To the north!: falling from the sky

I don't know why it's 4am and I decided to write about skydiving now. But ah well.

So skydiving. I can't remember if I came to New Zealand thinking I would skydive or not, but after bungy I felt like I could do anything. So I mentioned to my travel group that I wanted to go skydiving, and my friend Emily expressed an interest in doing it as well. So we booked our skydiving pre-Northland departure and we were all set. Already paid for. Whoa.

We booked skydiving for 9am, which wasn't too difficult since we slept in the car and it was bright outside around 7am. Emily and I were the only ones skydiving so our friends dropped us off and we hung out until they were ready for us. It was foggy so we didn't jump as early as we otherwise probably would have; we had to wait for the fog to lift. There were two other anxious skydivers who were jumping after us so Emily and I made conversation about Denmark - their homeland. And my homeland, only four generations later.

this is how I was feeling pre-skydiving

this is the face that I think they expect you to make when you're about to go skydiving

Eventually our snarky instructors taught us what we were to do when we got out of the plane and we got into our snazzy red jumpsuits and harnesses. Emily was jumping from 8,000 feet (I was jumping from 12,000) so we were the first to go up in the plane. I will openly admit that I was very nervous and the instructors laid-back responses to questions like "what if the harness detaches?" ("you'll die and I'll live, I have the parachute") weren't of much help. While I know they were only kidding I was very much not in the mood to appreciate it. I was surprised that I was so nervous for skydiving but wasn't for bungy; typically, it's the other way around since when you bungy it's just you and you have to jump off yourself instead of just fall.

The plane ride up to 12,000 feet was beautiful. We flew over the Bay of Islands so there was beautiful ocean on one side and green everywhere else. My skydiving instructor took over 100 pictures of me and the scenery throughout the whole time so fortunately I have pictures to capture how beautiful it was. When we reached Emily's skydive height the door of the plane came open and out she fell. I was not feeling very good, especially after the plane wobbled as their weight fell out one side of the plane. My skydiving instructor could tell I was not feeling very good (the thought crossed my mind to just fly down, but that left quickly when I realized it would be faster to just skydive down) so after some reassuring comments that I would be fine and that he really does all the work so I should just relax I calmed down more.

After being harnessed to my instructor and pulling on my very unattractive skydiving goggles we reached 12,000 feet. This was it. As I was on my instructor's lap because of the harness, he did all the work. I crossed my arms and put my legs to one side out the plane door. After a few seconds of deep breathing mixed with panic and a strange feeling of calm, out the plane we fell. We only tumbled once before evening out and I was able to stretch my arms out and really fall.

(what are you talking about, no that smile doesn't look forced)

It was an interesting feeling - freefalling, that is. It felt like it was over so fast. My instructor had to keep telling me to look out at the islands instead of just staring at the ground that was getting closer and closer. I think I only screamed a little bit. When he pulled the parachute, that was shocking because I'm pretty sure that both of our weight, plus resistance to the wind, was on the harness straps on my inner thighs. So that was a little painful. I didn't buy my skydiving video but I got to watch it afterwards and right after the parachute was pulled I said in the most Minnesotan accent I think I have ever had, "I feel a little sick now, oh yah, I feel a little sick". It was hilarious to watch. I was feeling a little motion sickness though. Part of me just wanted to get my feet back on the ground as fast as possible, another part just wished the harness wasn't so tight on my legs, the other part just enjoyed the view for the last 5,000 feet with an incredibly adrenaline-infused, silly stupid look on my face. And then we landed smoothly on the grass and I helped my instructor gather the parachute.

I have a very vivid image of this in my head too

ecstatic about having just gone skydiving, but also happy to be back on the ground

Skydiving was fun! I will admit, I liked bungy jumping better, but falling out of that plane was intense and I would definitely recommend doing it. And while skydiving here in New Zealand was more expensive than what I would pay to do it in the states, I got to skydive in New Zealand, in the beautiful Bay of Islands, and I have pictures to prove it.

This was a really long post for two hours of one day but I thought it deserved that much credit. Also, I have about 70 more pictures from this, so if you want to check it out do so here on my facebook album.

To the north!: glowworm caves and sleeping in the car

I went on a trip to the Northland a few days ago. It. Was. Amazing.

safety first!

We left on Sunday afternoon in our white soccer mom minivan, seven girls tucked in a cozy seven-person van. Our first impromptu stop was Ureki beach (or something like that), where we played in the waves that are stronger than you think and were vaguely reminded of the beach we went to over orientation. After this brief stop we continued onto to Pak N Save (grocery store) and then to Abbey Caves, a glowworn cave outside Whangarei.




Now, Abbey Caves were awesome. However, it was an extremely muddy walk to get to the caves and after Caitlyn epically wiped out in the mud we were very cautious to continue. I was the only one who brought my camera so fortunately I have oodles of pictures. Going in the cave was awesome. We used the torch settings from our cell phones and mini flashlights to navigate through the tall caves and attempt not to soak our shoes in the streams at the bottom of the caves. The glowworms were awesome. They look like little stars in the sky. I don't remember exactly what makes them glow - and I don't think think they're actually worms - but I was the only person who hadn't seen glowworms before and thought they were very cool. (Everyone else had done Waitomo which have some pretty epic caves and include abseiling into the cave and blackwater rafting. If I have enough money I might do it.) We turned around once we remembered that sun sets around 5:30pm and it was getting close to then and we realized that we might have to swim in the water if we went any further. Unfortunately, the cave ate Njeri and Sarah's phones so that was a delay in climbing out of the cave while trying to find them but eventually we were on our way to find some dinner.

Caitlyn was muddy. We learned to be more careful.

sun starting to set pre-caves

CAVES ARE SO COOL

We decided to stop in Kerikeri for dinner. We'd bought some material for sandwiches at Pak N Save earlier so Njeri, being the trooper that she is, made fourteen chicken/avocado/brie sandwiches while hunched over a bench on the wharf in Kerikeri. The sandwiches were delicious though and I can now say that I ate a massive sandwich awkwardly on my hands while sitting on a tarp by the water, being eaten up by sandflies and covered in mud.




After dinner we drove to find a waterfall that is lit up at night and then finally found a place to sleep. It was rather cozy, sleeping in the car, all seven of us. I got the back seat, which meant I was laying down but couldn't stretch out my legs without kicking the people in front of me or Emily who was on the floor at my feet. We slept in a parking lot in a medical center and were woken up several times by cars driving by. The most, um, exciting, one was at 6am when a garbage truck was about ten feet away from the car. Woo. However sleeping in cars is worth it because you save money on hostels. Hostels are expensive! Okay. Day one complete.

Indo-Fijian (Bollywood) dance!

Okay, got it to upload. Seriously so so so so much fun!
I'm on the right in the light pink - you can't see me very well but I'm there and you can still see the movement.

Dance assessment: Showdown!

Since I showed you what I've been doing in Kapa Haka, I thought I'd post a video of my dance class' "showdown". We put this together in about 4 class periods - besides the Bollywood at the end. And we literally learned some of it just a few hours before this in class.

Also: I am in the light pink top, but I should be easy to spot. I also have no idea why I was so late on some of the movements.. ah well. It happens. At least it was an informal showing that we'd only finished that day. Also: Bollywood was the most fun thing we did this semester. Love love love. You'll see.

Also I was having issues uploading the videos, so I'll add Bollywood in a few days when I get back from the Northland. But here's PJ's piece!




I don't have video of the other dances, but the first-years danced ballet to fairy tales that they had made up. There was a musical theater number which was really entertaining. And the third-years presented collaborative choreography, which I must say, a couple of those pieces were fabulous and I found extremely interesting. That part was really cool.

My dance class was interesting, to say the least. Obviously if you've read my blog you know there have been days when I have wanted nothing more than to go to or have anything to do with the class. But I guess I'm glad I took it now? I got to meet some Kiwi dancers (though I wish I'd befriended more of them on an outside-of-class basis) and learn not to complain about Gustavus dance professors because they're better teachers than PJ, and it was probably good that I did dance. Also, since there's no final exam, at this point it's the only class that I'm actually completely finished with for the semester. Also, after getting to know the dancers as dancers I began to realize that there were only a few that were as unmotivated and ...bad?... as I'd originally thought. Some of them have tremendous potential, some of them have clearly trained before uni, and some of them have really improved this semester. It was a good realization, a somewhat humbling realization as well. Also, pretty sure many of them could kick my butt in hip hop, I've seen them practicing.

However.. I do look forward to getting back to the States and dancing. Doing some varied modern dance. Taking ballet. It's going to be fantastic.

Kapa Haka performance/assessment

First off, this is what a poi is.

Thursday was tiring. I had dance for three and a half hours and then my Kapa Haka assessment!

The assessment went well - though it was more of a ceremony with some singing than a performance. There were lots of formalities which included mass amounts of our tudors/other people I didn't recognize speaking in Maori as well as introductions - seriously, all 180 of us had to introduce ourselves. We were supposed to invite our friends and family and some of my friends here came. Also, about 90% of IES students are in Kapa Haka, so the other IESers came to see.. well, everyone. It was sweet. Here are some pictures/video! Also: on the video, I'm on the right side of the group in the 2nd row (except in E hara, where I'm in the middle, and the haka where I'm behind the boys). Happy trying to find me! :)

"E hara"


"Papaki Nui" (action song)


"Hokihoki" (seriously poi is so hard, it looks easy but it's NOT)


The Haka - seriously, there are such better, more complete videos of these on facebook that other people took. But, at least I have some video of all of them except one!


After the assessment there was a feast - or, at least, it was supposed to be a feast. The guests got to eat first and so by the time it got to the students there wasn't much food left. Boo. I got dessert though?

Kapa Haka was an awesome class though. I loved that it was only once a week and that it was more of a cultural community class. Probably half of the people that took Kapa Haka were American exchange/study abroad students, but it was cool that there were a chunk of Maori (and other New Zealand) people in the class as well. Also helpful to help on things such as the poi, which theoretically shouldn't be hard but actually is. While some days Kapa Haka felt very redundant, it was cool to learn a language (which I still don't know what the songs mean in English but it taught me how to pronounce some Maori words) and learn about the culture from our tudors and classmates who really wanted to teach us. Overall, I am so so so happy I took that class. Awesome!

Farewell dinners? Oh no, not yet!

After an exciting, though exhausting, birthday weekend, I still had a week of classes to go. Right now I'm feeling wide awake, and though it's not my best move, I'm going to blog about the last few days.

Monday was exhausting. I actually woke up at noon so I didn't make it to my first lecture (seriously, I promise I am never this unstudious in the states.. also class is within 10 minutes of my bed at Gustavus so I almost always go) since it started at noon! Extenuating circumstances, we'll say. It was weird going to my last sociology tutorial and last Italian lecture - though I will not miss my Italian lecture one bit.

Monday night we had out PSV formal dinner at a hotel. The food was fabulous. Lots of seafood, lots of meat (though I only had the salmon and the ham, SO MUCH FOOD), and the dessert was awesome. I finally had my first Pavlova! Crazy, because if I was only in New Zealand for a few days I would have had it then. Funny how the things that are must-dos I still haven't really done (i.e. the War Museum which is a 2-minute walk from my flat).. it was a good night though, PSV handed out awards (I didn't get one but Andrew and David, my two male flatmates, did, but they weren't at the dinner so I got to accept the awards on their behalves). I stopped in a bar on the way back to hear some music, then came home and did research on travel things. I would describe what I've been looking at but I already feel like my brain is going to explode from them. It's been hours of research and still haven't finalized anything, and 49 tabs open on Firefox. Yeah, intense.

seriously, the food was SO GOOD.

p.s. Pavlova is a NZ dessert, kind of like a meringue.. it's good

Tuesday I had my dance class where we worked on putting together the dance for Showdown - our performance on Friday. (I'm going to maybe see if I can get someone to record it so I'll have proof that I did Indo-Fijian dance.) And took an average-difficulty test in Italian. ALL DONE WITH ITALIAN. Yay. I came home and got ready for the IES Farewell dinner, which was Tuesday night.

The IES Farewell dinner was a bit of a reality check for me. We learned about how it might, and probably will, be difficult to go home because not only will things have changed at home, but I will have changed. Friendships may be different. Things I never realized about American culture will become more obvious, and I might not like everything I notice. I might actually be more unhappy at home than I ever got to be here (which honestly hasn't been too much, to be perfectly honest, so who knows maybe I'm an exception and going home will be just fine?) before it gets better. My flight is booked for June 30 and I still haven't decided about Australia. I think before I plan anything for sure or book anything I'm going to call the airline and see if there are any available seats for the first week in July. That's what I need to figure out first. But I started looking into going scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, and things to do in Sydney, and I want to go so so so bad, even if I'm alone and my camera and journal are my friends, because it just looks fabulous. So amazing. And working on travel plans to Nelson/Wellington right now, and I'm going to the Northland next week for a few days. Hooray! Traveling!

But it's just so odd that I can say that I will be home in a month, give or take a few days. I'm not ready to leave yet, but I definitely am looking forward to being home, where it will be summer and I can see my best friends and sleep in my bed in my room that's over twice as big as my one here and spend time with my family and see how I have changed and how I now view American culture. But, if only some of that could come to New Zealand. That would be amazing. I wish my parents were coming, I know they'd love it here. Oh well.

I actually was able to fall asleep by about 1am last night and made it to my lecture today! Yeah. After class I came home, did laundry, skyped my friend Kimmy who I hadn't talked to really since being here, went to my friend Kristen's homestay for desserts because it was her birthday, came home, hung out with Andrew and watched crappy tv, and did more research on traveling. I think I might be close to booking things, but I don't want to say what I'm doing until I've finalized it because let's be real, that's a lot of typing.

I think I will go to bed now (did I write enough? oh, never) because I have my Kapa Haka assessment/performance tomorrow and class before that at 10am.

Love!

Escaping teenage pregnancy: birthday weekend!

Okay, so I told my mom that what people say when they turn 20 nowadays is "congrats, you've escaped teenage pregnancy", which, officially, I have. She then didn't understand and replied with, "Hm... Way different than I remember! Not only did I escape teenage pregnancy, but with you, I escaped 20s delivery as well. Is there a saying for that?"and a friend of hers posted "I only had deliveries in my 30's, and the last one at age 40... what kind of statistic group does that fit?". Clearly, they didn't get my point. There's not really much to say when you turn twenty besides that it's a bit of an awkward age and you're in your 20s? Woohoo? I'm no longer a teenager, I'm in my 20s now, but [in the States at least] I'm still not given the responsibilities of an adult - like the ability to buy or drink alcohol. However, being that I'm in New Zealand, I do have those responsibilities for another month before I go back to the States and am told that I am not responsible enough again. Great. I love being told that. Anyway.

After I last posted, I skyped my parents for the first time in a couple weeks and was especially excited to hear that my dad has applied for student teaching in the fall! All my friends here know how proud I am of my dad being in grad school to become a special ed teacher so that was probably the highlight of talking to my parents. So strange being away from home and not knowing these things.. I was late to Kapa Haka and got there literally dripping with sweat. It was raining too, and my raincoat does not breathe. After Kapa Haka I came home and made dinner; then Maddi came over and she, Andrew, Adi and I went to see Hangover 2! It's weird because when we got to the theater the movie was sold out so we had to wait for the next showing. The movie theaters assign seats here (because only the schmancy theaters do that back home), and strangely, this movie theater had about five rows in it. No wonder it was sold out. New Zealand is a country of only four million people, but still...

Friday I got up and went to class (huzzah!), came home and hung out until Maddi and Meagan came over - we were going to watch Never Say Never - but sadly, Maddi had forgotten to take the DVD out of her computer. :( Friday night was not the best. My friends left me for the majority of the night to bake me a cake (meaning Maddi was baking me a cake and everyone else was just hanging out). Even though it was an incredibly nice thing to do for me, I was still feeling ditched and rather upset.. But my friend Joe came over and we hung out and watched Glee for a bit. After Joe went home I watched some Grey's in my room while everyone was hanging out in my lounge. I went upstairs around 11:45pm and they sang me happy birthday at midnight, which was sweet. And then I rang in the first hour of being 20 in the bathroom, taking care of one of my friends who had had too much to drink. (It happens; I didn't mind taking care of her.) And then I slept for a solid eight hours. That sleep was awesome.

AND THEN I woke up around 11am on Saturday, May 28 (BIRTHDAY) to make breakfast. I made a delicious breakfast of french toast, bacon, and juice with some of my lovely friends. Then my flatmate Adi and I went to the French farmer's market where I bought some bananas, spinach, broccoli, pears, and mozzarella cheese. On the way back to PSV we stopped at the Chocolate Boutique, and Adi bought me an iced mocha for my birthday. I also got two truffles - chili chocolate and dark chocolate rum - which made it all the more wonderful.

When I got back to PSV my bedroom was covered in balloons! Some of the balloons even had some of my stuff in them - like my sunglasses, multivitamins, and poi - which was interesting to say the least. I didn't feel very well that afternoon (boo) so I sat on my balcony and wrote in my journal for a good part of the afternoon to get some fresh air and clear my head.

A few of us met early to go out to dinner for my birthday so we walked down Parnell Road and decided on La Porchetta - which I think is like New Zealand's version of Olive Garden. Only the sign is really tacky-looking, unlike Olive Garden. I got some peppermint tea (to help my stomach) and a mushroom pasta dish. I was pleased with my food and it was nice to go out to eat with some of my friends. My IH friends had their residence hall "Christmas dinner" that night, so they left to go to that about halfway through dinner. It was nice of them to walk all the way to Parnell to eat appetizers with me though! Anyway. When I got back to my flat I hung out with some people in PSV and taped up the balloons that had been in my room randomly around my lounge with Joe - who was the first person to arrive in PSV for my masquerade party that was only sort of masquerade.

Eventually, more people showed up and I got to parade around in my mask with a feather and pink fuzzy crown. We hung out and ate homemade apple crumble (that Rob made) and homemade ice cream birthday cake (that Maddi had made me). I even got a few gifts, which were entirely unexpected but very sweet and I will treasure them (besides the chocolate, which I will eat) always. Aww. And then (drumroll please) we actually made it town! It ended up being only four of us (Nicole, Maddi, Caitlyn & I) but we met up with a few other IES people in town. I also discovered that the McDonalds on Queen Street has a bouncer and does not appreciate it when "happy birthday" is being sung very loudly in the building at 12:30am. Can't believe we were almost kicked out of McDonalds.. but we left and went to one club and I got three free drinks from people I met at the bar (nothing sketchy, no worries) so that was exciting. I got home at about 4am, exhausted but happy and very pleased with the way my birthday ended up.

I woke up the latest I have in months the next day, Sunday. 2pm! I guess I did go to bed at 5am, but still. I can't really remember what I did on Sunday, actually. I think I started typing up this blog (and four days later I finish it) and watched videos on youtube all night and dutifully ignored any schoolwork that should have been done. Ah, well. And I went to Burger Fuel because I had a coupon I needed to use by Sunday. And got coffee. It was outrageous. That was also the night that I couldn't sleep for the life of me and ended up falling asleep around 7am, it was so miserable, though I did do some research on traveling. But I will leave my birthday weekend at that and give you some pictures to look at!

yummy, breakfast.

French Farmer's market!

iced mocha at the chocolate boutique!

balloons allllllll over my floor

yeah, that's right. 2-0!

Nicole and I (I think this one is super cute even though it's blurry)

blowing our my birthday candles, taken by Caitlyn

an intensely decorated birthday cake, courtesy of Maddi

YAY

see? ice cream cake!
chocolate cake with hokey pokey (a NZ classic flavor) ice cream

Maddi and I in our masks.