Gone Fishing!

So after my exhausting 5 days of studying, I had one week until my next test. My test was for Sport Biomechanics 2 and of all my classes, it was the one I was least stressed about. This version of biomechanics was basically just like biomedical engineering simplified for exercise science students just using physics and matlab. I had a bit of an advantage over the rest of the students having a year of physics of a whole class dedicated to Matlab, so I felt ok about do some more traveling for the next week. A lot of my friends had other tests so I had to find other friends to do stuff with. Vilad from my ward had been wanting to go fishing so we made a plan to go to the beach on Thursday and go surf cast fishing. It is where you get a big ocean fishing pole and go cast off the beach into the surf and try and catch a fish.So we got all of the gear and went to Himatangi beach near Palmy. Unfortunately the fishing gods (Tangaroa) were against us and neither was the weather god (Tawhirimatea). The wind was terrible, the clouds were threatening, and the fish weren't biting. Then again I am not sure we were doing it right, neither of us were. We didn't know how to fish and our results showed it. The most we caught all day was seaweed. It was still pretty fun to try and fish in the ocean, something I had never done before. By the end of the day the only thing we succeeded in doing was losing our 2 sinkers and one hook. It was a bit disappointing because we really wanted to catch something. As we were leaving we talked to some people who recommended a better fishing spot about 5k down the beach.

We still had a bunch of bait and all the fishing gear so we decided to go out to the other beach the people had recommended and try and catch something. We tried to head out a bit earlier but got a little lost when trying to find the beach. As we drove it rained off and on and it didn't look like the weather was really going to be nice to us. When we finally got to the beach, as we got the fishing rod all ready with bait it started to rain. We hung out for a bit to wait for it to stop raining, once it finally did we hit the beach. We started fishing where a large river met the ocean. There were other fisherman catching whitebait there so we knew there had to be at least some fish. So we fished for a couple hours and moved around from the river to the beach and still only caught seaweed. So I guess we weren't really meant to be fishermen.  It didn't ever actually rain on us but the wind was still pretty bad, but it was still a fun couple days. 

STUDY abroad

So after slacking off most of the study break week, it was finally time to buckle down. My first test was Nov. 1st, the first wednesday of finals and not only that but I had 2 finals scheduled for the same time. But don't worry Massey has a solution for that, it is like spending a day in prison, except worse because in prison I don't think they have finals. I had my Maori and Structural Kinesiology final. The tests were pretty intimidating at first but once I started studying I felt ok. All the practice tests were similar so I wasn't to worried once I could them. The Maori classes was the most stressful actually as the test just seemed like a lot of Maori vocab and since I didn't know hardly any vocab I was really worried, but after bit of studying and a great study group with my fellow Atawhai class members I felt pretty good about it. Kinesiology was a lot of information but I really started to understand better how to figure out what muscles do just based on where they are and which side of a bone they are on. It is pretty interesting, I think I like it a lot better then engineering. We actually had a pretty good time studying. Ema and I would pull out the couches from the common room and sit out in the sun and study. People we join us  and sometimes it would get a little unproductive but for the most part we learned a lot. Each night I would go to Ema's and study while she graded papers. It was so nice to have her to ask any questions or to review stuff with as I studied and I got a lot less distracted then I did when I studied at home. We did take a break one night and make a pumpkin...well actually Ema made the pumpkin pie while I studied and then we ate it at like 1am because that is when it was finally finished after making it from scratch. We didn't have all the spices but it was still really good.
So then the first day of reckoning came. I stayed up late and woke up early in typical college student cramming style and studied some more. I got put in a special room with a few other students with clashing exams. My kinesiology test was only 2 hours and when I flipped through it at the beginning I was excited because I know almost all of the answers. I finished in about an hour and so I had time to study for my next exam. After everyone finished their first exam we got escorted into a lounge area to eat lunch for 45 minutes then it was back to the same room to take our next exam. We weren't aloud to leave and they locked us in the building so if we did leave we couldn't get back in. It was intense. My second exam was Maori and during the first 10 minutes of reading time I flipped through all the multiple choice questions and felt great because I knew almost all of them and the essay questions were pretty much what I expected. So I finished that one quickly as well. It was a good feeling finishing 2 exams and feeling good about them.

Studying turned dance party-Brayden dancing

Alex also dancing

Studying?

Pumpkin pie by Ema!

Team Heavy Duty Booty Backpacking Taranaki

I really had to put my fast packing practice to the test this time. I had about one hour to unpack from wellington and repack for a 3 day backpacking trip to Taranaki volcano. I still had to eat lunch and buy my bus ticket so I was really pushing it. I started cooking rice for lunch while I packed and totally forgot about it and basically filled my whole flat with smoke, fortunately there was no real damage just a really black pot. Viladmir from church let me borrow some camping gear but I only had my school backpack so some how I cramped all my food, clothes, and camping stuff into a pack meant for a laptop and a few books. Since I was in such a rush, Viladmir was super nice and gave me a ride to the bus stop and so I made it just in time to catch the bus to New Plymouth. There I met up with Robert and Kelly a couple of Americans that I was going to be trekking all over Taranaki volcano with. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to New Plymouth where we were spending the night. When we got there we met up with another American friend who was there traveling with her parents and they gave us a lift to our hostel. Later we walked into town and did a bit of the famous New Plymouth coastal walk. There was this strange art piece? along the coast called a wind wand. Basically it was an incredibly tall pole with a ball on top that swayed in the wind. Afterwards we found our favorite grocery store Paknsave and bought some food for our adventure. Earlier in the day we had asked some nice people for directions and the funniest thing happened. As we were walking home with our arms full of groceries the same people, Evan and Michael, so us walking and stopped and offered us a ride. It was such a pleasant surprise as we still had about a mile to walk carrying all of our food, New Zealanders are so great. Once home we made a big pasta dinner to fuel up for our trip and then went eels shining! It was dark and there was a river behind our hostel with eels in it, so we took our flashlights and very and found a few. They were huge, ugly looking things but are a huge part of Maori traditions here.
The next morning I got up early to shower for the last time for the next 2 days. We hired a shuttle to pick us up and take us to the mountain. So Tom and Darren picked us up in a big van and drove us up to the visitor center. As we drove the weather was very misty with a light drizzle of rain...not the best for hiking but like a gift from heave right as we pulled up to the visitor center the skies cleared and the rain stopped. It was perfect timing. The first day of our hike was meant to take 5-6 hours to the first hut. We hiked through heaps of rainforest and had to do some river crossings and even went across a swing bridge. The first part of the loop we were doing actually went up a neighboring peak to the main mountain. About 4 hours into the hike, the trail basically started going straight up the mountain, but it really wasn't bad because there were wood and dirt steps pretty much all the way up. It kinda made the hike feel a little less exploreresque but it was sure nice to have the steps because otherwise it would have very steep and slick, but there were literally hundreds of steps. All those box jumps and stairs I had done with Ema were really paying off and I felt great basically running up the stairs. My hiking buddies weren't quite as keen on the idea of running up the mountain so we stopped and ate lunch the finished our ascent. Finally we made it to the top of mountain, called Henry's peak and the view was fantastic! You could see the ocean, the cities, and of course the majestic Mt. Taranaki. As we sat and admired the view we were a little worried as it looked like an entire wall of clouds was about to close in on us but as we sat and watched it was really interesting because the clouds looked like they were constantly moving towards us but they would always dissipate right as they approached the mountain. It must have been something crazy with the air pressure or wind currents or something, but it was weird. The view was so nice we had to sit and admire it for awhile but the it was back down the other side with more stairs and even some ladders it was so steep. Next was up one more small peak where our hut was near the top. As we made it to the hut the clouds finally decided to really roll in and oh when they came it was like someone put foggy ski goggles over my eyes. The fog was so dense you couldn't see for more than about 50m and even less at times. We set up our tent and had a good dinner. We spent the evening making a fire and just hanging out. When it finally came time to go to bed we could even see our tent only 10m away in the fog but we found it and curl up for a windy night on mountain. We stayed in a tent because it cost $15 a night per person to stay in the hut and the tent was free, so we just used the huts to cook, then slept in the tent. The huts were quite nice though. They had running water and a porta potty outside and then bunk beds with sleeping pads inside. It was quite a winding night and Robert and I didn't exactly have proper sleeping bags so we were all cold so we tried sleep closer together in are already cramped 2 man tent. After we all realized that none of us had been sleeping at about 3 am we decided to head into the hut to warm up and build a small fire. We all ate some snacks and put on more layers to reattempt our sleeping outside. I had an idea that really changed my whole situation. My problem was I just couldn't keep my feet and legs warm so I boiled some water and put it in my heavy duty water bottle and put in the bottom of my sleeping bag. Oh my gosh it made the biggest difference in the world, I couldn't believe it. I actually got warm with just this little hot water bottle and finally got to sleep. I think we all felt better and all got some sleep finally. We were so tired we slept in a little later that we had planned on but finally got all packed up and head out to our next hut around 10:30 the next day. The original plan was just going to be a pretty short 3-4 hour hike to the next hut, so when we got to the hut we had lunch and did another leg of the trail that was about an hour return to a waterfall. It was pretty cool because we had hiked through a swamp and the water from the swamp and the river through it all drained off these huge cliff. By the time we got back from the waterfall it was still only about 3:30 pm and we had nothing to do and since we had been making good time we though we should just head to the next hut about 4 hours away. We had been making good time and thought we could do it faster so we set off to hike about halfway up Taranaki along a trail leading to the next hut. The whole day had been terribly cloudy and we only had very limited views of anything all day so there wasn't much to stop and take photos of as we walked. As we went the fog got thicker and rain started as a drizzle then full on rain off and on. We traversed the side of the mountain and made it over a few scary steep places that if you fell you would be tumbling a long ways so we took great caution. There weren't a lot of signs so just based on the map I had judge where we were and unfortunately everytime I looked at the map I realized more and more we had too far to go and not enough daylight to get there and turning around was even further so we pressed on and didn't stop for anything. The whole day had felt very dark in the fog so even as the sun started to set we couldn't really notice a difference. At one point we made it to a sign pointing directions to the hut we were headed toward with one direction taking 2 hours and the other 1.5 hours. the 1.5 hour trail was a summer trail only...it was early spring so we took the risk of going on the summer trail to try and save time. Unfortunately as it turns out this meant we had to hike through snow. For me I really felt totally comfortable on the snow, I think years of skiing really payed off as I walked across the steep hills of snow forming steps for my friends, for them I don't think it was quite as natural. I avoided telling them that if they did slip they would probably end up sliding a few hundred meters and we couldn't even see what was at the bottom of the hills because of the fog. I just told them what to do if they did start to fall, the best ways to stop. And well it didn't help that just as we started trying to cross the snow sheets, the wind picked up and really started blowing, and with our packs covered in trash bags from the rain, they worked more like parachutes. So we were extremely careful but finally made it down far enough to get out of the snow. We finally made it to a trail that was pretty much a road. We were soaking wet from the rain, the sun had pretty much set, and the wind was howling so with and open trial we started to run. We still had 1 hour according to the sign until the hut. So we ran as much as we could but running downhill after hiking all day, not sleeping much that night, soaking wet and with a 15kg+pack on your bag it wasn't easy. Then finally just as it was getting too dark to see without a flash light we made it to the hut. It was such a relieving sight and to top it off another girl was staying there that already had the fire going. We all changed out of our soaking wet clothes and shoes and hung them by the fire. We ate a ton of food because we were so hungry and needed some carbs to get ourselves warm. We set up the tent underneath the raised hut to protect us from the wind and rain. I heated more water to put in my water bottle and after a back massage train we headed to bed. As I was talking to Robert and Kelly they were saying that what we had just done was the hardest thing they had ever done, so I was pretty impressed with how they did. They hadn't complained at all and just knew what they had to do to get off that mountain. I really  hadn't known too much about the mountain but I guess I knew a lot more then them about how to handle the rough conditions so I was glad they were willing to follow me and try and keep up when I told them we had to go faster. I had a lot less gear because I had packed so light in my little bag, had been trying to stay properly hydrated, eating as we hiked, and had been working out heaps before this adventure add that to my experience of being stuck on snowy mountains in a storm I was at a bit of an advantage to my friends.. But strangely during this whole time I felt completely fine, not a single sore muscle, never hungry or tired, not even cold even though I was soaking wet. I could have run back up that mountain if the situation had called for it I think. I didn't have a proper back pack like they had or even real hiking boots, just my running shoes. But I wasn't too worried the whole time either, I was confident we would be ok. I think a bit of adrenaline streaming through the veins and protection from above helped me to feel at peace. We had made a bad decisions to continue onto the next hut but it meant we only had to hike 2 hours in the morning so we could be to our pick up spot by noon the next day, otherwise we would have had to start hiking by 6 am, but it all worked out and made it just in time. That night was little better as far as sleeping as we had learned a few tricks the night before.
We got up at 9 the next morning, packed back up our wet clothes and put on our wet shoes and went back out into the fog that still hadn't left. Our last 2 hours were through rainforest again and we finally made it back to the visitors center where we were getting picked up. I think Robert and Kelly were pretty relieved when we made it, and I guess I was too, but we really had a good time. Even though a little scary at one point, it was a fun adventure, we did wish the fog would have left so we could have seen lot more but it happens a lot in this area so we felt lucky with the one day of blue skies we had.

Darren picked us up right at noon and took us to the bus station, after a short little tour around the city. We were Darren's first group of customers as he had just started working for the shuttle company so he want to make our trip special. He told us if we were ever around again we should swing by his house down on the Maori tribal land and he would show us around. He was such a nice guy. We made it an hour early to the bus and were eager for a hot meal so we found the closest food place which was the mall food court. We looked a little strange looking like we had just come off a mountain with all of our gear and everything sitting in a mall food court but food court curry had never tasted so good! Finally it was time to board the bus, all three of us slept as we were exhausted. I gave up on my wet shoes and took the bus ride in my socks. I took the rest of the journey home in just socks, even when we had to walk to a new bus stop in Palmy, and walking back to my flat, the cool part is that isn't even weird. I made it home with the intention of writing the rest of my report worth half my grade that was due the next day but was just too exhausted. So I went to bed early and got up Friday morning and started writing. I wrote for 7 hours straight for my final report and turned it in at 4:50pm to my teacher right before he left. A fun fact I learn later...I got one of the highest scores in the class, so I guess it turn out ok :)

The Start

Day 1 Robert and Jen

View from Henry's Peak

Kelly in the Rainforest

Swing Bridge

Team Heavy Duty Booty!

Snack Break!

Swamp in between us and the mountain

Taranaki

Kelly

Robert and Kelly

Holy Hut

Bells Falls

Look Erica! Bells is in NZ too!

The Fog

Last Day

The End!

A night to remember-Rugby World Cup Final in Wellington

So I last left you with my plans of heading to Wellington for the World Cup final...let me try and describe that night to you. First some background: For those who don't know, rugby in NZ is basically considered the countries religion, everyone watches it and signs supporting the All Blacks can probably be seen from outer space, as they cover hillsides and farm fields. The All Blacks playing for the final in their own country is a huge deal especially since they haven't won for 25 years and they have been so close so many times, so there was a lot riding on this game. So going to the nations capital to watch the game on a big screen was sure to be a once in a lifetime experience.
I headed down on the bus with Graeme and Benedicte, once we got to Wellington we met up with Brayden, Brayden, Bene, Martyna, Kelly, Dani, Giso, Zach, and Franzi. We found a pub with a huge tv and settled in to watch the game of a lifetime. The game was France vs. NZ. We were all cheering for the All Blacks except of course Benedict (french) and for some reason Graeme (Scot). The game was so intense, the All Blacks did great for the first half but the second got scary close. Every time something exciting happened it felt like an earthquake was shaking the city as people screamed or cheered, although who really knows they could have been a very conveniently timed earthquake..we were in NZ. The whole city was on hold watching the game and when that clock finally ticked to 80:00 and the All Blacks kicked out the ball there were cheers so loud you couldn't tell if there was even anything coming out of your own mouth. The All Blacks beat France by 1 point. It wasn't the prettiest game but it didn't matter as long as the ABs won. Hugs and high fives between strangers and friends were happening everywhere. Interestingly, Benedict with the french flag painted on her face got the most hugs of all as everyone around us congratulated her  for a well fought game, I'm sure the same wouldn't have happened had France won but we were all glad we weren't going to have to protect her from any sort of angry or insulting kiwis. After the game ended everyone flooded into the streets. There were crowds of people down every main road and the police just ended up shutting all the main roads down and people were running everywhere. Excited would be an understatement when describing this town, well that and a little drunk. People were climbing up anything climbable (street poles, buildings, statues, etc.). They were reenacting scrums in the streets and we all got plowed over once or twice so of course we just decided to join in for a bit and had scrums with each other. It was truly epic as everyone celebrated together. It was a like a parade in every direction and everyone was a part of it.  With so many people it was a little tough to stick together but we managed to not loose anyone and had quite the exciting walk back to our hostel to drop off some stuff then go and enjoy the partying in the street. It was just such an incredible atmosphere, you couldn't help but join in with cheering and dancing. We finally made our was to small little club and hung out and had a blast. Brayden, Bene, Zach, and Franzi left early to go get some sleep before their 4am wake up call to take a plane to Sydney for the week. I spent most of the night with Martyna and Kelly. We got ice cream and hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile but headed in early enough to get a few hours of sleep as Kelly and I were set to leave on a backpacking trip the next day. It was almost tough to sleep as the city was so loud but I managed alright and woke up bright and early to make a bus back to Palmy. As I walked to bus stop with Graeme the city felt deserted. It was a strange feeling considering how crazy it had been just a few hour prior but as daylight came I guess the parties came to an end and since it was an national holiday everyone was sleeping off the crazy night they had. We walked about 4 blocks and probably only saw 10 people in all of downtown Wellington. It was a short trip to Wellington for me but absolutely worth it.

Kelly, Zach, Franzi, Bene, Benedict, Graeme, Martyna, and Brayden

Dude climbing pole

Party in the streets!

Martyna, Kelly and Jen

Kelly, Jen, and Zach

Jen, Kelly, and a tasty pizza bread

Our lone french fans!

The calm before the storm

It was a pretty school heavy week as it was the last week of classes and my final assignments were due. All my classes were semester reviews and test reviews. My Maori class even had a party for the last day it felt like high school all over again, but I didn't mind one bit. After a few speed bumps on my last day of classes I finally officially finished the semester at Massey University Oct 21st. After classes finished we got one week off for a study break and 2 1/2 weeks of finals. I had 4 final scheduled over those 2 1/2 weeks. But my first 2 finals weren't until Nov 2nd and I was feeling too worried about them so I decided to use the weekend and beginning of the study week to travel, take part in some local culture, and spend some time with friends. Friday after my last class I baked some banana bread to bring and headed out to a YSA dance at the church. It was a costume/sunday best and since I hadn't really had time to come up with any fun costume I stuck to a simple skirt. A bunch of my friends really went all out though and looked amazing, I'll add some photos, my favourite was my friend Jen and her Avatar costume. The dance had a slow start as only the Palmerston North YSA were there to begin but then things took off when a few van loads of YSA from Hastings showed up. They had driven 2 hours to come to the dance and it was a blast. Islanders are great dancers and lots of fun, I've never had so much fun dancing with strangers. I even lost my shoe at one point as I accidently kicked it across the room and everyone stopped and got a good laugh as I was a little embarrassed but then just laughed too. Overall it was a great night.
 Saturday was supposed to be the day to finished writing my very last report due the following friday but things kept coming up and I didn't get much done. That evening my flatmate, Tamil, had decided to have one last barbque and party before the drinking and noise ban took effect for the halls, so we roasted up some chicken, burgers, and vegges. It was a good eat. Afterwards we moved the party into our flat and hung out and played some last very epic games of spoons. After spoons we had a good time just hanging out and talking (and drinking). Since I wasn't drinking I decided it was time to break out my high class grape juice I had bought from the winery in Nelson. Brayden, Ema, and I hung out pretty late and just talked, it was hard to not just sit and reminisce about all the good times we have had, not like they were over yet, it is just like a common feeling of our adventure coming to an end. During the party Benedict and Graeme convinced me to come with them and meet up with all of our other friends to go to Wellington to watch the final for the Rugby World Cup in NZ's capital Wellington the next day.....hence the calm before the storm. These little parties were just the beginning of some epic weeks.

Toni, Jen and Anita

Anita, Holly, and Nadida

Jen, Pikachu, Nadida, Holly, and Sam

Jen as avatar and some of the Hastings boys

Brayden, Zach, Jen, Ema, and Graeme

You can even get sick in magical wonderlands but zwiebelkuchen makes up for it!

It was a rough start of this week. I got sick with a cold Monday and just couldn’t get rid of it. I drank heaps of water and ate all my kiwifruits. I just basically sat in my room for 2 days because I didn’t want to spread germs. I even missed Canadian thanksgiving, I was going to celebrate with Ema and Brayden, the resident Canadians, but it happens and it is never convenient. Being sick sure makes you appreciate being healthy and also appreciate soft tissues because toilet paper just hurts after a day of blowing your nose. I missed a couple classes but nothing too big. Thursday I went to the gym to try and get my blood pumping to work the sickness out of me and afterwards Ema and I decided to do our own little barbque by frying hamburgers. She brought avocado put on hers and so I put a little on mine. A lot of my friends eat avocado a lot here and I used to hate it, but now I think it is really growing on me, they are so cheap here and always so good. Finally by Friday I was feeling ok. Yuko invited me over for dinner with the missionaries. It is always so fun to sit down and have a proper meal with good company. Afterwards I hung around and helped her plan for our Atawhai pizza party the following Saturday. So I finally was doing good from being sick and Ema started to get sick! I felt bad but I really tried to avoid people to not get them sick but she was only kind of sick for a couple days. Later Friday evening, Franzi had decided another german food night was in order. So it was time for zwiebelkuchen! And well if you speak German, it is pretty much like it is called, a cake of onion, just kind of like a glorified pizza crust with loads of onions baked in. It made for a fun evening with bad breathe for everyone! But I love the diversity of our evenings. It never gets old hanging out with 4 Germans, a Scot, a Pole, a French woman, 2 Canadians, 3 Americans, and occasionally a couple kiwis. They are all such awesome people and even though we really are from so many different places we have a blast and all get a long super well. After onion cake we just hung out and I made it a pretty early night (about 1 am haha) because I was still recovering from being sick. But it just makes me smile that we have such an awesome community here and all my friends are just a few houses away so I can just mosey home whenever or run home really fast if I forgot something. I can even just show up at any of their houses whenever I want and say hi or stay awhile. No need to really call or text when you can just walk over and talk to someone face to face. We do anything and everything together. You can always go cook dinner with someone or bake cookies or go into town or down to campus. We really just have a close group that look out for each other and always keen to do stuff, I love it. Throwing a party can be totally spur of the moment and as long as people are in town you are sure to have at least 10 people hopping and ready to have a good time. It is cool. Anyway, on Saturday we had our pizza party in the common room. Yuko order loads of pizzas and snacks and treats. We all hung out and had a good time. It was a lot of really good food and there was even ice cream for dessert after. Near the end there was still some leftover food so Warren had invited the missionaries to come over and get Pizza. I had left for a bit but when I came back some of my friends were leaving and were like” Jen, watch out there are some Jehovah’s Witness’ in there if you don’t want to talk to them”. I looked in the window and was like “no those are Jehovah’s Witness’, those are Mormons. Those are cool guys, a couple of them are even from Utah. They are my friends and just Mormon missionaries.” I just sort of explained who they were and I think they still thought it was little weird that Warren invited them to our party, but maybe they will realize they are normal people and not some freaks trying to shove religion down their throats. It was a fun evening anyay and we finished it off of course by watching some more rugby. The tournament is coming to end! It will be the All Blacks vs. France in the final!

Another fun thing we have also started a new tradition of Sunday morning pancakes. Every Sunday we get together and make pancakes it is kind of like waffles at home but instead of with my family back home it is with my “Atawhai family” I have here. It makes for a good start to my Sundays.  

Franzi cooking onions....lots and lot of onions!

Excited for onion cake!

zwiebelkuchen!

Himatagni Beach and more

This week was a bit more school filled but that still doesn’t mean I did a lot. I had 1 report due on Friday and another one that was supposed to be due on Friday but in typical new Zealand fashion, my teacher put off the due date a week. Most teachers here are so relaxed, especially about due dates. But I got most of it done anyway. It was part of a project for my Maori class and our teacher said we could work together so of course the 5 of us from Atawhai village made it a team effort and it only took us a few hours to each do a bit of research and then share everything we found with everyone. During the week I also got some good training sessions in with Ema, but she decided to stop doing the sprint training because she doesn’t have time and doesn’t actually need real results for her study, it was just really more for fun, but we still just do our usual gym routine and it is great. On Wednesday though I decided to change it up a bit, one of the guys from church is a professional fighter and he teaches a muay thai kick boxing class on Wednesdays in town, so I decided to go to that. Instead of kick boxing it should probably call it a kicking Jen’s butt class, ha ha just kidding, but it was a pretty solid work out. I was pretty tired at the end but I was impressed because I was able to do a lot more then I would have a few months ago before training with Ema because it is a lot more strength stuff then just my typical endurance type running, so it was fun. Afterwards I had to run down to our volleyball game and afterwards Ema and I were going to work out because she hadn’t yet that day but then some Polynesian girls we had met the weekend before at rugby were playing basketball and invited us to play with them. So we grabbed a couple more guys and played some 3 v 3. I haven’t played ball in forever so it was really fun and really random because we barely even knew these people but they are just so friendly, I love Polynesians. Ema has played a lot of basketball and on account of my height, we won but it wasn’t a real serious game anyway.

Thursday, there was a ceremony for international students that will be graduating or leaving massey and so it was mostly all the graduate students that were graduating that semester and then like 4 of us exchange students. We don’t think we were actually supposed to be there but we had been invited and got a certificate for a “certificate of proficiency” basically I think we all just checked some box on our application that we weren’t supposed to, ha ha, but it was fun to pretend to graduate and they even gave a us a little gift.

So the weekend got a bit more interesting. Saturday a few of my friends all decided to go to the Himatangi beach even though it had rained all morning, but we wanted to have a bonfire and I really wanted to make s'mores, so I found some wanna be marshmellows at the grocery store that were kind of pathetic in size but they worked and so we went to the beach for the afternoon and had a picnic and a fire and I finally got a s'more! But we had to use funky chocolate covered wheat crackers to make them so it really wasn't quite the same but it was close. Fun fact: turns out fires are illegal on the beach so we got in trouble by the fire brigrade ha ha but it was ok, they just said hey don't do it again. Oops. But it was a good day, we played soccer and frisbee on the beach even while wearing our coats because it was cold.

Sunday Brayden and Graeme had their marathon . They both did really good, I was super impressed, especially with only training about 3 weeks. I had wanted to go and if not run it, at least cheer them on but I had general conference so Ema made some fun signs and gave them some moral support. General conference was pretty good, we saw it 1 week after everyone in Utah because of the time change and just watched the 2 sunday sessions on a projector in the chapel. Afterwards I went over to a fellow ysa’s house and we made some giant pizzas with like a million toppings and watched a movie so it was a really good chill sunday. Afterwards I came home and watched the RWC semifinal, Australia vs. All Blacks. I literally have never seen more blood in any sporting event in my life ha ha and they don't care, they just keep playing. Those guys are monsters. Granted this game was probably the 2 biggests rivals in any sport in the entire world so it was extra intense, but of course the All Blacks won and now will be in the final whoot! Good thing too, because I am not sure I would want to be living here in the All Blacks lost.

Fake graduation

Ema at the beach

Bonfire!

Brayden and Ema made the paper!

Haka!

Smore!

After Training one day