I woke up early today, excited to meet my group for the
beach! When I walked out to the bathroom I caught a glance out the back
windows! Gray and rain was all I could see and clearing up did not look
promising! I decided to call our director Ramona and see if plans should be
changed, but to my surprise when I picked up the house phone the dial tone was
different! The ringing was different than America as well. But no the beach was
still in in hopes it may clear up.
Never play Mind Games
on the bus
I met a boy on the bus. He was a college student and started
talking to us when he heard our “cool accents” haha. He asked us to play a
game. I was thinking what kind of game…..he then told me it would be a mind
game. I agreed to play the game and at this point he had me imagine a blank
playing card. He told me to think of a number while he very obviously flashed
me a 3. He then told me to think of a shape while he then flashed me a diamond
with his hands. I thought to myself hm, 8 of clovers. He then says let me guess
you were thinking the 3 of the three of diamonds. Ha I was like no I saw you do
that, so I purposely did not choose that. After telling us he is studying
psychology he tried to claim that 90% of people would guess the 3 of diamonds!
I wonder where this statistic comes from!
Hot Chocolate on the
Beach
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| Stacey, Natalie, and I |
Forgotten at the Thermal Hot Pools
It was still early when we left; we headed to the “hot
pools”. I was picturing these to be like hot springs, but I was wrong. We
pulled up to a small water park! This was not just any water park, but the
water was natural and so that is how they were hot pools. They had pools of all
different temperatures. The movie pool was nice probably about 95 degrees. You
never know because they use Celsius here! There was another covered pool a
little bit warmer, with a lava pool flowing into it at 48 degrees Celsius. I
believe that converts to doubled, plus 32 ish, so I am thinking 130? It may
have been! It was so hot, dipping my foot in singed off any hairs on my feet!
My favorite of the waterslides was the Black Hole Choob!! I got to try out my new underwater camera and it working so great! Well my roommate
Emily and I were planning to meet up with a few more girls at a shopping center
called West Gate to hang out and go out to dinner, so we decided to take our
stuff and change out of our suits. When we went to the bathroom all the other
girls were still in the pool. I did not think we were in there that long, until
we came out and our table was empty….Where could everyone have gone so quickly?
Emily, Brooke, and I went walking to the entrance, but could not spot any of
our group. We decided to go out and look for the vans and to my surprise the
vans were gone! They had seriously left us high and dry and all alone! I had
taken out leader Ramona’s number out of my backpack with my notebook that
morning, but luckily Brooke had it on her. I went and asked to use the office
phone! We got ahold of Ramona and she got everyone to turn around to come and
get us! Hmmm….I guess I am glad it worked out, but I better not get forgotten
like that again. Oh the crazy adventures!
Westgate has NO normal food and everything closes at 5pm
Emily, Brooke, Kirsten (no not me, another girl here!),
Mikayla, Amanda, and I all arrived to Westgate and did some shopping around. We
went to a craft store where people rent out booths and put the items they make
in there to sell. There was some really cool stuff. It was basically Pinterest
on steroids! The best find was probably the trucker hat that said, “SWEET AS
BRO”. Don’t ask me how this expression makes sense, but sweet as is a common
one. I am still trying to get down the context to use it but to my
understanding it means cool or another word you hear often here is “far out!” I
also think you can make variations to this such as Hot as or something to those
lines! I will let you know once I get that figured out. Just about every store
closed at 5 and the food court had indian and thai food. We ended up eating a
burger and chips at a café! Oh so American. I realized after I got my meal that
chips are fries, not potato chips! We also indulged in some desserts we all
split! I have tried so many more desserts and candy here only to find out how
much better they are than the US! Well somehow we looked at the wrong bus times
and thought our but would arrive at 6:40, so we waited at 6:30. Well this is
the coldest it has been since I have been here and it was starting to rain
harder. In my capris and flip flops I tried to get warm and wait for the bus,
only to find 30 minutes later the bus still wasn’t coming! I asked another
driver and said the bus was done for the night! Ah I just about could have
cried until 7:10 our bus finally came! We were the only people on the bus and
the last stop of the night! I sweet-talked the driver into dropping us in front
of our house, and it worked!! He also gave me his number because he is LDS and
told us we could come over for lunch! That is the 2nd number I have
gotten in less than a week! Job well done if I say so myself!
Sunday’s are a
wonderful day! Jan 8
Today I got to go to church with the Sorenson’s! It was so
much fun. The ward was very small, but so similar to church back home! The
people were very funny and I tried to get used to the handshake to hug to fake
kiss on the cheek. Every time it is just awkward! One of these days I am going
to mess it us and hit some square in the face haha! After church I got to skype
my family and that was so nice to see them! We had a YSA activity at our house
that night and most of the BYU girls came! It was great to see everyone and we
took up at least half of the YSA (keep in mind this is the stake activity, they
do not have singles wards here!) More people filtered in and it was fun getting
to know people! Everyone was asked to bring “a plate.” Most people brought
desserts, a few brought chips, but one group of BYU girls showed up with an empty
plate! So hilarious, everyone got a good laugh! The party seemed to go on
forever, well until they were kicked out and I was about to fall asleep!
It’s Monday, so school
continues on…. Jan 9
Today is over and that means only 14 more days of classes
for me! Things have been so busy, but I did get in a beautiful run today to the
harbor! My oh my I sure sweat a lot. I thought it was a lower elevation than
Utah so running here would be easier, but boy was I wrong. Either I am out of
shape now or I did not take into consideration the humidity! I could just feel
the air sticking to me, but taking in the sunshine was such a treat! I am so
lucky to be staying in the area I am in! You have a beautiful view of Auckland
city and can see the ocean all around! I have to get to bed so I can make it to
my early bus tomorrow so we can see our usual driver, but I will keep this
posted with more updates soon! Miss you all and hope your new year is going as
well as mine :)
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| The Harbor |
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| Auckland City in the background and me on my run! |
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| There is no such thing as parking lots here! |
P.S.
Light switches switch down for on and up for off and I am still trying to get used to crossing the road and figuring out which way traffic is coming (I know its opposite, but I sometimes forget which direction is opposite) I basically just run across the road quickly swinging my head side to side. Even if they clearly see you, no one stops or even slows down unless you are in a crosswalk. Also you must wave to the bus, because if you just get up off the bench, stand there looking at it, and don't wave, it will drive right past you. Luckily I have heard other girls stories and my bus driver complained about people not waving this morning. Now I know better it will not happen to me!
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