find a hanger in the trash can! I thought, "Perfect, this is like, divinely ordained, am I right?!" So I go to the trash can, pick it up, hear Arielle let out a semi-scream, and i put it down. She then pointed out to me that there were ants EVERYWHERE in the trash and on the hanger. I had the heebie-jeebies for the rest of the night... and we never got the vending machine open.

That may be more than you needed to know, but what the heck.

So then Friday we went to "Momento" for breakfast at 9 30 after we were up until 3 the night before. Momento is a cute little coffe/lunch shop open on campus. I had a bagel. It was soo good. I think we're going there again this friday. Anyway, we left that afternoon for Aukland, NZ's largest city. It's like going to Chicago or NYC. It's HUGE, tons of skyscrapers, people everywhere and lots of traffic. It's definitely one of those places I could only go to for a couple days at a time. Anyway, we got there, checked into our hostel (which I'm learning are wonderful places), and walked around the city some. We ate dinner at the hostel because it was free, but we found ourselves hungry later so wound up walking around town shopping some more before stopping for pizza. WHen we went back to our hostel we met a guy who is from boston who has been living here on a work visa. He's almost on his way back home, but he gave us tips, tricks, and pointers to traveling, as we are currently trying to figure out plans for our two week break. (Did I mention we have a two week break? OH and a study week before two weeks of finals? Oh yea, that makes a total of only 12 weeks of classes. That's a whole month less than I'm used to!) The next day we went to the Pasifika Festival in Western Springs Park. We took the bus and on it we found several of our friends who go to University of Aukland. We spent our time in Rotorua with them. It was wonderful! So we got to the festival, walked around and shopped some more (for those of you who don't know this about me, I really loathe shopping...it was getting to be too much :]) and then went on a two hour long hunt to find the stage at which our friend Joe's band was playing. He's in a band called "Unknown Peace." They are a 10 person reggae band and SO. AWESOME. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-yRAUFjOw&feature=channel) It poured for most of the concert, but it was still fun! Then we came back after the concert to Hamilton. When we got back we watched the other movie we rented (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and ate Dominos Pizza.  

One more day. On Sunday I went to Thrive City Church. Let's just say it isn't my cup of tea. I tried it out. But it is too "concert/mosh pitesque" to me.  I like my traditional and "alternative." I'm going to attempt the Anglican church next week. Yay.  Then all day I did homework. Fun stuff.

That was my week in a nutshell. I will keep trying to update after every week. Again, post questions either in the comment section or in my email so I can respond! Hope everyone is well. I'm missing you all...

Peace Love and Blessings,

me

FUN FACT: Meat Pies are kind of like their token meal here. It reminds me of Sweeney Todd, but despite that part, they are actually quite good.

So it’s been a full and tiring week here at Uni.  I started and finished my first week of school.  In case you don’t know, I have three classes: Rethinking Women, Sex and Gender (WGST), Aspects of Social and Cultural History (HIST), and Eastern Spiritualities (RELS).  All are very exciting and interesting topics for me.  My WGST class is basically a history of feminism with a look at feminist political thought and theory.  My HIST class is really intriguing because it is a look at how history has been viewed in a historical perspective versus a social or cultural perspective.  It has a lot to do with sociology as well which is neat. Then my RELS class is taught by a professor who, I think, has dreads. Her hair is so thin it almost looks like… not dreads… but I think they are.  She’s not who I was expecting but very fascinating. It will be focused on Buddhism and Hinduism and at the end of the class we have to go to a service..er.. whatever they have (we haven’t learned that far) and report on it, which will be neat.

So classes will be good. I’m finding there is a lot more reading required here. They put less emphasis on assignments and more on reading and testing.  For example, all of my finals are worth at least 40% of my grade—as a poor test taker, I’m a bit nervous.  I had such an easy semester last Fall that it could be difficult.  But I have to learn that it’s the overall experience that counts.  I can’t let myself fall to bad grades, but as my mom always says, “Just do your best and that’s all you can do.” (For all my theologically inclined friends, I take this advice from Mark 14:8 as well… “She has done what she could.” Read mark 14:3-9 for more context. Mark and Munchies friends, we talked about this.) So anyway, it would help if my classes transferred as pass/fail not A-C, but we’ll see.  I am excited to get back into the swing of school stuff again.  Reading will be difficult to keep up on, but again, I just have to do my bestJ

What else… We were going to go to the beach on Sunday but it has been postponed as it is supposed to rain till Tuesday. That’s something I’m finding out is it rains a lot here.  It’s more spastic and unpredictable than the Midwest, and that’s saying something.  It’s so ridiculous. It can be a really nice day and at 4:30 get dark and cloudy pour from 4:45-5:15 and then clear up and be sunny the rest of the evening. It’s so ridiculous. But hey, what’s one more ambiguous factor.  I need to figure out Teaching Recess plans. We have two weeks, which is really nice (and its only a month into school, too!) but I have to make plans. I think my friend Kristen (from Minnesota) and I are going to do the South Island but I want to get more people in on it. It would be awesome. I’m excited to get out of Hamilton and explore. There’s also some way cool cultural stuff to do in Hamilton which would make for good weekend day trips, or just to get out for a couple hours.  It’s a great city.

Yesterday afternoon I walked all around Hamilton with a couple of my Kiwi friends, Layna and Estee. They’re a couple fun kids. I met them a couple nights last week in the bars and I only knew them as the funny drunk girls who were keen on talking to me, so I talked back.  But now we hang out all the time. They’re good people. We came back and watched West Side Story with their friend Amy (who sings opera!) because we all love it. Mmmm. Commonalities. Layna and I have also realized our love for Richard Gere and for Meryl Streep, so we plan on having movie marathons at some point this semester. Because who doesn’t love “Music of the Heart” and “Shall we dance?”

We went to another rugby game last night…. It was freeJ And we won! It was a good game.  Before it started I laid there (as we were on the grass seating), looked up at the sky and realized how fortunate I am, how amazing it is and cool it is to be in New Zealand. So.awesome.

I think that’s all. I’ll add pictures when I get the chance. Much love to family and friends and everyone else for that matter. Keep leaving comments! Love!

OH Fun fact: It is common to see Kiwis (people) walking around barefoot to class, down the road, to the store. It’s just something you do.  I tried the other day… it made my feet hurtJ

So I know I recently updated you all, but I have to show and tell! Today has by far been my favorite day here. First, it was a Sunday. Sunday is my favorite day of the week- for various reasons. But we started off the day with talking to my family on Skype. Then I went for a run (just a short one, but it was nice to be outside) and jumped in the shower and went to lunch. After lunch I sat outside and journaled for a while and then read my book. I'm currently reading Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris... look it up, its wonderful. Then we got a group of people together went to dinner and took a cab down to the Hamilton Gardens so we could see the Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra, Lyrica, Te Awamatu Brass Band, and two vocalists. They played/ sang all sorts of stuff from West Side Story (my fav!) to Puccini's Nessun Dorma to Star Wars and the 1812 Overture. It was perfect. We sat on the "Rhododendron Lawn," ate ice cream, watched the performance and had a blast. It was awesome. Best part was, it only cost our cab fares and a 1 or 2 dollar donations to a children's fund to have all of this amazing fun. I've attached a couple pictures and a video so you can see some of it. Enjoy :)

I start school tomorrow so expect an update by the end of the week about classes and college life!

So I wrote this fun entry about Rugby... and it got deleted.. oi. Ok, here we go again.

So we went to a rugby game (match?) last night. It was the Waikato Chiefs vs. Durban (South Africa) Sharks. (That's a long way to come just for a game, as far as I'm concerned.) Rugby lasts 80 minutes.. most of the time. They are crazy big guys. Or, as my friend Monica put it, "They look like 12 year-olds trying to get a ball." If they look like 12 year olds, then I don't want to know what they'll look like later on in life! They're so muscle-y and hardcore. It's craziness.

Most of us went not knowing the rules, so here's what I figured out. Two 40 minute halves, at the end instead of blowing a whistle, if the play is still going, they go until they have a penalty or the ball goes out (so it could last well over 80 minutes), a goal/touchdown is called a "try." Those are worth 5 pts. If you make the kick after that, you get 2 more (trick is you kick from an angle), but if you make a kick without a try, you get 3 points (quite similar to football). You can, believe it or not, get a yellow or red card-- even though it seems like everything they do should be carded, and you basically are just trying to take down other people. OH and you can PUNCH PEOPLE... ridiculous.  They say around here that although its fan base is HUGE, kids are being requested not to start playing so early because its so rough. If they break their ankle in the middle of growing, they might not grow right... eek! There was at one point last night a play where all of a sudden there were 5 guys on the ground and 5 more guys helping them stretch because they were all hurt... or, as hurt as guys get in this game.

The big team here is the New Zealand All Blacks. We saw a regional team last night, but they also have their national team. People live to watch this team play.

FUN FACT: Cool thing about the All Blacks is they do the Haka before every game. I can't remember if I told you all about the Haka. We learned it when we were in Rotorua. So in case I didn't fully inform, here's a link to learn it! Make sure you click on "Learn the Haka" at the bottom.  http://www.newzealand.com/travel/app_templates/haka/en/index_content.html 

So hopefully these will be more regular once school gets started. For now, we've just been hanging out...I have learned quickly that drinking is popular down here. The legal age is 18 so they allow it on campus. We even have a pub on campus... ridiculous! You can openly have alcohol in your rooms. Actually, besides the pub, the only place you can drink on campus is IN YOUR ROOM. Just as long as it 1) Isn't after 10 pm or before 10am 2) isn't in 40 oz. bottles, 3) you don't have more than 6 people in your room, 4) there are more rules, I've just forgotten them. It's ridiculous though. I heard the other day that drinking is so heavy that kids even once they get to 18 have liver problems. Holy.crap. And you know what else is weird? Thursday is their big night to go out. Some of them go on Saturdays and fridays are pretty uncommon. They always do warm ups in their room before they go out. This stuff happens at Elmhurst but is pretty under the radar and so you don't have so many rules for stuff. In all our orientation sessions all we seem to hear about are alcohol rules.

oh.em.geez. Today we had orientation meetings for our residence halls. I live in a place called Student Village (Stud Ville for short:]) which has 10 res. buildings, two lounges an office and a cafeteria building. I'm pretty sure there are just as many buildings on EC's campus! But there are a total of 296 of us in SV. That's a lot of people. We were at this meeting and I realized, most of the students in SV are freshman... er, first years, to be PC. So we got the schpeil on how to change from high school to college in time management, academics, professors, EVERYTHING. Holy smokes. I drew pictures the hole time because I'm pretty sure I learned all of that before I went to college :) It's just so different here. OH a note on their academic system. They go to college (high school for us) and are there for 5 years I think? And then their last year there they take specialized classes in what they think they are interested in. Then when they go to uni (college/university) they have 3 year programs, most of the time, and never change their major- mostly becuase they are satisfied with it but also because you're not really supposed to change. It's different. To think about how many of my friends have changed their major by the day... its nuts to think that you would never change it in college! It's all same same but different, right? :]

Let's see, what else can I update you on. I did my laundry, that was fun. We went swimming today in the pool, that was fun too. Not quite the same fun as laundry, but, up there. I think tomorrow I'm going to check out the chapel and talk to the chaplain if I can about what there is on campus as far as religious life. We all know there's Co Co Wang with Christian Club, today I got something from Student Life... so we'll see. I'm excited to get into the swing of things. Wow, I haven't updated in a LONG while. In case you haven't caught on, I'm at school! Uni of Waikato in Hamilton. I have been here since Sunday basically hanging out and having fun. We enrolled in classes a couple days ago... here's what I'm taking::::: Aspects of Social and Cultural History (SO EXCITED!), Eastern Spiritualities (ALSO EXCITED), and Rethinking Women, Sex, and Gender (also PUMPED!). SO I basically have awesome classes. You may think to yourself, Self, Emily only has 3 classes, how can that be! Well, I do. It is good though because they do it weird... no, different... here. You have lectures, and then you have tutorials. So for example, I have a two hour history lecture on monday. Thats it. Then I have one hour of RWSG on Tuesday, an hour of RWSG and two hours of East. Spirit. on Wednesday, then the same again on thursday. None of the classes are in the same rooms or buildings day to day. Bizarre!

Well, I am going out tonight with some of the other kids from AustraLearn... I will just observe the absurd behavior:) I'm good at observing.

Hope all is "sweet as" in your respective places. Cheers! 

Fun Fact:The MulletHawk is popular here for guys. Mohawk on top, mullet in the back. its gross :P

Hey again....

So I forgot I journaled on my computer twice while in Rotorua so I could give you all and update of what was going on while I was there... so below are my two entries. ENJOY!

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Feb. 19...Aukland, Rotorua DAY ONE!!!

What a day. I’ve been up for roughly 16 hours. Which doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s 2:45 am at home as I write this. That’s ridiculous. We got in around 5:30 this morning.  It took us two hours to get out of the airport and then we went on a 4 hour bus ride with two stops on our way to Rotorua.  We are staying at a hostel known as Kiwi Paka YHA. It’s a wonderful place. Great people, great facilities, nice and simple.  Once we got here this morning we unpacked ate lunch, and went to a session at a different site where we talked about expectations, rules, found out the lay of the land, fun facts about NZ, etc. It was a nice hour and a half. BUT I’M SO TIRED! I have been all day. We went on a tour around the city and came back to find ourselves, or at least a few of us, on a jaunt around Kuirua Park where there are tons of thermal pockets so mud and water boils at 180 degrees Celcius AND WAMER. It’s awfully hot. The steam itself is even hot too. It’s neat though.  It’s been a long couple of days.  BUT on the other side of things... It’s so beautiful here.  The hills are great, the grass is green, the sun is shining and they drive on the left side of the road. This is an amazing multicultural city. I can’t believe it. They have people of European descent, Pacific Islander, Maori (the native people), and a small Asian population too. It’s so neat to see them all interacting as one.  They are full of love. 

Fun fact of the day: I will be including a fun fact of the day about NZ so you can learn with me.

TODAY’S FACT:: They laugh at you if you call it a swim suit or bathing suit. New Zealanders call it their “togs.”

Feb 20 2009 Day 2: Rotorua/ Waitomo

Another day has passed!  And what a day it was. Today we went to Waitomo after breakfast to go caving. I chose the “dry” caving adventure in St. Benedicts cave.  It was so cool. We learned a lot about how stalactites and stalagmites are created, the effect of acid, mud and minerals on them, and the different types of formations which are created.  DID YOU KNOW? When stalactites turn orange, its because iron was in the soil where water ran through and into the cave.  NOW YOU KNOW!  Anyway, so that was neat. We abseiled twice right off the bat, controlling our own ropes and then after that we went across a log which connected two parts of the cave where otherwise we would have dropped to our death J . And then we proceeded to climb through the cave going up and down through and around until we got to one point and Gavin, our guide, told us to turn off our headlamps. It was cold and dark- and we all know how afraid of the dark I am.  It was sweet as though.  (P.S. See the fact of the day to know what “sweet as” means.)  Then we ate chocolate fish (basically a marshmallow in the shape of a fish covered in chocolate), and then went down the zipline… again… IN THE DARK! But it was so cool.  It made me sad that I have chosen not to do it in certain situations before. It’s so fun!  And especially in the dark when you don’t know where you are going or how long it is lasting.  It was sweet as!  That whole venture took us 3 hours, not including the 2 hours there and back and 15 minutes to the cave and back. So just over 7 hours. We are all exhausted. The other two groups went on much more strenuous caving ventures which included wetsuits, tubes, and climbing freestyle. To say in the least, not my thingJ. We hung  out the rest of the day. I’m knackered (aka exhausted).

Fun Fact: “Sweet as” is slang for sweet, cool, awesome, fantastic, etc. Whatever the object is isn’t sweet as something, i.e. sugar, but it is just “sweet as.”

So, our time in Rotorua came to a close today. If you want to see all the cool sights and stuff we did, check out the album. Feel free to post comments with questions and such. I thought I could captions, but I don't feel like doing it tonight. But just ask. Lots of cool stuff... MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THE SHEEP PICTURES! So cool.  If you would like my address at school, please email me::: zeml88@hotmail.com

Peace and blessings.

That means hello (among other things) down here! It's been a crazy several days. I have done so much... including... caving, learning the "haka" (youtube.com that business. It's way cool.), seen a sheep show, gone ZORBING (google it... its sweet!) and then some. I head to school, what they call Uni, tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to be online more frequently then and will try to post some pictures as soon as possible. Missing you all! Keep emailing me! I love it! Peace and Blessings

Hey Honey,

Looking forward to hearing about the fun and games of orientation.  Be sure to take pictures if you can and include some of the surrounding buildings on campus.  Make the most of it, and have fun!  XOXOX

Hey everyone!

Good to hear from all of you! Tom- there was no hurl factor! We did the wet zorb so there was water inside it, so then we just kinda went on our backs and flopped around some, but not much. It was me and another kid. Craziness. And you go ahead and try the sheep as a house pet. Let me know how that goes....

Looked up Zorbing on youtube. Looks like a blast!  Way better than the old school method of climbing inside a truck inner tube and rolling down a hill.  Though I did wonder about the hurling factor.  Could be a messy clean up.  Great sheep pictures.  Do they make good house pets?

Hope the flight is going well...and that you remembered to pack something really good to read in the air.  Know that you are in my prayers.

Godspeed,

Tom