...Final countdown?

Ha, I know half the people who just read the title of this blog are playing the song "Final Countdown" in their head.. and if you weren't and know the song, you are now!! (all I can ever think of is Job from Arrested Development). 

So here we are. November 1...(remember I'm in the future for most of you). Where has the time gone? I swear I feel like I arrived in Wellington, knowing no one and being excited about it yesterday. But that was July 7. A full 4 months ago. I have 3 days till my last final and 6 till I leave for Australia. 

I've been filling my last weeks with some exciting stuff! 

Last week I went with 5 friends to hike the Tongariro Passing... for those of you who don't know, it's where they filmed Mt. Doom. We took two cars and drove 6 or so hours (including rests, bathroom breaks, and filling up the tank) to the track. We arrived at 1 am to our first Department of Conservation (DOC) hut. We hiked about 30 minutes to the hut in the dark with head torches and stuff. The group consisted of Sampo and Miia from Finland, Jens from Denmark, Joanna and Lennart from Germany, and me.. I was positively non-European. haha. 

Anyways we woke up early the next day for breakfast and made lunch and started hiking around 9:30. Now this was an intense hike.. about a full 7 hour day. When we got to the mountain (Mount Doom), Miia and I decided we didn't want to go all the way up to the summit. There were clouds and I was already tired. So we went up halfway and turned back around while the other 4 continued to the top. Miia and I had time to just talk and bond and hang out while we headed towards the second hut, called Katetahi. One of the best things about NZ is the scenery. Yes, it's beautiful. But its really unique too. You can walk for two hours in a straight line and hit 18 different kinds of terrain! We were trecking through slushy ice and snow, and then forrest, and then rocks and sand, and then ice again, and so on. Where we were walking is a very volcanic area so we were walking through soft soil and minerals. There were even some geothermal pools of bright green and blue, not 1000 yards from another lake that was completely frozen over. I love New Zealand. 

Anyways Miia and I got to the hut first. It was rolling hills upon hills and lakes and mountains and cliffs.. and this tiny hut sitting by itself on a hill, facing all of this. It was incredible. The view was breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to have the entire hut to ourselves!! Most of the time, there are several groups of people trecking through and spending the night at the DOC huts. But we got really lucky. 

When we all got there, we took out our sleeping bags and pulled mattresses from indoors to sit on the porch, drink tea and coffee, and laugh and talk and enjoy the scenery. All of us were so ecstatic about the amazing day we had all had. To quote Lennart: "If there is an amazing sunset tonight... I don't know... my head's just going to explode!" 

That's how we felt. And there was an amazing sunset. Luckily, Lennart's head stayed in tact. But just barely... like the rest of us.. ha. 

We made dinner and were just having a really good time enjoying food and one another's company. An hour after the sun started setting, there were still streaks of orange and red and pink in the sky. I grabbed my sleeping bag and ran outside to catch the last of it. Lennart joined me. And then Joanna and Jens. Eventually the two of them left and we were joined by Miia. The three of us stargazed for a while before heading to bed. It was an incredible weekend. 

And yesterday I went to a beach!! It was really cold and windy, but surprisingly the water wasn't all too bad. And of course I jumped in.. I couldn't resist the water! My time here is coming to an end a little too quickly... but I'm glad for all these experiences and the great friends I've made here. :D 

SONG OF MANDELA!!!!

Sorry, this post has nothing to do with New Zealand. 

But this is us singing and dancing with Bokamoso from South Africa!!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEOW6q7tCvU

4:00 am Interviews...

I decided to apply to be a member of the 2010 Colonial Cabinet at GW this upcoming summer. 

Being abroad, though, has had its difficulties. The Headquarters have been very kind and helpful and set up a phone interview with me for 11:00 am Friday Eastern Time. This is 4:00 am Saturday NZ time... and I stayed up! When I hadn't heard from them by 4:10, I called them, assuming there had been difficulty getting through to me on my NZ phone. 

I was right. But then there seemed to be "technical difficulties" rising left and right on the other end of the world, and our wonderful interview was postponed to this week, also at 4 am... 

I must really want this job! 

So this Saturday I got to stay up till 4 am... AGAIN. But this time, as soon as it turned 4:05 and I hadn't heard from them, I called. They asked me like 5 or 6 questions. The entire interview was only like 20 minutes... I stayed up till 4 am for a 20 minute chat. 

I better get this job..

All Nighter

Anyone who knows me at GW knows that I pull all nighters... enough to where it has GOT to be unhealthy. I just pulled my first one here in NZ (and hopefully last!). 

My desk is cluttered with notes, notecards, a large glass of water, an entire french press of coffee, and various other things like pens and highlighters. In about 2 hours here I will be taking my last exam for my Psychology of Crime and Law course. And I think I'm pretty much as ready as I can be. 

Being on at ridiculous hours of the night enabled me to talk to Kevin online for a while which was awesome because I haven't talked to him in forever. And I did take study breaks to clear my mind in between chapters by watching episodes of Friends or listening to music or writing really, really, really ridiculous emails to everyone on my contacts list. (Kaia got the brunt of that, really). 

In about 3 hours, I hope to be in bed, fast asleep after having passed my exam! haha. 

But we'll see. I almost never nap when I pull all nighters. (again, aren't i just the epitome of health?)... ah college life. You gotta love it. 

If I'm delirious today, you all know why! 

Last week of school

ALREADY! 

I am in my last week of classes. Currently sitting in my last Policing class (THE most boring class I've ever taken). 

This week has been pretty darn good. Last night my friends Cassie, Robert, Daniel, Lenny and I went to the Temperance Bar for live jazz music. It was incredible and SO fantastic! We were there for a solid 3 hours just listening to people jam out and all of us being super jealous of their superior musical skills. 

I still marvel at how well some girls can skat. And I'm incredibly jealous. In my head I do it well, but when I actually try my syllable vocabulary is limited to "doo" "da" "do"... LAME. I wish I could sing jazz. My friend Rachel was there and she sang she is FANTASTIC. I want to be her. I mean seriously, as pretty as classical music is... anyone in their right mind would choose jazz over classical. (Unless you're a voice professor or choir director of course). 

Anyways Friday I have an exam worth 50% of my grade. No pressure. 

And then I'm done. We go into a few weeks of finals... and I have two. But my classes are done come Friday at 11:00 am. Weird. 

Time flies when you're having a good time, right? 

The next couple days/weeks will be filled with reminiscing I'm sure. 

Hold 'Em

Thursday night is poker night here in Waiteata. (the Housing Complex I've been living in.)

Some time around 8 or 9, people gather at Flat 7 to play a game of Hold 'Em. 

The last two weeks I've been getting in late and not feeling like buying in. So I'll walk in and deal the games. (Random fact about me: Used to want to be a poker dealer in Vegas. Caesar's Palace to be specific.) This week I decided to play. 

Each week the group of players has been growing. The first week had probably 7 or 8 people. Last week was about 10. And this week there were 13. We had to start with two tables and then join them together when there were only 7 people left. At my table was Mattie (from Finland), Hoiran (from Korea!), Giorgi (no idea where he's from...), David (from NY), and Lenny. 

David definitely was the best player at our table. But he was an honorable player and was more than happy to help out those who were new to the game. David, Hoiran, and I moved onto the bigger table after knocking out the other 3 people at our table. 

At the big table there were 7 of us from the original 13. I made it to 4th place before I was knocked out on an all-in. Given I had crappy cards.. I think a  4 and 7 of diamonds. (FLUSH?!) But the guy I was playing against had two Aces... GAH! That was the third or fourth time that night I got totally screwed over (the other times ALL by David). 

BUT, I had a lot of fun and am quite proud of myself for making it to the last 4 out of 13 people. :) 

Dear New Zealand

I have several requests of you. 

First, please change your weather. No one likes mundane, routine things. So please change it up. It has been rainy, cloudy, and all around depressing for over a week. I am bored. And depressed. 

Second, please kidnap me. Hide me away for a few months in some far-off, distant forrest so that I don't have to go home. If you love me, (which I know you do), you won't let me go home. 

These are my requests. Thank you for considering them. 

Sincerely, 

Me

All I Ask of You!

OK. Coolest thing just happened to me.

It's getting to be crunch time again with exams just around the corner and three finals standing in the way of my summer vacation (by NZ standards, of course). 

SO, naturally, I am getting to that Procrastination Point again. (P Squared!)

Today I was reading article after article for my boring Policing course. Around 4:30 I decided I really wanted to play the piano and take out some aggression and frustration in the form of music. (I have had a rough couple of days. I'm fine, please don't ask me about it....No really. Don't.) The frustrating thing about me going to play the piano is that I am utterly useless without sheet music. Where is my sheet music? Why, it's in Washington DC somewhere in a giant cardboard box. So I can only remember like half of all the songs I know how to play and that gets to be even more frustrating when all you want to do is play one song through. 

At around 6:30, I was getting ready to leave. I opened the door of the practice room and saw five music books sitting on the ground!! I looked around and peeked into the other rooms but no one was around. So I grabbed the books, telling myself I'd play a few songs and then return them to where I found them. I flip through these books, and of course it's all Musical Theater. God truly knows where my soul is. haha. I played a few tunes, sight reading mostly, and playing chords to songs i knew how to sing. 

This is when I came across "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera, sung by characters Raoul and Christine. 

For those of you who don't know, Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite musicals. And this song is one of my favorite songs to play on the piano because its so interactive. I hadn't played it in a while so the first time through was a little rough, but soon enough muscle memory kicked in! I was playing and really enjoying myself, even starting to hum along a little, when the door opened. Embarrassed, I stopped playing and asked the kid that walked in if these books belonged to him. 

He was really excited and said they were his but that he was excited when he heard familiar strains of music. He told me I was very good, which was quite the compliment! (the piano is not my strongest instrument, despite 16 years of playing). I was just about to get out of his way, when he goes, "Actually, do you want to sing through the song together? I love this song." And I agreed! So here I am with a complete stranger, singing one of my favorite piano pieces... and I had a page turner too! haha... it's just so random and so cool. And that's why Kiwis rock. I doubt that would ever happen to me in America. People are too sheepish. So yeah.. freaking awesome. 

World Press Photos

Every year there's an exhibit called the World Press Photos. 

They are photographs capturing what has happened around the world in the past year. I went to that this year: twice. 

The first time I went with Cassie. The second time with my friends Lenny and Lorenzo (from Italy). It was interesting to go twice. The first time was almost like being overwhelmed with information. You get the picture, and then the description of what is happening or what the picture is depicting. The second time, though, you already know the basic descriptions and can somehow appreciate the pictures all the more because of it. I found that interesting.

There were so many pictures covering a huge range of what's happening. There were happy pictures like Obama's speeches, snapshots of the Olympic Games, stage performances, etc. There were cool nature ones of animals, a jaguar hunting an antelope, lightening discharges in an ash cloud created by a volcano... 

But as always, with the media, you get some pretty shocking ones too. There were lesser known problems covered like a family living in poverty. But then there are, of course, pictures that cover things like the invasion of Georgia, preteen transsexual sex workers, the disaster in Myanmar, and so on and so forth. 

Two things alarm me here:

First, that I hadn't heard at all about the terrorist shootings at the train station in Mumbai. How did I miss that?? I read CNN as often as I can, and somehow this escaped my attention. The number of people that died were in the 50s. I was really upset that I hadn't heard about this. 

Secondly, I was greatly disturbed by how quickly I had forgotten about the things I HAD heard about. Things like the disasters in Myanmar... that happened a few months ago. I remember sitting in my room with my friends looking up all the stories we could find so that we could a.) stay informed, and b.) be able to pray for these people. We get so caught up in our own lives and our own problems that we completely forget about everything else, no matter how big. 

It just proves everything is relative. Right now, there is a lot of damage from natural disasters in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Samoa. I'm afraid that within the next 4 or 5 or 6 months, I will have already forgotten about this. I pray that I won't. But in all reality, I probably will. It makes me wonder what that says about us as humans. Do we forget because we don't care? I don't think so... perhaps it's a defense mechanism. I don't know, now I'm rambling. Running away with my thoughts--perhaps this should be in my other blog, "Welcome to my Mind-Please excuse the mess." O well. Too late. And I'm too lazy to copy and paste this to my other one. 

The people in Samoa right now will not ever forget what's happened. Children who survive will have these memories into old age. Relatively, this is one of the greatest things that has happened in their lifetime. But to someone like me, who is an outsider and hasn't personally suffered the catastrophe, it is a passing event that I hear about on the news. 

Ah... I'm still rambling. I'll stop now. Just putting my thoughts down on... internet?