ND to NZ: I'm In Love Again

Imagine this: You're sitting in the backseat of a car (it's a little bit tight and cuddly since you have two kiwis sitting to the left of you) with four people you have only met in the last 3 weeks. The stereo is blasting and all five of you are belting out the lyrics to Mr. Brightside and Adele. All around you, there are mountains folding in that even the Rockies can hardly compete with. You want to talk to everyone in the car, but you can't peel your eyes away from the scenery long enough so you end up talking to the window. In this moment, you have no idea how you've only known these people for less than 3 weeks when it feels like you've known them for years. I think this is what traveling does to a person. It makes you fall in love with things that you didn't even know were out there to love. It shapes you in a way that makes you wake up every morning eager to explore somewhere new, meet someone interesting, or simply relax with the people you have met in a place that you're starting to call home. You constantly feel like time is going by too quickly, and that all of a sudden, this will all be over and you'll only be left with the memories. It's knowing that the people you're meeting and the places you're seeing, will become bittersweet goodbyes in only a couple of months. However, I always remind myself that no matter what happens, I would rather have all of those memories than not have them at all. It's adding one more location to my growing list of places where I want to put a clone of myself. I'm not saying that every day is a dream, but rather every passing day makes my dreams grow a little bit bigger. An example would be my future dreams of owning my very own botanical gardens. For whatever reason I haven't mentioned yet, but my flat is literally a two minute walk from the Dunedin Botanical Gardens. I don't have very many pictures of it right now because it's hard to capture the feeling of being in a certain place. I took a couple below average pictures when I walked through the gardens on Monday on my way to the supermarket. I decided to bring some American baking over to the Long White Cloud. First, I made my Oreo Truffles...with no food processor. I crushed the Oreos as much as I could in the bag, but I already knew that they wouldn't be the same. When I finished, I tried one and realized that the Oreos here also taste a bit differently. I wasn't impressed with myself, however, they were all gone by the next day. I also made Better Than Sex Cake (or Better Than School Cake as Lynnette told us at school). I'm pretty sure that was gone in less than 24 hours. Caitlin's cousin, Greta, also came to stay with us so she could go to the Flume concert that was in Dunedin. On Tuesday, I had class for awhile, then my first guitar lesson. It was actually a lot of fun and I hope I will keep it up. Wednesday came around with some more classes and later, a trip to town for pint night at the student bar. Thursday was a full day with classes from 11-5. Ok...it felt like it was a full day for me :) We had a group of people in the complex come over and then we went to check out a new place in town that had just opened up. We danced and danced until our legs couldn't dance anymore(and the place closed) and then went home. On Friday, I went with my friend, Rory, to Long Beach while everyone else had classes. There are a couple of caves on the end that are really cool to explore, too. I told him that I probably never would have walked into them like that at home or there would have been 3 snakes and a bear waiting for me. The weather was absolutely amazing with not even a hint of clouds. I'm not sure if it's just due to the fact that I didn't grow up with it, but I am constantly mesmerized and in love with the endless waters and beaches. I think the other thing that helped on Friday was the fact that the temperature was about 60 degrees with no wind rather than 90 degrees on a typical beach I've been to. I could have stayed there all day, but I knew the crew at home was about ready to leave to Queenstown. Greta lives in Franz Joseph and we had decided to take her back (well to at least Wanaka). We drove through probably the most windy roads I've been on in my life until we reached the amazing little place of Queenstown. I'm in love and cannot wait to go back. We didn't arrive until about 9pm so we immediately went and got the infamous Fergburgers. We decided to head out on the town and check out some of the bars and clubs. It was a lot of fun especially since Queenstown is a big tourist town so we were surrounded with a bunch of people from around the world. Saturday morning we went to a bakery, the Cookie Time factory/shop, and then headed up to Wanaka to drop off Greta. We went to see the famous Wanaka Tree that is rooted in the middle of water. Phoenix, Fin, Caitlin, and I thought about staying another night somewhere since it was only Saturday but decided against it since we have all been suffering from a cold/strep throat/tonsillitis/polio/E.coli all week. We drove back through absolutely breathtaking scenery (it was dark when we drove there on Friday) and made it back to Dunedin at about 5. BREAKING NEWS: we have a sixth flatmate! Arianna is from Connecticut and now lives across the hall from me. I think she will fit right in so that's good news. I've decided today (Sunday) is a day for getting my life together the best I can. In other words, do most of my homework that is due for the week. It's been raining all morning so I don't have many temptations to go outdoors like I will tomorrow. 3 weeks down...utterly unbelievable. I have a feeling that this next year is just going to keep going by faster and faster. I hope everyone is surviving the heat at home and is having a wonderful summer. It is quite weird to be having classes in July, but I suppose I can handle it...especially being 3 days a week and I'll be done in October :) I know I know, some of you were worried I was wasting my time here studying away in my room. Have a wonderful week, everyone! P.S. I might be posting a mid-week blog about the different sayings that they use here compared to at home. And yes, everyone is still making fun of my "Canadian accent" Uffda.