Apart from getting my bi-annual watery eye cold, I had a grand week. I will admit, during my self pity party at the climax of my illness, I had a desire to watch TV. I haven't had that desire since 8Th grade- (no, Lost does not count, its more than a TV show). Anyway, I may have watched the entire first season of True Blood. Lets get back to my grand week.
At school, my discussions/tutorials began. I was able to listen in/discuss some of the topics of my classes. I've come to realize that Kiwis will speak up quickly, or butt in (although the whole time, they are ACTIVELY listening to you...not just waiting for their time to talk). You have to be aggressive! I became aggressive and fought my stance on life not being black and white, and seeing the many layers in life. 3 people jumped on me, and we argued a bit. It was awesome.
I also attended 2 global leadership sessions. The first was on conflict and development. The speaker was a Kiwi native, who worked in the UN. He introduced us to the conflicts between Palestine and Israel, and also the current Iraq situation. I really enjoyed the session, and him. He didn't have that American "I accomplished this, so I will use big words and sound extra important". He was really informative but relaxed. He gave us chocolate, and talked to us about how he ended up at the UN. Apparently, during his Hippie days, his friends and him wanted to find the source of the Nile. He was traveling and eating on a truck bed with his friends, eating mango's. They would throw their mango's out of the car, and children would race and scavenge for the peels. They were that starved that they were fighting over peels. That was the beginning of his story as a humanitarian. The next session was more of an interactive one, with another relaxed but extremely intelligent man. We talked about New Zealand and their role with Britain. He actively asked questions to us all. Even though I probably knew the least out of everyone in the class, there were ways I could contribute and not sound like a complete ass. My favorite activity was drawing the world map. Everyone did this. I struggled, as within literally a minute, everyone had finished and I was trying to decide what was under Russia. He illustrated how most everyone in the room drew the map from an American perspective, even though New Zealand was located in the opposite part of the world.
Another part of that session, we divided into groups. We talked about the British Empire and how different countries felt about being apart of the Empire. I was astonished with the wealth of knowledge my fellow Kiwis knew about the history and current stances of most of the countries around the world. At one point I was asked when Canada gained its independence from Britain. I thought (pshhh---Canada was part of Britain's empire? I am an Idiot! How ignorant can I be?) and said..."Oh man, dates are not my forte!" and luckily the Spanish gal beside me also was bad at dates and laughed with me...although inside I was crying. I then came home and Wikied the history of Canada.
I shared my ignorance story to prove a point. I thought I was above average for an American, keeping up with world affairs. Obviously, I am still extremely ignorant. On the walk home from the session I started thinking about American society. Many of us are thrown cosmos and not newspapers. Here, even the local newspapers have huge articles pertaining to the rest of the world. And these articles are found on the front pages, and not at the back. Freshman year in high school is when I learned about "world history"- although it centered around how the US effected the world. If you were one of the smart kids, then you received some actually history (APUSH, APEURO). My intelligence was lacking in the scantron test area so I didn't get any of that. So unless you were part of the "gifted and talented" group, you were kept in a box of ignorance.
On the way home, Andrea and our friend were discussing all of these things. Our friend decided that she liked humanitarianism, but not the international part of the session. Don't they go hand in hand? I don't think you can be humanitarian if u stay inside a bubble and not want to deal with outside issues. Even though I am arguing, I love this type of discussion.
At school, my discussions/tutorials began. I was able to listen in/discuss some of the topics of my classes. I've come to realize that Kiwis will speak up quickly, or butt in (although the whole time, they are ACTIVELY listening to you...not just waiting for their time to talk). You have to be aggressive! I became aggressive and fought my stance on life not being black and white, and seeing the many layers in life. 3 people jumped on me, and we argued a bit. It was awesome.
I also attended 2 global leadership sessions. The first was on conflict and development. The speaker was a Kiwi native, who worked in the UN. He introduced us to the conflicts between Palestine and Israel, and also the current Iraq situation. I really enjoyed the session, and him. He didn't have that American "I accomplished this, so I will use big words and sound extra important". He was really informative but relaxed. He gave us chocolate, and talked to us about how he ended up at the UN. Apparently, during his Hippie days, his friends and him wanted to find the source of the Nile. He was traveling and eating on a truck bed with his friends, eating mango's. They would throw their mango's out of the car, and children would race and scavenge for the peels. They were that starved that they were fighting over peels. That was the beginning of his story as a humanitarian. The next session was more of an interactive one, with another relaxed but extremely intelligent man. We talked about New Zealand and their role with Britain. He actively asked questions to us all. Even though I probably knew the least out of everyone in the class, there were ways I could contribute and not sound like a complete ass. My favorite activity was drawing the world map. Everyone did this. I struggled, as within literally a minute, everyone had finished and I was trying to decide what was under Russia. He illustrated how most everyone in the room drew the map from an American perspective, even though New Zealand was located in the opposite part of the world.
Another part of that session, we divided into groups. We talked about the British Empire and how different countries felt about being apart of the Empire. I was astonished with the wealth of knowledge my fellow Kiwis knew about the history and current stances of most of the countries around the world. At one point I was asked when Canada gained its independence from Britain. I thought (pshhh---Canada was part of Britain's empire? I am an Idiot! How ignorant can I be?) and said..."Oh man, dates are not my forte!" and luckily the Spanish gal beside me also was bad at dates and laughed with me...although inside I was crying. I then came home and Wikied the history of Canada.
I shared my ignorance story to prove a point. I thought I was above average for an American, keeping up with world affairs. Obviously, I am still extremely ignorant. On the walk home from the session I started thinking about American society. Many of us are thrown cosmos and not newspapers. Here, even the local newspapers have huge articles pertaining to the rest of the world. And these articles are found on the front pages, and not at the back. Freshman year in high school is when I learned about "world history"- although it centered around how the US effected the world. If you were one of the smart kids, then you received some actually history (APUSH, APEURO). My intelligence was lacking in the scantron test area so I didn't get any of that. So unless you were part of the "gifted and talented" group, you were kept in a box of ignorance.
On the way home, Andrea and our friend were discussing all of these things. Our friend decided that she liked humanitarianism, but not the international part of the session. Don't they go hand in hand? I don't think you can be humanitarian if u stay inside a bubble and not want to deal with outside issues. Even though I am arguing, I love this type of discussion.
Andrea and I then started our tradition of studying at Enigma. I got my carrot cake staple. We discussed philosophy and tried to wrap our head around choice. I really wish we could have recorded ourselves because the people around us probably thought we were nuts!
I also attended Tramping Club (hiking + camping= backpacking (Tramping)). It was swell! A group of us signed up for a midwinter Christmas tramping weekend. They like do to a secret Santa in their "winter", so its more like actual Christmas (because December is hot for them). Their winter...is 50 degrees.
Friday night I did some quick errands at the Dairy before the early morning tramp-about. I bought a loaf of bread and peanut butter to feed myself that weekend. When I paid for my goods, I successfully did not spill the candy tray all over the floor. The first time I ever went shopping, it was really busy. I approached the counter to pay. The cashier was real nice and asked where I was from and knew of WI. I was trying to be cool, and then my satchel knocked over a mentos-like-candy dispenser and the floor was then covered. I kept trying to pick the candy up, while more fell all over the floor. the busy room just watched me until finally a little old lady helped me. The cashier tried to tell me that it happened all the time. Bull-oney.
While I had shopped, I came across Predator VS Alien. I knew I had found my Secret Santa gift. That night, Andrea, Courtney and I watched part of that, realizing it was the worst movie ever created, we started LOTR 3 (which they hadn't seen yet). I later finished it alone, and even though I've seen that movie probably 17 times, I cried through 69% of it. One of my children will be named Sam.
I should quickly mention that, thanks to Clairebear, my new favorite food is carrots+peanut butter+jam. Claire makes a sandwich out of this but I go all the way and forget the bread...Just put my carrot stick in the peanut butter and jam. Looks gross, and semi-sexual, but absolutely worth it. I of course made Andrea and Courtney try this, and they approved. The only downfall is that I went through an entire jar of peanut butter in two days.
The large group was split into separate groups. I ended up with Andrea, an American named Jess, and a German rock climber gal name Charlie. We drove through some mountains, saw some sheep, more sheep, and made our way through quaint little towns (Bill Bryson would have stopped at all of them). We finally started hiking. I thought I hiked fast but Holy Shit was I wrong. These people were literally running, packs and all. I sweated almost the most I have ever sweated. I somehow kept up, but I was not enjoying my hike as much. I couldn't look around or center myself because I was worried about not falling down the cliff or making sure I could lift myself over the huge ass tree root. Poor Andrea, It was her first Tramping experience. She had sneakers and sweatpants..and it was raining. 2 hours into the hike I realized she wasn't behind me. Our guide told the group that someone was with her. He ended up staying behind with her. I don't blame her for wanting to go slow. We were crossing rivers, waterfalls, slippery rocks and roots. I was lucky enough only to have fallen 4 times.
After 3.5 hours of fast ass hiking, we made it to the hut. I met so many people, including many Kiwis, who had the funniest stories. Each group made gourmet food. My group made feta crumb cubes with tomato sauce with onions and mushrooms, and a delicious salad with a whole bunch of nuts and seeds! We then played secret Santa. The first guy pulled out Predator VS Alien and thought it was the coolest gift ever. Poor kid. I looked over at Andrea and Courtney and we almost lost it. I found out that Courtney's flatmate, who used to bartend, made a lemonade tasting liquor for secret Santa. Courtney said there was a bottle in Santa's bag. I dug my way in and found the bottle. I was a good little girl and shared with many.
The rest of the night, I talked with locals, drank some wine and the rest of my gift, and ate the leftover desserts which included passion cheese cake, brownies and custard, cookies, and mulled wine. I got drunk enough to ask some of the locals why no one says God Bless You..they said they are mainly just lazy and its not as important as it is in America. Interesting. I then talked to another guy who happened to be from Chicago. We laughed about falling multiple times on the trail. We were all so sore from the hike. The girls and I decided we needed to make a massage train. It was meant for only us, but then a specific creeper decided to give me a massage. We quickly ended the train. He told me he didn't need a massage in return and he liked to give-I decided it was then time for bed. A super drunk Kiwi stole a mattress, so some of us girls stole his chocolate bar. We ate it all and then went to sleep.
There were not enough mattresses for everyone, so I offered to just sleep on the wood. I had my thermorest so I was going to be covered. I slept coffin style, in between two mattresses. I literally couldn't move my body. The night was filled with some dude who coughed radically 17 different times, and my friend Courtney, who kept snoring. It was hilarious because in the morning, she complained about someone snoring the whole night. Right when we both woke up, we looked at each other and understood immediately how each others night of rest was. We spoke one word and our friendly creeper popped out of no where to welcome us to the morning. I couldn't take it and hid in my sleeping bag. Courtney and I started to get the giggles, and as I tried to hold my giggles in, I accidentally blew boogers all over myself. (Men, skip down to next paragraph-NOW, you have been warned). When I finally made it outside to relieve myself of wine and lemonade liquor, I found that I had gotten my period. I was almost disgusted, but I was already muddy, sweaty, and wet...Why not add the blood in my panties? I wasn't mad either. For those who know how irregular I am (and know how sensitive I am to birth control, AKA pills that fuck with my hormones uncontrollably), I was glad to have finally gotten my period again. My body had only felt like it was about to get my period for only 2 months this time. I thank Andrea for this. Sleeping next to another lady whose on her period has yet to fail me!
After that morning, I asked my leader if I could leave with Andrea to get a head start and he thought that was brilliant idea. We left an hour and a half earlier than everyone else and only made it back 20 minutes before everyone else. It was way more enjoyable to take it slow, look around at the nature surrounding me, take picture breaks, get a bit lost in the woods, and chat if I wanted to.
My crew drove back (and my leader drove me right to my doorway!). I love working really hard outside, and having that time for myself. This weekend has gotten me excited for WWOOFing next week! I must do some yoga though. My body feels like tramping kicked its ass. I really am not feeling up to writing an essay on why or why not Buddhism should be classified as a religion. I feel like if Sam can carry Frodo up a volcano, when he has barely any energy, and thinks hes about to die, then I can do this small essay.
1.) You're classmates jumped on you? What kind of a discussion was it? 2.) I bet you only enjoyed the speaker because he gave you chocolate...you probably hated him before the treat! 3.) Canada eh? When the hell was it free from Britain? 4.) Because of reading that carrots, peanut butter and jam looks to you like something sexual, i will NEVER try it. Thank you. 5.) CHEEEEEESECAKE!!!! 6.) I bet you're building muscles you never knew you could. 7.) I miss and love you.
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