It's been almost a month since my last post and I'm sorry to anyone who's foolishly still reading this.
Thursday will be my last day of class here in Dunedin. After that I will have my finals on the 8th and the 10th of November. That's right, a solid month after lectures ended.
Until then I'll be spending my time travelling around New Zealand. We're going to drive up the West coast this weekend into next week, stopping in various national parks to see the sights and do some things. A few friends want to skydive over the Franz Josef Glacier park, I'm sure that will be amazing. I haven't decided if I want to beg for money to do it. From the glacier we'll be driving up to Abel Tasman National Park, then coming down through Christchurch, effectively driving the perimeter of the entire South Island. This West Coast drive is famous for being ridiculously gorgeous and I'm super excited to be cruising through it. I'll have to make sure to bring my camera charger. I hope this memory card is big enough for everything I'll want to photograph.
After that I'll probably start my studying a little bit for the few days I'll be back in Dunedin. At some point towards the end of October we'll be heading back down to the Fiordland to hang out with a family that became close friends with one of my good friends. They offered to take us in for a little while and take us on some super cool adventures that rural kiwis do. Some of the things I remember mentioned are hunting and hiking. It sounds awesome. While we're down that way, a couple of us might try to make our way back to Queenstown and do the Nevis Bungee Jump. I'm not sure I'll like leaving New Zealand without doing it anymore.
In case I don't get on here and blog for awhile again, I'll outline for you lonely readers what the rest of my trip looks like.
After that time back in the Fiordland I'm trying to be back in Dunedin for at least a week before my first exam so that I can effectively cram a whole semester of two classes into my brain. After the liberation of completing finals I'll be immediately leaving for the North Island, where a friend and I will be cruising around looking at cool stuff. Most notably, the Waitomo Glow Worm caves and Mt Doom (from LOTR). Of course, there are also a bunch of other things we'll be checking out, since we'll be out for around a week.
Then once we're back, I'll have about a day to start getting my departure affairs sorted out before I'm off on another adventure to Australia. It'd be kind of silly to be in this part of the world without getting to that country. There we'll be driving from Brisbane to Sydney (which is only about a 10 hour drive, but we'll be taking our sweet time getting there). In Sydney, all four of us have tickets to the Stereosonic concert, which is a giant electronic musician show with some of the biggest names of the genre. I know it's going to be off the chain.
I get back from Aus on the 30th and I'll have just a few more days in Dunedin as I leave the country for reals on the 4th of December. I'll be flying out of Christchurch to Nadi, Fiji where I'll have a nice 5.5 hour layover. Just enough time to get some souvenirs so I can pretend I spent real time there. Then I'll be flying to Maui where I'll be spending some quality time with the grandparents. They're getting kinda old and I missed the family vacation to Maui this summer. Since it's on the way home, I figured I could stop there for a little while. I'm sure I'll be real tired from all the travelling and fun that I will have been having in that past month, so these old folks will be just my speed.
I'll be back in my favorite place in the world, Portland Oregon, on December 10th. I know it's not going to be as good as I remember it, because frankly the last time I saw the place it was sunny. And though when I think of Portland the faces of all the people I love come to mind, I know that I won't get to immediately see them when I arrive. The ones that really count will be there, no doubt, but the others will be off at school still. Maybe my parents were right in telling me to stay an extra month out here, not that I'm complaining I guess.
But before any of the cool stuff I mentioned can happen, I need to finish two lab reports. Just two, and there's nothing else. I guess I have some other minor stuff that needs to get finished, but for the most part, that's it. Wish me luck.
Hope October treats you all very well.
David
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
19 Sept
Sorry it's been a super long time since I've blogged anything.
Actually that's not true, my Willamette class just started last week so I've done two "blogs" through that recently, just none here.
I just got back from Milford Sound in the Fiordland national park. 8 of us went on this trip and we rented two small sedans to do it. We stayed one night in a hostel in the actual sound, then left the sound and camped the next night next to a river in the Fiordland. We made our own meals each day, and managed to see some super super cool stuff. Every day was an amazing adventure. Since it's currently the offseason, the place isn't very crowded so it felt like we had most the National Park to ourselves. It was pretty sweet. Milford Sound is probably one of the coolest places on earth.
The first day we got into the heart of the Fiordland (this place is actually pretty big, takes around an hour and a half maybe to drive from the Sound to the edge of the Fiordland) and did a hike up to a summit. At some point along the way we crossed the snow level and we found ourselves hiking through snow covered paths. There were no tracks to follow, as the snow was fresh and undisturbed, and no view at the top because the clouds were too thick.
That night we walked from our hostel (the only one near the Sound) right out to the edge of Milford Sound and stayed there until it got dark. It was a scary walk back, but it was totally worth it.
The second day we checked out the warm hostel (remember it's just turning to spring right now so things are still pretty chilly here, think mid-March) and went on a cruise through the Sound. The cruise took about 2.5 hours and took us all the way out to the mouth and you could see the vast ocean that Australia was hiding somewhere behind. During the cruise I had myself a little scare when I looked at the ingredients of a bar I had just eaten and noticed that I had somehow missed the fact that peanuts were an ingredient. Then I thought I was going to die. I informed my friends about it (but not of the possible severity of the reaction) and they sat with me for awhile to see how I progressed. After like 30 minutes nothing had happened yet and I started to think I was somehow in the clear. We got off the cruise and went to find lunch and still no reaction. Strangely enough, throughout the day I experienced no reaction at all except a slight tinge in my side for a few hours. I honestly have no interpretation for this and am still dumbfounded about the whole thing. But I'm very happy that I'm still alive.
We then did a hike that one of the girls with us said was super cool when she was last there, though it might be different because of the snow everywhere. Turns out we couldn't do much of the hike at all because the snow elevation was too low, and the walk out to the closed off area ended up being over feet and feet of snow on shrubs, making it actually pretty dangerous. Someone would be randomly falling through the snow every few seconds, and my foot even got stuck once and needed a couple people to help me get it out. Nobody sustained any serious injuries so it was alright. Since there was a lot of snow there we stayed for a while and had some snow fights and rolled some massive snow balls down the hill. We also got to watch more than a few avalanches roll down the mountains surrounding us.
Then we hit Lake Marian (I think that's what it was called) and sort of spontaneously went on a 3 hour hike. The trail wasn't really a trail and would go from super steep climbing-with-hands hills to jumping down from ledges to slopping through mud in a matter of minutes. We started to worry that we were cutting it close with time and everything since it would be dark in a couple hours. Not knowing exactly how much farther we had to go didn't help either. But we eventually got there and the view of the Lake was amazing. We had each shed probably 3 layers throughout the hike and at the lake shed another couple and one guy even took all his clothes off and took a dip into the lake. Sounded pretty cold. After resting there we headed out.
We camped next to a river that night. It was really cold. It warmed up though since we had 4 people in each tent laid like sardines and packed for warmth. Dinner that night was mostly cold.
We came back the next day. One the way we stopped at a place that makes some pretty well known meat pies. They were good. I also snuck into a public bathroom that charged a $1 entrance fee (right? what the hell is that?). It was a pretty good trip.
Here's some pictures of it. I haven't even put these on facebook yet. I'm excited to see what other people have.
Try not to be too jealous.
Love you guys,
David
Actually that's not true, my Willamette class just started last week so I've done two "blogs" through that recently, just none here.
I just got back from Milford Sound in the Fiordland national park. 8 of us went on this trip and we rented two small sedans to do it. We stayed one night in a hostel in the actual sound, then left the sound and camped the next night next to a river in the Fiordland. We made our own meals each day, and managed to see some super super cool stuff. Every day was an amazing adventure. Since it's currently the offseason, the place isn't very crowded so it felt like we had most the National Park to ourselves. It was pretty sweet. Milford Sound is probably one of the coolest places on earth.
The first day we got into the heart of the Fiordland (this place is actually pretty big, takes around an hour and a half maybe to drive from the Sound to the edge of the Fiordland) and did a hike up to a summit. At some point along the way we crossed the snow level and we found ourselves hiking through snow covered paths. There were no tracks to follow, as the snow was fresh and undisturbed, and no view at the top because the clouds were too thick.
That night we walked from our hostel (the only one near the Sound) right out to the edge of Milford Sound and stayed there until it got dark. It was a scary walk back, but it was totally worth it.
The second day we checked out the warm hostel (remember it's just turning to spring right now so things are still pretty chilly here, think mid-March) and went on a cruise through the Sound. The cruise took about 2.5 hours and took us all the way out to the mouth and you could see the vast ocean that Australia was hiding somewhere behind. During the cruise I had myself a little scare when I looked at the ingredients of a bar I had just eaten and noticed that I had somehow missed the fact that peanuts were an ingredient. Then I thought I was going to die. I informed my friends about it (but not of the possible severity of the reaction) and they sat with me for awhile to see how I progressed. After like 30 minutes nothing had happened yet and I started to think I was somehow in the clear. We got off the cruise and went to find lunch and still no reaction. Strangely enough, throughout the day I experienced no reaction at all except a slight tinge in my side for a few hours. I honestly have no interpretation for this and am still dumbfounded about the whole thing. But I'm very happy that I'm still alive.
We then did a hike that one of the girls with us said was super cool when she was last there, though it might be different because of the snow everywhere. Turns out we couldn't do much of the hike at all because the snow elevation was too low, and the walk out to the closed off area ended up being over feet and feet of snow on shrubs, making it actually pretty dangerous. Someone would be randomly falling through the snow every few seconds, and my foot even got stuck once and needed a couple people to help me get it out. Nobody sustained any serious injuries so it was alright. Since there was a lot of snow there we stayed for a while and had some snow fights and rolled some massive snow balls down the hill. We also got to watch more than a few avalanches roll down the mountains surrounding us.
Then we hit Lake Marian (I think that's what it was called) and sort of spontaneously went on a 3 hour hike. The trail wasn't really a trail and would go from super steep climbing-with-hands hills to jumping down from ledges to slopping through mud in a matter of minutes. We started to worry that we were cutting it close with time and everything since it would be dark in a couple hours. Not knowing exactly how much farther we had to go didn't help either. But we eventually got there and the view of the Lake was amazing. We had each shed probably 3 layers throughout the hike and at the lake shed another couple and one guy even took all his clothes off and took a dip into the lake. Sounded pretty cold. After resting there we headed out.
We camped next to a river that night. It was really cold. It warmed up though since we had 4 people in each tent laid like sardines and packed for warmth. Dinner that night was mostly cold.
We came back the next day. One the way we stopped at a place that makes some pretty well known meat pies. They were good. I also snuck into a public bathroom that charged a $1 entrance fee (right? what the hell is that?). It was a pretty good trip.
Here's some pictures of it. I haven't even put these on facebook yet. I'm excited to see what other people have.
Try not to be too jealous.
Love you guys,
David
Monday, September 5, 2011
6 Sept
WUT UP GUYS???
It's been a long time since I last posted here. I'm too lazy to look at the last post to see where I left off, so I'm gonna just go for it.
Just got back from Samoa on sunday night. It was a super crazy epic week. The only dark spot of the trip was that on the last day I had some pretty severe sunburns. Like they were bad enough that some sores opened up on my face and started oozing pus and shit. I think they also got infected. It's all good now though, I'm almost through my bout of antibiotics and my face is starting to look normal again (as close as it gets at least).
While hiding from the world and feeling like a leper, I think I got to the bottom of how this happened to me. I had been doing a real good job of putting tons of sunscreen on everyday, paying special care to my face, neck, shoulders and vitiligo spots, but for some reason I woke up friday morning really fucked up. My reasoning leads me to conclude that I was probably somewhat burnt on my face before the events of thursday, which caused the burn I got thursday to be that much more severe. But so on thursday, our crew went on this waterfall/river hike. We met up with a local guide and hiked upstream a river. Along the way we would encounter these amazing waterfalls, and if you know anything about stream morphology you know that waterfalls create deep pools where they land. Furthermore, if you're into it, you'll note that deep pools are save to jump into. That's exactly what we did. We hiked all the way up this river, stopping at every waterfall to jump off rocks into the water. The highest jump was somewhere around 50 feet (the guide was nice enough to do the conversion for us). It was probably the highlight of my week. The thing is, I think swimming in these pools and jumping off these waterfalls caused the sunscreen I had applied earlier to wash away/rinse off. Then the half hour hike in the sun back to our starting point and the two hours I spent in the sun later took heavy tolls on my face.
Couple this intense UV bombardment with the years and years of skin damaging steroid and cortisone treatment I've done to my skin, the end result, I believe, is a pretty gross face. On my journey home from Samoa, I wore a Vailima (the local Samoan beer) hat to cover my forehead, and sunglasses to cover my eyes. I got the name of a nice pharmacist in the Samoan capitol of Apia from the family we stayed with thursday night, and she gave me some antibiotics since my face really wasn't looking so good, and some cream that would help with the eczema as well as kill the bacteria in the area. Now, roughly 3 days after waking up to that terrible sight in the mirror, my face is almost back 100% and I have a new appreciation for my handsome appearance. ;)
Anyway, sorry to be a buzzkill with that. Mom, Dad, Kristi, if you're gonna worry about me you might as well stop now, because there's nothing you can do from there. It's all taken care of anyway.
Here's a picture of our crew in front a waterfall.
Other than that epic journey chasing waterfalls, most of my time in Samoa was spent on a beach. It is, after all, an island in the tropics. We stayed in a place called Taufua Beach Fales. The fale we slept in was literally feet from the water. The staff that ran the place was on giant extended family and they were super cool. At first they seem a bit cold, but once you start joking around with them and they realize that you have a sense of humor they're super fun to hang out with. I don't think any of the staff were younger than 35 either, so it was all one big party. They would drink with us, play games with us, by the end of our stay there, they were one of us. There were probably around 100 guests there at a time and every night everyone was on the resort deck, speakers blasting having a good time. We met some really cool people at Taufua.
One day, one of the Taufua staff named Tele, challenged us all to a game of rugby. There were about 12 American guys there at this point, so we all took on the 5 staff members who felt like playing. Now, if you know anything about Samoan guys you know they're huge. Long story short, they kicked our asses and everyone was sore the next day. I actually wasn't so sore, though I took some of the biggest hits from these brown buses, I think my Aikido training way back in the day taught me how to fall gracefully. This was the second most awesome thing I did in Samoa (the first obviously being the waterfalls). The Samoans wanted to play again the next day, but my friends all pussied out, citing sore bodies and cut up feet (from beach rocks and shells). I was down to play, but it would've been even worse if the same 5 Samoans showed up and we had half our force. I think I really like rugby a lot, I'm just not real good at it.
A few times at Taufua they had a Fiafia or firedance. Here's some pictures of that. I think this is Tele in the pictures.
I've got a math midterm due this week, and a philosophy essay due next week. I think there's also a couple lab reports I should turn in soon. It's gonna be a busy week, but I had a pretty relaxed on last week, so I can't complain too much.
Love you guys (if you're taking the time to read my ramblings, you deserve my appreciation).
David
It's been a long time since I last posted here. I'm too lazy to look at the last post to see where I left off, so I'm gonna just go for it.
Just got back from Samoa on sunday night. It was a super crazy epic week. The only dark spot of the trip was that on the last day I had some pretty severe sunburns. Like they were bad enough that some sores opened up on my face and started oozing pus and shit. I think they also got infected. It's all good now though, I'm almost through my bout of antibiotics and my face is starting to look normal again (as close as it gets at least).
While hiding from the world and feeling like a leper, I think I got to the bottom of how this happened to me. I had been doing a real good job of putting tons of sunscreen on everyday, paying special care to my face, neck, shoulders and vitiligo spots, but for some reason I woke up friday morning really fucked up. My reasoning leads me to conclude that I was probably somewhat burnt on my face before the events of thursday, which caused the burn I got thursday to be that much more severe. But so on thursday, our crew went on this waterfall/river hike. We met up with a local guide and hiked upstream a river. Along the way we would encounter these amazing waterfalls, and if you know anything about stream morphology you know that waterfalls create deep pools where they land. Furthermore, if you're into it, you'll note that deep pools are save to jump into. That's exactly what we did. We hiked all the way up this river, stopping at every waterfall to jump off rocks into the water. The highest jump was somewhere around 50 feet (the guide was nice enough to do the conversion for us). It was probably the highlight of my week. The thing is, I think swimming in these pools and jumping off these waterfalls caused the sunscreen I had applied earlier to wash away/rinse off. Then the half hour hike in the sun back to our starting point and the two hours I spent in the sun later took heavy tolls on my face.
Couple this intense UV bombardment with the years and years of skin damaging steroid and cortisone treatment I've done to my skin, the end result, I believe, is a pretty gross face. On my journey home from Samoa, I wore a Vailima (the local Samoan beer) hat to cover my forehead, and sunglasses to cover my eyes. I got the name of a nice pharmacist in the Samoan capitol of Apia from the family we stayed with thursday night, and she gave me some antibiotics since my face really wasn't looking so good, and some cream that would help with the eczema as well as kill the bacteria in the area. Now, roughly 3 days after waking up to that terrible sight in the mirror, my face is almost back 100% and I have a new appreciation for my handsome appearance. ;)
Anyway, sorry to be a buzzkill with that. Mom, Dad, Kristi, if you're gonna worry about me you might as well stop now, because there's nothing you can do from there. It's all taken care of anyway.
Here's a picture of our crew in front a waterfall.
Other than that epic journey chasing waterfalls, most of my time in Samoa was spent on a beach. It is, after all, an island in the tropics. We stayed in a place called Taufua Beach Fales. The fale we slept in was literally feet from the water. The staff that ran the place was on giant extended family and they were super cool. At first they seem a bit cold, but once you start joking around with them and they realize that you have a sense of humor they're super fun to hang out with. I don't think any of the staff were younger than 35 either, so it was all one big party. They would drink with us, play games with us, by the end of our stay there, they were one of us. There were probably around 100 guests there at a time and every night everyone was on the resort deck, speakers blasting having a good time. We met some really cool people at Taufua.
One day, one of the Taufua staff named Tele, challenged us all to a game of rugby. There were about 12 American guys there at this point, so we all took on the 5 staff members who felt like playing. Now, if you know anything about Samoan guys you know they're huge. Long story short, they kicked our asses and everyone was sore the next day. I actually wasn't so sore, though I took some of the biggest hits from these brown buses, I think my Aikido training way back in the day taught me how to fall gracefully. This was the second most awesome thing I did in Samoa (the first obviously being the waterfalls). The Samoans wanted to play again the next day, but my friends all pussied out, citing sore bodies and cut up feet (from beach rocks and shells). I was down to play, but it would've been even worse if the same 5 Samoans showed up and we had half our force. I think I really like rugby a lot, I'm just not real good at it.
A few times at Taufua they had a Fiafia or firedance. Here's some pictures of that. I think this is Tele in the pictures.
I've got a math midterm due this week, and a philosophy essay due next week. I think there's also a couple lab reports I should turn in soon. It's gonna be a busy week, but I had a pretty relaxed on last week, so I can't complain too much.
Love you guys (if you're taking the time to read my ramblings, you deserve my appreciation).
David
Sunday, August 21, 2011
22 Aug
Hello, friends. Coming at you from a sunny Dunedin. I think it'll be good enough that I'll be able to run outside today, and not inside on a treadmill that cuts me off after 30 minutes (not really complaining though). Kinda crazy that just last weekend we were snowed in. This weather is like bipolar or premenstrual or something. Just can't seem make a decision on what season it is right now.
The other day I found out that the french guy that we almost beat the shit out of for saying some really bad things about America (like I had decided to leave out the shit he said about 9/11, which he probably should've been punched for) is actually neighbors with my cousin (that other asian guy from my school) and a bunch of my friends. In fact, my cousin's girlfriend lives WITH him. And he agrees; the guy is a huge asshole. I discovered that he lives there when I was walking by and saw a guy a recognized, politely said "'sup man" and kept walking, ONLY TO REALIZE THAT HE WAS THE FRENCHIE FROM QUEENSTOWN!!!!. I silently, tucked that little fact away within my brain, unsure of whether or not he recognized me, but he should ever feel like following the, "I will find you, and kill you" remark he had shouted in parting to my friend, I think he's in the wrong neighborhood for it. There are a lot of Americans on that block, and I think one other french person: a girl (who is also our friend and knows about the incident and sided with us. lol.).
This past week was pretty uneventful. With the cancellation of school on monday (due to snow hahaha) I got out of two of my four weekly lectures (only 4 last week, this week I have 5 because of the alternating schedule my math class has). Throughout the course of the week I then decided that I didn't feel like going to my other math lecture or my other philosophy lecture. I went to the tutorials (which are kind of like labs, or tutor sessions), but I realized on friday that I had gone to NO LECTURES that week. I had been to every tutorial and also my physics lab, but I had totally skipped all lectures. At the end of the week, I also found out I had managed to noticeably increase my grades in all classes. I'm not sure I've figured out how school here is supposed to work...I guess if I get good enough grades, I don't really care. In any case, I now have a B-something in physics (up from a C-something), a B(minus probably) in math (up from a C) and finally actually have a grade in philosophy (but I haven't gotten my essay grade yet, but it's probably better than a C). Yay for my adequacy!
I'm super duper excited for this weekend. On saturday I'm going to be waking up at 6:30 am to walk downtown and get on a bus. That bus will take me to Christchurch (a 6 hour drive) and then fron there I'll take some good old public transportation to the Christchurch International Airport (CHC). Since I have a few hours in between my flight and my bus arrival I'm hoping to check out some of Christchurch and see if any of the earthquake damage is still real apparent. Could be real interesting actually. Anyway, from CHC I'll be headed to Auckland, where we'll be hopping a plane to Apia, Samoa for the week. See what I didn't tell you is that this weekend is the start of Spring break (or midsemester break for those of you who get confused by Spring in August). My friends and I are going to spend a week on the warm beaches of Samoa, living in Fales. Here's a wikipedia picture of a Fale for your visualization convenience.
Try not to be too jealous.
The place we're staying has everything I could ever want. Free coffee, tea, bananas and mopeds are available to rent. I don't think I'll want to leave. There's even tennis courts nearby, but I don't think I'm going to feel too much like hitting when I can explore this tropical island instead (perhaps on a moped).
Samoa is on the other side of the international dateline too, so I'll be back in the same day as the US, actually behind you guys in time, rather than 19 hours in the future.
But before all my dreams of riding a scooter named Sasha around an island in the sun, cruzin with my crew can be realized, I have to get through this week. But even this week won't be so bad; I'm in New Zealand LOL. So here's to you mom and dad, and here's to this.
Catch ya'll on the flippity flop, in some flippity flops later.
The other day I found out that the french guy that we almost beat the shit out of for saying some really bad things about America (like I had decided to leave out the shit he said about 9/11, which he probably should've been punched for) is actually neighbors with my cousin (that other asian guy from my school) and a bunch of my friends. In fact, my cousin's girlfriend lives WITH him. And he agrees; the guy is a huge asshole. I discovered that he lives there when I was walking by and saw a guy a recognized, politely said "'sup man" and kept walking, ONLY TO REALIZE THAT HE WAS THE FRENCHIE FROM QUEENSTOWN!!!!. I silently, tucked that little fact away within my brain, unsure of whether or not he recognized me, but he should ever feel like following the, "I will find you, and kill you" remark he had shouted in parting to my friend, I think he's in the wrong neighborhood for it. There are a lot of Americans on that block, and I think one other french person: a girl (who is also our friend and knows about the incident and sided with us. lol.).
This past week was pretty uneventful. With the cancellation of school on monday (due to snow hahaha) I got out of two of my four weekly lectures (only 4 last week, this week I have 5 because of the alternating schedule my math class has). Throughout the course of the week I then decided that I didn't feel like going to my other math lecture or my other philosophy lecture. I went to the tutorials (which are kind of like labs, or tutor sessions), but I realized on friday that I had gone to NO LECTURES that week. I had been to every tutorial and also my physics lab, but I had totally skipped all lectures. At the end of the week, I also found out I had managed to noticeably increase my grades in all classes. I'm not sure I've figured out how school here is supposed to work...I guess if I get good enough grades, I don't really care. In any case, I now have a B-something in physics (up from a C-something), a B(minus probably) in math (up from a C) and finally actually have a grade in philosophy (but I haven't gotten my essay grade yet, but it's probably better than a C). Yay for my adequacy!
I'm super duper excited for this weekend. On saturday I'm going to be waking up at 6:30 am to walk downtown and get on a bus. That bus will take me to Christchurch (a 6 hour drive) and then fron there I'll take some good old public transportation to the Christchurch International Airport (CHC). Since I have a few hours in between my flight and my bus arrival I'm hoping to check out some of Christchurch and see if any of the earthquake damage is still real apparent. Could be real interesting actually. Anyway, from CHC I'll be headed to Auckland, where we'll be hopping a plane to Apia, Samoa for the week. See what I didn't tell you is that this weekend is the start of Spring break (or midsemester break for those of you who get confused by Spring in August). My friends and I are going to spend a week on the warm beaches of Samoa, living in Fales. Here's a wikipedia picture of a Fale for your visualization convenience.
The place we're staying has everything I could ever want. Free coffee, tea, bananas and mopeds are available to rent. I don't think I'll want to leave. There's even tennis courts nearby, but I don't think I'm going to feel too much like hitting when I can explore this tropical island instead (perhaps on a moped).
Samoa is on the other side of the international dateline too, so I'll be back in the same day as the US, actually behind you guys in time, rather than 19 hours in the future.
But before all my dreams of riding a scooter named Sasha around an island in the sun, cruzin with my crew can be realized, I have to get through this week. But even this week won't be so bad; I'm in New Zealand LOL. So here's to you mom and dad, and here's to this.
Catch ya'll on the flippity flop, in some flippity flops later.
Monday, August 15, 2011
16 Aug
What's up guys? How's the world's best democracy treating you all? In recent news, Pawlenty dropped his candidacy for President after some of his friends were more popular than him, and Google is going to buy Motorola.
This weekend I was in Queenstown. It's called the adventure capital of the world. It's a nice little ski town up in the mountains that also happens to have a little bay and about 4 bungee jump spots around.
My friends wanted to go up saturday morning and leave sunday, but I thought that sounded dumb. I wanted more than just one night in Queenstown. So I went up with these 4 girls I knew who were going too and spent the night in a hostel with them. It was pretty interesting being the only guy in a room full of girls, and even more interesting when my friends came up and I moved into the place they were staying at and there happened to be only one girl in that room (she was our friend who came with us so it's chill). I mean I guess it wasn't really that interesting. The ride up was actually a lot of fun, we stopped in a couple places just to chill and check it out. These girls were all at least two years older than me, but still acted like teenagers (not the annoying kind) so it was good times.
My friends bungeed from Nevis, which measures in at 134m. It sounded so cool. I might be reconsidering my choice to not jump if we ever make it up there again.
While they were jumping (we didn't go with because it costs $50 to go up and watch), we went on a little hike up to the top of the mountain that over looks the city.
It was super cold (even more so since I was sweaty from that insanely steep hike), but the view was pretty cool.
That day we also played some frisbee golf on a course they had in a park in town. I don't have much else to say about that...It was fun though.
Later on Saturday we heard about this massive storm that was supposed to be coming in that would supposedly strand us in Queenstown until Wednesday. That freaked the girls out, because they all had something they needed to be doing this week, so they left. I wanted to stay because my friends were there and I had already paid for my room, so I did.
We had a great time that night and I'm really glad I stayed. A friend got hit on by some 55 year old lady and got a huge kick out of it. He then went on to almost get in a fight with some french douchebag. He kept his cool and was mostly laughing at the guy when he was expressing his dislike of America, which only made the frenchie more angry. If the guy would've thrown a punch, not only would the bouncer have had his head in a headlock in split seconds, every American (and there's tons of us all over this country, especially in a tourist town like Queenstown) would've been there to back him up. That frenchie would've had a real rough night. Luckily (or maybe unfortunately), things chilled out, and I asked frenchie's other European friends to grab him and walk him the other way down the street (this was after they got kicked out and we had left) while we walked a different way down the street.
We had agreed to wake up Sunday morning at 7 to hit the road before (we hope) the storm came in. When I woke up, the sky was still clear and I wanted to go back to sleep, but we were rallied by someone and eventually we were on the road (most of us were hung over, I think our girl friend was still drunk - although, I'll also point out that our driver and navigator went to bed early and were feeling find). We were an hour into our voyage when the snow started coming down. It was a very good decision to get out that early. In New Zealand, if they get just an inch or two of snow, they start shutting highways down. Bunch of pansies here.
So by the time we were back in Dunedin, the snow had blanketed the ground and the people were freaking out. OMG SNOW WE HAVE NO MOBILITY...
School was cancelled on Monday because of the snow. Apparently, two inches is too treacherous.
I talked to a kiwi about the snow yesterday, and she told me that in her 5 years at this school, she's seen snow like 4 times, and it's happened twice this year already. So this kind of shit is out of the ordinary. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
This weekend I was in Queenstown. It's called the adventure capital of the world. It's a nice little ski town up in the mountains that also happens to have a little bay and about 4 bungee jump spots around.
My friends wanted to go up saturday morning and leave sunday, but I thought that sounded dumb. I wanted more than just one night in Queenstown. So I went up with these 4 girls I knew who were going too and spent the night in a hostel with them. It was pretty interesting being the only guy in a room full of girls, and even more interesting when my friends came up and I moved into the place they were staying at and there happened to be only one girl in that room (she was our friend who came with us so it's chill). I mean I guess it wasn't really that interesting. The ride up was actually a lot of fun, we stopped in a couple places just to chill and check it out. These girls were all at least two years older than me, but still acted like teenagers (not the annoying kind) so it was good times.
My friends bungeed from Nevis, which measures in at 134m. It sounded so cool. I might be reconsidering my choice to not jump if we ever make it up there again.
While they were jumping (we didn't go with because it costs $50 to go up and watch), we went on a little hike up to the top of the mountain that over looks the city.
That day we also played some frisbee golf on a course they had in a park in town. I don't have much else to say about that...It was fun though.
Later on Saturday we heard about this massive storm that was supposed to be coming in that would supposedly strand us in Queenstown until Wednesday. That freaked the girls out, because they all had something they needed to be doing this week, so they left. I wanted to stay because my friends were there and I had already paid for my room, so I did.
We had a great time that night and I'm really glad I stayed. A friend got hit on by some 55 year old lady and got a huge kick out of it. He then went on to almost get in a fight with some french douchebag. He kept his cool and was mostly laughing at the guy when he was expressing his dislike of America, which only made the frenchie more angry. If the guy would've thrown a punch, not only would the bouncer have had his head in a headlock in split seconds, every American (and there's tons of us all over this country, especially in a tourist town like Queenstown) would've been there to back him up. That frenchie would've had a real rough night. Luckily (or maybe unfortunately), things chilled out, and I asked frenchie's other European friends to grab him and walk him the other way down the street (this was after they got kicked out and we had left) while we walked a different way down the street.
We had agreed to wake up Sunday morning at 7 to hit the road before (we hope) the storm came in. When I woke up, the sky was still clear and I wanted to go back to sleep, but we were rallied by someone and eventually we were on the road (most of us were hung over, I think our girl friend was still drunk - although, I'll also point out that our driver and navigator went to bed early and were feeling find). We were an hour into our voyage when the snow started coming down. It was a very good decision to get out that early. In New Zealand, if they get just an inch or two of snow, they start shutting highways down. Bunch of pansies here.
So by the time we were back in Dunedin, the snow had blanketed the ground and the people were freaking out. OMG SNOW WE HAVE NO MOBILITY...
School was cancelled on Monday because of the snow. Apparently, two inches is too treacherous.
I talked to a kiwi about the snow yesterday, and she told me that in her 5 years at this school, she's seen snow like 4 times, and it's happened twice this year already. So this kind of shit is out of the ordinary. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
8 Aug
I turned in my first essay in about one and a half years today. All the philosophy essays have to be turned in at the philosophy department building (house?) which is a block off campus amidst a bunch of raggedy old flats. You also have to sign a plagiarism contract thing and attach it to the front of the essay. I guess they're pretty strict on plagiarism here and I couldn't help but worry as I slipped the essay into the box if I had cited everything I was supposed to and done it adequately as to not get kicked out of school. I'm sure MLA format was sufficient, and that the 5 times I quoted something I cited it (I'm pretty sure). I think the TA is reading them anyway, and he always comes into tutorial with some kind of cutoff sweatshirt like he's some jock out of the eighties. He's gotta be chill.
As it turns out, I've been looking at the wrong thing when finding my math assignments. The thing I've been reading is like 3 times as long as the actual assignment sheet. I was wondering why my grades were so bad, I guess I've been straight up doing the wrong problems. LOL. My math grade is sitting at like a 56% (WHICH IS A C LOL), and I guess not knowing what the assignment is can greatly contribute to this.
My life seems to be getting pretty boring. Sorry I don't have much more to report this time. This weekend I think I'll be heading to Queenstown where the highlight will probably be watching my friends bungie jump. I don't think I'll be doing it (yeah I'm a pussy), for a couple reasons: 1) it's like $200; 2) I'm not super into 10 second free falls, and I'm not sure I want to spend the money to piss my pants. If I was the kind of person that would really enjoy that, I would gladly "invest" the money in the experience. But since I'll likely black out after the 5th second, I don't think it's worth the money.
That's all.
Peace out!
As it turns out, I've been looking at the wrong thing when finding my math assignments. The thing I've been reading is like 3 times as long as the actual assignment sheet. I was wondering why my grades were so bad, I guess I've been straight up doing the wrong problems. LOL. My math grade is sitting at like a 56% (WHICH IS A C LOL), and I guess not knowing what the assignment is can greatly contribute to this.
My life seems to be getting pretty boring. Sorry I don't have much more to report this time. This weekend I think I'll be heading to Queenstown where the highlight will probably be watching my friends bungie jump. I don't think I'll be doing it (yeah I'm a pussy), for a couple reasons: 1) it's like $200; 2) I'm not super into 10 second free falls, and I'm not sure I want to spend the money to piss my pants. If I was the kind of person that would really enjoy that, I would gladly "invest" the money in the experience. But since I'll likely black out after the 5th second, I don't think it's worth the money.
That's all.
Peace out!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
4 Aug
Damn, it's been a long time since I've done one of these. Maybe I'm feeling less dependent on it. Like I less and less require connection with the world of the northern hemisphere. So that's probably good.
Jeez, I guess that also means that a LOT of stuff has happened since my last post. There's definitely not enough time for me to tell you about it all. I posted quite a few pictures on facebook of some of the adventures I've been on, but for those of you who haven't sold your souls and identities to the great social network, I'll be sure to put up a few here. There's definitely some gems that you have to see.
Maybe I'll just run through the highlights of the last week.
Turned in my math hw late, but pretended to be confused and sad about it and it was accepted. Score.
That dubstep concert was really dumb. The dude didn't go on until 1:30 and by then most people had left. I'm pretty sure the entire audience (which was literally like 50 people) was international students that weren't clue yet to the fact that this guy was nobody. It was still a really fun night, though.
Last weekend we went to the Otago Museum and hiked Mt Cargill. Both were awesome. What attracted us to the museum was the butterfly exhibit where you can actually walk around in a butterfly room with butterflies flying around and landing on you and stuff. But when we got there, easily the coolest thing there was the one made for kids. They had this mind game where the objective was to relax your mind and whoever was most relaxed won. It kept track of your brain waves or something and moved a metal ball towards the person who was more tense.
I never lost a game. I've got meditation skills these hakujin can't begin to compete with.
Here's some pictures of me in the butterfly exhibit. They were actually kind of scary, these butterflies. Like flying praying mantises coming right at your eyes. It's okay when they land on your shoulder, but face is a no-no.
We heard they like the color red. So I had to rep the Asian Student Association tee.
The next day we hiked Mt. Cargill. It isn't really a real mountain, but it has some really nice views from the top. On the way, we stopped at a place called the Organ Pipes, which is a columnar basalt formation. These kinds of formations are crazy cool. Here's a few pictures there.
From there we made another stop at a place called Butter's Peak, just because it was on the way. One of my friends was like, "It looks kind of dumb." And we were like, "Uh, no it looks kinda tight." So we told her to shut up and we went. And it was awesome.
That's what it looked like from the bottom. Looks awesome, right?
Then someone peed up there and it was the most epic pee I have ever seen caught on photograph.
Eventually, we got to the top of Mt. Cargill, but honestly I think the previous two stops were way cooler. Here's some pictures from the top of the "mountain" though.
That's Dunedin in the distance there in the bottom picture. Pretty sweet stuff.
I'm hungry now, so I'm gonna be done with writing. This weekend, I don't have any huge plans. I was going to go to the Catlins, but the car ran out of room, so I'll have to hit that place at a later time. It's supposed to sleet out there anyway and I have a philosophy paper to write, so I'm not super upset about it. Yeah, that's right, I have a paper to write.
I'll keep warm if you guys keep cool.
Peace out.
Jeez, I guess that also means that a LOT of stuff has happened since my last post. There's definitely not enough time for me to tell you about it all. I posted quite a few pictures on facebook of some of the adventures I've been on, but for those of you who haven't sold your souls and identities to the great social network, I'll be sure to put up a few here. There's definitely some gems that you have to see.
Maybe I'll just run through the highlights of the last week.
Turned in my math hw late, but pretended to be confused and sad about it and it was accepted. Score.
That dubstep concert was really dumb. The dude didn't go on until 1:30 and by then most people had left. I'm pretty sure the entire audience (which was literally like 50 people) was international students that weren't clue yet to the fact that this guy was nobody. It was still a really fun night, though.
Last weekend we went to the Otago Museum and hiked Mt Cargill. Both were awesome. What attracted us to the museum was the butterfly exhibit where you can actually walk around in a butterfly room with butterflies flying around and landing on you and stuff. But when we got there, easily the coolest thing there was the one made for kids. They had this mind game where the objective was to relax your mind and whoever was most relaxed won. It kept track of your brain waves or something and moved a metal ball towards the person who was more tense.
Here's some pictures of me in the butterfly exhibit. They were actually kind of scary, these butterflies. Like flying praying mantises coming right at your eyes. It's okay when they land on your shoulder, but face is a no-no.
We heard they like the color red. So I had to rep the Asian Student Association tee.
The next day we hiked Mt. Cargill. It isn't really a real mountain, but it has some really nice views from the top. On the way, we stopped at a place called the Organ Pipes, which is a columnar basalt formation. These kinds of formations are crazy cool. Here's a few pictures there.
From there we made another stop at a place called Butter's Peak, just because it was on the way. One of my friends was like, "It looks kind of dumb." And we were like, "Uh, no it looks kinda tight." So we told her to shut up and we went. And it was awesome.
That's what it looked like from the bottom. Looks awesome, right?
Then someone peed up there and it was the most epic pee I have ever seen caught on photograph.
Eventually, we got to the top of Mt. Cargill, but honestly I think the previous two stops were way cooler. Here's some pictures from the top of the "mountain" though.
That's Dunedin in the distance there in the bottom picture. Pretty sweet stuff.
I'm hungry now, so I'm gonna be done with writing. This weekend, I don't have any huge plans. I was going to go to the Catlins, but the car ran out of room, so I'll have to hit that place at a later time. It's supposed to sleet out there anyway and I have a philosophy paper to write, so I'm not super upset about it. Yeah, that's right, I have a paper to write.
I'll keep warm if you guys keep cool.
Peace out.
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