Hello everyone!
So class this week was kind of boring. We had a guest speaker come and talk to us about how to avoid culture shock and what we should do in order to adapt to life in a different country. After his talk our professor talked to us a little about what is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Also, we are going to get our host families a small present, so we are supposed to come up with ideas. Class ended a good thirty minutes early so the scuba diving group could get up to Desert Scuba and buy gear for class. After I bought my super awesome snorkel, fins, mask, and booties package, we were off to scuba! When we first pulled up to the place we were all very worried, it looked like a run-down neighborhood, without a pool in sight, did he bring us there to kill us?! Myron, our instructor told us to grab our BCDs and tanks and get moving! After a short walk through weeds and someone's backyard we came to a very long shed, or so I though! Inside was a perfect scuba diving training pool! We all got changed and waited with great anticipation for the lesson to start. First Myron taught us how to assemble our gear. We learned how to hook up the tank, check compression, make sure our regulators were working, and how to inflate our BCDs. When we learned how to set everything up we all jumped in the pool for a test on our ability to float and swim adequately. Finally after that it was time to get our actual scuba gear on! My scuba buddy is a girl named Janelle Gibbs, and she is awesome (both at scuba and in general)! We practiced kneeling on the bottom of the pool, finding our regulators when they get kicked out, flushing our masks underwater if they leak, and going back and forth between regulators and snorkels! It was so much fun, I am really excited for all of my scuba adventures on the Great Barrier Reef in Brisbane and on the reefs in Fiji! I'll tell you one thing though, after three hours in a pool I was looking like I would have to use an iron on my hands, and my bed was definitely calling! I love you all, hope you enjoyed the update! New Zealand is getting really close now, we are down to about 74 days!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
7th Prep Class
Hello Everyone! I have had yet another exciting New Zealand prep-class. Our backpacking trip that we were supposed to leave tomorrow morning for has been officially canceled. the weather here in Utah is just a little too frigid, especially since we are expecting more snow this weekend. I'm a little bummed, I really wanted to try out all my new gear, especially my backpack and boots, but I would rather keep all my toes and be able to study for my Ethics test on Monday morning.
I do have flight information though. I will be booking all of my travel through BYU, it is much more reliable, and it will be cheaper because we will get a group rate. My flight from LA departs at 8:45pm on January 10th. After being in New Zealand for four months I will travel to Brisbane, Australia on April 11th, I will spend six days playing and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef before flying to Fiji for three days. I will fly out of Fiji on Monday April 21st and return to the US sometime on the 22nd. I can't wait! I have five really cool girls in my group and we are going to have a blast roaming around!
Our city presentations are in two weeks. Our professor wants us to do presentations on the cities we will be spending the most time in, so here is the list: We are going to Rotorua where we go Zorbing which is basically where we get in a giant ball and roll down a hill. Hamilton is where we will go to the temple. Kia Kaure will be where we eat tons and tons of fish and seafood and go whale watching. Waitomo, Greymouth-the whole west coast where there are a tons of little towns, Christchurch, and Wellington. Whitianga is one of the first places we are going. Puzzle world will also be on our list of stops, so you now I am super stoked about that! Our city presentations are going to be on November first, my group is doing Queenstown, where the bungee jumping central is. They are each seven minute presentations, including: history of the city, tons of pictures, primary people that live there, things to do there, the major attractions, best restaurants, handouts, etc. I am really excited to learn about all of the cities, and we will use our handouts for when we go to the cities so we know what to do, where to eat, etc!
I know I say this a lot, but I am seriously so excited to be going that I can barely stand it! You all have my permission to be jealous!
I do have flight information though. I will be booking all of my travel through BYU, it is much more reliable, and it will be cheaper because we will get a group rate. My flight from LA departs at 8:45pm on January 10th. After being in New Zealand for four months I will travel to Brisbane, Australia on April 11th, I will spend six days playing and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef before flying to Fiji for three days. I will fly out of Fiji on Monday April 21st and return to the US sometime on the 22nd. I can't wait! I have five really cool girls in my group and we are going to have a blast roaming around!
Our city presentations are in two weeks. Our professor wants us to do presentations on the cities we will be spending the most time in, so here is the list: We are going to Rotorua where we go Zorbing which is basically where we get in a giant ball and roll down a hill. Hamilton is where we will go to the temple. Kia Kaure will be where we eat tons and tons of fish and seafood and go whale watching. Waitomo, Greymouth-the whole west coast where there are a tons of little towns, Christchurch, and Wellington. Whitianga is one of the first places we are going. Puzzle world will also be on our list of stops, so you now I am super stoked about that! Our city presentations are going to be on November first, my group is doing Queenstown, where the bungee jumping central is. They are each seven minute presentations, including: history of the city, tons of pictures, primary people that live there, things to do there, the major attractions, best restaurants, handouts, etc. I am really excited to learn about all of the cities, and we will use our handouts for when we go to the cities so we know what to do, where to eat, etc!
I know I say this a lot, but I am seriously so excited to be going that I can barely stand it! You all have my permission to be jealous!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
6th Prep Class/Hiking Prep
So we had yet another wonderful New Zealand class this week! I swear I just get more and more excited to go with every day that passes. We talked about a lot of different things, but the most important thing on the agenda was our camping trip next week. I was able to get some awesome hiking shoes and rain gear. I also ordered my hiking pack and it should be here on thursday, before our hike on friday.
Apparently while we are in New Zealand we will be seen practically as general authorities, which means we spent fifteen minutes talking about how we should dress for church and the temple, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the difference between shoes and flip-flops (or as my teacher calls them ‘thongs’ which resulted in another ten minutes of giggles!)
Also, apparently there will be some serious cultural differences, meaning if our families drink a lot of beer, which they will, our director is supposed to tell them, which he will probably forget, so that should be fun.
We will be taking a religion class down there, which is great, seeing as how I don’t really need any hours anyway. We have to take twelve hours of classes in order to be full time students, the list of classes we are going to take is listed below. Also we are allowed and will be given church callings while we are there, no options, we will be doing good by dang it!
Visas are officially in, which is great, it was a ridiculously long form.
Interracial prejudices are well and alive and we will probably be experiencing some of it while we are there. Although a lot of it will be directed toward the Maoris rather than at us as americans. Despite whatever they say we have to remain neutral at all times, which means while we are there we basically have to be Switzerland.
This next weekend we are going to hike to Amethyst Lake, which is like 11,000 ft it will be freezing cold, possibly snowy. It is a very hard hike about seven to twelve miles depending where we go. Hat, gloves, cookware, tents, etc. will all be on the menu, this is a full-fledged practice run.
Possible classes-12 hours total
FL 100-3hrs Proclamation on the Family *
RMYL 301-3hrs Child and youth rec management
RMYL 199R-1-3hrs Service projects * (one hour)
RMYL 223R-6hrs All of our rec classes, surfing, sailing, kayaking, etc. *
Religion 350R-2hrs History of the church in the South Pacific *
* classes I will probably be taking
Apparently while we are in New Zealand we will be seen practically as general authorities, which means we spent fifteen minutes talking about how we should dress for church and the temple, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the difference between shoes and flip-flops (or as my teacher calls them ‘thongs’ which resulted in another ten minutes of giggles!)
Also, apparently there will be some serious cultural differences, meaning if our families drink a lot of beer, which they will, our director is supposed to tell them, which he will probably forget, so that should be fun.
We will be taking a religion class down there, which is great, seeing as how I don’t really need any hours anyway. We have to take twelve hours of classes in order to be full time students, the list of classes we are going to take is listed below. Also we are allowed and will be given church callings while we are there, no options, we will be doing good by dang it!
Visas are officially in, which is great, it was a ridiculously long form.
Interracial prejudices are well and alive and we will probably be experiencing some of it while we are there. Although a lot of it will be directed toward the Maoris rather than at us as americans. Despite whatever they say we have to remain neutral at all times, which means while we are there we basically have to be Switzerland.
This next weekend we are going to hike to Amethyst Lake, which is like 11,000 ft it will be freezing cold, possibly snowy. It is a very hard hike about seven to twelve miles depending where we go. Hat, gloves, cookware, tents, etc. will all be on the menu, this is a full-fledged practice run.
Possible classes-12 hours total
FL 100-3hrs Proclamation on the Family *
RMYL 301-3hrs Child and youth rec management
RMYL 199R-1-3hrs Service projects * (one hour)
RMYL 223R-6hrs All of our rec classes, surfing, sailing, kayaking, etc. *
Religion 350R-2hrs History of the church in the South Pacific *
* classes I will probably be taking
Friday, October 5, 2007
5th Prep Class
Another week of New Zealand prep! In class we discussed the mechanics of the sleeping bag, tent and backpack in depth. Chris and Cameron brought a whole bunch of bags and gear for us to look at, I guess we have to get our orders in really soon. Professor Widmer gave us a list of priorities for things that we should get: The number one thing we need to get first is REALLY GOOD rain gear, because we will need it constantly! The second thing is good waterproof hiking boots. Next on the list are a sleeping bag and then a backpack. This next week will be spent trying to find good deals on all of that fun gear! I think Chase is going to be able to get some really good deals for us. We also discussed dates of the program and what we want to do afterward. I've decided to go to Australia from April 11-17 and Fiji from Aril 17-20. I will be back on April 22 just in time for my graduation procession on Aril 24th. We also created a facebook group if any of you want to check it out it is called New Zealand 2008 in the BYU network. Well that is it for this week, take luck everyone!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Song
Hey Everyone! I have class today so I will post my update a little later. In my second class a girl, Katie Jo, sang a song for her 'get to know you minute.' I thought it was so funny that I asked her for the lyrics, so here it is.
"Leaving for New Zealand" (to the tune "Leaving on a Jet Plane")
My bags aren't packed
I'm not ready to go
I'm excited we're going to avoid the snow
But I'm sure gonna miss the "Y" while I'm away.
I've got to exercise and get real fit
So that in a kayak I can sit
And surf and hike and mountain bike all day.
I'm leaving for New Zealand
Don't know if I'll come back again
I'll have so much fun, I'll want to stay.
My guitar case is resting on the floor
I'm saving for New Zealand 'cause I'm really poor
If you have any extra change, please drop it in.
I'm leaving for New Zealand
Don't know if I'll come back again
I'll have so much fun, I'll want to stay.
New Zealand, I'm on my way!
"Leaving for New Zealand" (to the tune "Leaving on a Jet Plane")
My bags aren't packed
I'm not ready to go
I'm excited we're going to avoid the snow
But I'm sure gonna miss the "Y" while I'm away.
I've got to exercise and get real fit
So that in a kayak I can sit
And surf and hike and mountain bike all day.
I'm leaving for New Zealand
Don't know if I'll come back again
I'll have so much fun, I'll want to stay.
My guitar case is resting on the floor
I'm saving for New Zealand 'cause I'm really poor
If you have any extra change, please drop it in.
I'm leaving for New Zealand
Don't know if I'll come back again
I'll have so much fun, I'll want to stay.
New Zealand, I'm on my way!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
