Rainy Day

So it is quite a rainy day today, but it seems that no matter how the weather is, Kaikoura remains beautiful. The frost on the windows makes me want to drink a cup of tea, snuggle up on a couch and just draw a picture. I would totally do that but I can't determine what kind of picture I would draw. We'll see what happens in time. Last night we had a "Community Wreath" activity, which was an arts and crafts time that allowed us to learn a little more about ourselves and each other. We searched through magazines and cut out colorful pieces of paper to construct an ornament that represents us. It was very interesting seeing and hearing the creation which each person made. I really love this group. Each person has something different to give to the group; it's beautiful just to hear each person speak of things they've learned in life and to in turn learn from them. The walk into town is quite long in comparison to anywhere I've walked in Huntington, minus the time I decided to backpack through Orange County, but the walk has been such a blessing. It is always filled with great conversation and laughter. I know God is going to use that time to really bless me and teach me a lot. Plus, we get to look at and pet the cute farm animals along the way :) 

Tomorrow I get to go on our student trip adventure for 3 days. I think all of us are going to Christchurch for a little city time. I can't wait to take a day to look cute. We've all been slummin it lately. It will be fun. Gardens. City. Adventure. Well anyways, I must go to Marcel's birthday party now! Cheers!

I got attacked by a sheep

So basically I wrote an entry earlier and then went to post it, and usually I save it before but for some reason this ONE time i didn't, and the internet went out. Great. So earlier I definitely got charged by the sheep in the back yard. I went to go visit Kokopai and he came over to me and was really sweet and let me pet him for like 5 min then all of a sudden he backed up and charged me. I FREAKED OUT. But I was too scared to run so I just walked away slowly and then he charged me again and then I kept walking and it just kept charging me- SUPER SCARY and reallly hard to stand up cuz this sheep is huge. When I got like 5 feet away from the fence I just booked it as fast as I could cuz i was scared. Never playing with that sheep again. HA! Oh, a day in the life of a New Zealander... 

New Zealand comes to life

So here are some pics of my life so far....they're sort of out of order, sorry this internet here is wacky. But i hope you enjoy them!

This is a lamb that is a day old. So fuzzy!!

Harry, the week old lamb
The really cool cars in our front yard! I so love them! And that's our house in the background
The house [convent] gets really creepy when it rains, or in the dark, all 20 of us girls get scared, with only 4 guys to make us not scared hahahaha good times. 

This is the mini pony down the street. His name is Pony Pony...I LOVEEEE him! You will def see other pics of him cuz i took like 70 of him the other day!

These are my friends, Juliette and Laura. We're the champion team cuz we always are late to things together cuz we stay it town for too long hahaha. OH, and yes, i got that scarf from the dump :) love that place. We're a little dressed up here for the open house when the neighbors came over.
Watching Sister Act 2!
I got to feed the 1 week old lamb, Harry. So cute
Gretchen and I sporting our 80's dump clothes. Love it!

They have fuzzy cows here

Kaikoura weather changes like literally on the hour

Our house, the old convent
The placenta of a lamb we saw while we were walking down the street right after it was born. Super bubbly and gooey

The bus I fell in love with! Turns out the worship leader at church owns it :)

It makes me feel at home.
We like to teeter totter....

This is my window where I look out, you can usually see the Alps but it's raining so clouds are covering them, but I thought it was pretty with the rain dripping down the windows

The peninsula...

Here's the plane we took off on to go to the south island...this is morning, like 5 am, in Auckland.

This is our lovely town...the southern alps in the background! If you look closely there's a little orange old bug in the right corner too ;)

The Kaikoura peninsula

they recycle EVERYTHING here.
Kokopai, our pet sheep :) he lives in our backyard

HOPE YOU LIKED THE PICS! until next time.....

You eat the peel of a kiwi

Sooooo life in NZ is amazing. There are so many beautiful cultural things all over. Upon arriving in the airport, our leaders gave us fruit. I took a kiwi but just stared at it for a while because I didn't know how to open it- they didn't give me a knife. I asked how i was supposed to eat it and they responded, "Oh you just eat it like an apple, peel and all." I can't believe I've never done that. I have been deprived. It is so good. There are gold kiwis and green kiwis. I love eating them every single meal. Yesterday I was late coming home and I accidentally missed lunch so I grabbed a couple kiwis on my way out to the peninsula [which they call PeninCHula] and ate them for lunch. 

Something else I totally love about the Kiwis [people, that is] is their terminology. They say 'yeah' alot, like how we say umm or just any type of interjections. I try to imitate them but I always sound just really ghetto, cuz it's kinda a yeuhh and it sounds ghetto coming out of my mouth. I'll get it eventually. We had an open house last night and alllll the neighbors came over and I was hangin out with these 12 year olds and they were teaching me their lingo: "Never say garbage, it's rubbish. Dinner is called tea or kai. Bathroom is toilet or nunpoo [or something like that that really threw me off]." They are hilarious. Oh and saying 'what' is super rude here. We have to say 'pardon'. It's really hard to do that. The kids stared at my teeth for a really long time hahahaha and wondered why they were so white. I told them I don't know. I don't know what they'd think about Crest White Strips. ;) 

Something really exciting, i'm listening to Salmonella Dub right now, a local NZ band:     http://www.myspace.com/officialsalmonelladub

I have their music on my comp now. They're coming to Kaikoura in the near future and we're hoping to dress up and go to their concert. Town is not too far away but it takes about an hour to walk there, then an hour back. It's lovely though [lovely is a HUGE word here in NZ]. There are lambs being born along the road, the gorgeous alps to look at and then my fav, a mini horse at the end of the road. I call him Pony Pony and he always runs toward me. He is very privileged to have that name since EVERY single other animal here is called Ricky Tito in honor of my puppy at home. I miss him!!!

I wore makeup last night for the first time in a very long time for the open house. I felt civilized and it was nice. Today I'm back to slummin it. I am wearing clothes from the dump, which are amazing by the way. I love the dump. I has such good finds. OH MY GOSH. And ok, so remember the bus I talked about in the last blog? So I found out who the owner was- the worship leader at church. He and his wife have the double cab along with another bug the same pretty blue color. I haven't exactly met them yet but I for sure will when I get back from Samoa. I leave on an adventure for 3 days next weekend and then immediately after go to Samoa for a couple weeks. 

Since we live in a convent we watched Sister Act 2 last night. Very appropriate. We went exploring the peninsula yesterday, watched the seals, and hung out with Ranger Paul, who happens to be extremely good looking for his age. ALL of us girls became incredibly excited when we found out that he has a son our age. We really hope to meet him real soon. There was an 80's party at the bar nearby up the road the other night and we were gonna go since the locals said it would be a good occasion to meet the people our age who live here. All of us girls were so excited to go but then dinner took 3 hours since it was the night we were having a traditional 5 course Kiwi dinner. We missed the 80's party. Very sad. We hope another one will come along soon. 

I got socks made out of opossum fur and I'm now incredibly warm all the time. I didn't even know that you could make stuff out of that, but apparently you can. It is so cold here, it's necessary. I am thinking of drawing a picture real soon since it's gorgeous. I'll just sit in my giant backyard and look at the Alps and draw. Lovely. I think by the end of this trip I'm gonna start talking like a Kiwi since it's already happening hahaha. This rest of the week is orientation still, lots of meetings, and then next week school officially starts, which is funny because school is just ending here since summer is approaching. We are going to go shear sheep in a wee bit. [oh they say 'wee' for a little and 'heaps' for a lot]. Yesterday instead of going to church we participated in 'Beautify NZ Day' and we cleaned up any trash along the beach. There isn't much compared to at home. Well anyways, I must go shear some sheep! I love you all!!!!