Savaii Day 10 - Faga Village

We slept in so late today – it was awesome to wake up and see the ocean first thing. We just relaxed on the beach until lunch today. We swam, snorkeled, and I read and took a nap too. Very laid back.

After Eva and Tiota got back from school, they took us to see their plantation. It was basically a bunch of coconut, mango, banana, breadfruit, and coco trees and then taro. Nothing too exciting.

The girls went off to their dance practice again, so Sarah and I just hung out at the beach till dinner. They gave us American hotdogs at dinner – yum. :) Then a bunch of traditional foods. We always have taro for lunch and dinner though. Getting sick of it.

We learned a song and dance with Eva and Tiota for the fiafia tomorrow night. Kinda silly, but I think it’ll be fun.

It was a good day, but I’m so dirty and gross with so many bug bites, that I think I’m ready to go back. It’s been an awesome trip, but I’m glad it’s almost over. Time to return to the civilization I’m used to.

Leah

Savaii Day 9 - Safua Hotel

This has been such a great day. We switched from Safua Hotel to Faga (pronounced “Fanga”) Village homestays today. And so far it’s been an unbelievable experience.

I’m always nervous starting a homestay, cuz I’m a little shy, and esp in a completely different culture where there’s a language barrier. And since we’re never told a lot of information beforehand, we had no idea what to expect.

When we got to the village, we had an “Ava Ceremony” with the chiefs of the village, which is their way of greeting us into their village and families. We had to drink this ground up ava root and some water – tasted like dirt. Then we were all separated into each of our homestay families. I buddied up with Sarah for the homestay, as we couldn’t be by ourselves in a house. It’s interesting here cuz the family consists of all the extended family – they all live on the same land, but each has their own fale, so there are 6 of us staying in the whole extended family, but just Sarah and I in one of the fales.

I think the name of the woman hosting us is “Molee”. She’s really nice, and speaks broken but decent English. She brought us to her home and gave us a coconut to drink and fanned us for like ½ hr, and asked us some questions about ourselves. Then she and her family served us lunch, and she has us sit and eat at our own table, and brought a ton of food out for us. She fanned us the whole time we ate. Awkward.

Molee then took us out to a beach fale, where we’re sleeping for the next 3 nights! Sweet! Literally right on the beach. :) With the coconut tress right next to us, a beautiful sandy shore, and the waves lapping at the base of our fale. How sweet is that! I get to wake up each morning to see the gorgeous teals and blues of the ocean over the coral reef. Omg, this is really one of my lifetime dreams come true. Ahh, I’m so happy right now. :)

We relaxed on the beach and hung out with people in the afternoon. It was really relaxing. I felt so lazy in the heat with the ocean and everything.

Molee has 2 daughters that are similar to us in age – Eva, 17, and Tiota, 15. They’re sleeping with us in the fale. They invited us to their church youth dance practice for their White Sunday holiday. That was fun to watch them all sing and dance. Some of the songs were even in English, which I knew.

Apparently the table we were eating our meals at was only taken out for Christmas and Easter, so it was a big deal for us to sit there and eat while everyone else in the family ate on the floor in another fale. And they fed us so much food. We were always stuffed. They’re so hospitable, it’s amazing.

Leah

Savaii Day 8 - Safua Hotel

My bruises started to hurt today. As long as I don’t put pressure on it it’s ok. And I did mean “bruises” – plural. I got ones on my other leg that hurt too. Mom would totally flip if she saw them, they look so bad (really, they’re ok mom haha, don’t worry). :)

We went to church this morning. I guess all the girls have to wear hats to church, which we didn’t know, so we had to wear all these ridiculous looking hats that Safua provided us lol. We looked so funny, and I’m sure the church was laughing at us as we came in. :P

Most of the day was free afterwards. Tonight after dinner, when people started singing like they normally did, the kids sang some Bible songs, like “deep and wide”. Then Sarah and I thought it’d be fun to sing “Father Abraham” for them, which the Samoans then sang back to us in Samoan. That started a sing-off of worship and Bible songs. Lasted a good ½ hour, and was so much fun. We were singing all these Sunday school songs I hadn’t sung in ages. I think that night was more fun than the fiafia, cuz it was spontaneous, and we were all having fun. :P

Leah

Savaii Day 7 - Safua Hotel

We had a free day today. It was so nice just to be able to do stuff on our own time.

Anela and I went to the market after lunch today. We had to catch a bus to the market, which basically just meant flagging one down on the side of the road. They really don’t have any bus stops, you just get on when you can catch one, and get off whenever you want.

We met up with Bridget, Sarah, and Catherine after lunch, and we all went to the waterfall again. We had to catch a couple busses to take us all the way to the waterfall, and the whole time I was thinking about how cool it was that we were all wandering around a foreign country by ourselves, taking busses to who knows where lol. Kind of unnerving too, but still exhilarating.

Since this was a non-CCSP sponsored event, we were able to jump off high rocks. And so we did. One jump was about 30 ft up!!! Ahh that was so scary, but sooo much fun. I totally forgot to pencil dive into the water though, so I landed on my leg and got this really gnarly bruise all down my thigh. Doesn’t hurt now, but it’s already dark shades of purple and red and it’s all swollen. Looks terrible. But totally worth it. :)


We had our fiafia for the hotel tonight, since they don’t dance on Sunday. The guys all got up and did a war dance, which was really funny, and we sang some songs for them. They all gave us lavalavas at the end. It was a pretty fun night.

Leah

Savaii Day 6 - Safua Hotel

I’m being eaten alive. I have so many bug bites this is ridiculous. Mainly on my legs and ankles but they’ve started munching away on my arms today. Not cool.

It was culture day today there at Safua. We learned some of the history and culture of the Samoans, then saw some older women demonstrate weaving and tapestry/traditional lavalava making. Very labor intensive. The fine woven mats are apparently very valuable, as they take 6 months to 1 year to make. And they used to be the only thing that one could give that would forgive an unforgivable sin, like murder.

Saw a guy climb a coconut tree – so cool! He made it look so easy. And we got fresh coconuts then too. Never had one before. It was pretty sweet, and different. Thought it was pretty good.

We also saw a demonstration of basket weaving done by Chris. I got to try it, and I make a basket out of one side of a palm branch. Woohoo. :) It was a lot of fun.

They also cooked all sorts of food the traditional way too, from a pig to fish to breadfruit to octopus. Very old-fashioned, but it tasted really good.

They did this awesome fire dance after dinner. Probably the highlight of the day.

The little kids are getting more friendly; today they were all following me around and I played and danced with this 9 year old girl, Mari. She’s really cute, and spoke pretty good English too. They all love smiling at you and holding your hand. :)

Leah

Savaii Day 5 - Safua Hotel

Today was packed. And I’m exhausted. And hot. Always hot…don’t like it.

We started off our tours today by hiking to this volcanic rock structure built like 900 some years ago I think. It was huge, and kinda shaped like a pyramid but with a flat top. They don’t know why it was built – probly some religious temple or something. It poured rain there, but that was refreshing cuz it was so hot.

After that we hiked over to a waterfall, where we swam and had lunch. The place was gorgeous, even tho the waterfall wasn’t running cuz it hadn’t rained much. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom – like 30 or 40 feet down. Incredibly pretty. And in the middle of the rainforest. How cool. It poured rain there too, but we didn’t care.

We then went to the 2nd larget volcano on the island and climbed to the top. It was like 200ft up total, but felt a lot higher than that. At the top of the crater, we could see the tops of tress in this rainforest that was growing in the middle of the crater. So cool. Saw some endangered endemic flying foxes there too.

Completely exhausted when we got back. Another fiafia practice, another good dinner, more relaxing after. Got some good pics from today. :)

Leah

Savaii Day 4 - Safua Hotel

We had a free morning, so after breakfast Anela, Laura, and I went to go get icecream and go to a freshwater pool. Apparently there are a lot of underground freshwater rivers that travel through the porous volcanic rock that the island’s made of, so there are natural freshwater pools right next to the ocean. It’s kinda cool, and it’s awesome to swim in when it’s scorching hot out.

Warren took us out for a cliff walk today after lunch. It was kinda windy when we started out, but as we kept on walking along, it got windier and clouds started rolling in and the waves got bigger. By the time we were about a mile in, it started raining a ton. We were right by some blowholes too, so the huge waves just soaked us. It was so much fun. We all sat around the blowhole and got soaked over and over. We were already soaking wet cuz of the pouring rain, so why not? That was a highlight of the day by far.

That’s really all we did today. One of the Samoan guys, Mattai, gave us a Samoan language lesson tonight. I know a few phrases and words now, which is cool. Good start.

I’ve gotten so many mosquito/bug bites since coming here! Even with the bug spray, ugh.

Leah

Savaii Day 3 - Safua Hotel

Today we set out to go see the south and west side of the island that we didn’t get to see yesterday. We first went to one of the mouths of one of the only 2 rivers on the island. The rivers are more like streams – just small ones compared to home. It met the ocean with a small waterfall though, which was pretty cool. Then saw some cool rock arches on the coast.


We had lunch on a gorgeous beach with palm trees lining it and fales to rest in. Loved it! That was also the location of the western most point in the world – we looked across the horizon and saw tomorrow, Wed Sept 24 lol!
Went to some blowholes for a bit after, and got sprayed by all the water. Fun stuff. It was another full day, but it was great. :)

Leah

Savaii Day 2 - Safua Hotel

It’s Ralph’s and my 14 month today. :)

Warren, our tour guide for the next few days, started our tours off by taking us to the lava fields of the last major eruption here in 1906. They were pretty cool. Huge plains covered in volcanic rock, all the way to the ocean – about 1 ½ miles from the road. Reminded me of the lava fields my family went to in Idaho way back when.

We went over to a site where volcanic activity had destroyed a church and there are just the remains of it left. It was getting so hot then, though, that I wasn’t paying much attention to what Warren was saying about it…oops.

Tours made for a pretty full day. We’re practicing our fiafia songs every night. The fiafia is like a goodbye celebration the village has for us – apparently it’s a big deal. So we’re practicing for it each night. No one likes the practice tho lol.

One thing I don’t like is that we can’t snack here. We have lunch at 12 then dinner isn’t until 8pm some nights. So late. And I usually snack all the time, so I’m always hungry. Oh well.

Leah

Savaii Day 1 - Safua Hotel

We caught a ferry over to Savaii today. The trip over was gorgeous with the water all different shades of greens and blues around the coral reefs, then the palm tress lining the islands. :) So pretty.

Savaii is the largest island in Samoa, but it is the least populated. There are like 225,000 ppl in Samoa but only 42,000 in Savaii. There’s only 1 well paved road that goes all the way around the island that follows the coast line, and the Samoans use the rest of the island for their plantations. The traditional culture is very important here, and they stick to many of their old ways of doing things, even though they have some modern things, like electricity, cars, and roads.

We’re staying at Safua Hotel for just over a week here. They cater to big groups like us, so it’s just CCSP that’s here. And it’s so nice! They have open-walled buildings (called fales: “foll-ehs”) where we eat and where the lounge is, and they have really cool native plants around the whole area – we even have a mango tree in the backyard. Sweet. Everything is so open here, and they’re so laid back about it. I’d be scared to have a fale like these back in America because everything would be stolen. Guess not around here. They have books and tablewear and artifacts and valuables.

7 of us girls are staying in one of the fales. It’s so nice. There are bunk beds and a couple single beds, and we have a nice sitting area in the middle of the room. It’s comfortable. Apparently Chris’s (a Samoan basically heading our program here) whole extended family lives around the Safua Hotel are and they all run it. So there were cousins, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, all working to make this a great stay for us.

The beaches here are incredible! Palm trees, beach fales, white sands, coral reefs. :D I’m in heaven! (only downside is the heat and humidity…a very big downside, but still! I’m in Samoa for crying out loud.) We all snorkeled again for a couple hours, and we saw a huge stingray out there. That was cool.

We had a lot of traditional food for dinner tonight, like “taro” – something like a potato – and breadfruit – really light tasting fruit, and some fish I’ve never tried before. Several guys sang and played guitars for us during dinner, which was neat. They played Samoan and American songs – a lot of them speak decent English. A lot of them hit on you too, cuz you’re an American lol.

Leah

Samoa Day 2 - Tatiana Motel

We spent out first full day in Samoa in Apia, the capital of Samoa. I don’t even know how I can describe it – I think one of our leaders here summed it up well: hot, dusty, dirty, and busy.

Oh my gosh, is it hot! And humid…so humid it’s almost unbearable in the middle of the day. Our leader Sarah says we’ll get used to it – haha suuure we will.

We went to the flea market today to get lavalavas and souvenirs. Their markets look exactly like the Pike Place Market in Seattle, but much bigger and a lot more crowded. Oh, and the Mc D’s icecream cones were so cheap - $2 tala, which is like 70 cents for us. It was glorious to eat icecream in that heat. :)

Upolu is so pretty, but you can tell thate it is a very poor place. Apia is the biggest and most developed city on the 2 islands, and the flea markets are the main places to go. The city is about as big as Kaikoura, with 1 main road. And it’s so crowded and busy in the city. So many ppl. All the guys call out “hello” to us and want to take a picture or they say I’m beautiful because I’m a typical tall, blond haired, blue eyed American girl lol. And there are a lot of stray dogs and pigs around. A lot of garbage on the streets too. But it’s so amazing that we can walk 10 minutes and reach the ocean! :) so cool.

We went snorkeling after the market today. That was amazing! We spent 3 hours among the coral reefs with all different kinds of tropical fish and eels and sea cucumbers and starfish. It was really sweet. And the fish were so brightly colored too – all different kinds. So cool. I wish I knew the names for them all. And the water was really warm, so it was great to swim in. (thanks anela for these cool underwater pics!)

We met in smallgroups for dinner afterwards. Since Jess isn’t here with us (cuz we don’t need a cook on this trip), Rich, Emma, Nissi, and I were free to do whatever we wanted. We ate on this boat turned into a restaurant and watched the sun set during dinner. So romantic – wish Ralph had been there.


I love it here, but I couldn’t live here or spend much longer than 2 weeks here. Way too hot for me. Since English is an official language along with Samoan, it’s pretty easy to communicate with most of them. I think it’s amazing how much American culture affects the rest of the world – with stores like Nike and Mc D’s, to language, to music – we heard so much American music today. They love it here.

I can’t get over the fact that we’re in Samoa! Sweet. Never thought this day would come. And now I’m living it! :)

Leah

First Night in Samoa - Tatiana Motel

This place is incredible! And I haven’t even seen the place in daylight yet lol. And I’m writing in Samoan time now, so technically it’s the day before my last entry – how weird is that.


We were greeted by a group of 4 Samoan guys right when we landed – they’re going to be
heading our trip for these 2 weeks in both Apia and then on the other island of Savaii. All the guys were wearing lavalavas too – for some that was all they were wearing lol. It’s really humid and hot here, about 85 at night. Daytime must be horrible. :S All the guys have some kind of tattoo on them – it’s very customary to get them here.

They picked us up in a rickety bus – looked like a very old version of school busses back in the day. There were small rows of wooden seats inside, no seat belts, windows down all the time (cuz it’s always so hot), and no door. But the front was all decked out with pink and white feathers and posters and stuff – very festive.



The motel we’re staying at is a motel. Run down, bathrooms very basic with some mildew in the shower, cracked paint on some walls, rusted kitchenware, and the rooms are literally just big enough for 2 beds – nothing else. Barely room to put luggage. And the mattresses are so thin you can feel the boards under. I really don’t want to use these sheets and pillow…

Leah

Traveling to Samoa

We’re currently in a plane headed for Apia, Samoa (pronounced “Saa-moa”). I’m pretty excited. I’ve always dreamed of going to a tropical island, like the Caribbean, so this is a life-long dream come true for me. :) It’s supposed to be 90’s and very humid there, with little chance of air conditioning or even fans. We’ll be staying in Apia for 2 nights. We’ll hit the markets tomorrow I think to buy lavalavas (sarongs) for out time here. The Samoans are very traditional, and women are expected to be pretty modest here – meaning t-shirts and knee length lavalavas the whole time we’re there. I won’t really mind, as long as I don’t get too hot.

The Samoan’s currency is the tala – it’s about 2.5 tala for each USD. Things sound pretty inexpensive there, so I’m hoping to get by with minimal expenses. They’re saying Apia is the best place to get souvenirs, so that’ll be all tomorrow. We also get to go snorkeling tomorrow! Sweet! I’ve never been snorkeling before, so I’m stoked. We have to wear a shirt and shorts over our swimsuit the entire time we’re down there though. I’m going to come back with such a farmer’s tan! :S Oh well.

Apparently we’re just staying in Western Samoa the whole time, and not American Samoa as I thought before. We’re going to Upolu Island for the first few days, then over to Savaii Island for the rest of the time.

I’m nervous but excited to be immersed in a completely different culture for a couple weeks. I was the same way when I went to Japan, and that turned out to be an amazing experience. Definitely had some awkward moments there, but looking back I loved every bit of it. This is gonna be an amazing experience. :)

Leah

Samoa, here I come!

So this is the last night we have at the convent for a few weeks – we’re going to Samoa tomorrow! :) We’re leaving at 4:30 in the morning to be precise. Ouch. That means I’m getting like 2 hours of sleep max tonight.

This week has gone by so incredibly fast. We started classes on Monday, with Mick Duncan. He lead our week-long Sustainable Community Development class. The class was only a week long. That’s crazy. We finished the class this morning. I can’t even believe that. We did have the class for about 5 hours each day, but Mick made the class so interesting with stories and discussions that class time flew by. And there wasn’t even time to get bored with one topic because we flew through the material. It was a lot of material, but I thought the class was really interesting, so I paid attention through the whole thing. We discussed a lot of developmental issues for a country and differences between first and third world economies, and how they affect each other, etc etc. I have heard talks about stuff like that before, but have never had a class on it. I really liked it. And really for the amount of credits we get for the work we put into the class, it’s ridiculous. I love it. You don’t even have time to get sick of the class before it’s over. And I calculated it – this semester is only going to be 2 ½ months of actual class for me – yay!

And we’re going to Samoa! So stoked. :) We will be there for 2 ½ weeks, but only 1 week of that will be classes. Awesome. We’ll have a week of homestays and a couple days with just the group besides the class week. I get to go snorkeling in tropical waters in just a few hours. Sweet. It will be 90’s over there and humid, with not much hope for any air conditioning or even fans sometimes, so I will be hot and probably uncomfortable for a good part of it. But I won’t care – I’ll be in Samoa. That’s so cool. Lol, can you tell I’m excited? I’ll be posting blogs about my trip after I get back. Time for a nap before we head out.

Leah

And So It Begins....

So for the first day of classes, this day has been so relaxed. We didn’t start until 10:30 (usually it’s 9:00 am), and our prof, Michael Duncan, was really casual and nice. We’re going over sustainable development this week, and he says he wants to focus more on discussion and not so much academia stuff. We do have a lot of work, but nothing today so far. So after class and lunch, we had a free day until dinnertime. Yay. And it was such a nice day that we all played football/monkey-in-the-middle in the backyard for awhile, then just relaxed. Feels like I’m slacking with nothing to do for the classes lol. Anela and I hung out awhile, got some good pics from her, talked for awhile. I’m really glad she’s on this trip with me. She’s such a sweetheart and I can relate to her well.

The evening classes with Prof. Duncan seem to be more interactive and a involve you a little more – we had a discussion on war with a follow up debate on pacifism vs. just war theory tonight; then he’s planning a movie for one night and some other interactive stuff that should make evening classes go by pretty fast. Homework load isn’t that hard this week, which was such a relief. I was worried we’d get overwhelmed with hw. Just a test and like 4 one-page papers this week. Not a whole lot considering the class is only this week.

And we leave for Samoa on Saturday! :D We tried singing some songs tonight that we have to sing in Samoa, and we definitely need practice – we sounded pretty bad lol.

Leah

Last Day of Christchurch

Went to mass today at the cathedral. I didn’t know what to expect, but people had told me that is was a lot of standing and sitting, reciting, and listening. Very ritualistic. And that is exactly what it was. I don’t have much of an inclination to go to another really, but it was interesting to go to one and see what it’s like

And it was a beautiful sunny day today!! :) I loved it – such a nice change from the day before where it was freezing cold and cloudy. The people are right when they said that the weather changes fast in NZ – felt like a winter day then a nice spring one right after. So we went to the botanical gardens. And Anela and I had some serious photo shoots lol. It was so much fun. And her camera is amazing. We got some great pics. She’s gonna teach me how to use her camera on manual and stuff because I think it’s be awesome to learn. Compared to my digital camera, her pics are so much better. And my digital camera is pretty decent. I’d love to get a more professional one – I would just have to get into the habit of taking more pictures thought lol. I have been taking tons of pics on this trip so far though, so if that trend continues I might start to get into the habit of taking more pics. Maybe lol.

We had to leave around 2:30 in order to get back in time for dinner at the convent. Halfway back home thought our bus broke down! Something about not enough air pressure in the brakes – I don’t know, I’m no mechanic guru. But our bus driver was a newby and didn’t really know what he was doing lol. Our group was over ½ the people on the bus though, so we didn’t mind. Took about 45 min to fix, so we barely made it back on time for dinner.

We were soo excited for Jess’s dinner though – free food!! And so good! Love it. Then we had another Samoa briefing, and learned that we’ll only be taking classes there for 1 week! A couple days of orientation, one week of classes, then one week of just homestays. Sweet. :)

Classes start tomorrow. Kind of nervous about that, since everyone’s saying they’ll be pretty rigorous. Gotta just hope for the best I guess.

Leah

Christchurch Day #2

My feet hurt soooooo much! We walked EVERYWHERE today! And in cute flip flops that had absolutely no cushion lol. Not a smart choice on footwear on my part. But they were cute. :)

We wanted to go to the botanical gardens and have some photo shoots there, but it was cloudy and really cold the whole day. :/ Ralph would have liked it, but I was freezing. I tried to pack light for the trip, so I only brought one sweatshirt that doesn’t really keep you warm when you’re walking around outside all day lol. Since yesterday we had a ridiculously big group, we split up in smaller ones today. I went with Heidi and Nissi for most of the day. So we got some hot chocolate in the morning, then went to the botanical gardens for a bit. Heidi and I tried to take some portrait pictures, but it was so cloudy that we soon gave up.

There was supposedly a rugby game in the afternoon that we all wanted to go to, so we walked all the way to this one park, to not find it, then decided to just check out the big stadium they had across town in case one was playing there. Definitely was not playing there, and it was like an hour walk from the park where we were initially, then over a half an hour back to our hostile – all on top of the walking we did all morning around town and in the gardens. Our feet were so sore lol. But we got back and took a nap until the group of ppl who went snowboarding got back.

We ate dinner in the room, then all 23 of us went out to a sports bar for the night to watch the huge rugby championship game between NZ and Australia. That was such an intense game! We got so into it and I didn’t even really know how they played it or anything lol. Ended up staying there for like 5 hours, from start to finish, but it was a lot of fun.

I think some of us are going to to go mass tomorrow at the cathedral – I’ve never been, so it should be interesting. And hopefully tomorrow will be a nicer day, so we can get some good pics at the gardens. We’ll see.

Leah

Christchurch Day #1

We started our 3 day student trips today! Woohoo!! All 23 of us ended up going to Christchurch for the weekend – it started out with just 3 of us (Bridget, Anela, and me) lol. I think it was because once we 3 decided to go, I made plans set in stone, and since everyone else only had ideas and no solid plans for their trips, they just kind of followed the crowd and went along with ours. Which was fine – I didn’t mind at all. I just think it would have been fun for people to all go to a variety of places so we could all have different stories when we got back. That will be more for the 10 day break I guess.

We got into Christchurch around 2:00 pm and got our 10 bunk room in Stonehurst accommodations – a backpacker’s hostile/hotel. The place had a decent room: the beds were really comfortable, we had a big fridge, and there was internet access and stuff there. But the thing that weirded me out the most was the bathrooms – they were co-ed. And some of the guys there didn’t close the doors when they peed, so I walked in on a guy once cuz the door was cracked and I immediately thought “oh this one’s open.” Nope, got that wrong. Awkward. Oh well, for 2 nights I figured I’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it.

We went out to explore the city for the day. Our group ended up downtown and met up with the other 13 of us. We all hung around for awhile, looked in some souvenir shops, and took a bunch of pictures. Several of us decided to go to the botanical gardens before dinner – they were soo gorgeous! We’re going back tomorrow to take more pics since the sun was setting when we got there.

We ended up meeting up with a bunch of people in the city center and went out to a Mexican restaurant. Since the drinking age is 18 here, some of us girls got a mango-boysenberry margarita – that was good. :)

We’re back at the hostile for the night. The trip’s been really fun so far – people had told me that I had to go to Christchurch when I was in New Zealand, but I just thought it was like an ordinary city. This one has a lot of gardens and old style English buildings and cathedrals, and it’s pretty clean – I like it.

All day here tomorrow – yay!

Leah

"Kei Te Pai" - it's good

Today I read. All day long. I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t want to stop. I was reading the second book of The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers, and it was SUCH a good book. I had started it on the plane ride over, and I really wanted to finish it before classes started. The day was originally all free for us so we could finalize our travel plans for this weekend, but since we had all of that covered, we just hung out. It was really nice.

We also had our first Samoa briefing this evening. This trip sounds awesome. We’re going to be staying on the west islands of Samoa, not American Samoa like I had originally thought. They still haven’t given too many details for our trip yet, but those will come after we get back from this weekend.

I’m so stoked for this weekend. It’ll be a good break/vacation before we start classes Monday.

Leah

Student Trip Plans

So today was pretty relaxed too. I’m loving these days. I wish we could just spend 4 months having fun in New Zealand. Classes are starting to loom overhead as we’re all realizing that our fun orientation week is ending and Monday’s getting closer. We’re gonna have an awesome weekend before they start though.

So we finally got all our plans for the weekend figured out. There were originally 3 of us, then our group swelled to 10 lol. I think it was mainly because no one actually had a plan set in stone, so when I started to actually plan a trip to Christchurch with bus fares, a place to stay for the 2 nights, and things to do downtown, people started following our plan. Since we had to have the info for where we’re staying and everything planned out by dinner tonight, I booked a hostile for the 10 of us and got everything arranged. Other people followed suite, and before you know it, everyone is going to Christchurch lol. In a couple different groups, but I just thought it was funny how no one else wanted to go to a city at first, and now everyone’s going.

We have more free time tomorrow to finish up plans, so we’re gonna go get some food for the trip, and finalize everything. I think we’re set though. I’m excited. Everyone I’ve talked to has said that I have to go to Christchurch when I’m in New Zealand. Should be fun!

Leah

Free Day, woohoo!

So I'm thinking i'm gonna try to post something every night. mainly for me, cuz i know most of you guys don't want to read every detail that's going on over here lol. just to give you guys a heads up.

We had a free day today, which was really nice. So far we’ve only had a couple hours here, a couple there, each day, but no real block of time to just do anything. Anela and I decided to take advantage of the free time to bike into town and go exploring a little bit. I finally got the money my mom wired down to me. So I have something to live on until I get my cards. So although, I never got the wallet back, I think everything’s finally settled with that. We also went to a bakery in town and went to the dump to get some cheap warm clothes. For only $3 a bag, why not? Lol. But it really is a dump. Kinda weird that you can buy clothes from there – I think it’s like our salvation army, but it’s all at one location instead. We ended up spending 4 hours biking around town, and I was so sore when I got back! Haha I’m definitely not in shape. All the “tramping” (hiking) and excursions we have should fix that pretty quick.

We met in our small groups for the first time tonight. Rich, Nissi, and Emma are in mine and Jess, our cook, is our leader. I think that’s pretty cool. It should be a good group. We’re gonna bake for some of the times we meet – sweet!

It’s so nice just to relax at “home” (i guess I’ll be calling the convent that for the next couple months) and not have to worry about classes right now. We will on Monday. That’ll be rough. But we have student trips before that. Still in the process of figuring all that out, but it should be pretty fun. I think a couple of us are going to go over to Christchurch. We’ll see.

Leah

Sheep, sheep, and more sheep

For all of you who wanted my address, here it is:

The Old Convent
278 Mt. Fyffe Road
Kaikoura 7300
New Zealand

Aside from being introduced to some of the academic material today, a main highlight was going to watch a sheep sheering show. It was fun. It was just our group who went today, and the man who was running everything was really relaxed with us. I can tell a lot of people on this trip are from the middle of cities because feeding a sheep and taking pictures with one just made their day lol. A baby lamb had just been born the day before, and we were able to hold it and feed it – that was really cute. Apparently the sheep population is about 35 million down here (whole NZ area), and the sheep:people ratio is about 40:1. Kaikoura is only about 3,500 people, so you can imagine how many sheep are around these parts lol.

I don’t know if I can even start to write some of the things I’ve been thinking about on this trip. It blows my mind away every time I look at the mountains, at how incredible everything is. I feel so small and insignificant when I look at the sites here, and then I just appreciate that much more how great our God is and how awesome and creative he must be to create everything on this earth. I’ve been thinking a lot about what God wants for my life, what my purpose is. That’s been a question that’s been looming over my head for a couple years now, slowly creeping into my thoughts more and more as I fly through my college experience. What am I going to do with this major? What is my future going to be like once I graduate? I’ve been thinking about questions like these and the future a lot lately. I’m really hoping I’ll find some answers while down here. College is a changing process for everyone, especially oversees programs. And I think I’m in a part of my life where I’m ready for change in my life. I want to change. I want to grow.

Leah

Exploring the Community

Today was our first Sunday in Kaikoura, and I was pretty excited to go to church. Half of us did a community clean up of the parks and areas around town, but the other half of us went to the Kaikoura New Life Church. The moment I walked into the church, I felt so welcome. There were only about 40 members max, so our group of almost 20 was a huge thing for them lol. They were so friendly and welcoming, though, that I felt right at home there. We were able to talk with some of them afterwards for a bit, and they were so eager to talk with us and learn about our studies over here. I loved it.

We had most of a free day after that, and Anela and I decided to go bike around the neighborhoods and near the base of the mountains for awhile. It was so cute because Anela hadn’t been bike riding in like 9 years I think she said, so I kinda had to teach her again how to ride a bike. That was really fun. We got some good pictures on that ride too. I really don’t think I can take enough pictures of the landscape around here. It’s gorgeous. I can’t even begin to describe it.

Since there was an open house tonight at the Convent, Anela and I decided to make a butter cake with a vanilla rum glaze – soo incredibly good – for the event. About half of the church members we met in the morning came over, along with several neigbors. And I just can’t believe how friendly and welcome these people are! I got invites to do everything with them. One lady wants to go out and play tennis with us, another wants to come by and give us a tour of the town, from an “insider’s” perspective, and another wants to go out to town with us some days to go play checkers. I thought that was cute. And I got invites to go learn how to play squash, and learn how to ride a horse English-style. I think that would be awesome. And we got some good tips on hiking and camping spots, and other things to do around town. I don’t think I have time to do everything I want to do down here!

I think everyone’s becoming more and more comfortable with one another as the days go by. We’ve only been here 5 days I think, but we’ve done so much in that time frame, and have all had amazing experiences together, that I think that’s helping us to relate to one another quicker. I still can’t get my mind around the fact that we’re here for 3 ½ months…wow! That’s so cool. I actually get to live in New Zealand for that long! Sweet. :)

Leah

Town & Tours

Today was a pretty packed day. We had breakfast then decided to catch a ride into town before we had a tour of the peninsula. I went with Nissi, Rachel, Juliet, and Courtney (our director) who dropped us off. Stopped in a cute shop and got some nice wool socks, and looked around town for a bit. Some of the locals are so nice and trusting. This one lady had me watch her store while she went over to another store to get change for a large bill. That would have never happened in America – they wouldn’t been paranoid that I would have stolen something. Anyway, Nissi and I decided to walk back to the Old Convent since it was such a nice day, but I didn’t think the walk was so long – doesn’t seem that long when you’re driving. But it is about a 50 min walk. The day was sunny and a little cold, but not windy, so it was a gorgeous walk back. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of this view – can’t imagine being in a prettier place.

After we all got back, we went out to meet Paul, our “tour guide,” to take us on a trek around the edge of the Kaikoura peninsula. So pretty!!! We spent a good 3 hours out there climbing up and down hills, over rocks, around the sea, etc. Soo many pretty views up there. My camera died 1/4 of the way in though, so I’ll have to get pictures from Anela probably.

Anyway, when we got back, we had an “iconic Kiwiana dinner” with a bunch of authentic New Zealand foods. We had several kinds of drinks that are common down here, different candies and chocolates, appetizers, lamb, potatoes, and a few different kinds of cake. There was so much food. I don’t think I can eat for another week after that. But it was all so incredibly good! Our cook, Jess, is amazing. She feeds us incredibly delicious foods every day. She puts so much time and effort into it. I’m being spoiled here more than I was back at home or at school. I want to be able to make the stuff she’s making someday.

We went stargazing afterwards for a while. It was freezing outside, but the stars were so pretty. Wish I knew some southern constellations though. Tomorrow half of us decided to go to church with the staff, and the others are going to help in a community service project going on in the morning. There seems to be a lot of community involvement around here. I like it. :)

Leah

“Hurihuri” – Maori: take it easy

That quote seems like an oxymoron for us. We here “hurihuri” and we think of hurrying from on place to the next. But it means the opposite in Maori. It means to stop and smell the roses, to take it easy, to be at peace, to reflect on things. I really think that’s going to be key in this semester. I’m always so busy, trying to get one thing done after another, that I often forget to stop and appreciate exactly where I am and what God has done for me. I hope to get better at that while I’m here.

Third day, still raining. Still cold. Slowly getting used to bundling up in thermal wear and fleece and a hat all day long. I’ll probably be going to classes in my sleeping bag once we start up. I know I won’t be the only one. :P I don’t care about the cold or the rain though. I’m in New Zealand! How cool is that.

We went to the Kaikoura museum today and learned some of its history, then had some free time. Since it was Sarah’s birthday today (one of our leaders), we had cake and ice cream, and played some hilarious games with her. Good times. :)

I managed to get in touch with the Qantas airlines today to see if any wallet had turned up. Nothing had. So I figure since it’s been 2 days already and nothing, I probably won’t see that wallet again. :( Things are starting to fall into place, though. I was able to cancel all my cards and get new ones requested, so hopefully they’ll reach my house soon and then I can get them before I go to Samoa. I hope I hope I hope. I’m still stressed, but not as much now that I’m slowly making progress to resolve the problem. And everyone here is so nice and supportive and willing to help me out for as long as I need. I couldn’t ask for a better group to be with right now.

I’ve only known most of these people for 3 days, but I feel comfortable with so many of them already. It is like freshman year again just because you don’t know people – you can’t avoid that. But we’ve all come here with basically the same intentions and we all want the best experience we can get, so I feel that we’re all more genuine and real with each other than at the beginning of freshman year. It helps to get to know everyone that much quicker, as we really only have 3 ½ months or so.

Classes don’t start up for another week! Woohoo! We have orientation till next Thursday (Sept. 11) then we have student trips until that Sunday (Sept. 14). So we don’t even start classes till the middle of September. That’s awesome.

Leah

"Kia Ora" - Maori greeting

A day into this experience, and I’m loving it so much already.

It’s been raining here pretty much constantly since we got here, but I don’t mind that much. It’s more the cold that’s getting to me right now. Since we’re at an old convent build in the early 1900’s, it has no heating system (aside from the fireplaces that we can’t use), so we each have a little space heater in out rooms and that’s it. Feels like camp kind of with all of us bundled in our sweaters, hats, gloves, and blankets around the house. Wish I had brought my wool slippers down now. My feet are always cold – definitely need to go buy wool socks. Even with limited heat, I love how we’re living in a house. There are several rooms on the first and second floor, a classroom on the second floor, and a kitchen, dining room, and lounge area on the first floor. We also have a building off to the side that has another classroom in it and the guys’ rooms. So all-in-all, it’s “quaint” as the kiwi would say it :) I love eating in a regular dining room instead of a cafeteria. Makes everything seem more homey.

We solved the space problem in our room – they’re giving us 2 more armoires as long as we build them. So I don’t have to live out of a suitcase after all! Yay! :) Still working on the whole unpacking part. Not in too much of a hurry. I figure we have almost 4 months for that.

We went on a scavenger hunt around town today, to get the lay of the land and to meet some of the locals there. That was really fun. The town is actually pretty small. There aren’t as many name brand shops as there are locally run tourist stores. Everyone seems so nice, and unlike America, not in a rush. If you ask them a question it’s like they want to start a conversation with you instead of just answering and getting on with their day. I like that. It makes the town seem more personable. Apparently Kaikoura is a big tourist town, so come spring/summer there will be lots of tourists. Oh, and Father’s Day down here is Sept. 7, and the first day of spring was Sept. 1. Dates are a little off, but I can deal. ;) Jaywalking’s common here – no crosswalks. And I was surprised when I found the drinking age is 18 down here. Oh, and they drive on the wrong side of the road!!! Did NOT know that. I am still thrown off by it. It all seems so…backwards. Another thing that’s backwards: the faucets! The cold is on the left, hot is on the right. Weird, huh? Not to mention the water goes down the drain in the opposite direction! That’s cool. These little differences all seem so novel right now, but I’m sure I’ll get used to them here soon.

Still stressing about my wallet. I haven’t been able to contact the airlines yet, but I was able to call home on my cell phone to start getting things resolved – costs for that are astronomical though! *sigh* Hopefully I’ll get everything fixed soon, but I hate having to depend on other people for money and stuff.

Internet should be up at the Old Convent by Monday, so hopefully I’ll be able to communicate with you all a little better soon!

Leah

"Good as Gold" - native Kiwi

The Kiwis here are so nice. And I thought that quote fit pretty well with describing this place. Kaikoura is amazing. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this place is. It’s like the Pacific Northwest’s rolling hills and trees combined with wide open grassy fields and meadows, and sheep galore. So many sheep! In at least every other pasture we saw! I’ve heard that the number of sheep are more than the number of residents here in New Zealand. I believe it now.

I’ve been up for almost 41 hours (can’t sleep on planes...bummer, I know) and I’m exhausted, but we got here safe and sound, and for that I’m grateful. Kaikoura is a coastal town about 2.5 hours out of Christchurch. There are huge mountains with snow caps to one side of the town, and the other is miles and miles of ocean – it’s amazing! It’s literally what you only see in photographs and can’t ever imagine some place to be that beautiful.

We’re staying in an old convent that we’re renting out from the owners – eventually CCSP is going to buy this place for it’s permanent location for the program. We can see the mountain ranges from out backyard, and the ocean from the front. So cool! There are 23 of us total in the group, and only 4 guys! Lol. I am sharing a room with 2 other girls – Catherine and Laura – and we have the best view from our room, of the mountain ranges. I can’t believe I get to wake up each morning and look out my window at them! Wow! The major downside to the room though is that we have HARDLY any storage places (ie: shelves, drawers, closet space). So pretty much I have to live out of my suitcase for 4 months – yuck. Oh well, can’t do much about it.

On landing in Christchurch, though, my trip didn’t exactly start out well. I lost my wallet! All my credit cards, license, insurance card, some pictures  completely gone. I searched everywhere, and couldn’t find it, so I had to file a lost items report with the police, notify the airlines I lost something, and had to call my parents so they could put a hold on my accounts until I either find it or cancel everything. One good thing is that I still have my passport. But it still sucks soo much!!! I have absolutely no money with me, so I have to depend on other people for as long as it takes to figure this thing out. If I have to cancel cards, apply for new ones, then get them sent here, it could take 3 weeks! Ugh. Not happy about that at all.

And to top it all off I learned that we’ll probably be getting limited internet access down here, so I won’t be able to talk to anyone back home, aside from emails and this blog. That is going to make me so lonely.  It’s not set in stone yet – they haven’t even set up the internet to this place yet (hope to in a couple days) but it’s not going to be unlimited. And esp with this wallet emergency, I need to talk to my parents now!

This is definitely not the way I wanted to start my trip. I’m frustrated, I’m scared, I’m lonely (lack of sleep helps too). I’m wondering if this is God’s way of saying to trust in him completely, and don’t depend on money or loved ones or anything but him while I’m down here. I do want him to work in my life, but I didn’t think it would be this hard. And all in the first day. It’s going to be tough these next couple days as I try to get though this, but trusting Him is really all that I can do right now.

This blog is really long. Normally they won’t be like this. And I’m hoping to add pictures too, but we’ll have to see how good the internet is for that kind of stuff. Doesn’t sound too promising. Well, tomorrow’s another day, and I’m hoping it will be better than this one. Can’t be much worse – I’m in one of the most gorgeous places on the earth.

Leah

Here we go!

So I leave in just about 7 hours to start my trip to New Zealand and Samoa. It only took me all day of scrambling and repacking 3 times to get everything I need together - and under the weight/dimension requirements! I didn't think the airlines were that strict about it. But with my luck they are lol.

I calculated it, and I think I'll be traveling about 40 hours straight till we get to Kaikoura, New Zealand. And orientation starts the minute we land. Haha, sure hope they don't expect us to remember it. Still seems unreal that I'm actually going to New Zealand! How cool is that? :)

Anyway, I feel like I'm going on a 4 month long backpacking trip with everything they're having us take - internal frame backpack, thermal wear, waterproof gear, snorkeling gear, sleeping bag, etc. It's crazy how much stuff they actually want us to take - and fitting it all in a suitcase and a duffel bag is not the easiest in the world.

Feels weird not moving in to Westmont with everyone else. I miss Westmont and everyone down there. I should get internet access down there, but I don't know how often. I'll keep this updated as much as I can tho! :) I gotta get some sleep - I'm going to New Zealand in the morning!