HAKA and Hangi!

Well it has just been such an exciting last few days! Full of cultural diversity and not too much studying! Wednesday is my easy day but it began with my flatmate waking me up to help her. I guess she was really sick all that night, so we went down to the clinic and she saw a doctor and got some medicine. I am happy to report she is doing much better.  The excitement started Wednesday when I finally got my student id card so I can ride the bus for free finally! So I went into town to pick up and helmet and bike lights because I bought a bike on an online auction. I also looked everywhere for jalepenos for my salsa but I can't find them! I can't find coriander or cilantro for a reasonable price either. But after a bit of shopping, I went to the bus station and waited for like 45 minutes for the bus to take me over to the church for my relief society activity and it didn't come so I text my friend Yuko who always gives me rides to church and she was just on her way and was able to come pick me up so it was super great! For relief society we had a luau! Now I have had luaus before and they are pretty great, but I have never had one where I was one of the only people not actually from Polynesian descent. It was sort of an international evening so it wasn't just islander stuff. But they had a few different presentations. Some sisters did dances and sung songs. So like one lady did an the Samoan dance and she even said she would teach me if I wanted! Another cute girl sung over the rainbow while she played the ukulele. Yuko is from japan so she taught us all how to make origami cranes. Another group did a Maori dance. It was a lot of fun, and super authentic. Then afterward we had a potluck, I wish I even knew all the things I ate. There was a lot of islandy food and definitely some weird stuff, but mostly all very good. I was stuffed after. I met a bunch more people in the ward, once you start talking to people they are all so friendly. Afterward I went and met up with my friend from Rangitoto, Marco, he was traveling through the area and came to hike the gorge until he got rained out. He is back on his way to Auckland so he can fly out and go backpacking through Malaysia.

Thursday I had a few classes and then finally decided I should study! So I went to the library and checked out a textbook and tried to study...too bad the teacher based his chapter assignments on an old book so they were totally off so I gave up after 2 pages. And Yuko and Warren, my RAs, were having the missionaries over for dinner and invited me to join them. One of the missionaries is from ogden and we even knew some of the same people. But we had shepards pie, I have never had it before and it was delicious, I'm totally writing that down in my "to cook" book. Afterwards the RSO put on a dessert night with some entertainment. It just so happened that it was it was the Maori RAs of the university doing the Haka and teaching it to us! So we learned the words first then the actions! It was so fun. The words are hard to remember though because I am not super familar with the language, but it goes like this:

KA MA-TE!   KA MA-TE!  KAO -RA,    KAO -RA 

    KA MA-TE!   KA MA-TE!  KAO -RA,    KAO -RA  
  TE-NEI TE   TA-NGA-TA  PU -  -RU - HU -RU

   NA     NEI   TI-KI MAI    *  WHAKA -WHI-TI TE  RAAA!
  AH...     U - PA - NE !    AH...    HU - PA - NE !

A HU-PA-NE! KAU-PA-NE! WHI-TI TE  RAA !     
 HI !

This was not actually my Hangi but it looks just like it!

  Pronoucning a lot of those worlds can be a little tricky, for example wh = f pretty much and Hi is like he, the vowels are just said a little differently. But hopefully I can put a video up soon of the RA's doing it, I'm just having a hard time getting it to load. After the dessert night and haka we had volleyball practice for my social league team (like intramural) and it is super intense! Ha I though volleyball was just a lot of whatever and hit it over, nope they made me try and spike a ton of times and then do some blocking. The coaches have high hopes for me because I am so tall...ha ha get it "high" hopes. The night just got better and better because after volleyball practice was indoor soccer practice! I feel like we have a some hope, its just a bit of an adjustment to me to play on a gym floor. But it was a blast! And very tiring after all of this, I know because I woke up late today at 9 for my 9:00 class. But I still made it! Then today, they had a special lunch thing going on on the concourse where you could buy "hangi" its like the authentic maori food that they cook in earth ovens. There was chicken and pork with some stuff that reminded me of stuffing and then potatoes and pumpkin with some sweet bread. It was really good!

So tomorrow, I was going to go to Manawatu gorge and hike into it with some people but then most of them decided they want to go to Wellington to see the rugby game. It is the All Blacks vs. South Africa. It should be epic. They are like 2 of the best rugby teams in the world! Don't worry, I am cheering for the winning side, I already have my All Blacks flag! Whoot Whoot! I can't even wait!