I Miss Mather

4 days!

2006-09-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

So my last weekend at home went pretty well...

Friday night I went to my sister's high school football game. I actually had a good time; saw some people I hadn't seen in forever (including a friend from high school who had been in Iraq and my high school trumpet teacher) and took a bunch of pictures for my sister and her friends.

Saturday I brought my sister to Habitat w/ me and we laid tile for 4 hours. Helped my mom w/ some of her school work, and read The Great Gatsby aloud to my sister for her English class.

Sunday morning I gave blood (and got a free movie ticket!), and Sunday night I saw "The Illusionist" at the movies.

This morning I helped my dad plant a garden in the backyard. Then Rey and I went to the beach this afternoon. Three day weekends are nice.

Tomorrow, I'm going in for one last day of work. Then I have to pack Wed. and Thurs. before I fly to Boston on Friday!! Yay!

My Puffin has left.

2006-08-28T19:27:00.000-05:00

Well, Ivy left this morning :( but we did have an awesome time... Saturday we drove to Tampa and went to a water park, then had dinner with our friend from middle school who goes to school in Tampa. And long car rides with my other half can be awesome :) Sunday we went to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, where I hadn't been in years. We saw alligators, a barn owl, and a giant cricket. And this morning Ivy flew home. Soon she will leave for Spain for the semester (Ivy, I expect lots of pictures!!!) and I will not see her again until January. Sadness. But I get to see other cool people in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!! This makes me happy. I am eagerly awaiting my reunion with Mather, Cambridge, Boston, hiking, cool people, awesome roommates, less humidity, and many other wonderful things that I have been missing for the last 3 months...

MY PUFFIN IS HERE!!!

2006-08-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

We went to the beach today, and to a Marlins game last night! :)

Also, interesting fact of the day from work: there was an old guy there today (I think he's on the Habitat board), who when he laughed sounded exactly like the Sicilian, Vizzini from the movie The Princess Bride! It was reeeeally funny!

I hate airlines!!

2006-08-22T21:49:00.000-05:00

Again! Ivy was supposed to get here at 8pm, but due to her flight being delayed, missing a connection, and then getting delayed again, she is now scheduled to get in at midnight! Why do Ivy and I have such horrible luck with flying? It was a disaster when she flew to Boston in May (thanks Faon for helping salvage the night!) and I am still bitter about the extravaganza getting to New Zealand. WHY? Ok sorry, just had to vent... and trying to keep myself awake to go pick her up...

In other news, we know who our fourth roommate is for next year... Elizabeth Miller if anyone reading this cares/is bored and wants to facebook her. Seems ok; we'll see. She cannot, however, EVER replace our awesome K-Roz, and there will be some sort of Katie Rose shrine and frequent letters sent until we get her back and smuggle her into our room in the spring!

Only a few more weeks now... very excited for the next week with my Ivy Puffin (plans to go to a baseball game and a waterpark, among other things, are in the works...)!!! But after that, very ready to go back and see you all......... yay!

Not quite Lost in Translation

2006-08-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

So for my amusing story of the week...

There's this guy at work (Rey, who by the way is Cuban and just learned English 2 years ago... this info will be helpful later) who I've been kinda-sorta-dating-ish this summer... but it was somewhat unclear. We had gone to a couple movies, to the beach, etc. So we were having the infamous "us" discussion yesterday, b/c we aren't really that serious, but he wanted to know where it stood since I'm leaving in a few weeks. We got through the 'I'm not doing another long distance relationship' part (b/c I've had enough of that for a while!), and he says, "so more like friends with um... how do you say? Friends with some opportunities?" and I couldn't stop laughing! Obviously he meant "friends with benefits," but he couldn't figure out the translation, and came up with "some opportunities" instead. Ok, so I guess it was funnier when he said it than when I'm writing it now, but it really was funny! :)

And now, off to a high school football game! (groan) My sister is in the band, and I am required to go the the games the next few weeks while I'm still here... fascinating. Oh well.

My Puffin comes on Tuesday!!!! I can't wait!!!

Beach day!

2006-08-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Spent the day at the beach, went for pizza for late lunch, then hung out in my pool for a few hours... me and five guy friends from high school (and one of their little brothers). Just like the old days. Good to see them all again, had lots of fun, but at the end of the day I still miss my roomies and the rest of my Cambridge peoples... less than a month now...

ping pong... note the awesome net made of rope and paint cans b/c I couldn't find ours.

Mark in midair about to do a cannonball.

Stevie gets pushed into the pool while about to throw David into the pool.

Back to work...

2006-08-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

So I went back to work at Habitat on Monday. The interesting story for the week ocurred yesterday morning on the construction site...
There is this old guy (well, there are a lot of them, acutally!) Bob, who must be in his 80s, and really shouldn't be driving, but of course still does. And every day he pulls his car (an old Buick I believe?) up onto the sandy area (which will eventually be a driveway but isn't yet) in front of the houses. Well, this time he got stuck. Double stuck. When he tried to back out, he managed to go so that this pipe (plastic, 6in diameter, maybe 2 feet high) got stuck between his tire and the side panel of his car. Don't ask me how he managed that; I still can't figure it out. On top of that, he was stuck in the sand and spinning his tires like crazy until they were smoking! We had to cut the pipe into many pieces with a jigsaw, dig out the tires, and lift the back of the car with a forklift while he was flooring it in order for him to get out! So basically, 20 minutes, 4 people, one hammer, 3 shovels, and a forklift later we did manage to get it out. Quite an adventure!

Other than that, I've just been tiling and painting houses the last couple days... and today I helped my mom move furniture in her classroom for a few hours after work. Exciting, I know.

Oh, one other thing. I went running again last night (and I'm sore now, pathetic, I know), and the moon was gorgeous! I decided that although I hate running, I kinda like running at night when I can watch the stars and the moon. But I must be barefoot, it's the only way to go. I'm weird. But my feet will be nicely calloused, and maybe I will remotely resemble being in shape by the time I see you people again... One more month...

The last of Australia (long, sorry, and no pics, but there are lots on facebook!)

2006-08-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

So the last week in Australia (and I put a whole bunch - but nowhere near all - of my pics up on facebook if you want to see them)...

Wed. 26/7: Up at 7am to finish studying and write postcards :) Final exam from 9-12! Yikes! Hang out for a little while and say goodbye to all the Australian students... I was very upset; I had forgotton 2 things until this point: 1) that I had really only known them for 2 weeks yet was somehow as close to (some not all of) them as if we'd been friends for years, and 2) that not only did I have to say goodbye (which I hate doing!) I would probably never see them again. The last part of the trip we would divide the 10 Americans into 2 groups, and one would go to Magnetic Island while the other went out on the boat and after a few days we would switch. I was with Scot, Danielle, Veronika, and Brittany, and we were with Raphi (the other group had Jody for a professor; Raphi is more fun) and Iain the Australian grad student. So that afternoon we took a ferry to Magnetic Island and hung out there that evening in a house they had rented.

Thurs. 27/7: Out of the house by 8:30am. Take the Zodiac (small boat) to a bay to look at fossilized oysters and take grab samples (samples of the sand/mud at the bottom of the ocean). After lunch, sieve/examine/record samples, then go for a leisurely hike to see the old fort from WWII. See koalas!!! (I spotted the mommy and her baby!) Briefly go to the beach afterward, then the pub and see part of an Australian football game on TV there. Eat kangaroo for dinner... which is surprisingly delicious! Imagine the best steak you've ever had and make it slightly more juicy and tender. It was amazing.

Fri. 28/7: Take the Zodaic out to go snorkeling... and the engine dies just after we leave the bay. Paddle/push (while snorkeling behind it) the boat all the way back to shore (it was a big bay!). After lunch, go snorkeling off the beach instead in a different bay. Pack, dinner in a pub, and switch w/ the other group... spend our first night on the James Kirby (JCU's research boat) in the bay.

Sat. 29/7: Leave the bay at 6am... and shortly afterward see 4 humpback whales! So cool! Take grab samples, go snorkeling on Lodestone reef (part of the GBR), and learn how to do swath mapping (creating pretty maps of the topography of the ocean bottom with cool technology). That afternoon, Scot, Raphi, and I go snorkeling again... this time being towed behind the tinny (little boat we take out to the reef). Raphi wanted to see if you could actually see a distinct dropoff from the reef to open water (which we verified you can!) and decided the best way to do this would be to get pulled behind the boat b/c it was too far to just swim. Everyone should snorkel while being towed by a boat at some point in their life; it is amazing. We saw angelfish, clownfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish, reef sharks, triggerfish, Napolean fish, sea cucumbers (which apparently squirt out their intestines when threatened... as did the one Raphi picked up! haha), Christmas snails (they look like Christmas trees!), and lots of other stuff I don't know the name of! We caught a Spanish Mackrel, and I almost caught a shark. Well, I hooked him, but as we were fishing with spools of line and not actual reels he cut my hands up and then escaped when I tried to pull him in. Oh well. A very satisifying day nontheless. And I got to see both sunrise and sunset in the middle of the ocean, which is beautiful.

Sun. 30/7: More swath mapping, grab sampling, a vibracore, and snorkeling starting at 7:30am. Saw dolphins! A little rough in the afternoon (but not too bad)... but everyone else wasn't feeling too great. No throwing up, but I was the only one other than the skipper and the first mate who wasn't green and lying down on the back of the boat... so I got to drive! I was just hanging out talking to the captain when he suddenly asked me if I wanted to drive - I didn't even have to ask! It was awesome. Later I helped make dinner (found out that honey drizzled on steamed carrots and zucchini is veeery good), got a tour of the engine room, had a brief lecture on reefs, and stayed up late with Raphi and Ralph (the first mate) messing with data while everyone else went to bed feeling sick. I love boats I decided, and they seem to love me luckily! :)

Mon. 31/7: Last day in Australia. Up early again, I made chocolate muffins and omlettes for breakfast... making omlettes when the boat is rocking rather heavily is very interesting. Finished the swath mapping and did a little area of seismic (looking at what is beneath the current bottom of the ocean). Had one last snorkel, this time on John Brewer Reef. Tried squid (edible, but not my favorite) and had the mackrel we had caught for lunch. Decided fresh mackrel is amazing. We got back to shore without anyone getting sick, and were back in Townsville at JCU by 7pm. We met up with the people from the other group and went out to dinner. After dinner we said goodbye Jody and Raphi (the professors), and most of us went out with Iain, Jeff (the chef from Orpheus who met us in Townsville) and a friend of Jeff's. First there was a bunch of pool playing and drinking at an outside bar area next to where we ate dinner. At 10ish we moved to the only club open on a Monday night: the Mad Cow. There was no one dancing when we got there, just 10 or so Australian guys sitting around drinking. But there was a guy playing piano and singing (and when he took breaks they played canned music), and he would play whatever we wanted, so after a few more drinks (I was even convinced to take a shot of something nasty; it was called a something cowboy, and was a mixture of a few things... anyway, really gross) we hit the dance floor. Within an hour we had all the Australians up dancing with us :) and it was soooooo much fun! Can I just say that Australians are crazy? But crazy fun. And it's weird, when I think about it now... Iain is 28 and Jeff and his friend were both 30, but I didn't feel like they were that old. I probably would have been slightly sketched out going dancing with older guys I didn't know that well in a city I didn't know at all in the US. But it wasn't weird at all, it was just incredibly fun and awesome. We danced until almost 2am before going back to JCU. I had to repack all my stuff to get it to fit, and didn't get to bed until after 3am... and had to get up at 5am. Iain picked me up at 5:20am and drove me to the airport for my 6:30am flight. After 30+ hours in airplanes and in airports, and a 14 hour time change later, I was back in Florida.

Damn, Australia was awesome.

Night Running

2006-08-06T00:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost 2am here, and I just got back from a run... I had been up for no particular reason doing nothing in particular long after my family went to bed, and at 1am I decided I wanted to go for a run. Now I was already half in pajamas, so I was still wearing jeans and a t-shirt (sans bra) and no shoes, and snuck out the back door so I didn't wake anyone up. I probably only ran about a mile around my neighborhood, but I stopped about halfway where I found an area not flooded by light so I could lie down and watch the stars. If I closed my eyes I could picture the thousands of stars in Australia and almost hear the waves lapping on the beach and the laughter broken only by Australian accents coming from inside as I walked the beach on Orpheus Island looking at the stars. And then I opened my eyes and realized it was 1:30 in the morning and I was lying on the sidewalk somewhere in my neighborhood in Naples, Florida, about as far away from Australia as I could be. But at least I had the stars, however few and faint they may be here. And I can always dream.

Australia part 2

2006-08-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I seem to have left you with life in Australia only up through the 18th... so here is the next week of adventures. We went to Orpheus Island, where JCU (James Cook University) has a research station. It was a beautiful island with a short mountain in the middle that you had to hike over to get to the other side and easy access to some georgous reefs for snorkeling. While on the island we had to do a group research project with a 7-10 page writeup and powerpoint presentation. Here goes:

Wed. 19/7: not very interesting. Looking at a dried up river; BBQ; camping.

Thurs. 20/7: Wake up 5am; break camp. Boat to Orpheus Island. Hike to the other side of the island - look at tidal pools, climb big boulders, bash up my leg. (I was told it looked like I had 2 knees; there was a bruised lump about the size of a baseball a few inches below my left knee after i tripped and fell into a huge boulder.) Dinner, ping pong, lecture, pick groups and projects.
*picture= Raphi (the Swiss professor) holding 2 halves of a coconut up as his ass... and this is during the day - no drinks were involved!*

Fri. 21/7: Begin group projects. We went snorkeling to look at coral types and such, and discovered that while it was really cool it was too rough and deep to actually collect the data we needed... so we scrap the project and come up with a new one. Again dinner, lecture, more ping pong and hanging out/drinking/dancing/singing.
*picture = Iain (hilarious grad student) on the left, and Jody (the other professor) on the right. Jody is a coral expert, and came with us to help identify different types. I'm not sure exactly what he's doing in this picture...*

Sat. 22/7: So our new project means we have to hike over the mountain again, this time carrying a bunch of stuff for research. We are looking at the layers of coral that have been washed way up above the high tide line to gather data and possibly figure out how/when they got there. Blah blah blah. Spend 8 hrs there, then come back for yep, anothe lecture and dinner. Around 9pm, I go for a night snorkel with Iain and Jeff (the chef) in the mangroves - see tons of stingrays and 4 leopard sharks! Totally cool. Sadly, no pictures of this night adventure.

Sun. 23/7: The day from hell. This is the one day I actually almost feel like I'm back at school. Spend the entire day entering data, creating and analyzing graphs and such, and writing the report. And by entire day, I mean I took breaks only for breakfast and dinner, and worked straight through until 5am the next morning, at which point I slept from 5-7am because I started shaking while I was typing. Everyone else had gone to bed hours ago, but our group was a day behind b/c we had to start over. And even the one guy from my group who tried to stay up and work with me fell asleep on me around 3am. It was a long long night.
*picture = sunset on Orpheus Island... for some reason, it's only letting me post certain pictures and not a bunch of the ones I want to, but I don't know why or how to fix it...*

Mon. 24/7: So up at 7am; back to writing the report. At 9am the take everyone out to Fantome Island to go snorkeling for a couple hours. Get back and have a couple hrs to crazily finish preparing before we have to start presenting at 4pm. I discover that though I am certainly not very coherent on 2 hours of sleep and am pulling stuff out of my ass when presenting, I apparently gave the appearance of being very calm and was told I was a good public speaker. Haha. Yeah right. Maybe I should always not sleep before I have to present stuff. Anyway, it was finally over, and there was a lot of post-report partying going on involving ping pong, music, singing, dancing, and lots of alcohol until 2am. Surprisingly, I managed to stay up that late on so little sleep... but it was so much fun! Australians really are crazy! :)

Tues. 25/7: Up at 6am to pack and clean; we had to leave with the high tide in order for the boat to come get us. Drive back to Townsville; see a wallaby on the side of the road hopping next to the bus :) That night we finally got to do laundry, and studyied (though not much - we tried the whole one person gives a massage while the one getting the massage reads key things from the notes and then you switch... it degraded to massages and not much studying. oh well!) for the final exam that was the next morning.

Now I have a LOT more pictures, but for some reason it's not letting me post any more of them... it says it is, but then they don't show up! Arg. Technology and I don't get along. If anyone know's what's wrong w/ it let me know, otherwise you'll have to wait to see them. Sorry!

Australia pictures: part 1

2006-08-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

The class in Asutralia was basically divided into 3 parts. The first 5 days out in the field followed by a brief return to the university(JCU), 6ish days on Orpheus Island then return to JCU for the final exam, then the last 5ish days on Magnetic Island and on the James Kirby (a boat). So here are a few pictures from the first week in Australia (see earlier post for description)...

This is called taking a vibracore: basically stick a huge metal tube into the ground a couple meters to see the differences in soil composition and such. Yes, it vibrates in order to push into the ground...

After a few drinks, we convince one of our professors (Raphi, the Swiss one) to do the macarena! hahaha

Of course, I had to find something to climb... this is me hanging form a vine to collect a soil sample a few meters above us.

This is us pushing the bus out of the extreme mud after we got stuck. (Later that day we would get a flat tire in the other van.)
David, Danielle, Scot, me, and Veronika in the Collinsville Coal Mine.
On the way back to Townsville the van broke down, so we had to put everyone in the bus for the last 1.5 hours of the drive... this involved 8 people sitting in the aisle! It was, um, very cozy.

I'm back! :(

2006-08-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I got home last night, after 30+ hrs of flying/being in airports... and home is still home. I guess it's nice to be back, my family apparently missed me, and it was my sister's 16th birthday today, but I really really miss Australia and all my new friends there... I wish I was going back soon. It was just sooooo much fun and I learned so much and met such great people. This is not good. I've been back for one day and already I'm "homesick" for a place that isn't even home! I mean, I was there for less than 3 weeks, but by the end it felt like I'd always been there. Anyway... sorry for the rambling.

I don't want to overwhelm you with pictures and stories covering the last 2 weeks all at once, so I shall post a few days adventures each day for the next few days until I'm caught up...

To start, here are a couple pictures from New Zealand now that I can finally put pics up since I'm on my own computer:

First, a picture of a red elephant statue in Auckland: for Ieva.

This one is a general picture of the beautiful countryside driving through New Zealand.

This is Manu Bay; where I learned to surf!!!This one is for Faon: the environment center in Raglan (where we were staying)

This is a picture of canyoning in Piha; didn't come out too great... if you can see the yellow dots in the middle, those are people's helmets; we repelled down next to this waterfall (and may others!)And finally a picture of David and the geothermal vents in Taupo.

I have lots more pics... but you'll have to wait until I see you in September to see them all!!! I'll start putting up pics of Australia tomorrow, but I'm too tired right now. Goodnight!

First week in Australia!!

2006-07-18T07:16:00.000-05:00

WARNING! This post is really long, as I try to make up for all the adventures in the last week and the fact that I probably won't have email again until the 31st, as we leave tomorrow morning for Orpheus Island...

So the people here are awesome. Firstly, they have really cool accents, but they're also a lot of fun. We have 2 professors with us: Jody (who is Australian) and Rafi (who is actually Swiss! but is now a proffesor at the university here). We also have Iain, a grad student, with us. And Jody (another one) who cooks. There are 24 students; 10 of us from the US (5 from Harvard, one from Tulane, one from AZ state, one from Wellesley, one from Virgina Tech, and one from BU). The other 14 are from James Cook University here in Australia (some from the Townsville campus and some from the Canis campus). About half of the Australians are much older than us - ages 28-42; they've already had real jobs and stuff, and then decided to go to college (which they refer to as "Uni" for university). So they have lots of interesting stories to tell! Anyway, I have to go finish doing lanudry, so here is a brief summary of the last week... I'll have plenty of stories and pictures when I get home! :)

We left Townsville Friday morning (the 14th) after an intro lecture, and drove to Alva Beach (NE part of Australia), where we set up our tents in a trailer campsite. We went down to the beach after lunch and learned how to survey (we mapped the dunes) with a Dumpy. Yes, that is what they call the surveyor tool that sits on a tripod, haha. Back at camp that night, we played hacky-sack, did our write up (which they call "practicals") for the day, had a BBQ dinner and a lecture.

Saturday (15th) we left at 8:30am and drove to Beachmount, where we discussed mangroves (and got muddy walking around in them) and took vibracores (samples of the sand/soil by using a vibrating machine to push metal tubes into the ground) on the beach. On the drive back, we stopped on the side of the road and cut down a couple stalks of sugar cane which we ate back at camp. We cut open the vibracore and did a write up of it (long and tedious). Dinner, then a lecture until 9pm. Then hung out talking (and drinking) for a couple hours and began my list of strange Australia words (which I will share sometime later).

Sunday (16th) it was still raining when we woke up (having rained all night too), and our tents were not completely waterproof, as we found out the hard way. Had a lecture after breakfast, then drove to Collinsville (a coal mining town). Stopped somewhere along the way and did a soil profile (discussing, drawing, and describing the different layers of soil). At camp (now in Collinsville), we spent a couple hours finishing the practical, had chicken curry for dinner, and then put on music and hung out dancing, drinking, and talking until about midnight. It rained on and off all evening and night again.

Monday (17th) we left at 9am and tried to drive to Gebbie Creek to look at stratigraphy (rock layering and stuff)... and ended up getting the bus stuck in some serious mud about 10km away from the site. Amusing time getting it out (I know someone has pics, though i don't), then we took this other road that was drier and went to some random dried up creek bed to do our practical. This was interesting, since the professors had never been there and were discovering things as we were. On the way back, we got a flat tire (they were dirt roads) and had to change it - so now I know how to change a tire! Had beef stew for dinner at camp and worked on our practical write-up. At 8pm, we all walked to the pub in town to finish working on our ptactical (there were benches in this courtyard area of the pub)... and from 9-10pm we had a lecture in the dining hall of the pub. Hung out there for a while afterward; bed around midnight.

Tuesday (18th - today) there was finally sun this morning! Yay! Packed up camp early and drove toi the Collinsvill Coal Mine where we got a tour. We looked amazing in our really cool bright vests and hard hats! :) Stopped for lunch in a park and played frisbee. Oh and saw a wallaby as we were driving today! Drove back to Townsville were we're sleeping on the floor of some classrooms tonight before we leave early tomorrow morning.

Basically, it's been a lot of work, but sooo much fun! And oh yeah, I'm in Australia! hahahaha :) Hope everyone is having fun! Miss you all!

Oh yea, and did I mention that Australians like to drink? As in a LOT. Every night. I've never seen people drink so much every night. Mostly beer, but some wine, scotch, and the occasional tequila. But mainly lots of beer. It's ridiculous. But they're really funny when they're drunk...

More airports, New Zealand, and on to Australia!

2006-07-13T05:40:00.000-05:00

So the adventure didn't end in Dallas... that flight was delayed b/c the airconditioning was broken and we had to wait for a new plane. So I missed the flight from LA and had to get on one a couple hours later - going through Sydney to Auckland instead of directly there. So I got to Auckland at 2pm instead of 5am on Sunday (like David did and I was supposed to)... and my luggage wasn't there. It came on yet another flight a few hours later, and they delivered it to our hostel Monday afternoon. Humph. But I made it to New Zealand....

and NZ is AWESOME!!! And by awesome I mean totally amazing and beautiful and I really really want to go back. Monday, we watched some of the World Cup final (it was on at 6am in NZ) with some people (including a couple Frenchmen) at the hostel. Then we watched some of the good surfers catch some giant waves at a beach near our hostel in Raglan. Then we went on a short (1.5hr) but beautiful hike partway up an extinct volcano... the scenery looked like Jurassic Park meets Lord of the Rings. It was crazy (yes, I have pictures). Then I took a surf lesson! The water was FREEZING (a little below 60) and even with a wet suit it was cold. But it was incredible. Usually the surf lessons are given to groups of 6-8 people, but since it was winter I was the only crazy person who wanted to go. So I got my own private lesson with Mike (nickname: Squid), who is actually from California (so didn't have a cool NZ accent), but was still awesome. Surfing is soooo much fun! Granted, the waves I was riding were much smaller than the once we had been watching people ride earlier, but I was standing by my third wave and rode in many many (some of them all the way to shore!) over 2 hrs. Must go surfing again...

Tuesday we went canyoning!! This means abesseling (rappelling) down waterfalls and jumping into pools in the river through a canyon in Piha, NZ. Soooo cool! Hopefully the pictures from my watercamera will come out well, in spite of not having a flash. This adventure took most of the day, and we were exhausted by dinnertime. (aka went to bed early)

Wednesday we went to Bridal Veil Falls (30 min hike to the bottom), chased some sheep that David wanted to pet (didn't get to though), drove through hundreds of miles of beautiful scenery, saw some geothermal vents in Taupo, and then spent the night in the car in a parkinglot. Not our brightest idea - cold and uncomfortable - but we survived. (We spent Sun-Tues nights at a hostel in Raglan.)

Thursday (today) got on a plane at 9:30am to Australia. I am currently at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. We leave at 7:30 tomorrow morning to begin the class - we will be camping for 5 days before coming back here for a couple nights I believe. Tonight, David and I did laundry in the bathroom sink. Our clothes were filthy from NZ, but we had neither Australian coins or laundry detergent, and were told that the dryers don't really work anyway. So we did laundry in the sink and hung it outside to dry. It's mainly hiking clothes, so they should dry fast...

Sorry for the exceedingly long post... I was trying to catch up on the last few days b/c who knows when I'll have computer access again! Faon and Ieva, I hope you are both recovering from your crutches nicely; make sure to eat lots of chocolate, it will make you feel better. I shall attempt to be the roommate who stays off crutches this summer though, if you don't mind... Alright, I have to go pack for tomorrow. Happy Friday!

Ok, so I lied...

2006-07-07T19:50:00.000-05:00

Guess that wasn't the last one... I am currently in the Dallas, TX airport after some crazy travels that are far from over: I was supposd to get on a plane at 1:30 to Miami, have a 3 hr layover then go to Los Angeles, have 1.5 hrs then get on a plane for NZ. Didn't work. It rained so hard and long in Naples that they eventualy decided to put me on a plane to Dallas instead of Miami b/c I would have missed my connection in Miami. But the flight from Dallas to LA only left me 45 min to change planes, which apparently isn't enough for my luggage to change planes. So they made me go get my luggage (that was already checked), and since it was too big for carryon I got to put it with the strollers. When i got to Dallas I had to get it, then run through the airport here (which is huge!) with it b/c my connection was leaving 15 minutes after we got in (b/c the plane was delayed leaving again). Turns out after I ran to my gate and hasseled with them about putting it with the strollers again, that this plane is late and I now have an extra 15 minutes. Arrg. Which means hopefully it will get into LA in time for me to stilll make the flight to NZ!! Hopefully those gates are closer togther, or I'm screwed. Why do I always have such issues with flights?? All I want to do is go to New Zealand; how hard should that be? Anyway,just thought I would share my airport adventure. See you i August for real this time! :)

Last post until August!

2006-07-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm almost packed. Have to leave for the airport in about 1.5 hours. Time for the reeeeally long day to begin: flying, flying, more flying, a huge time change, and I get to NZ at 5am on Sunday, with little to no sleep b/c I don't sleep on planes. But running on not much sleep last night (not complaining though, b/c Pirates was awesome!) maybe I can change that trend and actually get some sleep on this flight... we'll see. Anyway, the next time I talk to any of you or post will be August, but I promise to have lots of stories to tell and waaay too many pictures! =)

For anyone interested in what we will be doing in NZ, David and I are not entirely sure... we know we will be staying here: http://www.raglanbackpackers.co.nz/ and doing this one day: http://www.awoladventures.co.nz/Piha%20Canyoning.htm Apart from that, some hiking, maybe see some natural hot springs, and basically do whatever the heck we darn well please. We will have a car, b/c we decided we would get to see/do more in the short 4 days if we didn't have to rely on public transportation schedules, and besides, we found a place to rent one that it actually ends up being cheaper than all the bus tickets we would have been buying!

So basically I am sooooooooooooooooooooo excited, and I hope you have a wonderful month of July in my absence! Miss you all! Look out NZ, here we come!!!!!!!!!

Pirates!!!

2006-07-07T02:10:00.000-05:00

I just saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean!!!!!! We (me, my sister, my cousin, and 10 friends from high school) went to the midnight showing!! It's now 3am here, and I have to be on a plane at 1:30 this afternoon, and still things to do in the morning, so there won't be much sleep, but I don't care b/c I just saw Pirates! (runon sentence) hahahahaha Johnny Depp is HOT. And it is an awesome movie by the way. =) But waiting for the next one is going to be torture!! Right. Now for a few hours of sleep. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll update one last time, if not, you'll hear from me when I get back in August! Arrrg matey!

Almost going to New Zealand...

2006-07-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Firstly, update for Ieva: the World Cup has gone mad. Yesterday, England was knocked out in penalty kicks, and then Brazil lost 1-0 to France! Crazy upsets. Happily though, Germany did beat Argentina (sorry Katie Rose!)...

So to add to watching too much sports, I went to a baseball game yesterday night w/ my dad, sister, cousin, and uncle. It was fun (even though we lost), and there were fireworks afterward too.

Not much else going on... went to the movies w/ Rey (guy from work) on Friday and saw Superman. Pretty good, if predictable. Still haven't done the 1000 or so pages of reading I'm supposed to have done for the Australia class (I've done about 7 pages... oops!)... but it's a long plane ride, right? =) I leave for New Zealand on Friday!!! So excited! Ok, I should go to bed since I have to get up early for work again tomorrow... Happy almost 4th of July!

Pictures!

2006-06-28T21:27:00.000-05:00

Exciting news! I finally figured out how to post pictures!! Yay! It probably took way longer than it should have, considering there is a little picture icon... oh well. I shall give you 2 for now until I take more interesting ones...

this is the rainbow that was over my neighborhood when I drove home this afternoon... ok, so probably not really over my neighborhood, but it looked like it. I thought it was nice, and it made up for a rather uninteresting day.

and this one is me after my fight with a bush... when I was painting the wall the other day, my dad was doing the edges while I rolled the middle. There are bushes pretty much up against the wall in places, and he apparently walked through them with the paintbrush in hand. When I walked through them a few minutes later, the bushes were kind enough to deposit their aquired paint onto my face! humph. I was just trying to paint the wall, but I guess when your dad paints the bushes they feel the need to take revenge by painting the innocent bystander! haha

Faon demanded more often updates...

2006-06-27T21:41:00.000-05:00

so I'm trying. Today wasn't that exciting. Another day pounding nails on the constructions site. Then when I got home, I got to paint the wall in my backyard! Oh boy. I had painted it Sunday morning, but my dad decided it needed a second coat... In order to keep myself entertained, I was singing Monty Python songs to myself. When I got bored with that, I moved on to trying to translate them into Spanish and singing them... now THAT was funny! "Siempre mira el luz lado de la vida..." etc. Anyway... some parts of the songs just don't translate. Oh well.

Right, so I said I'd update more on this (past) weekend... Saturday I had to be at work at 7:30am to supervise 20 women from the bank who didn't want to ruin their nails. Joyous. Saturday afternoon I went with a few friends from high school to a new (small) waterpark that they opened up near my house... it has 3 slides, a lazy river, diving boards... it was lots of fun, for about 2.5 hrs. Then came the thunderstorm and they kicked us out due to lightening. We'll have to go back at some point. Sunday I painted the wall in the morning and went to the beach for a couple hours in the afternoon, until, yep you guessed it, it rained! A customary occurance in Naples this time of year... Anyway, I'm off. If I can ever figure out how to upload pictures on here (and if I take any interesting ones!) I will...

This one is for Brandon...

2006-06-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know what this means will find it amusing... to anyone else, I'm sorry to confuse you.

Brandon, I have found someone to Level 2 me in your absence. Rey, a new friend I made at work this summer, is about as ticklish as Brandon. Upon discovering that I am not ticklish, he decided to go to "Plan B" as he calls it, which it turns out is exactly the same as Brandon's Level 2! I was quite amused by this. Two guys w/ the same idea of how to tickle someone who isn't ticklish! Hahaha.

I'll update you on my weekend later, but for now I'm going to bed since I have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow... Yay!

Construction work = muscles?

2006-06-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

So it's been about a week, sorry about that. I get caught up reading everybody else's and forget to post on my own... let's see. Last weekend, didn't really do anything. Had to help run the Habitat store a couple days this week as the manager is on vacation. Always a trip dealing w/ the ornery people who come in and moving furniture all day. Have a couple nice bruises.

I am on the construction site Tuesdays and Thursdays (and Sat. this week)... doing lots of different things. Tuesday was torture (for my muscles, which were very sore Wed!). We had to put in these 8 inch long bolt screws, through two 2x4's and a few inches into the concrete foundation. You predrill holes with this giant drill (one of the guys did that; not only was I not strong enough, putting all my weight on it wasn't enough! the guy doing it luckily weighed more than me) and then hammer the bolts in (this is what I was doing)... they get put in about every 2 feet around the entire perimeter of the house! I put in well over 50 of them, and my arms were soooo sore afterwards! Maybe I'll actually have muscles by the end of the summer! haha
Thursday morning was pretty mundane. But Thursday afternoon I got to go on the roof! Yay! I was putting a layer of tar and the first piece of black stuff that goes under the shingles around the perimeter of the roof. Please note that it's been in the mid to upper 90s for weeks now, and working on a black roof does not help this. It was HOT. But lots of fun. I decided I like working on the roof (this was my first time). I did come home with tar all over my hands, arms, and pants though... that was fun to get off.

And now it is almost the weekend! I got off work early today b/c I have to go in tomorrow to supervise a big group from a bank that is coming to put up siding... which means I will be teaching people how to hold hammers and end up doing all the cutting b/c they're afraid of the saw. Oh well. Should be interesting. I get to supervise! hahahaha I'm in charge now...

Have a good weekend anyone reading this! Miss you all!! =)

Salsa!

2006-06-15T19:31:00.000-05:00

Ha! Finally something interesting to post! I was out on the Habitat construction site again today (I'll probably be spending half my time there and half in the office), and we were laying tile. When we were working on Tuesday, we had music on (mainly Mexican) and there was a lot of singing and they tried to get me to dance. I told them I didn't know how, but if they would teach me I would dance... so today, though we didn't have music (sadly) one of the guys attempted to teach me to Salsa! I say attempted, b/c they were laughing at my poor attempts the whole time, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. =) He said we would continue dancing lessons next week...

Most of the people who work at Habitat are in their 30s-40s (the volunteers are more in their 60s...) but there are a few younger guys there this year (unusual for Naples!) On the construction site I've been mainly working w/ these 2 guys Rey and David (I think they're a year younger than me) - we went to lunch together today, and Rey is the one who was teaching me to Salsa. They are hilarious! I think we're going to go to the movies tomorrow... finally things to do in Naples! (most of my friends are away right now)... anyway, I think I shall go watch a baseball game now, as I once again missed the World Cup games while I was at work. Sigh.

This is for Ieva

2006-06-12T22:40:00.000-05:00

So Ieva requested updates on the World Cup... here goes!
Friday, I watched Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2; very exciting! Saturday, I watched England beat Paraguay 1-0. The only goal scored was a Beckham corner kick that went off the head of a Paraguay guy to score! It was a crazy game. Then, Trinidad and Tobago tied Sweeden 0-0 for a huge upset (T&T was supposed to get crushed); also very exciting!
I missed what happened yesterday... I'll have to look online. Today, I was at work and did not get to watch the US get crushed by the Czech Republic 3-0 or Italy beat Ghana 2-0 or Australia beat Japan 3-1.

For the rest of you not interested in the World Cup or already keeping up on what's going on, the only thing interesting I have to report is that I started work today. I'm working at Habitat for Humanity (where I worked last summer)... today I was in the office and also helping in the store they have (people donate stuff and they sell it cheap; I suppose it's a thrift store of sorts, but all the profits go to Habitat); anyway, I moved a ton of furniture and worked 10.5 hours today. And tomorrow I have to be on the construction site by 8am. Yay! So I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight!

World Cup

2006-06-09T12:56:00.000-05:00

And Germany has just defeated Costa Rica 4-2 in the opening game of the World Cup! Yay Germany!

Uninteresting

2006-06-07T19:50:00.000-05:00

Hmmm... so I know nothing about blogging, and have nothing interesting to say. I really just wanted to be able to post comments on other people's blogs, but it wouldn't let me post anonymously. So now I have a blog.