First Week

So I started Grad school on Monday and it was definitely the right decision. Straight away, the vibe has been positive and while it is going to be an intense year (social bye bye for now) it will be worth it.

There are 34 of us in our intake (there was 35 but one guy left on day 3). 12 Secondary and 22 Primary. At the moment we are all together, as we're doing basic stuff like literacy, which is important for everyone.

On Day two we had to prepare a 4 minute talk for our peers which was incredibly nervewracking, and tomorrow we all go to Shirley Intermediate to start the first of 10 literacy lessons with a Year 8 (11-12 year old) student. In two weeks time we will be on our first teaching practice. It has been intense, but it is only just a year (or just over) and it pretty much ensures that I'll be a good, and well trained teacher (their style is totally different to anything else in the country but as it is so heavily practical produces great teachers) and should guarantee us a job (not necessarily permanent straight away).

So that's it really. I'm very glad I chose to do this. It totally feels like the right time in my life to be doing this. Everyone on the course is lovely and I am going to make some great new friends I think.

Living wise, I am house sitting at Mum and Dad's for the next month, and then very much looking forward to setting up a flat and getting my stuff out of storage (haven't seen a lot of it in over 5 years, I can't remember what I own anymore).

Today I am going to concentrate on sorting out what I'm doing for tomorrow's lesson and get that sorted. Conveniently it is raining outside so I'm not going to feel like I'm missing out too much.

Home Again

So I've been home for a week, and what a relaxing uneventful week it has been. I start Grad School next week, so that will be a huge change so am just enjoying doing not a lot at the moment.

So the flight and travel home, although long was fine. At LA airport, there were a whole bunch of American students, all about 18 or 19, who were coming to New Zealand for a semester to study. I started chatting to some of them, and told them to ask whatever questions they liked. One of them piped up with

"Do they chicken in New Zealand, cos I don't really like lamb?" to which I couldn't help but have a wee laugh, and explained to her that although Lamb is one of our major exports, we eat pretty much everything that we do.

I had forgotten to ask for an aisle seat, which was annoying but as I slept so much anyway (amazing for me as I normally don't) it wasn't too much of a problem.

Coming off the plane in Auckland, I almost cried tears of joy, as they played this song as we were walking off:

Singing quietly to myself as I walked down the aisle, the flight attendant gave me a big smile and "Welcome Home" which totally made my day.

Although I still had to get to Christchurch on one more flight, and clear customs, I was home and it was awesome to be met by Mum and Dad at the airport. I love international arrival lounges at airports. I think that they are one of the happiest places in the world.

So I'm home. I had a fantastic time but am very much glad to be back and looking forward to Monday.

Not seeing Calgary, and Astral Harvest

So I was sitting at the station, deep into my book, when I noticed a figure appear out of my peripheral vision, sit next to me, and nonchalantly mutter "What's up".

Pulling myself out my book, I realised that it was Rach, and I gave her a big hug and we wandered out to her car.

I wasn't actually staying in Calgary much, as the following morning, myself, Rach and her girlfriend Steph were heading to a music festival. However, we went to a couple of their friends' houses and were treated to wine, pizza and a great game called Washers (which I'm totally going to recreate in NZ) and although my back was giving me serous grief, it was a great evening.

The following day was Canada Day, so for the long weekend, we were headed out to an electronic music festival. Now, this is really not my type of music. Not even a little bit. I find the doof doof beats really get incredibly annoying after appoximately 2.5 seconds, and the base carries everywhere, making it impossible to sleep at night. I am much more of a live music girl, but in spite of all that, and not being able to move that much, I had a great time there, and met some awesome people.

Rach at the Festival

Rach and Steph

There were a couple of good workshops as well, during the day, including a brilliant one called Laughter Yoga, where, as the name suggests, you simply laugh in a variety of exercises for an hour. It was awesome and everyone had a huge smile on their face afterwards. The festival did not have anywhere near as many workshops as Confest, an amazing festival I have gone to a couple of times in Australia, but it was pretty cool.

We camped in this awesome pull out trailer thing called Lionel, next to some good friends of Rach and Steph's, called Nate and Carey. Nate is a DJ and actually his set (which we all went down to listen to) was amazing. A little less doof doofy and more musical and I chair danced for the whole hour and a half. I also took lots of photos which kept me amused.

Rach standing outside our trailer Lionel

Nate Djing his very cool set
my bucket chair where I danced to Nate's set

My back even got better on the last day, as I took it pretty easy, and now it is pretty much healed and back to it's normal lower state of pain.

Rach and Steph were incredibly generous and kind to me, buying me wine and sharing their food with me, as they knew I was broke. It was great to see Rach (whom I met first in London but is from NZ)and to get to know Steph a little better (I met her in Auckland when they were living there and I visited Rach).

All in all it was a great (but very tiring) festival. I didn't get too much sleep because the bass really did carry all the way to me, but I countered it by putting on headphones and listening to The Black Seeds (NZ funky reggae/dub), which by the way, is an excellent counter music if to want to sleep during doof doof music festivals.

So, I had a great time, didn't get to see any of Calgary, but more importantly, got to hang out with Rach, Steph and some of their friends which was very very cool.

hula Hooping Girl
beautiful Belly Dancers in the parade
Cute little boy ever looks concerned as big weird creatures surrounds him
So here I sit, in their little lounge, at midnight, supposed to be packing, but procrastinating on here instead. Tomorrow I begin the long trek home. All in all, including travel/waiting and flying I had about a 26+ time frame ahead of me before I reach Christchurch.

It has been a fabulous trip! I have caught up with some amazing friends and made some great new ones. Having said that, I'm looking forward to my room, not having to pack my bag every few days and seeing my friends and family back in New Zealand.

She'll be coming round the (Rocky) Mountains when she comes

So I'm a little belated in my entries. The internet in the past 10 days or so has been non existent. I've been in a few isolated spots, which have been beautiful.

So when I left you last, I hoped to have the best sleep ever, but unfortunately it was probably one of the worst on the trip so far! So loud, with drunken revellers all night, it was also super stuffy in the dorm. Although I put my headphones in, I probably only got a couple of hours sleep total.

Anyway, so I get up and get ready to meet my tour bus of the Rockies. It was called Moose Travel and was ostensibly a hop-on-hop-off bus, although I did it in the minimum time frame. There were 18 of us on the bus, and although the people changed a little bit, the number stayed the same.

Jack, our tour guide relaxing


It was a great trip! The weather, for the most part, was pretty beautiful, our tour guide Jack was pretty cool, and the others on the bus were pretty cool. And we saw BEARS!!!! 4 of them!!!! 2 Grizzly and 2 Black! Very cool.

Black Bear
Grizzly
Bear in the wild (from outside the van)
A baby Grizzly
The first day we headed to Lake Shuswap which was a pretty little lake where, as we were walking down to the shore, a deer just happened to be wandering past some houses. It was very cool and pretty strange for me.

The next day was a highlight for me. We stopped at this amazing mirror lake in a place called Revelstoke where we kayaked, something that I love to do. It was so peaceful and just gorgeous there.

The beautiful place we kayaked
Kayaking

We made our way to Banff for the night, although we didn't arrive early enough to see any of the town. Next morning it was up and away along the Columbian icefield, where the weather had packed it in a little. We stopped at Lake Louise which was pretty despite the rain, and then we went to Athabasca glacier, which as someone that has hiked Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, was mildly disappointed with it. The area was beautiful, although the weather did put a slight dampner on the day unfortunately.

Lake Louise.

Athabasca Glacier

However, it cleared up, and we ended up staying in this gorgeous wilderness lodge in Athabasca Falls about 30 km from Jasper. It was a gorgeous wee spot, and I had the most comfortable sleep I had had in a long time.

On the last day, on our way back to Banff, we stopped at Lake Moraine (truly gorgeous) and had lunch in a secluded little lookout spot in an area called Peyto Lake. It was beautiful!


Lake Morraine
Our little secluded lunch spot, Lake Peyto

The Rockies really were quite beautiful, and I am so glad that I got (if only a little bit) to see them. I'd like to come back and spend some more time here, as it is quite lovely here.\

Our Moose Group

We got back to Banff, again too late to see the town, and had a bit of a goodbye drinking session with the others from the bus. Our room was incredible, with a jacuzzi in the lounge, although stupidly there was also a bunk bed in the lounge so we couldn't really use it.

The next day, I was all ready to get to my bus, and saying goodbye to a couple of people from the bus, I then hauled my pack on to my back as I'd done a hundred times this trip. Unfortunately this time I must have done something different, because as I lifted it, suddenly my entire back went into spasm, and going into a hunchback, I could barely move, and had to sit down. I was in absolute agony, as I must have severely pulled the muscles in my back. Being forced to taxi the short distance to the station, I was in a fair amount of pain, and the painkillers were just not cutting it.

I was to bus to Calgary and have 4 hours to look around the city. However, fate had other ideas (which ended up being great) as the bus was delayed by two hours, which meant that the Greyhound guy refunded our fare, and I started chatting to a cool girl from Winnipeg. Finally getting to Calgary station, I decided to just sit and wait the remaining two hours for my friend Rach to pick me up (not that my back would let me do anything else anyway).