You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

After listening to all of the hype for the movie "Inception", my flat mates and I decided we just might have to go see it.

We get a student discount at a cinema that is way far away, but still the same price for bus fare. So we headed off into the unknown, all the way there we were worried about missing our stop and riding the bus in a full loop around the city. However, it turned out this was just silly- the cinema was an unmistakable giant building all lit up in blue lights.

When I first arrived in New Zealand, things didn't look that different. But I'm starting to realize that it's not the obvious differences, it's the little things that make you stop and ponder. A couple examples from last night; the cinema felt very proper. Everyone had seat assignments, and there were ushers all along the way to help you find your seat. The seats themselves felt more like armchairs and less like the generic movie chairs we're used too. It was much more acceptable to bring in your own candy and goodies-which is good, the price of a bag of M&M's was $7.10! Also, while this screen seemed normal sized to me,abet with much fewer chairs, Ruth told us that in the majority of cinemas in NZ the screen is about 1/3- 1/4 of the size, with the seating about the width of a bus. Whoa, crazy!

The movie was mind blowingly awesome. But I'm not going to discuss the amazingness of the movie here. So.Just.Go.See.It.

After the movie we walked to the bus stop, only to find we would have to wait 20 minutes for the next one. No big deal, Ruth was hungry so we went to BurgerKing. Apparently all of their BurgerKings are all done up in 50's style and play 50's music all the time. Ruth was shocked that it wasn't like that in the states, and we were shocked that they all were like that here! Ruth explained to us that fast food here is called fast food RESTAURANTS because people actually sit down in them vs. in America where most people just grab n' go.

We make it back to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare when Brittany realizes that we're on the wrong side of the road, and we need the bus going the other way. Alright, however, at first glance there wasn't even a stop on the other side- turns out it was waaay down the road. So we walk. This time there's a 13 minute wait, which isn't too terrible. When the bus finally comes, it's speeding along, getting closer and closer.. and then it passes us right by. Apparently, way out in the middle of no-where you have to signal the drivers if you want to be picked up. Drat, well, we don't really want to wait another half hour for the next one so we walk all the way back to the first bus stop. The bus we want goes in a loop, we'll eventually find our way back no matter which bus we take. The other bus is about 18 minutes out.. great, more waiting. This time I'm determined not to miss it, so I stick up my hand and wave like a madwomen when the bus finally appears. When it stopped, I couldn't help but do a little victory dance- well, that is until I realized someone was getting off and the bus had to stop anyway. Oh well, at least we managed to get on a bus, even if it was two hours after our movie had gotten out.

Life at a University

I know I gave a quick update related to my classes when I first started. But I thought you might want to know a bit more about them, now that I've figured them out(and found them all!)

My favorite class is still my Personality class. The lecture isn't very interesting(three weeks in, and we're still reviewing stuff!), and the professor isn't the most engaging public speaker. But the labs are fantastic! The first lab we had we got to play games to determine basic personality traits and how we use them to judge people.Then how we had a discussion about how we base romantic relationships on certain traits and what makes those relationships successful or not. This week we all bit in to lemons to see how much we salivate. High or low salivation levels mean you are either a low sensation seeker, or a high one. I'm the only American in my lab section, I never really realized it, but I stand out A LOT! It's not a bad thing, but I'm still not quite used to being the one with the funky accent.

My New Zealand Literature class is proving to be a bit over my head. If you're reading this blog, then you most likely know that I LOVE books. I've worked in a library since I was 14, and spend every spare moment reading. However, I'm in an upper level course surrounded by people who are majoring in Literature! They critique these stories in ways I would never have even imagined. Even with feeling a bit like the underdog, I must admit; this is an excellent class. The Professor just captivates everyone's interest, he has a way of speaking, of reading the stories and explaining them that just pulls you in. I'm learning a ton from him, even if it is in a crash course sort of way.

Statistics is well.. it's statistics. What can I say? There isn't in sort of poetic spin that I can put on it. This is my lowest class-credit wise, and I'm actually spending the most amount of time in class on it. I've got either a lecture, examples, or tutorial class every day except Monday. I hope by the end of all this time spent in a lecture hall, I will at least understand a little bit about this subject.

My history class is split between two professors. The lady is very in depth, and just likes to stand and lecture(she also gets annoyed when people ask too many questions :/). I think we all are nursing sore hands at the end from trying to write our notes as fast as she talks. The guy is a super exuberant, active lecturer- and he LOVES to hear our opinions. It's infectious when he teaches our class, everyone is at the edge of their seats paying attention-which is very hard for college kids to do first class of the morning! With either professor it's fascinating to hear about these events from a New Zealand perspective. Exactly HOW were they active in WWII? How did they feel about the "American Invasion" in 1942? how did the cold war affect them? It's fascinating! I love it!

I just finished up my third week of classes. Next week I have my first test, which is quickly followed by another one, and then two, 6 page papers that are due about the same time. Where did time go? Surely we haven't learn enough to be able to be tested on them yet?!



As to life at the Uni. Well, I'm getting used too it. I've learned I can handle the massive class sizes, at least for this semester. I'll be glad to go back to the little ones at St. Kates next year. Living in the Uni housing is also an experience of it's self. I've learned to sleep through the rumble of the city buses going by at all hours, or through the drunk guys below us who like to sing Miley Cyrus at 2 in the morning. I've learned that for those that are dedicated, the parties start Wednesday night and continue until Sunday-which means the only quiet time for those of us who don't drink is Monday and Tuesday when everyone else is passed out. My flat mates are fantastic, I couldn't ask to live with better people.We have many conversations about the differences between America culture and New Zealand- most of which have to do with food. Speaking of food, I've found out I really enjoy cooking every meal for my self. And I've even come to enjoy Marmite-which is definitely an improvement over Vegemite. All in all, Life is good.

Surprise!

I'm not sure how to start this post. I'm kinda speechless. Today, it's been 4 weeks since I left home. Four weeks since I hugged and kissed my loved ones good bye, and walked through security to start this adventure.

Today I received some gorgeous red roses, and a extremely goofy giant smiley flower balloon from my fantastic, wonderful, amazing boyfriend. Derek and I are quickly approaching our 2 month anniversary, so we're in a pretty new relationship. I definitely wasn't planning on starting a relationship right before I left, but it happened(and in one of the most awkward ways possible, thanks to Katie) and I couldn't be any happier(well, unless we were actually together!). We both knew it would be tough to be this far away for this long of time, but we were willing to give it a try. Thanks to the wonders of technology and skype, we're making it just fine. Derek's gift today couldn't be more perfect, or more Derek-like. I definitely feel like the luckiest girl on earth right now.



(P.S. I love you Derek!)

"I feel like we should be launching red shells and banana's at each other!"

Arg, reason number, oh I don't even know what anymore, that I go to an all girls university: Guys are messy pigs. They trashed the kitchen, flooded the bathroom and managed to lock one(of the two) stalls shut. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Thankfully we packed and left Sunday morning. But never fear, we still had lots of fun left in Queenstown! Our first activity was to take gondola ride to the top of a hill to take in the spectacular view that over looks Queenstown. I don't think I've ever been on such a steep gondola. It went straight up the hill, and the path below it looked nearly impossible to take-well unless you were the sheep that were using it as a pasture.






From the big gondola we headed up to another smaller one to get to the luge ride! Basically you are on a little scooter cart that you can make go, or stop with the push or pull of the handle. You then steer it down the course, around tight corners, and over hills(where if you're lucky, you catch air!).Pretty much it's Mario Cart in real life!





Then those of us who weren't going bungy jumping, were set free to go find lunch in town. Quite a few of us just had to go back to Fergburgers and try it again. This time I had a lamb burger that was just as tasty as the first burger I had! Oh, and here's a picture I took of it from up on top of the gondola!



Of course, what meal wouldn't be complete without a little ice cream? This icecream shop handmakes all of their ice cream/fudge/chocolate, and man o man is it good!



Then we were off to Arrowtown to see where they filmed the scene in The Fellowhship of the ring where Arwen is trying to get Frodo to the safety of Riverton. She stops in a river and says "If you want him, Come and get him!". Arrowtown used to be a gold mining town, and was converted(rather quickly, according to one shop owner) until a cute little tourist town.I didn't get any pictures of the town, but I couldn't miss out on the river.



After that it was back to the bus for a 8 hour ride home. I think the majority of us slept most of the way, though it didn't seem to make the trip any faster. It's funny, we've only been living at Canterybury for 3 weeks now, and already most of us refer to it as "Home".

So beautiful it heals the soul

Day two in Queenstown was another early, early morning! We had a choice of skiing/snowboarding or a 8 hour hike on the Routeburn track. The Routeburn track is one of the great hikes in NZ and it's supposed to be the second most beautiful hike in the world. So, even though I love to ski, I just had to go on this hike! We were up by 7, and on our way by 8. Just in time to watch the sun rise over the mountain peaks and across the lake. Yet another grainy bus picture :/


Jane being the experienced coordinator she is, knew that we would all like to be able to take some non-moving bus pictures so we were allowed a quick stop to fulfill our desires.




All too soon Jane was herding us back on to the bus to continue our journey to the start of the Routeburn track.

After another 45 minutes of more mountain views and paddocks of sheep, we finally get to the beginning of the track. Our first task was to cross a huge wooden swing bride- this one was well supported unlike the other we were told we would encounter later on. Then it was off through a forest entirely covered in Moss, over and down hills with only the roar of the cascading river far below as our companion.





We traveled for over an hour and half before Jane let us take a morning tea break and refill our water bottles from the river. Speaking of which there is nothing better than water fresh from a mountain stream! Our break was short lived thought, and it was back in to the moss forest again. So far we were only able to see the surrounding forest and possibly a few peaks here and there between tree branches. Then Jane lead us off the path and on to a very overgrown, never used, side path that was full of fallen trees and streams we had to cross. Never one to doubt our fearless leader we trudged on, ducking past branches and climbing over trees until we popped out in to a meadow. But not just any meadow, one surrounded by snow-peaked mountains that were perfectly reflected in the tiny stream that flowed through the meadow. So unbelievably gorgeous!







It was a good thing we had the meadow as inspiration because the next part of the track was HARD! Jane's sister kindly told me soon after we got past the meadow that it was only a half hour until we reached our lunch spot. Right, well, she failed to mention that it was entirely uphill, no not a hill, a mountain! Sure you could do it in half an hour-if you ran! A third of the way up my bad knee started aching, halfway up it started shooting pains up and down my leg, and well after that I just tried not to think about it- I did have a mountain to climb after all! After what seemed like an eternity of climbing up and over rocks, trudging up super steep inclines, over streams (one with a broken bridge dangling over our heads, eep!) and across rock slide area, we finally made it to the Falls Hut for lunch. The "30 minute" hike from hell was well worth it. the entire valley was spread out below carefully surrounded by snow peaked mountains. Wow, well it's one way to humble a person!






After a much too short lunch, Jane lead a smaller group of us further up the mountain. "Oh, it's just a 10 minute hike".. Sure Jane, I'm not sure what time schedule you run on, but your 10 minutes is my 45 minutes. But it was the hike of a lifetime. First we saw the waterfalls the Falls hut was named after, then we hiked over a hill to the very edge of the snow line. Which is when my camera filled up. :'( Never fear! Thanks to some quick deletion skills I was back on my way.
We were soon in the snow, slipping, sliding and in some people's cases, swearing as we attempted to keep up with Jane. 10 minutes came and went as we topped a rise to look over at the frozen Harris Lake, and then out on to what has to be one of the most gorgeous views on earth. Crazy, epic, beyond-cool-words, this place is simply amazing.












Sadly, we were out of time and still needed to hike all the way aback to the bus.
On the way back through the snow, I couldn't help but instigate a snowball fight, nor could I leave the top of a mountain without first making a snow angel-which lead two other girls to make them too. I hope future hikers will continue to make them along the trail.

Peace! No more snowballs!



Now please note that none of these pictures will even come close to the feeling you get when you're standing on the top of a mountain. There's just something about looking out over the land that, in the wise words of Jane "It heals the soul."

Off to the Adventure Capital of the World!

Note, this will come in three segments, one for each day, as I have to type them up between classes.

After a night of little sleep all of the Canterbury Arcadia students caught the 7:30 shuttle to Queenstown. Well, at least that's what was supposed to happen, after waiting in the still dark for 45 minutes the shuttle finally showed up. Then it was an 8 hour drive to get to the adventure capital of the world. It might sound like an really long drive, but it was through the mountains which made it absolutely gorgeous. Once again it felt like we were traveling through middle earth. The snow capped mountains were divided by valleys full of twisted, black scrub brush and waves of wintry brown grass, drooped with either dew drops, or as we got higher, glittery frost. The grassland was broken up by mammoth boulders and slabs of rocks that cast ominous dark shadows across the land. Every so often we would come upon a flat plat that reminded me of the plains of rohan, where my mind would have Piper and I galloping across in search of the one ring(hey, a girl's gotta day dream!). Or we would drive past a valley full of bright blue, crystal clear blue water. No day dreams here, my mind was way to busy trying to process that this unbelievable view was real. Oh, and there were sheep.. Lots and lots of sheep!
Sorry for these pictures, the shuttle's window's were covered in mud, it wasn't exactly prime picture taking opportunity.






Finally, just when it seemed we were in the most beautiful mountainscape so far, we had arrived in Queenstown. The town is nestled between mountains with little houses going up the hill, and surrounding yet another blue lake(If I didn't know better, I would swear all of the water is dyed).

Jane gave us 20 minutes to put our stuff in our rooms before herding us off
to go Jet boating. Don't know what Jetboating is? Well in short, imagine a Jet ski on steroids, weaving through cannons pulling 360's and other crazy tricks while going as fast as possible. Shotover Jetboats! Check it out! Once we were all bundled up and backed on to a big red jet boat we speed off! I lost my hat within the first minute, but quickly forgot about it as we raced through the cannons, sometimes getting within INCHES of the rock wall! Icey spray flew back in our faces as our driver expertly spun us around and around or fish tailed the boat across the river. In between tricks you could look up and see towering mountains, their peaks covered in snow and the bases carved gray rock that contrasted sharply against the turquoise water. If the speed and the cold wasn't enough to take your breath away the view certainly would.
Speaking of cold, it's a lot colder down here than in Christchurch!The river might still be open, but the surrounding rocks were covered in glittering, think ice. The spray and wind were shocking when they hit, but it just made the ride all that much more fun!


After the exhilarating jetboat ride we were set free to find supper in town. With high recommendations we set out to find "FergBurger", Well I say find, but it ended up we just had to follow the obnoxiously long line down the street-it seemed like everyone was eating there that night! Since it came with such high reviews we decided to wait it out. Boy was it worth it! It quite possibly be the best burger I've ever had!

Finally it's back to the room for some maybe sleep. I'm one of two girls who Jane picked to stay in one co-ed room(she had run out of room with the girls, and didn't want to have to pay for another room just for 2 girls). Not a big deal, or so I thought. I didn't realize that this room would be on the guy's half of the house- the house was split so the upper was all girls and the lower was guys, with no way to get to the other without going outside. Suddenly I'm faced with the fact of sharing a 2 stall, 2 shower bathroom with 20+ guys. Hmm, not exactly what I had agreed too.:/

Crazy crazy weekend!

Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates the past 5 days. I went to Queenstown this weekend with my Arcadia group. It was crazy awesome, and more epic then you could even imagine! I just put all of the pictures of my computer(might have, sorta, filled up my memory card halfway up a mountain) there are sooooooo many! So I will sort the pictures tonight and update my blog tomorrow. I promise it will be worth the wait!
Love you all!
Anna

A little bit of nostalgia

Some nights I sit here and wonder how this happened. When did I go from bring a little girl dreaming of traveling abroad, to actually living it? In brief moments I want to go back, after all life was much simpler then. But, I would never take any of this back. I love my life, this is exactly what I wanted to happen. Yeah, it's hard, mentally, emotionally and even physically(hello altitude, we are NOT friends!) and I'm pretty sure I left my comfort zone back in Minnesota, but it's worth it.

I don't think I could have ever imagined all the experience I've already had back when I was trying to complete all of the paperwork to get here. Never would I have expected to be scaling the port hills every weekend, living with nerdy girls who are just like me, or dancing the Rueda in to the night and feasting on pancakes and ice cream the next morning.

I've come to realize how incredibly thankful I am that my parents raised me to be so independent. I would never have even begun the process of getting here without their support and guidance. Nor could I survive here without the life lessons they forced me to learn. So thanks Mom and Pops, I know we've had our arguments, and I can be a touch stubborn, and maybe even a little too independent(yeah, yeah, I know I was supposed to call at least once when I was in Europe) but it's because you guys are such excellent parents that enabled all of this to happen. So thank you.

What brought this on? Well, in a couple hours it will have been exactly three weeks since I left my warm, comfy bed in Minnesota to start this adventure. I've got a long ways to go and I'm bubbling over with excitement for what's yet to come(Milfords Sound anyone?!) But I also wanted to remember those at home, and let them know I love and miss everyone.

(P.S. Could someone please give the llama some hugs from me!)

A night of French toast and Dancing

Monday July 19th, 2010

Who says Mondays have to be terrible? Even my classes were exciting today! In History we had our first lecture from the other professor who is uberly enthusiastic and great at engaging the audience. Except that he kept throwing questions at us about New Zealand and all of the Americans could only sit there dumb only knowing the bits here and there of their history. :/ In literature, the handy dandy knowledge of farm animals pays off when the entire class couldn't figure out what a "broody resistant" hen was.. Ah, silly city people, when will they learn?

Brittany and I were shocked to find out that Rachel had never had French toast. As the obvious solution we created a flat-wide French toast party! We managed to use up almost the entire loaf of bread that I had just bought, but it was so worth it.

Ruth, me and Brittany creating the delicious amazingness!


Rachel and me enjoying the deliciousness among our many topping choices.


Ruth even attempted to make her french toast extra happy-with a smiley face! Except all the sugar melted as she created it.. oops


Afterwards we all went to Ucandance again. Monday nights are the advance lessons(gulp) for members who have been doing it a little longer then Brittany and I have, but we were told we would be most welcome to come and learn even though we just started. We started out with MJ again, something I can mostly manage to do properly. The hardest, and most fun, moves we learned tonight were two different dips, the one was pretty basic(and therefore hardest for me to learn, I really need to learn to stop over thinking things!) and the second one was actually two dips in one. The first have you dip just a little, and then you switch your hand position and dip as far as you can go. So much fun!

Just as I was getting confident with MJ they switched us up and started teaching us Salsa. We were just learning basic turns and such, but for some reason I just couldn't get it to flow(again with the over thinking!). I still had a lot of fun, just I'm going to need a lot more practice. After the lessons we always have a sorta free dance time. I danced a few dances, before they started doing a Rueda. Rueda is a type of circle dancing...and it's pure chaos! Even though I've watched it three times now, I really really didn't want to try it until I understood it better. Sadly, this didn't happen, at all. The guy I was dancing with at the end of the last song, grabbed my hand and all of a sudden I'm in the circle! Ah! I apologized to each new partner I got, stammering out how I had NO idea what I was doing or what was going on. The song seemed to last forever as I faked my way through steps I didn't understand, and was spun from guy to guy. I'm incredibly thankful to those that pointed me in the right direction when it was my turn to move. Finally the song ended, leaving me breathe-less but eager to try again. Maybe I'm glutton for punishment, but as chaotic and confused as I was, Roeda was so much fun! Can't wait for Thursday to try again!

Afterwards we all went out to someone's house to hang out for a bit. As soon as I sat down one of the guys asks me about how I feel about corn subsidizes. Wait what?! I'm used to being asked about the president, healthcare, or the oil spill. You know, those normal controversial topics, not corn! Once again I thank my lucky stars(and my wonderful parents!) that I'm a farm girl and was actually able to carry out a intelligent discussion about it. They didn't believe me when I told them most people don't know anything about them, that most Americans are quite ignorant about that subject. And that therefore it's not something everyone sits around discussing. It reminded me of last Thursday when I danced with Josh for the first time and the first thing he jokingly asked me if I knew Europe was not a country. It makes me really sad that these are the stereotypes that people make of Americans, and even sadder that a lot of them are true. This handful New Zealand Uni students know more about our farm subsidizes then my entire biology class last semester put together.

It's a muddy world out there

Of course, the day after our hiking plans would be sunny and warm. Ah well, no harm done for almost immediately after I woke up this afternoon(hey, it's a weekend, I'm allowed to sleep!) Kasey, another Arcadia student, asked if I wanted to retry our yesterday plans, or create a new one. Silly question, I was up and ready to go within 15 minutes.

For today's hike we went out to Victoria's park out in the port hills. The altitude almost killed us on the walk up. But once we actually got to the park the terrain evened out enough for us to be able to breathe again.


We first walked through some really pretty forest; the dark, over-hanging branches left us with the feeling of walking through a living tunnel. We followed stone stairs down the hill and through a pine forest infused with tropical palm tree type plants. Only to come out in the middle of grassland, brown with the winter months and scattered with massive rock formations. This was definitely not the same terrain that Brittany and I hiked last weekend. The majority of our path was very, uhm, wet, to say the list. Some parts had running water going straight down the middle of it, and others just had massive mud holes taking up the entire path. It was definitely a dirty day.














Oh yeah, at the visitor center there was a GIANT slide. Need I say more?




Sadly, it lacked speed of any sort and you basically had to scootch your self down :(