Story time!

Ok I am getting in trouble for not posting blogs enough! Woops! I blame it on the fact that so much goes on my life that I can't narrow things down! I could write and write and write and write but that's not possible is it? I usually fulfill my story telling need by telling a story once to some lucky person then forgetting all about the cool thing! So yeah where to start...

I am so glad I came to New Zealand for starters! It's seriously awesome. So awesome I'm wondering when it's going to be non-awesome because life has those moments too, whether they are welcome or not! Everyday I appreciate the beauty around me! The land is so green and the sky is so blue! I'm not sure if A. New Zealand has pretty sky B. it's just me taking the time to appreciate the beauty or C. it's the green land complementing the sky. Possibly it's d. all of the above! One of my new friends asked me why I say I am so glad I came. I have many reasons but a general answer is not as simple as it sounds--learning. Did you ever get that feeling in classes of "wow I am really learning a cool thing about the world right now". Feelings aren't the easiest thing to explain but I had this feeling every once in a while in school and I always appreciated school at that very moment. These moments were much rarer while in school but in New Zealand I have that feeling like ten times a day-hence the too many stories. 

My new favorite thing is to take a walk up the hill to watch the sunset after dinner with my bud Coco. The other day the cows were on the hill behind us and cows are seriously funny. I can't quite explain how they are funny but they make me laugh out loud. Maybe they are just funny because I have never spent much time with cows. Really they are just stareing at me with their big eyes and funny looking faces and wondering why I am looking at them and what the heck Coco is and why she's running around like a freak trying to get them to play! The baby cows are the most funny, pretty cute. Yeah I am going to move on to more entertaining stories now.

I went on a really cool bush walk the other day. Caitlin and I took Coco and went exploring while the kids were at school! It's a really cool track that starts just a short drive from my house, called Goldies! Of course neither of us had our camera! Oh well I have plenty of pictures of this country and there's always next time! This track was covered in stairs! We started off walking down them thinking "Oh man this will be good for the butts on the way back up!" Once we got down hundreds of stairs we came to this creek with a crazy cool bridge! The bridge was hanging by cables and had a maximum limit of ten people! As we walked across, the bridge swayed in the air above the water. I kept talking about how I love New Zealand in between telling Coco to heal, as Caitlin was talking about the swaying of the bridge and agreeing with me. I had never been on bridge like that but it didn't look to creaky so I didn't freak! This is a good time to give New Zealand props for how they keep up their parks! After the bridge we found more stairs that just kept going! After every turn we'd see more! It looked so cool we just had to see what was at the top! It was just more forest which is cool but maybe it could have keep going to somewhere neat but we had to turn around to get home and back to work! The trail has a waterfall we have to find next time, it has to be pretty because the creek that must connect was awesome! 

Last weekend I went wine tasting! The wine was awesome and tasting was FREE! One place, Matua Winery, had a list of eleven wines and we could have tasted them all for FREE! All the wineries I have been to in California make you pay and only let you try five small pours! All the wine was yummy, I bought one bottle! Even though the tasting experience is nicer due to free-ness I still love wine tasting in California! 

I am so excited for next weekend! It is going to be so much fun starting Thursday! Thursday night Caitlin and I are cooking Thanksgiving dinner for our families! Since it's not a typical Thanksgiving Day with no work and school, we will have to be well prepared and organized to make the big dinner while watching the kids too! I will have to post about how the American holiday of Thanksgiving in New Zealand turns out! After the Thanksgiving celebration I will have to wake early Friday morning to drive to Waitomo to go tubbing in the glow worm caves! Due to the time change, I will be in the glow worm caves while people in America are eating yummy Thanksgiving dinners! The caves are the start to an awesome, fun packed weekend trip with like ten girls! We also plan on white water rafting and seeing a few different cool places in New Zealand including the biggest lake in the country, Taupo! Some of the girls on the trip are going to be skydiving on Saturday morning. I am too much of a sissy to do such thing! I wish I could! I have debated it! But then I remembered how I felt jumping off of a semi-high rock into a lake. I know I would never regret it but ek sky diving! Humm maybe I will change my mind in the next week.

It's kind of hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it's turning into summer. This is seriously freaking me out! It's not normal. I have to keep reminding myself that I grew up in California where it doesn't snow and we could still go outside into the cul-de-sac to play our new games on a beautiful, sunny, seventy degree (that's twenty-one degrees in Celsius) Christmas day! It could just be in my head knowing the season will be summer because California weather and New Zealand weather are somewhat similar at the moment!  But yeah Christmas in summer should be quite interesting. It will be BBQ's and sundresses from what I hear. Not people in seventy degree California weather wearing sweaters just to fit into the traditions. Maybe New Zealand just embraces the fact that is doesn't snow on Christmas! I just need to get into the Santa in sunglasses spirit!


Speaking of converting to Celsius! I wish the United States would bust out of the measurement system we use! The metric system is so much better than the customary system that America uses! It makes my life harder here to have grown up with the stupid measurement system we use because I have to convert everything to what I am used to. Which is exactly why it's so hard to bust out of that system. But the teacher in me wishes we used the metric system because it's base ten and just makes more sense mathematically. But right now it doesn't make sense to me because I grew up with inches, pounds and miles! That's my rant. Oh yeah and why doesn't America have roundabouts? Traffic just flows better. Ok done now.

Speaking of sunglasses! New Zealand is right under a hole in the Ozone layer! I'm afraid of the sun! I need to buy my first hat and actually wear it! The sun is very harsh and skin cancer rates are higher here! My theory is that New Zealand is better at protecting the environment because they feel the effects everyday by needing to apply sunscreen every hour so they don't die! I love the little things New Zealand has everywhere that are environmentally friendly, like full flush and half flush and wall plugs with the ability to turn off when nothing is plugged into them!  I could go on and on about environment stuff but it's time to go!

I must say it's pretty awesome to have a life with so many stories worth telling that you can't narrow it down so you just go to bed! Good night friends! 

Life on the Farm!

Gendie and Tim left me in charge of the kids and the farm for a few days! It's just Sam, Oli and me this week. Oh and Spooky and Scrappy--the goats, ten chickens and Coco--the dog! The boys are easy peasy, been there done that (knock on wood, chicken pox has been going around these parts). It's the farm that is quite entertaining for me to be in charge of! I laugh at the things I am doing and can't believe I am doing them!

I have had to untangle the goat's chains a few times. This involves either stepping on or holding down one side of the chain while the goat is running wild because it's scared to death of me (Spooky) or trying to eat my sweater (Scrappy). While managing the goat I have to figure out how to untangle the mess the goat made with the chain. All the while I am laughing, wondering how the heck the goat got into such a tangle. After what feels like thirty minutes of struggle and laughter, I feel victorious and like I had my work out for the day! Thanks Spooky and Scrappy for the entertainment and free exercise!   

I also am in charge of feeding the chickens at times when they are so hungry! They follow me around and peck at me! Then when I try to pour food in their dishes they crowd me and peck at my poor hands!  If you can imagine this suburban girl doesn't like when they crowd and peck at me! So I devised a throw-food-in-random-places-method to get them away so I can put the food in the right place!  

I'm hesitant to quote "Samantha from America" again because she already thinks she's famous being in my blog but...she knows me well. I like that she was shocked that I was taking care of a farm and that I was able to make her laugh with these stories. So she is why I posted a blog two nights in a row! 

Halloween?

"What?! You can be something that isn't scary for Halloween?"--Summary of non-American girls reactions to American girls talking about what to be for Halloween!

"I would NEVER dress up as something scary for Halloween!"--Samantha from America, reacting to me telling her about that conversation!

While trick-or-treating here I started talking to a lady at the door about how shocked I was at the lack of Halloween spirit here and she said "America just knows how to do holidays right!"  I took that as a compliment but before I give that much credit to the states, I will see how New Zealand treats other holidays! Although, New Zealand is definitely missing out on Halloween!

Caitlin and I took the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween evening and we were shocked! Every other house had NO candy and NO houses were decorated. I didn't see one single jack o' lantern! We saw less than twenty other trick-or-treaters in our hour of wandering the empty streets, all wearing scary costumes--we saw a lot of little devils. As Americans, Caitlin and I were shocked but the kids had fun and loved getting free lollies (candy) from the participating houses. But their amount of lollies wouldn't even fill a whole sandwich size ziplock bag! I didn't tell them about how I used to fill a whole pillow case in my trick-or-treating days! 

I went out in Auckland the night before Halloween and it took a good ten minutes before we even saw anyone else dressed up! Where I am from you would stick out like a sore thumb if you went out with no costume any day near Halloween! The costumes were on a whole different than what you would see in the states. I was told by a few people that I had to be something scary but I refused! I wanted to be something cute, maybe pass along the American tradition! Cute is the word I prefer to use when referring to myself. But usually the adjective in front of all American women's costumes is "sexy". You can be anything you want as long as you put the word "sexy" in front of the idea and go with it! The non-American girls I was talking to thought of the movie Mean Girls when we had the costume conversation! 

There are some more differences (like giving unwrapped candy to trick-or-treaters) but I'm just going to summarize by telling the entire country of New Zealand that it needs to step up it's Halloween game! That being said I did have a blast in New Zealand for Halloween! I still dressed in my American style costume and hung with the mixed crowd of cute and scary dressers alike! I also got to go trick-or-treating for the first time in years and eat lollies found only in New Zealand! Speaking of which, I want some more milk bottles and hokey pokey chocolates!

Scary and cute!