Monday was Amanda’s 22nd birthday, and she had the awesome idea of having a pot-luck where you wear whatever makes you look absolutely cray-cray. I went with a dream of mine…. Bathrobe and rain boots. I love bathrobes, and think they should be implemented in the dress code at offices around the U.S. It would make the nation a much happier place. Mike won the best costume prize in my mind, since he sported “Italian swimwear”, a cowboy hat, tattoos, and a blow-up air guitar…. Vaness and I decided to make Mac and Cheese and the classic 7-layer dip. Both items turned out great, but I seriously wanted to file a complaint at Food Town due to the lack of ingredients. We improvised… a lot… and when people asked for the recipes, Vaness and I just looked at each other and laughed. Annie was the birthday-party-surprise-planner-extraordinaire, and we were able to sneak Amanda out to fill her room with balloons. By the end of the night, the balloons were used in a crazy rave/dance party/ balloon fight. Too much crazy fun. I love seeing people happy, and my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard…. Good night. It was also fun to watch people’s reaction when they saw my outfit in the elevator…. Especially when I they started talking about me in another language I can’t understand.
Pumpkin-carving was another way my roommate and I found joy in the week. The activity sounds simple, but pumpkins aren’t the same on the other side of the world. They are heavy, greenish, and look like big, Alice-in-wonderland apples. But, that doesn’t stop two girls on a mission. We found two pumpkins at the Asian market, and had to use some major muscles to even get the knife through the tough skin and thick inside part. These pumpkins were definitely only supposed to be used for cooking. When Kaitlyn first saw them, she flat out said, “That is by far the ugliest pumpkin I have ever seen!” After a few hours and a lot of laughing, we had cut off the tops and were attempting to cook some pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin was surprisingly good, and the seeds were surprisingly bad- the lack of oven had a big affect on the crispy factor of the seeds… looks like I will admit cooking defeat on that one. At the end of the night, Kaitlyn had one mean looking pumpkin with a goofy face, and mine had a bat shaped object next to a half-moon. We were pretty proud of them, and they helped us realise that Halloween is only two weeks away!Thursday brought about the IFSA Butler Farewell Dinner.It was another reminder that our time here is running out. Cara and Alex made the trip up from Wellington, and it was so good to catch up with them! They have such kind spirits and are great people. It’s rare that people are able to put others before themselves- and both Alex and Cara have gone above and beyond to help us! The dinner was in a Japanese restaurant, which was a first for me. We all sat on the floor and watched a slide show of our adventures together while eating a variety of food that came scattered throughout the night. Looking back at orientation photos seemed like ages ago, but just yesterday at the same time. Each member of the group got an award from the rest of the group, and I was awarded the most likely to find herself in an awkward situation- true fact right there. If anything awkward or embarrassing has an ounce of a chance of happening… it will… to me… in public. It was sad to say goodbye to the IFSA Butler staff, but I have a feeling I will see them again. Plus, the office is a 2 minute walk from Theta back in Indy!
That Friday I decided to change my life room around- it was much needed, and my bed is now in the perfect position for the “Flying Squirrel” manoeuvre of running and jumping on my bed from the kitchen. After a little convincing, I got a video of each of my roommate’s interpretation of “flying squirrel” that I will never post for public viewing, but it makes me laugh so hard. It was a great, goofy start to the weekend.
Saturday brought a good talk with Ash, and some great advice of taking care of myself. She said my job was to eat ice cream and go shopping… so that’s what I did. Kaitlyn and I were the only ones left here, since Sarah and Jasmine went to Taupo to go skydiving. We decided pretty early on that we would make our room into a fort…. Because we can. Before getting to work
setting up the table and couches, we headed down to the Diwali Festival of Lights on the Viaduct harbour. It was an Indian festival that featured a bunch of food, crafts, and dancing. We watched the cutest kids dance and sampled some food before we headed back to the UniLodge. Kaitlyn and I had a great time putting together the fort, but we forgot how much harder it was to crawl through things when you are over 5 ft. tall. Some cookies and ice cream made the night perfect and we slept on the kitchen floor. Because we can. The only downer of the night was that both our pumpkins got greener… in a mouldy kind of way. 5 days…. Wow. So, we lit some candles and watched them glow for a while before throwing them out.Sunday was one of the best days we’ve had in a while, so Kaitlyn and I got up to do work, lay out in the sun shine, and hit Piha beach with my Kiwi friend Richard. Jenna joined us on a relaxing day out on the black sand, which was pretty crowded with people. Some of Richard’s friends met up with us, and we all ended up laughing and giving each other a hard time. People really make the place- and your experience. The place will pretty much always be there, but the people wont. And that hit me during church, when I looked down, did some mental math, and found out that we have less than a month. I know there is no way to slow down time, but I would try anything right now. Jess got done with her fast for Church, so we headed to Burger Fuel for some food after the service. The guest speaker was a preacher that was also an artist and had painted the book of John… so cool. The paintings are pretty abstract, but I’ve never seen anything close to it.
So that leads me to right now, looking out my window at Rangitoto and Auckland and listening to a mix of John Mayer, a Spanish rock band, and Colbie Caillat. Each was given to me by a friends in different stages of my life- funny how it makes your heart beat a little faster…. Hope you all have a great week, and love and miss you all!!
No comments:
Post a Comment