Jen Hillam: 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.