Home!

Here's where I started crying:


Man. I can't believe I'm home. I'm ready for it but it's overwhelming. I don't know what to do with myself. Like, where do I even start???

I bawled my little head off when Kathy picked me up from the airport. It was just seeing a familiar face and that feeling of home right away. The life I left 6 months ago no longer exists. It's so strange. I'm teetering between complete terror and absolute excitement. I have no job, no apartment, no partner... everything is different. I keep telling myself that it's all going to be okay and that things will fall into place for me. Adrienne has made it her personal mission to find me a place (so sweet!) and has already found me a house to watch for a couple of weeks. It's nice to know I don't need a place until July. Save some money!

So, it's my first day back. I woke to this:

Kathy's girlfriend, Heather, made me a pot of coffee this morning. I guess this is how Kathy lives now, with Heather bringing her coffee in bed, taking out the animals (there are 4 dogs here currently), and bringing her laptop to her so she can wake up slowly perusing the internet. I certainly never did that shit. (SCORE Kathy!) I am happy to be the lucky recipient of overflow!

After crawling into the garage that housed my car for 6 months (the door is broken, so Kathy had to go in through the window), my baby started up right away! I was fearing the worst- jumper cables, flat tires, rats in the engine... So now I just have to get my tabs renewed and I'm off for a haircut (CAN'T WAIT!) and some apartment hunting. I look forward to a lunch from Seattle Deli (holla!) and seeing what, if anything, has changed about my favorite city while I've been gone.

I'm home. Crazy business!

The End Is Near...

Wow. How long has it been now? Days just run together and weekends don't mean anything. I know it's Wednesday because we're being picked up from our WWOOF sites and rejoining the group today. Otherwise, I'd have no clue. I'd better get back into the swing of things, though, considering I only have TEN DAYS LEFT of this journey before getting back to the real world. I decided to not go to Australia because I really didn't want to book-end this trip with so much alone time. It's been 24/7 with other folks and I need to hang with some buddies. So, I'm making a pit stop in San Francisco to hang out with Michael for a week or so before heading back to Seattle. It's his birthday so it's perfect! I leave on the 5th from Auckland where I'll enjoy a flight with Natalie, Hannah and Monica to SF. Baby steps to independence!

So from here we head to Dunedin. The next ten days will be spent working on our final projects. We have one paper on a theme that struck us throughout our ethnographic research (mine will be on the power of words) and a final presentation on our research question (mine is "New Zealand" as a commodity. But until then... what have I been up to this last week plus???

Abel Tasman was pretty magical. We had a couple of days free from assignments or class (which was a nice treat!) so we just enjoyed the park. It's gorgeous. All jungley and oceany. You'll see the pictures. We had a group party night, called "Disco Galactica", that was pretty fun. Everybody dressed up in silver and did crazy hair bits and I made a special dance mix that all of four of us danced to. (But it was the BEST four of us!) Carissa took the bag out of her boxed wine and wore it (it was silver!) and people did wine-bag stands, like keg stands. Monica and Rebecca grabbed some sharpies and started doing temporary tattoos, including a "Snoop" tat for Annie. We ate fajitas (a treat since there is ZERO Mexican food here) and boiled our asses off in the fireplace-heated room. It was a great night full of giggles.

All day Amber was complaining about missing snuggling with her boyfriend. Once her belly was full of wine she turned that complaining into a mission: a mission to snuggle with the only available boy, Wilson. She kept asking, "Where is that boy?!?!?" and poor Wilson, recovering from possible strep-throat and jacked up on codeine, woke the next day to the only proof that cuddles actually occurred. This photo:

The next day we drove to Westport (I think) and stopped off to see seals on the way. We stayed at a place called the "Tripp Inn" (haha) and I bought some tights to combat the cold. Those same tights were rendered useless the next day when they were bitten through by sand flies all through the knees. WTF? They bit through my tights!?!?! And while we're on the subject, we can talk about the umbrella I bought in Dunedin that turned inside out at the first gust of wind, then I promptly fell in a puddle while investigating the damage as my whole class looked on. I also slid onto my butt on our hike to the lake-on-an-island-on-a-lake-on-an-island and got mud all over my skirt and grass-surfed twice to the Elvis knee looking at penguins. (Yes! I saw penguins!) NOW my fellow travelers see how clumsy I really am.

On our way to Franz Joseph we stopped by the pancake rocks, so called because of their stacked nature, and enjoyed more unbelievable scenery. We got our first peek at the "Kiwi Experience", a twenty-something party bus, in Franz Joseph. For the first time we had to seriously battle for space in the kitchen of the backpacker. Making grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for our group of 17 was a nightmare.

For class we did the glacier tour and got to hike up this amazing chunk of ice. Our guide was bad-ass. For her lunch she pulled out of her bag: two oranges, a kiwi, an apple and a banana. I've never seen anybody eat like that. She also told us how she went into the military at 16 and had spent the last year living on the beach with her dog. She used a pickax to make steps for us in the ice and hacked at chunks to clear the way through crevices. When demonstrating how to put on our cramps, she deftly pulled those straps tight with one quick flick. Oh my. I had a total crush until she said she was TWENTY. Dear lord.

(Pearl, our guide, and the group)

Wanaka and Queenstown were polar opposites of each other. Wanaka was this gorgeous lakeside resort town with lots of lake-related activities. We went on an eco-tour with this crazy guide who reminded me of Robin Williams, minus the caffeine. Our hike led us to the top of an island in the middle of the lake. At the tip was another lake... A lake on an island on a lake on an island in the ocean. Queenstown is the adventure-capital of New Zealand. The town reminded me of Whistler. Obviously skiing is a big thing there. Some of us went bungee jumping (it started here) and all of us went on a jet boat over the Overshot river. It fun. Annie was telling us our itinerary for Queenstown: "...jet boating then we'll meet at the gondolas where' we'll take it to the top and have dinner overlooking Queenstown. Then we'll see one of the Maori cultural performances. They have a place up there where you can get drinks, too." I asked her if CHID was going to ask us to marry it afterward. What an agenda!

(Lake Wanaka)

(The lake on an island on a lake on an island...)

After Queenstown we went WWOOFing for the last time. I had the pleasure of staying in Palmerston with Allison and John, a young couple who had just moved from the city to the farm a year ago. They are still working on learning how to farm and freely admit they don't know what they are doing. They were lively conversationalists and avid readers of books to my taste. She even works at the local library! I loved these people. They had Scottish highland cattle (they look like cows with emo bangs), chickens, sheep and used to have pigs but they, um, made them dinner long ago. We ate beef tongue, lamb, smoked pork, and various dishes using all the veggies from their garden. I also learned how to make chutney! The time on farms is really inspiring me to cook more and try my hand at canning. I also got to plant beans and dig up carrots.

I asked them a burning question about Christmas, thinking it must be weird to have a winter holiday in the middle of summer. Indeed it is. Christmas songs don't make sense here with all of that "weather outside is frightful" stuff. And he said that Christmas dinner is about eating all the food that's going to rot over the winter, but in the summer it doesn't quite work. Pumpkins are around in the spring here, not in the fall, so Halloween is a bit awkward, too. John said it's weird to have Easter, which is about rebirth and renewal, in the middle of fall when everything is dying. Also, the time where the chickens lay the most eggs is in the fall and few in the spring but everything related to Easter (cakes requiring tons of eggs and Easter egg hunts) comes from a time where you're supposed to have an abundance.

Oh my! Does that bring us up to speed? By the time I finished this blog entry, I finished my paper as well. That was painful. Our last week here has all been about finalizing school stuff. Now I only have two more days until I leave. I can't believe it's all over! Now I'm starting to stress out about finding an apartment and a job back home. It's been nice to not have to worry about these things but now that reality is knocking on my door, I'm freaking! Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I find a cheap, awesome place in my same neighborhood. K?

We have final presentations tomorrow then a big farewell evening on Friday. We all fly out of Dunedin on Saturday morning, back up to Auckland then part ways. Some people are continuing their travels (Wilson goes to Vietnam and Liz to Australia), some are staying behind to be reunited with their honeys before showing them everything they've seen here (Amber and Annie), some are hanging out in Auckland, WWOOFing or simply heading home on different flights (the rest of us). I got my first bout of sadness when driving to penguins (oh, yeah! I forgot to tell the story about penguins! They were so cute and so close. I love them. I wanted one, of course. We all did.) and realized it was the last time I'd be driving through these rolling hills, spotting sheep and cows, watching clouds go by and seeing the sun's reflection off the ocean behind. I'm going to miss that. I'm trying to hold out on a complete tearful breakdown until the last night. Then I can blame the wine. For getting in my eye. I mean eyes.

A Few Of My Favorite Things...

I'm having problems getting pictures to show up in my blog, so until I fix that here's some simple text for you!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things:

Lots of great things happened in the van. We played Botticelli often (a guess-who-I'm-thinking-of kind of game). My favorite quote came from Annie, "Is this person a little bit limp?" (Nope. Not Raggedy Ann!) We also had crazy snack time where we'd make a stop for cookies and pass around our loot. Tim-tams and Chit-chats are the best but then I also loved "100's and 1000's" which are like iced animal cookies but in round shapes. Wine gums, coconut chocolate thingies, various ice cream bars... Mmmm. And then there's always Rebecca to offer raisins. Nobody ever wants raisins, Rebecca. Sorry.

Then there was the time that Dave filled the other van with regular gas, not diesel, and everybody had to get out and wait for it to get towed, drained and refilled. Oh, lordy. There were also lots of discussions regarding van politics. The blue van always wanted to switch up the rosters in the vans and red van always wanted to stay together. Annie was always trying to figure out ways to make things better and had asked us for our input. The fact that the red van was always ready to go on time and the blue van would by 10, 15 or 20 minutes behind was a particularly hot topic. Our suspicion is that it's because Dave is always the last to finish gathering his own things and doesn't push people to get moving. Akina suggests, "Hey Annie? Do you think... for future references... you could ask Dave to, like... switch his way of thinking?" Round of laughter. See? THERE was the problem.

More about Dave. He loved to say these phrases over and over and if I never hear them again I will be a happy camper: "Consensus means you can live with it!" "Does this speak to...?" "Does anybody have strong feelings about..." and "Oi" which is a cross between an "oy" and a "hi". We're making hm a "Consensus means I can live with this T-shirt" shirt before we go.

"NOPE. Doesn't exist." When playing Scattergories Carissa was particularly upset about a word I had denied so sought revenge on the next word I played under "Things With Tails". I said "nightingale" to which the normally quiet Carissa loudly replied "NOPE." and then insisted nightingales don't exist. Nor have tails.

"DJ HOONAW?" At a bar in Queenstown over "teapots" (which were drinks served in teapots... duh.) Liz inquires about the DJ spinning that night, "DJ Who Now?" but in a thick ghetto drawl so it comes out DJ Hoonaw? I immediately say I want a t-shirt with this on it.

"What the fuuuuck?" Akina has the sweetest high-pitched, whiney girly voice and she loves this phrase. Especially funny was when we were on our way to see hooker seals and sea lions and she says, "What the fuuuuuck? I just want to see some fucking peeeeeenguiiiiiiins!"

"You got two friends, I got two friends." In Paihia Alice met some guy who was going to sell her some weed. She had to meet them at their truck and grabbed me and Carissa on her way as back-up. Alice, so sweet and giggly and innocent, adopts her best tough-girl voice and says to the guy, "What? You got two friends, I got two friends." with a little shrug and swagger.

The Camelpak. Katie has been lugging around this Camelpak (water bag in a backpack with a hose and mouthpiece so you can drink while you hike) all through our time here. She's taken it to every tourist spot, event, lecture, whatever for the last two months and I am so sick of seeing that fucking backpack and that fucking mouthpiece with it's annoying slurping sound wherever we go. It's been a point of discussion for some of us. She took it to parliament! How thirsty are you????? The night before hiking the Franz Joseph glacier, Katie raises her hand and asks if it would be acceptable to bring her Camelpak. Hiking. Up a glacier. Why she decided to ask THIS time instead of before any other place we've gone, I'll never know. Liz squawks, we all start stifling giggles, Carissa starts crying from laughing so hard and Amber tries to cover it up by saying she has the "sleepy ha-ha's". I die.

Amber tells a story from her last WWOOFing site: "So I'm woken up by this bright light in my face. It's Alice with her headlamp on. I'm like, oh crap, was I snoring or farting or something in my sleep?? Then I'm so out of it I mumble something and turn over and get the full story the next day. Alice heard something in the night and turned her lamp on to see what it was. It was a mouse eating crumbs off Wilson's chest while he slept."

Wilson, peeing. He has the world's smallest bladder and has no problems peeing wherever there's a patch of grass. Amber and I were outside of the backpacker in Nelson and he comes running outside and stands on the lawn, whips it out, sways from side to side to get the full range of ground coverage, puts his head down, grunts satisfactorily and then runs back inside to finish his drinking game. Please not there was an actual bathroom inside the backpacker. He has no problems continuing a conversation while he steps to the other side of the fence, or rocks or car or..., while he does his business.

And one of my least favorite things? The hills! There are insane hills wherever we go and we always manage to stay in a backpacker at the very top of the steepest one. This is particularly painful when we've just had big dinners with lots of drinks and then have to lug our full bellies up, sweating and panting the whole way, to our beds.

The South Island

Greetings from the South island, the most magical place in the world! Maybe it's because it's autumn here and everything is the most lovely shade of lovely it could be, but I'm totally enamored. It's mountainous and beachy and green and orange and red and sunny and there are horses and sheep and cute little birds everywhere. I'm currently in Abel Tasman national park and we'll be here for 5 days. We just finished a 5 day stint WWOOFing and, let me tell you, it was awesome.

On the three-hour ferry crossing to the South island I took a chance and called the WWOOF site I originally wanted, instead of the fourth-choice-out-of-six site that I got (weed-whacking for 5 days? nothankyou). The guy who answered, Willie, was fine with me being the fifth person on the site. I got to stay with some of my favorite peeps on this site, too: Liz, Amber, Carissa and Alice. So happy!
(The guy who these pups belong to looked like a total biker dude...)

We stayed in Nelson for a couple of nights to have class and load up on rations. I found it hilarious that our two-hour venture into town turned into a hunt for wine and liquor for our WWOOFing time. I've drank more here in one month than I have in the last three. It's such a social atmosphere, it's hard not to have every night turn into a drink-around-the-campfire kind of thing. Plus this region has some awesome wine. While I'm not normally a huge fan of white, I have had some of the best Sauvingon Blanc here. We had a big group dinner the last night and made hamburgers (haven't had a good one in a long time!) and I contributed broccoli blasted, from Black Bottle restaurant. Every day I'm here I get a little bit more excited about going home. I haven't really allowed myself to think about it much but moments like that (making that broccoli) bring back a flood of happy Seattle memories.

The WWOOF site was a little bit outside of town. It's a farm, sort of, with a nursery in the back. They have sheep (I thought I saw a llama and got really excited then got a strange look from our hosts who politely explained that was just a big sheep. I had glasses on and everything!) and chickens but mostly we worked in the nursery. Willie is a super chill, mid 30's dude and greeted us with a fedora on. He looked like he belonged in some hipster band. Liz was instantly in love. Later I mentioned the band thing and that I couldn't think of what the band would be... Squirrel Nut Zippers? and she suggested "Sexy Bastards" because he's so hot. He also was the best cook. I ate goose for the first time! And home made pate! He made goose fried rice for our first dinner with a purple peach cobbler. We had spaghetti with beef from his cow, goose-ball burritos, lamb with homemade chutney, chocolate "pudding" (every dessert here is a pudding and this thing was not a cake but not a pudding... somewhere in between. Wherever heaven is.), pumpkin and barley soup... Oh man. I ate so well. And everything is from their garden or his dad's garden down the street. Unbelievable. Later we found out he and his wife, Rewa, used to run a B&B at this farm. Then the gourmet cooking and their hospitality made total sense.

They have three kids, Hazel is 6, Rosa is 4 and Nikau just turned 1. Every day Rosa came to "help" us in the nursery while Hazel was at school. At night it was story or play time. Every meal was with the family and both Willie and Rewa are super clever and smart and had a lot to say about our little school adventure. Willie is a geneticist and has built double helices around trees in the garden. There are also double helix sculptures everywhere. They also run a small movie theater in town and we got to see "Boy" on our way to Abel Tasman. (The whole class went... we filled the place. It's such a good, sweet, sad, funny movie. See it! If nothing else, for the Thriller Haka at the end and Michael Jackson references throughout. So fun!)

(Rosa, playing Doctor for us)

In my 5 days there I rolled giant logs around and re-planted a butt-load of native plants. I saw creepy alien-looking cicada grubs and touched more spiders (by accident) than I care to talk about. I also received some of the itchiest sand fly bites ever. I look like I have the chicken pox with all of my little red bumps. (Thank God I unknowingly stole Gwenn's hydrocortisone! It's been a lifesaver.) We slept in bunk beds and had snack time in our "lounge" (a couch between two beds) every day after work. Have I mentioned Tim-Tams before? They're this delicious little sandwich cookie covered in chocolate. They have all sorts of flavors and everybody here is addicted. Tim-Tams and peanut butter is the bomb. We also enjoyed scotch (from our city provisions) and tea and shared our bounty with our hosts every evening. They had some sort films from a festival they ran a while back so we got to see some local shorts, too. There was a lovely one about magical milk followed by a super creepy one about a witch who eats babies. Rewa said the NZ has a reputation for being a bit dark when it comes to films.

(Alice, Carissa, Liz, Amber, Me, Rewa and Willie with Hazel and Rosa)

Saying goodbye to our hosts and joining the larger group was a bit traumatic. We went from this total serene, slow, lovely life to chaos and noise and schedules and Dave's awful wrong-side-of-the-road, vomit-inducing driving. I think all of us wanted to cry. (Some of us actually did.) Willie and Rewa asked us to come back to stay and I think Amber is going to try to WWOOF there for a couple of months after she graduates. I'd love to go back too. In exchange for some time working you can enjoy these fantastic meals and feel like part of this family... it's pretty amazing.
OH! And I had my highest Scrabble score EVER. 391 to 176. Yeah, that's right. Carissa said she's never playing Scrabble again. Hazel kept score for us and kept saying things like, "I've looked through aaaaallll the other papers and there are no scores more than 200!" Pretty sweet game twat moment for me!!!!!

So now we're at Abel Tasman. We have class again tomorrow then we drive 6 hours the next day to Westport to see some glaciers. And hopefully penguins! Today I went for a horseback ride in the bush and on the beach. It was my first time paying for anything major on this trip. I've been fortunate that most of the things on this trip have been paid for, except my food and booze.

And now I'm off to warm up by the fire and enjoy some soup. Everybody is back from their various activities on our day off and I'm eager to hear about the adventures. Some folks went for a two day hike and stayed at huts along the way.

Tata for now!

Wellington

Greetings from Wellington! This post is in random order, but you'll get the gist!

Mr. Bear takes a ride courtesy of Wilson. I should expain about Mr. Bear. Annie got him from her mom a few years back when she was feeling low about being single when her sister was pregnant. Since then, Mr. Bear has seen her through good times and bad and is traveling with us here. He's become kind of a mascot and I've been reprimanded for making Mr. Bear drink too much and puke, hump Amber's leg affectionately, attempt to seduce fellow students and general naughtiness. He's just so pliable! And if you ask me, he was just waiting for an excuse.

Mr. Bear examines some of the music in the radio station.

The squid we made at the museum. Run free!

Annie and myself watching the 3-D movie about colossal squid.

Ug. Last night we had a meeting about our next WWOOFing sites. We're starting another 5 day stint outside of Nelson on the south island next week. None of the cool places (like wineries and sheep farms) are taking volunteers right now so we are stuck at farms that either collect manure, want us to weed-whack or build fences. NOT the experience I wanted to have. We'll see how that goes. I'm really being driven nuts by one of our facillitators who is so easy-going that he's not directive in these meetings so they last two hours. And I didn't get my first pick, second, third but my fourth pick out of six sites. I'm not a happy camper. (I'm going to the weed whacking place unless I can get onto another site that has animals... we'll see.)

Otherwise! My time in Wellington has been great. It's really windy here all the time. Like, building-shaking, door-slamming kind of wind. It's super hilly and rainy, too. I feel right at home. The other night the girls and I went out on the town. We went to a 60's dance night which was a bit of a bust (but we had fun) and then found a super cool bar called the Mighty Mighty. We have 4 weeks of being in the country ahead of us so we're all itching to have some nightlife time before then. Last night the old lady crew stayed in while all the young kids went club hopping. We had too much fun the night before.

Hannah, Amber and me, comparing wrist veins. Hannah's make a "H". Mine are just a mess of blue.
Liz's graceful entrance through our balcony window.

Liz works it!
Amber making me laugh so hard I hit my head on the table. She said she was super horny and the smell of bacon wafting through the bar made her even hornier. Then she said maybe she should shove some bacon in her panties so "then someone might want to eat it".

Yeah, But What Are You LEARNING?

Ok, so I'm doing all of this amazing traveling, getting to meet new people and share these awesome experiences with the (mostly) nicest group of folks I could hope to live with 24/7... but what I'm I learning, you might ask?

We have a lot of readings, guest lecturers and journals to keep of our activities. This week we met with someone from the World Wildlife Federation on the impact of tourism and climate change on the environment and creatures here, the Department of Labor about immigration and seasonal worker policies, took a tour of Parliament and learned about policy administration, met with two professors from the University about ethnographical research of the Maori and ethics in studying indigenous tribes and learned about the changing landscape of New Zealand based on farming and industrialization. How's that for a start? Our WWOOFing (which is working on organic farms in exchange for room and board, btw) experience ties into our ethnographical research, too. We keep two journals during this trip- one for our field notes (jottings about everything we see and do) and one for reflections on our readings. Everybody in this class has a different focus and interest. It makes for some great conversation...

Here's a little sample of what I wrote during part of my WWOOFing time:

"4/23:

Slept in a converted rail car last night. Awesome hippie place. The car is rusty red, set in the woods about 100 yards from the main house. It has signs in it indicating what you should and shouldn't do (turn lights off when you leave, don't leave the gas on)... they get lots of guests here. There's a giant beast of a wood stove that's hard to get going. Katie woke us in the middle of the night, dropping wood and clanging about trying to get it restarted. Slept really well, though. I love cold rooms.

First day of work today. Jo says everyone has their own circadian rhythm and to wake and work when we want to. Breakfast is in the main house. Jo has cupboards full of WWOOFer food. We can feed ourselves in between the awesome meals she makes. I have muesli and milk, instant coffee and sit outside with Hannah to eat and marvel at our surroundings. I keep having moments where I think about this experience and try to relate it to my research question or this course but it's impacting so much of how I feel about my life in general. I feel so grateful to be here. I'm so happy in this environment. I am living without fear or concern. I feel so safe here. Even in this strange hippie house. Living in Eugene for so long and being exposed to ferrets on hemp leashes, patchouli, recycled everything, beer in mason jars, dreadlocks and pot everywhere has made me weary of anything hippie. And here we are living in it. I'm out of my comfort zone yet so comfortable. I feel so at peace. I think about other WWOOFers and the NZ travel experience. How do they feel about traveling this way? You'd have to have a lot of time to do this and still see the rest of NZ. You'd have to be a several month kind of vacationer. But what an experience! Being out here, though, would make it hard to do anything but exist here. Good for hikers, campers or those who want to explore just being. Or just being in the New Plymouth area. Also, what is it about being in nature that makes me so introspective???

I think about the idea of what we NEED versus what we WANT. This place is a mish mash of other people's castaways. Trinkets dot every corner. But they make it all work. There's an old card catalog in the kitchen for odd tools or bits of things and each shelf is labeled something clever like "Wubberbands" or "Punches, Kicks and Cold Shoulders" or "Pointy Bits and Things To Sharpen 'Em Wiff". So clever! Thinking about the quality of life out here and standards. Back home this kind of place might seem trashy or "poor" but they have this million dollar view, fresh water, fresh air and it's so quiet and peaceful. Surely these elements speak to a greater quality of life. Or maybe it's a trade off for the culture you get in urban areas..."

And that was just up to breakfast that day! So, you get a little bit of what I'm doing. Kind of. All of this research and learning and exploring will result in a final project on the "New Zealand Experience". My research is geared toward this experience as a commodity in New Zealand. You can pay to do all sorts of extreme sports here. There's bungee jumping, sky diving, rolling down a hill in a giant hamster wheel... It's crazy.

Obviously I'm loving my time here. I highly recommend NZ as a travel destination. The people are so friendly. And it's gorgeous!

WWOOFing, Part 1

Thursday:

Today we got up early for a five-hour drive to our WWOOF sites. It's a sad day as the Old Lady Crew is going to be seperated. This is such a funny experience. I'm sure this is what it's like for kids at camp. Two weeks ago I didn't even know any of these people and now I'm stressed about spending 5 days away from my buddies! I'll have a few folks I'm familiar with to keep me company, though. It will allllllll be okay.

The drive was fun because Dave got lost (even though he says he didn't...) so we stopped a lot, played Boticceli (new favorite car game!) and enjoyed a new 5-hour mix on my ipod. The goodbyes were surreal. We were just plopped into this hippie house and told we'd be picked up soon. "Why don't you all go off to the pool for a spa while you wait?" Don't mind if we do! So, my first hour of WWOOFing was spent in a hot tub. Awesomeness.

Dave decided to stay behind. I think he was sad to leave us too. It meant some tight quarters in the converted rail car we slept in. Oh, yeah, did I mention the converted rail car we slept in? Surreal!

Friday:

Day one of work! After a late breakfast we head over to the work site. We're going to be fixing up this house for use as a refuge for women who have been sexually abused or need a safe place. Pretty awesome. It's such a mish-mash. I love how they use everything they can to put this thing together. I'm guessing there are no building codes to worry about. The property is tucked into the woods (sorry, I'm supposed to say "bush" here) and is super quaint. Dave stayed to work today and head-butted us (gently) when leaving. (Is that custom?)

We work with Mateus, from Germany, and Doug, from NZ. They have both been here for a week, tearing down and rebuilding this place. Jo and her partner, Ben, are hosting us. Jo keeps us well fed. (Tonight we had coconut curry!) It occured to me the other day that she walks just like the "Keep on Truckin'" cartoon. We worked about 6 hours today, banking our time so we can get a free day. I was surprisingly exhausted at the end of the day and we all pooped out early. I even LOST at Scrabble, if you can believe it. Kay (another girl in this program but at a nearby site) kicked our butts. I'm actually a little worried she's too good for me. I'm not familiar with this feeling!!! (Hold me!)

I'm enjoying time with Hannah, Wilson and Rebecca. Wilson keeps singing "C'mon rude boy boy..." and spent most of the night trying to light his farts on fire for our enjoyment. At one point I noticed dark spots all over his shorts and thought he may have burned them but it was just deck stain. Sigh. He cracks me up.

Saturday:

Late start to the day (because we can) and enjoyed some museli and instant coffee while staring out into the mist over the valley. It's so quiet here. There's no way you can't be at peace in an environment like this. Jo talked to us about the Maoris a bit. Had we asked earlier we could have spent a day on the Marae nearby chopping potatoes. Darnit! She also entertained us with stories of drug smuggling in Indonesia in her 20's to fund her year of traveling in Asia. More surreal!


Did some more sanding, scraping, painting and general wandering around looking for tasks today. Last night it rained so the neon green window Hannah worked on had bled and needed to be repainted. I found bugs all over my lovely blue door so had to recoat that too. Jo brought us jelly beans. Mateus farted a lot. (What is it with boys and their farting??) There were giant red ants and bees everywhere. Tomorrow is a day off! I really need to do my ethnography. (Shakes finger at self.)

Sunday:

Got up at 4:30 for our ride into town. It's DARK that early. It's ANZAC Day, which is like Memorial Day except here they actually remember. There was a parade at dawn with speeches about the fallen and a 5 gun salute that scared the pee out of me. Now we're just hanging out in Jo's house. It's a mish-mash of everything. Kind of like if you lived in a thrift store. My hippie theory was confirmed when I found a copy of "How To Keep A Ferret" in the bathroom.

For now we're watching THE WORST MOVIE EVER ("Molly": She's magically cured of autism when her brother teaches her how to tie her shoes!) and enjoying some free, unlimited wifi. I'm playing catch up with emails, photos, blogging and, oh yeah, homework. Jo has a big pit bull (Mr. Pig, Mr. P or Dog, depending on who asks) who is curled up at Hannah's feet, snoring.

We're hoping to get rides back to the site by dark but Ben's clutch gave out as we pulled in. We'll see!

Bay of Islands

Made it to the Bay of Islands. Last night we stayed in a Marae, which is a Maori community house. We were invited to stay with a group of 30 Maori (I can't remember the tribe they're from). They were so welcoming and warm. The whole thing was surrounded by ritual- They had to invite us in and sing to us then we had to sing back (we sang "My Girl"). We had to walk with a guide and speeches were made, shoes were taken off, noses were touched... It was intense. I thought it would be some cheesy manufactured experience but really it was just hanging out with this huge family. They fed us (A LOT), taught us some Maori and how to make these cool flowers out of flax and then took most of us (the Old Lady Crew stayed behind... I've unintentionally been waking up at 6 am every day and it's starting to wear me down. LAME.) to a pub where the lucky few got an impromptu dance. I'm going to try to snag the video to share. Of course, the one time I stay in everybody has an AMAZING experience and made great friends with locals and got the Haka, which is the traditional Maori greeting/war dance/all purpose entertainment. It's the one with the shouting and tongue wagging.

There are so many little stories I'd love to share but I just don't even know where to start. Every day I laugh so hard with this group. Every day I see the most amazing scenery. Every day I feel so blessed to be here. I'll try to do some tidbits from each day...

Yesterday: We got up early to pack up our gear to leave Northland. Went to the Treaty of Waitangi grounds and had the worst tour guide (in my opinion). She kept doing this: "This is a tree used to build the boat behind us. Ok? Cool. Moving on. This is blah blah blah. Ok? Cool. Moving on.") Then she told us that there was no segregation between the Maoris and the Whites because she never got picked on in school for being white. Just for being rich. The whole group was swapping stares and we had a lot to talk about after. This is what we do. See some awesome site and then disect it for all the cultural nuances we can find. Everyone has a different interest in what we see. My research is going to be on the affordibility of the authentic "New Zealand Experience". My collection of brochures grows daily. Good thing I'm a hoarder anyway.

We drove from Paihia back to Auckland. The group is split into two vans and ours is the Estrogen Van. We have Annie driving, Carissa always in the front seat and then a rotating seat gang of me, Amber, Akina, Katie, Liz, Stacey and Rebecca. I'm DJ and stress every day about what to play that every body will like. I don't know why but I have this feeling of: If I play a song they hate then they're going to hate ME. (Of all the things to stress about!) Annie requested some Snoop, which is totally not what you'd expect from her. We giggle a lot in that car. We made a cookie stop and it was like a bake sale for about 20 minutes with cookies being passed up and down each row. Then we all crashed. I'm amazed at the cooperation and care in this group. If someone says they have a headache or a bug bite or are thirsty it's inevitible that a half a second will pass before at least three people offer their tylenol, hydrocortizone or water bottle. I've never experienced anything like it. My oblivious tendencies are seriously being challenged here. I'm trying really hard to keep up with the generosity. (This bunch is so sweet it's not too hard.)

I decided to pony up the $6 for laundry service at our hostel. You have no idea how much of a luxury it is to smell clean clothes. I nearly made out with the pile. It smelled SO GOOD. It's the little things, you know?

I think I'm about to lose my internet connection so will pick up with more in a bit. I need to find somewhere with more bandwidth so I can upload more pics, too.

Stay tuned!

Auckland

OH MY! New Zealand has been awesome so far. I can't believe it's only been a week. It's been super intense. I'm so glad I came with next to no expectations. I really hadn't spent much time thinking about what this trip would be like other than imagining the landscape. I've seen so much but then I've also only seen a tiny chunk of what we will see by the end of the trip. Because we're together 24/7, I've made some great connections. There's a few of us that form what we call The Old Lady Crew (in jest). It was Amber's birthday on Saturday and we all (the whole group of 18) decided to make dinner and hit the town.

(Amber, doing The Carlton)

We found a cute little bar in Auckland with a drag show. This wasn't like lame old Neighbors... it was like something out of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Costume changes and choreography. Amazing! Some of us went out dancing afterwards. First night on the town! I discovered Amber is a dorky dancer too and she kept breaking out the Carlton (from Fresh Prince of Bel Air (???)) and I kept dropping it like it was hot. (Guess you'd have to see that move to understand...)

(Most of the group before our big meal)

Today we have to pack up all of our stuff and move on. We're heading to Northland, which is the rural northern tip of the island. Here we get to see the oldest Kauri tree (2000 years!). When Kauri's reach about 50 meters in height, they start to grow out instead of up. I can't wait to see how fat this thing is. We also get to see the Bay of Islands, where there are 200 little islands sprinkled out in the bay. We also go to some treaty sites and have lots of readings and observations to do (in case you started thinking there's no work going on here). Friday we had a class where we analized Marx's use-value structure. And wherever we go Dave is always asking us not-so-subtle questions about our experiences and relating them to our readings. We just learned what WWOOFing sites we'll be on next week. I'm going to a farm with Wilson, Hannah and Rebecca to do some end-of-season cleaning. The work in itself might not be exciting but the owners are surfers and offer the chance to learn in our off-time. I'm psyched about that.



More later! Off to "work"...

New Zealand!

I have so much to share (from my last bit of Spain and all through London) but the internet here is charged by megabytes, instead of time, so picture-loading takes a lot of money. I know you are all curious about New Zealand and what's been going on so far, so I thought I'd start here and then work my way back when I can find unlimited internet. Ok? Ok!

First of all- What am I doing here? This is an intensive class through the Comparative History of Ideas program (CHID) exploring the marketing of tourism in New Zealand along with geographical and ethnographic gobbeldygook. We each have to narrow down a focus and create a final project based on that. Mine (I think) is going to be on the accessibility of "experience" based on class (or funds). There are 16 of us, plus our two facilitators, Dave and Annie. We're living and traveling as back-packers do... in hostels, homestays, WWOOF sites and the kindness of strangers. We'll be moving every 5 days or so, making our way down to the south island and everywhere in between.

Yesterday we got our first tour of Auckland. It's a lot like Washington but with more volcanoes and more sunshine. Although, NZ is famous for "four seasons in a day", so the sunshine is intermittent. Auckland is one of the two biggest cities in NZ, although you'd never know it. Maybe it's because we arrived over a holiday weekend, but it's been pretty quiet. I'm excited to get out into the country, actually.

We were guided around town by an instructor from the University, Joe, and his busses of doom. I guess Kiwis (the people) drive like maniacs. I have never been so tossed around! There were seriously a couple of times I though our van was going to roll. Everyone started pulling out their motion-sickness wristbands. I'm so glad that THIS was the one day I had a hangover. (I got a little silly with the girls in the hostel the night before. Bonding, you know. Amber reminded me about the friendly argument I got into about Paris's layout with the guy from Paris. Oh, dear!)

We visited black sandy beaches (volcanic sand) and forests that inspired Avatar's backdrop (the animators are from this area, or so I heard) and then hiked some dunes. The dune part was a highlight... While most of us got down them this way:

One girl, Carissa, decided to roll down, resulting in the most horrible/hilarious roll-smack sounds. There was a collective fear that she'd lose a limb, since her posessions were flying off at record speeds and then the final thud when she landed was painful for us all. She was ok though. We all got a good laugh about that for hours afterwards. She's a bit of a stoner, so everything is suuuuuuupppppeeeeeerrrrr chill for her and she's pretty unfased. Perhaps her body's response to pain isn't as fine-tuned as the rest of us.

(Carissa, the aftermath.)

(Classmates and Joe on our way to lunch)

(A big crater and a little Auckland.)

(Here you can see Dave and Annie (facing us but looking at Joe, our guide). You can also see Liz's hair, which is the best hair in the world.)

I really like everybody. Right now we're all in the honeymoon phase. Everybody loves everybody and is sooooo nice and there's lots of sharing and helpfulness. I'll check back in a month when our periods are all synched and we're at each other's throats. I can't wait. Actually, I should say that I am super excited about our group. There's one other girl who is in her 30's (thank GOD!) and I've connected with a couple of people. There is only one guy in our group, Wilson, and he's already been designated as our resident spider-killer and personal garbage disposal. Lots of great personalities so far. I really do think it's going to be great. I'm still in awe that I get to do this. I'm so glad I came!

We have class today at the University. The neighborhood we're in is a lot like Ballard. I'm chilling at a coffee shop, trying to wake up. This time difference is still getting to me. Most everybody else came from Seattle, so it's a 20-hour time difference for them. Coming from Europe, I'm somewhere in between. My body still wants to be asleep.

Anyway. I better be off! I'll post again soon.

An Ounce of Prevention...

What's that saying? Someone needs a refresher.





Greetings from my Hong Kong layover! So... I've been traveling since Christmas now and am on my 9th country to drop in on. I thought I knew the drill about customs and getting in, getting out, whatnot, since I've done it so much. Can you see where this is going? (No, this story doesn't end with me in a Chinese labor camp.)





I got to the airport last night nice and early and checked in for my 25 hour flight (or so) to Auckland. The lovely lady behind the counter asked me about my flight information OUT of New Zealand. I hadn't booked it yet because I a) didn't know where exactly I was flying back to and b) was waiting on my financial aid before purchasing the $1,200 one-way ticket back. She said I couldn't get into the country unless I had proof I was going to leave and said the only way I could fly is if I bought a ticket now.





Here's what happened next: Krista goes to the ticket counter and the guy says the cheapest flight he can get me is (you guessed it) $1,200. I say try the card even though I know I don't have quite that much in my checking. It doesn't work. I ask if I can fly out of NZ to another city, like Hong Kong, and he says because of customs I have to show I'm flying back to the states. I said that doesn't make sense... does NZ require that all of its visitors fly back home before traveling anywhere else??? All they should care about is that I leave, right? He says he doesn't make the rules and anyway a one-way to Hong Kong costs just as much as a flight home. He suggests pushing my flight out a week until my aid comes through. This means missing a week of class and trying to locate and meet up with my group that will be on the road somewhere in NZ. I start to cry. I see my next week disolve into a haze of lost money and lost class-time and headache.





I ask to talk to a manager or someone and he points me to another fellow. I go to him and say I don't understand why I can't just buy a one way to another city. He says I can, but I can't go to Australia because of customs issues equal to NZ and anywhere else is just as expensive as a flight home. I cry more. The nice lady who (almost) checked me in comes over. I feel like a fool but I'm tired and feel stupid that I didn't know this regulation. I looked into visa regulations and didn't see anything about this.





Anyway, long story short, and after about 15 minutes of back and forth with other departments and Krista trying to put herself back together, the very nice fellow said he'd issue me an Australian visa, even though he doesn't like to do that sort of thing, and I was able to buy a one-way to Sydney for $118. PHEW. My crisis solved by some very lovely folks at Air New Zealand. (Not as bad as my Kiel, Germany, breakdown. I think I'm getting better at this!)





And now I guess I'm going to Sydney after New Zealand. Anyone want to join me??? A lovely winter vacation in June? Anyone? It'll be raining in Seattle anyway, you know...

Cheerios!

Greetings from Jolly Old London! It's raining and cold here. I know: Shocker! They say it might even snow. How fun (not fun) would that be???

I have three days here before my flight to New Zealand. After completing the test from hell, a whirlwind tour of Spain this past week and some emotional highs and lows, I'm set to transition into the next phase of my adventure.

I know you're wondering: I passed my test. Not with flying colors, mind you, but I passed Spanish nonetheless. It was HARD! So hard! My Bitch Teacher From Hell told a few people during a break the week before that the test would be at 10am, even though class normally starts at 9. Our nice teacher said this might be a trap and that we should all come at 9 anyway. So after a weekend of study sessions with my fellow students and total brain fry, I show up at 8:30, hoping to study a bit more before the test, whatever time it might be. And what does Bitch Teacher From Hell do? Shows up at 9 saying, "Are you all ready? Where's the rest of the class? I never said 9. I don't know what you're talking about." Awful awful woman. It's like being in an abusive relationship. You never know where you stand and then she acts like YOU'RE the crazy one when she 'misremembers'. After I PASSED the LEVEL FOUR class, she suggested if I continue my studies in the states I should start at a level ONE. Why does she hate me so???
Anyway. I'm glad that's over and done with.

Gwenn came for a quick trip through Spain. She loved Granada way more than I ever did, then we drove up to Madrid for a couple of nights. The city was a blur (as it was when my boys came) but lively and fun. We then drove to the north of Spain and had NO IDEA what we were in for. Have you ever heard of Somo? Neither had I, but apparently it's where all beautiful scenery comes to live. Seascape with castles on the horizon? Check. Cows meandering in pastures? Check. Picturesque little stone B&B with overly-helpful, grey-bearded Spanish gentleman? Check. Mountains frosted with snow as far as the eye can see? Check. Green rolling fields and RAINBOWS, ferchristssake???? Check!! (Pics to follow.)

Somo is near Santander (an hour west of Bilbao). I kind of picked the place thinking it would be a launching pad for drives to other towns but I could have happily stayed there for an entire week. They have a zoo that's not really a zoo... AMAZING. We wore out the word "beautiful" while driving through. It's an old mining area they turned into a zoo/refuge for animals. They had the most expansive, natural enclosures I've ever seen. I saw an Osterich! Up close! It's head reminded me of little Tivatoodles. That black, glossy, expressionless eyeball staring back at you... They also had the usual assortment of animals. But seriously, this place was not like anything you're imagining. It's so much better. Make plans to go now. K? Now I know what all the fuss about the North was about. We also had the best fish there. It's called Munkfish in the states, but they call it "Rape", which I found much more amusing. Buttery and flakey and... oh, sorry, I'm drooling on my keyboard.

Sigh. Big, fat, full bellied sigh.

So here I am in cold, grey London. Last night I wandered for a bit then saw the 3D version of Alice in Wonderland. I know, I go to London and WATCH A MOVIE? You don't understand, though! After two months of Spanish, Spainish, Spainish and ZERO pop culture I was dying to be connected to Hollywood in some way. Today I wander more (Tower of London, I think...) and then do the Jack the Ripper tour! Then I'm going for Indian food. So excited!

Oh, and on a side-note: My night in the hostel here was a night from HELL. Only I could luck out with the spot BELOW and NEXT TWO the loudest snorers here. Earplugs, sweatshirt over head.. still could feel the rumbling in my bunk. I'm trying to work through it and toughen my eardrums up a bit. After all, I'll have two months of this coming up. Ug. How I long for my old bedroom where my only annoyances were the pattering of cat feet running up and down the halls...

More soon! Just wanted to let you all know I was alive!

Granada!

I went and saw some cats! Ok, no. So, I actually went and did some exploring around Granada. We have this big thing here called "Alhambra". I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's kind of a big deal. Something big like religion in Spain started here, I think. And Christopher Columbus got his marching orders from within these walls. There's a lot more to it but silly me, I went to see it before doing ANY research. So what did I see?

Toursists. And lots of them.

Pretty things.

Lots of kids on school tours.

The most amazing views of Granada. (That, and lots of rain.)

Pretty little ponds with fishies in them.

Meticulously detailed bits of architecture. Sure wish I knew what this was all about! (Grumble grumble.)

Pretty things outside.

Hey! Did you see my new rain boots? And my matching rain-soaked upper half?

I also visited the Sacromonte area, which is our gypsy quarter. There are great views of Alhambra (on the left there somewhere) and the city below. I went with a group from my school. One of the professors gave a tour of the area, Sacromonte itself (which is a huge church/school/neighborhood kind of thing) and lots of historical antecdotes. Sacromonte is where the Semana Santa procession ends. Semana Santa is one of the things Andalucia (this part of the country) is famous for. Hundreds of people pour into the streets to hoist and carry a giant effigy of a religious figure on a 12 hour+ long procession through the city. This is also when you can see a bunch of people dressed like KKK members. (I think the KKK borrowed their outfits from this religious ceremony. Apparently this little detail makes for some terrified tourists when they unknowingly stumble across this fiesta.) We got to see the artifacts as they were preparing them for their big day. What a treat, since I won't be here to see it firsthand!

More Sacromonte. This part of Granada is where all the cave homes are. Yes, for less than $100 a night, you too can stay in a cave-house. Bring your own pelt.

We've had some blue skies and warm weather in Granada. What a lovely March surprise!

Right by the big cathedral in Granada. I enjoyed a fantastic schwarma sammy while soaking up some sun. I have 7 new freckles!

This is my school. Pretty nice, huh?

You'd never know that behind that window (the one smack in the middle) lives one of the meanest teachers ever. Yesterday she told me I never listen (NUNCA!) because I left an accent on one of my preterito indefinidos. Seriously. I'm so glad I only have two more days of class. I've decided to send a big fat complaint letter instead of the big fat middle finger I dream of sending. (After I get my final grade, of course.) I'm just so over being treated that way for no good reason. Let alone PAYING for it. We had a big study session today for our final on Monday and everybody was sharing their horror story about Nieves. Apparently she threatened the missionary with a lower grade if she kept speaking English during the breaks. (My fellow classmate was having a hard time finding the words in Spanish to explain she was so tired that day because her uncle had just died and she spent the night on the phone with her family.) At least I'm not alone in my misery.

Anyway. It's my last weekend in Granada! I can't believe two months has already gone by. It's never what you think it will be, but it's been great. I didn't do tapas every night or make a ton of Spanish friends but I did have a lot of time to just be here. I'm so excited about my week traveling through Spain before I head to New Zealand! The next chapter begins!