Proms Concerts

So last weekend I finally played the Proms concerts with the ASO. I was actually really surprised at what they turned out to be. It's basically a gigantic celebration of England and people are hardcore about it. It felt almost sacriledge for me to be playing in it as an American. I felt like it was something I wasn't meant to witness. The audiences were rowdy too. There were streamers and those little noise makers that you have at New Years parties. The audience was strongly encouraged to sing along. It was pretty wild. During "Hail Britannia" everyone in the orchestra was given streamers to throw at each/at the audience. Some people were making it their goal to get a streamer awkwardly on someone's instrument who had to be playing at the time. I got mine right on the head of a violin player. It was a good time.

Also, in the second half of the program, the orchestra gets to dress up in costume. It was fun. All of the women in the woodwind section dressed up as Morris dancers. It proved once again that suspenders were not designed to be worn by women. All of the brass/men in the woodwind section dressed up in some kind of military uniform. Except for one trumpet player who, for some reason, opted to wear a tux. In addition to the tux, he had a number of accessories that he changed after every song or so. These ranged from wigs to fake noses. It was crazy. The entire trumpet section decided to wear newspaper hats for a few songs. It was a good time.

However, my favorite part of the program was the Sweet Transvestite guy. For some reason, we were playing the song Sweet Transvestite from the Rocky Horror picture show. And the actor for the song was there. In full makeup. And wig. And costume. It was the most hilarious thing ever. On the first night, the orchestra hadn't realized what his costume was going to look like. He comes on with a cape draped around him (we all knew about that) and after the intro of the song, throws it off. This man was wearing possibly the shortest shorts I have ever seen in my life, heals, fishnets, and a corset-type shirt (I guess you could call it that). Half the orchestra stopped playing when we saw. We were just cracking up. It was amazing. The audience was freaking out too.

Anywho... The Proms were a really good time. I was glad to get to play with an orchestra (I miss orchestra) and I got to meet some really interesting people. The people in the woodwind section kept telling me that I will never play in another orchestra like this again, and I've gotta say, I'm pretty sure they're right. They're just so crazy. It was really fun. I was glad Stoven talked me into it, even though it tried to take over my life for a couple weeks.
Peace.

Wrapping Up

So... I think I'm just going to stop promising that I'm going to write soon because I seem to keep losing track of this blog. Sorry guys. I keep getting busy or distracted. But I'm finally sitting still in an attempt to not wear myself out for my performance exam tomorrow, so I will give you an update.

Um, let's see... My semester here in Auckland is wrapping up extremely quickly. I leave in 10 days. I am constantly busy for the next three days with various performances. Then I'm going to Wellington for five days. Then I have two more full days in Auckland plus the day of my flight, which doesn't leave until the evening. I'm actually pretty sad about the thought of leaving. While I'm looking forward to getting to see everyone in the States again, I also remember that in the next week I'm going to say goodbye to a lot of people that I will probably never get a chance to see again. Or if I do, it will not be for a very long time. I also feel like I'm just now getting settled and suddenly I'm leaving again. This semester has absolutely flown by. People told me it would. But I want to make the most of my last days here.

My trip to Wellington is going to be great. I'm so excited. I'm planning on going to a number of museums and art galleries. Wellington's known as kind of an artsy place. The botanical gardens are supposed to be beautiful. There's just all kind of stuff to do. Wellington is also the capital, so I'm going to see all of the government buildings. And apparently there is one day that you can go and watch Parliament do something. Sweet. I'm also looking forward to going somewhere outside of Auckland. I haven't left the city in over a month.

This weekend is full of performances. Tomorrow is my performance exam. Twenty minutes of rather strenuous music. Second movement of Bernstein sonata, first movement of Brahms no. 1, all followed by Raubaud's Solo de Concours. It's a lot of playing. I am currently having to actively keep myself from going to the annexe to practice more. I'm at the point where pretty much all I can do is think good thoughts and try to get a decent night's sleep. I'm well prepared but the perfectionist side of me keeps insisting that I'm not. I have become even more of a perfectionist recently, if that is possible. I think that's a good thing though. It's making me freakishly driven (in terms of music, anyway). On Saturday and Sunday, I have the Proms concerts with the ASO, finally. The music isn't extremely difficult but there is a lot of it. It is seriously about three hours of solid playing. It's supposed to be quite a show. I haven't seen all of it put together but there are dancers and random actors (like one of the guys from Rocky Horror. We're playing Sweet Transvestite, no joke.) and a choir (they're not very good though) and some interesting light effects based on what was happening during rehearsal tonight. During the second half of the program, the orchestra gets to dress up in costumes. The woodwinds and horns are dressing up as Morris dancers. We get cool hats. I'm stoked.

As for what's been going on up to now.... Just day to day stuff, generally. I keep meaning to go do stuff around Auckland but my days seem to disappear really quickly. I had my management exam today. Eh. I'm glad it's done. It reminded me of just how much I loathe essay exams. They are ick. Why would any teacher ever do them? But it's over. I happily sold my book back immediately after the exam. Good times.

AND OH MY GOSH!!! I just remembered something I forgot to write about! I got to see Kari Kriikku play with the NZSO. For those who don't know why you should care about Kari Kriikku, it is because he is a clarinet god. Seriously amazing! I have never seen anything like it ever. I don't even have good enough words to describe him. My words could never match up to his performance. It was absolutely breathtaking. I actually realised about half way through the piece that I was holding my breathe, that's how into it I was. No joke. He is so incredibly expressive. And he does some amazing effects. I'm not sure how to do most of them. It was so awesome. During intermission, Natalie, Rowan and I snuck back to the stage door. And we got to talk to him! For like a minute, but still. We were all a bit star struck. We had trouble getting out much more than, "Thank you so much for playing here!" and "We're university clarinetists. We pretty much worship the ground you walk out." We actually left out that bit about worshipping him, but we were all thinking it. It was the most amazing night. We were all so hyperactive after hearing him play. Except Kevin... Kevin was depressed because he thinks he'll never be that good. And, honestly, none of us will probably ever be that good. But that doesn't mean we're hopeless. So awesome.

I'm going to go ahead and end on that note because now all I can do is think about Kari Kriikku and bask in his amazingness. I've officially gone into nerdy clarinet mode and it's hard to get me back from that. I would say that I will post again soon but I'm not going to promise anything. If I haven't written anything by Monday, then I'll let you know how Wellington was when I get back. And then I'll be home soon.
Peace.

Franz Josef Pictures

I finally stopped being a slacker and posted Franz Josef pics! Yay! These are all courtesy of my friend, Scott. It was raining the entire time we were on the hike, so I didn't dare take my camera out of the relative safety of my backpack. As it was, everything got wet and I was surprised that my camera lived to see a new day. However, Scott, brave man that he is, did have the guts to take and camera out for a few pictures and was kind enough to allow me to have them for my own personal enjoyment and to share with other. And, two months later, I have finally posted them. I have added them onto Part 6 of the South Island Trip. So go check them out if you wish. Coming up, hopefully some posts about my doings in Auckland as of late and more pictures of various stuff, including some pics of where I live and the surrounding area, as requested by Grandma.
Peace.

I'm Alive, Really

So I haven't posted for ages, so I thought I would just let you know that I'm still alive. I have been busy with school and musical things, but nothing ospecial to report. I lost my phone at Foodtown this weekend and had to get a new one, which is a bummer. And the fire alarm went off for the fourth time since I've been here yesterday, which was kind of funny. The wait for practice rooms gets increasingly longer as it creeps closer to exams. So I've been getting some good reading in while I sit in the hallway staring down anyone who does not actually practice in the practice room that they have claimed.

I'm also planning a trip to Wellington in a few weeks. It will be my first solo sojourn out of Auckland. I'm really excited. I will post more fun everyday life stories when I have more time because I've got several but right now I need to get off to wait for a practice room and then meet up with my accompanist. Also, one of these days I will post the Franz Josef Glacier pictures that I stole from Scott ages ago.

My Birthday Weekend

What could have been a really boring weekend actually turned into a really good one. I am now in a fantastic mood and ready to start my last to weeks at university. The weekend started out with a relaxing Friday night at home curled up in several sweatshirts and a blanket, talking to Holly, watching TV, and reading (for pleasure, not school). It was just the kind of evening I needed.

Saturday was a masterclass with Michael Webster, the clarinet professor at Shepard School of Music at Rice University. I got the chance to play Brahms for him. I was informed that I would be playing for him on Friday afternoon, so it was quite sudden but fortunately exams are in a few weeks, so I was prepared enough. I half like and half disliked Michael. I warmed up to him quite a bit as the day went on. However, he encouraged me to pulse my air as a method of creating musical direction, which is a big clarinet no-no. At least with every other teacher I have ever had. His wife was there as well, doing a masterclass with the flutes. They are the most amusing couple ever. They are quite quirky. I enjoy their personalities a lot. After the "official" masterclass, Rowan, Natalie, and Fin had open lessons with Michael. These quickly turned into an extension of the masterclass. I sat in on all of them. I found them quite interesting. We covered very different topics with each person, which I enjoyed. By the end of the day, we were all pretty much in agreement that Michael is very knowledgeable about the clarinet but he does not execute very well. He is actually an average player but a interesting teacher. I don't think that I could ever study with him for an extended period of time because I don't think he would motivate me to improve very much but I think I could get something out of a few lessons with him.

We were planning on going out for a couple drinks after the masterclass but by the end Natalie and I both had horrible headaches. (We had been working on high notes for about 45 minutes prior. That will get to you.) So we all headed home. I was very pleased because Peter, a saxophone player in my reed class who also happens to be in my communications paper, bought me a present. He got me a t-shirt from the NZ music festival that is going on right now. I was so touched that he thought to get me something. I wasn't really expecting gifts. It was a really good end to the day.

This morning was a very lazy morning for me. I was considering going surfing with Natalie but I was tired and didn't have a wetsuit available, so I ended up staying home. As it turned out, the waves were no good today anyway. But I'm thinking of going out with her some other weekend and she will teach me how to surf. That's going to be really sweet. The afternoon was a concert given by Michael and his wife, whose name I cannot remember. She is a fantastic flute player. And it's easy to tell how passionate she is about music. It was very refreshing. I feel that so many professional musicians can be very jaded. She just simply loves music; it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. The concert overall was really nice. It was an entertaining program, rather than making the audience eat their vegetables as Larry Racliffe would say. There was a really cool arrangement of Debussey's Petite Suite for clarinet, flute, and piano that I really liked.

Afterwards, Natalie, Rowan, and I ended up talking to Michael for half an hour at least. He is very interesting to talk to. Like I said, extremely knowledgeable about the clarinet and music in general, he just doesn't play that well. Meeting these people makes me a bit homesick. They kept mentioning places and people in Texas that I know and I kept having the strong urge to bounce up and down saying, "I know that place/person. I am from Texas!" At the same time, I don't want to leave New Zealand. I am now at the point where I am very attached. I miss home but at the same time, I feel like there's so much more about New Zealand that I can just now get more in-depth in. I'm finally getting comfortable in Auckland, at uni, in the school of music. I'm just now getting to the point where I can say that I am starting to feel close to some of the people in the music school that I've met. But I also have a lot of things to go back to in the States. I can already tell that leaving New Zealand is going to be really bittersweet for me.

Anywho... When we finally extricated ourselves from the lobby (we were the last people to leave), we decided to go out for the drinks we didn't get last night. It was really nice. We went to a bar off Queen Street where you could actually here the people you are talking to. We sat there for at least two hours. It was really fun. Natalie is someone that I have been talking to since this first week of classes at uni but I have never really gotten a chance to get to know Rowan. So getting to connect with him was cool. He is a very nice guy. His girlfriend is currently living in Sweden, so we got to swap stories about long-distance relationships and how Skype is the greatest invention ever. It was just really great to get to socialize a bit more with them.

Upon arriving home, I realized that I had about five texts from Amanda asking me what I was up to and if she could come over. I told her that I was cooking dinner but she could come over whenever she wanted to. About 15 minutes later, my apartment was bombarded by not just Amanda but also Lorissa, Scott, Eric, and Chris, bearing cake and wine. So I did get to hang out with that crowd for a while on my birthday too. I am going to gain 20 pounds or so from all of the food people got me. There was the cake that those yahoos brought over, the cake that my roommie Laura baked for me, a king-sized chocolate bar from another roommate, Holly, and a big bag of Pineapple Lumps from Natalie, who insisted that I have to have them some time as they are a "New Zealand thing." Plus a box of Pam's (that's a brand here) nutrigrain bars from Eric. It ended up being a great weekend. A good entrance into my next decade. I am happy. Yay!
Peace.

I Know, It's Been a While

Sorry guys. It's been ages since I last wrote. I have been pretty busy this past week. I have been up to a lot of the usual in the past week. A good portion of the week was spent getting a management essay done. Those things haunt me, I swear. But it's the last major assignment of the semester and it's all turned in, so I'm a happy camper. I have had my first couple rehearsals with the woodwind quintet and with ASO. I'm especially enjoying playing with the ASO. They're not amazing but I have missed playing in an orchestra. And the woodwind section is a blast. They are the wackiest people ever. I had half of them in tears at one point tonight. We had been making jokes about the swine flu earlier and at an opportune moment during rehearsal, I made a snorting noise that only the winds could hear. They were cracking up. We were all useless for about five minutes. Except for the other clarinet player. He is the only guy in the section and he was not amused. But they are really fun. I'm enjoying hanging out with some Kiwis.

I am also playing in a wind nonet. (Yes, a nonet. Flute, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons, and two oboes.) Not permanently, we are just reading through a few things. But it is very fun. Natalie and I make an awesome team. We blend really really well. I enjoyed playing with her. At one point during rehearsal, we were comparing set ups in terms of reed, ligature, mouthpiece, barrel, instrument. And we were trading all sorts of bits of our instruments. At one point, I had my instrument, mouthpiece, and reed and Natalie's ligature and barrel. Ben was so confused by the fact that we kept switching things around. Good times in clarinet land. No other instrument does stuff like that.

Other than that, life has been a lot of work. The semester is starting to wind down, which actually means a lot of work. Tons of rehearsals, practicing, homework, reading, etc. But I enjoy being busy, so I'm good. The only downside right now... I was getting really excited to get to go out on my birthday, which is this Sunday (we were going to celebrate Saturday). However, now my friends are planning on going to Taupo because it is one of the only weekends left that they could possibly go. I have to stay in Auckland for music stuff. Not only do I not get to go to Taupo and skydive but I will probably be hanging out by myself on my birthday. Sad day. Would anyone like to fly to New Zealand and hang out with me? Anywho... That is about all I have to update you on.
Peace.
P.S. Best quote ever, in the ASO newsletter. "Definition of a gentleman: A guy who knows how to play trombone but doesn't." Ha!

Happy Mother's Day!

So, I know I said I was going to write a while ago... But I got busy. I have been trying to get going on a management essay. It is 2000 words and 25% of my final grade and is due a week from tomorrow. It's not getting off to a very good start though. I have spent most of today staring at a computer screen reading about corporate social responsibility. My eyes and my brain hurt and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. On top of that is the fact that I'm bored senseless by this topic and haven't gotten to practice today, which makes me grumpy.

Okay... The complaining part of this post is officially over. On Friday, reed class was taken by Elsa Lam, former principal clarinetist of the China Philharmonic. I think I've only mentioned it about a million times. It turns out that she also played with the Kalamazoo Orchestra, strangely enough. She was very helpful. Natalie described her as "brutally honest." I didn't think she was that brutal, just honest. I think Natalie might be a bit surprised if she does grad school in the States. Or maybe I'm just desensitized from my years with Ilya. She bombarded me with about a million exercises to do. There was one point, though, that I totally missed because she had taken my clarinet and was describing how something needs to be like golf. She had my clarinet by the bell and was swinging it like a golf club. I wanted to snatch it out of her hands and hold it close so that it would be safe. I, apparently, was making a face because the entire class was laughing at me. Overall she was very good. She actually related her comments to music in general, rather than just to the piece that I was playing, which is much more helpful in the long run. She said that I play like a typical American but complimented my playing overall, so I taking that as a win.

Yesterday, I meant to get work done but my whole day went away somewhere. I don't even know what happened to it. I did get in a good practice session, which makes up for the lack of one today. In the evening, we went to Ponsonby which is a section of Auckland, about 10 minutes away by bus. We went to this club called the Grange, which was having it's 3rd birthday, and watched rugby for a bit. I marvel at that games. The guys who play it are ridiculous. The whole thing is so violent. And they don't stop the clock every two seconds like in American football, so the players are pretty much running for an hour straight. It's crazy. You would have to be so fit to play rugby. Anywho... We walked around Ponsonby for a while but not for too long because all the shops were already closed and it was kind of cold. I would like to go back for an afternoon sometime and do some shopping. It is a really cute little area.

Today, like I said, I worked most of the day. But, I took a break this afternoon to go to a recital of the NZ Trio. It's a piano trio that resides at the University of Auckland. They were very good but played a lot of contemporary music, which I'm not always into. I can't really give you very much more than that because I kept fading out. I wasn't "listening actively" as my teachers would say. I again contribute that to the staring at a computer for hours on end thing. But it was still an enjoyable experience.

Tomorrow is my first rehearsal with the woodwind quintet. I have not managed to get in touch with Fin to get the music off him so I hope that he thinks to bring it to choir tomorrow so that I don't show up to rehearsal looking like a dope without any music. My first ASO rehearsal is also this week, on Wednesday. And sometime this week, I might be participating in an experiment being run my the economics department at uni. They pay you for it! That would be awesome. That's about it.

Happy mother's day to all those moms out there! Way to conquer the child-raising process!
Peace.

Graduation Gala

I just got home from the semi-annual Graduation Gala hosted by Auckland University. I had to come write about it immediately because I was that excited by/about it. It is the endgame of a competition held every semester for students who are graduating. The students go through a preliminary round in the semester prior to their graduation (so all of these students originally competed in August). Three finalists go on to perform at the concert that I saw tonight. They all win scholarship money, I think $2000, $1000, and $500 based on placement.

The first performer tonight was a pianist. He is currently a masters student and is headed to Eastman for his doctorate in the fall. He played the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. This was the only performance of the evening that I was absolutely enthralled by. It was great, don't get me wrong but I thought he was kind of boring. His technical playing was amazing. I was watching his hands the entire time and it was amazing. I didn't think it was physically possible for fingers to fly that fast. But there was no passion in his playing. I felt like he was one of those people who lives in the practice rooms and doesn't really know very well how to connect to people. He didn't really capture his audience, or at least, he didn't capture me. I guess I cannot necessarily judge because he is clearly very talented. His worst day on piano is still my best day on clarinet, I'm sure. That's just how I felt about his performance.

The second performer was absolutely my favorite. She is a flautist, masters student. She played a concerto by Ibert. It was absolutely out of this world. I cannot even find words to describe it. I got goosebumps at one point. Not only was her technique and musicality top-notch but she actually performed. She had such a distinct presence on stage, which is something that I feel is neglected by many students. It was as if she were a queen in the presence of her people. Her entire performance was elegant and distinguished. It was also kind of cool because at times she would whip her flute away from her face the same way that a string player pulls the bow of the strings at a really dramatic point in the music. But it wasn't overdone. Normally, that kind of stuff drives me crazy but she really made it work. She was by far my favorite performer. Maybe it's just my bias as a woodwind player.

The last performer was fantastic as well. She was very close to the flautist in terms of how much I enjoyed the performance. She is a pianist honors student. Here, you can do an optional honors year. It is a fourth year of study between obtaining your bachelors degree and moving on to studying for a masters. You usually do this at the same school where you got your bachelors. She performed one of the Lizst concertos. I think he has written multiple piano concertos but I can't remember which it was. It didn't really have movements, it had sections that segued into one another. As with the others, she was technically incredible. More than playing the piano, it looked more like she caressed the keys and beautiful music just magically came out. She had a very distinct style. If I could only have one word to describe her as a performer, I would use spunky. Instead of nodding at the conductor when she was ready to begin she kind of gave this little flippant move that clearly said "let's do this." Jordan and Jocelyn are going to freak out that I'm using this analogy, but she is like Ty Lee from Avatar. She appears cute, innocent, and bubbly but then very suddenly and unexpectedly she kicks your butt and you didn't even quite realize it happened. If the flautist was the queen, then she was the princess. Not quite elegant but captivating in her own way.

And the results... I totally called it. First place to the queen, second to the princess, and third to the Beethoven guy. It was a really inspiring contest for me. It really made me want to go practice some more. It has been a long time since I have been to a concert charged with that much raw energy from both the audience and the musicians. I love going to contests for that reason... There is so much excitement in the air. Even getting into the hall was intense. It was kind of like the amazing race, the concert version. There are no tickets, first come first serve. So you have to get there early and then beat people to a seat. I ended up waiting for the balcony. It didn't open until all of the seats in the stalls and on the floor were filled but I was at the front of the line and I didn't want to get out of line and then not get a seat. They were turning people away.

Overall, it has been a very good week for me, despite some stress. I just realized that I have a major essay for management due in under two weeks. So I need to get going. And, I think I've mentioned it before, but I am playing for the former principal of the China Philharmonic tomorrow. So that's slightly stressful. But mostly exciting. I practiced for nearly three hours today. I have found that I am happiest when I am fully immersed in the musical world and I don't really have to do much not relating to music. I'm not sure if that makes me strange or if that just means that I've chosen the right career path. Anyway... My point is that I've been doing a lot of music stuff this week and that has made it a good week.

Also, today while I was practicing, Kevin knocked on my door. Not Kevin, the guy I go on LOTR tours with, Kevin the clarinetist at uni. We only talked for a few minutes but it seemed like a big deal to me because he is a very stay-in-his-practice-room sort of guy. I've never really gotten to have a conversation with him. So I was pleased that he randomly decided to make contact. It turns out that he went to high school in the States. In Oberlin, to be exact. We reminisced about marching band and why it sucks. It was a good connection.

I'm also excited because I got another gig! It's a small one but I'm pretty much happy to do anything. It is a workshop reading of some Bartok arrangements written by students in one of the orchestration classes. I hope that I am not sight-reading on the spot, though. Because sight-reading Bartok?... Eeek. However, I am mostly excited about this because the person who contacted me is not someone I have met before. He got my name from someone else. Can you say successful networking? I was pretty pleased.

On the downside, my trip to Taupo this weekend has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Bummer. It is supposed to be pouring rain for five days straight, encompassing the weekend, which is not good for either sky-diving or hiking a mountain. So we will have to reschedule. On the plus side, this gives me time to get my ducks in a row in terms of my management paper and other various stuff. So... This post has gotten much longer than I originally intended it to, so I am going to sign off. I will report back from my coaching with Elsa Lam tomorrow. Yay!
Peace.

Out of Africa

That's just the title of the book I'm reading. I couldn't think of a title for this post and it was sitting right next to my computer, so I stuck that in there. If you haven't read it, you should because it's incredible.

Anyway... Yesterday, we had the car until 10 in the morning, so we decided to get up early and go to Piha, which is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful beach. It's a bit too chilly to go swimming any more but we were just going to go out and walk on the beach. As it was, we never made it to Piha. We realized about 30 minutes down a road that we had taken the wrong turn at the last roundabout. Oops. So we decided to keep going for a while since it wasn't really worth it to turn back. We ended up at a completely deserted beach. There was literally nothing around it. I can't even remember what it was called. It had black sand though, which was really cool. I have never seen black sand. I was wearing converse and it made the white bits of my shoes the same color as the rest. We weren't there very long before we had to drive back to return the car but it was still a nice outing. It was a good way to start the school day. It is always harder to go back to school after we've been away for a weekend.

In choir yesterday, a scary thing happened to me. We are preparing for a workshop performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass. The director told anyone who was interested in singing any of the solos to contact him. So, I emailed him saying that I would be interested in singing the alto solos. It's just kind of how I roll. I will go for anything if I don't have anything to lose. I figured that we would just have to sing for the director sometime. When I got to choir yesterday, I was informed that I get to sit in front of the entire choir for the whole rehearsal and sight-read solos. Ahhh! It was terrifying to me. It was so strange. However, I was impressed with myself because I believe that I at least appeared calm and collected. So that's a win.

Otherwise, it has been practice and school stuff for me. I am a bit behind on some of my reading. So I have to play catch-up. Plus, I got an email from Ben, the bassoon professor and person who usually runs reed class, that he will be unable to attend class this Friday. As a substitute, he has asked Elsa Lam to step in. She is the former principle clarinetist of the China Philharmonic. I have to play in class on Friday. So, needless to say, I am a bit nervous. So, lots of practicing going on.

Also, I forgot to mention this a while ago... I am getting to sub with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. It is not a professional orchestra, per say, but it's also not a bunch of university students. It's more of a community orchestra, I think. I've never heard them perform, so I can't say how good they are but they are definitely a visible part of the Auckland arts community. It's an exciting thing in any case. I will be playing for what is referred to as the Proms concert. It's a British thing. I'm not sure exactly what it is or what it's celebrating but the way that it was described to me, it seems similar to Fourth of July concerts in the States. Rehearsals start in a couple weeks and go until the concerts sometime in mid-June.

I'm also subbing with the University woodwind quintet, starting in about a week. They're a pretty good ensemble but they're all freshmen who don't seem to understand the concept of communication while playing. So that will be interesting. I'm still looking forward to it. There is an advantage to being the study abroad student who isn't playing permanently in any ensembles. Everyone else is busy. So guess who gets all the pick-up gigs? I do! I'm pretty well immersed in the music world right now and I am enjoying it highly.

Next weekend, my friends and I are planning a trip to Taupo. This is a big trip. We are planning on skydiving on one day and hiking Tangeriro (Mt. Doom) on the other. It's going to be so awesome! This is going to be a really good way to do things because after next weekend, I pretty much have to stay in Auckland until exams because of various music things. And this is one of the adventures that I have been particularly looking forward to... So I'm psyched. That's about all of consequence to report. If any of you who have Facebook are looking for a good laugh, switch your language to English (Pirate). Now, I am easily amused but this is hilarious to me, so it will be at least mildly amusing to normal people. Just a suggestion.
Peace.

Cape Reigna

I spent this weekend up at Cape Reigna. Cape Reigna is almost the northernmost point of New Zealand. There is actually another point that's a couple kilometres further north but people don't go there as often. There are two reasons that Cape Reigna is special and people go there instead of the actual northernmost point.

The first reason is that it is of special significance to the Maori tradition. There is a hill on Cape Reigna that is said to be the place where spirits pass from the world of the living to the spirit world. It's a very religious place for the Maori. Actually, I found it quite moving and peaceful as well. It was a place that I would have loved to sit and meditate. It's one of those things that is difficult to describe, but the area had a special feel to it. All you can see on three sides is ocean except for a few tiny islands in the distance. There's something in the air that makes you feel almost reverent. As much as I love travelling with my friends, I almost wish I could have gone by myself. Just let my mind wander. I could see immediately how it could come to be a place of importance to the Maori.

The second reason that Cape Reigna attracts more people is because it is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea converge. Normally, this wouldn't be that cool. You would just know that's where two oceans meet. However, here you can actually see it. The currents of the two bodies run together and create waves in the middle of the ocean. It's similar to the way they explain the creation f mountains in textbooks. Two pieces of the Earth's crust push against each other and force the land upward into mountains. That is what this looks like, only with water. It is way up there on the list of coolest things that I have ever seen. We were there on a pretty calm day but I have heard that on very turbulent days the waves can get up to 10 feet high. Pretty amazing. And I thought we just named bodies of water for our own sake, needing to give things meaning by naming them and such. It was nifty.

On our way home from Cape Reigna, we stopped to see the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand. Which pretty much means the largest tree in New Zealand. It is something like 13 metres in girth and 52 metres high. Absolutely huge. It was a good stop. Especially for the people getting car sick. There was some pretty knarly driving. Probably the most difficult driving I've ever done. It literally curved a different direction nonstop. You would pull out of a curve just to hit another one in the opposite direction. All while going down a 10% grade. While I was driving, Scott was coaching me through and he said, "Just pretend it's one of those racing video games with the crazy curves." Bad idea. I usually crash a lot in video games, so I just decided to pretend it was real life and focus on not running off the road. That was the weekend in a nutshell. It was a lot of driving, so we didn't necessarily do as much stuff as we usually would. But I enjoyed it.

So... I have a job for everyone. I found myself getting slightly homesick today. Homesick? Weird. I haven't been what I would call homesick for a while. Culture shocky, yes. But not really homesick. And I was thinking about what was making me homesick. And I came up with one major thing that I now can't get my mind off of. Hugs. I am pretty sure I have not gotten a hug since I was in the States. The Kiwis are not very touchy feely at all. It's actually a really space-bubble sort of culture, which is surprising to me since they're so chill about everything else. Me and my friends from the States don't really hug either. This is very different from home. In San Antonio, there's my family, Quakers (who are natural huggers), and my friends, amongst whom hugging is the typical greeting. At Adrian, between Jordan, ASA's, music majors and theatre people, my life is basically a long series of hugs. But not here. So I miss my hugs. So, your job... When I get home, everybody owes me hugs. I don't care if I haven't seen or spoken to you in years, you owe me a hug. People who usually see me on a regular basis owe me extra. That's what I want for my birthday, hugs and Tim Tams.
Peace.

Rangitoto

I spent the day today on Rangitoto. Rangitoto is the largest cone volcano in New Zealand (I think). It is about 30 minutes by ferry from Auckland. We almost cancelled due to rain but decided that we had been putting off the trip for so long and we just wanted to make it happen. Our defiance of the weather paid off. It rained on us while we walked to the ferry station but while we were on the way to Rangitoto, it stopped raining. We got a little bit of rain during the day, but not much. It was nice because the weather scared off most people, so the island was not very busy.

We started out hiking up to the summit of the volcano. It was slow going because we kept going off to explore small side tracks. We got to see some lava caves, which are really cool. That's basically where lava built up in a spot and the outer lava hardened and the inner lava receded, leaving caves. We walked through one that was a couple hundred feet with nothing but one flashlight and our cell phones to provide light. It was slightly creepy but nifty. It's a bit scarier because all of the lava is crumbly. You could probably knock the whole mountain away with your feet, if you really felt like spending that much time. So I was super paranoid that the caves would collapse or something. I was amazed that they have stayed in existence for so long as it is. Nobody really knows how old Rangitoto is but the estimates say it is probably about 600 years old. A pretty young volcano.

The summit of the volcano was inside a cloud at the time of our hike. Literally. It was similar to flying through a cloud in an airplane. We would look out and where you know the ocean and the city should be, all you can see is white. In a way it was anticlimactic. But I really didn't mind. I know what the Auckland skyline looks like. It was interesting to see something else. Or not really see, but it was a bizarre feeling. The crater of Rangitoto was huge. It isn't that wide (we hiked around it in about 20 minutes) but it looked very deep. It's filled with trees now so it's hard to tell exactly how far down it went but I have to guess that it was a ways.

The trek down was nice. I always like walking down. It's the easy part. We checked out some of the historical baches (pronounced batches), or holiday homes, while waiting for the ferry to take us back to Auckland. Some of them have been there for almost 100 years. Pretty crazy considering there is absolutely nothing resembling civilization on Rangitoto. We all fell asleep on the ferry back. I guess we were tired. It was a nice day though. Tomorrow, back to uni. I am officially half way through classes. We have six more weeks left plus exams. Oh, and the two-month mark was last Sunday. I forgot to mention it. I am nearly half-way through my stay here. Pretty crazy.
Peace.

Christchurch

Christchurch was absolutely fantastic. It is by far my favorite New Zealand city that I have been to. Most people really like Wellington, so I'll have to see how they compare. I'm planning on trying to get down to Wellington sometime during the finals month.

We started on Monday just strolling around town. We ended up going to the Christchurch Art Gallery. On Sunday, we had been walking around the arts centre nearby. It was really cool. They had a lot of more modern art. On exhibit was called White on White and it was all about how art can use the color white to make a statement. There was also a travelling exhibit about an artist whose name I have now completely forgotten. That's what I get for not writing it down. I'll ask Amanda, she'll probably remember. In any case, I really liked her art. She was painting a lot during WWI and was a very strong pacifist. She was actually arrested for refusing to help the war effort. A lot of her work really reflects that. She has a very interesting style too. It's very distinct. I feel like I might actually be able to pick out on of her works without someone telling me that it was her, which is saying something because I don't understand art a lot of the time.

It felt nice to do something that could be considered more "cultural." This trip has been very outdoorsy because that is what New Zealand is really about. People come for the untouched natural beauty, which is amazing but a change of pace was nice. After the art gallery, we hung out in one of the many parks for a bit, waiting for our turn to go punting on the Avon River.

Punting is very similar to the gondolas of Venice, only the Avon is much smaller and shallower. It was quite fun. It felt very quaint to me. The punter (the guy with the pole) was really cool too. We were talking with him about a lot of stuff about New Zealand. We told him that we were studying in Auckland and we got to talking about how different Auckland is from the rest of New Zealand. Auckland is really the least New Zealand-ish place in New Zealand. It's such a big city. It's very busy and the rest of New Zealand is quite laid-back and slow. Don't get me wrong Auckland is still an experience in itself but it is quite different from the rest of the country.

We were also talking about some of the politics between Auckland and the rest of the country. Right now, there is a lot of road construction going on all over Auckland. This is being funded by nation-wide taxes. Auckland's argument is that Auckland is the economic heartbeat of the country and for New Zealand to continue to run effectively, Auckland must be running efficiently. So the roads really benefit everyone. However, you can see how that displeases people from other parts of the country who are getting direct benefits from the roads. I can see both sides. The punter had also lived in Japan for a number of years, so we were talking a bit about the relationship between Japan and New Zealand. They do a lot of trading and such. He was an interesting guy.

After the punting, we spent ages looking for a place to eat. Easter Monday is a public holiday in New Zealand so most of the city was closed. Easter is a much bigger deal around here than in the States. As I said before, it is illegal to sell alcohol on either Good Friday or Easter Sunday. It is also illegal to open any retailers for business on Easter Sunday. Sixteen retailers opened on Easter in New Zealand and they are being sued. Most long school breaks happen around Easter too. It's right in the middle of the semester. It seems kind of similar to Thanksgiving Break in the States. Lots of families travelling.

Monday night, we took a drive out to the beach at Christchurch. It's not as pretty as a lot of the other beaches in New Zealand. It reminded me and Scott of Daytona Beach. But it was definitely a local hang. Not a lot of tourists around there. We also drove up the hills that surround the city. This gave a very different feel of the city. Christchurch is built on a swamp so buildings can't be very tall. The tallest building is 20 stories, which was funny to us. Since the city can't grow upwards, it really sprawls. It is much bigger than it seems from inside the city. It was kind of cool to see.

On Tuesday morning, we started by going to the Canterbury Museum which is pretty much a natural history museum. It, of course, had some exhibits about Maori life once upon a time but it had a ton of other stuff too. There was one about Egyptian mummification. That was probably my favorite. There was also one of those old-timey bicycles; the ones with the gigantic wheel in the front and the tiny wheel in the back. For anyone who is lame like me and has watched the second Princess Diaries movie, it is the kind of bike that Nicholas rides toward the end of the movie. I got to pretend to ride it. It was anchored in place, which is good because I probably would have fallen and died if it hadn't been. I don't understand how people could possibly balance on those things. Nuts.

After that, we went to the botanical gardens, which, as it turned out, we had already been to. We had wandered through it on Sunday and though it was just a park with lots of flowers. We did go through some of the greenhouses and the rose garden. The rose garden was beautiful. I can imagine what it must be like in the spring. I found white roses, my favorite! Anywho, it was very pretty.

In the afternoon, we had to drop the car off by the airport so we decided to visit the Antarctic Center, which is nearby. It was cool. Get it? Cool because the Antarctic is cold? We got to see some more penguins, blue-backs this time. We also went into this room that is meant to simulate a storm in Antarctica. It basically just blew a ton of cold air at you. It's pretty much the same as Michigan in the winter. There was also a ride on a Hagglund. These are the vehicles they use to travel around the continent. It was nuts. We were expecting it to be silly but it was actually pretty intense. There was an obstacle course with all sorts of hills and dips and such. I wanted to go again but no one else did. Sad day. Oh well.

In the evening we went out for dinner to celebrate our last night of the trip at a place called Dux de Lux. It was recommended to us by one of the women who ran our hostel. I had mushroom stroganoff and it was delicious. They had an extensive vegetarian menu and I really wanted to try everything but I am not really that rich. Dux de Lux also brews their own beer, which is what they're really known for. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me because I don't like beer but it was still cool to see all of their original brands. On a side note... Can anyone explain to me the difference between beer gardens and any other type of garden or courtyard? Is there some sort of architectural difference that distinguishes it or are there only beer gardens at place that serve beer? Just curious.

After dinner, we walked around Christchurch a bit more and ended up hanging out in Cathedral Square for quite a while. We had lots of laughs just talking about whatever. I don't usually laugh that hard; I had the giggles really bad. It was a nice end to the trip.

I'm finally done posting all of my trip stuff! Hooray! I get to spend today writing an assignment my communication class. Woohoo. The class is really angry with the professor because she keeps promising to hand back our last assignment but hasn't finished marking all of them so we can't get out feedback. She keeps talking about how much we need to improve on the next assignment but how, dare I ask, can we do that without our marked assignments? The second assignment is due about two days after we will get our marked assignments back. Oh well. I will just have to do what I can for now and try to edit well. Tomorrow, I am going on a hike on Rangitoto Island, which we have been meaning to do since we got here. It's going to be pretty nifty. Supposedly, there are some lava caves that we can check out at the top of the mountain. I'm looking forward to it.
Peace.

Tekapo

The view of Lake Tekapo when we woke up on Sunday morning was indeed beautiful. We had a bit of a lie-in. Scott was sick and we weren't in any particular rush. It was a beautiful day when we got out a little after 10. It was the first day of the trip that I could go without a jacket and not be cold. We had an awesome breakfast at the only bakery in town and then went to check out the Church of the Good Shepard, which is right on the lake. It was swarming with people who were there for Easter Mass. It was quite a sight. A tiny church surrounded by a beautiful lake and huge mountains. It was something you would expect to see in a movie.

We spent the rest of the morning hiking to the top of Mt. John. It wasn't too high (only took about 45 minutes to climb) but there were amazing 360 views of Lake Tekapo and the surrounding mountains. I took about a million pictures, again. I marvel at the color of the water. It is almost a teal color. It's amazing. You almost wouldn't believe that it's real but it is.

We spent the afternoon driving to Christchurch. Another four hours in the car. We were so tired of long drives but that was the last long one, so it was all good. We all decided that we love Christchurch. It's very English-looking. Apparently it is the most English city in the world that is not actually in England. I'm not sure who exactly decided that but I can see why they would say that. More on Christchurch soon. I don't have a lot of time to type right now.
Peace.

A Quick Explanation

So I have finally finished posting all of my photos from our Easter Break trip! Hooray! I still have a couple posts to type up and I will get around to that soon, I promise. In the mean time, it was requested that I explain the titles of my photo albums on facebook. They are all inside jokes that came up on the trip and they will probably not be nearly as funny to you as they are to us but I will explain them anyway. I enjoy trying to spread my strange sense of humor.

Do Sheep Only Jump Over Fences in Dreams?
This was said by Amanda when we were trying to figure out why they have staircases that go over fences. I have a few pictures of them. They basically allow people to walk over fences. We assumed that they are to enable humans to go from place to place but to keep sheep into their allotted area. Amanda then exclaimed, "What, do sheep only jump over fences in dreams? They seriously can't get over this."

Give Me a Smile, Pussycat
This is merely a quote from Borat. Kevin and Chris liked to use the accent and end every other sentence with "pussycat." That's what we did when we weren't imitating Kelly. (The guy from shoes. If you don't know what it is then search the word shoes on youtube. It will be the first thing.)

Three Countries: The United States, New Zealand and...... Italy
When we were in Christchurch, we went to the Antarctic Center. Lots of people fly through Christchurch to go to Antarctica. New Zealand has good proximity. As part of the experience, we went on a ride on a Hagglund which is the vehicle they use to travel around Antarctica. The driver at one point was explaining to us that Christchurch is the starting point for explorers from three different countries: the US, New Zealand, and Italy. However, when he told us this there was literally a minute long pause between the word "and" and "Italy." I don't know what happened, if he just lost his train of thought or what but we had almost forgotten what he had been talking about by the time he got around to saying Italy.

She Didn't Look Like a Breezshaw. Does Anyone?
We stopped at a gas station in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. There were literally about 10 buildings. A lot of the gas stations in New Zealand still have people who pump the gas for you instead of you doing it yourself. So when we got the receipt for our gas it said that the person who pumped our gas was named Breezshaw. We thought this was quite a peculiar name. At one point, someone remarked, "She doesn't look like a Breezshaw..." Amanda's response, "Does anyone? Who came up with that name?"

Are You Guys Tourists?
In Christchurch one day on the way back to our hostel, which Scott decided was on the shady side of town (it wasn't that shady), a guy stopped us and asked if we were tourists. We said that we were. He then asked if we wanted a smoke. We politely declined. I don't think he was talking about a cigarette.

A $36 Muffin and A Free Cruise
On our cruise at Milford Sound, part of the deal was that we got a free muffin. We were all super pumped about the free muffin because what college student doesn't love free food. Lorissa, however, decided that maybe it wasn't a free muffin. Maybe it was a $36 muffin and a free cruise. I don't really care that much as long as I got a muffin and a cruise. It could be $18 for the muffin and $18 for the cruise. I'd be okay with that too.

I hope you're amused by this. And if you're not, then I hope you're not confused anymore. And if you're not either of those things, well, then I guess you just wasted your time reading this. Stinks for you.
Peace.

Queenstown (Again), Dunedin, and Tekapo

On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful view in Te Anau, where we had stayed for the night. We really only stayed there because it was halfway between Milford and Queenstown, so we headed back to Queenstown first thing. We made our way slowly through the amazing scenery and stopped frequently to take more pictures. I finally got to drive! It was a little weird at first but you get used to it amazingly quickly. The thing that is actually easiest to forget is that the turn signal is by your right hand, instead of your left. So half the time when you go to turn you hit the windshield wiper instead of the signal and end up cursing loudly. It's very funny for everyone in the car.

On our way to Queenstown, we stopped at Deerpark Heights. This was originally a Lord of the Rings search for Kevin but it ended up being really cool in general. It is basically a big petting zoo. We got to see pigs, ducks, geese, deer... There was a huge buck about five feet from our car at one point. There was also a slightly frightening incident with a donkey. It tried to stick it's head in our window to get our food and then ended up trying to eat our car instead. Yum. We had a picnic with a great view at the top of the hill and then went on a trek to look for Lord of the Rings scenes. There was also a really creepy Korean prison that was from the set of the movie The Rescue, a Disney movie made in 1989. I'm going to have to watch that now.

After several hours in Deerpark Heights, we headed to the hostel. We got back in time for soup and watching the scenes from LOTR that we had seen at Deerpark Heights. There was a guy at the hostel who seemed to have no clue what Lord of the Rings was. He kept asking if this was the new version and that he hadn't seen this movie since the 70's. We told him that there is only one version of Lord of the Rings and it was filmed in 1999. It turns out he was confusing it with Star Trek. How to you mix those two up? They don't even look close to the same. So that was an interesting conversation.

In the evening, we met up with Chris and Lorissa, who had been hiking a mountain for the day. We decided to go out for dinner as a treat. We ended up going to a restaurant called Guilty, which is located in what used to be the courthouse. We split these gigantic platters of tapas, which are sort of like appetizers. It was pretty much a little bit of everything on the menu. Delicious.

We found out an interesting thing while in Queenstown. Apparently, it is illegal to sell alcohol on Good Friday or Easter Sunday in New Zealand unless it is with food (ex. wine with dinner). Interesting, huh? That meant that the city pretty much shut down that night because none of the clubs were open. It was strange. I'm not used to that.

We woke up early on Saturday because we knew we had a lot of driving to do and we were greeted by a magnificant sunrise. There were absolutely radiant colors. Oranges, reds, purples. It was fantastic. It made being up early that much easier. We headed out for Dunedin first thing. I got to drive again and ended up driving straight into downtown Dunedin. We didn't really expect Dunedin to be a big city. We thought it was just going to be another little town on the South Island. Really, even the bigger cities on the South Island still feel pretty small. But this was a city. And I had no idea where I was going. It was funny because everyone else in the car was just kind of looking around while I drove around, completely lost. I asked if we knew where we were going. No. Can we figure out? I don't really know. Could someone please look at a freakin' map and tell me where to go?

After finding a parking spot (a legal one, we almost parked in a bus stop), we walked around downtown for a bit. Apparently, there is a strong Scottish influence in Dunedin. Some of the buildings and churches are kind of Scottish-looking. Dunedin is also a bit more eclectic than Auckland in terms of the type of people there. We saw some people dressed in rather interesting outfits. We also conquered Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. It's far steeper than it looks in the pictures. It is an average of something like a 1 in 3 grade. Very steep.

After that, we drove out almost to the tip of the Otago Peninsula to see penguins. We went to Penguin Place, which is a conservation project for yellow-eyed penguins. They are moulting right now, so they weren't as cute as they would usually be, but it was fun anyway. They're still adorable. When we were in the hospital area, we could hear them walking and on the concrete, it sounded like Happy Feet. Also in the hospital, they had another kind of penguin that was just visiting for a bit. I can't remember what the type of penguin is called but it Happy Feet, they are the penguins with Mexican accents. The rest of the conservation is on a sheep farm but they are slowly regrowing the forest that is the penguins natural habitat. You actually walk through a series of tunnels to spy on the penguins. It's to prevent people from disturbing them but I'm pretty sure they knew we were there.

Right after our penguin tour was a long drive to Tekapo. I was a bit bummed to leave Dunedin so quickly. I felt like I could have spent more time there. Oh, well. We didn't really know. It was four hours to Tekapo. I drove for two of them. I like driving on the left. Its fun.
Peace.

Milford Sound

On Wednesday, first thing in the morning we headed out to Milford Sound. The drive turned out to be one of the most beautiful that I have ever been on in my life. A drive that should take about four hours ended up taking more than six. We kept stopping to take pictures and just take in the scenery. It was absolutely incredible. Neither pictures nor words can do it justice. We stopped at one point at the Mirror Lakes, which reflect the mountains perfectly. We also stopped at an area called the Chasm, which is a waterfall that has carved really cool shapes into the rocks. At night, we went down to the fiords for some stargazing, which was very cold but pretty.

The next morning we went on our cruise of the sound. It was nice but also extremely cold. I was wearing as many layers as I possibly could and I was still freezing. Milford Sound is pretty far south on the South Island. On the plus side, it was not raining. Supposedly, Milford Sound is actually much more beautiful when it is raining. It's said that the more it is raining, the better your experience will be. When it rains, there are fantastic waterfalls, apparently. Frankly, I was perfectly okay with being dry. And there were still some waterfalls. So I was good. On the cruise we got to see seals! They were adorable. I want one as a pet. We were actually quite close to the rock that a bunch of them were sleeping on. Seals are pretty much the laziest animal I have ever seen. They pretty much just sleep all day. Perfect for taking pictures.

In the afternoon, we went on a hike up to Marian Lake. The hike was great. We were in a forest so it wasn't too sunny but we were climbing up a mountain, so it kept us nice and warm. It was also cool because it wasn't just a hike with a beaten trail. There were indicators every so often so that you knew you were still on the right track but at a lot of points, you sort of had to find the way yourself. The view at the top was fantastic. I was the most secluded and peaceful spot. We were the only ones there too. I think I could have stayed there forever. But, alas, we had to hike back down the mountain and head off to Te Anau for the night.

Wanaka/Queenstown

Okay, before I continue chronicling my trip, I have to do some bragging. Before the break I had an assignment for my management class due. I was a bit nervous about it because I wasn't sure how high expectations are here and because it just wasn't coming together as well as I would have liked. However, I have gotten my grade back... I got 90%. I was one of the top 40 students in a 1200-person lecture. *Insert fist pumping here* And as it turns out, my essay was graded by the lecturer herself, not a marker. So I did well, for sure. Anywho... I was really excited. What a great way to start the day. But back to the trip...

On Monday, we were in Wanaka. The day started with breakfast by the lake. It was a great sight to wake up to because it had been dark when we arrived the night before so we had no idea what it looked like. We finally got some sun and it was a great opportunity for pictures. There was a double rainbow happening for a while. I have a picture of it somewhere. After that, we drove out to Lake Wanaka's twin, Lake Hawea, for more great sights and pictures.

Then we headed to Mt. Iron, about five minutes from town. It was a steep 45 minute hike to the top. There were some great panoramic views. I have a ton of pictures of Wanaka, the lakes, and the mountains.

After a quick lunch, it was off to our horseback riding excursion about half an hour from Wanaka. Unfortunately, at this point the weather that had been so lovely in the morning let out. It rained for the entire two hour trail ride. Despite raincoats and overpants, all my clothes got completely soaked (again), including my one pair of shoes that I had besides jandals. And, of course, no pictures could really be taken. But other than that it was great. My horse kept wanting to stop and eat grass. But eventually I figured out how to take control and it worked out. It was really cool. I love horses. It's one of those things that I always kind of wish I got into. I was pretty happy that we got to go.

Afterwards, it was a brief, my steep and curvy drive down to Queenstown. It was one of those drives where you feel like you're going to fall off the mountain. We arrived at the hostel just in time for hot soup to warm us up from our wet afternoon. That evening we went to explore the town a bit. Queenstown is much smaller than I thought it would. Only about 20,000 people live there. But it's such a tourist area, that everyone knows about it and everything is extra expensive. There is also quite a large nightlife. There are at least 10 bars that I heard of and there are probably more. Once club, called the World Bar, makes things called teapots. They're basically mixed drinks in little teapots and you're supposed to split them with friends and drink them in shot-sized portions. We saw a few people drinking them by themselves though. Good luck with the headache, mate.

On Tuesday, we all slept in a little. By slept in, I mean we slept until 9. We walked around town for a while looking for a bakery where we could get breakfast. Interestingly enough, there are no bakeries in Queenstown. At least, not that we could find. Who knows why. They're everywhere else in New Zealand. We ended up at Ferg Burger instead. This place is famous for their burgers. We were told that if there is anywhere in Queenstown that we have to eat it is here. The burgers are huge. I couldn't even finish my tofu burger, which was entitled "Holier-Than-Thou." Yes, vegetarians are holier than thou. Just kidding. It was a weird thing to have for breakfast but good nonetheless.

From there we headed off to go luging. This is similar to bobsledding, only on concrete with wheels. Basically you roll down the mountain on a little course. I was pretty slow because I was terrified that I was going to totally biff it and break something. I don't need to end up in the ER anymore. And, of course, it started raining the second we got to the top of the mountain. So we got soaking wet for the third day in a row. And I didn't get to take pictures, again. I totally bummed about the lack of pictures of us doing cool stuff like horseback riding and hiking Franz Josef and such. Ah, well. I have tons of other.

Fortunately, the rain mostly cleared up for our Lord of the Rings tour in the afternoon. It was really great. Beautiful scenery. And, as I mentioned with Cathedral Cove, I just think it's super cool to be where movies were filmed. We got to see five different scenes. One of them, Kevin and I kind of snuck into. We weren't exactly supposed to be there but the tour guide told us where it was and we were stealthy. Our tour guide was extremely awkward. He was quite amusing to me. He actually asked us if we had seen the movies. What? No, we just thought we'd come on a tour for movies we'd never seen. Funny.

At night, we went on a pub crawl. We went to six different clubs. It was interesting getting to see all the different places. If there is anywhere you want to see the nightlife in New Zealand, it's in Queenstown. There's quite a variety of different places. We also got to meet people from England, Sweden, New Zealand (0f course), and Ireland. It was a fun night.

Believe it or not, I have still only posted half of my pictures. More coming soon.
Peace.

Franz Josef

Yeah, I'm finally going to start writing about the trip. It's about time I stop being a slacker about the blog. I was writing everything down in a journal as we were travelling but I'm just now getting around to posting stuff. So here goes...

We started very earl on Saturday morning. Wake up was at 3:30 to finish packing and head to the bus stop. I've decided that I love New Zealand airports. This was the easiest flying experience I've ever had. Ever. We checked ourselves in in about two minutes. You do it all by yourself, luggage tags and all. So quick. No stupid lines. Then we got through security in under five minutes. I didn't have to take off my shoes or coat or remove any liquids from my backpack. We realized once we got behind security that there was no food back there but getting through security was so easy that we decided to just go back out, get food, and do it again. Then, when it was time to board the plane it was just kind of like "We're boarding now. You can get on the plane whenever you like. We leave in half an hour." We were slightly delayed due to fog in Christchurch and by the time they announced this, we were already boarded. But they said that we could get off the plane if we didn't want to stay on and they would reboard in a bit. But we could stay on if we wanted to. Awesome. That would never happen at home. I never want to fly in the States again.

After arriving in Christchurch, we picked up our rental car and some groceries. Subsistence living. Beans and rice, etc. We should really learn how to cook. It was a six-hour drive to Franz Josef. On the way, we stopped at Castle Hill and climbed around for a bit. It's a hill with a bunch of boulders strewn about. It looks a little like the ruins of a castle. Hence the name. It was quite fun to climb on. We, of course, took the short but extremely steep way to the top. There were great views of the foothills of the Southern Alps. The drive through the range was pretty wicked. Both Lorissa and I got carsick. Not fun. But the scenery was fantastic. We stopped for a lot of pictures. We basically cooked and crashed when we got to the hostel. We were exhausted from being up way earlier than anyone likes. The hostel had free vegetable soup; it was amazing and it warmed us up really well. Actually, a few of the hostels we stayed at had free soup. They were my favorites.

Sunday was our adventure climbing Franz Josef, which is a glacier. It was raining all day long. Despite raincoats and overpants, we were all completely soaked by the end of the day. We were all fearing for our ill-protected cameras, phones, etc. We didn't realize that it was going to rain quite that much. All of my stuff made it (except my return ticket for the bus from the airport when we get back Auckland) but Lorissa's phone broke and Kevin's passport got soaked. Sad day. Other than that it was absolutely fantastic. The views weren't as great as they would have been if it were sunny but the rain meant that there were some really amazing waterfalls on the surrounding cliffs. The ice was cool too (no pun intended). It is actually blue. It's a similar color to the light blue that they put on the inside of a lot of swimming pools. Not what I was expecting at all. Sadly, I have no pictures on the glacier because I was afraid to take my camera out in the rain. However, I stole some pictures that Scott took and I will post those.

More pictures and posts coming up. Keep an eye out.
Peace.

I'm back in Auckland. It was a fantastic trip. I have lots of posts and pictures to put up. I will be posting them slowly but surely.

Break!!!!!!!!!!

My essays are complete and turned in, my crutches have been abandoned and given back to the health center. I am packed and ready to catch a bus to the airport at 4:45 in the morning (ick!) for my trip to the South Island. I am so excited to get away from Auckland for a while and see some other parts of New Zealand.

A few posts down is a general idea of our itinerary. Possible activities include, glaciering, tramping, kayaking, white water rafting, horse back riding, bungee jumping (or watching bungee jumping), going on a LOTR tour, climbing the steepest street in the world (Baldwin St., Dunedin, 35% slope), and others. It's going to be fantastic.

I will pretty much be out of touch for a couple weeks. I might occasionally check my email and facebook at a hostel. But I will have a ton of stuff to post when I get back. See y'all in a couple weeks.
Peace.

Musical Stress

I had one of the worst ever clarinet lessons today. It's one of those lessons where everything that could possibly be bad, is. It starts out with you smoothly forgetting to do something that James asked you to do last week thanks to those stupid papers that have been monopolizing your time. Then, you start playing and everything you have worked on so meticulously in practice is suddenly not there. And you're thinking "Okay, so I'm just not warmed up." So you try to get into it but it's just not happening. All that hard work is gone and it's not coming back. It's the Godot of music. So now you look like a total slacker, even though you're not.

Then, on top of this, James decides to tackle the thing that you suck at more than any other element of the clarinet... The big A-word. Articulation. So James is throwing all of these conceptual ideas about how to move your tongue and your air and such. And in the mean time that evil guy with the horns that is supposed to represent one half of your conscience is sitting up on your shoulder, pointing and laughing and telling you that you suck at music. Or just at life in general. It doesn't even have to be anything specific. He's just making sure you know that you suck. And then you finally get around to attempting some of these confusing ideas that James has been trying to explain for the past 10 minutes. And suddenly, you can't even find your tongue, much less identify the tip of the tongue. You don't even know if there's a tongue somewhere in your mouth. So you're attempting these exercises and none of it's working and you know the entire courtyard of the music building can hear you making these ridiculous sounds because the window is wide open.

So after a bit of that torture, you move on to a piece. Yay! You think. You can finally show that you've done some work this week. Oh, wait. The progress is Godot, you forgot. And James, for the first time in history, instead of letting you play 10 bars and then stopping you, graciously allows to play the entire first movement. Which sucks. So now you have the devil guy sitting on your shoulder cackling in your ear, and who knows where the angel guy is to punch him in the face when you need him to, and you're so stressed that you can barely move your fingers much less breathe properly, which is part of what James was trying to get you to do earlier. And now, the evil guy with the horns is whispering all of those other things that have been worrying you this week, just in case you forgot.

So you're standing there trying not to have a nervous breakdown in front of your teacher and there's still 30 minutes to go. And you wondered what happened to music being fun.

I just want to go hike a glacier.

The Greatest End to a Stressful Week

Yesterday was by far the best day I have had in a while. It started with another wonderful lesson with my clarinet teacher, James Fry (someone asked me his name). Every time I take a lesson with him, I feel like he is able to point out things that I didn't even know you could consider. In one way, it's terrifying but in another absolutely fantastic. We can spend most of the lesson on less than one page of music and it's not that he's being anal or repetitive or boring, it's just that there are so many nuances to look at. It's very exciting for me.

After a short break (for lunch), it was off to my communications class where my professor held up the draft I had given her last class and said "I have one draft. It was great. I need more drafts." Can you say brownie points? But she handed my draft back with a lot of really helpful comments. And it's not as bad as I thought, it just needs a bit of adjustment. So I was very relieved. Now I just have to write that pesky management essay that's been giving me so much trouble... Also, after class one of my classmates approached me to ask for help with the assignment. Who woulda thunk it? So I made a new friend. His English wasn't fantastic (I think he was from China?) so a lot of our conversation went in circles because we were having trouble understanding each other. But it was really cool to get to talk to someone different. Not a music student or a study abroad student, which is who I generally hang out with. He was very nice. I have already forgotten his name (I've been having trouble with that lately) but I'll ask again next class.

After that it was off to the lunch-time concert. The music school hosts these every Friday and they feature school of music students rather than professors or guest artists or some such. Two of my friends from reed class performed and they were both awesome. There was also a tuba quartet, which I thought was hilarious. A tuba quartet consists of two euphoniums and two tubas. They were really good, I was just amused because it had to be the nerdiest musical gathering I have ever seen. First, before they play, they all have to do the ritual blow-through-the-horn-to-make-sure-there's-no-spit thing. Then, as they're playing it just struck me as very funny. I can't exactly describe why. There was just a very distinct attitude about them. Kind of like, "That's right, we're playing our low brass instruments and, yeah, we're totally into it." I thought it was funny. You probably had to be there and now I'm rambling. So moving on...

After the concert, I went to practice for a bit before reed class where I finally performed. I was super nervous. I've been feeling a lot of pressure on that point because everyone has been expecting me to be a prodigy or something because I am from the States. So getting up and playing for them was a bit scary. I totally flubbed up a lot of the piece because of my nerves. Drat. I thought I was getting better with my performance anxiety but I think in realtiy, I just got used to the Adrian audience that I always play for. But I got some really helpful comments and I feel like I won't feel as stressed next time I performance because everyone knows how I sound now. And I got compliments on my tone, which made me feel very good about myself. James took the class today, which means I basically got another lesson, only with people watching. So all that was actually quite fun.

Afterwards, I headed to the Sky Tower for dinner with my friends. The sky tower is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. It has a great view of Auckland and the bay surrounding it. The restaurant at the top rotates 360 degrees every hour. And the food was amazing. It was a bit fancier than what we usually do and it was fun to see everyone kind of dressed up for an event. When you're living in the middle of the city, it's easy to forget how beautiful this place is. But from up high, you can see the harbour around the city and the surrounding islands, hills, and other various scenery and you remember "Oh yeah, this place is amazingly beautiful. I almost forgot we were in the beauty queen of countries." It was great.

After that, we just hung out in Chris's room for the evening. We were going to go out but we got to talking and no one really felt like going anywhere. We ended up playing this game called hotseat. This is where one person is in the "hotseat" and everyone in the room gets to ask them a question. It can get a little immature at times but you also learn a lot about one another. It actually led to some really intense conversation at a few points. Do you believe in true love? turned into a huge debate about the difference between true love and fate. What are you most proud of in your life? What is the thing that is most important for you to do in your life? That one actually had a lot of interesting and unexpected awnsers. And someone asked me what my favorite thing about music is. That led to about 20 minutes of talking from me, which was weird because I don't usually talk that much. Anywho... It was one of those evenings when I realized exactly how close I am getting to these people. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when we all go back to our seperate homes in the States. And the hard part is, I don't think I will ever be able to describe what this group of people is like. It's impossible to describe. I can single out moments that just capture the group pefectly but it wouldn't make sense to anyone else. But I love it.

Yesterday was such a great day because I just feel like I'm getting out of my funk. I was really sad earlier this week because I thought that I might not get to go on our fall break trip because of my foot. And Jordan said that he thought I was focusing too much on travelling. That's not all I'm here for. And he's right. So I've been thinking a lot lately about why I came here and what it is to me that I am here and what I'm trying to learn or achieve. I don't really have any awnsers yet. However, I feel like just considering all of these things is helping me. So... That's my few cents for the day. I really do have to go write that essay that I keep talking about. Wish me luck.
Peace.

Easter Break

So I have a two week break coming up in a bit. My friends and I are planning a tour of the South Island. I am super excited. Here's a look at our possible itinerary.

Saturday: Fly to Christchurch, drive to Franz Joseph. Possible stop in Arthur's Pass National Park for a tramp.

Sunday: Hike Franz Joseph (that's a glacier), drive to Wanaka

Monday: Explore Wanaka. There's a national park and a lake. Great scenery, of course. Drive to Queenstown.

Tuesday: Explore Queenstown. Part of the group might be doing the highest bungee jump in the world (134 metres). The wussy part of the group (myself included) will be watching or possibly going for a Lord of the Rings tour. Yay nerdiness!

Wednesday: Drive to Milford Sound, explore thereabouts. Great tramping in that area.

Thursday: Explore Milford Sound a bit more, drive to Te Anau, explore around there. Pretty lake, more good tramping. (For those who don't know, that's basically what New Zealand is... good tramping.)

Friday: Drive back to Queenstown, do some more stuff there

Saturday: Drive to Christchurch. Long day of driving but incredible scenery. We might stop off in Dunedin if we decide there's anything in particular we want to see.

Sunday-Tuesday: Explore Christchurch and possible surrounding areas. Maybe go to Nelson, which is supposed to be beautiful. We haven't really planned this part but that's okay. More room for flexibility.

Wednesday: Fly back to Auckland, do laundry and rest.

After that, we're considering going to Taupo for a couple days. Taupo is on the North Island, about 3-4 hours south of Auckland. That's right near Mt. Doom (yes, from LOTR). We would definitely hike that. It's supposed to be an all-day thing. That's also where the best skydiving goes down. I would totally go sky diving. Yes, I would jump out of a plane but not off a platform attached to a string. I'm not crazy. Sky diving is actually a lot less scary than bungy jumping and much safer. Maybe someday I will get up the guts to go bungy jumping but I don't think it's going to be this trip.

Anyhow. I'm super super excited. I was worried that I wasn't going to get to go on this trip due to the problems with my foot but it looks like it is going to work out and I'm so happy. Today was the greatest day ever when I found out from the doctor that I could afford to go on this trip. I'm not sure that I've ever been so excited for something. Oh, and I might be driving at some point during the trip. Left side of the road. Yay adventure. I will take a million pictures and post them all to make everyone super jealous. In the meantime, I should go write that essay for management...
Peace.

The Foot

A small laceration on the foot, no stitches needed. Sounds easy to deal with, right? Wrong. Not in Pam-land. The issue with my foot in quickly turning into an epic pain in the butt... Or foot, I suppose. I am now on crutches... Again. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, twice in one year. That is a record even for me. Here's the story.

Last week at some point I started noticing some numbness in a few of my toes and shooting pains when I move certain ways that shouldn't be there. They're in a totally different area of my foot than where my laceration is. I decided that that's not normal and should be checked out. So I gimp my way down to the student health center at the University of Auckland (love the free clinic), only to find out that I have missed the emergency clinic hours and have to wait until Monday. (This is on Friday.) So this morning, I head back to the health center. After my foot being looked at by a nurse, a doctor, and discussed by phone with another doctor and an orthopedist, no one has any idea what is wrong with me.

So I have to go to another doctor later this week. In the mean time, however, they don't want me to put any weight on my foot. I had two option. 1) Crutches. 2) Heel-walking, which is basically what it sounds like... Only putting weight on your heel. Unfortunately, heel-walking requires you to flex your foot, which for me causes shooting pains. I was just going to suck it up and walk but by the afternoon, I wasn't really into it. Plus, my dad convinced me that if it hurts, I probably shouldn't do that. It would be very bad if I messed up my foot long-term.

The thing that sounds like the most likely possibility is that there is a shard of glass that is still in my foot that has migrated and is now hitting a nerve, resulting in numbness and pain. I almost hope that this is the case because, if it is, then at least the way forward is clear (remove the glass). If not, we still don't know what's wrong with my foot.

For the moment, I've now had to cancel plans for the second weekend in a row. I was supposed to participate in a volunteer weekend planting trees and such. So I am not in a fantastic mood about all this. Plus the fact that I strongly dislike crutches. They suck. Anyone who's ever been on them for even a few days knows what I mean. The only advantage to the situation is that now I have an extra weekend to get my essays in order.

My assignments are creeping up on me very quickly. I'm under way with both, but another couple days of concentrated work will definitely be helpful. I spent a good deal of this past weekend researching and stuff. I got acquainted with the UoA library this weekend. It is huge. There is a plethora of resources available to students here. It's amazing. First off, tons and tons of database access. More databases than I know what to do with. Then there are the physical books, periodicals, and other resources that the library actually owns. It's extremely extensive. I think it's cool because I have discovered that if there is any type of place that I can manuever in, it is a library. It doesn't matter where I am, I can figure it out. I think I can thank Mom for that one.

I also got to go to a recital this weekend. It was a postgraduate student who I didn't know but I didn't have anything in particular to do and it was free, so I went. I was extremely happy that I did. It was a violin recital, about an hour and a half long and it was fantastically done. I normally get tired of watching violin players very easily because they seem so tragic and extreme to me but I really enjoyed this guy's style. He's very laid back in the way he performs. Not so much, the music. All of the music was still very expressive but he left out a lot of the theatrics that so many string players seem to indulge in. It made him much more enjoyable to watch.

I'm also finding that I concerts, I am becoming much more engaged. Before now, I mostly went to concerts because I felt like I should. I have a tendency to enjoy listening to pieces that I know very well or that I have performed before. And I would always take performing a concert over listening to one. However, I'm finding that I'm getting more out of listening to music now. Especially if it's live. I think I'm listening more actively. People have always told me not to listen passively but I've never really understood what they were saying and I think I'm finally starting to get it. It's extremely satisfying to me.

That's about all I have for now. Wish me luck with my foot. I am crossing my fingers that I come back to the States with the same number of limbs that I left with. Just kidding. I hope.
Peace.

Semi-Annual Trip to the ER

For those of you who don't know, I am an extremely clumsy and accident-prone person. I have had people threaten to wrap me in bubble-wrap because I am a danger to myself. I end up in the ER or an emergency clinic multiple times a year. I have been on crutches twice since I've started college. Apparantly, this rule still applies when I am in a foreign country.

Last night was possibly one of the longest nights of my life. It started out with some jovial St. Patty's Day celebration but quickly went awry. We had been hanging out in someone's apartment but around 11:00 decided it was time to hit the clubs. I was wearing a friend's shoes that didn't properly fit me and so made the poor decision to walk to the bar barefoot and put my shoes on when we got there. Bad choice. No further than 10 feet from the gate of the apartment I stepped on a nicely-sized chuck of glass and split my foot open.

So I was carried back to the apartments and bandaged up by one of the RA's. I think they kind of decided for me that I needed to go to the hospital to get stitches. So my goal of not going to the ER all semester was completely destroyed. This part of the evening was kind of confusing to me. There were a million people standing over me all talking to, at, or about me at once. I was kind of panicky because I wasn't sure how bad my foot was and I heard the word "stitches." (I have a pretty bad fear of needles.) The funniest part to me that I remember though was my friends trying to calm me down. At one point, some guy said "Wow, that's a lot of blood. It's really red." Then Lorissa (to the guy), "Shut up," to me "You're not bleeding at all." Yeah right.

Anywho... So the RA who bandaged my foot called a cab. Another funny moment... She is on the phone to the cab company and asks "How many of you are going?" Chris counts. "Um, six." "Six! You're all going?" "Yep." This is a testament to how amazing my friends are. They all came to the ER in the middle of the night. It was quite an event. We met this guy in the hospital from Canada who had a gash on his head. Don't know how he got it. We were talking to him for about two hours. He was a tad wasted and he told us a very funny version of how he proposed to his fiance. It was good to have some entertainment while we waited.

Around three in the morning, Chris, Kevin, Eric, and Amanda went home. (I had been telling them to go home for like an hour.) Lorissa and I were there until about 6:30. We got home around 7. It was a very long night. I kept getting knocked down on the list because my injury was so minor compared to others coming in. Of course, they take the more serious injuries first. This was annoying at the time but totally understandable. And after all that waiting... No stitches. They pulled out a small shard of glass, cleaned up the wound, and took an x-ray to make sure there wasn't any glass left that they missed. I'm still pretty happy that I didn't have to get stitches. (Needles bad.)

Today will probably be a horribly long day. I only ended up getting about an hour and a half of intermmitent sleep. My foot hurts. Walking is awful. It takes me forever to get anywhere because I don't want to put any pressure on my foot. But I probably shouldn't complain since it's kind of my fault. Some poor decision making. Anyway. I think I'm going to try to treat it like jet lag. Stay up today and, hopefully, sleep like a baby tonight.

There's some adventures in my world for you. Hopefully no more of these sorts of stories while I'm here. Or ever would be nice too. In the mean time, I'm becoming a pro at wrapping my foot in Glad wrap and plastic bags when I shower. That's always a marketable skill.
Peace.