Weekend #2

The adventures have never ceased here... And I love it. At the end of each and every day I feel such an intense desire and longing for a few more hours to have a couple extra conversations with people, to see one extra neat thing in this fabulous place. But alas! All we get is 24 hours so better make the best of it! And so we have. The University had planned numerous different activities in the evenings for the first two weeks of class to give us plenty to do. We all discovered an amazing New Zealand band during this time from Alex's kiwi roommate Joel. They are called six60 and are totally amazing. I fell in love with them from the first song I heard. So of course we all immediately got tickets and headed to the concert five days later. It was on a Friday night, we took the metro bus downtown and walked for what seemed like an hour until we reached the tent where it was being held. A tent yep, but the setting did not take away from the music or the experience at all. One of the most fun concerts I had ever been too. We also met a couple sweet kiwis while waiting in line that happened to be in my biology classes. Again, I love this place. We still hang out with them :)

The night before the concert I had gone out on my own little adventure to pick up my cheap as rock climbing shoes that I had bought on trademe.co.nz which is kind of the equivalent to craig's list back home. The deals are great though, I got basically new climbing shoes for $40...which with the exchange rate is even better! Ha. But the trip going to get them was quite an experience... Hopped on the bus at Ilam thinking I knew where I was going to come upon the pleasant realization that I had no idea where I was... and it gets dark right around 6pm so I was in the dark. Jumped off the bus when the bus driver said I might be close to my final destination. Fortunately for me kiwis are amazingly kind and I harassed about ten to fifteen people asking for directions and after running in the freezing dark around god knows where New Zealand I finally found the house, collected my purchase and bought myself TimTams as a reward for not dying. And ate all of them immediately... (they are these amazing cookies for any of you that don't know)... The point of this story being that I had just showered prior to my leaving and after all the running around in the dark coldness I got sick the next day. Still went to the concert after downing a couple Vitamin C pills and ten gallons of tea. And then of course all of J-flat was also sick from doing way too much all week and not sleeping enough. But that didn't keep us from going to the concert or heading up to Hamner Springs the next day. Ilam apartments organized a free bus for us up north about two hours drive to a cute little town of Hamner where they have this little park of hot springs. Most people paid the $14 dollars to get in the springs but Zak, Brandon and I decided to save money and went exploring instead. Which was so worth it! The views were amazing.

And then we got lost... Story of being a bunch of stupid Americans running around the beautiful nature that is New Zealand. Then realized we had to make it back to our bus before it left without us... Ran down a muddy hill.... Cut through someone's yard... Eventually found the trail back and had an amazing time doing it all.

New Zealand in my dreams..

So I have officially been in Christchurch for three weeks now. I totally meant to keep up with this blog much more frequently but it's been so ridiculously difficult to find any free time here. AHHH... I love it here so much! I am so, so, so glad that I finally made my study abroad dreams become a reality. The past three weeks have been such a dream come true and even better than I could have imagined. I love absolutely every new person that I have met here. I have already managed to create this new, strange, completely foreign place into my new home. I feel so well acclimated, and like I have known all my new friends for years. Although Ilam Apartments where I live is quite packed with study abroad kids from the states and international students I have had a blast getting to know them all. Even the kids that come here to study abroad are so different from my friends back home. My eyes have been opened to the amount of people that love living outdoors, never just sitting on their butts for days at a time like I feel so many people I know back home do. Kids here are always out rock climbing, going skiing, tramping ( which is what they call backpacking here), and just generally wreaking havoc in nature. I love it so much. My flatmates are great, my neighbors are great, my classmates are great.. I am just elated to be here. And kiwis are the most fun, down to earth humans that you will ever meet. Not only are they absolutely kind and genuine to complete strangers but they take life as it comes, never worrying too much and always making sure to have a good time. And yes, they like to party, a lot.

As for weekend trips our first weekend here was spent discovering the surrounding area/beach. We took the metro bus to Sumner beach and just hiked around all day, eager to take in everything and anything we saw.

 Although it is winter here I find myself forgetting that quite often. As we hiked around the beach we were all in T-shirts just taking in the warm weather, and basically loving life and reminding ourselves that we really were finally in New Zealand.

I absolutely love the group of kids living in J-flat of Ilam that I have met here. We are all from the states, except Lisa who adds some culture to our group being from Germany but I love us anyway. I love the fact that even though we are from America I am still learning so much from these people. I have learned one thing for sure, life outside of Indiana is so much better, and cooler.... I was also so excited to find out that we have a pretty musical bunch, and especially our first week here we spent a lot of time playing guitar, singing, banging pots and pans as drums late into the night...

For lack of time and better choice of vocabulary, I totally love this place, and just pray that my time here doesn't fly by too fast..