Hello Everyone!
In class we presented our city reports. Most of the presentations were on cities that we will be visiting our first two weeks in New Zealand. It was really fun to see all of the cool things that we will be able to do while we are there! Everyone loved my presentation on Queenstown because it is the adventure capital of the world, and we will be doing the coolest things in that city. I also had a video of a bungee jump off the Kaurau bridge, which is the first bungee site in the world, and the location for the pillars of the kings river scene from Lord of the Rings! We are all really excited to be able to experience everything for ourselves in less than two months! I hope everyone is looking forward to thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to being able to cross off another week until I get to go on my trip! I love you all!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
10th Prep Class
Hey everyone!
Sorry the update is a little later than usual. I actually totally spaced it because we really didn't do anything. We were only in class for about 80 minutes, instead of the full two hours, and the whole time we were there we just listened to a safety presentation. One of the study abroad safety officers came to speak to us about the dangers of traveling outside the US. Fortunately, New Zealand happens to be one of the safest places in the world outside of the US, and is probably safer! I need to watch out for the obvious stuff though, don't flaunt electronics or big bills, never go anywhere alone, and think about what you are doing and saying before you do it. I will probably get an under-clothing valuables bag, they go around your waist under your clothes and carry money, passport, credit card, etc. The bag will mostly be for Australia and Fiji, but better to be safe than sorry. We might have to be creative when looking for safe places to put our valuables when we aren't carrying them around, the safety officer said he moved a ceiling tile once and put everything up there! Well anyway, class was a little subdued, and there was no scuba, sorry! Next week should be really great, we have our city presentations, and it is going to be really fun to see what we are actually going to do and see!
Sorry the update is a little later than usual. I actually totally spaced it because we really didn't do anything. We were only in class for about 80 minutes, instead of the full two hours, and the whole time we were there we just listened to a safety presentation. One of the study abroad safety officers came to speak to us about the dangers of traveling outside the US. Fortunately, New Zealand happens to be one of the safest places in the world outside of the US, and is probably safer! I need to watch out for the obvious stuff though, don't flaunt electronics or big bills, never go anywhere alone, and think about what you are doing and saying before you do it. I will probably get an under-clothing valuables bag, they go around your waist under your clothes and carry money, passport, credit card, etc. The bag will mostly be for Australia and Fiji, but better to be safe than sorry. We might have to be creative when looking for safe places to put our valuables when we aren't carrying them around, the safety officer said he moved a ceiling tile once and put everything up there! Well anyway, class was a little subdued, and there was no scuba, sorry! Next week should be really great, we have our city presentations, and it is going to be really fun to see what we are actually going to do and see!
Friday, November 2, 2007
9th Prep Class/2nd Scuba Class
Hello Everybody!
This week in class we had more guest speakers, The Eckharts. Apparently they lived down there for quite some time, they even attended the ward we will be going to! I am so excited, the Ekharts had a slide show for us, they showed us pictures of our school, relief society president, branch president, and many of the beautiful landscapes! I can say this much, it is REALLY green! Everything is so beautiful and real, I can’t wait to experience it for myself. We had a bit of a discussion on presenting a positive American image. We will be seen as Americans with big flashing lights wherever we go, and issues will be brought up. We each need to acquire the skills to turn any perceived negative conversation into a positive. Topics that will likely be brought to our attention include: gun control, President Bush, the Iraqi war, nuclear warfare, etc. It is important to remember that New Zealand is a little bitter at the European and American countries. However, the attitudes of the average New Zealander make me believe that there won’t be too many issues. Everyone is very laid back and life moves at a lot slower pace. We will find ourselves speaking much slower in conversations, and taking the time to appreciate the experiences of life rather than rushing to the next one before we come home. In addition to my regular New Zealand class, I also had my second scuba diving class. It was still in the same ghetto shed, but we felt much less trepidation! The pool time went great, we went through our skills quickly and are all ready for our open-dive experiences. Unfortunately our instructor is going out of town for about three weeks, so we won’t be able to be certified for a little while. Still it is really fun to sit at the bottom of an eight foot pool with six other kids and learn how to fin pivot, hover, change air supplies, equalize, share air, use hand signals, and eight hundred other things we do! I am really starting to have fun with scuba diving, I can’t wait to do it for real! Tune in next week for another great update, we are getting close now, the weeks, days, minutes, and seconds are starting to fall away into the lower numbers! As of this second I am exactly 69 days 16 hours 23 minutes and 37 seconds away!
This week in class we had more guest speakers, The Eckharts. Apparently they lived down there for quite some time, they even attended the ward we will be going to! I am so excited, the Ekharts had a slide show for us, they showed us pictures of our school, relief society president, branch president, and many of the beautiful landscapes! I can say this much, it is REALLY green! Everything is so beautiful and real, I can’t wait to experience it for myself. We had a bit of a discussion on presenting a positive American image. We will be seen as Americans with big flashing lights wherever we go, and issues will be brought up. We each need to acquire the skills to turn any perceived negative conversation into a positive. Topics that will likely be brought to our attention include: gun control, President Bush, the Iraqi war, nuclear warfare, etc. It is important to remember that New Zealand is a little bitter at the European and American countries. However, the attitudes of the average New Zealander make me believe that there won’t be too many issues. Everyone is very laid back and life moves at a lot slower pace. We will find ourselves speaking much slower in conversations, and taking the time to appreciate the experiences of life rather than rushing to the next one before we come home. In addition to my regular New Zealand class, I also had my second scuba diving class. It was still in the same ghetto shed, but we felt much less trepidation! The pool time went great, we went through our skills quickly and are all ready for our open-dive experiences. Unfortunately our instructor is going out of town for about three weeks, so we won’t be able to be certified for a little while. Still it is really fun to sit at the bottom of an eight foot pool with six other kids and learn how to fin pivot, hover, change air supplies, equalize, share air, use hand signals, and eight hundred other things we do! I am really starting to have fun with scuba diving, I can’t wait to do it for real! Tune in next week for another great update, we are getting close now, the weeks, days, minutes, and seconds are starting to fall away into the lower numbers! As of this second I am exactly 69 days 16 hours 23 minutes and 37 seconds away!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
