Friday, February 18, 2005

The Answer To The Question-Tree 63

FRIDAY FEB 11

Hey! Well, as you have been reading my blog in the past few days you've been kinda getting the idea of what life at Capernwray New Zealand is like.

So this afternoon we had off, no classes/lectures because it was Friday, so me, Eric Schilling, Graham, Stacey and Ruth all decided to walk to Cambridge which is about an hour in walking terms. Driving there only takes about 5-7 minutes but we felt like walking cause then we could entertain ourselves on the way there. 'Twas quite fun and got some sweet pictures with random signs. My favorite one is a bright pink sign with a seatbelt buckle on it saying "Click itor Ticket". It's awesome.

We did some shopping in Warehouse which is the New Zealand equivalent to Walmart and SAAN store. Yay for cheapness. I bought an insane amount of stickers there. So if you want me to write you a letter, you gotta write back though, just e-mail me your mailing address and you will most likely get a letter immersed in stickers. And i also got a cool shirt and a really awesome classical music sampler which I'm listening to at the moment.

Then after that we had supper at a real fish and chips place. It was real fish, none of this processed business. Totally good! i recommend it if you ever travel to NZ. Then we took some random pictures with the statues that were in town. And proceeded to CountDown which reminds me alot of Extra Foods/IGA and those type of stores. What I really want to buy one day is this really cool lookin cereal that they have there.It's called "Eat My Shorts" and it's got a picture of Bart Simpson eating cereal bits in the shape of shorts. I really want to try it someday.

After that we headed home, however it started to rain. The rain at the time was kinda refreshing as we were walking. Then we ended up catching a ride back to Capernwray with one of the staff members here. So it was kinda like we were hitch hiking but not really...anyway we made it fun.

Now the rain is just coming down. so much for putting my clothes outside to dry, they're probably even more wet now than they were in the washing machine. i'm not too worried though *shrug*. It happens.

So I think the plan for tomorrow it that we're going to eat Tim Tams and do Tim Tam Slams and transfer pictures from my camera to Graham's computer so that's cool. Yay for crazy friends. There might even be a bit of "Family Guy" watching 2morrow cause Graham's got it on him computer.....shhh! Don't tell anyone k? ;) I'm excited for that if it's happening..

it's only 10:30 at night here..and curfew isn't until midnight on Fridays...why am i so tired??

I didn't realize how much i missed listening to classical music until i got this CD. I used to listen to 105.5 FM in S'toon cause then it kidna kept me focussed on classical music for my audition for U of S. Classical music is just so relaxing and comforting and peaceful and the perfect studying music. Ah, it's just so nice.

Oh speaking of studying our very first bible study was due today. The past few days were a couple of confusion, too many questions, and i think people were looking WAY too much into the deeper meaning of the passage. like WAY too deep. Maybe that's just me cause i did my best and if i fail horribly well then it's a learning experience right?? I'm not too too worried but hopefully mine goes over well. i haven't been to actual classes and school in 7 months and it just feels so weird to just be throw back into it again when i've been out for so long. Does that make sense?

i guess that's it for today. Hopefully something interesting will happen tomorrow. Back again just to tell you guys that there's always singing going on over here. Whereever you go there's always someone singing. The "staple" song that most of the guys sing is "A Whole New World". I'm really amazed that they know those lyrics. I love it. I know I've told many of you this but..OH THE CHARACTERS YOU WILL MEET AT BIBLE SCHOOL!! *sigh* i love it here!

SATURDAY FEB 12

So I"m sitting here sweating like a pig, but I guess I'll tough it out if I *have* to e-mail you. The hair on the back of my knees s starting to curl so it's kinda weird, but a buncha people told me that when you turn 18 you start growing hair in weird places, such as, say, your back and the underside of your knees, but *anyways*, I should get goin'. O and guess what! I've gained 16
pounds since I arrived! YaY!!!!!! I love you al! Hugs and kisses! *mua*!

JUST SO YOU KNOW I DID NOT WRITE THAT LAST PARAGRAPH...GRAHAM DID, JUST TO be
DUMB : P

What i was trying to say what that I"m sitting here listening to beautiful Josh Groban and I was showing Simon how good Josh was. Simon said that if i head to judge Josh Groban based on his voice he would say that he's a sissy and a wuss. Then he said that JG sounds warm and soft...kinda like a pie. Or to be more specific... sugary apple plum sauce on an apple crumble pie. Oh the characters here!! Then he starts singing "Oh bring us some figgy pudding or a full helping of Josh Groban". LoL!!

Some of us just finished watchin a few episodes of Family Guy. Man, that totally made my day...totally reminded me of watchin it with my boys back in S'toon. Man i miss those guys. We watched "Too Sexy For His Fat" and the Petoria one.
"As you may be presently right now fully be aware of, my grammar sucks!" from the Petoria episode ;)
Oh you boys, in S'toon, know which one episodes i mean ;). So now i think the plan is that we're going to eat our pack lunches in the garden here. But for now we're just hanging out in the student lounge in the Homestead.

Lunch was good..yay for sandwiches and chips! w00t! Um, can't really think of anything else to tell you at the moment. But i think now me, Graham, Mark, and Stacey are all going swimming. Yay for a pool being here. Oh oh! I figured out how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the guitar. Well, from just picking at the strings and playing around on the frets. Guitar is such a cool instrument to play. you just pick it up an go. Not like sax though. With sax you gotta get the next strap on, adjust it, find a good reed, put that in the mouthpiece, adjust that, attach the sax to the mouthpiece and neck strap and again with the adjusting. *sigh* It's almost a hassle at times ;) but still worth it.

Oh here's a fun fact for you: our chef here actually used to cook in a hotel
resturant so the food here is usually pretty good. yay for good food :)

Apparently we're not supposed to be watchin movies on Saturdays....stupid Life File. That's are student handbook which has all the Do's & Don'ts of Capernwray. Like we can't put pictures on the wall, no out loud music except on Friday...stuff like that.

Oh Jake and Matt have a word that only applies to me and Stacey and our actions. It's called MEESING. Still not quite sure what it means, like what it means specifically but I"m sure I"ll figure that out within the next 5 months. :)

SUNDAY FEB 13

Last night, me, Ray, Graham, Ruth, Eric S., and Jake had a Tim Tam Slam fest and played some "mind games".

The first one we played what the Cow game. It's really hard to explain over an e-mail so I'll have to show you sometime when i get back k? It's a thinking kind of game and usually i totally suck at those types of things but surprisingly i caught on really fast. In fact i was the first one to catch on (besides Graham cause the one that was teaching the game)! Yay for me!

Then we played "The Dream Game". Now for those of you who were at camp this year you might know how to play this, for those of you who weren't at camp...I'll teach you later ;) In Ray's dream all of us were in the jungle wearing loincloths and fighting for a sandwich while mud wrestling and there were cows and a goat was watching too. LoL! Sorry, i guess you had to have been there.

Then we played "In Wally's World..." For example : In Wally's world you can have yellow and green but not black and blue. If you have played this then you know it's easy. I've heard of the game before i even before I came to New Zealand but the first time i played it i got SO frustrated that i quit and never figured it out. So this time when i played it, i was at the point of not caring anymore cause i was SO frustrated that i couldn't get it and everyone else caught on. Then i really listened to what everyone was saying and all the things that could be "In Wally's World..." and i caught on! (I'm not gonna tell you the trick cause that would ruin the game for you if you haven't played it). It took my about 20 whole minutes but i finally caught on to it. I felt kinda dumb cause the anwer was SO stinking simple... but everyone else was having fun laughing at my frustration, so maybe it wasn't so bad. :)

Today i went to chruch at Bridges in Cambridge. The church is actually called Bridges and me, Ben-German, Vicki and Matt A. are all leading the Extreme Team at that church. Basically it's Youth Group for 10-12 year olds. So it's more like Junior camps (at Stoney) then youth group but you get the point. Today we just hung out with the kids in the town square to just play some games with them ("I've Never" and "Moose" were the games) and just to get to know the kids alot better. They're sweet kids, a bit rambunctious at times, but what can you do *shrug*.

I kinda don't like the fact that i sorta have to go to Bridges church because I"m part of extreme team, cause i like being able to pick my own church, but I still like Bridges. Did that make sense? Basically i would have like to pick my own church but i still like Bridges. The church setting is really informal cause at first glance you may think it was a casual coffee house with Christian music playing. I like that, it's different.

Well Valentine's Day is tomorrow...and i probably won't have a Valentine from anyone. though I told Eric S and Ruth that I'd make them Valentines with the insane amount of stickers that i bought the other day. Oh and me, Ruth and Stacey are going to wear some extremely cheap tiara's that we bought at Warehouse tomorrow too. That'll be fun. But i'll tell you more about that later...

Oh if you're wondering what my phone number here at school is it's....
011-64-7-823-0108
or
011-64-7-823-0208
Just remember that I'm 19 hours ahead of you guys (if you live in Sask.). Please feel free to cal between 2-5 p.m. and 8:30-10:30 MY time. that's MY time. So if you call and the phone are just ringing and ringing either we're in lectures, eating, or of the premisis. So ya...feel free to call.

MONDAY FEB 14

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Even though by the time you read this it will be WAY past Valentine's Day, but it's the thought that counts ;). Oh two of my roommates got flowers for Valentine's day... Stacey got flowers from her dad and Amy for flowers from her boyfriend. I can't help but be a little bit jealous....but I'm going flowers from a guy someday. You just wait and see...

Anyway, as you all know Kiwi's (New Zealand people, just in case you didn't know that) speak english, however their "dialect" of english is a bit different. They have words that mean normal enlgish words. Observe...
jandles = flip flop/sandal
togs = swimsuit
torch = flashlight
trundel = shopping cart
That's all i know so far, but I"m sure I'll learn more along the way. Okay well i"ll probably be back later cause i really should get to my bible study or other such work.

Oh fun fact: there's 3 Eric's here at school so we kinda have to find nicknames to distiguish between all 3 of them. So far we only came up with a nickname for Eric F....Indianna. That's mainly cause he's FROM Indianna. If you're wondering why i thought of that it's cause I'm listening to the theme song from "Indianna Jones" at the moment.

Oh oh! Last night we also played "The Scissors" game. Remind me to teach it to you guys sometime k?

Oh my goodness!! I"m SO excited for tonight cause the guys are planning a Valentine's DAy dinner for us girls! OOOHHH! So excited! Apparently us girls are supposed to wear our Sunday best and smelly pretty. Well that's what it said in the invitation. Yay! I"ll tell you more about it when it actually happens....Yay!

Aw, i just had teh BEST Valentine's day ever!! First of all the guys all dressed up in their suits and ties...believe me...i almsot fell over cause they just looked SO good. Oh my! Then they escorted us to table and chairs that were set up outside for just us girls. Spencer was my escort..aw! They even had roses for us! I almost started crying cause not only did the boys look good they were been even more sweet than they usually were. AW! Then they served us chicken and veggies. and while we ate, Lance and Simon entertained us. Simon played his guitar while Lance sang "Hero" to all of us and he was even wearing a sombrero!! Fun fact: David has cuff links that said "Make love not war". He's married so that applies to him. I got picture with me and pretty much all my guy friends here. Aw, they just looked SO good...I LOVE guys in suits. SO good lookin! If i get a boyfriend by next Valentine's Day...well he's got HUGE shoes to fill.

WEDNESDAY FEB 16

This week here at school our speaker is Ray Andrews. He likes to emphasize personality types and how to use those for God. He's a really energetic speaker so naturally i like him as a speaker! Well last week we did a temperment test to see what personality we were. Now we got the tests back and I'm a "Social Feeler with a little bit Doer/Thinker". I"ll explain the definition of that later on cause it's lengthy and when you read it you will totally know it's me...

I"m a Compulsive Feeler with some Doer/Thinker...
I have a compulisive need for love,acceptance & Approval from my friends and I
need high amounts of social interaction.
I may find myself needing my own space & time out sometimes &will drain away. I have some need to meet your goals & ideas through my friends and enjoy a
challenge.
I need to watch subjectivity-reading life through the emotions.
I make otehr people feel loved, needed & wanted & they would enjoy being with
me.
I like to be the center of attention, are a people-pleaser, enthusiastic,
outgoing, warm but would also be irresponsible & lacking in self discipline at
times.
I empathize well & are sensitve to the needs of others.

Sound like me??? Cause whenever Ray mentioned the behavior traits of a Feeler, i knew exactly what he was talking about. yay i know more about myself! i went up to my friend Jamie and told him "I'M COMPULSIVE!!" Of course i explained why to him but i think i scared him in the process. Hehehe! Mission accomplished ;)

FRIDAY FEB 18

Yesterday was a day full of, well i guess you could call them adventures.

First of all there was about 30 of us that decided to donate blood for the blood bank. It was my first time donating and I wasn't scare of the needle at all. No worries. Except Bianca and Nikki ended up fainting afterward so that wasn't too good. I personally thought it was fascinating how they can take blood out of you, mix it with some kind of chemical so that it doesn't turn to gel and give that to someone else to use. I feel like I've contributed to NZ society. It's a
great feeling.

I was feeling fine until the ride home. Remember how i said that NZ roads don't work well with me? Well by the time we got back to school i was feeling quite dizzy and wasn't really looking forward to our family night where we had to drive about an hour to Mt. Maunganui. But I was able to just chill out for about half an hour before we left so that calmed my body a bit.

While waiting for our families to leave, Ben English (there's two Ben's here at school, Ben-German and Ben-English [those are their nicknames], you can just guess where Ben English is from) taugh me, Dan, Katie, Vicki, and Soo how to play Screaming Ninjas. I'll have to show you sometime. Such a funny game!

So we got everyone from our family organized and we were off. There was one van taking our family and then Steph took me, Laura and Katie. The scenery as we were driving by was really sweet and i started taking pictures of it. I knew i should have done that cause when I'm in a moving vechile and it's on winding roads and I"m looking at something small (like reading or looking at my pics on my camera) i tend to get dizzy. Well I just stopped with the pictures, turned on some tuneage (music) and tried to have a nap but i could still feel the car moving all over the place cause of the roads. So my head wasn't feeling too great.

We got to Tauranga/Mt. Maunganui and then we ended up loosing the van and we kinda lost and there were so many roundabouts that we had to go around, and that was totally adding to my dizziness. Then we finally stopped and Steph had to open my car door for me cause....well let's just say....the next minute my lunch was on the side walk..Yuck, not a pretty sight but i did feel better and not as dizzy!

Then as soon as I was done my thing, our family found us as we went for some real fish and chips. None of this fake preservative frozen fish and chip business back home. Here if you get fish and chips you get the real deal all wrapped in newspaper, like when you take it out, cause i guess that keeps the grease doesn't get all over the place. So incredibly good and filling and we also ate it on the beach so that totally added to teh effect. An actual fish piece is about 4 x 6 inches big. That's pretty good compared to the boxed type fish and chips you guys are probably eating back home. Fish SO good down here!

As we were eating our fish & chips there was a bunch of seagulls there and i got a couple videos of them to show all you Finding Nemo fans out there. "MINE"!! Oh you'll know what i mean when you see the videos...

The scenery was so nice at the beach cause there were a couple large rocks close to shore (kinda like mini islands) that were a sweet foreground to the purple, pink and blue sky. Don't you worry, the pics will either be shown to you & they'll be on the blog when i get back.

Then we proceeed to go to the hot springs at the base of Mt.Maunganui. It reminded me alot of the mineral spa at Watrous except these pools were outdoor and they were heated with the heat of the volcano, cause Maunganui is actually a small volcano. It is awesome to just relax in the water and chill out. After our dip in the hot springs most of the people in my family pigged out a bit on waffle cones at an ice shop called Copenhagen Cones. So good. I think they even
make their own cones cause i saw a waffle press in the window.

On the way home it was darker so the winding roads didn't affect me as much. Oh funny story! So Steph was driving again and there were some pylons in the middle of the road. She said that she always wanted to drive with the door open and knock some pylons down. Of course the rest of us said she should do it cause it would be funny. so of course she did!! I think she even knocked quite a few down. It was awesome!

Man I think everyone should get a massage when they are typing! Ruth and Stacey were just giving me a sweet massage.

Anyway i think tonight my Extreme Team is taking the kids to the LADS concert. LADS are a Kiwi Christian rock band so I'm pretty excited about that. Oh speaking of live performances, there's a Shakespeare in the park thing happening Sunday morning at 4:00. Ya you read that right, 4:00 IN THE MORNING is when the thing actually starts. I'm kinda excited cause not only is is Shakespeare but it'll be cool watchin a play with the dawn. That just even sounds cool!!
Well just got back from the Lads concert. I liked them, mainly cause me and some girls from school were all dancing around have a good time dancing around and just having fun. Hopefully our Extreme Team had fun because most of the kids left before the concert was over. Oh and i also bought one of their CD's, I'm excited to show you guys it. I think they're pretty good. I guess i could describe their style as pop/rock/upbeat type of music. There were also two other
bands that played Holy Rollers and Zebulun and they were pretty good too.

*sigh* kinda tired now and Ray's been bugging me since i sat down at the computers..*sigh* such craziness...

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