Oh no big deal...Just survived a Tsunami!

So this weekend I was lucky enough to go on a trip to the little beach town of Paekakariki. The plan was to leave early, like 5:25 AM on Saturday morning and return late on Sunday night. Sunday night the bus did not leave until 9:30 PM.

So we will start at the beginning:
Saturday Morning:
I barely get any rest on Friday night, because I am so afraid I will sleep in too late. So I get out of bed brush my teeth, grab my stuff and head out to the main bus stop on campus. It is called the MAIN bus stop for reason, aren't all the buses supposed to go there? Apparently not. I am waiting and waiting and I finally get a call from the other girls that they just realized the bus stops at a bus stop way down at the entrance to campus. I grab all my stuff and book it down there, now it is only 5:30 in the morning so it is dark and rather spooky, but finally I make it to the group and they inform me that we have MISSED the bus. What are you kidding me? The naked bus has a no refund policy, so we think about what to do. We decide the tickets were cheap enough so we each book a new ticket for the noon bus, head back home and get some sleep. During this whole ordeal, most of the girls were not very happy, but me on the other hand could not help but laugh, you no how I laugh in inappropriate situations ie: moving, this was definetly one of those situations. So 11:00 roles around and we decide to head to the bus, because I am definetly not missing this one. The bus picks us up and an hour and a half later we stop in Paekikariki.
Next we must make it to our hostel, I have never stayed in a hostel and am thinking all sorts of scary and creepy things about what I am about to encounter. But to my surprise I walked up this beautiful path into a wonderful garden and finally approach 2 homes that were the hostel. I thought to myself ok when can I move in, I was greeted by 2 dogs and some cats and fell even more in love.
After we got things settled into the hostel, we walked (not even a 2 min walk) to the beach and hung out for the rest of the afternoon, splashing in the water, playing frisbee and I attempted to throw around a rugby ball. Not much success however. That night we ate fish and chips, which apparently were to die for. I even had a bite and managed to keep it down. My goal is to eat fish and chips by the time I leave this country. We headed back to the hostel where we got to watch some "macho men" try and set up there huge "macho" tent. 3 boys and they really need a tent the size of my dorm room??? haha! After the tent was set we drank some wine and looked out over the ocean, some card games were played.

That is when it happened....
This guy I was talking to who was staying at the hostel, who was originally from London, got a text from his mom saying there was a Tsunami warning. Jane's mind--->"What I am too young to die". We looked it up on the Internet and it wasn't much of threat and was headed for the opposite side of the island. whew! Escaped that one, but in the end there was no damage to New Zealand. After the shock of a tsunami wore off I went to bed, in my little cozy room. My bed had a mosquito net!!! I was very excited about that. I slept so soundly and woke up very refreshed.

How to become a professional beach bum?...
Plan to leave on the bus that does not leave until 9:30 at night. I thought when I woke up...I am never going to survive until that late...what are we going to do? I thought I will buy an earlier bus ticket=meaning 4 tickets would have been bought for this trip haha! In the end I stayed and caught the late bus and I am so glad I did. We laid on the beach all day, watched the ocean, swam, walked around, and read. What a great lazy day in such a beautiful place and I got a pretty awesome tan to go with it. Due to the hole in the ozone layer, conveniently located above NZ I applied an entire bottle of sunscreen and managed to remain unburned...Susan would be so proud of me. Some of the girls did not bring a book, so we went back to 3rd grade and the days of popcorn reading. I was reading a book, and each chapter was a new short story, so each girl would take a turn reading aloud to the group. Something was so cliche about the whole experience, but I think I could do it everyday for the rest of my life.

We got some diner and made it to the bus stop early, I slept the entire way home and pretty much slept walked back to my room.

Today nothing special occurred just classes. Love Jane

Health update!

Just got back from my first New Zealand exercise class (a step class) and I honestly think I might die. First, no air conditioning. Second, lots of hot, sweaty people crammed into a room flailing about. Third, an instructor with a think Kiwi accent equals Jane randomly jumping around on my step all while feeling like I might either die or have a fit of laughter. I am going to go shower now and take a cold one at that. Just hope my legs do not give out and I do not fall and drown. However, I highly doubt someone could drown in a shower with the water pressure of a light mist.

Still haven't packed for this weekend yet. eeek! love Jane

The United States of America, USA, US, the states, America, California, Southern California, San Diego, and finally Escondido!

So if you are like me you have lived your whole life in one town (Escondido, CA). It always worked to say I was from Escondido, in general people knew where that was. Maybe sometimes the San Diego part was needed. Then I moved to Chico, no longer did saying I was from Escondido work, so then San Diego became essential and the Escondido part was optional. People from Southern California still knew where I was talking about. I never really thought about the fact that I lived in the United States. Never did I tell someone "oh I am from the US". It didn't occur to me that my decision to come to New Zealand would now mean I was really from the States. Ok that sounds dumb because I always knew I was from the US, just had kind of taken that info for granted. The first day here and my next door neighbor asked where I was from and I clumsily spit out America, I mean the US and all combinations of what it is called. I felt completely nerdy, how do I not even know what to call my own country, why do we have to have so many names for it. So now in my New Zealand life I must say I am from the States or the US, at times a simple California will do, most people have heard of us! imagine that? Jk Don't really know if anything I just wrote makes any sense, but at least in my head it does. Oh I have met a girl who is from Escondido though, she went to San Pasqual though :(

I DID IT!!! I went to town all by myself. I was on a mission to find some jeans, considering I only really like one of the pairs I brought and am already wearing them out. When your favorite jeans finally rip it is like a part of your heart rips also at least for me. What about you? Well I went to like 6 billion stores and no jeans, but I didn't luck out completely I ended up with a pair of shorts, and a tank top that was like next to nothing (very on sale). Oh I also bought a new fleece to replace my dead or missing fleece, not really sure what happened to it. Just not really sure this fleece will ever live up to my old fleece. OK I will stop I realize I am being a bit dramatic. I also did a first ever for me today in town, I ate at a little restaurant all by myself, I am always irrationally afraid to do that at home. I did it though, actually survived and rather enjoyed myself. I must get back into working out, as the Turkish food, slices and ice creams are catching up with me haha! So tonight I am going to a body step class at our gym. I will let you know how it pans out.

This weekend I am going on another adventure I am going to the beach with a big group of people. We are taking a naked bus there. No that does not mean I or anyone else for that matter will be naked. It is just a cheap bus system in NZ. We are staying in a hostel supposedly right on the beach. The only downside to all of this is that the bus leaves at 5:20 AM. I will definitely be going to bed early tonight. I am a little bit nervous for this trip because I have not spent much time with the people I am going with, but I am sure I will have a good time in the end and be happy I went. Well I should probably go start packing as that could take all night. Love Jane

12 days!

I have now been in New Zealand for 12 days, and am happy with my decision to come here. Those first few days were completely amazing, and now I am just starting to settle into my life here and actually live in this country. The bus is no longer foreign and is now just the way I get from here to there. I know how the dining hall works, where to get a vacuum for my room, and how to ask where the toilet is. Not that I do not still have much learning to do here, still a little iffy about lots of typical New Zealand things. Like their school supplies, I swear it was so difficult buying all my binders etc because it is way different here. No binder has a front pouch in it to stick all your loose papers. I live by the pouches in my binders haha!
Overall I think I am adjusting well though. My only issue I have realized is that at the end of the day when I am laying in bed my mind tends to wander and I get that anxiety, homesickness feeling of what in the world am I doing, but when I wake the feeling has faded am I am thrilled once again to be here once again.

So throughout this week the uni has different events people can attend. The first night I went to a hypnotist show, that was absolutely hilarious. Last night was a bizarre ball. I think all of you know how much I LOVE costumes, so I was excited. I went to find the perfect outfit and failed miserably I became a grump about the whole thing and decided I wouldn't go. Last minute Terra and I found the most perfectly bizarre hodge podge of things to wear and my outfit was complete, and I was ready for the ball. We wore flourescent yellow mens tank tops as dresses with black leggings under them. We each wore a crazy mens tie, a colorful belt, fishnet elbow length gloves, feather earrings (ugliest things ever), glow stick bracelets and did our hair crazy. The night was super fun and I got to Dress up. However, the entire time I was wishing I had my costume box in Chico, becasue my outfit would have been way better. Oh I almost forgot. I did my makeup really cool. I did one eye super smokey and dark and the other white and glittery...pretty bizarre if you ask me. Look for pictures on Facebook.

I think I am getting sick though, or maybe just really bad allergies, because I do not feel all that bad, I am really hoping and praying I do not get sick. That would make me even grumpier than having a bad costume for a party.

Tonight is a comedy show, so I am excited about that.

Well I am starting to drag, so I should go eat, but what to eat? The food on campus is not great and I only have like bread, cheese and cereal here. Sure I will find something. hmmmm...maybe a slice? Oh no I wish I had Turkish food. It is so good
Love Jane

???

OK I forgot to explain why my last post was titled the death of a fleece. During my wind farm trip, somewhere along the way my favorite and only fleece I have here vanished. Very, very sad. Well at least now I get to get a new one, but I do not really want a new one, I want my old one.

The death of a fleece, and the start of classes.

This will be quick, because I am leaving to go to a hypnotist show in a few.
So yesterday, all the international students got to go on a trip to see some New Zealand bush and visit a wind farm. I think Palmy relies mostly if not solely on wind power. It is very windy here. The little walk we did, kept making me think someone should pinch me because I can not get over the natural beauty of this country. What is even more exciting though? at the end of our short trek there was a play ground equipped with a teeter totter!!!! So of course I went on it, American playground lack in comparison, one kid hurts himself and teeter totters are yanked from all playgrounds.
Then we drove the short distance to the wind farm. You can't even imagine how big the wind mills are, well unless you have seen one yourself. The view from the hill was amazing. Then we returned to a church and had diner. Fish and chips my favorite! Well at least the chips were really good. Oh and they do not use ketchup here, they use something called tomato sauce not quite as sweet as ketchup, but still pretty good.

BUT, today I started classes. I had such nerves last night and this morning. Everybody said classes or papers here were so much different and that lecturers would not tell yoy about assigments etc. But too much relief it was just like the first day at Chico. All the teachers went over everything and I thought my classes would be huge. In my meats class there are only like 12 of us. My other 2 papers have 30-40. Well I must run to the hypnotist show.

love Jane

Luck?

So yesterday, my luck could probably have not gotten much worse. I had only gotten like 4 hours of sleep the night before. The day started with my laundry stalking. Then I was starving and I was supposed to go shopping for some new NZ clothes with Terra. That is when my luck turned around:
1. We go to meet the bus, realize there is a different weekend bus schedule and a bus comes in one hour.
2. We go to meet that bus that is supposed to arrive at 2:00 and it shows up 10min late. It gets worse, there is not enough room on the bus. So now we have to wait one more hour to get a bus. All this while I am growing increasingly hungry, never a good sign. I bagan feeling faint, shaky and like I might vom--> a normal occurence in the life of a Jane.
3. The bus finally comes, but then we realize the bus home leaves too early to actually do much clothing shopping, So we settle on that really good turkish restaurant. (and of course that didn't disappoint).
4. Earlier in the week we decided to get the seasons of sex in the city and watch them while we were here. We first checked the uni library, they had all the seasons except season 1. So in town we think ok we will get blockbuster cards and rent season 1, you guessed it? NO season 1. We setteled with season 2, bought a carton of ice cream and decide that is what we will do the rest of the night.
5. Now the emabarrasing part occurs, we tried using 3 different DVD players in several different TV rooms, and none of them would work. We are thinking are NZ DVD players different are we missing something. We began asking every individual who comes into sight if they could assist us. We become crazed with the thought of not getting to watch our Sex in the city. Eventually we beg our RA's to let us into a common room we are not supposed to be in. The DVD goes into the new player and actually work, we think finally after 2 hours of trying. We snuggle in turn the lights of and our ready for our show. However, Carrie Bradshaw begins talking, although she is now speaking French. That was the last straw and I jsut lost it in laughter. Eventually we figured out the lang. settings and got it to english and watched 3 episodes. Then went to bed.
6. My luck continues this morning and I already locked myself out (the second time in a week)

Today I am going to visit a wind farm and the manawatu gorge, I will let you know how it goes.
love Jane

Laundry? Why not Blog!

So my first attempt at laundry here angered me so, so lets hope the 2nd attempt is better. However, the laundry mat here at the hostels is FREE, nothing makes me angrier than paying to wash my clothes and a free mat was a blessing sent from heaven. So last time I did laundry it was later at night and I didn't realize my machine kept becoming unbalanced and was no longer working. Oh how it frustrated me! 4 or so hours later I finally had clean clothes. So this time I am writing this blog in computer lab by the laundry mat so that I can stalk my washer and make sure it keeps on spinning.

Last night I went out with a big group of international students, there was Germany, Norway, Canada and possibly Singapore or something like that. There was also some from iowa, new hampshire and CA! We really had fun, and did not get home until very late or possibly very early depending upon your perspectve. Once we left the last pub, we wanted to get some food. There we joined up with some Kiwi's and they said late night food is always McDonalds. All I wanted was a burrito but so far I have yet to see a single piece of mexican food. So we hit up the micky D's and there is this one completley obnoxious girl there with us. She was being so rude, I wanted to slap her, to sum it up I would say she was experiencing a complete power trip, but we didn't let that ruin our night, we simply laughed at her antics. Terra and I got happy meals complete with a strawberry shortcake stamp toy. We went back to my flat and ate there and then off to bed, to bed I said. Then I woke up had a chat with Jake and my mom, went to the dining hall and now I am sitting here stalking a washing machine.


In my spare time during this spy game in the laundry mat I thought I would compose a list:
Things I love about NZ!
1. It is so green here, like freakishly green, green beyond belief.
2. Turkish food
3. garbage is called rubbish way more sophisticated.
4. Laundry is Free!
5. My dorm room, especially my panda pillow, best $9 ever spent. Love that pillow think I will try and bring it home with me.
6. They have 2 dollar coins. So change actually matters.
7. Accents and all the fun words that come along with it. ie: jandals, togs, etc
8. Hokey pokey ice cream
9. Slices from the bakery
10. The secret garden I found on campus.
11. That somebody finally helped me turn the sound off the key board on my phone. When you would press the buttons it would say it: you would press one it would say 1.
12. Ducks, there are ducks everywhere, like I think I am on the verge of freakishly obsessed with the ducks.
13. blister band aids are cheaper here.
14. My dish I bought to put my rings on.
15. Aimlessly wandering with no plan in mind.
16. Vodka tonics made with out a fresh lime but with lime juice.
17. Everyday talking to someone new, and learning about them.

The thing I don't like, not getting to see all of you, but at least there is skype and its only 4 months.
FYI, since I became a laundry stalker my machine has not stopped spinning once, and in fact my clothes are already in the dryer, so I am going to go watch some tv. Love Jane

Sleeping in!

I have very weird sleep issues to say the least, one of my fears about coming here was that I was not going to be able to sleep, but since my very first night I have slept really good. However, I am not able to sleep in I try and try but either, the ducks outside are quaking or some other bird is making quite the ruckus or I just purely can not sleep. This morning however I decided to grace the world with my presence at 9:00am and it was beautiful.

This morning I have the AgriScience welcome at 11:30. I am excited to see what they have to say and most likely meet some people in my classes.

Oh so exciting, most of you probably saw the pics on Facebook, but my room is now my room. I got all my decoration, pictures etc up and it feels rather homey. Yesterday Terra and I went to the thrift store to try and find some decorations. The thrift store was our choice because I don't want to spend a ton of money on decorations, I am throwing away in 4 months. I got a cute kind of blue paisley saucer for my rings and then this yellow bottle (message in a bottle status) and some fake flowers to put in it. The bottle though was rather dusty so I filled the sink with warm soapy water. Wrong decision! All the yellow coloring started scraping off the bottle. So I stopped scrubbing it patted it dry and now it is more of a marbling of yellow and clear glass. Kind of looks meant to be that way.

Most importantly I got a bicycle yesterday, it is a white mountainish bike nothing to special. I got it through the green bike trust on campus. It is $50 to rent it for the semester. I am horrible at riding bikes and do not have a good track record for bike theft, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Crazy!! you have to wear a helmet here, I am half tempted to go all out and get some knee pads to go with it. This is how the helmet shopping went down yesterday at the K-Mart.

We get to the helmet section, the helmets run from $20 to $40. We do not want to spend a lot of money so we began to discuss the pros and cons of each helmet choice. Including reason that included the fashion of each helmet. After a good fifteen minutes of discussing how each helmet could either aid or harm our fashion sense we laughed and realized how fashionable does any bike helmet look. We ended up buying the cheapest matching blue helmets. Now if your lucky maybe you will get a pic of me in that flashy helmet.

Yesterday I also ate at the best Turkish place, as of now this will be the food I get crazy Jane cravings for. I ordered a small kebab and it was pretty much a foot long. How I wish I was eating that right now.

During the writing of this blog, Jake skyped me so I took a break in writing and talked to him where we got on the subject the metric system. He so lovingly tried for a good 10 minutes to try and explain to me how many pounds were in a kilo and vice a versa. Embarrassingly, still do not think I get it.

Some advice: do not drink sparkling kiwi fruit wine, could barely get through one glass it taste like grass. Well love you all Jane

Here are a few pics, for those who do not have Facebook.

Panda Bears do exist!

Yesterday, I feel I really grew up Terra and I made it to town and box not by Taxi, but you guessed it by taking the bus! Still not sure I am up for a bus adventure of my own yet. Slowly but surely my dorm aka hostel room is becoming more and more homey. I finally got thumb tacks and therefore can hang the pics my sis kat printed out for me. Oh I also purchased a pillow today which I am so happy about because I have been needing another one. Let me tell you about my pillow this is no ordinary pillow this pillow is complete with Panda Bears! I didn't want to buy an expensive pillow because I will only be here for a short period so they had this really cheap pillow at Kmart that is green and has panda bears on it. After choosing it Terra so loveling told me it reminded her of something you would find at a second hand store. ewww! However, I do have a pillow case to cover up the oddly realistic panda bear print. So dad, panda bears really do exist in NZ.
Last night I went to a place called Hell's pizza! It was really pretty good. I got a kind of Hawiianish pizza. To get there pretty much took a leap of faith. We first asked a rather crazy old women where the hells pizza was located. She then obsessed over helping us find it, which then led her to introduce us to her not so crazy daughter, and finally we were able to enjoy some cheesy pizza. Oh have I mentioned they go bare foot here even in the rain. Places they go barefoot: mall, diner, orientation, for a walk around campus and oh much more.
I have my papers (classes) sorted out I believe. I was very excited to find out that I only need to take 3 papers instead of 4 which should hopefully lead to a much more relaxing semester, and 3 or 4 papers is considered full time at Massey. The classes I am taking are animal growth and meat production, reproduction and lactation physiology and dairy production. I am really excited about taking dairy especially after touring there dairies here. I think I should become a new Zealand dairy farmer. gum boots and all?

Ok for now I am off to another adventure, I am going to go see the movie Valentine's tonight with the orientation group. Having a blast! love you Jane

2 ice creams, a pirate and a little Harry Potter!

So yesterday, they scheduled 12 whole hours of orientation. I think that is a little over kill considering the fact orienation started on the 14th and goes until 19th. However, international students are not required to go to all of it, so I will definetly be skipping the repetitive seminars. I think at this point I could give an orientation about Massey. Last night the day ended with a commencement ceremony and diner. (they feed us alot throughout orientation) This was a formal event, at least for the presenters most of the guest were just in regular clothes. A procession of town and university (uni) officials were lead to the front stage shrouded in robes that resembles graduation garb or Harry Potter. They were lead there by the town crier who yes was pretty much dressed like a pirate, I guess you could say she was the mc. Some more people welcomed us to the uni and then the town crier announced diner. The food was decent, but who cares about diner, lets get to the important stuff dessert. We sat at a table that was not quite full. So when they dropped off the ice cream cones at each table there were enough for some people to have 2 :). Not wanting to appear piggish I thought sadly to myself all that ice cream is just going to sit there and melt, but aha! one of the kiwi's grabbed a second and we all laughed and each had our own second. Have I mentioned not a day has gone by without ice cream. The night ended, I was tired so I came home watched a bit of tv, met my neighbor and went to bed.


Just a side note: Want to give a BIG thank you to my family (DAD, mom, and Kat) for allowing me to come down here! Love you guys

Error!

Correction: They do celebrate Valentines day in New Zealand!

Happy Valentines Day!

When I woke up I didn't realize it was my Valentines day until I looked at my email. I am pretty sure they do not celebrate that here!
So I have been here since the 12th. Now I am not going to say all of my moments have been amazing, but for the majority part the amazing outweighs any length of bad.
The trip over:
Well we drove to LA and on our way to the airport we ate at the proud bird, where I had the best chicken carbonara. (wish I could eat it right now) While their my parents got me a surprise going away/v-day necklace. Really love, thanks mom and dad. Then they dropped me off at the airport. I met lots of study abroaders, but they were all going to a different school, but at least I had someone to chat with. I ACTUALLY slept most of the way and the ride to Auckland was pretty uneventful. When I landed in Auckland, I was a mess. The plane was so hot and I felt like a slime ball, to top it off my phone wasn't working. Then I got miserably lost and wanted to just sit down and give up. Eventually I found another lost girl and we found our way together, I was able to change and wash my face and the man at Verizon quickly bcame my hero! Next plane trip to Palmy it was only 50 minutes. very short! I got very excited as we approached and I think I saw about a million and half sheep and cows during our descent. When I landed, I was picked up immediately and taken to Massey. They barely gave us any info and I was dropped off at my room. Complete melt down in Jane fashion then occured and phone calls home were made, but then my new neighbor came over and invited me to go to a beach party that night, and I began thinking ok I can do this.
Everyone in my dorm is 18 and a first time college student. Feel like I am watching my frist semester at Chico all over again, and feel like I am ancient. Could someone please get me a walker? The girls are very nice though. Room is small, but very nice and has a comfortable bed.
The second day:
Made it into town, got groceries and supplies for my dorm room, started to feel like it was actually my room. This girl Terra (goes to UNR) who I met through my friend Teal then there is this whole other story how she is from Grass Valley and kind of knows Jake, well she got here. It was also her bday! We went and ate Turkish food and then decided to go back to town and go out to for the night, which consisted of all types of laughs and akward what are we doing moments.
On a side note:
To all who said NZers were very casual, obviously never lived in a hostel full of 18 year old girls or never went to town at night becasue it is pretty much prom status. So Terra and I have decided we need a shopping trip stat! We definetly stood out like a sore thumb.

Well over and out, I have to get ready for my orientation.
P.S. probably lots of typos, not sure if any of this makes sense, typed very quickly

The Start!

So...Not sure how I feel about writing one these, but people are pretty much on there knees and begging for it, okay well maybe not that extreme, but I guess I will give it a try. FYI I am not promising anything though.
So about a year ago I walked into the study abroad office and said I wanted to go somewhere, one week later I was in a information meeting and now, I am sitting on my couch all packed up and ready to venture off to New Zealand. My flight leaves at 9:15 tonight and gets into Auckland NZ at 7:05 on Friday morning. That is Thursday around 11Am your time. Thats where it gets scary I then have to make it to the domestic terminal in Auckland with all of my bags. Then I board a plane that takes me to Palmerston North, I think people also call it Palmy, but not sure I am "cool" enough for that yet for that! Palmerston North is where I will be living for the next 4ish months.
Now if we could just spend some time discussing the packing situation. For those of you who know me, you know I have EXTREME packing issues. --->Hey lets get away for the night? Okay just let me pack up a weeks worth of clothing and an emergency survival kit. So from the beginning I was stricken with horror at the thought of needed to pack for 4 whole months. With much reassuring from fellow study abroaders I think I have at the very least dampened my need to pack all my worldy possessions to take with me. Can you beleive I only brought 3 pairs of jeans, pretty good if you ask me. Oh and the one quote that keeps me calm throughout this: you can always buy what you forget!
SO for now I am off wish me luck and the ability to stay calm, in any situation! Love you!