Summer Summer Summer

For some reason, blogging sounded like a fun thing to do right now. 

So here I sit in my new reading chair that looks like this

Just kidding. But doesn't that look sweet??

Either way, I'm on my new laptop because my old laptop totally shit the bed. I mean, literally fell apart into two pieces. Ridiculous. 

Am I supposed to cuss on this thing? Probably not.

Oh well, I said it. Can't take it back now.

It's summer time. I was actually never a huge fan of summer, even in my middle and high school days. I'm still not. I just prefer the school year for some reason.


Maybe it's just because I'm a nerd. Or maybe it's because, despite my completely unstructured lifestyle, I've learned that I need a set schedule day-to-day in order to not go crazy or completely seclude myself.

Don't get me wrong, seclusion can be nice sometimes (hence, the new reading chair and the crazy amount of use that it's gotten... seriously, I think I live in it) but I have a tendency to be an extreme person so maybe it's not the best idea for my life.

My extreme personality has come out in full force this summer:

I attempted to do this 17 Day Diet thing with my sister. Psh... epic fail. I was 10 days in and eating this type of stuff

except not quite as much food.

But I was dreaming about this

 before I finally just gave in and ate some Papa John's Pizza (110% worth it). I then proceeded to eat reeces and ice cream. Then I drank some Dr. Pepper. Then I ate some cake


 Apparently when I fall of the band wagon, I fall hard.

Needless to say, by the end of the night I thought I was going to puke but, I'll tell you something, I was very happy. And I think my family was too. Something about me not having food tends to turn me into this... 

I'm also attempting to figure out my life. You know, going into my senior year and all. Ugh. Gross. I hate growing up. If I have to fill out one more application for the future I might just scream.


I feel like I'm living T.I.'s lyrics: "Hindsight 20/20, Future not as clear." Thank you Christopher Joseph Harris, Jr. for your words of wisdom (yes, that IS T.I.'s real name... and yes, I am just using this opportunity to reveal that I know that).


But, for real, I spent the night at my cousin's house last night and stayed up super late, just like the old days, and we were just marveling at how old we've gotten and how life has changed and how much it's going to change in the coming years. Weird. Weird. Weird.


When did this happen?? I wish I could just stop time for a second or two.


Eh, oh well, that's all I got for now. And probably for another while. But I shall leave you with some lyrics from a band that I can't stop listening to, Florence and the Machine, not because it relates in any way at all. In fact, it doesn't relate at all. It just sounds like the cool thing to do and it's my blog so I can do what I want:


I took the stars from my eyes,
And then I made a map,
I knew that somehow,
I could find my way back,
Then I heard your heart beating,
you were in the darkness too,
So I stayed in the darkness with you.

I'm Back

Well I just got back from dinner with some of my favies (yes, favies.) who are new-found bloggers. And as I sit in Milliken, contemplating the complexities of Colin Wells argument in his essay, "How Did God Get Started?" for my theories class, I just can't help but realize that I would rather be doing literally anything besides this paper.

So, to quote a track from the once-proclaimed "King of the South" artist T.I., "Like a G I hold it down for the town I'm at. In a flash like that, recognize I'm back."

BOOM. BLOG WORLD. I'M BACK.

Clearly I have returned from New Zealand (against my will, of course) and am now back in the good ole U-S of A. I did take a side trip to Australia that I have yet to explain. Perhaps one day you people will get those stories. Who knows? Not me.

So here I sit, across from Sarah, who I just awkwardly stared at, and am still awkwardly staring at. Creepy, I know. Now we are creeping on each other. Awesome.

Literally, what do people write about in blogs?

I'm going to be honest, this is probably going to my last one. But it's been real. And it's been fun. And it has allowed for further procrastination on my part.

As I depart, I leave you with the words that are pumping through my speakers, motivating me to press on with this paper. These words are the words of a small-time hero of mine, Marshall Mathers, or as most people know him, Eminem:

"Cause sometimes you feel tired, feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up. But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength and just pull that PAPER out of you and get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse."

Eminem, you always know exactly what to say to speak to my heart.

PEACE AND BLESSINS.

"Don't tell me where the road ends, cause I just don't want to know"

So since I have returned from the past South Island excursion I have spent my time trying to savor all that Christchurch has to offer while enjoying the company of my favorite people at the same time. It's so weird to think that, very shortly, I will no longer be spending every day with these people. They have become some of my best friends and leaving them, and this place, is something that I really don't like to think about. But, I kind of have to think about it because Shona and I leave for Australia in one day. And my room is completely packed up. So goodbye is becoming a serious reality.

In the meantime, our days have been filled with dreads everywhere at Dux-de-Lux along with chill reggae music. There has also been the occasional "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" heard from the casinos as we've made friends with fellow players and dealers. There was the sadness that was felt when I hugged our program coordinator, Eunice, goodbye for quite possibly the last time at our final IES get-together. There has been shopping for Australia and, of course, the ever delicious Pita Pit has been eaten. There has been heaps of excitement when people ask us for directions because we actually look like we know where we're going now. There has been a whole lot of relaxation as we celebrated Courtney's 21st birthday by watching Eat Pray Love in the cutest little local theater in Sumner and then surprising her by spending the next day at a spa getting massages at the greatest place in Diamond Harbour. Perhaps this part was less relaxing for her since we felt the need to blindfold her two hours prior to arriving in Diamond Harbour and continually lead her around aimlessly while confusing her about what we were actually doing. Oh, my bad. There has been lots of throwing rocks at windows and laughter and talking and a general sadness about leaving.

Sitting and waiting in the Bus Exchange today for 20 minutes was all too bitter sweet as I realized this may be the last time that I do that. Walking home alone at a ridiculous hour of the night was far less sketchy last night as I realized that it would literally be the last time that I did that. The walk to Ilam Apartments was nostalgic, to say the least. Dinner last night was just plain odd, because I knew I would never have dinner with this family again. And my room is pretty much just depressing. It is completely packed up and I can't help but realize that this is no longer my room starting tomorrow. This is the last night that I will be able to think of this home as my home.

I still have a full week of excitement ahead of me in Australia. And when I get back, I have one full day to enjoy Christchurch for the last time. And trust me, I am going to enjoy it and I am still living it up. But, still, moving out of my house is sad. This room is far too empty.

Rippin' through the Eggs... (South Island Officially Conquered)

Well guys, SCHOOL IS OUT! I finished up last Friday with a couple papers and since I have NO EXAMS, I'M DONE! You know what that means?? ... TRAVEL TIME!

I turned in my last papers and then literally immediately hopped in a camper van and set out for another adventure around the South Island. For real, this place has now been more than conquered. We set out on the road with a great soundtrack to accompany our ride. And so it began...

So Friday afternoon brought us our first stop: Lake Tekapo again. Oh man, still so freaking beautiful. I really like going back to places that we've visited before. The sense of familiarity makes me realize how much this place has become home to me. We saw a pretty crazy moon rise and sun set on our way out. And when I say pretty crazy I mean quite possibly the prettiest that I've ever seen, which is saying A LOT. Especially considering where I am right now. After marveling at this beauty for a long time, we parked our camper van at Lake Pukaki and made at some dinner as my over-tiredness and Cathy's general HONL outlook on life clashed and the camper van was filled with hysterical laughter.

After dinner we decided to drive the rest of the way to Mount Cook. Normally our night drives are pretty lame, only livened up by incessant talking and bonding. However, because this night was a full moon, we could actually see what we were driving into, which was hugely epic mountains all around us. We knew that this drive was going to be 1000 times more epic in the daylight. We parked our car in a dodgy as parking lot in Mount Cook and went straight to sleep.

Saturday morning brought with it extraordinary sights. When we opened our window and discovered Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, staring straight back at us. We picked an amazing spot to eat some breakfast and then started our morning on a trail that led to a great view of the Tasman Glacier. Which was shockingly almost completely under water. Once we realized this, we knew we had to go and taste some of that glacial water so we found another trail that led to the base of the actual glacier. We sat there for a while and ate glacial ice, which tasted delicious by the way, for a good while. We soon realized that we were starving and headed back to the camper van for lunch. The ride out of Mount Cook was completely breath-taking. With sights that include colossal mountains and the bluest water I've ever seen, how could it not take your breath away?

We made our way to Dunedin, stopping at the Moeraki Boulders once again and marveling at the roundness and crazy sea shells. Once we made it to Dunedin, we immediately knew what we wanted to do -- find the steepest street in the world. After a couple stops at gas stations and a few directions from some very friendly and helpful gas station attendants, we found it. Seriously, it was really really steep. Pretty hard to even walk up, but we made it to the top. After the inevitable touristy pictures, we made our way to Otago Peninsula and ate dinner on a dock while watching the world go from day to night. We headed into a more appropriately re-named Dodge-nedin and found a great place to park.

We woke up in a residential neighborhood on Sunday morning and realized we should probably get out of these people's front yard and find a place to make breakfast. So we headed to the same beach with the horses from our first south island trip and made some delicious breakfast. And then decided that it was nap time. So we napped in the sunlight, with the windows open, and the sounds of the beach in our ears. Perfect.

After the much-needed nap we headed to Oamaru and checked out the Oldest Buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. And, I have to say, this little town was adorable. I thoroughly enjoyed walking in and out of these old fashioned buildings while eating some Tip-Top ice cream. One of the girls that we were traveling with had spent a week WWOOF-ing at a random huge piece of secluded land in Oamaru and, after speaking with the owners, we decided to stay the night there. So after looking at the old buildings, we headed to her land.

We were told that we would be sleeping in a hut. I didn't expect the adorable mini house that we were sleeping in. Walking into this place, I knew this was going to be a good night. My suspicions of this were only verified further when a John Mayer cd was already in the cd player. Hello serendipity.

After a really satisfying meal of grilled cheese, we decided to check out the huge amount of land that these people live on. We didn't even scratch the surface of the amount of land that they have and I was completely blown away. The view that they have absolutely blew my mind. It's crazy that people actually get to live their lives like this. After a long walk, we headed back to the "hut" where I was able to shower, which was much needed and much appreciated. Then we all sat around by the fire, reading our books with John Mayer in the background. It's no exaggeration to say this was a wonderful end to the day.

Monday morning began beautiful and slowly turned into a gray, rainy mess. But it was okay cause we spent the day at Cindy's (that's the house we were staying at) re-routing the rest of our trip and eating a meal that was far more delicious than we deserved (seeing as we paid absolutely nothing to be there). After lunch, we decided to take another look around the land, this time with Cindy's daughter showing us around. We ended up spending the afternoon walking through fields with horses all around and attempting to get the black sheep to come close enough to see. (Side note on the black sheep: Cindy has named each one of these sheep after famous black people in the US. Their favorite one is Tiger.)

After saying goodbye to Cindy, we headed to the town of Oamaru to see some PENGUINS! First we went to see yellow-eyed ones, which are very shy and rarely seen. So we only saw one of those in the distance. After the yellow-eyed ones, we went to see the Blue Penguins. Oh my word, I can't think of anything more adorable than these tiny little penguins. They are literally the smallest penguins in the world. We were technically not allowed to take pictures, but Cathy, being a master stealth photographer, somehow got some pictures of these cute little things. The pictures aren't that good, but you have to cut her some slack, she was taking the pictures from inside her sleeve! After it got too cold to watch these penguins anymore, we made a very HONL drive to Darfield and ended up parking in the sketchiest place we've parked in so far. It was literally behind a dentist office next to a railroad track. Awesome.

Tuesday was a day dedicated to driving and seeing beautiful sights. I mean, to be fair, that's kind of what all traveling in New Zealand is, but this day was even more so. We got up and drove through Arthur's Pass. Now we have done this drive over four times since we've been here and it NEVER gets less extraordinary. It was also a completely different drive because it's no longer winter and the mountains aren't completely covered in snow. It has been transformed with the season. Completely amazing!

We stopped in Greymouth for lunch and then headed up to see the Pancake Rocks. Super cool. Then we roamed around in some random caves and then headed for Westport. We decided to check out Cape Foulwind, which we heard was incredible. When we pulled up to the trail, we weren't that impressed. But the further that we walked along the trail, the more impressed we got. This was an absolutely beautiful place with an incredible view. New Zealand, how I love you!

We headed toward Lewis Pass and decided to park literally on the side of the road for the night. This trip was just full of crazy parking spots. We made some dinner and then sat around and talked and laughed. Once we stopped talking we decided to start reading our books. Well, that's when we started hearing noises. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Seriously all that is around us is trees. No one knows where we are. So, of course, being the paranoid girls that we are, we freaked out. Cathy and I immediately got into "Survivor Mode" and grabbed huge knives. Of course, these noises were nothing and we were eventually able to settle our minds and go to sleep. Honestly, the whole situation is quite hilarious now.

Wednesday was our final day on the road. We drove through Lewis Pass while listening to some awesome music. This was a completely new drive and was SO pretty! Especially our lunch spot. It was a perfect end to a perfect trip.

Man, how I LOVE the camper van trips. And the South Island. And just New Zealand in general. This place is beautiful beyond reason. We like to call this beauty, and all of the unexplainable perfectness of this place, New Zealand Magic. You can't help but fall in love with this place.

Shredding and Gambling.

Okay, I lied. Maybe just a little bit of galavanting around NZ. What? I only have a month. I can't waste a perfectly beautiful weekend doing school work.

I mean, hacking into your friend's facebook and changing literally everything on it is far more entertaining (haha sorry Court).

Since this was the last weekend that Mt. Hutt would be open, obviously it was time to go snowboarding again. So Shona and I woke up far too early on Saturday morning (especially after being kept up by the loudest flat in the world the night before) and got on a bus towards Mt. Hutt.
It was an absolutely beautiful day minus some windy-ness.

Shona hadn't ever been snowboarding before so we started out on the Magic Carpet. What is that you ask? My answer: hilarity. Full story is too complicated to explain in this blog post. I'll explain at some point, I'm sure. Either way, once we soon moved from that tiny, weird slope to the actual mountain.

Since I had already been before I thought I would pick up where I left off. Um.. totally false. The first half hour was pretty much horrible. I kept wondering why I sucked so bad. But then all of a sudden I got up and it just kind of clicked again. So the rest of the afternoon was so awesome. And so much fun! Oh, and check out the view.

For some reason, hurling myself to the ground instead of learning how to slow down and stop seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the day. However, by the end of the day, I had realized just how stupid that was to do and was stopping and controlling a lot better. And wasn't falling/throwing myself to the ground quite so much. There was a minor incident with a rando Asian woman, but that sincerely was entirely her fault. So basically, I'm not saying I'm a pro or anything, but I think me and Shaun White could be buddies.

The windy-ness picked up quite a bit around 3 o'clock and I almost boarded off a hugely steep drop at one point because of it. Seriously, it was really windy. The mountain ended up closing early because of the wind being too dangerous. So, we headed back to ChCh.

That evening was a re-celebration of Cathy's birthday since her actual birthday was spent recovering from surgery. So we headed into town and hit the casino for some Black Jack and gambling. Shona almost got kicked out for cheating when she took a picture. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but they told her she couldn't take pictures. Apparently, we look like the cheating type. We ended up staying really late because Cathy has a gambling problem. Just kidding. She doesn't.

And today has been quite perfect, despite the fact that I'm too sore to sit down properly. I slept in, which was necessary. When I woke up from my coma I thought seriously about doing work. And then realized that it was far too beautiful outside to stay inside. So I brought my books and iPod with me and walked to Uni to see the Ilam Gardens... looking pretty nice these days. But the vibes weren't right there so I hopped on a bus.

I ended up getting off in town, picked up some Pit Pita and brought it to the Botanic Gardens. It was awesome just sitting in the sun amidst some beautiful flowers and people playing with bubbles and journaling and listening to the Resonate Podcast from home. It really made me miss that community. That's one thing I'm excited to get back to.

By the way, I've been looking for things to be excited about returning to: my mother's cookies and Dr. Pepper are at the top of my list, alongside moments like this.

Needless to say, I didn't open my books for school all afternoon, but it was a pretty perfect and much needed way to spend a Sunday.

One Month Left.

So I'm realizing that I only have one month left on this crazy adventure. We all have known that this was only for a short time, but I didn't realize how quickly it would fly by. I also didn't realize that my problem wouldn't be culture shock, but reverse culture shock. Leaving is going to be so hard. I'm going to be honest, I don't really want to do it. I would gladly stay in this laid back culture where I have no need to wear shoes anywhere and I can just lay in a beautiful field on the way to class for hours and forget about the outside world. I'm just having a really hard time thinking about this chapter of my life ending.

That being said, the good news is that I still have one short month to live it up big time. And I will be, don't you worry...

...as soon as I finish these papers. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I often forget about the "Study" part in Study Abroad. However, three critiques, two 8 page papers, one 5 page paper, and a final consisting of two essays -- all needing to be completed in the next 8 days is making my focus turn back to academics. No galavanting around NZ for me this weekend. It's time to hit the books (for once).

The Big 2-1

As most of you reading this know, birthdays are a big deal to me. Also, 21 is the most epic number in my life. So when I realized that I would be spending my 21st birthday in New Zealand half a world away from all of the people and everything that I know and love, I wasn't too sure how to feel about it. I just honestly didn't think it could be that great without my close friends around.

Well, I was wrong. This has been the best birthday that I've ever had. I am in the most beautiful place that I have ever been, I am experiencing everything and living my life to the absolute fullest in this place, and I am with people who truly understand this experience and are with me in it. I cannot think of a better place to be on my 21st birthday.

That's not to say that I don't miss my friends and family and all of the important people in my life from home. Which is why I can't help but be impressed by their love and thoughtfulness. I have the best friends in the entire world who knew just how to make this day perfect and special even from halfway across the world. And I just want to say thank you for being so amazing. You guys don't even know how much your package meant to me.

I am here having the time of my life being a part of so many new things and I have met so many great great people who understand it and make it better just by being here and I am SO SO thankful for it all. And the best part is when this experience is over and done with, I have the most amazing friends and family to go home to. And it really doesn't get any better than that.

I am literally overwhelmed by the people in my life who are there for me and show that they care no matter the distance. I am overwhelmed by the new people in my life who I have not known for long, but still managed to make it their top priority to make my birthday celebration spectacular. I am overwhelmed by where God has placed me in life -- in Christchurch, New Zealand with epic mountains and beaches and beauty all around me. I am overwhelmed by just how blessed I am. It's a good overwhelmed, that's for sure. But I don't have the words to express how GREAT my birthday was or how much I appreciate everybody's contribution to it's greatness. All I can really say is thank you. So thank you. Please know that these aren't just words. I mean every bit of this.

Best birthday of my life so far. I can only hope the next 21 years will be as extraordinary as these past 21 years have been.