Silly Hats and an Earthshaking St. Patty's Day!

Friday Night: There was a huge regional dance for all of the YSA. The church dances here are church dress and tight security. Meaning they have adults stationed at each entrance making sure people arrive wearing modest clothing and that nothing is "brought in." There were SO many people! I have never been to a dance quite that packed before. We didn't arrive until almost 11 so we only got to dance for about an hourish but it was a lot of fun! Hot but great! It's funny though because a lot of the music that they played was from the 80s and 90s instead of more modern type stuff. It was St. Patty's day themed so there was a giant paper rainbow spread out across the whole cultural hall as well as little golden kiwi chocolate dollars (like our chocolate coins) scattered all over the floor.
After the dance the people I was with stopped by for a "feed" just another word for getting food. We stopped at a place kind of like a stand but more like a shop with no seating. We got the healthy stuff- you know burgers, fries, and of course milk shakes (Cultural note: if you ask for a milk shake that is what you will get- milk that has been shaken with some sort of flavor in it. If you want an American milk shake then you must ask for a thick shake. They use the same flavoring that we put on snow cones to flavor the thick/non thick milk shakes). A couple of Maori boys saw us eating and came over to make conversation. One of the girls in our group was part Maori and so she started chatting with them. It was (for lack of a better word) hilarious to hear them talk back and forth because the NZ accent really came out super strong as well as the lingo. Just hearing them talk to each other was a cultural experience. Their favorite words- "choice bro" were used at the end of almost every sentence (even though it was a girl doing some of the talking they called her bro). That made for a late night but it was a cultural experience all the same.

Saturday: Beau's birthday party! We had one of the biggest cakes I've ever seen! It took both Sara and I to carry it to the table but boy was it delicious. It was a silly hat themed party so everyone that showed up brought a silly hat. Sara and I had a chance to get creative since our resources were a bit limited but as you'll see below it turned out pretty good. We had tons of food and even more dessert! Although it sprinkled rain on and off throughout the day it turned out to be perfect for the party. We had a silly hat parade and a treasure hunt. We had the chance to meet more of Beau's cousins (on his dad's side) and enjoy some delicious NZ dishes.

Sunday: St. Patty's Day! Although it's not really a big deal here in NZ we wore green anyway. Julie made us green pancakes which we ate with green milk for dinner (they are green but it's hard to tell in the actual photos!). The most exciting part of the day happened around 4pm in the afternoon. I had just settled down for a nice Sunday nap. Rain was lightly tapping the window and I was just reaching that in between state of not sleeping and yet not awake when suddenly the bed shook and I head some weird rattling noise. I jumped awake thinking that some how Beau had gotten into our house and was trying to wake me up by shaking the bed. I sat up and looked around for Beau but he was no where to be seen.  Confused as to what had just happened, I decided to just dismiss it as a weird dream and I fell back asleep.

About an hour later Sara and I got up to go have our green pancakes with Julie. The first thing she said to us when we walked in was if we had felt the earthquake. What?! Earthquake?! She said that about 4 there was a small earthquake (3.9 on the richter scale) that shook the house for just a second. The news reporters gaged it coming from the volcano Rangitoto and said that another one had followed but that it was barely discernable compared to the first rumble. So that explained my mysterious jolt! Not the most pleasant thing to experience (especially during a Sunday nap) but hey I can now add earthquake to my list of NZ experiences.

NZ Herald Article

A cool sunset 

Some of the food at Beau's party. The silver pot on the left has something called Taro root that they boil and eat with coconut cream (kind of like a potato but more bitter)

A dessert called banana poke (poo-key). The lumps are just boiled bananas (did you know that boiling a banana for 2 hours turns it a purple color?) with coconut cream over the top. It has a consistency like pudding and it's pretty tasty. 

Sara and I with Beau's cake and of course our silly hats :)