Happy Anniversary

Oh how time flies! It was today one year ago that I left the states! Won't be long now until I'm home. Miss you all-- will update soon! The picture is from the (very windy) Milford Sound a couple weeks ago with Jamie! More on that visit to come.

Hill Walk

Liam had a "teacher's only day" at school last week, so we packed a lunch and took off into the hills around his house. Everything was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We ran into a neighbor working on a fence, we saw lots of animals (turkeys, deer, sheep - both alive and dead), and could see and hear spring starting to emerge. It was a wonderful, exhausting day. The worst of the winter is definitely over and it's easy to see the change in the land and even the people around town. Today, the biggest rainbow I've ever seen shown brightly over the city.

Moko

Maori's are the native New Zealand people and they often have face tattoos, called Moko's, that describe their ancestry, tribe, and heritage. On women, they are often just on the lips and chin. I think some of them are traditional and sincere, but like everything, some of them are "just for fun" or imitation. Some are even gang related.

Gangs

Gangs are pretty real thing here. There are two big ones; Mongrel Mob and Black Power. I think Black Power's color is blue and Mongrel Mob is black and red. It's in the schools, but its also in the families and some adults.

Rugby

Went to watch my first rugby match the other weekend. Pretty entertaining and very hardcore, but I must say football is more watchable. Some things that are interesting and different: your number could be different every game (not really that different) but numbers belong to the positions and the order in which you take the field instead of to the player (subs are usually number 16 - 19 or 20 depending on what order they come on the field and the first 15 are numbered 1-15); they do these really cool lifts to catch the ball when it's 'thrown in'; New Zealand rugby teams do a haka before the game starts- it's a challenge. The game I attended was the premiere club ruby championships between Hathaway High School Old Boys and Ngatapa. I was rooting for Ngatapa, but the Old Boys won. The best part of the award ceremony was omitted from the picture that made the news; to the left of the blue team is Ngatapa, all downing Tui's (local beer) by the fistful and pouting-- pretty hilarious. Anyway, it was definitely a good time. Maybe I'll be able to go to an All Blacks game before my time in NZ is up!

Peace Corps

When I was reviewing my Peace Corps application recently, I noticed that it was started on November 12th, 2008. That's fourteen days after I left home for Thailand. I knew as soon as I'd left that I would be gone longer than the 6 months I had promised my mother (sorry!). Those first couple weeks were such a high. The application process has been long and drawn out, but not always to the fault of PC. Admittedly I haven't been the most prompt to respond/return materials-- some mailings were missed in the cross continental move, time differences can be difficult (really fun to unexpectedly wake up your interviewer early in the morning on his day off...oops), but most of all I attribute the lengthy process to my own indecision. Twenty seven months is a LONG time. A lot of life can fit into twenty seven months. So, I've been searching in hopes of gaining insight on the experience; searching for opinions and advice from wherever I can find it. I've talked at length with several people, read a lot. I guess I've been unaware of how much it has been on my mind and how much I've been talking about it until I went into the office a couple of weeks ago starting with the phrase "you know the Peace Corps?" and got the unanimous and alarming response of "YES! YOU TALK ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME!"



I've also found that no matter how many people I talk to, the decision remains unequivocally mine and my feelings about it remain largely unchanged. In this little journey I have been reminded of all the incredible support I have. I got incredible references. I've talked about it endlessly and without judgement (or requests to stop talking about it) to countless friends and family members and its just been great.



I received and accepted a nomination for PC for teaching English in Central Asia starting in June 2010. My project might change (45% chance it will change), but it definitely won't be earlier than June 2010. That's all the information I have right now. Technically, I haven't even finished my phone interview yet and that's supposed to happen sometime this week.

Really would love to post an inspiring response/reflection I received recently from a former volunteer, but I can't manage to cut and paste anymore to my posts and I don't want to retype. grrrr.

Thanks for all the encouragement from everyone. It's still ages away and there's a lot more to go, but I'll keep you posted.

Missing Thailand...

Today, I miss Thailand. I had thai food last night for the first time since I left and it was, as anticipated, lackluster. I also was devasted at how many thai words that I couldn't remember- but I was able to recover them this morning (phew). Just a few images...sorry if these are repeats.