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)