The Homecoming

It may not have felt good physically to be back in America since I had only slept a couple hours and my feet were swollen, it sure did feel comfortable to be once again among my countrymen, non-slanted outlets, familiar accents (or lack there of), and seeing the word organized spelled with a 'z' instead of an 's'.  Immediately though, I did notice things were different than my adopted college country.  It didn't seem just like the same old same old but more like somewhere with an identity.  A few initial observations about people in America's airports:
- People, particularly strangers grasping for something to talk about, talk A LOT about their occupations.  I feel it definitely comes up in conversation in NZ but I never heard anyone carry a 30 minute conversation about, "oh what do you do there?", "we were involved in a great project", "we're looking to expand".  Maybe my views will change once I'm in the work force but I think the kiwis might be on to something when they talk more about life outside of the office.
-Busy people.  Where do people have to be and why do they have to be there so gosh darn quick?  When I worked at the nursery and there was nothing to do, me and my co-workers would often walk around doing nothing in particular but always walking quickly and with a busy face on.  We did this to avoid getting sent home for lack of things to do.  People I saw in America right off the bat were wearing their busy faces in full force that extra long Thursday and were wearing them seriously.
-"Why isn't this up to the standards I think I deserve?"  On numerous occasions, people didn't think the service they received was up to snuff and let someone know about it.  One lady waited around and confronted the pilot about a joke he had made on the intercom. Another lady made the person at a restaurant kiosk remove the lettuce she didn't order from her burger.  Take off your own damn lettuce! People make mistakes.  Several people were terse, frustrated, or downright angry at the people representing the airlines for check-in and checking bags.   Anyway, a lot of people expect things to be perfect for them. What does the world owe you, my friend?  And what have you done for it lately?
-Diversity.  I mean this in the most appreciative way possible, but it was great to see black people again. NZ's isolation doesn't exactly create the most racially and culturally diverse environment.  Sure I'll miss the kiwis and the maori, but I think the airports in America really showcase the different backgrounds, lifestyles, and ideas you get depending on where you go in the country.  This makes for fantastic people watching.
-Sarcasm at its finest.  There's just this certain sense of humor I found time an time again with the people in on the plane, selling food, or working security that verges on cynical but I just find it so funny sometimes.
-Mexican food.  Hard to come by in NZ.
-Cute girls in sun dresses.  Gotta love summer.  A welcome sight to my winter wearied eyes.
-There was definitely a lot more chatter on the planes in New Zealand.  Not sure why but it was kindof nice.  Although the young lad in front of me had his ear talked off by some crazy man all the way from Dunedin to Auckland.   Not always a good thing.
-Friendly mid-westerners.

Now some favorite things about home:
-Family
-Friends
-A warm house
-Good smelling towels.
-A stocked pantry
-Front yards and back yards.
-Baseball
-Reuniting with my blanky.
-Cereal and Cheez-its (not necessarily together).
-Beautiful fields.  I really enjoyed my drive from Omaha to Ames last saturday.  Maybe I've taken these amber waves of grain for granted.
-Barbeques and corn on the cob and root beer.
-Playing drums again.
-Riding my bike.
-Did I mention friends and family?

It's safe to say I'm really really enjoying being home.  More than I thought I would.  I don't think that speaks of the inferiority of New Zealand, it's a beautiful place with beautiful people, but rather to how great the things I have going for me are here.  In the coming days and months I'm bound to see things I appreciate more and see other things where I would like to introduce something I learned in NZ.  Why do we do things this way?  I do think I am a different person.  Different because I believe I've learned things about myself.  Ideally the end of each day would be a death of the person I was before and my awakening the birth of a new person closer to the better person I someday hope to be.  This process I believe is just easier to see in a 4 month span in a foreign place with new experiences.  However as my friend Pete told me, I have only really found myself in my New Zealand setting.  How my trip will affect who I will become at home has yet to be discovered.  This might call for another blog, we'll see.  For now, I'll be signing of from the witty, Pulitzer deserving New Land, New Zeal.   While this blog has been mainly about me, the beautiful thing about me being home is that we can now communicate face to face and you can tell me about what's been going on in your life for the last four months*.  I would love to tell you about my experiences but I would also love to hear about yours.  So lets shake the dust of this crummy little blog and get together.  We have so much more to share than stories.  Thanks for reading and I love you all.

--Daniel --


*Thanks again Peter.

The Departure

1:30 am Omaha time and my body is still telling me it's a sleepy 6:30 pm.  Tomorrow when it's time to get up I'll be about as lively as a tranquilized polar bear in the heat of the equator.  For those of you have have not hugged hello or goodbye, I have now left New Zealand and have arrived safe and sweaty in Omaha.  When did 78 degrees (roughly 25 for you Centigrade users) get to feel so hot?  Maybe it was when I shivered my self to sleep in my bed in NZ.  My departure was bitter and my arrival was sweet.  Only in that manner was my leaving New Zealand bitter-sweet.  It didn't really hit me at the time of the goodbyes how large the distance and time between me and my new friends might grow but locking my room for the last time sure nailed it in to me.  If that didn't work the sight of the hills around Dunedin growing smaller and smaller as the plane climbed did.  I probably wasn't as ready to come home on June 23rd as I was on May 4th.  Fresh off my trip to Australia with two papers staring me in the face and two cold and wet months of Dunedin ahead of me, I was starting to realize how long four months can seem.   June had me reminded me how short four months can be when surrounded by the right people.  Special shout out to the flat next door (numba 6) for occupying my time, lending me power for my laptop, and donating prime real estate for our study fort.  I think May and June went by faster than any previous month in NZ because of how much closer I felt to the people I met there.  I'm not going to get all wishy washy so things aren't awkward next time I talk to one of these people who's mention is implied, but I really enjoyed getting to know these people.  If you are one of "these people" you really mean a lot to me. Some people were very different from friends I have in Omaha or Ames, and some people would blend right into my usual crowd.  But I cherish everyone and they all taught me as much as they've made me laugh. Which was a lot.   I believe we have a reunion already planned in Brazil at some point.  Pinky promised it so you know it's real.

Fortnights and Final Finals

Omaha wakes up as Dunedin settles down to sleep.  I don't have anything in particular to write tonight.  I think I will begin studying tomorrow for my final final.  The exam is on Monday and is 40% of my grade.  I'm not worried.  Although it is a little disappointing that I'm still taking finals in the teens of June.  This is what I get for frolicking around Colombia and learning to cross country ski in January.  These last few days have been reminiscent of January, not because I was traveling over dirt roads through the Colombian countryside but because of the excess time on my hands.  We made a fort in my neighbor's flat a week ago which was easily one of the more fun things I've done this month.  Even with a whole country to explore the best fun is sometimes puttsing around the living room figuring out how to position a hockey stick so it holds up a sheet without falling down.  Although Elise and I tend to get wayyyy too in to these kind of things also, maybe it shouldn't have been that fun.  Now, it is time for another fun activity.  Sleep! Tomorrow I hope to wake up and go to this bakery that is only open on fridays and get some wicked Almond Croissants. Love ya. 

P.S. This post reminds me that New Zealanders often use the word "fortnight", as in 2 weeks.  Not often actually but compared to the near extinction from the American English vocabulary it's used quite often.   Anyway, thought I'd share.  Be home in a half-fortnight if there is such a thing.  Maybe half a fortnight is just a tentnight or housenight or something.  Bad jokes...bye! 

Participatory Painting

1:05 am on the 14th of June and I swear just a few hours ago it was 1:05 on the 13th.  The days are dropping from the pages of my calendar as if they weren't even bound in the first place.  I set sail for the states 10 days from now.  I'm excited for home but I feel my departure will feel like a treadmill that suddenly stops in the middle of your workout.  I'm weary to brace myself or slow down before the stop because I don't want to miss any minute of the last week.  I'd rather hit the flight home full stride; there is much still to see and do.  Sunday afternoon I went with some friends up to Mt. Cargill, I think one of the highest "peaks" in the Dunedin area.  About 760 meters or so. A substantial elevation gain when you consider the neighboring Pacific Ocean.  Over the last trip with Usch and Charlotte we did some tracks that never really summited, we had some cool views but we never reached the top of anything.  They were nice walks but this trip to Cargill reminded me what is so special about climbing peaks:  the unique opportunity to see the world in symphony.  I could see the fields, hills, trees, rivers, peninsula, bay, wind, birds, and ocean all as a part of beautiful and natural composition.  Everything had a place, it was truly remarkable.  The hills were not just another plot of land that sat alone in there importance but were a part of a larger more important picture.  Take out one of the hills and it would be like taking out one of Mona Lisa's eyes.  It's easy to forget about all the things that are dependent on that hill or call it home.  The birds live in the tree that takes root in the hill that guides the river that flows to the ocean that provides the clouds that make the rain that the birds and trees get their nourishment from.  To me it seems the Painter of this picture did not put one brush stroke out of place.  I think the sciences-- biology, chemistry, physics, etc.-- are all just separate disciplines examining a small part of the perfection of the world.  So here I sat on a rock on a mountain, observing the incredible cyclical beauty and I started to think of where my place was in all this.  The most impactful part of the experience was what I felt- the mountain supporting my weight, the grass against my skin, and my body creating an obstacle for the cold wind.  I have never felt so connected with the Earth.  We are not just observers of the masterpiece but are also an interacting part of the picture.  And we have the ability I think to still add our own brush strokes, for better or for worse.  This moment was an awakening of sorts for me to keep asking myself if my brush strokes make sense in the big scheme of things or are they working on a different picture.  We can't have two pictures within the same painting and have it look good.  Our only choice is to accept the painting in progress before us and try to coordinate our hands and brushes accordingly.  Love you all!  See some of you soon!

Daydreams of Summer

Back from an extended weekend with a couple good friends out in Fiordland National Park.  As you may know, winter is quickly approaching here.  Although between switching on another cycle of my heater and taking a sip of hot tea, I click through facebook pictures of barefoot friends in green grass and read statuses of barbeques, frisbee, and laying out in the sun.  Even the calendar seems to suggest that it is, in fact, summer time.  I've been having a hard time visualizing summer recently.  I keep expecting Thanksgiving to be on its way and found myself getting giddy for Christmas after seeing the year round lights on the leafless trees downtown. And frankly, laying out in the sun and going for a swim doesn't sound all that appealing to me right now.  For a moment during one of our hikes this weekend, I felt I was on summer vacation.  The academic cloud that hovers above a student with approaching finals lifted and I could picture myself enjoying my time in the wilderness but soon returning to an Omaha summer.  Then a turn in the trail snapped me out of my daydream and back into the dense moss and fern covered forests of New Zealand and just like that, I struggled to remember what summer feels like again.  I don't have the tingly anticipation that I usually get in late April and Early May as days get longer and warmer and the end of school draws nearer and nearer.    My transition period this year will consist of the 3 seconds it takes to pass through the revolving doors at the airport entrance.  I'll let you know if it tingles.  I'm sure I'll find my summer spirit soon after returning.  I'm hoping that during the drive home from the airport, the lush trees, warm air, and tan little sister will remind me what summer is all about.  So enjoy the season my friends; keep the grills hot, the sprinklers spraying,  the laughter plentiful, and the clothes minimal.  I will be joining you shortly.

Early March near Franz Josef Glacier

Summer in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens

St. Clair Beach in February

The Queens Gardens a few days after arriving in Dunedin

Skipping Rocks in Hokitika in early March

Love to you all.

Give and Accept

If you ask me, the Lord of the Rings movies would be much better if condensed down to 2 movies.  The trilogy just seems excessive.   We could have the Fellowship of the Two Towers and then the Return of the King.  Or we could just condense it into one smash hit titled The Fellowship of the Two Kings.  I'm all about being concise.  I had never really seen any of the lord of the rings movies until the past two weeks.  Surprising, maybe because often the first thing people told me when I told them I was going to New Zealand was, "You know the Lord of the Rings was filmed there."  To which I often answered, "I'm aware. The guy to your immediate right and his mother both informed me twice."  At least I wish sometimes I had said that.

Dunedin has finally stepped up to fill the previously vacant position of "home" in the month of May.  Or maybe I finally stepped in the door and took off my coat to stay a while.  Before the break there were aspects of home with me,  I had a few good friends and a familiar flat and warm bed to come back to at the end of the day, but it seemed more like I was still a visitor in someone's home.   I was more cautious of what I said around people who I just met, and while I wandered and explored the house, I kept my hands mainly clasped behind my back so as not to break anything.  Just watching.  After returning from Australia, I feel I've really taken off the shoes and claimed the joint as my own.  Not in an arrogant way, but a comfortable way.  Nothing with Dunedin has changed though so it must be something on the personal level that has.  With the funds and temperature running a bit lower than in February, the incentive to travel has been a bit less and naturally the time around friends has been a bit more.  Everything and everyone seems so much more real now.   Each day we get a better feel for just who the heck it is we've been spending our time with.  Personally, I consider you at friend status if I can take the safety off the dumb jokes gun and just fire at will, without fear of judgement.  Then I'll consider you a good friend if you return fire.  While I haven't even left Dunedin yet this month, I think it's been one of the most exciting because of how well I've gotten to know people and hopefully how well people think they are getting to know me.  It's amazing then, once we have that group of people who we know will accept us, our confidence in other areas of life just explodes.  Suddenly it seems like a whole new world is opened up. I wish I had opened it up faster. I admire people who jump headfirst into friendships right from the start, with few reservations.  Hopefully, I'll be one of those people one of these days.   I think it first starts with not judging myself too harshly.  A quote from a Luc and the Lovingtons song says it best: "We can realize how we treat ourselves is the same way we treat everybody else."  Sometimes after doing something a little strange or off beat I still find myself asking myself, "Who DOES that???"  It took me a while to be comfortable with the answer, "No one!!"  I'm still not completely comfortable with it, but individuality is too awesome of a gift not to share with people!  I'll never get anywhere in life just copying the same things Frank* says or does.  Likewise, I won't learn much if I expect Frank to be just like me or just like someone else.  "Give and take" may not be the best way to describe relationships with others. Sure the giving is fine but what the heck am I stealing from my friends?  I prefer to use, "Give and accept."  Once that happens, I think our circle of friends will grow tremendously and our sense of comfort and home becomes a lot more mobile.  I hope everyone feels good now, because you should.  Have a great day! Sending love your way.  

*Frank is not in reference to anyone in particular but rather just a default name for the sake of an example. 

Thoughts on my faith and others(').

Before you read this I would just like to say that my faith is a work in progress.  It always will be.  These are not ideas I will refuse to change, just what I think right now from my experiences, learning, reading, and thinking.  

  

+ While washing dishes here in Dunedin on Sunday, I think I came across a way to vaguely articulate things I've been tossing around in my head for a long time.  These things mainly involve humanity's purpose in the world, diversity in world views and religions, and where the heck a Christian ethics fits into all of this.   This has come about as a result of my class titled God and Ethics in the Modern world: a class focusing on Christian ethics, the modern western world view, and what happens when you combine these two monster concepts.  When combining the two, a conflict quickly emerges from the secular western world saying "Live and let live" and the Christian ethics saying, in regards to the world created by God and reordered by Jesus, "This, and only this, is true." The western view keeps religion in the private life.  In this view, it is no one’s place to infringe on what others believe and they are entitled to their opinions as long as they are sincere in their beliefs and are not hurting anyone else.  We can never establish the absolute truth and therefore should leave others' beliefs alone and live in non-confrontational peace. In my Christian ethics class, we learned that the idea of being unable to establish a definite truth goes against the fundamentally Christian idea of revelation. That is, God's coming down to humanity through Christ and showing us truth, life, and a renewal of God’s promise to humanity and God’s purpose for the world.  So is it possible to accept diversity of religions while still striving towards God's purpose for the world through Christ?  This, for me, is the big question right now.  If I were Lewis Stevens I would say it were the big papa with the big mapa.

I had a discussion with a man from church on Sunday about this.  I said, "Can't I believe in Christianity without wanting to convert everyone?" He said that our love for people of other faiths should cause us to want them to believe in the Gospel.  If they do not accept it, they are destined for an unpleasant end (hell). The analogy he used was if we saw someone driving their car off a cliff, would we just stand back so as not to disturb their way of life or would we intervene?  I guess the effectiveness of this analogy is based on the assumption that I believe people of other faiths are driving their life off a cliff.  I don’t necessarily think they are driving themselves towards disaster and I don’t think I am in any position to grab ahold of their wheel.   To quote and agree with a friend of mine, I think God is too big to be known in full by any person and I don't think it is my first job to tell people why they should believe in the God I believe in.  To always be feeling that people of other faiths always have something they need to change would seem to get in the way of truly loving people as they are.  I believe there is a difference between wanting to make the world a better place and wanting to make the world a more Christian place.  They may go hand in hand for sure and I'm not saying the spread of Christianity is a bad thing, but I just don't think it should be my number one focus.   My first focus, I believe, should be to love; to love everyone everywhere, and all the time.  I think it is my actions of love and service to my neighbor that should do the talking first, not my mouth.  This way I also have a fighting chance at listening.  We will never argue someone into buying into Christianity.  Even if we could, something bigger has to take place within a person for true beliefs to take root.  Christianity is not so much about accepting a theology as it is entering a relationship with God.  This relationship should come about as a response to God’s love; a love can only be learned through other people, life experiences, and searching.  Christian beliefs ultimately have to be wrestled with and surrendered to by the individual himself.  If conversion happens, I would want it to be sparked as a response to the love I have shown someone not because of my concerted effort to change them.  For Christians, conversion should not be a product of debate and coercion but a response to the love we give and the teachings that can be taken from the example of our actions.  Creating a more Christian world may not always be the best way to bring about God’s purpose for the world, at least not at the cost it would take to bring about such a world.  What would we have if everyone in the world proclaimed themselves to be Christian? We would most likely have the same problems under different titles.   A simple profession of a belief in Jesus as the son of God will not get anyone much closer to salvation let alone bring about serious change in the world.  Walking the walk is crucial.   The power to create  change in the world and in one’s life lies not in their doctrine on paper but in their willingness to give up their material and human agenda and live a life dedicated to service to their brothers, sisters, and the world around them.   I believe a love God would be proud of is too big to pin one doctrine on and has the ability to come in more forms than one.   Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his Drum Major Instinct sermon, “…in Christ there is no North or South but one great fellowship of love.”   I think truly devoting one’s self to this “fellowship of love” is something that can be achieved by Christians and non-Christians alike, just as many Christians and non-Christians have yet to commit themselves to it.  I can still be committed to my beliefs about God and Jesus, and I can have a theological discussion with a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh about my beliefs and their beliefs, and why we believe them to be true and why we think our beliefs are ones the world should live by, but the differences in our specifics, titles, and rituals are not what is most important.  In a diverse and connected humanity, what is most important is the service and love towards others guided by a purpose based in a vision of making this old world a new world. +

Give me some feedback if you want!  I'd love to hear what you think.  For now, off with the lights and off to bed.  Love you all. 

Writing Ribbons

Every now and then I'll hear or read something that I think is a message everyone should hear.   The most recent message was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Drum Major Instinct" sermon.  I had about two-thirds of a thoughtful blog post finished when my flatmate Dan came in asking me what I was doing.  Before I knew it, we were both getting right into listening to the sermon and then I didn't have the motivation or words to finish the post afterwards hoping to pick it up later.  Unfortunately I don't think blogging works quite that way.  Or at least not to create the spontaneous and continuous ribbons of thought that I like to post. So I decided to scrap the post for now and start fresh when I can pound out one complete work in one sitting.  I'm finding that blogging more closely related to improvisational drumming than writing an essay.  I just kind of let whatever's on my mind come to my fingertips with out really suppressing it.  Go with the flow.  Luigi and Brian, my previous drum teachers both told me that improvisation was largely about not stopping.  Letting the crazy ideas, habits, and responses just flow from brain to hand without worrying so much if it's "right" and not stopping when something doesn't go exactly as planned.  Collect yourself on the fly and move on to the next phrase, fill, or in this case word that you get to create. (Applicable advice for more than just drumming and blogging.)  In this light, blogging becomes a snapshot of my thoughts in the moment as it exists right now.  Put in succession with other posts, hopefully we start to see a photo album of consciousness.  We'll see if I keep up with the ol' blog when I get home but for now I quite enjoy it.  It's a good sort of active meditation and reflection for me.  And it fills in the gaps between skype conversations, or fills in half the gaps I should say since blogging is a pretty one sided method of communication.  Kind of like talking with your pets.  You feel they're listening but input on their end tends to be lacking.  With that, time for bed.   This weekend's forecast included sunshine and I've thrown in a chance of farmer's market and hiking just for good measure.  Love you all. 

A Message from Maya friend...

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." -Maya Angelou

Do something you want to do!

A wild koala in Australia

Hello from Sunny for once Dunedin!!! Not a cloud in the sky today!  What better way to spend that by getting a haircut.  It looks a little funky but I suppose it will "do" until June.  Today also happens to be my Australia traveling buddy Tom's birthday.  We'll probably spend the evening eating pancakes and icecream, listening to Jamiriquai, and playing Israeli card games.   I got a B on my first theology paper about basing Christian ethics on the drama of salvation.  I've been grappeling with some of these theology issues recently; mainly confided in Grandmother, Granddaddy, and Jesse (my friend/pastor of my church in Ames).  These thoughts are worthy of a post, but not on a nice day like this, and maybe after a little bit more thinking.  Until then think of something you would really like to do and follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v  

=IVwdBCb8S1I

   Have a wonderful day! love, Daniel

Pictures of Australia

           This post goes out to the Malloy siblings who claim I don't post frequently enough.  We discussed the option of me getting a twitter account so everyone could keep up with what I ate for lunch, what I'm doing today, and when my feet start to sweat but we decided it would be better for Max to tweet in my name instead.  I'll let you know when that gets up and running.  I need to get back to work catching up on actually comprehending material that I was supposed to learn while I was working on my papers but I'll leave a healthy serving of pictures (with captions) for you from Australia. It was a really great 10 days.  Hope you enjoy! Especially you Max and Erin. 

Dang Kangaroos were like deer!  Almost hit a few with the van!

One of the many culturally saturated laneways in Melbourne.

Fish and Chips on the beach on a warm Australian afternoon.

A view of Tom at Hollow Mountain in Grampians National park.

We followed these signs for the "Big Tree" that was apparently hundreds of years old but it had already fallen down. This was the first legit rainforest I've been to outside of the Leid Jungle at the zoo! 

A picturesque scene of a father teaching his son to fish on a beach along the Great Ocean Road. One of the favorite beaches I've been to so far.  The waves were HUGE! 

A decent sunset along the Great Ocean Road.

Torquay.  Which is the name of the town not some crazy Australian word for beautiful. 

All Nighters and Easter Mornings

St. John's Church in Melbourne

Well, well, well....It looks like old Daniel "skin of his teeth" Bennett has pulled it off again.  After losing a week of possible work time on a2000 word essay for my Trasformations of Developing Countries class due to food poisoning, getting better a day into a previously booked trip to Australia, having a blast, coming back only to find out that the essay I hadn't worked on in 3 weeks was due in 48 hours and almost losing my doctor's certificate warranting somewhat of an extension, I'm pleased to say that I turned in the paper that will determine 40% of my grade in that class on time with four minutes to spare.  My teaching assistant said I would still recieve a penalty for being late because apparently a previously (one month in advance) booked trip on spring break while I'm studying abroad after a week of food poisoning wasn't a valid enough excuse for a full extension of the time I missed when I returned.  I don't agree with her necessarily but I figured there was nothing I could really do about it so I might as well just take it and try to climb my way out of the morter shell crater I was in.   It definitely wasn't my best work but it got completed and it's out of my life now.  I'm looking forward to sleeping tonight.  Roy Hargrove's innovative jazz and energy drinks deserve some of the credit for getting my paper in on time by keeping me fueled last night.  The whole situation was a very long story, which I'm not in the mood to share with you now but I think you've picked up the gist of it in my cascade of ranting a few lines of text up.  Gah!
Anyway, I had a fanstastic time in Australia once the food poisoning decided to leave my body.  I only had it very early Easter morning right before my flight and then that was the last of it.  I'm tempted to say good timing but considering my recent situation I don't think it would be quite appropriate in the big scheme of things.  I went to church on Easter which was one of the highlights of my trip.  We found this old church called St. Johns Presbyterian Church in downtown Melbourne.  I was greeted by white hair and warm smiles and was invited to just set my backpack down on the side next to the pew and enjoy the service.  The actual content of the sermon wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, pretty standard "remember and rejoice in what God has and Jesus have done for us",  which is amazing, don't get me wrong but it wasn't anything different from what I was expecting.  But then the music, oh the music.  They had an amazing brass quintet that accompanied the hymns and the choir and played an anthem or two.  It may have been a situational thing but I've never heard a group of instruments sound so full of joy .  The sermon ended up being somewhat redundant in the service because the brass could have said it all.  The choir was loud and energetic and I have never heard a sanctuary louder than on the final verse of the last hymn we sang.  Every beam in that old stone church just shook so spectacularly with the sound of hundereds belting out each word of praise.  I could kick myself for not writing down the name of it now but it was really an incredible thing to hear and witness.   It doesn't make up for missing Easter with family but it still made the day special. I'll share more about Australia soon but for now I hope you have enjoyed reliving my Easter as much as I have.   Hopefully I'll get to chat via skype with most of you reading soon.  Love, Daniel

My Intestimony

A neat picture at Allan's Beach after some drizzle.

Four days with the stomach flu away from home may have me down, but I'm not out.  All I can say is that I'm thankful that I'm not 20 meters down the hall from a locked dormitory bathroom.  I've gotta hand it to what ever bug this was, it was a formidable match for my immune system.  For a while there I wasn't sure I was going to make it.  Every stabbing stomach convulsion took another big hit on my morale as I started to wonder if it was, in fact, just a bug.  Bugs, to me, were day long endeavors maybe with the sniffles or a bit of a sore throat.  If those are bugs this was a mutant tarantula.  I was still in pretty poor shape as I nestled into bed last night but with the help of some "gastrosoothe" the urgent care doctor gave me that night, I managed to sleep through the night.  Things were still pretty miserable this morning and then around 3 pm the tide turned.  I got out of bed, took a shower, and put on jeans for the first time since Monday.  I was a new man. Sitting up was finally bearable and I could change positions or get up and get things across the room with incredible ease.  At dinner,  I ate some potatoes and after letting that settle even moved on to the lemon and herb chicken roast my flatmate made.  I still am debating whether that was a good idea or not but I was just feeling so good at the time, and that chicken smelled soooo darn tasty.  I'm confident that I have crossed to the other side but I haven't stopped being grateful for the better health I'm feeling now (although only at probably 75%) just in case the "mutant tarantula" virus decides to come back and humble me again.  Every time I finally get over an illness, I seem to be saying, "I will never take health for granted again." But eventually, it just becomes a part of my everyday life and my concern turns to never getting quite enough sleep, or the 2,000 word paper staring me in the eye, or why the heck my computer isn't cooperating as well as I would like it to.  I can't imagine people living with diseases for numerous years or a life time.   From now on, I will pray more for people with poor health. It sure makes living a whole lot more difficult. Especially once you have to pay for it.  And now, it is time for me to try to sleep despite a very loud British accent version of Hey-Ya being sung in the flat next door.  Thanks again for reading.  Sending love your way.  

Consider this the last post before I submerge my self in the academic deep end for the next 5 days.   There hasn't been much work until now and maybe I should have stuck to my plan of working ahead better, but now I have essays due Tuesday and Thursday with a participation in online discussion sandwiched in between.  But then, it's off to Christchurch and then Australia for a week and a half.  We'll be touring the state of Victoria which includes (but is not limited to) Melbourne, the Grampians, and Great Ocean Road.  If I were looking ahead that far right now I'm sure I'd be excited but until then its like the cookie in the cookie jar that's up on the counter without a stepping stool in sight with an adult who doesn't want you to spoil your dinner standing in front of you.  Wish me luck on the papers, they should be very interesting, just time consuming.  I hope you North Americans and Europeans are enjoying spring and I hope you Colombians are enjoying your wet season.  Love to you all.

Shining, Shimmering, Splendor

     When I left this blog I was about to get 3 hours of sleep and then embark on a journey to Mt. Cook.  We got out of Dunedin at 4:16 a.m. and after taking a shortcut and making a wrong turn, got in the front of the line for reservations at the Mueller Hut at 7:40.  About 30 to 40 minutes ahead of schedule.   I attribute our obtaining the tickets to my Kiwi Host Dan's beastly driving and short cut sniffing skills along with the roads being completely clear at the ungodly hour.  The spectacular sunrise as we barreled through the straight valley roads was a good omen for things to come throughout the weekend.  We couldn't have had better weather if we had gone in the middle of summer.

  A fresh thick blanket of snow earlier in the week provided for surreal scenes and made our hike seem more adventurous.   It was one of the more challenging if not the most continuously challenging hikes I have ever done (4 hours practically straight up) but I loved every minute of the leg burning and heavy breathing.  We took time to swim in a small alpine pond, have lunch, and ambush the trailing members of our crew with snowballs.   The sunset cast a soft fuchsia glow on the towering Mount Cook.  Sunrise the next morning was nothing short of spiritually awe inspiring.  On top of Mount Olivier, the 360 degrees of splendor absolutely swallowed me up and cannot be described in any other way than poetic.  Sunlight beamed off of the snowy tops and ran down the mountain like a magnificent golden liquid as the sun rose higher above the horizon.  All of this came about on a last minute decision on Friday night to scrap the weekend plans and work and hit the road.  What a good decision.

     Now it's Tuesday and I've gotten a good start finally on my research papers.  I'll probably post my ethics one here when I'm finished, which will hopefully be less than a week from now if I plan to turn it in on-time.  I had planned on posting about the disgusting feeling I have right now after getting this Hare Krishna $3 lunch and then drinking a mountain dew earlier today; luckily I remembered about this weekend.  My digestive system still would thank you for your thoughts and well wishes, though.  Love to you all. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

 My birthday week has been a good one.  One half teens, one half twenties and an all around good week.  In the waning minutes of my teenage years I found myself wanting to do something involving poor judgement and lack of foresight.  When else in my life will I be able to make bad decisions and just blame it on the age range I fall into?  When you're a teenager, people expect you to mess up.  When you're 20, you know better.  Unfortunately the worst judgement I could muster was kicking a football over the fence on accident.  Then I felt bad about it so I went and brought it back.  And just like that my teenage years were over and I have now moved on the the roaring 20's.   I think this is the decade where you're supposed to figure your life out. Although the teens was the decade where I was supposed to reach 5' 8", so we can't hold on to expectations too much.  I definitely feel younger and less mature than what I always perceived 20 year olds to be when I was little.  I remember visiting Justin at UNL when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and thinking how old 20 was and what I would be like when I was 20.   Turns out bathroom jokes are still funny, I'm still extremely ticklish, and I still like to play outside.  I'm not in a hurry for those to change.  So goodbye 13 through 19, you've treated me well and your fun will be tough to beat. Hopefully the 20's will give you a run for your money.  Especially since you had none haha. I crack myself up.

Speaking of playing outside, we are planning to go to the Mount Cook area in about 3.5 hours.  Mt. Cook, or Aoraki as it's named in Maori, is the tallest mountain in NZ, reaching above 9,000 ft.  We'll only get to about half that elevation I think but we'll still run into snow about half way up our intended trail.  The overnight low at the hut will be in the upper twenties so I'll be wearing lots of layers to bed.  Should be a great weekend.  With that, I'm off to bed, finally.  Thanks for reading. Love to you all.

If only I could find my cellphone this quickly...

Botanic Gardens last week

I was in the Library again today, to stick with the recent trend of academic productivity, and was so moved by the preciseness that the books related to the subject I wanted that I decided to post about it.  It all started with a later than usual flat shop for the coming week.  Nothing can kill evening productivity like a late dinner so time was of the essence.  Usually I come home from Uni around 5:30 or 6 and then just kind of putts around until dinner and then get going after I'm full and happy.  Last night we didn't eat till 8:30 so there was quite a bit of puttsing and then I decided to increase my knowledge of New Zealand culture and cinematography by watching the second Lord of the Rings film.  Not exactly productive.  We started the drive home from the Pak n' Save around 7 and I got my first manual transmission, left side of the road driving experience.  Yes, the stick shifting is done with the left hand.  It was a little weird but it must feel great for a left hander to come here and finally have something geared towards them (no pun intended).  I felt like I was in drivers ed again as I cautiously spotted where I wanted to go on each turn and drove 5 mph under the speed limit.  You wouldn't think simply flipping everything to the opposite side would mess with you that much but it really takes a lot of concentration at first.  Staying on the correct side of the road comes quickly when your life is on the line, however.  Anyway,  back home, after a not too late dinner, I made my way through the fresh Dunedin night to the library to begin research on my paper about Africa.  I have decided that I want to do my paper on the problems of rapid city growth in Africa and how the effects of those problems might be alleviated.  I also had decided that I would try to focus specifically on the rural-urban interactions because the degree of urbanization tends to depend on what's going on or going wrong in the rural areas.   I walked for about 5 minutes through the florescent lit aisles of the Central Library before finding the Mother Lode.   In almost no time I was thumbing through a book titled "Rural-Urban Interactions in the Developing World."   How good is that?!   Needless to say, I'm quite excited about the recent acquisition and plan to get (as they say here) stuck into the reading tomorrow.   With that, expect a special edition Birthday post from me again tomorrow and wish me sweet dreams.  Love ya.

Swing on a vine over a stream? Check.

Greetings from a well rested blogger on a rainy Monday afternoon.   I was graced with an extra hour of sleep this weekend as New Zealand fell back out of daylight savings time.  For those of you in the central time zone, just subtract 7 hours from your current time and add a day to find out what time it is here.  Classes are going well.  I ended up dropping the Physical Geography course but still managed to get in touch with the subject by climbing Signal Hill in the time allotment the class normally occupied.   One of the coolest things about Dunedin is how quickly you can get out of town and into nature.  And not like the dirty Papio Creek or Lake Laverne nature at home, clean, fresh nature like forests, streams, and mountains.  From my flat, it's a 15 minute walk to the city center and about a 30 minute walk in the other direction to be surrounded by sheep pastures, huge rolling hills, and the occasional towering gum tree forest.  I fulfilled yet another life goal by swinging on a vine over a stream on our way back down from Signal Hill.  Yes, a vine.  Tarzan style.  Except I was a little better dressed.   Nevertheless, despite not going anywhere extreme, it was a very solid weekend.  I finished it off by playing this Israeli card game with some friends and participating in a club that does the Japanese war drumming called Taiko.

    This morning I began serious work on my essay for my God and Ethics class.  My topic may be whether it is a fair statement to say that Christian ethics are not based on a set of rules but rather the drama of salvation as outlined in the Bible.  I'm always amazed in college libraries, of the the amount of quality material on any subject you are looking for.  Hopefully my my research on developing countries in Africa for another essay goes equally as well.  A tall order considering the sleepy post lunch syndrome that I feel settling in, now.  With that, enjoy the pictures of the Eucalypti and  me achieving my life goals!
Love, Daniel

Wandering

A little late night posting before a obligatory productive week:
  As I heard from one of my friends recently, who undoubtedly quoted someone else, "Not all who wander are lost."  A realization of this came to me this week with a hike on Wednesday with my friend who goes by the name Kiwi.  Elise actually ran cross country with him at Luther and told me that he had dark curly hair and would be studying at Otago.  I approached a man fitting said characteristics and lo and behold, there was Kiwi!  We finally got around to meeting up and going out for a hike out to no where in particular.  I figured we would just find a near by trail but we passed the turn off for the nearest one without me noticing to later and end up going just outside the city to the north.  We stayed on a mountain bike trail for a little while before eventually climbing over a barbed wire fence and up through a grove of Eucalyptus trees to an open pasture.   I never would have imagined how good it felt to get off the trail.  It was so nice just walking through pure New Zealand.  No maps, no other people, no idea where we were.  Just us, some sheep, and the swirls of thoughts in our heads.  I feel like I took a lot more in that afternoon than usual.  It could be that I'm getting more comfortable and open to the subtle miraculousness of the country but I think there's something to be said for exploring your own way.   I was way more attentive to my surroundings and my interactions with them when it was up to me to decide where to go.  Nothing was physically leading us to a great view or around prickly bushes.   We did in fact find a great view and I think I only ran into one prickly bush, but the reward was so much greater than previous hikes.  Sometimes walks on paths can feel like a movie reel being played as I walk.  It was great to be the director this time.  I hope to do more wandering off the path in coming weeks, months, and years.  At this time, anyone looking for a good post can stop reading now; anyone wanting to help me make a decision can continue reading....
It's decision time for whether or not I keep my Physical Geography class.  I like the subject matter but have missed the last two labs and would have to spend all day Friday to make them up along with doing this week's lab.  In addition, I would have 3 more Fridays this semester where I would be locked into staying home for the weekend due to late labs in the afternoon.  Whether I drop or not makes no difference what time I graduate it would just be an extra 3 credits of electives.  When answering the question "Would I regret dropping the course when I look back at my time in New Zealand?" I quickly say no.  But the good student and conscience inside me is telling me to bite the bullet and finish the course.  Shouldn't I finish things I start?? Particularly when it comes to knowledge and education?? Most of my learning here so far has happened out of the classroom but this subject material is interesting in regards to city planning.  So are my other 3 courses though.  Anyway, it's no longer wandering time on this decision and if anyone reading has any advice I would love for you to comment and post it.  Thanks a bunch! Love ya.

"What did we do to deserve this?"

Well another successful weekend is now under my belt as the reality of needing to start a  couple essays sets in.  This weekend the location was Fjordland National Park on the western side of the south island.   I was a little nervous at first before going because my very sore Achilles tendon was making me far less mobile than I like to be at 19.  Although it did make me have empathy for those who have trouble getting around because of various aches and pains in their legs.  This problem had lingered since the first tramp out in Mt. Aspiring National Park and on the wednesday before St. Patrick's Day I decided to suck it up and go for a run.  Miraculously, that seemed to nearly cure it.   I wouldn't recommend this strategy for everyone but for me it seemed to work.  On Friday, with the car full of gear and my belly full of corned beef, we headed out for Milford Sound.  With a sleepy car owner, I got my first left side of the road driving experience.  It's a little nerve racking at first but you get the hang of it pretty quickly when your life depends on it.  I don't think I've ever thought so hard about a roundabout or right turn in my life, but I was successful and did not crash into anything or anyone.  Andrew drove the rest of the way into the Fiords.  Rain pounded down on the roof of the car as we wound down to the sea through the deep U shaped valleys.  Thanks to the rain, dozens of waterfalls streamed down every cloud shrouded mountain face.   New Zealand had waged a full assault against what we had previously found impressive and the whole experience was unbelievable.  We warmed up with some tea after walking around the Milford sound area for a couple of hours and then headed back to our campsite outside the town of Te Anau.

The next morning we headed over to the Kepler Track for a hike up Mt. Luxamore.  Our pace up the mountain was literally blistering for some of us but we were running out of day light so I think it was necessary.  We made the posted 4.5 hour trip to the hut in 2 hours and caught or breath once we cleared the treeline and had an unobstructed view of the lake and the fjords.  We didn't make it to the summit due to darkness and time constraints (grrr) but managed to see some incredible landscape still.  The trek down the hill was interesting as well.  As the sun set, we were impressed with how far we had actually hiked up.  That night we hunkered down on the beach with a campfire and enjoyed a dinner of cookies, wine, cheese, and baguette under a full moon reflecting off the glass like water.  One of those times you wish you could dial a number and come back to at any time. My good friend Usch summed it up when she said, "What did we do to deserve this?"  I don't know the answer, Usch.  But as long as we're here all we can do is give thanks and make the most of it.   With that, I'm off to class. Love to you all.

Happy Everybody's Irish Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Dunedin!! Although Dunedin is 11,913 miles away from Dublin, the neighborhood St. Patrick's Day festivities would suggest we are in Ireland.  St. Patty's Day is almost as big here as in the U.S. but unfortunately no one has heard of corned beef and cabbage as a holiday tradition.  With the help of google and Mama Bennett, I hope to change that in about 2 hours.  Anyway, moving forward and looking back now....

I had promised a wild weekend filled with interesting foods in my last post and I'm pleased to report my expectations were far exceeded at the Wild Foods Festival this past Friday through Sunday on the west coast of NZ.  Foods I ate included but are not limited to: live huhu grubs, shark, ostrich, tree root, scorpion, cow colostrum, and lamb.  If someone came up to me now and offered me a live grub they just wrastled up out of a log, I would politely decline, but while at the festival you get so caught up in the mindset of trying new and weird things and peer pressure that the grub suddenly seems no worse than my mom forcing me to take a bite of cauliflower.  Since I try to keep this a family friendly site, I'll omit a few details on what it was like to eat a living grub but I will tell you it tasted like crunchy, dirty, water.  Not delicious, but if I had to choose between the grub or plucking my leg hairs, the grub wins by a mile.  The atmosphere at the festival was a blast as well.  The usually  sleepy town of Hokitika was transformed to a buzzing place of music, partying, and people dressed in costumes.  I have fond memories of Ronald McDonald sward fighting with a pirate while waiting in line to get in. Our 16 member group made a strong showing while dressed as dominoes as well.  After the festivities were over, we headed down to the beach to swim and watch the sunset at the end of an uncharacteristically gorgeous day.  At nightfall fires flickered as far as I could see down the beach in either direction as the moonlight reflected off the ocean.
We woke up early and took an alternate route down the west coast of New Zealand and then across through Central Otago.  Never has a car ride felt so much like the destination.  The entirety of the ride weaved in through the mountains and then back out to the coast.  Two hours after we packed up from our campsite on the beach in Hokitika we were hiking our way up to Frans Josef Glacier, New Zealand's biggest.  Then an hour after leaving the glacier we were back overlooking cliffs and sandy beaches*.  Really bizarre.  Probably my favorite time of the weekend came when we were jamming out to Jamiriquai with mountains all around and an emerald lake and trees with leaves changing colors right beside us.  I had several giddy, "I'm in New Zealand!" moments.  The typically 8 hour drive took 14 due to our frequent stops.
This weekend the gang heads out early Friday for a weekend in Fjordland National Park.  More stories to come and love to you all.

*Second picture in the post brought to you by my flatmate Andrew. His superior photography skills and camera captured the scene better than anything I could dish up.

Wild Weekend Ahead

A quick post before what will hopefully be a fun and weird weekend:

The second week of classes have nearly concluded (except for my ecology class where I'll have to borrow someone's notes) and things are starting to get settled in.  Everyone in the neighborhood is starting to get to know everyone else and the rhythm of the school year has replaced the party and randomness of O-Week.  It feels good.  Honestly, last weekend I was a little homesick.  The transition to living in a new place and meeting all new people wasn't as seamless as I had maybe pictured in my mind and it just started to set in that I would be here longer than just a few weeks.  Fortunately with some positive internal coaching, good classes, and a fun weekend ahead I now feel renewed to drink up and enjoy all that New Zealand pours into my little 4 month cup.   Allow me to now break from my vagueness that has dominated this post up till now and tell you where I'm going this weekend.  The destination that we will hopefully be arriving at in a timely fashion is called Hokitika on the west coast where we will be participants in the Wildfoods Festival.   Menu items include Huhu Grubs, Ostrich Burgers, Crickets, and Rabbits (among other things).  I'll let your imagination wander on the rest of the menu.  The 7-8 hour drive with my friends Andrew, Charlotte, and Sarah should be a beauty as well; the drive is probably worth the drive.   Needless to say I'm looking forward to it and will hopefully have pictures and stories to share come Monday.  Until then, have a great rest of the week and weekend.  Today's picture is from the South African Garden in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens on my walk home from Signal Hill Presbyterian Church two Sundays ago.  Love to you all.

Winter Hats and Snow Caps

True to my word, this post is coming at you from the Otago University Central Library.  It's very new, fancy, high tech, and spacious.  The only thing missing is that familiar musk of book glue and dust that I'm so fond of in Iowa State's library.  Since the second to last post (the last one doesn't really count) the first week of classes have come and gone, I climbed a mountain, and the second week of classes (called "papers" here) have started.  For those curious I'm taking an introductory Ecology class,  Physical Geography, Transformations in Developing Countries, and God and Ethics in the Modern World.  I was signed up for a Fundamentals of Dance class but decided to drop it because the work load was more than I was felt up to at the moment and the class was a little too...shall we say "abstract" for what I want to do right now.  However, the session of moving to express my inner animal in the first practical was quite insightful and enjoyable.  I just don't think I'd like to do it for a semester.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to all my classes that I have left, particularly Transformations in Developing Countries and God and Ethics.
     After a pretty low workload last week, I headed out with the tramping (hiking) club to a place near Fjordland  National Park called Paradise, NZ.  A couple tips of advice I would lend to anyone looking at traveling to New Zealand would be to buy clothes in the states and bring warmer clothing than you think you'll need.  I was taken off guard by the outrageous price of hiking pants I had to buy and the average temperature of the weekend that hovered around in the 40's or maybe 50.   When we arrived at the camp, we were met by a persistent downpour and so we tried to squeeze all 70 of us in a shelter.  There's no better way to meet new people than spooning with them on the floor of a shelter.  Waking up, I saw the scenery that had been hidden by the nighttime when we arrived and it was incredible.  Huge, jagged, snow capped mountains surrounded us with waterfalls halfway down the mountain and moss covered trees at the base.  I was able to see all of the above at a closer view throughout my hike.  The hike had been pretty mild until we turned off the trail and up the boulder covered side of the mountain we intended to summit.  At times the terrain was vertical and the only way up was to use to the thick, prickly vegetation that clung to the rocks to pull yourself up.  We had to use similar techniques on the rocks toward the peak which went on for about an hour and a half: an exhausting task for sure but also very worth it.   Only a picture will describe the view closest to its true awesomeness.  We ate a light lunch and headed down after pictures.  It reached about 60 for a time and started to snow, which still has me baffled.  The trip was 10 hours total.  Hopefully, more similar and greater trips ensue. I'll just bring a little bit warmer clothing next time.  For now, I should put this library to good use and get to reading.   For those of you reading this who don't see any pictures,  I will put a couple up later this afternoon.  Love to you all.

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?! Apparently not me since February 24th.  Woops. I'll post tomorrow from the super cool Otago University Library.  Until then I'm going to sleep and leave you with this picture of my friend kyle preparing to extreme iron in North Carolina.  Random? Yes. Awesome? You betcha.

Connections

A quick post before bed.  Big things have been happening around the country recently; no doubt you have heard.   As I have been telling worried friends and family, all most people in Dunedin felt was a bit of a vibration in the ground.   I didn't feel anything, though, and proceeded to mock my flatmate Alex when he asked me if the earth was moving.  I've been wrong before.  Unfortunately I was wrong in a big way this time.  It's interesting how proximity to a situation magnifies or diminishes the realness and care it produces in a person.  I guess that seems like a pretty obvious statement but it's something that always seems to take me by surprise.   Ultimately, I guess it comes down to empathy for people.  Even though I have only been here a week and have met only a handful of people, the people they know and the people those people know all create a chain of empathy to bring us closer to the situation.  It's the difference between a public drama on the news and a very real and personal story.   This is one of the main reasons I'm finding that travel is good for a person.  How else would I have felt personally connected to the earthquake in Christchurch or the complex issues of Colombia?  At the same time, how else would I have been connected to the friends I will meet here or known the sense of family I had with the Ortegas?  The same can happen at a local level but I'm very thankful to be making worldly connections in such an exciting way.

I spent the day partially sleeping off the night of dancing on Wednesday and partially exploring the cliffs near St. Clair Beach.  Both were lovely.  Without much idea of where I was going, I just sort of jogged around until I found a street or a trail that I thought would connect to somewhere interesting.  I was not disappointed.  I sat on the edge of the cliff where I took this picture for quite some time just taking in the squawk of the seagulls, the crash of the waves, and as I found out later, the stares of a German exchange student.  Hopefully she didn't judge me too much when I nestled into the grass and closed my eyes.  Anyway, the cliffs were one of the most impressive things I have seen here so far so I hope you enjoy the picture.  This post wasn't so quick after all but...hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.  Goodnight.

Ultra Awesome.

Get me some aloe vera.  Anyone wanting to do a study on the effects of ozone depletion can start with my sunburn.  Apparently the same application procedure I'm used to using doesn't fly here.  On a cool, windy day with clouds overhead, the ultra violet rays got me when I least expected it at St. Claire Beach.  Despite my current pain, the day was a good one.  Throughout the duration of our 30 minute wait for our unfashionably late bus, what seemed initially like a lovely summer day turned cold, dreary, and amazingly windy.  Even still, the beach was much more beautiful than I had anticipated.  The wind caught the tops of the breaking waves and sprayed a cloud of mist against the sky with huge hills and dark brown cliffs in the background.   Ghostly trails of fine white sand shifted across the beach and stung our legs as we walked.  It was one of the many moments that I'm sure I will have that I wish I could keep coming back to.  Oh wait, for the next four months it is!  You can bet I will be using this Ocean to its full potential since we don't see too much in the way of oceans back in Nebraska.  The wave pool at Fun Plex is about as close as it gets.  After exploring the beach a little bit and running down it like bay watch we decided to jump into the water, which was take your breath away cold.  The only getting used to this water is when you start to lose feeling in your body.  But we went in anyway.   How many times do you get to jump into freezing cold water on a cool, windy day in New Zealand?  Exactly. Not many.  And how many times can you get hypothermia after jumping into cold water in New Zealand?? Just kidding.  It ended up being everyone's favorite part of the day I'm pretty sure also.  I should mention that we had 4 countries represented in our little gang today and 4 different states.  France, Germany, Sweden and the U.S. (NE, WI, NY, GA) all had delegation.  I love me some diversity.  And with that it's time to apply some sunscreen and go for a morning run.  Au revoir.

A Dash of Direction

I find it quite lovely that I'm starting this post at 12:34 am.  I've always loved that time.  Last year it was my favorite time of night while still in the infantile hours of whatever design project or contraption I was working on at the time.  Tonight, however, I'm feeling Omaha time more than Dunedin time so my old friend 12:34 is instead feeling more like getting hit by a train.   Anyway, since the last post I have gained much more knowledge, information, but most importantly, confidence about the semester ahead. I now have a direction.   At the supermarket, as you may recall, I felt like a chicken with its head cut off, but the tension gradually melted away as I got my bearings, made a couple successful meals, and realized that no matter what happens with food or money, I'm still in New Zealand. No matter how bad my food turns out or how little I can manage to spend, I'm not going to starve and I still have a place to live in this beautiful country.   How lucky I am.   The kiwis have all been talking about how hot it is the past couple days when highs have reached into the 70's.  This has made exploring and running errands quite enjoyable.  Today (the 18th) we headed into town to get a phone for myself and some others.  Along the way we stopped at a dairy ( the New Zealand word for a convenience store) and got some ice cream that appeared to be scooped with cereal bowls with handles; they were massive.   On the way back, we went to go find the harbor.  The walk was long, but it was nice to see and get to the water.  Hills surrounded the harbor with houses and streets nestled in amongst trees on the hills.   We also stopped at the Dunedin train station.  It was a beautiful building made with black volcanic rocks and limestone. I'll be down there tomorrow for a farmers market, also. Well  12:34 has quickly almost turned into 1 am and my body is increasing its hints for me to go to bed so I'm going to listen to it .  I hope you enjoy the looking at the picture as much as I enjoyed taking it.  It is the scene that has been appearing on every official University packet or paper I have received and I'm glad to finally have a copy of my own.  That's all for tonight.  Goodnight from Dunedin.

Can you feel it?

As the blue and yellow lights of the Los Angeles runway streaked by outside my row 66 window on take off Monday night, I started to get the most excited for New Zealand that I had been since getting my acceptance letter to the University of Otago.  I was lucky enough to sit next to an approachable and pleasant Canadian helicopter pilot, Paula, who made the 12 hour flight go by faster than expected.  The movies, complimentary lasagna, and the accents of the flight crew also helped. Sleep wasn't terrible.  It was pretty good actually for having my face pressed into a tray table all night.  And because the flight left at night and arrived at 8 AM its almost like it was all just a bad nights sleep, except for the swollen feet.  After landing, me and Paula went through customs and they cleaned her tent for foreign soil.  They were really concerned about keeping out foreign species of plants.  And animals too apparently after they found live scorpions in someone else's tent.  Walking out of the airport to the domestic flights terminal is when it really hit me where I was.  The most striking thing to me was the smell.  Hints of pine, ocean, and summer filled my nose with every deep breath of giddiness. Minutes after I arrived to my flat in Dunedin, I met my flat host Daniel Brown (another DB...we'll have to see if we can work this out)  and then took a trip to the grocery store.  If I hadn't just gone to the bathroom, I very well may have peed my pants once faced with the reality of being dependent on myself for food.  I think the low point came when I was standing in the grocery store staring at the produce with an orange, potatoes, and a head of lettuce in my basket; not exactly a solid meal.  I gave myself a pep talk and managed to buy and bring home enough to get me by for a couple days, when I can regroup and think clearly.  The feeling right now is very similar to my first couple nights at Iowa State.  Meeting all new people and trying to figure out where the heck I'm going. Except we didn't have sheep grazing on large rolling hills in Ames.  Most people living in my flat complex are Americans with the occasional Swede and Scot for good measure.  Everyone seems fun.  Welp, I better get up and moving.   The sun is shining and it's 62 degrees on the 17th of February and I feel motivated to take on the day with Michael Jackson's "Can you Feel It?" pumping through my headphones.  Yes, Michael, yes I can.