The Powhiri (pronounced po-feer (roll that R!) - ee)

So, it is Maori tradition to have a welcome ceremony when visitors come to a Marae (a Maori meeting house). We had special visitors from the Education Review Organization evaluating our school. So, our kids and some native Maori people performed a Powhiri, which is a Maori welcome ceremony. You have to see it to appreciate it...and you can see a "haka" and powhiri online, at a website called 100% New Zealand if you are really interested. It's really worth your time. The Maori ways are very similar to some Native American ways, with its traditions, dress, and so on. Anyway, it really is fascinating. And all the children are learning Maori (the language) everyday...and I am too. It's too bad that no one really knows America's native languages, isn't it? Being here makes me think about how fortunate they are to still HAVE natives living amongst Europeans, learning and living with them every single day, and um...where are ours? Not in Ohio, that's for sure. Anyway, Veronica, this would an interesting sort of history/social studies like thing to do, because New Zealand is so accepting to their Native culture...and they're probably the most peaceful of native/European relationships.

School

School is still going great. I've had to be a little mean with some of the kids because they had started to take advantage of my "fun-ness." I had to actually say something like "I am growing VERY IMPATIENT with this group. We are going to STOP goofing around." It's hard to keep a straight face.

We were using the word "fancy" in our sentences with my small reading group the other day, as in "I fancy chocolate." So we were saying all these things like "I fancy cats, I fancy dogs, I fancy chicken..." and the kids were being sooo silly that day and this one little boy has just about lost control and loss of thought and says, "I fancy boobies!" To which I had to say, without laughing, "R-------, that is IN-A-ppropriate! Would you like me to send you back to the classroom?"

Tonight I am working on this lion unit. It's fun stuff, and first we're going to talk about Africa, where the lions live in Africa (I made a cool map) and we're going to design our Lion Book covers with cool African cloth designs. And then the kids have to answer questions like "Why don't lions live in the desert? Why don't they live in jungles?"

Haiti

My mom told me about all the stuff that's happening in Haiti. It turns out that the rebels have taken over Cap-Haitien, the very city I spent two weeks in four years ago! Well, I haven't heard anything yet about the missionaries I know there, but please pray for them and the people in the country. They are always very near to my heart... :-

Female Freak Mode

I remember when I was 14, 16, 18...and I would think silly things like "I can't wait until I'm 22/23 and I can do whatever I want and live on my own if I like and get married if I like and eat mac and cheese everyday if I like and...yada yada yada."

Ahhh!

So, shame on me, I started THINKING lastnight. Holy crap. I am graduating in May. Shoot. I remembered that, so it's okay. But then I remembered all these other THINGS. Crazy things! Like John possibly moving to Minnesota next summer and that there for a second I had this 18-year-old mind that was just like, "Like, okay, cool! I'll just, like, go too!" What?! Holy crap. That's next year, yo. Next year. What the heck? It makes me want to grab this desk and smash my head right in the middle of it.

So I'm mature enough, really, to live on my own and I can move away and I'd be fine. But, you know, it's just...scary. And it's not that I'm WORRIED because I'm not, I'm just....wanting to know what's going to happen because I like to KNOW. I like having a plan of some sort, and it can change, that's fine. Holy crap. I hate surprises--the anticipation part, not the getting part. God knows this. He thinks it's funny. Ha ha ha, God. I'm laughing. Really.

Okay I'm done.

Thank you, God, for not letting us know what is coming tomorrow. I'm sure I'd be even more stressed about the future than I already am. And I know its all ALREADY been taken care of, so la-dee-da, I'll just skip my happy little butt through it.

Please don't quote the "Do Not Worry" passage in Matthew to me, because I already know it by heart. Thanks :)

Hello! What an excellent weekend I had!

My New (AMERICAN) Friend!

Name: Holly
University: Some huge school in Montana
Where she's from: a little ski town in Idaho where Arnold Schwarzeneggar (sp?) has a place, and a bunch of other famous people
How cool she is: REALLY
How glad I am that she's here: EXTREMELY
How many fat grams we consumed this weekend: 9,047,862.

We went to the beach for a night and ate the greasiest fish and chips ever. We walked on the beach and had some ice cream. We laid around and watched Notting Hill and talked and talked and talked.

The next day, we had more food. Some toasted sandwiches, carrot cake, cookies, apple crisp, and some more ice cream. And we watched the final episode of Dawson's Creek and cried (just a little).

On Friday, I went to the movies to see Big Fish and out to eat. The movie was wonderful and my chicken fettucine alfredo was magnificent. I had garlic bread with it and it was so delish! I went with two other teachers and they were so great. I learned a lot about the culture and stuff too, because the one teacher is Maori and she just told me heaps of information that is really, really fascinating.

On Sunday, I made a bunch of SPAGHETTI! YES!!!! And I ate it for lunch today and I'm eating it for lunch tomorrow too! It makes me feel so good inside.

Next weekend I'm going camping at a National Park. Sweet! It's going to be awesome. Holly is coming too! I hope we can eat peanut butter and jelly. I hope it gets warmer by then too.

I got my first evaluation back from our assistant principal and she gave me such wonderful comments! She even typed an extra letter for me to use in my portfolio! Sweet!

Anyway, I hope things stay this good!

Well John, I found our song. I thought I'd just share it with everyone before you have time to argue. So like it or not, here it is kiddo :)

"Look at the sky, tell me what do you see
Just close your eyes and describe it to me
The Heaven's are sparkling with starlight tonight
That's what I see through your eyes
I see the Heaven's each time that you smile
I hear your heartbeat just go on for miles
And suddenly I know my life is worthwhile
That's what I see through your eyes

I look at myself, instead I see us
Whoever I am, now it feels like enough
And I see a girl who is learning to trust
That's who I see through your eyes

Here in the night, I see the sun
Here in the dark, our two hearts are one
It's out of our hands, we can't stop what we have begun
And love just took me by surprise
Looking through your eyes."

Hello from Apanui School!

Lastnight I went on my daily walk...sometimes I go in the morning and sometimes I go in the evening. Anyway, I got to see the sunset! It was so beautiful! And then, I turned around to head back to the house and boom! Right there in front of me was this gigantic, bright, magnificent rainbow! It was gorgeous! It was hanging right over the ocean, too! I ran to get my camera and it was gone by the time I got back. I took some pictures of the sunset though, I think I can download it on the site, but my really good pictures of it didn't get saved because my camera was out of memory. Blast.

I had the house to myself lastnight, which was awesome. Those of you who know me know that I love alone time and I haven't had any yet, really. But I've been doing all right without it. Anyway, Brigitte was like, "Are you sure you'll be okay alone?" Hmmm. And then she said, "You'll have to make your own dinner..." like she was concerned for me. I wonder if she knows I'm 22. I know she does...Those middle aged people are freaks sometimes. Anyway, I did make myself some steak :)

Tonight I'm going out with one of my fellow teachers and her friend to eat and to the movies. Her name is Susan and she is soooooo nice!!! She's like Sharon--always nice to foreigners! We're going to see Big Fish. Don't tell me yet if it's good or not if you've seen it. I don't want anything to cloud my judgment! hahaha :)

I'm doing better now that I've been making sure to spend an hour alone with God everyday. There for a while I was getting used to my new routine and a major life change so I was like...here and there with that, but now I feel so much better. I'd sorta forgotten how much better God makes me feel about things. Ha! Who would have thought? How could I have forgotten? Silly human!

And a little FYI for the future:

If you have a foreigner stay in your house, you should let them do their own grocery shopping without you there so then they really can get anything they want. And then you should take them to McDonald's at least once a week because McDonald's is good.

I need some Noxzema! I can't find it anywhere!

AND I need a haircut or some more hair gel!

AND my hair is like, super super duper CURLY here!

AND on the 15th, I will be going home in TWO MONTHS! I hope the two months goes fast because I miss Ohio. I really do!

Well, I wrote a really good long post and got kicked off :-p So I will just highlight some things.

School Stuff

Things are going great! My cooperating teacher is letting me do more now, so that's really good, and I think I'm better than she is. Hahahaha. Just kidding. Sorta. I forgot to tell you, we don't have textbooks here! Did you hear that, Kari and Lindsay? NO TEXTBOOKS. It's kinda neat. Each kid has a set of notebooks and each notebook is for a subject and Ruth and I have to make up our own worksheets if we need some or find them in some teacher resources.

Out to Sea

Yeah, so I was totally out to sea for two nights. It was great! It had its ups and downs, if you know what I mean...as in, up, down, up, down, up, down. I got seasick. I threw my ham sandwich right up into the sink. But I took some pills and felt lots better. I caught a lot of fish and I ATE it, too, and guess what? It turns out I DO like fish...if it's fresh. And if it's snapper...which I hear is the best tasting fish in the ocean. And I caught the biggest one!

And the coolest part of our trip was that we took our little boat away from the big boat and visited this island. It was an island that seemed to be totally uninhabited. Maddy (Brigitte's 14 year old daughter) and I explored a bit and found a waterfall and neat rocks and stuff. Then we took the boat into a cave! It was like Pirates of the Caribbean it was that cool.

And the beach was SOOOO private, you could have done whatever the heck you wanted to there.

But for all these amazing things I see and experience, I wish I had at least one of you to share them with! It's just not as enjoyable without someone you love. I'll write more about that next time.

Pictures

Some of my New Zealand pictures are online now. I emailed some of you the link, but I've lost some email addresses here and there, mostly because my muskie email is not working. So if you didn't get the link and would like the link, let me know. Or ask someone else I know who might have gotten it.

Pizza

I got pizza tonight. It was an hour late and cost 20 dollars. Actually ten in US dollars, but still. Anyway, it wasn't that good. The Pizza Hut here isn't as good as the Pizza Hut at home, but it was American enough for me and I appreciate that. I ate healthy all day long too, and I exercised, so don't worry Johnnie boy, I'm not getting fat!

Kids and Headaches

Okay, so I'm getting past the "Oh, they are so ADORABLE stage," and have now arrived at the "Stop asking me stupid questions" stage. Not to be mean to my little darlings, but criminy. This one kid was stuck on the word "bee" today. And I had to sit there and sit there and sit there saying things like, "Stretch it out, what does this letter sound like? What do two E's together sound like?" for probably two minutes. I wanted to say, "It's the easiest word in the stinking human language!!!! Just put the stupid sounds together!" But really, I'm not that impatient. It's just sometimes, you know...

And then this other girl was sounding out the word "green." She goes..."Grrrr....Paint?" No, try again. "Dog?" Look at the word, sweetie. "hungry?" What's this g sound like? Look at the picture. Look at the word. Look at the letter. Yada yada yada.

Anyway, it's good and I love it. I am way homesick, but I'm finding ways to overcome it. Like trust. So YOU BETTER ALL STILL BE MY FRIENDS WHEN I GET BACK!!!!! Or ELSE!

Peace and God bless!

I made a discovery tonight. I found a path that runs along the beach and in and out of the sand dunes that is all grassy sand like stuff...perfectly soft but firm for running. It's only about 200 meters long, but down and back, being about a quarter of a mile, is perfect for me along with a 20 minute walk. I enjoyed that tonight. It's been rainy and yucky out, but the beach was still so beautiful. There aren't many beaches in America where you can't see any people or houses lined up just out of reach of the waves.

I've been taking pictures at school of some of my kids and I hope to have those online soon. I'm going to have to do it at school, which could be arduous but well, we'll see about that. ;-)

The Lesson I Learned Today:

There's nothing like being an observer of a movie-like romance. It's just that in real life, the characters are so much more unpredictable, making it all terribly frightening and risky. Endings like in "When Harry Met Sally" seem so unlikely, don't they? Can they really happen?

"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love." -Leo Buscaglia

True Story


Caroline (looking very bashfully towards the floor): I can say "Good Morning" in your language. I practiced lastnight.

Me (very interested): Really?

Caroline: Gooood Morrrning. (in an American accent)

Me laughs.

Me: That was very nice! I'm impressed!


Hahaha too cute, huh?

Teacher Stuff:

I designed a cool bulletin board. It has letters that say "The Language Worm" and there's this cute worm head that's like all cartoon like that I made, and then he has these segments that get added on. In each segment, we (the class) are going to put interesting words that we find in the books we read and that we (the kids) use in their own writing. This is an activity that is meant to increase the kids' vocabulary and help them use more creative verbs, adjectives, nouns, metaphors, similes, etc. 6 year olds. Crazy. I got the idea from our literacy conference. Apparently it cost FIVE HUNDRED dollars to attend! And I got to go free. So yeah, I'm a genius now because I took a really expensive literacy conference course thing.

The math here sucks, which is no good since I know that will be the subject I suck at (teaching). I will need to take a summer Master's course or something, especially if I teach third grade. Long division. Multiplication. ::Shudder::

Lovey Dovey Stuff:

Three cheers for John again. His roomie is moving to New Hampshire, so he will be without me AND his best friend AND his other best friend, the dog. So sad. The cute thing is that the cats are going home to Chris's mom now, and John asked if I would like one. So he's keeping one for me until I can take it to live with me (which might not be until fall), and he hates cats...totally hates them. Isn't that sweet though? Sacrificial, that's what it is. If you know his screenname, IM him and say "John, you're such a sweetheart," because that will make him feel....hahaha....I don't know what. It's true though.

Food Stuff:

I tried another kind of pumpkin today. I never knew there were so many kinds of pumpkins, but this kind is good! It's not really good, but its edible, which is a MAJOR step up. Brigitte says next week I can do the cooking. I will need to look for recipes because I'm not sure what it is I really want. I just want American. They don't even have graham crackers here. The granola bars are weird. The cereal is weird. The toilets don't flush the same. The showers don't turn on and off the same. Everything is just WEIRD. So, what I want is some spaghetti, and I want to make biscuits and gravy because no one here even knows what that is. The things is, I'll have to make my own spaghetti sauce and I will have to make biscuits and gravy from scraaaatch! Ah! I better start planning NOW.

All right well I'm tired so goodnight to you all and Happy Super Bowl Day. And Groundhog Day. My class thought the idea of Groundhog Day was pretty wacky. I would agree.

Hello dahlings.

Well, I just got finished writing two lesson plans and that took me an hour and a half. I wrote it Pathwise with Ohio Standards, which I don't think I even have to do but I thought it might be a good thing to do for future reference in case I need it...which I probably don't. Anyway, today was a nice relaxing day, the first one I've had in quite some time. The only place I went was to get ice cream with Brigitte. And get this...ice cream really doesn't bother me here! Yeah! I ate it about two hours ago, and I feel...FINE! I might be only about 95% fine tomorrow with things...but it's a million times better than before. Brigitte said it might be because the milk isn't homogenized in the ice cream here, and she buys milk that isn't homogenized, and her stomach has a bad reaction to homogenized milk too because it's more difficult to digest. I thought it was funny that I ate a bowl of "muesli" with milk and didn't feel ill, and I've eaten three ice cream cones...with no seriously major effects. And man, is the ice cream here ever, ever, ever so delicious!!!! The only reason I tried it is because my first night here Brigitte insisted on me eaten an ice cream cone and I didn't have the heart to tell her I couldn't have it...and voila! I was fine.

Okay, enough about that.

Um...I'm getting ready for this 4 wheeler trip...we're leaving on Thursday, I think, maybe, with Brigitte's brother and his friends. Her brother is like in his thirties or something, but some of his friends are about my age so that's cool. Don't worry John, there are no good looking guys here whatsoever. If I see one, I'll let you know, Kari, and I will take pictures. Hahaha.

Oh and it's a four day weekend because Friday is Waitangi Day (their independece day, basically). So that's why I get to leave for the trip on Thursday. No worries, Vicki Wilson, eh?

So this 4 wheel trip is majorly roughing it, I think...no toilets and such, no showers, just rivers...but we're taking drinking water, mom, so don't worry. :) I think I will enjoy it, because I like that kind of stuff. Not necessarily because I hate modern technologies and nice warm beds (because I LOVE those) but I think really "roughing it" makes me feel more powerful or something. Like, "Look what I can do. Aren't I cool?" Yeah, I think that's it really. Stuff like that just makes me feel like I'm cool. Only cool people go on four day trips along the east coast of New Zealand with no running water, toilets, or fast food restaurants. Mmmh. I'm dying for some McDonald's or Pizza Hut (they have both here).

Goodness I miss the food from home. I think people are frustrated with me here because I refuse to eat pipis (some kind of oyster like shellfish) and I don't like matamata (this pumpkin-like vegetable) and I don't like a lot of things, really...but I DO like this one Maori food called "kumara" which tastes kind of like sweet potatoes. It's not my fault I'm not cultured. I want some spaghetti really badly. There's a quote that says something like "No one can feel lonely while eating a plate of spaghetti." How true is that?

Ah, I feel like such a loser when I can't eat their food because some of it's pretty gross. And I swear if I have to drink another glass of wine I'll die. I've drank wine almost every night since I have been here. And you know what? I don't like it, really. I don't like it when it's in my mouth, but once it's down, the feeling of it is...pretty nice :)

Hmmm...everyone says "hmm" here all the freakin time. They'll say, "She's going to the store, yeah, hmmm...." And instead of saying yes or yeah or okay, they'll say "hmmmm...." And now I do it a lot too. Haha.

We went to Brigitte's sister's house lastnight. I held her adorrrrable baby for a good thirty minutes. Oh my, what a gorgeous baby. 6 months old. Darling. And her son, Fletcher, is 8 and I just LOVE him. The five year old girl was pretty annoying, and the 6 year old boy was just pretty quiet...the middle child you know? They were a really cute family. They live on this lake...it is sooooooooooooo beautiful. Yeah, Lord of the Rings scenery there, totally. And no, I didn't take a picture. Hehe.

EVERYONE does art here. I'm thinking I'll take up a craft and make some money. Brigitte's sixteen year old daughter only has arts classes. No math, no history. Just English, drama, art, art design, etc. etc. Not fair.

Well okay I've written too much. Love you all and miss you lots!

Kia Ora from Apanui School!

Today was my first official day on the job. Some things some of you might find interesting but most of you will not, but to make things easier to read I'll just make a list.

1. I get to teach swimming! We swim for half and hour every day. It's hot here, so it's a good thing, and it's a pretty small pool, about 3 feet deep or so.

2. My class is wonderful...about 7 are of Maori decent (New Zealand's native people), which is really cool and will be a unique experience. The Maori, however, are really not much different than the others.

3. I will also be helping the children learn Maori. Considering the fact they know more than I do, that should be interesting! But, we can learn together.

4. Art is crazy here and is taken very seriously. Forget Alessandrini's lessons...these kids are held to high standards. The teacher I worked with today wanted the children's "heads" painted just right and their shoulders to be just the right length and shape. Although this may stifle creativity, the children do have other chances to draw and paint what they want and the artists here are very very good...you should see the paintings in the hallways! They're SO good! Maybe I'll pay a little kid to paint one for my living room!

5. The kids are ADORABLE. Just as adorable as in the US, of course.

6. We have "morning tea" at 10:30, where we get to sit in the teacher's lounge and drink tea and eat stuff...mmmh I liked that...and the kids eat and have a little recess, too.

7. We only have a half day tomorrow with the kids, but the teachers have a 3 day literacy conference. I hope to learn lots, which I am sure I will!

8. They have only a month holiday in the summer, which falls over Christmas. Then two weeks for Easter, two weeks in July, and 2 weeks in September. I think I like that schedule better than ours.

9. I am in a class of 6 and 7 year olds. They write stories every morning, pretty much on their own, using dictionaries to check their work. The stories are about 2-7 sentences long. Yeah. Six year olds. And the ones my teacher calls "slow" are...above the US average, I believe...amazing.

10. The parents come in with their kids every morning and interact with the teacher a lot. For those of you in the education field, you know how valuable this is :)

Everything else is wonderful. The kitty, Cherie, sleeps with me :) She's great. My host mom is wearing me out a bit, she's so high-energy, but I'm doing all right :) I don't know how much I will be able to email you guys and send you postcards because I feel sooo busy! But I have bought some postcards and I will try to send those to those of you I have addresses for.

I'm taking Tae-Bo lessons once a week with one of the other teachers and trying to take some walks on the bike path near me and along the beach. The beach isn't that great for walking because the sand is really...sinky. So it's more like trudging...but that's good exercise too, I guess...

MOM: If I don't get a chance to email you, my teacher is interested in setting up a sort of exchange with Sara's class. If you could give Mrs. Maag my email that would be good, or give me hers (that might be better). Also, Brigitte has 8 and 9 year olds so maybe Mrs. Baldwin would be interested in a pen pal program, too.

"Cheers"

Well, I got here lastnight at 7:30 in Whakatane on a plane that was the smallest I'd ever ridden. I could see everything flying over, we flew so low and it was such a clear day. It is soooo beautiful. I met Brigitte, my host mom and she is really, really cool, and reminds me a lot of my mom. We went to the grocery store then because she was just getting back from vacation. The grocery store was cool and a lot like ours, really, but everything looks a little different. Lastnight for dinner we had chicken sandwiches, made with the chicken in a bag things that are precooked like we get from Beuhler's, with butter on the bread and cole slaw on top of the chicken. It was really good! I highly recommend it. We also bought a lot of fruit. She loves fruit, so that's good :) She is really friendly and I showed her pictures from home and stuff. She gave me a hug when I got here too, and I was happy about that because I wasn't sure if New Zealanders did that sort of thing. :)

I can see the ocean right now from where I am sitting. It's about 9 in the morning and it's the sunniest day I've ever seen. I can also see "Whale Island" from here and the volcano if I stand on my tip-toes. I can't see the beach, but it's really close and I am going to go there today.

Next weekend or this weekend is a holiday and I am going to go on a 4 wheeler trip along the east coast with her brother and some friends and some people my age. It should be a blast and pretty messy :) I am excited about that though, and it will be different than anything I have ever experienced, I'm sure! We are also going to see a Shakespeare play because this festival thing is going on right now, and we're going to an art show, and we might go to a Scottish square dance lesson. Hahaha.


My room has a closet and dresser and a big double bed. I slept really well lastnight, falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean and waking up to what seemed to be hundreds of bird calls I'd never heard before. I feel really good now that I am settled in. In the airports, when I was alone, I felt very out of place and awkward, but now I feel really comfortable. Brigitte says my teacher is "lovely." I might be going to a teacher conference thing for reading, which will be interesting, sometime, I don't know when. But Brigitte has lots of things planned for me, which is all right by me because I would not know where to begin. She said that she will take me to the South Island, too, which I am really excited about. Cool huh? ;-)

I can access my email now, so if you'd like, you can email me at amandah@muskingum.edu, and I should be getting on AIM soon. It might be a while before I update my pictures...I haven't figured out my camera yet because the computer is pretty old :)

I miss you all and hope you're all doing well!

Hello from Sydney International Airport. I will be boarding my plane to Auckland, New Zealand in about an hour. There is a really cool free internet kiosk here. I'm glad for that because I'm rather early. Apparently, there is a 20 kilo. limit for luggage and I was 30 kilos over on one of my bags so I had to pay 300 dollars. This was never mentioned to me. United made it quite clear what their limit was but Air New Zealand, however, did not. Please never fly Air New Zealand. They suck big time. I suggest Qantas. Much better, I hear. I just went in a billabong store here in the airport and it was so expensive. Such cute stuff though. I can't believe all the Japanese people. Their stewardesses are wearing these Japanese dress things. They all look exactly the same. It's crazy. Airports are so much fun. They're like shopping malls. I love it.

Well, I am alone now. My travel partners are flying Qantas so I haven't seen them for an hour or so, and I am doing just fine, thank you very much, to all the people who thought I was incapable of surviving on my own. Knock on wood, right? :) I still have to go through customs again when I get to NZ and I am foreseeing problems there, but I am going to ask everyone and their sister what I am supposed to do just to make sure my 300 dollar luggage ends up in Whakatane. Eeeeks.

G'day from Sydney, Australia!

Tonight will be our third and last night in Sydney. It's absolutely beautiful here. We went to Darling Harbour for the third time, which is where the Opera House is. We also went to Manly Beach today but it stormed...so we just ate at a little restaurant (I had some fantastic lasagna) and headed back on the ferry. Taking the ferry was cool cuz I didn't quite realize how huge Sydney is. It's really huge! Staying in the hostel is great, and I've met lots of English and people from Holland. There are tons of people here from Holland. I have met no one Australian whatsoever. Everyone seems to be British, Dutch, or Japanese.

I bought some super cute shirts today and some sandals. We've went to the Botanical Gardens a couple times (gorgeous!), the Art Gallery of New South Wales (excellent!) and Tamarama Beach (awesome!). I'm really enjoying myself. Staying in the hostel was also a really good idea, even though it's a little bit like staying in a frat house. It was a grand total of 53 dollars for me to stay here for three nights and it's pretty cool for being so cheap. It's a lot of partyers though, which seems to be all that "backpackers" really are. I don't know WHEN they backpack because it really seems to me all they do is party.

There are bats everyone here. They're in the trees just chillin upside down and stuff. And parrots and these big cockatoo things will sit on your head and stuff if you feed them. needless to say, I did not feed them. The plant and animal life is way different, and I love those little differences about countries, you know? It's neat.

People are a lot less conservative here. They don't seem to have a problem with being half naked on the beach. Half the women are topless, and also absolutely gorgeous. The country is just filled with beautiful people. It's unreal. And the guys will walk around in little boxers in the hostel. It's weird. Hello?! Female here! Icky.

I miss you all a lot and hope you enjoyed my little blog here. I highly recommend Sydney to all of you, but do come for more than three days so you can go backpacking and horseback riding and such. It's also a lot of walking, so be prepared!!! We're leaving for NZ bright and early tomorrow morning so hopefully I will be able to write more soon!

New Zealand speak (Maori): Kia Ora!

Australian: G'day mate!

English: Goodbye!


By 1:20 late tonight I will be leaving from San Francisco for Sydney, Australia. Yay! I hope I don't get lost! It'll be like living a real life "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

I leave tomorrow. Tomorrow! :) Tomorrow. :(


I would just like to thank all of those who came to my little going-away party. It really meant a lot and I know it wasn't anything spectacular, but I feel more ready now and like I got a chance to say goodbye to you more appropriately.

Lindsay...

Hang in there. I love you and will think of you every day. Talk to Kendra and Tim lots and lots. Even when you don't feel like it :) You know it always turns out great in the end.

Lesson of the day: I have a buttload of underwear. Get it, buttload? Hahahaha!

and...

Colossians 4: "Make the most of every opportunity."

Okay, so it's day number three with my new digi cam, and times have been both good and bad.

Everything was super easy at first but for some reason, today, I forgot how I uploaded my pictures before and the guide was just...wrong...so I had to try to figure it out myself, which I did, after quite some time.

AND I failed to realize that rechargeable batteries were needed. Yeah, I know that's really stupid of me, but I'm not that technologically advanced to think of things like that. And you would think that the evil store at which I bought the thing would have the rechargeable batteries right next to the memory cards, because that would be a good selling technique...but no.

So, my camera runs out of juice after taking about 10 pictures or so. Oh well. I have pictures online already but I don't think any of you would be that interested because they're of things that most of you are familiar with...Lindsay, John, snake, dog, Mozie, siblings, etc. But if you like, I can give you the thingy. I'm not sure how it works for you guys yet, so I don't know just how easy/hard it is to do, and I'm not sure about...well, the whole thing. But if for some reason, like if you're my mom, you want to check it out or at least do a trial run before I leave for New Zealand to make sure it works, just let me know and I'll send it to you. I don't think I can post it here. I don't know why. Maybe I'll have John help me figure it out because I'd like to make it as accessible as possible to my friends.

That's one good thing about having a boyfriend...if I can't figure something out, he probably can. And it works vice versa too because we're good at figuring out different sorts of things. Like, I can figure out how people feel and think and all that. But, he can figure out how to drive places, how to take the L to the right place, and how to operate digital cameras. He's not afraid of fire like I am either, or knives. So he can build fires and cut celery when I am in a bind. Anyway, I added all that information just for you, Kendra, so you can analyze it a little.

I just want to pay a shout out to Veronica for sending me a picture of the naughty snowman. It's quite educational. ;-)

There are three big problems I have with George W. Bush and his administration.

1. Abortion
I'm all for making abortion illegal, but where several protesters go wrong is that they focus on the wrong issues. Instead of picketing for hours on end and raising money for whatever it is they need money for, why don't they try to work things out in child care...making it easier to adopt, for example, making more young women aware of their options, helping women acquire birth control, helping raise money for research in birth control options (as some women have bad reactions to birth control or at least hear horror stories about it). People who are against abortion need to also realize that abortion will always take place...whether it's by overdosing on birth control, throwing oneself down the stairs repeatedly, or the old wire hanger method. If you're going to outlaw abortion, help out the kids that will be born unwanted. What will happen to all of them? OF COURSE it's better than never giving them a chance, but you know... Outlawing abortion isn't going to solve the whole issue.

2. Space Exploration
"...experts believe the actual cost of the moon and Mars projects could be as much as $750 billion.

Even if Congress does not approve the president's plan, it gives Mr. Bush a chance to discuss a bold proposal during an election year.

Increased NASA funding could also mean more jobs in key states. Of NASA's 12 main sites, three are in California and two are in Virginia. Texas, Ohio, Maryland, Alabama and Mississippi also host NASA centers."

Okay, so obviously George W. and his little team think this is a good idea to do this in an election year, while also spending billions in Iraq. I don't know, but our country seems pretty excited about it. Why? This isn't the Jetsons, people.

We are close to finding a way to cure heart disease...they say within the next 5-10 years we should have a way to cure it, and they've already done it in laboratory mice. I think I'd rather put a couple million dollars into that program so we can have it in the next 5 years instead of ten, instead of the couple million dollars paying for a little light up switchy board on some space ship thing that could blow up anyway.

Who freakin cares if there IS water up there? Can you imagine if we put one billion dollars toward funding ways to clean the water we HAVE? And another billion on trying to fix the OZONE layer? And maybe another billion towards our schools? Another billion to cancer research?

Yippee for you NASA space scientists. I'm happy you'll have jobs, seriously. But your hobby is really expensive. What about scientists who can't get the funds they need to research breast cancer? What about the teachers and other educators that are going to be "let go" within the next year because the schools can't afford them? What about those people that are 70 years old and still have to work in factories just to pay for their prescriptions (like my Aunt Evie)? $750 billion dollars?

So Bush prays before meetings and all that jazz. Good for him. That's comforting...I guess...but does God seriously want us to spend $750 dollars on space exploration? Heck, he got downright P.O.'d with the Tower of Babel.

3. Okay, no president is perfect. Give him a break, right? Sigh. I don't know. I know that he doesn't actually make ALL the decisions and he doesn't think of all this stuff himself and he has a whole lot of help. But Bush has all these people thinking he's the bomb and...well, he does like bombs doesn't he?

Maybe I supported the whole Iraq thing at first, but we did spend a lot of money there. Now, I think it's time to not spend billions on space exploration and put a little bit of money into our country's internal affairs. Just a little, please?

WoW! Wild and crazy days, I tell you, at Muskingum College, trying to get crazy stuff figured out. Crazy. I turned in my resume, booked a hostel with the other girls for our stay in Sydney, I bought a new digital camera and tried to figure it out (successfully), and did a million trips to the education department and business office to try to situate some things. I visited Kari and Kalyn, the Lighthouse (good times with Susan and Sharon), the Townhouse guys and the Thompson Ave. girls, Chrystal and Keara, and of course, Kendra and Lindsay. I slept in my old bed, which was very uncomfortable because my mattress pad and blankets weren't there :-(

And I bought a three-months supply of Prilosec for 48 dollars! Wow.

I packed my carry-on today. It is mighty full. But I just have a feeling that I might really need a lot of stuff in the twelve hours I'm on planes until I see my other luggage again, and when I do see my other luggage again, I'm not going to have time to really do much. Like brush my teeth and put on more deoderant. Those are two things I'm just a little obsessive about. And I had to bring a book, and a bible, and a journal, my CD player, my digital camera, a disposable camera, extra batteries, earplugs, eye cover, some medicines, a change of clothes, Dove cleansers, face wash... And all my travel stuff...plane tickets, receipts, passport, Australian Visa, and a bunch of other really stupid, stupid crap. My personal item will be my special gushy pillow :)

So packing for three months really isn't that difficult. I just wish it were something I could get ALL done NOW. But I can't because I need things like clothes and makeup now and I will have to pack those later. Blast it all.

I'm sorry. I'm rambling. Going to Muskingum for the night was such a blessing! I was so thankful to see everyone again. I'm going to miss those Muskies "heaps!!!"

Guess what I realized? I have NO ONE in my email address book! PLEASE email me your email addresses! If you let me know your emails, I will be able to send you the website information where you can access my pictures...or I guess I COULD put that info on here, too, huh? Well, we'll see about that :) Anyhow, if you want me to write to you, give me your email address!!!!

amandah@muskingum.edu