When it rains it pours

Well, maybe the title is a little exaggeration. In fact, looking back over today's story, I find it almost amusing. But it certainly wasn't at the time. 

Today, along with my normal four classes, I also had an psychology exam in the evening. Not a big deal, even though I haven't gotten as much studying in as the overachiever in me would like-curse you Appendix, curse you! But I still felt fairly confident in the material, and wasn't overly worried. 

I got to the lecture hall early, did a final skimming of my notes, and then went to get my student ID out. Unlike St. Kate's where your professor knows everyone by name, and there is no reason to check ID's at exams. UC is very, very adamant about checking ID's, you cannot take the exam without it. So, two minutes before the doors open, I reach down to grab my ID out of my pack...and it's not there. 

Shock slammed into me. This could not be happening. I always carry it in my backpack, but no, suddenly I remembered sticking it in my shorts pocket when I went to get a library book the other day. I leapt up and sprinted out of the building. I had to get across campus, across the busy road, and back to the flats. Its normally a 10-15 minute walk, well, I needed to do it in two. 

Donned in flip flops and skinny jeans, with my backpack banging around on my back, well, let's just say I got some strange looks. The flip flops didn't last long, a quick two second pause and I was running barefoot. Dashing down paths, across parking lots, halfway across the road I realized I had forgotten to look in either direction (thankfully, there weren't any cars), and up the three flights of stairs to my flat. I manged to get a text out to Ruth somewhere along the way, to find my card, so she met me at the door with it. Then it was back to pounding down Ilam road, across the main road(this time I looked both ways), through parking lots, following the paths and back to the building. Red face, wheezing, sweat dripping down my face,  I was 8 minutes late. But I made it back, and they let me in to take my test.

Lesson learned: Always, always, double check that you have your ID before you leave your flat. 

Appendicitis! Aka, finally finding the "down" part of the ups & downs of traveling

The weekend started out great! The stars aligned and I was actually was productive almost all of Saturday. Yup, you read right; productive. I had the majority of my remaining assignments about half way done, and was planning to finish up the more prominent ones on Sunday. Or at least that was the plan.

Sunday dawned beautiful and sunny-Ok, well when I woke up at noon it was that way. I cheerfully powered up my computer, only to discover it was running a little slow. No big deal, I'll just jump in the shower while it starts up. However, when I came back, my computer had decided to give me a lovely white screen. Hmm, this isn't one of it's normal tricks. But I figured there was some kind of glitch. I manage to get it to restart it's self(ever so slowly) and once again I got the white screen. This is starting to look bad, but this computer and I have had lots of fights over the past year and a half. I should be able to figure something out right? Wrong. Everything I tried lead right back to that cursed white screen, or if I wanted to change it up a bit I could start it in safe mode and get a black screen instead.

It was clearly time to start asking for help. My first stop, per every computer problem I have ever had, is my brother Ben. Sadly, fate was against us and neither of us could get through to each other. Ok, well, I'm dating a Computer Engineer student, surely he might know something, or at least be able to find someone who does. I can't even remember exactly what he said might be wrong, but it sent me reeling. It was far worse then I had thought. I wasn't going to be able to fix this my self, or even have someone walk me through it like I normally do when things go wrong.

-Insert the beginning of three days of panicking here.-

I'm not a worrier, I never have been. I don't panic easily, and I generally work through stress well. Maybe it was the fact that all of my final assignments were currently on my computer, maybe it was that I was completely helpless in trying to fix it. I don't know exactly why, but suddenly my weekend went from sunshine and happiness to tears and panic.

-Insert savior number one-
 Ruth stepped up and began saving the day. She put out a cry for help on her facebook status:

Ruth Jeffs is calling all computer people (*cough*NERDS*cough*) - Anna's computer has D.I.E.D.!!!!! Damsel in distress seeks white knight with mad computer skillz.... half-done assignments and such at stake. O.O Anyone in the area???

and suddenly, help started appearing. We soon headed out to meet out help/do research for Ruth's assignment.
Our first stop was the library where her friend, Scott, took a look at it. He said I should try to copy all the data off of it and restart the system- just in much better words, that probably made more sense. Alright, well  now to find someone to help me with that. Then we were off to the Ballroom to find the dance group and more help.

By this time Ruth had found out the appalling truth that my laptop doesn't have a name. In order to assure that my computer wasn't suffering from some sort of identity crisis, it was decided that we would just have to name it. With pretty much no deliberation, Sarah offered up Appendix as a name. It sorta stuck, as my laptop is not really necessary but horrible, horrible things happen when stuff go wrong.

In typical fashion, Appendix attracts all sorts of helpful attention. Soon we are zooming back to the flat, where Jesse played with it a bit and managed to turn the screen yellow. Hmm, ok.Well, that's not quite the color we're looking for, but it's neither black nor white, which is all I could get it to do. Whirlwind Jesse couldn't stay long, so he left me with the -now yellow screened- Appendix still very very sick.

-Insert savior number two-
In the depth of the night(or like 11) Michael knocked on the door, got me the files I needed for the week, and whisked Appendix off to his secret lair to proceed with emergency surgery in attempt to save the poor laptop. With regular status updates on my dear computer over the next few days. I learned the hard drive was quickly approaching death, but Michael had managed to save my data off of it, and with a new hard drive on the way, prognosis is looking excellent.

 By the time Michael picked Appendix up, I was exhausted, giddy, stressed to the max, had cried twice, and probably should have been locked in my room until I was sane again. However, I couldn't believe how many people had  offered, attempted and succeed in helping. These are truly amazing people. And I'm incredibly grateful to everyone for their help and support.

Learning to Lead

Ahh! The end of our first week back. It brings such relief and yet, so much panic! I love being back in school(sorry, sorta, kinda a nerd, I know) I love my classes,  and I love seeing everyone again. But it also brings to sharp reality just how much work we have to do! Why does school have to have those nasty little things like essays, research papers, assignments and exams?? It just takes all of the fun away from things.

Brittany and I had free movie passes to use before September 31 so we treated ourselves out to a movie tonight. The movie was mediocre. However, on the bus ride home I came to the realization that I am quickly coming up on my 3 month anniversary of being in New Zealand, which meant I have just over a month and a half left here.
  1 1/2 months=6 weeks!

Wait, what?!? Hold on, there is no way time has gone that quickly! I swear I just landed in Auckland! I refuse to believe I have that short of time left in paradise!

On a side note. Have I mentioned how much I love my flat mates? Among many of the reasons why, we have spent many a nights practicing our dance moves, or trying to learn how to lead instead of follow-something we all seem to fail at. It just makes me realize how I am so glad I'm a girl, and therefore a follower, and don't have to think about how do do these crazy moves. I just smile and twirl!

I apologize, Blogger is being finicky and is rotating my pictures without permission

I never thought I would dance here. I love going out swing dancing at St. Kate's, but I wasn't able to go enough to become more passionate about it. Now I've done the Modern Jive, Merengue, Salsa, Rueda, and am currently learning the Cha Cha, (all with varied success of course.) I love it, my only concern is being able to continue with all of it when I get back. Might just have to start a Rueda circle.

Back to School

Quake Break is over!
The aftershocks are slowly settling, my bag is no longer full of travel needs, but notebooks, schedules have been revised, and it is time to go back to class.

For those who need to know these things: My exam schedule has been shifted. Some how I now have to take two exams at once, and one exam while I was supposed to be on the plane to Australia. Hmm, somehow I don't think that's going to work out very well. Never fear, I think(hope) I've got things sorted out.

As far as normal course work goes, they have cut a week off of our semester and shortened our study break week. This means our workload has been shortened quite a bit(yay!!) but that also means that what work we do have is worth even more(boo!). Each class has now begun with the same "What to do in the event of an Aftershock" speech, and an over view of what material the prof's cut out- which I have noticed some people use as extra nap time.

If my posts become less consistent, it's because I'm either (a) desperately trying to get work done (b) comatose from work-overload (c) stress-baking in attempt to procrastinate. In the likely event of C(and if you're in NZ) please come over and help your self to any baked goods.

Acrophobics need not apply

Last Saturday Jane took us all to Adrenalin Forest. Adrenalin Forest is a high ropes course about 20 minutes from Christchurch. 


I've done a couple high ropes courses before, and loved it. However, this was much much higher then anything I've ever seen before! Thankfully, we started out quite a bit lower to the ground. There are six different courses, the first two are to basically get you to understand how to do the different obstacles at a much lower height, and then it just keeps building up and getting harder which each level. 


We ended up skipping the first two courses, as they were full of elementary-aged kids who were a bit slow going, and started with the third one instead. It gave us just enough of a taste to get the blood rushing, and our bodies moving. After flying back to the ground on a zip line or two, (and then running around the forest like lost, mad women, trying to find the start of the fourth course), we started our climb back up into the trees to tackle the next challenges. The four course seemed to take us forever. We crossed many 'monkey bridges' of just a single wire for your feet and one above your hands for your head, logs that swung and spun under your feet, loops of rope that twisted, swung and did all but what you wanted them to do, we clung to ropes that swung us across to a giant spider web, and even slid between trees on a snowboard!

After we successfully conquered the fourth course, it was time to take a well deserved muffin/biscuit(cookie!) break and let our arms stop shaking. We decided  to temporally  bypass the fifth course, and tackle the sixth while we still had energy, as the sixth is final, and supposedly hardest one.

Uffda, they weren't lying! Even just from the rope ladder up to the first platform, the sixth course was definitely challenging. So challenging that when Kasey slipped and fell(her harness caught her, no worries!) off of some hanging logs, her body shut down and she blacked out. After she was safely back on the ground, and feeling better, she was deemed camera woman and in charge of pictures. Katelyn and I continued on, climbing wire bridges at impossible inclines until we were almost at the tops of the trees. This is the point where looking down is not a good idea. We crossed more swinging ropes, cross vertical rope nets, climbing, upside down, through hanging barrels, and conquered so many more obstacles, that some how became so much more difficult at 20 meters(or 66 feet) above the ground, strung up on towering, swaying pine trees. We ended with a 20 meters high, 90 meters long flying fox(or zip line) back to the ground. Could one have more fun?!

Exhausted, but now exhilarated by our success, Katelyn and I went back and quickly completed the fifth course, a much less daunting task after finishing the sixth one. We finished by pretty much running through the first course, and attempted to fly through the second course too, but got stuck behind a handful of younger boys. However, we were still the first two done, and two of only a handful of other people who managed to get through all six courses! Yea, we rock. 

More pictures are to come! 

"Impossible is just a big word throw around by small men who find it easier to love in the world they've been given, rather than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact, it's an opinion."

Ways to spend time during earthquake break number 2

There are many different options on what to do with the two extra weeks of break you are given. However, the list is dramatically cut short when you're extremely low on funds and your student loans haven't been reimbursed yet. Never fear! Cheap entertainment is always possible no matter what country you are in!

Here are some of the many options to choose from!

1) Have flour? Sugar? Butter? Start baking! Sure, the microwave might seem like a goofy place to make Banana Bread, but with the magical powers of heating coils in it, anything is possible! Cookies, Banana Bread, Cheesey Garlic Biscuits, more cookies etc etc. 

2) The aftermath of all that baking leads us to our next option: Dish stacking sculptures! Only the most talented can compete in this event, as one wrong move can end in disaster!

My Masterpiece!

3) Of course with all that baking, and therefore eating you have been doing, it's probably a good idea to take up the sport of running. (Warning, this option comes with the considerable risk of death. It is not enjoyable in the slightest, but is necessary for the continuation of option #1)

4) Make bets on how big the last aftershock was. Since we're well over 400 aftershocks by now, some people have gotten quite good at guessing.

3) Figure out how to translate English to English. For example, biscuit here is a cookie. That's easy enough, but what happens when you make Cheesy Garlic Biscuits? How do you describe that to your flat mate?They don't have biscuits like we do, the closest you can get is a scone.

This also works on things like Pudding. Pudding is a cake/sponge/creation thing that is uberly delicious, but NOT pudding that American's know! 

(By the way, apparently banana bread is more American then apple pie. Just thought everyone should know)

4) Realize that the most important discussions on cultural differences always revolved around food. 

5) Go dancing.. and then go dancing again! 

Photo thanks to Michael Adams. 

6) Learn to drive on the wrong side of the road. Warning: Turn signal is where the windshield wipers should be and visa versa. 

7) Go earthquake-crack hunting while enjoying the beautiful spring weather. 

Taken right before the ground I was standing on collapsed...oops

8) Escape to Narnia. Well, attempt to at least, weather conditions are not always favorable.  We did make it out to Castle Hill which isn't the exact location that they shot the battle scene at, but Flock hill isn't too much further. We'll be making a second trip out when it's not so snowy and gross out. 

There you have it; eight ways to spend your break-on a budget! 

Quake day

9/4/2010
Katelyn and I had talked yesterday about how smoothly we thought this trip had gone. We really didn't have any problems whatsoever!

And then there was the quake.

Oops, spoke too soon.

I woke up multiple times the night before, once to my bed rattling. But since they were rattily-type-bunks I figured it was just the guy below me shifting around, and quickly fell back asleep. Katelyn woke up first and woke me to tell me Jane had texted everyone to see if we all were safe because there had been a massive earthquake in Christchurch. Sure enough when I checked my phone, it was filled with messages about it. We both ran upstairs to the TV lounge to see if we could find the news.
Arg, frustration! We spent at least half an hour flipping through channels trying to find even the smallest scrape of information on this quake, but the only things on were sports news(aka, rugby) and children's shows(which were scary, and shouldn't be shown to children) until finally we found a minute or two piece that mentioned it in between sports sections. It wasn't helpful, but it was something.

Our Canadian roommate was also going to Christchurch on the same bus, when we told him, he out and out panicked. Which, while highly amusing, was not productive to our own state of mind. The desk manager told us that a earlier bus from a different company had already turned around and come back. Also not a good sign. But Katelyn and I figured we could just spend another night somewhere else if we had too. Though at this point we both just really wanted to get back, earthquake or not earthquake.

Our first concern of there not even being a bus turned out fine. It was right on time. The driver took time to warn us he didn't know what the situation was in Chch, and hopefully when we switched drivers the new one would know more.

Insert long bus ride here.
It was beautiful(I use that word to much, but it's always true!) the rain forests on the west coast gave way to a much more scraggly terrain, but it was stunning in it's own right. This driver also let us stop twice to take pictures, as you can imagine I was beyond ecstatic for this.

Mt. Cook is in the center 

Of course, the beautiful views didn't stop our concern for what was happening in Chch.
Thankfully I talked to both of my flat mates that were still at Uni, and both were fine. That took the biggest worry off of my mind. But with barely any information about what was going on, We were still a little unsure as to what to expect.

When we finally did get back, you could barely tell there had been a 7.1 earthquake, at least in the Uni area.I got to my flat and found my flat mates a little frazzled, but solving any post-earthquake shakes with chocolate and doughnuts, so clearly they were going to be fine. I spent the night being introduced to exactly how a aftershock feels... over, and over and over again.

Running in circles seems to be the thing to do

9/3/2010
This morning we climbed Mr. Iron. It was supposed to be about a hour and half climb, which turned out to be just right. The climb up seemed to take forever, up,up,up and up! But the view once we got to the top was stunning. 360 degrees of beautiful snow-peaked mountains!

Then it was down, down, down and more down before we finished the loop- just in time for the rain to come in. We dashed across the street to Puzzlingworld. Enter a realm of optical illusions, holographic pictures, a room filled with faces that watched your every more, and a magical room that made one person a giant, and the other a midget, and yet another room in which gravity didn't seem to exist! 

After a quick visit to the roman style toilets we were off to conquer the maze! Or, let the maze conquer us.

 

Getting a little desperate

This two story maze took us 45 minutes to find the 4 corner towers and then the exit. We had lots of fun joking and laughing with our fellow maze runners, though helping others was expressly forbidden.

After a quick lunch at our hostel(mm, more PB&J!) we headed out to the Paradiso Cinema to watch Going the Distance. The attraction wasn't for the mediocre movie. But rather, the warm, homemade cookies, and the homemade ice cream served during intermission.  Plus the big comfy couches instead of movie-theater seats was definitely a perk.This tiny theater was well worth the mundane movie. 

Finally we ended our evening, our last one on this trip, by watching the sunset over Wanaka Lake.

 

On the road again!

The rain never let up, so we splashed through puddles and unsuccessfully dodged rain drops to catch our next bus. The ride to Wanaka wan't quite as long as our last trip, and, as always, was full of one beautiful view after another.

9/1/2010

We just went through some mountains that were so pretty I was at lost for words. It started when the tops of the trees, at the tops of the mountains started to have a dusting of snow on top- like someone had shifted powdered sugar all over them. Then, massive, over powering snow peaks just appeared! The sun lit them up from behind, making the snow and the lingering low clouds glow gloriously. 

I wish we could have stopped to take pictures, but that wasn't an option, so blurry bus pictures will have to do.

Further along the mountains ended not in rainforesty valleys, but in a turquoise blue lake. How is it possible for this country to keep getting more and more beautiful? 

We're spending the night at the Base hostel in Wanaka. Base hostels are a chain of hostels in New Zealand and Australia. It is not the cute little hostel we have been staying in at all. It is much much bigger and has a very modern feel/design. But the rooms are clean and it's cheap so we're happy. Our roommates for the night are 4 guys- 3 Japanese and a Canadian. Oh boy, All are snowboarders, as that is pretty much what you do in Wanaka. They all seem very nice, let's just hope they don't snore. 

Wanaka it's self is a cute little touristy type town, set on the banks of Wanaka Lake. It mostly caters to Snowboarders, but there are a couple nice hikes-which is why we're here. With not too much daylight left, we skipped the hikes for today and just explored the town and did some aimless window shopping before calling it a night. 

Into the blue-literally

Today Katelyn and I climbed Franz Josef Glacier. But first we had to gear up at the guide office; water-proof pants, rain jacket, hat, gloves, boots, wool socks, and most importantly- crampons.

Then it was just a short bus ride and we were in the national park! Since we were with guides, we escaped the main path and followed a narrow, single-file path through the rain forest to get to the start of the glacier bed. It was a sharp contrast to go from the very green, wet, squishy forest path to entering the rocky, glacier area. After 40 minutes of trekking over  the flat, grey rock shingles that were left over as the glacier receded, and up the giant pile of gravel and rocks, we donned our crampons and ventured out on to the ice. 

The gravely stuff where the Glacier used to sit

Phil, our guide, took us up the initial ice band. We hiked through waves of white ice going up, up, and further up! 

Eventually we had a bit of a break for lunch- just enough to cool off from climbing  and really feel the chill of the surrounding ice, and for the rain to come in. On went the waterproof pants and the hoods came up on our jackets. Despite the rain, now the real fun begins! We descended in to what they call the Stargate Cave.  As we ducked under the ice we entered a light-blue crystallized world.

As much fun as it would have been to stay in this alien, but beautiful world, we had to keep going. We were faced with our first crack-crawl, sideways we shuffled along, backs pressed against the ice behind us, hips twisted to keep our feet facing forward, hands held against the wall that is inches from our noses.  Sandwiched  between unyielding ice(literally) blue walls, with barely room to move, we slowly inched our way out. 

The rest of the trek was spent climbing in and out of these gorgeous worlds. If we weren't inside the glacier enjoying the ice caverns, we were looking out over the glacier  valley. 

At one point  we were supposed to go through a crevasse and a tunnel, but we had to turn around because Phil got stuck! The female guide of the group behind us decided to lead those of us who were willing through this tunnel and allow anyone who didn't to go around. I did it, but I would like to say that if something is so small not even your guide will go through- well, it's going to be tight. The start of it wasn't too bad, but then we got to the tunnel. About waist height,  in the narrowest part of the crevasse, there wasn't even room to bend my knees to crouch down! I had a slight panicked moment before I mostly, completely ungracefully fell through the tunnel. Grateful to be alive, and cursing my wide hips,  I was glad to see the other side. 

After that slightly terrifying experience, it was all down hill from there. Chilled, and sopping wet(it never stopped raining, and there is only so much waterproof clothes can do) I think we were all torn with desire to stay and explore more and go back to a nice warm cup of tea. The tea won out in the end. 

Back at Chateau Franz, we were rooming with a lovely English girl for the night. Franz Josef is definitely hopping with Internationals; we had three Irish girls with us the first night, and the glacier hike was a lovely mix of all sorts of different countries. It's fascinating to talk to everyone and learn bits and pieces of different cultures.