The Final Goodbye

12/11/2010

I’m sitting at the LAX airport having just arrived from Auckland. Firstly, LAX is possibly the stupidest airport I have ever encountered. I managed not to get lost this time, but getting around here is really annoying. Sorry, just had to get that out of the way.

Scott and Rosie took me to the airport (along with Ruth and Brittany) and it was one of the hardest goodbyes. Flat 101 is disbanding, I can’t believe it’s already been 4 ½ months. These girls made my semester as awesome as it was. The memories surrounding this flat, the crazy things we’ve done, the conversations we’ve had and the Harry Potter fan-girl squee sessions, the late night word searches/pancakes/doughnuts/movies. I couldn’t imagine having better flat mates.

How do you begin to describe the feelings leaving this country gives me? What words can give sense the gaping hole left? I can’t believe how fast time rushed past, how many friends I’ve made- and now said goodbye too. I know I missed saying goodbye to some of them, and if you’re reading this I am truly sorry, I didn’t mean too.  For someone who never cries, I cried far too often the past week. Why do goodbyes have to hurt so much? Even with the people I know I’ll see again, it still impossibly hard. 

Sitting at the airport with the rest of Arcadia’s Chch students was strangely familiar. In many ways it seems like just yesterday that we all met in LAX to fly to NZ. How crazy that I can look at everyone around me and think of them as a mini-family. We’ve all been through so much together, and yet, at the same time taken such unique journeys. We’re all so different, and will return to totally different situations, yet we’ll always be part of Jane’s Canterbury group- forever immortalized in her orientation horror stories as the group that survived the 7.1 earthquake.

As I sit here waiting for my next flight I can’t help but contemplate how much this trip has changed me. I’ve always been independent, but this journey has made me realize how important loved ones are. It has brought me so much closer to my family and friends. At the same time, it forced me to mature, and become independent in ways that I wasn’t already. Last year at this time I was in the middle of my first semester at college. While I was in the midst of planning this trip, I really didn’t know how much it entitled. It was basically taking a massive leap outside my comfort zone with only the smallest hope that I could tread water on the other side. 

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Well, I might have missed Fourth of July for the second year running. However, I certainly didn't miss firework this year! New Zealand(along with many former British territories) celebrates Guy Fawkes day. While I had heard of Guy Fawkes, and of course the  "Remember remember the 5th of November" rhyme, it never really registered as a day to celebrate.

Unfortunately Friday the 5th dawned cold, wet and miserably raining/downpouring; fireworks were postponed until the next night.
Thankfully, Saturday night was beautiful. Still a touch chilly,  but a clear wonderful night to be outside. The fireworks were shot off of New Brighton Pier. As with any Fourth of July fireworks show, we had to park eons away, and then walk to the beach. I love these walks; you get to feel the energy of the crowd, the excitement buzzing off the younger children, the teenagers who are way-to-cool-to-be-excited-for-these-stuff(but secretly can't wait),  the older couples sharing a secret smile as they slowly walk, hand and hand down the road, the lines at the food vendors, the glittery lights of carnival rides. Mmm, you can almost taste the happiness and  sense of fun in the air.

We wander down the beach until we spotted a group of people from dance, and then it was just a short wait until the fireworks started! The fireworks were shot off of the pier, and at one dramatic point, buoys out in the ocean. The fireworks were brilliant, bursting right over our heads so that it felt like it was literally raining glittery on top of us. But the best part was listening to all of the kids around us squeal and laugh at the particularly big bangs. These were the noises of pure joy, it was the expression of celebration from the hundreds of people on beach, all condensed down to simplicity of a child's laughter.

I couldn't help but get a little nostalgic; My final week here in New Zealand, sitting amongst amazing friends, looking back over how much I've done, how many unforgettable people I have met.  I remember packing/panicking right before I left home way back in June. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I had no idea the scope of what I would learn about myself, about the world, I had no idea how close I could get to people in such a short period of time. I realized I hadn't gotten to see as much as I wanted too, but I also realized that it really doesn't matter that much in the end. I could easily be dashing across the country trying to see places like Milfords Sound before I leave, but I rather spend it with the people who have really made these past four months as amazing as they were.

A October without Halloween is just unacceptable

One of the few faults of New Zealand is that they don't really celebrate Halloween. Fortunately for them, it's my favorite holiday.

Our flat (hence known as Flat 101) started planning a Halloween party back in August, but we were never really sure we could pull it off. As October started to speed by we took the plunge and sent out the invites to "Flat 101's Epic Jack-O-Lantern Carving Party", but were still unsure if we would even have pumpkins to carve. See, the problem is that without Halloween there aren't any real pumpkins(well, pumpkins as Americans know them, giant, orange and perfect for carving!) New Zealand only has little pumpkins that are mostly meat for cooking. Neither of those things make for a good pumpkin to carve so you can see why we were a little concerned. Brittany and I decided that we would need to test out the two different varieties we could find. The results were successful! We spent the next two weeks planning out how to make out party as epic as we possibly could- Brittany took control of decorating the flat,  I handled(what else) but the food and Ruth offered sage advice to all problems and helped with everything.

Two days before we all headed out to find pumpkins, costumes, and get the ingredients for the yummyness I had planned. We cleaned out three grocery stores of suitable pumpkins- earning ourselves some interesting looks and one amusing conversation with a cashier. The cashier was utterly confused as to why we would want a cart full of pumpkins. Well she was confused until she figured out we were American, and then it made perfect sense.

The day before the party I started baking- and didn't stop until the party was about to start. Making for a total of 10 hours spent creating weird/creepy/yummy Halloween goodies. Was it worth it? Well, there wasn't a scrape of any of my creations left so, absolutely!

With multiple projects running at once, everything was definitely a team effort.Especially when it came to the dreaded frosting for the vampire cupcakes. We are extremely limited in our cookware, extremely. So our egg-white frosting needed to be hand beaten to achieve fluffiness- over a hour later, and with consistent trade off between flat mates we still couldn't get it to the right consistency. At this point we gave up and decided our vampire cupcakes would taste just fine  even if the frosting was a little runny. I believe Ruth and Brittany are still nursing sore arms/wrists from beating the cursed icing. 

In the end we ended up with Bone bread sticks, Finger shortbread, sugar cookies, worms and dirt, punch(with eyeballs in it) and an assortment of candy. 

Meanwhile, the decorations went up:

Costumes? Well, what else are three nerdy girls supposed to dress up as except as Hogwarts students!

Three odd Hogwarts students- currently lacking their wands, and  robe. (Photo thanks to Michael Adams)

 And then came time for the party! Some people dressed up, some people didn't, some carved pumpkins and some merely watched the shenanigans and everyone(I hope!) had fun!

Flat 101- bringing the joy, wonder and magic of Halloween to Uni students world wide. 

More pictures can be found Here and Here (or if those  links don't work, my facebook page)

Christchurch Band Together

These posts are a bit late, but finals are really slowing my blog time down :(
 10/23/2010
Today Ruth, Brittany and I went to the benefit concert for the Christchurch earthquake. We were supposed to meet the UCanDance group at 10:30ish. However, we just missed our bus, and had to walk halfway there before catching another. Then, once we reached Hagely Park it was already crazy crowed.  It took us half an hour of wandering up and down the massive field before we finally found the dance group. Somehow, I managed to be already sunburned by this point.

In the beginning there for just a few people.. 

It was such a beautiful day, everyone was our in summery clothing, basking in the sunshine.. Mmm.. Lovely!
Bands were already playing on the stage, and while we could barely see the performers, they were also projected on to two huge screens. Being with the dance group meant we didn't just sit still and 'hang', like so many other people there, we got up and we danced! Clearing away extra blankets to make room for swinging, twirling couples. Unable to sit still, Sara and I broke the ice with the first dance- and earned ourselves a spot on national TV.

When a particularly good band came on stage a group of us would run/skip/dance our way up to the stage area. Not content to just sway with the crowd, we continued our dancing. Forcing the crowd to make room for us as we spun, dipped and laughed our way through the songs.

We completed many MJ's, Salsa, Bachata, and even 1 1/2 roeda circles. But for the grande finale Jesse started a conga line that went all over the field! I'm not sure how long it eventually ended up, but it was massive, crazy and so much fun!

Never before have I experienced such a concert; no shoes, no most pit, just beautiful dancers all having the time of these lives. The UCanDance group is filled of some of the most amazing people I have ever met.

See if you can find the dance group.We're center left, look for my pink shirt. I think we're doing roeda?  

35 bands
10,000 people
very few shoes
lots of sunburn
and one old lady who punched me in the shoulder because she thought I was being too rowdy(during one of the few times I was actually standing still)

Baking: creating friendships worldwide.

In an end of classes-end of term get together my flat decided to do what it does best- or well, maybe what I do best- and bake! We hosted a Death By Cinnamon Roll, and invited just about everyone we know.
The cinnamon rolls: Fantastic
The people: Even better
60 cinnamon rolls: Gone.

The dough might have over flowed the bowl a little bit.. But at least the yeast lived!

Flour Wars are an essential part of baking

The last pan of rolls, and sadly the only proof I have that these little bits of deliciousness actually existed. 6 pans were eaten faster than I could bake them.

The cinnamon roll demolishers in work

Just can't stop shaking!

Today started out just like every other Tuesday; a reluctant walk to statistic class, a mind numbing lecture in a hall full of 400 students.. Then, half way through the class, the building felt like it had been hit by a truck. The lecturer grabbed the podium in front of her, the entire class gasped,  two girls screamed, and I felt like I could see the building shudder in front of my eyes.  A worried glance up proved to be a bad idea, as I mistakenly had sat under one of the hanging lights- which was now swaying back and forth in the most alarming way. 

It left as suddenly as it came. Leaving the hanging projection screens swinging, and everyone's hearts beating a little faster. The lecturer resumed speaking, and we all went back to our slumped note-taking.  

Just another earthquake, just another day in Christchurch. 

Well, at 5.0, centered just 10 km outside of ChCh, and 9 km deep, it was a bit stronger then the little baby ones we've all grown used too. But it didn't slow anything down. A couple classes were evacuated because of falling ceiling tiles, and a friend of mine has more cracks in his wall. But the majority of people went on with what they were doing. Is it a bad thing to be so desensitized to earthquakes? We've only had 2022 quakes since that ill-fated September 4th, when the 7.1 hit. We have definitely slowed down the number of quakes we get a day, but they still happen. A walk down the road, or a ride in to city center shows buildings demolished, with gaping holes, covered in boards, and supports just in case the quakes cause more damage. 

Here's a couple of websites we use to keep track of the beasty quakes. The first one, Geonet, is the main one most people use. They update about 20 minutes after a quake hits. The second one is just for fun, and has pretty colored bubbles.

 http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/

Catching Waves

I have found a new sport to love, and it is called surfing.

Arcadia took us out to Sumner beach (That's the main beach in ChCh) for a afternoon of surfing.
This was supposed to happen last weekend, but due to poor weather it got moved to this weekend.
This is an activity that I've been looking forward to ever since I saw it on Arcadia's calender of events last summer.

Kasey, Katelyn and I left early so that we could enjoy lunch on the beach. However, a chilly wind and a bit of cloud cover kept us from throughly enjoying ourselves. Thankfully, by the time our surf lesson came around the sun was starting to shine through.

Donning wet suits, we went through a crash course in surfing. First a quick discussion on reading the waves, the wind, and what makes ideal surfing conditions. We had decent waves, through with a wind coming on shore, it made them a little rough. Then with a little on shore practice of standing up, we grabbed our boards and waded out.

The water was freezing, I have never been so thankful for a wet suit in my life.  As we waded further and further out, the incoming waves splashed higher and higher on us until we were completely soaked. Phewda, well at least that terrible initial  cold shock is over. Now for some fun!

With my red surfboard bobbing next to me, I struggled, and fought against the waves; searching for the perfect time to leap on to my board and make my first attempt. Waves shoved salt water into my mouth, up my nose, and burned in my eyes. I had to stop getting tossed around and actually try this crazy thing called surfing. So I jumped, slid on to my surfboard stomach first.. and promptly slide off again as the wave I was attempting to catch rolled over me.

I came up gasping, laughing and already addicted to this wild endeavor. Again, and again I tried. Sometimes falling off as soon as I got on, and sometimes standing up as far as my knees before toppling off. Every attempt brought more laughter. At one point I started to try to catch the next wave, I paddled furiously, was completely balanced on my board, felt the dip, and then the speed as the wave caught me, pushed myself up moved my feet in to position...and stood! It was glorious for all of the 5 seconds it lasted!

By this time I was completely gone, I had to keep trying, over and over again. I knew what it felt like, I knew I could do it. Kasey and I stayed out longer than everyone else, practicing, learning, and improving. I stood up on my board a total of three times. It was enough to get me completely addicted to surfing.