"Insert Witty Blog Post Title Here"

Five Blog-Worthy Things from Abreana Land This Week 

Also... a list of my favourite 

Kiwi slang is at the end of this post!

1. I spent 30-40 hours in the library writing a paper on tourism sustainability in New Zealand.

Read between the lines... Yes, I do go to school here! I have not been adventuring lately, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to see photos of me drowning in books at the library... hence why there have been only three blog posts this September. 

2. I voted like a responsible U.S. citizen.

Read between the lines... I am a 'grown-up' now. I figured out the absentee voter form all by myself, and I even found some time to research the candidates/issues on my ballot, even though I was tempted to flip a coin at times. (I mean... choose 3 of 7 candidates for Parker town council? I'm sure they're all lovely people...) Oh, and hell YES to the GMO labelling initiative! 

Colourful letter from my friend Genna

3. I got more mail!

Postcard from my Godparents and Hannah

Lovely handwritten letter from Dani's mom, Monique <3

Read between the lines... My family/friends make me feel so loved!! <3 Thank you for adding to the sunshine in my life. 

4. I took a break from my responsible, grown-up life to have a much-needed colouring date with myself.

Read between the lines... Who are we kidding? I'll never grow up... Thank you to Genna for mailing me the pictures and to Ryan for lending me the coloured pencils!

5. I also took a little day trip to Quarantine Island, which is the largest island in the Otago harbour.

Read between the lines... I HAVE PICTURES! 

Map of the little island 

Cool wrecked ship from the 1800s...or something.

There is always a playground to find!!

I like rocks.

Lying in the grass, watching the clouds. 

Graveyard on the island - not a bad view to find a final resting place, eh?

Considering yesterday marked three months in New Zealand for me, I figured I should commemorate it with a list of some of the common slang and sayings I’ve picked up on. Some Kiwi slang is similar to Australia slang (i.e. keen), and some is more English (i.e. biscuits). These fun, colourful words go along quite well with the New Zealand accent! 

afghan - chocolate flavoured biscuit made from cornflakes

brekkie - breakfast 

boot - car trunk

bush - refers to the forests with native trees 

dairy - corner store, like a small convenience store selling groceries, sweets, dairy items, etc.

cheers - good bye, thank you

chilly bin - insulated cooler for food

Dunners - Dunedin

eh - used at the end of sentences sometimes, but with more of an ‘a’ sound

fizzy drink - soda

fringe - bangs 

gumboots - rubber boots

heaps - a lot of something 

Hokey Pokey - type of delicious ice cream flavour with honey toffee in it

jandals - flip flops

jug - kettle 

kiwifruit - the fruit that is called a kiwi in the US (never, ever call a kiwifruit a kiwi in NZ)

keen - to be interested/totally down for something ('I’m keen on that, mate!')

kumara - sweet potato 

lolly - pretty much any sweet or confectionery item

muesli - granola (so yum)

‘en zed’ - how NZ is pronounced, like when giving an Internet URL address ending in .co.nz)

op shop - short for ‘opportunity shop,’ which is just a second hand store

petrol - gas

sammie - sandwich

scarfie - university student 

scrogin - yummy trail mix with nuts, raisins, etc.

sweet as - awesome or cool; ‘as’ is also used to intensify other adjectives (i.e. hungry as, keen as)

ta - thanks

togs - swim suit

toilet - restroom, bathroom

Falling in Love with Aotearoa (Part II)

Kia Ora, my readers!

At long last, here is Part II from my spring break trip! I have yet to get the group pictures from my friends (I assume I will get them eventually) but in the meantime, here are some other pictures I can share with you from that trip, as well as some random ones taken the past couple of weeks... 

We visited the beautiful Archway Islands, which are at the northermost part of the South Island 

It looks like I have a hat on! ;)

We were so proud of this shot. 

Ran into this fella on the drive back from Nelson! The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot, and a very mischievous bird.

 

Coming home from my trip and seeing postcards from my friend Kayla (left) and my Uncle Ron and Aunt Krista (right)! 

Vegetarian stuffed peppers. I love my life.

It's SPRING in Dunedin!! Flowers are blooming everywhere.

 Bone carving classes! My first piece of work.

Also....I have a very special treat to share with you...My friend took videos of our horse trek a couple weekends ago and we pieced them together into this gloriously epic film. So sit back and enjoy!(Video courtesy of Matt Stolfi.)

Rest assured I have not forgotten my homeland. On the contrary, I have been thinking about home a lot lately. Maybe it's because I read another web article about the droughts in California. Or because the seasons are changing to fall in the Northern Hemisphere and it occurred to me that I have never 'skipped' autumn before (but hey, at least I get two springs this year!) Oh, not to mention the University of Denver's quarter just started - and I know this because I wake up every morning to a fresh batch of twenty emails from DU to sift through. (This is not entirely an exaggeration. Fellow DU students will understand.) 

But life here is good. "Wherever you go, there you are." I'm still me, struggling with the same defects I deal with back home. Sometimes I get so caught up in what has happened or what will happen that I need to be reminded that, "If you have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, then you're just pissing all over today." So I wake up, eat porridge for breakfast, go to class, spend time with friends, hit the gym. Beauty and joy in the mundane, everyday things of life. One day at a time.

It's become less about "falling in love with Aoteaora" and more about falling in love with myself. I built up my life around notions of perfection and used to beat myself up for (inevitable) failure, and now I'm slowly learning what it means to cultivate self-love... If I love God, other people, and myself, then I could be anywhere in the world and be happy. New Zealand just happens to be an extra-awesome place. ;)

So thank you for reading about my crazy adventures - or just my mundane, everyday adventures! I love you all.

Sunny-Side Up

Kia Ora, my faithful readers! 

Believe it or not, I have just reached the halfway point of my semester at the University of Otago. (What?! Time doesn't just fly--it moves at freaking warp nine speed.) Tomorrow I leave for Nelson (a sunny city at the very top of the South Island) with my Kiwihost Georgia for mid-semester break! I'll be staying in a backpacker/hostel near the city centre, and since the weather should be nice-ish, I'll get to explore the city, visit some beaches, and try out the local hiking. 

I won't have my computer with me, so I will post a blog update sometime next weekend! With pictures! Before I leave, however, here are some Random Abreana Notes from the past weeks...

1. I GOT TO RIDE MY FIRST HORSE! 

Isn't she pretty?? Her name is Shannon. She's an Irish sport horse, very gentle, and takes a rubber bit. Her favourite thing is to run on the beach; she also loves jumping! (Obviously this was Day 1 for me, so we just walked around the hills for a bit...) We rode English style, which means the saddle doesn't have a horn like it does in Western style riding. 

And I absolutely loved it. 

2. My body is adapting to-- and enjoying!-- the Dunedin weather.

"Isn't it a bit cold, eh?" asked a guy from park maintenance. I was at a playground (on the swings, of course), and it was cloudy and drizzling rain. 

"Nah, it's nice!" I responded. 

Since when did I start adapting to this weather??

Swinging in the rain happened sometime last week. Then this morning I woke up to another cold/cloudy/rainy day (after a few consecutive days of sunshine) and I was actually excited about it. 

It means I get to wear my blue fuzzy hat!! It also means my porridge and hot tea taste even better. Man, I'm such a complicated person. 

3. Flowers are blooming! Spring must be arriving!

4. "You've Got Mail!" 

This is from my dear friend Maddie. :) I loved the Monet painting on the cover of the card...and the stamp was a Global Forever stamp, which I didn't even know existed! How fun!

5. Apparently I like to hang out by myself and take pictures.

I wandered around the Botanic Gardens the other day (the same place where I got to feed the ducks and pigeons!) I came across a tree that is supposedly older than Dunedin itself. I also found a sunny-side up egg on the side of some building, as well as a silver fern on the floor of the native bush forest. 

 

 

Next up... my mid-semester break adventures in Nelson!

Home at 2a Forth Street

I live at the end of a rainbow.

And no, I'm not joking. Forth Street is literally at the end of a string of rainbow-coloured apartment doors. Technically speaking, Forth Street is at the beginning of the rainbow because that's where the colours start (i.e. purple/red), but that's just an insignificant detail.

It is a beautiful thing. Also, as an aside for my dear friend Genna...You will notice that there are two shades of orange and two shades of green. So clearly, this is the perfect rainbow order!! 

So this is the Forth Street sign that these apartment doors lead to...I must say, I have never seen an "Independent Midwifery" sign before in my life, but hey - there's a first time for everything.

This is a side view of my flat. It isn't the prettiest thing to look at, and it gets a little drafty at times, but I am quite happy to consider it my temporary home!

So we had to tape this lovely sign to our back door...

....because supposedly, in past semesters, students coming to live in 2B, C, D, or E would try to move into 2A because our flat is the one that is featured on the Google Maps streetview, but then came the awkward confusion when they found out their flat was actually at the other end of the little parking lot! The sign seemed to fix that problem, though. Hooray for Kiwi ingenuity!  

This is our 2a mailbox!! Isn't it cute? If you ever send me a postcard this is where it will end up. Note that travel time is about a week and postage will cost something like three or four stamps. But if you do go through the trouble of snail-mailing me, I will take a picture and proudly feature it on my blog! 

Here is the first piece of mail I received, from my friend Genna. (Yes, the same Genna who cares about rainbow colour order!!) We have been pen pals since we were 12-year-olds... But now since we are residing in different countries, we thought we should take advantage and be like "real" pen pals. Aren't we cute? :) So here is letter #165 and counting! 

This was my second piece of mail, sent to me from my good friend and Godsister Kayla. Some classic Colorado right here!! (I think my state pride is almost to a fault at this point.)

And here's some "moustachionary" from my friend Aaron. Look at that suave bunny rabbit!! SO FUZZY!

So my address is 2a Forth Street, North Dunedin 9016, New Zealand. Feel free to send a carrier pigeon my way! Oh, or even better... send me a message via post owl, like they do in Harry Potter... 

While I have you at Forth Street, let me introduce you to my neighbours: Visitec Workwear. 

I walked in there the first or second week after arriving in Dunedin and met the owner. His name is Roger. Really nice guy! (Did I already share this story on my blog before? I can't recall.) He inherited the family business from his father, who inherited it from his father, and I'm pretty sure it will be passed down to Roger's son, too. They supply construction-type workgear (boots, jackets, helmets, etc) all over New Zealand. 

So every now and then I pop my head in to say hello to Roger and we talk about the weather, about his kids and grandkids, how the business is going, and what not. Roger has told me several times that if anything ever breaks down in our flat I can give him a call and he would come take a look at it. 

This is why I chose to go to little old Dunedin instead of a larger city. I get to experience and contribute to this thing called community. And I love it.

The sunrise outside of my window earlier this week. (No camera filters, I promise!)