Sunday, November 19, 2006
sosososorry!
Ok, I know. I haven't updated in a while. I always start to lag towards the end of the semester... but there really hasn't been *too* much going on here.
We aren't traveling quite as much as we used to [I have spent an inane amount of time in Auckland lately...], and I do have a big trip coming up, so ... yeah.
I did go on a trip last weekend, though, for my birthday! [Yay 22! I suddenly kind of feel like I need to become responsible or something... but I'm just ignoring it and hoping it goes away.]
Well, it wasn't specifically for my birthday, but it just so happened that my birthday came around that Monday, so it worked out for the best, in the end.
So earlier this semester, I won a free rafting trip and I finally made reservations to utilize said free trip and I found someone to go with me. Tanya's parents were in town ... and she didn't really want to go rafting anyway, because it was a level five rapids and was afraid she'd get a concussion [something about going rafting and getting concussions before, psh], so she wasn't too psyched about going anyway. So Gabriel went with me, instead.
We rented a car and left Friday after our ecology class [and after putzing around, enjoying the feeling you get after you finish your last class on a Friday, knowing you have the entire weekend ahead of you] and drove to Rotorua [we've been here before! The mud pits and the marae trip]. It was kind of rainy and foggy for part of the drive [and I was driving because I'm 21+], so I drove rather slowly, though there really weren't a lot of people on the road after we got out of Auckland, and I just let everyone else pass me.
They drive on the left side of the road here. It's crazy. Really crazy. Ok, sure, the wheel's on other side, too and then everything's just reversed (the slow lane is on the left, fast lane is on the right, the off/on ramps are on the left, the blinker switch is on the right side of the wheel! {this took some getting used to}), so after a while everything starts to fall in place. I didn't hit anything, though, so this is good.
On the way to Rotorua, we saw signs for Candyland and we actually made the detour and stopped, but it was closed, so we decided to go on our way back to Auckland.
The rest of the car trip there wasn't too bad. Driving in the dark was a bit scary since I didn't know any of the roads, but it was ok; I eventually fell in place behind someone in a car that was advertising Hoover vacuums.
We finally make it to our hostel and the room's actually pretty nice. We call it a night after a few games of cribbage [I'm pretty sure I won most of them...].
The next morning, we hang around Rotorua for a bit and then get picked up to go rafting.
I don't have any pictures of the rafting trip, just some of Gabe and a peacock outside where we got our gear, because the CD they gave me was blank. I'm waiting on them to send me another copy, so hopefully by this week I'll have some!
But it was a lot of fun! They advertise a seven meter drop, but it was not as bad as it sounds. We were over it in no time, and we didn't even flip over. No one fell out [except one of the guides, and that's because he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be, or something; I didn't even notice he had fallen out until our other guide said that he owed the rest of them a case of beer] and the raft was never in danger of flipping over... at least, it never seemed that way. I kind of wanted it to, just to say that I had, but alas, perhaps another rafting trip down some other river somewhere else in the world. The trip seemed very short, though. The website said it takes four hours, but I think they meant the whole shebang, whatwith getting into the wetsuits and travelling to the river and such. It definitely seemed a lot shorter than four hours, at any rate.
After we finished rafting, we went back to Rotorua and went to a thermal spa. We got free entry passes with the rafting trip, so we decided to check it out. It wasn't too bad; they weren't the smelly, sulfur thermal pools that are all over Rotorua. Or maybe we were just used to the slight smell of the town by that point that it didn't matter? Who knows. So we stayed in the hot pools for a while until the sunset talking about life and stories that Gabe was writing or had written until it started getting a little cold.
The next day, we decided to get up realllllly early so we could get to Taupo by six [it's only an hour and a half away] and start our day hike.
This is the only point where I actually goofed and started driving on the right side of the road instead of the left; I made a left turn and automatically went into the right lane [it was six am, in the middle of a national park, and we never saw another car the whole time we were in the park, so it wasn't like I was heading into rush hour traffic or anything] and stayed there for a few minutes until I realised I was a little too close to the edge of the road [the driver should always be in the middle of the street!] so I swerved... but Gabe didn't even notice that I was on the wrong side, and he was my navigator, so it was partly his fault, too. ;P
We finally get to where the bus was going to pick us up for the hike [you need a ride to the start and from the end because it's a really long hike that does not end where it starts], but the company we booked with had canceled [for weather, psh]... so we, in our infinite wisdom, went to another company that was still open; they gave us rain pants, hats, and gloves but said we probably wouldn't need them...
so we get dropped off at the start with some other people, and we start the hike. it was going well, it was picture-esque, slightly rainy, not too cold ... we saw a river and waterfalls and everything was all good. then all of a sudden, it gets rocky and we're climbing a mountain. hard core, steep mountain sides. we kept thinking the peak we were on was the last peak, only to look up and see more to climb. i had a panic attack because i freaked out; i couldn't look up because it seemed never-ending; i couldn't look down because we were really high and we were surrounded by fog so you couldn't see much around you. it started getting colder and it started raining harder, and the climbing never stopped...
so finally, we get to a point where it levels out, but there was snow and then the snow turned to ice water and my boots were less water proof than i thought, so my feet got cold and wet and i stopped being able to feel them after a while; and my pants were soaked because the rain pants i had had a hole in them, so it was just kind of bad. finally, we get through the ice water and we start climbing again. this time, we don't think it'll be much more to climb because we know there's a second peak, we just didn't realise it was steeper and higher, which means windier and rainier and colder.
the wind gets so bad that we have to hang on to rocks at some points because it felt like we were going to get blown off the mountain side. at this point, all i can think is, 'oh my god, we're on the side of a mountain, we're gonna get blown off, no one knows where we are...', so needless to say i was still freaking out a little bit.
at some point, we met a group going back because the wind was too bad. they had a guide. the guide was telling them to go back. we decided to go back with them. at least we would be with a group, with a guide, and at least other people would know the group was out. we were so close to being over that mountain and so close to being half way through the hike, but we decided to go back. the first thought through both of our heads was going back through the ice water and we didn't want to go back through it... but we turned around and started walking.
we make it back through the water, and i still can't feel my feet. i kind of freak out about it, but figure i'll be ok, regardless of what happens to my toes. but then, all i could think about was making a wrong step because i couldn't really feel my feet and then falling and breaking a leg or arm. as we get more and more down the mountain, though, it starts getting warmer and less windy, so i started feeling a little better and started sliding down parts of the mountain in the mud because my legs hurt and i probably would have slid anyway.
we make it all the way back down the mountain, but we still had the easy, flat part of the hike to go. at this point, life seems so much better, the rain is warmer and it just felt good to not be climbing anymore. i was able to feel my feet as we walked through warmer puddles and such, so that helped, too. at this point, it was more of an issue of "just keep moving" and get back to the start; we were both exhausted and really ready to be done. but we get back to the start and then we had to deal with our wet clothes and the wind and the fact we had no transport back to the rental car.
the guide arrives behind us and says we can hitch a ride with them, but that the bus will be about ten to fifteen minutes. we're huddled under this wooden shelter, waiting.... nothing happens and it feels like it's been forever, so we start trying to hitch a ride with people that are in the parking lot. the first people there are these french people who are waiting for the weather to clear so they can do the hike... i try to tell them that it's not a good day and that it would be greatly appreciated if they could just take us back to the visitor's center... but they were really hesitant, so i didn't push the issue and we decide to keep waiting for the other bus.
there was more waiting that felt like forever. finally a park ranger shows up! he was there doing some sort of security check and we practically begged him to take us back to the visitor's center. but, really, i think he had to take us anywhere we needed to go because we were in distress. he gave us a talking to about how we should have been more prepared, how we shouldn't have gone on the hike because the weather wasn't good, and that sort of thing.
he finally drops us off at our car and tells us to go to the visitor's center to change [some have showers! but this one didn't, unfortunately], so we try to get the heat up in the car and drive around to the visitor's center and grab whatever dry clothes we had and go change. i left a bunch of mud in the restroom because it got caught between the rain pants and my jeans, and when i took the rain pants off, mud just sort of fell out, everywhere. i had gone into a stall to change into dry underwear and someone else came into the bathroom, and my clothes were all over the sink [it was a small, two sink/stall bathroom, so it wasn't *that* bad], and my pants were on the floor with the mud, so i hurry up and try to clean up a little bit and put on some more clothes. the lady comes out and says something about being wet enough, but i couldn't understand her, so i just smiled and nodded until she left.
my hands were swollen, my legs were red, and my lips, knuckles, and feet were blue. i tried warming up with water, but it wasn't working, so i tried the air dryer, but that was too hot, so it just wasn't working for me.
finally, gabe and i met back up and got some hot chocolate and something hot to eat while the car warmed up more. then we drove back to taupo and found our hostel, got dinner, and took really hot showers. the hostel had laundry facilities, so we rinsed [the front desk was out of soap, so we just ran the washer] and then dried our clothes. we also had to lay out a lot of our stuff because it was all wet.
the next day, we drove back through rotorua back to auckland, but we stopped in tirau at the castle [the world's largest toy collection!] and about an hour out of auckland at candyland. everything seemed just a little brighter and more colorful because it was really nice to just be alive.
it was a lot of fun, overall, though. once we were actually out of any trouble, everything seemed better.
later that night, i got convinced into going out [it was my brithday, after all], and so a group of us went to a pub and just hung out for a bit.
then, on wednesday, it was jess's birthday [the girl i work with at richmond who went to bu and did the nz study abroad and interned at richmond before me], so we had a party in the office.
this weekend, we made a really nice dinner [roast chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce! {pre-thanksgiving dinner}], and a group of us went to mission bay for fish'n'chips and awesome ice cream, and then played some team cribbage and got kfc. it was a really relaxing weekend.
i'm racking up the injuries this week, though. :P when we went to kfc, we hopped some barriers to take a short cut, and on the way back i didn't make it over as gracefully as i had before and got a nice big scrape down my thigh. then, today, i was going through some doors and apparently didn't realise when exactly i had to let go of the door [the handle was weird] and my knuckle kind of popped and got jarred; so now it's kind of swollen and hurts a bit... but! i can bend it, so i don't think it's broken... but it hurts at the bottom knuckle if i move it side to side... so yeah, i hear you, don't move it side to side. :P
i plan to take it easy for a while. we have two weeks left in school [one lab report, an exam, and a plant identification test left!] and then tanya and i tour the south island for about two weeks and spend a few days in fiji [doing absolutely nothing!] and then i'm home!
i can't wait to see you all again! i miss home so much! i'm glad i haven't been sick for a while, it would have made this part of the trip pretty bad.
but anyway, i have some work to get done!
talk to you all soon.
-- chelcie
ps pictures will be going up soon.
We aren't traveling quite as much as we used to [I have spent an inane amount of time in Auckland lately...], and I do have a big trip coming up, so ... yeah.
I did go on a trip last weekend, though, for my birthday! [Yay 22! I suddenly kind of feel like I need to become responsible or something... but I'm just ignoring it and hoping it goes away.]
Well, it wasn't specifically for my birthday, but it just so happened that my birthday came around that Monday, so it worked out for the best, in the end.
So earlier this semester, I won a free rafting trip and I finally made reservations to utilize said free trip and I found someone to go with me. Tanya's parents were in town ... and she didn't really want to go rafting anyway, because it was a level five rapids and was afraid she'd get a concussion [something about going rafting and getting concussions before, psh], so she wasn't too psyched about going anyway. So Gabriel went with me, instead.
We rented a car and left Friday after our ecology class [and after putzing around, enjoying the feeling you get after you finish your last class on a Friday, knowing you have the entire weekend ahead of you] and drove to Rotorua [we've been here before! The mud pits and the marae trip]. It was kind of rainy and foggy for part of the drive [and I was driving because I'm 21+], so I drove rather slowly, though there really weren't a lot of people on the road after we got out of Auckland, and I just let everyone else pass me.
They drive on the left side of the road here. It's crazy. Really crazy. Ok, sure, the wheel's on other side, too and then everything's just reversed (the slow lane is on the left, fast lane is on the right, the off/on ramps are on the left, the blinker switch is on the right side of the wheel! {this took some getting used to}), so after a while everything starts to fall in place. I didn't hit anything, though, so this is good.
On the way to Rotorua, we saw signs for Candyland and we actually made the detour and stopped, but it was closed, so we decided to go on our way back to Auckland.
The rest of the car trip there wasn't too bad. Driving in the dark was a bit scary since I didn't know any of the roads, but it was ok; I eventually fell in place behind someone in a car that was advertising Hoover vacuums.
We finally make it to our hostel and the room's actually pretty nice. We call it a night after a few games of cribbage [I'm pretty sure I won most of them...].
The next morning, we hang around Rotorua for a bit and then get picked up to go rafting.
I don't have any pictures of the rafting trip, just some of Gabe and a peacock outside where we got our gear, because the CD they gave me was blank. I'm waiting on them to send me another copy, so hopefully by this week I'll have some!
But it was a lot of fun! They advertise a seven meter drop, but it was not as bad as it sounds. We were over it in no time, and we didn't even flip over. No one fell out [except one of the guides, and that's because he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be, or something; I didn't even notice he had fallen out until our other guide said that he owed the rest of them a case of beer] and the raft was never in danger of flipping over... at least, it never seemed that way. I kind of wanted it to, just to say that I had, but alas, perhaps another rafting trip down some other river somewhere else in the world. The trip seemed very short, though. The website said it takes four hours, but I think they meant the whole shebang, whatwith getting into the wetsuits and travelling to the river and such. It definitely seemed a lot shorter than four hours, at any rate.
After we finished rafting, we went back to Rotorua and went to a thermal spa. We got free entry passes with the rafting trip, so we decided to check it out. It wasn't too bad; they weren't the smelly, sulfur thermal pools that are all over Rotorua. Or maybe we were just used to the slight smell of the town by that point that it didn't matter? Who knows. So we stayed in the hot pools for a while until the sunset talking about life and stories that Gabe was writing or had written until it started getting a little cold.
The next day, we decided to get up realllllly early so we could get to Taupo by six [it's only an hour and a half away] and start our day hike.
This is the only point where I actually goofed and started driving on the right side of the road instead of the left; I made a left turn and automatically went into the right lane [it was six am, in the middle of a national park, and we never saw another car the whole time we were in the park, so it wasn't like I was heading into rush hour traffic or anything] and stayed there for a few minutes until I realised I was a little too close to the edge of the road [the driver should always be in the middle of the street!] so I swerved... but Gabe didn't even notice that I was on the wrong side, and he was my navigator, so it was partly his fault, too. ;P
We finally get to where the bus was going to pick us up for the hike [you need a ride to the start and from the end because it's a really long hike that does not end where it starts], but the company we booked with had canceled [for weather, psh]... so we, in our infinite wisdom, went to another company that was still open; they gave us rain pants, hats, and gloves but said we probably wouldn't need them...
so we get dropped off at the start with some other people, and we start the hike. it was going well, it was picture-esque, slightly rainy, not too cold ... we saw a river and waterfalls and everything was all good. then all of a sudden, it gets rocky and we're climbing a mountain. hard core, steep mountain sides. we kept thinking the peak we were on was the last peak, only to look up and see more to climb. i had a panic attack because i freaked out; i couldn't look up because it seemed never-ending; i couldn't look down because we were really high and we were surrounded by fog so you couldn't see much around you. it started getting colder and it started raining harder, and the climbing never stopped...
so finally, we get to a point where it levels out, but there was snow and then the snow turned to ice water and my boots were less water proof than i thought, so my feet got cold and wet and i stopped being able to feel them after a while; and my pants were soaked because the rain pants i had had a hole in them, so it was just kind of bad. finally, we get through the ice water and we start climbing again. this time, we don't think it'll be much more to climb because we know there's a second peak, we just didn't realise it was steeper and higher, which means windier and rainier and colder.
the wind gets so bad that we have to hang on to rocks at some points because it felt like we were going to get blown off the mountain side. at this point, all i can think is, 'oh my god, we're on the side of a mountain, we're gonna get blown off, no one knows where we are...', so needless to say i was still freaking out a little bit.
at some point, we met a group going back because the wind was too bad. they had a guide. the guide was telling them to go back. we decided to go back with them. at least we would be with a group, with a guide, and at least other people would know the group was out. we were so close to being over that mountain and so close to being half way through the hike, but we decided to go back. the first thought through both of our heads was going back through the ice water and we didn't want to go back through it... but we turned around and started walking.
we make it back through the water, and i still can't feel my feet. i kind of freak out about it, but figure i'll be ok, regardless of what happens to my toes. but then, all i could think about was making a wrong step because i couldn't really feel my feet and then falling and breaking a leg or arm. as we get more and more down the mountain, though, it starts getting warmer and less windy, so i started feeling a little better and started sliding down parts of the mountain in the mud because my legs hurt and i probably would have slid anyway.
we make it all the way back down the mountain, but we still had the easy, flat part of the hike to go. at this point, life seems so much better, the rain is warmer and it just felt good to not be climbing anymore. i was able to feel my feet as we walked through warmer puddles and such, so that helped, too. at this point, it was more of an issue of "just keep moving" and get back to the start; we were both exhausted and really ready to be done. but we get back to the start and then we had to deal with our wet clothes and the wind and the fact we had no transport back to the rental car.
the guide arrives behind us and says we can hitch a ride with them, but that the bus will be about ten to fifteen minutes. we're huddled under this wooden shelter, waiting.... nothing happens and it feels like it's been forever, so we start trying to hitch a ride with people that are in the parking lot. the first people there are these french people who are waiting for the weather to clear so they can do the hike... i try to tell them that it's not a good day and that it would be greatly appreciated if they could just take us back to the visitor's center... but they were really hesitant, so i didn't push the issue and we decide to keep waiting for the other bus.
there was more waiting that felt like forever. finally a park ranger shows up! he was there doing some sort of security check and we practically begged him to take us back to the visitor's center. but, really, i think he had to take us anywhere we needed to go because we were in distress. he gave us a talking to about how we should have been more prepared, how we shouldn't have gone on the hike because the weather wasn't good, and that sort of thing.
he finally drops us off at our car and tells us to go to the visitor's center to change [some have showers! but this one didn't, unfortunately], so we try to get the heat up in the car and drive around to the visitor's center and grab whatever dry clothes we had and go change. i left a bunch of mud in the restroom because it got caught between the rain pants and my jeans, and when i took the rain pants off, mud just sort of fell out, everywhere. i had gone into a stall to change into dry underwear and someone else came into the bathroom, and my clothes were all over the sink [it was a small, two sink/stall bathroom, so it wasn't *that* bad], and my pants were on the floor with the mud, so i hurry up and try to clean up a little bit and put on some more clothes. the lady comes out and says something about being wet enough, but i couldn't understand her, so i just smiled and nodded until she left.
my hands were swollen, my legs were red, and my lips, knuckles, and feet were blue. i tried warming up with water, but it wasn't working, so i tried the air dryer, but that was too hot, so it just wasn't working for me.
finally, gabe and i met back up and got some hot chocolate and something hot to eat while the car warmed up more. then we drove back to taupo and found our hostel, got dinner, and took really hot showers. the hostel had laundry facilities, so we rinsed [the front desk was out of soap, so we just ran the washer] and then dried our clothes. we also had to lay out a lot of our stuff because it was all wet.
the next day, we drove back through rotorua back to auckland, but we stopped in tirau at the castle [the world's largest toy collection!] and about an hour out of auckland at candyland. everything seemed just a little brighter and more colorful because it was really nice to just be alive.
it was a lot of fun, overall, though. once we were actually out of any trouble, everything seemed better.
later that night, i got convinced into going out [it was my brithday, after all], and so a group of us went to a pub and just hung out for a bit.
then, on wednesday, it was jess's birthday [the girl i work with at richmond who went to bu and did the nz study abroad and interned at richmond before me], so we had a party in the office.
this weekend, we made a really nice dinner [roast chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce! {pre-thanksgiving dinner}], and a group of us went to mission bay for fish'n'chips and awesome ice cream, and then played some team cribbage and got kfc. it was a really relaxing weekend.
i'm racking up the injuries this week, though. :P when we went to kfc, we hopped some barriers to take a short cut, and on the way back i didn't make it over as gracefully as i had before and got a nice big scrape down my thigh. then, today, i was going through some doors and apparently didn't realise when exactly i had to let go of the door [the handle was weird] and my knuckle kind of popped and got jarred; so now it's kind of swollen and hurts a bit... but! i can bend it, so i don't think it's broken... but it hurts at the bottom knuckle if i move it side to side... so yeah, i hear you, don't move it side to side. :P
i plan to take it easy for a while. we have two weeks left in school [one lab report, an exam, and a plant identification test left!] and then tanya and i tour the south island for about two weeks and spend a few days in fiji [doing absolutely nothing!] and then i'm home!
i can't wait to see you all again! i miss home so much! i'm glad i haven't been sick for a while, it would have made this part of the trip pretty bad.
but anyway, i have some work to get done!
talk to you all soon.
-- chelcie
ps pictures will be going up soon.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Wow, so this week went by kind of quickly!
On Monday, we had a Halloween party for some of the kids at Richmond. Tanya, Jess, and I planned and set it up. At first, when all the kids came in [there were only about seven at this point], they didn't seem too interested in what was going on, but they warmed up eventually. We started with the "creepy body parts" game, where you have foods in bags and make the kids guess what body part it's supposed to be. We had peeled grapes (eye balls), the grape skins (skin), cooked spaghetti (intestines), cauliflower (brain), mushy tomato (kidney), popcorn kernels (teeth), and green beans (fingers). Some of the kids didn't want to participate in it, which, you know, I guess it's kind of gross... :P
After that, we played the spider web game. Tanya had made a huge spider web of yarn on one half of the room, then intertwined different colors through it. The kids had to work in teams and choose one color and follow it to the end. Whoever got to the end first, won. Well, they all ended up getting prizes, so it was really for bragging rights, at that point. This is about when they really started having fun. They got to crawl around on the floor and it got them all into it.
Then we had food! We made worms and dirt (chocolate pudding with oreos crumbled on top with gummy worms), cookies decorated with ghosts and pumpkins (out of powdered sugar and food coloring... we did the decorations - and they looked fine - until they got smooshed on the way there...) chips, soda, the left-over grapes, apples and caramel, and candy. This took up a lot of our time, and four more kids came while we were eating. They had gotten stuck in traffic. Jess painted the faces of some of the kids.
Oh, I should mention we were all dressed up, too. Jess was a pirate, Tanya was Daphne from Scoobie Doo, and I was a witch.
After the food, we played one more game - the mummy race. The kids were partnered up again and each had to wrap an entire roll of toilet paper around the legs of their partner, then mummy walk to the other side of the room, and wrap their arms, torsos, and heads and mummy walk back to where they started. It was a lot of fun, and really messy. The other adults there, though, helped to clean up the whole way through, so when it was time to leave after that, the clean up was really quick and easy.
My tonsilitis has pretty much cleared up; I'm not fully 100% yet, but I'm on my way. :) I'm ready to not be sick, now. It's starting to get nicer here, and I don't like being cooped up in my room just because I might get sicker. :P
Not much else has happened this week...
I had a lab report due Friday ... and we had a field trip to the beach to look at snails. I' m not sure what we're doing with the information about the snails, though... And then on Saturday we had another field trip to a different beach ... and we basically just snorkeled and laid out in the sun. Well, I didn't snorkel because they needed wetsuits and that means the water is pretty cold... and, like I said, I'm not 100% and I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't a good idea, so I didn't do it. :P There will be other opportunities, though. I just laid out with Gabriel, Thea, and Rob, instead, and worked on evening out my tan, and subsequently got slightly burned, but it's not too bad.
Anyway, that's about all that's been going on.
Oh! Next weekend, I'm going white water rafting and then doing a day hike called the Tongoriro Crossing, which part of Lord of the Rings was filmed at. I'll take as many pictures as I can! I'm betting there will be more of the hike than the rafting, but it's just a guess. ;P
Ok! I'm going to go do some work and upload some pictures!
:)
On Monday, we had a Halloween party for some of the kids at Richmond. Tanya, Jess, and I planned and set it up. At first, when all the kids came in [there were only about seven at this point], they didn't seem too interested in what was going on, but they warmed up eventually. We started with the "creepy body parts" game, where you have foods in bags and make the kids guess what body part it's supposed to be. We had peeled grapes (eye balls), the grape skins (skin), cooked spaghetti (intestines), cauliflower (brain), mushy tomato (kidney), popcorn kernels (teeth), and green beans (fingers). Some of the kids didn't want to participate in it, which, you know, I guess it's kind of gross... :P
After that, we played the spider web game. Tanya had made a huge spider web of yarn on one half of the room, then intertwined different colors through it. The kids had to work in teams and choose one color and follow it to the end. Whoever got to the end first, won. Well, they all ended up getting prizes, so it was really for bragging rights, at that point. This is about when they really started having fun. They got to crawl around on the floor and it got them all into it.
Then we had food! We made worms and dirt (chocolate pudding with oreos crumbled on top with gummy worms), cookies decorated with ghosts and pumpkins (out of powdered sugar and food coloring... we did the decorations - and they looked fine - until they got smooshed on the way there...) chips, soda, the left-over grapes, apples and caramel, and candy. This took up a lot of our time, and four more kids came while we were eating. They had gotten stuck in traffic. Jess painted the faces of some of the kids.
Oh, I should mention we were all dressed up, too. Jess was a pirate, Tanya was Daphne from Scoobie Doo, and I was a witch.
After the food, we played one more game - the mummy race. The kids were partnered up again and each had to wrap an entire roll of toilet paper around the legs of their partner, then mummy walk to the other side of the room, and wrap their arms, torsos, and heads and mummy walk back to where they started. It was a lot of fun, and really messy. The other adults there, though, helped to clean up the whole way through, so when it was time to leave after that, the clean up was really quick and easy.
My tonsilitis has pretty much cleared up; I'm not fully 100% yet, but I'm on my way. :) I'm ready to not be sick, now. It's starting to get nicer here, and I don't like being cooped up in my room just because I might get sicker. :P
Not much else has happened this week...
I had a lab report due Friday ... and we had a field trip to the beach to look at snails. I' m not sure what we're doing with the information about the snails, though... And then on Saturday we had another field trip to a different beach ... and we basically just snorkeled and laid out in the sun. Well, I didn't snorkel because they needed wetsuits and that means the water is pretty cold... and, like I said, I'm not 100% and I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't a good idea, so I didn't do it. :P There will be other opportunities, though. I just laid out with Gabriel, Thea, and Rob, instead, and worked on evening out my tan, and subsequently got slightly burned, but it's not too bad.
Anyway, that's about all that's been going on.
Oh! Next weekend, I'm going white water rafting and then doing a day hike called the Tongoriro Crossing, which part of Lord of the Rings was filmed at. I'll take as many pictures as I can! I'm betting there will be more of the hike than the rafting, but it's just a guess. ;P
Ok! I'm going to go do some work and upload some pictures!
:)
