Winter is coming, and its scary! Its been raining for over a week now, and its very reminiscent of England - awful! I've pretty much finished all of my work, so am trying to get out, the weather isn't giving me much motivation though.
So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202
Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.
Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.
Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.
Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.
We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.
The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!
This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.
After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.
On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.
The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'
These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.
After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.
Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!
After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.
Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.
Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.
I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!
xxx
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