Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Airport
Well, here I sit. My flight leaving for Sydney in about 30 minutes. We're almost about to board. Where did the time go? As Julie was driving me to the airport I kept thinking about everything I've done and it feels liks so much but then it also feels like I've just arrived. I fear that as soon as I land in America I'll wake up and this will all have been a dream. Looking back this study abroad was harder and better than I thought it would be. There were some definite bumps and surprises in the road that made me grateful for my country, up bringing, and being a member of the church. I'm definitely looking forward to stepping on American soil again. It's so weird how a place becomes such a part of you. I've never realized how much my culture has shaped my person until this moment. I've always wondered how God decided which country to send us to and why. I still haven't figured that one out but I'm grateful to be an American. Don't get me wrong. I've loved this New Zealand adventure more than anything but now it's time to go home. Sydney will be a nice holiday and there's my boarding call. I'm off to leave the land of middle earth and start my trek home.
Last Day!
Today was a wonderfully boring day.... :) Packing! I keep secretly hoping that everything will shrink and magically fit into my one suitcase. Thank goodness for packing movies Ice Age 3 and The Princess and the Frog. I think it will all work out but I just can't buy any souvenirs in Sydney :). After packing we walked over to Pack and Save for the last time and picked up a bunch of wonderful Kiwi only food to enjoy for my last night. It's wonderful! A giant bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough (I've missed it!), Kiwi dip and chips, and ginger beer. Of course it wouldn't be complete without a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. :) I can't believe this is it! A week of Sydney and I'll be home. I can't wait! I've been missing my family more than I thought. I'll write my final New Zealand post tomorrow. Now it's time to enjoy the final night!
The goods :)
Last Trip!
Today Julie took us around the city for our last time. She made sure that we saw everything that we had to see. She took us to see a memorial to the first prime minister of New Zealand. It was a beautiful garden and an awesome view of the city. Afterwards we stopped by a warf and saw another awesome view of the city. It was a gorgeous clear day! Our next stop was the winter gardens over by the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There are two giant green houses full of exotic plants and flowers from all over the world. It was so cool!! We also stopped by Mt. Eden- one of the surrounding volcanoes in the area. It was so cool to see the big crater and the view of the surrounding area including the rugby stadium. Julie then shouted us to lunch and hokey pokey milkshakes. It was yum! I had some kind of mediterranean wrap that was different but really good! Finally, the rest of the day resulted in the start of packing (UGH!!) and our last family home evening with Julie and Beau. Julie even made a sponge cake with passionfruit on top. It was great! The evening got a little crazy when Julie's 4 month old grandson came for a visit. He is the sweetest and cutest baby but he started teething a bit and he wouldn't stop screaming. Julie had to run up the road to get him some pain killers. Sara ended up trying to calm baby down and I put Beau to bed. The other girls came over a little while later and we finished the Harry Potter extended marathon we've been having by watching the last movie. It's hard to believe there is only one more day left!
Prime Minister memorial
Rangitoto from the memorial
Us and Julie!
View of Devonport
The city!
Cool plant at the winter gardens
On the warf!
Another cool plant!
The gardens from the outside.
Giant lilly pads!
More pretty flowers
More flowers
View from Mt. Eden
Cool photo of me :)
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Conference and Pancakes
Today was fall back for NZ which means home is now 7 hours behind. I didn't realize that it was fall back until after had I already showered so instead of going back to bed I decided to watch the beginning of general conference. Because of the time difference here conference is always shown the weekend after it appears in the states. So it was kind of weird waking up on what usually is conference weekend and having fast sunday instead. So as I was getting ready to watch the beginning session I saw a post on facebook from one of my mission companions talking about a temple announced for Cedar City!!! Of course I was super excited!!! Although I never served directly in Cedar as a missionary it's still part of my mission. The sister that I served with from New Zealand served the last part of her mission there and was also thrilled to hear the news!
After church and a well deserved hour nap Sara and I walked over to Erika's house for pancakes and to watch the first conference session as a group. We had all the works fruit, ice cream, and syrup along with milo and scrambled eggs. I've missed breakfast food so much! Conference was really good! Even though we only watched one session and it was a bit choppy from the internet it was still an awesome experience!
Afterwards we went over to Elise and Brittany's house and watched The Other Side of Heaven. I forgot how much I love that movie- especially after having served a mission. And now that I've experienced more of the island culture I love that movie even more! So far we don't have any big plans for our last two days in the country but we're definitely going to make the most of it!!
After church and a well deserved hour nap Sara and I walked over to Erika's house for pancakes and to watch the first conference session as a group. We had all the works fruit, ice cream, and syrup along with milo and scrambled eggs. I've missed breakfast food so much! Conference was really good! Even though we only watched one session and it was a bit choppy from the internet it was still an awesome experience!
Afterwards we went over to Elise and Brittany's house and watched The Other Side of Heaven. I forgot how much I love that movie- especially after having served a mission. And now that I've experienced more of the island culture I love that movie even more! So far we don't have any big plans for our last two days in the country but we're definitely going to make the most of it!!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Markets Galore!
Saturday we had the brilliant idea of waking up early and going to the Otara Markets about a half hour drive from our house. A host mom of some of the other BYU girls kindly volunteered to drive us. The only bummer (besides waking up super early) was that it was pouring rain but we decided to go any way.
The markets where outside with a few stalls inside a community center building. Thankfully the rain cleared up a bit for the hour that we had to walk around. The host mom had to be back to pick up her grandkid so we couldn't stay too long but it was long enough to see what they had. By this poing everything is starting to look the same :).
We were then going to go to the beach but because of the weather we decided to go home and finish some homework. I had to rewash my clothes because they'd been hanging up to get dry and had gotten wet again. Funny, most people seem to like that "fresh rain" scent but not me. I really missed having a dryer! It was really nice to have a pretty chill afternoon.
Around 5:30 our bishop came to pick us up and take us out to dinner with his extended family. We went to the coolest place ever- Gangis Khan Mongolian BBQ! You pick up a bowl and stack in as much uncooked meat of whatever variety you like. Then you layer in the veggies and finally you choose the different sauces and oils. Then you hand it directly to one of the chefs who cooks it right in front of you. When its cooked you can help yourself to a variety of salads and breads, rice or noodles. For dessert there are freshly made pancakes with your choice of ice cream and toppings. I had SO much food but it was all delicious! It was the bishops way of saying thank you for supporting the ward. It was super kind of him and his family.
After Bishop dropped us off we left with Camilla to one of the coolest markets ever! The Auckland night market. This market is unlike any you have ever seen. For starters it takes place underground in a parking garage and it is packed full with food, goods, and people. It was amazing! We saw so many cool things for sell and I almost wished I hadn't eaten so much food so that I could have some fresh from the market. All in all it was another awesome day!
The markets where outside with a few stalls inside a community center building. Thankfully the rain cleared up a bit for the hour that we had to walk around. The host mom had to be back to pick up her grandkid so we couldn't stay too long but it was long enough to see what they had. By this poing everything is starting to look the same :).
We were then going to go to the beach but because of the weather we decided to go home and finish some homework. I had to rewash my clothes because they'd been hanging up to get dry and had gotten wet again. Funny, most people seem to like that "fresh rain" scent but not me. I really missed having a dryer! It was really nice to have a pretty chill afternoon.
Around 5:30 our bishop came to pick us up and take us out to dinner with his extended family. We went to the coolest place ever- Gangis Khan Mongolian BBQ! You pick up a bowl and stack in as much uncooked meat of whatever variety you like. Then you layer in the veggies and finally you choose the different sauces and oils. Then you hand it directly to one of the chefs who cooks it right in front of you. When its cooked you can help yourself to a variety of salads and breads, rice or noodles. For dessert there are freshly made pancakes with your choice of ice cream and toppings. I had SO much food but it was all delicious! It was the bishops way of saying thank you for supporting the ward. It was super kind of him and his family.
After Bishop dropped us off we left with Camilla to one of the coolest markets ever! The Auckland night market. This market is unlike any you have ever seen. For starters it takes place underground in a parking garage and it is packed full with food, goods, and people. It was amazing! We saw so many cool things for sell and I almost wished I hadn't eaten so much food so that I could have some fresh from the market. All in all it was another awesome day!
Rugby!!!
Since this is such an exciting event I thought I'd make a whole post about it! So Julie's oldest son Ferran came and picked us up about an hour and a half before the game with a few of his kids. We had to drive out to the Eden Park Stadium (the world famous stadium where the All Blacks usually play and where they won the rugby world cup in 2011) and that took a little while.
Ferran took extra good care of us and brought flags for us to wave around. He even bought us chocolate bars for pre-game and later cinnamon sugar pretzels, gummies, and soda during the game (we didn't ask. He would just show up with it all). On the way there his son Mosiah taught us the rules of rugby in a simplified football comparison type way. So here are the basics:
Rugby for dummies:
- The ball can either be kicked (in any direction), ran forward by the player holding the ball, or passed backward to other players (passing forward results in a penalty and the other team gets the ball).
-In order to score a try (a touchdown) you have to run the ball over the line but then also place the ball on the ground, applying pressure with some part of your body- this is why they usually run in the ball and dive once they pass the try line. This scores you 5 points.
-After you score a try you have a chance to kick it for a field goal (the goal posts look different than ours- they are skinner and longer). This will give you 2 points. The trick is you have to kick it from where the try was made but you are allowed to bring it back as far as you like to get a better angle at the goal. For example if you score a try at the far end of end zone than the kicker has to kick a field goal from that spot but he is allowed to move the ball back as far as he likes to get a better angle.
- When passing in the ball after it goes out the team form "towers" (not the official term just one I made up) where two guys lift up another guy by his pants and put him on their shoulders. The guy passing the ball in then throws it to his team's tower (both teams make one tower) and the guy catches it and then passes it to another fellow player to keep the game going.
-When a penalty is called you generally have two choices an attempt field goal, which if awarded gives you 3 points, or a scrum. The scrum is when the guys get in the huddle formation and the ball is placed in the center. The point is to hit each other straight on and fight for a chance to kick the ball backwards to a team member outside the huddle.
- If you are tackled while running the ball your teammates will come and huddle over you in an effort to protect you so that you can put the ball behind you for another fellow team member to pick it up and carry it on.
Some differences between Rugby and Football games:
- Football has cheerleaders and pep bands. In Rugby there are no bands and no cheerleaders. In fact there is hardly any music that ever plays. Only when a player is injured and they need a few minutes to take care of the injury (happened a few times in our game). There are also no specific cheers or chants for the teams. People just yell and scream.
-Football has time outs and a stop clock policy. Rugby has no time outs and the clock continuous runs unless someone gets really injured. The time also counts up instead of counting down. Each half is 40 minutes long.
-Football has commentators. Rugby has someone who announces the teams and their players at the beginning but not a running commentary. There were just random announcements during the game and the commentator would occasionally get on the speaker and tell the crowd to cheer louder. The refs also don't have microphones to let you know the call you just need to be paying attention.
-Football coaches are on the sidelines (except for the one coach in the box). Rugby the coach is up in a box the whole time.
-Football has mascots and half time shows. Rugby kind of has mascots but not really and their half time shows are just a small group of dancers or a crowd activity.
-America: sporting events always play the national anthem before the game starts. NZ does not play the national anthem at their games unless it is an international game.
We watched the Auckland Blues (I believe their "mascot" is a pirate...?) vs the Dunedin Highlanders. As we walked up to the stadium we could hear a bagpipe band playing tribute to their team. Apparently that end of NZ (in the South Island) has a rich Scottish heritage. It was a pretty close game until the end when the Blues got a lucky break and ended up winning 29 to 18. Whenever the Blues would score the stadium light up with balls of flame coming from the sidelines. It was SO awesome. The game wasn't too terribly violent...except for the fact that one guy got knocked out and had to be taken off the field in a golf cart... Also some of the guys from both teams are members of the All Blacks team that will get together after these games are over for the international games. All in all it was an awesome experience! I'm definitely going to looking up the BYU rugby team this fall.
Ferran took extra good care of us and brought flags for us to wave around. He even bought us chocolate bars for pre-game and later cinnamon sugar pretzels, gummies, and soda during the game (we didn't ask. He would just show up with it all). On the way there his son Mosiah taught us the rules of rugby in a simplified football comparison type way. So here are the basics:
Rugby for dummies:
- The ball can either be kicked (in any direction), ran forward by the player holding the ball, or passed backward to other players (passing forward results in a penalty and the other team gets the ball).
-In order to score a try (a touchdown) you have to run the ball over the line but then also place the ball on the ground, applying pressure with some part of your body- this is why they usually run in the ball and dive once they pass the try line. This scores you 5 points.
-After you score a try you have a chance to kick it for a field goal (the goal posts look different than ours- they are skinner and longer). This will give you 2 points. The trick is you have to kick it from where the try was made but you are allowed to bring it back as far as you like to get a better angle at the goal. For example if you score a try at the far end of end zone than the kicker has to kick a field goal from that spot but he is allowed to move the ball back as far as he likes to get a better angle.
- When passing in the ball after it goes out the team form "towers" (not the official term just one I made up) where two guys lift up another guy by his pants and put him on their shoulders. The guy passing the ball in then throws it to his team's tower (both teams make one tower) and the guy catches it and then passes it to another fellow player to keep the game going.
-When a penalty is called you generally have two choices an attempt field goal, which if awarded gives you 3 points, or a scrum. The scrum is when the guys get in the huddle formation and the ball is placed in the center. The point is to hit each other straight on and fight for a chance to kick the ball backwards to a team member outside the huddle.
- If you are tackled while running the ball your teammates will come and huddle over you in an effort to protect you so that you can put the ball behind you for another fellow team member to pick it up and carry it on.
Some differences between Rugby and Football games:
- Football has cheerleaders and pep bands. In Rugby there are no bands and no cheerleaders. In fact there is hardly any music that ever plays. Only when a player is injured and they need a few minutes to take care of the injury (happened a few times in our game). There are also no specific cheers or chants for the teams. People just yell and scream.
-Football has time outs and a stop clock policy. Rugby has no time outs and the clock continuous runs unless someone gets really injured. The time also counts up instead of counting down. Each half is 40 minutes long.
-Football has commentators. Rugby has someone who announces the teams and their players at the beginning but not a running commentary. There were just random announcements during the game and the commentator would occasionally get on the speaker and tell the crowd to cheer louder. The refs also don't have microphones to let you know the call you just need to be paying attention.
-Football coaches are on the sidelines (except for the one coach in the box). Rugby the coach is up in a box the whole time.
-Football has mascots and half time shows. Rugby kind of has mascots but not really and their half time shows are just a small group of dancers or a crowd activity.
-America: sporting events always play the national anthem before the game starts. NZ does not play the national anthem at their games unless it is an international game.
We watched the Auckland Blues (I believe their "mascot" is a pirate...?) vs the Dunedin Highlanders. As we walked up to the stadium we could hear a bagpipe band playing tribute to their team. Apparently that end of NZ (in the South Island) has a rich Scottish heritage. It was a pretty close game until the end when the Blues got a lucky break and ended up winning 29 to 18. Whenever the Blues would score the stadium light up with balls of flame coming from the sidelines. It was SO awesome. The game wasn't too terribly violent...except for the fact that one guy got knocked out and had to be taken off the field in a golf cart... Also some of the guys from both teams are members of the All Blacks team that will get together after these games are over for the international games. All in all it was an awesome experience! I'm definitely going to looking up the BYU rugby team this fall.
Pre game!
Eden Stadium!
Free face paint
The "tower" throw in. Also, believe it or not but the guys in pink are the refs. They usually wear pink since it is the only color not taken by a team. Kind of funny :)
Scrum. Highlanders are green the Blues are blue :)
The balls of flame from scoring a try!
Aquarium
Wednesday- basically relax, catch up on sleep, laundry, indian food, Harry Potter, the end
Thursday- rainy. We made plans to go to the aquarium but the bus schedule was mistaken so we spent a few hours waiting for random buses in the city... all in all not the most productive day but we did get to walk around city for a bit.
Friday! (here's the good stuff)
We woke up to a beautiful day and decided to try the whole aquarium plan one more time. Yesterday we had to call over and switch around our tickets (if you bought them online then it was cheaper) because their posters were misleading with information as to where to catch the bus. Anyway, today we knew where we were going and we had confirmed it with the place so we were good to go. We rode a bus into the city and then waited for our shuttle to take us to Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium experience (they just call it Kelly Tarlton's here not the aquarium). It worked out perfectly, not to mention that our shuttle that picked us up was actually a giant shark bus! It had a dorsal fin and everything! From that point on I knew that we were going to have fun at the aquarium.
It was a pretty awesome experience. They had an exhibit that you could walk through all about living in Antartica and what that would be like (based on explores of the past). You could even "take the challenge" of sticking your hand in freezing water for 30 seconds... no thank you :). There was a sweet as penguin exhibit that is supposedly the largest in the world. We watched two different penguin species play around, eat, and flop around on the ice.
There was also a shark tunnel that you could go through with sharks swimming all around you as well as lots of other cool fish. The best part of the day was when a large group of Asians were walking around nearby me looking at all of the fish and talking in a different language. Then suddenly one of them spotted the clown fish that looks like Nemo and started excitedly pointing and shouting "Nemo! Nemo!" to the rest of the group. They all immediately veer towards the fish tank and mob it with their cameras :).
After a few hours we left (on our shark shuttle again!) and walked around the city for probably the last time. It was such a nice day that we walked over to the warf where we got to watch an acrobat performance by a french couple on a boat. It wasn't the most amazing thing I've seen but it was still cool. After a bit of walking around we caught the bus back home just in time for a quick dinner before heading off with Julie's son to the rugby stadium!
Thursday- rainy. We made plans to go to the aquarium but the bus schedule was mistaken so we spent a few hours waiting for random buses in the city... all in all not the most productive day but we did get to walk around city for a bit.
Friday! (here's the good stuff)
We woke up to a beautiful day and decided to try the whole aquarium plan one more time. Yesterday we had to call over and switch around our tickets (if you bought them online then it was cheaper) because their posters were misleading with information as to where to catch the bus. Anyway, today we knew where we were going and we had confirmed it with the place so we were good to go. We rode a bus into the city and then waited for our shuttle to take us to Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium experience (they just call it Kelly Tarlton's here not the aquarium). It worked out perfectly, not to mention that our shuttle that picked us up was actually a giant shark bus! It had a dorsal fin and everything! From that point on I knew that we were going to have fun at the aquarium.
It was a pretty awesome experience. They had an exhibit that you could walk through all about living in Antartica and what that would be like (based on explores of the past). You could even "take the challenge" of sticking your hand in freezing water for 30 seconds... no thank you :). There was a sweet as penguin exhibit that is supposedly the largest in the world. We watched two different penguin species play around, eat, and flop around on the ice.
There was also a shark tunnel that you could go through with sharks swimming all around you as well as lots of other cool fish. The best part of the day was when a large group of Asians were walking around nearby me looking at all of the fish and talking in a different language. Then suddenly one of them spotted the clown fish that looks like Nemo and started excitedly pointing and shouting "Nemo! Nemo!" to the rest of the group. They all immediately veer towards the fish tank and mob it with their cameras :).
After a few hours we left (on our shark shuttle again!) and walked around the city for probably the last time. It was such a nice day that we walked over to the warf where we got to watch an acrobat performance by a french couple on a boat. It wasn't the most amazing thing I've seen but it was still cool. After a bit of walking around we caught the bus back home just in time for a quick dinner before heading off with Julie's son to the rugby stadium!
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