Something new everyday....

I am learning lots and lots about the Maorian culture. It is way way COOL! I live with all Maoris. It is respectful to take off your shoes when you enter the house. It actually may be like that everywhere. But they said it was a Maorian culture thing. Then to save money we buy groceries together. We each make a meal in the week. So I have to start learning how to cook. On Thursday we ate beef, rice, and salad. (the salad had cucmbers, avacodo and tomatoes, no lettuce). And we go through about 6 loaves a bread a week! They just eat bread as a snack it is so wierd. I think one girl ate a whole loaf in one day! We constantly make toasties, which are grilled cheese or egg and bread. Always using the George Foreman grill. I made dinner tonight! Bubble and Squeak casserole: Sausage, cabbage, potatoes and gravy. I liked it but who knows if anyone else did.

I went to church on sunday twice! I am for sure going to heaven now! Okay that was a joke. But I helped in the 1-4 year olds who were so cute with their accents. Church there is kind of the same. Lots of the same songs. They say AMEN and raise their hands when they sing a lot. I went two churches and they both acted similar. They are very outspoken in church.

If you ever go to another country I urge you to go to a church. It is probably the most unreal experience. A whole different hemisphere and dateline away people are worshipping God and loving him just as I do. We are all in love with the same God. It made Jesus, God the bible become more real than ever. Something like this has to be true if people in another Country so far away are in love with the same Creator.

Other than that I am keeping busy. It is odd how I do not have thousands of things to do like in America but still I am busy. In NZ people are not so rushed. They just sit and talk to you. They do not let their whole life become a time bomb. People do not rush into multiple activities but are calm. Many people come hang out at our cottage and just chill out. And nobody locks their doors here! Odd I know. And no more complaining about gas prices there! 7.00 dollars a gallon! But they do not measure in gallons so they do not realize how bad it is.

Okay some NZ lingo:

Heaps: A lot

Sweetaz: Cool

Stink: She was being a "stink" aka mean.

Pissed: drunk

Tyre: Tire

Toastie: Grilled Cheese

Tea: meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

biscuit: cookie

Papers: classes

Points: credits

Plaster: band-aid

And there is a soap opera that is on everyday for a half hour called Shortland Street. Way fun to watch!

More later!

Some RaNdOm Culture sHOCKS

Boy trend: Mullets and ratails! I am going to take some pictures of them. It is crazy they are everywhere. I thought it was a joke, no joke!

Yummy food that they eat: Toasties (george foreman grill) in US we say grilled cheese. You can also put egg on them and it cooks! try it!

Chocolate way better!

Chips taste like a meal. Chicken thyme lemon was my favorite.

Chinese resturaunts sell fish and chips too!

neon and head bands as scarves are way in!

Warehouse is the Wallmart here. Except it does not have anything really. And it is not cheap.

Everyone listens to rap and R&B and Micheal Jackson.

In class they talk about the U.S. a lot. Today they mentioned the presidential election. Wierd!

Almost always pay for the internet.

Some reading materials are free here. I only bought one book for the semester!

There are more food choices at McDonalds

The movies are 14 dollars

They illegally download all the movies instead

Here are a few of the things that I thought would strike you as odd. I will post more later.

The first week of Hamilton, New Zealand

My first week in New Zealand has been a lot of adjusting to the culture. Their transportation system is not as good as I had hoped so I walk a lot. The food is a lot more expensive here. i live in a cottage with 4 other people and we share everything except rooms. We even share all the food. All for of my roommates are Maori. Which is the original people from New Zealand. They are now only 17 percent of the population. I got to go to a Maori Convention with them yesterday. It reminded me of a cheer competition except everyone is older (in their 20's) and wears weird clothes. Each group does a 30 minute performance of war cries, dancing, singing and moving a poi. It is interesting but I fell asleep after the second one. Everything was in Maori so I did not know what they were saying.
On Saturday I went to the Rugby game. It is a very interesting game. I did know a single thing that was going on but it was fun to watch.
Their accents are very hard to understand. They talk very very fast.
I will post pictures up when I get the Internet in my room. It may be a week til then. Another odd thing about NZ is you have to pay for using the Internet by gb. Every gb you use costs 3o cents I believe. So I will have less access to the Internet than I thought.

Email me to let me know what is going on with you!
Miss everyone in the States.

Living as a tourist...

As I am getting ready for this big journey to another part of the world for half a year I am thinking of all the things that I am going to do there. The other day I met some foriegn exchange students at ASU. I thought, that sucks they got stuck in Arizona. Then I realized that I probably have not seen as many things as tourists have here in my own state that I have lived in for twenty years. I am excited to live like a tourist for five months. When I get back to Arizona I think that I should still live with the mentality of living like a tourist. When you are a tourist you are excited about the place you are in. You are interested in the people around you. And you want to go to places you have never seen.

Not only do I think I need to have the tourist mentality for excitement of seeing things like the Painted Desert and go spulunking but so I can see the beauty that i have missed going on with my day. God says that the world is not our home. We should not feel comfort in where we are at but always ready to pack up let God push us further and show us new things. God has become the ultimate tour guide of my life. I am ready to let God take me on a tour of the beauty he has made in New Zealand and in people. I am realizing that if I let God be my tour guide I will get to be on some more exciting adventures than any other tour guide could even imagine.

I am really excited to live the rest of my life as a tourist.
The definition of tourist is one who travels for pleasure.