(162-164) I'm Back

I got home on June 29th...so just a couple of days ago.

(162) I spent my first night at home uploading 1500 photos and showing and explaining them to my family.

(163) The next day (yesterday) i slept in til 10 am. I then spent the whole day on my computer uploading photos to photobucket and facebook. I spent hours catching up on three episodes of the bachelorette. My day flew by. And i am not use to it staying light so late. That is surly throwing my time off..not to mention the 19 hour time difference. I didn't fall asleep until 3am.

(164) I woke up at 11am when mom came in my room and left the cat to get me up. I poured a coup of coffee and finished that paper that i planned to write before i left. The benefit of writing it after i got back: i actually enjoyed writing it. I had a better understanding of Maori culture. I ate lunch once the paper was finished. Me and mom went out and i turned in my paper and journal then we got our nails done. I got back home and found out my 3 besties are all going to be home this weekend. So much happiness right around the corner.

***

New Zealand was absolutely wonderful.

My words can't even begin to explain how much fun i had, the awe i was in, or the friendships i made. 

Photos can't capture this country's beauty and vibrant colors.

I wish the trip would have been longer and that all of my friends and family could have been there to experience everything i did.

New Zealand Recap

Over the next few days i will try to give a recap of my 21 days abroad.

(NZ 1)

Flew from LAX (6/7) to Auckland(6/9)...we lost a whole day due to the time difference.

We landed around 5am and had a full day ahead of us.

-orientation 

-lunch at Da Vincis

-sky tower

-dinner at waterfront cafe

(NZ 2)

Got lost on our way to the AUT Marae

-It was pouring

AUT Marae-lesson on maori language and leadership

(lunch included)

dinner on our own

-me and joanna walked to the grocery store

-ate left overs in the hotel room with Anna, Joanna, Cassie, and Nicki

(NZ 3) 

Muriwai Beach

-rained on us

Auckland city tour

free time

-me, joanna, and anna walked through town

dinner at O' Hagans

Foxx's bar to watch rugby

-was very crowded...me, anna, and medora left after 15 minutes and got a taxi home

I'll be back in 3 weeks

I'm in New Zealand 

I'll be back on June 29th

Here are the cities i am going to in case you want to know:

Aukland

Rotorua

Wellington

Te Anua

Queenstown

Activities:

Sky tower

Muriwai Beach

Glow Worm Caves

Black Water Rafting

Kiwi House and Bird Park

Tamaki Maori Village

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Buried Village of the Te Wairoa People

Zorbing

Agrodome

Polynesian Spa

Cruise the Milford Sound

Multiple Guest Speakers

School Visits

See you when i get back to the United States

(139-141) Today is the Day

Once again i have been horrible about daily posts.

The past few days have been filled with packing and trying not to stress out.

All the stress leaves after today. Tonight i fly to New Zealand where i will be for the next 3 weeks.

Here is a mish mash of photos from the last few days to give you a taste of what i've been up to.

Outfit of the day: Monday

 Walked around long beach with Krissi

 Rolled down the hill at the lighthouse:

That's all im going to say about the last few days.

See you guys in 3 weeks.

(132) A Full Day

Today has been non-stop...But so much has been done.

Around 9:45 Erin and I started moving stuff  into her new apartment.

We made multiple trips to and from her car and to and from her house and apt.

Around 4 we went back to her house to get ready for Glee Live

we headed to LA and got some food before we went to the concert.

We ate at a food network recommended restaurant that happened to be in a sketch area
Nickel Diner

But it was a really neat place

Next we headed for staples center

-chose not to park in the lot and found a cheaper place on the street. (valet parking)

I have so many photos, but i will just share a few (or way more than a few)

Don't stop believin'

Dog days are over

Born this way

Loser like me

(fake ending)

Somebody to love

(real ending)

Here is the list of songs performed (not necessarily in this order)

1. Don't Stop Believin' 2. Sing 3. Slave for you 4. Dog days are over 5. Fat Bottom Girl 6. Hold Your Hand 7. Pretty Young Thing (PTY) 8. Aint no way 9. Born this way 10. Fireworks
The Warblers took center stage
11. Teenage Dream 12. Silly love Songs 13. Raise your glass
14.Happy Days 15. Lucky 16. River Deep, Mountain High 17. Don't Rain on my Parade 18. Jesse's Girl 19. Valerie 20. Loser Like Me
Fake out ending
Came back out with more songs
21. Single Ladies 22. Friday 23. Safety Dance 24. Empire State of Mind
Officially closed it off with none other than...
25. Somebody to Love

It was a fabulous night.
And it was very well documented so i def. won't be forgetting it.

I am a Gleek and i love it.

(127) Class back in session

Hello Monday

alarm went off at 8am

hit snooze multiple times and got out of bed at 8:25

had a cup of coffee

watched a little tv

took a shower and got ready for the day

picked up the house (the cleaning ladies were coming)

was running out of time

needed to eat something before i left the house

settled for a hotdog

So why was i getting ready and leaving?

Today was the first day of New Zealand classes.

I left for class at 10:40 and got to school at 11:10.

Class wasn't until 12.

I went to the bookstore to pick up the stuff i needed for class.

i couldn't find any of it.

i walked back to the fcs building.

i then realized i looked under the wrong class name.

i walked back to the bookstore

ran into my friend anna who was also in my class

she told me class wasn't til 1pm and that the other book was at a different location

i had spare time so i walked over to the off campus store

It took about 15 minutes to get there...i was sweating by the time i got there

i made it back and walked over to class. 

I still had 30 minutes to spare.

class started at one and lasted to four

It definitely made me even more excited for my trip which is about 2 weeks away.

I got home around 5pm

relaxed...i was so exhausted

mom cooked dinner:

pork chops, artichokes, collard greens, and rosemary rolls

i ate too much (2 artichokes and 3 rolls)

after dinner i continued watching tv and took a nap

watched dancing with the stars and then the bachelorette. 

At some point i will go to bed. But i don't have class tomorrow so i can stay up late and then sleep in.

(75) A long adventurous day

I didn't end up going to bed until 2am last night....i just couldn't stop reading.

I woke up around 7:15 this morning from a text alert from my bank, informing me that i had spent over my "normal($125)-pre set" amount.

I decided to get up and start my day instead of sleep in.

I did some more laundry and read some more.

Around 9:45 i walked down to the laundromat rolling the laundry basket of wet clothes behind me. I'm sure i looked really weird...but i just wanted dry clothes.

I spent around 45 minutes at the laundromat and then i walked back home with my basket of dry clothes.

Success!

Around 11:15 another adventure began. 

Today the filming of a spoof music video was started. We were at the church from 11:30-5:30 working on it. Then around 5:30 the worship band started practicing. I was singing tonight so i had to ditch part of the video making time.

After church a big group of us went to Denny's. We ended up being there for 2 hours. 

I got home around 11:30.

My dad was still up so we chatted. I always love dad chats.

Now I am about to finish the last 30 pages of water for elephants and then go to sleep.

Tomorrow i can sleep in but then i have to get to work on homework and other school stuff.

So not the way spring break should end.

(69) Spontaneity and Productiveness

I didn't have class today and i still ended up waking up at 8 am.  I wish my body would have let me sleep longer.

My mom had the day off so this morning. I grabbed a cup of coffee and my laptop and sat in bed with her. She was reading and i was listening to music and playing on the computer.

Around 10:30 or 11 i started a baby quilt. I worked on that for a few hours and then got a text message from erin. Today we were finally able to go to the FIDM museum. We had been trying to find a time to go for the past few months but my schedule never worked. So today was the day. We headed to LA around 1:40. The museum features costumes from the movies. Some included: Robin Hood, Inception, Burlesque, The last air bender, chronicles of narnia, the young victoria......

It was so neat to see the detail of the costumes and really get an idea of what all goes into fashion design for costumes.

Here are a couple of photos from our LA adventure.

Ummm...we got briefly lost trying to find our way back to the freeway and ended up in chinatown.

I got home and finished the blanket i was making.

I made dinner tonight: Ravioli and tomato sauce with artichoke. When i finished eating, emily came over and we got some of the finishing elements for the gift and wrapping.

I washed the blanket and then me and emily put together the gift basket for the baby shower.

Note: putting the gift together was not an easy task at the beginning. I had the wrong box...we switched to a basket for all the items to go in. It got much easier after that.

And of course i made the card too.

FYI:

I am still sick, but am feeling better little by little.

Unfortunately, my mom is getting sick. I guess i passed it on....Oops.

(47) Thrilling Thursday

Today was an all in all wonderful day.

I spent my hour before class searching for an article for one of my projects.

I went to class and we discussed an upcoming paper for about 30 minutes and then class was finished.

I went back to the lounge and continued researching.

And now you are probably thinking so how is that wonderful??? I'm getting there.....

At 12:15 i met up with the people from my friday group project. While i was with them i got a text from Christina seeing if i was free today. I was so happy to be able to say that i was. My 2pm class was cancelled since my teacher is at a conference. So i finished up with the group stuff and then christina and i headed to LA. We took pictures at Dodger Stadium and then drove through LA and somehow ended up in South Central-thats always fun. We made it to the freeway and headed home.

I got home around 4, took a shower and got ready, then left the house at 5:30 for my second new zealand meeting. When i got to school i was able to catch the teacher i kept meaning to email. I talked to her and am able to observe in the preschool tomorrow at 11, which is before i have to meet up with my group again and for the last time. Things worked out perfectly. At the meeting, I found out that a friend i had a class with last semester is going on the trip. I am so excited to know somebody....now i have a roomie.

The trip is 3 months away and i am so excited for this semester to be done and my summer adventure to begin. Oh and if you want to help fund me, then there is a link in the sidebar. (Any amount helps)

(31) ended better than it began

This morning me and my phone alarm got into a fight. For whatever reason i was having such a hard time picking it up and hitting the right buttons to be able to hit the snooze. The problem with my phone is it always locked, which involves me needing to hit a button before i can do anything else, like turn off the alarm. I was not a happy camper this morning. I really didn't want to get out of bed or have my eyes open for that matter. The good news is I only 3 more tuesdays left until my 8 am class is over.

Oh right before my 2 o'clock class started my ipod shuffle fell in the toilet. Thankfully it happened before it had been used. So i reached in and got it out. I have yet to test it out. I really hope it still works; perhaps i will test it tomorrow-give it some time to fully dry out.
School came and went...and i was home by 3:40.
I heated up some steak, mushrooms, and zucchini for an early dinner before work and sat down and started watching last nights episode of the Bachelor.

I went to work at five. I worked from 5:30 to 10:45. It was an amazing shift and i had the nicest guests. An added bonus is the fact that i made 17% tonight.
I got home around 11pm and changed into pajamas. I then turned on glee while enjoying the sound of the rain.
After Glee was over I am went to bed and heard the rain even better.

(15) Sunday Fun-day

7:30 AM

Woke up, took a shower, grabbed coffee

8 AM

got dressed

did my hair and makeup

worked on some crafty stuff for the valentines dinner

9:30-12:30

Church

1ish

Me and Erin got lunch at Taco Bell

Went to Erin's house and we were able to help Amanda figure out a couple of formal outfits

browsed through cookbooks

And here is what the rest of the day held

(i don't know what time they happened)

-Ikea with Erin and Eddie

-Worked out at the gym

-Went to see Tyler at Red Robin

-Organized Erin's collection of plastic bags. (sorry to out you)

I got home from this fun filled day around 9 PM. It was a long one, but a good one.

What the rest of the night holds:

-watch extreme makeover home makeover

-figure out what i need to do for school tomorrow

-possibly read

-more than likely I'll spend most of my time on my computer
HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK/ IF Not my month
I tweeted Amber Riley and well she responded (the same day she went to the SAG awards!!!!!)

(6) Adventures With Erin

10:40am

Woke up because my phone buzzed

(text message about todays plans)

Was dressed and downstairs by 10:50
Today's Outfit

COFFEE

Nothing like sitting in the bright kitchen to wake ya up. The coffee helps too. And the sound of lawn mowers just adds to the experience.

11:30am

Erin Picked me up and we headed to the bass pro shop.

Google maps didn't give an exit to get off at. Finding Bass Pro took awhile. 

This place is huge

We got fudge

After spending some time in Bass Pro Shop we headed over to Victoria Gardens (shopping center). It reminded me of the grove and had wonderful stores.

We had lunch at Corner Baker then we explored:

H&M

I love this dress 

Pottery Barn

A beautiful knit throw with a big price

William Sonoma

Urban Outfitter

Nesting dove measuring cups that i think are cool
 Wire letters-my initials (that i bought for $21 on sale)

Crate & Barrel 

Anthropologie

This is such a neat store. I wish it could be more affordable. It is a great place to go and get decorating and design ideas.

After shopping we got our kicks on route 66

(getting their was an adventure in itself)

We got back from our adventure around 7pm.
I got a package in the mail. The first of 3 textbooks i ordered arrived.