Shopping, Raglan, and all of the expeirences in between

Okay it has been a while since I have updated my blog...my apologies. But in my defense I have been trying to pose pictures and every time they end up not loading. So now your stuck reading a bunch of words. Sorry. I did upload most of my pics but they are pretty random order. I would make captions but my captions are always off so just look at the scenerey. The ones with the bags are the shopping day. The trees and storm weather are near my cottage jsut before a storm. I just thought the light hit the trees so beautiful, but I do not think I captured the real beauty it was. Then the rest are the beach.
I am trying to think what I missed telling you all last week...

well the days have been beautiful here. Very Beautiful. Sunny and warm. On Thursday a bunch of us laid in the grass and hung out for hours. We tried to draw but I do not have the patience but some of the others were not bad at it. Everyone sits on the grass during the day, it is pretty fun.

On friday about 5 German girls and me went shopping to these outlet stores at the edge of town. It was cool to see what the styles are. And funny to see how much American brands are. Surfer brands like roxy and Hurley are like 80 dollars for clothes. It is funny. We wanted to go to a thrift store and someone said it is only down the road. So we started walking down to it and it ends up being about 2 miles from the other stores. It was a hike but I got a winter coat out of it for ten bucks! Yeah now winter can come. At the end of the day we got milkshakes. Milkshakes are really milk and flavor. Not icecream. WEIRD. I was bummed because all I wanted was a milkshake but really all I got was coffee flavored milk. That night I hung out with some of the people in the halls and my flatmate. My flatmate, T, gave me some cultural background on Maori people for about an hour at least. There is a lot to learn. It was very interesting. SOme of the neat things about the culture are:
They feel they come from the earth and that they are one with the earth. Like the cirlce of life. They do not own land because it is a give and take relationship. Uh this is hard to start explaining all of their culture because there is so much to it and to why they are not respected anymore and British took their land. There are still disputes about that. I guess when I get home you will just have to hear about it more becasue it is hard to type.

Later that night I spent time with Pi and Yiadora (I do not know how to spell that name). They were singing Maori tunes and it was so fun to listen to. A lot of it is in another language which is way cool to hear.

On Saturday I went to Raglan. It is a beach town. It is the Tasmanian sea. THe beach is so beautiful.. There were mountains surrounding the beaches. A few of us walked around the beach for about 45 minutes until we got out of the bay and to where there were waves. It was amarvelous walk. The ocean is so beautiful. There is barely anyone on the beach too. There was one couple about 100 feet from us and that was it. And the water was so blue. I tried to take as many pictures as I could but then my camera broke. AHHHHH! So I need to fix it. Hopefully the pics give you some idea of how beautiful it is. That is what most of them are from. When we were walking to the spot the water was a high tide. But later in the day, walking back we were cutting about a fourth of the amount we walked because the tide was so low. And when you walk out into the ocean it does not get deep and even shallower at times. It is very shallow water for a long time.

On sunday I was pretty sunned out and sun burnt. BUt later in the day there were games against each of the halls. My friend Pi wanted the cottages to come join because no one else from our hall would. So we played Touch against all the other halls. Touch is like Rugby with a little bit different rules and less confusing. It is actually pretty fun. I played half a game. I was really bad at it. But eh, I tried.

Then today I went back to class! We went to the store and bought all our food. And I volunteered to make the meal tonight because no one else wanted to have to prepare food that fast. So I said if I am making food it is going to be Pancakes because that is easy and fast. So I made bacon, pancakes, bananas and we used our left over icecream with it. And I am the health major in the house, go figure. The guy that lives there, T, was irritated with me. He kept saying well can you put more meat and veggies in it. I said yes if you want to eat at midnight. I did not start cooking til 8. We were kind of late on our food buying this week. So I am learning to speak my mind. I have had a hard time. Some of you are probably suprised by that. But it is not taking me long to learn to speak up here.

Some more phrases that I am hearing:

Hard out! - this means that you agree. Today I said oh it is so pretty today and Ash says Hardout.

Eh, that means actually I think it is just a filler, just like we use LIKE! eh

And if you think people say the f-word lots at home it is even more here. I do not even feel like it is a cuss word anymore because it is used so often. Some of the funny ways they say it

For F***'s sakes! or oh f*** off instead of saying go away. Or when someone would say dang it they say the f word. Yeah it is pretty funny, eh. But at least they do not say God's name in vain. I think it is better for a swear word than God in vain.

One girl said, He just Grates my carrot! That was by far the funniest and oddest thing I have ever heard.

And my German friend told me when I see a German I should tell them Chizah! becasue then I am saying hello. Well it does not mean hello it means shit. So don't use it in that context. And it turns out we all speak German. Here are some of the best German words: Kindergarten and sexy! And you thought you only new English...

Well I miss the Arizona sunsets and the Arizonans even more. I am learning the importance of friendship and how hard it is to have good friends. So be thankful to have people to lean on and that you see on a regular basis.

A verse that helps me get through the day is

Matthew 5: 14-16