So... Classes are finished (about 2.5 weeks ago now)! Whoot! The last week was particularly stressful, I must say. I had a few tests and the longest lab report of my life to finish. The lab report was for my geochemistry paper and was meant to be a summary of the semester's lab results. During my Rotorua-Taupo field trip, I collected 10 water samples that I worked on analyzing for different ion concentrations. In this report, we had to report our findings and give explanations of why ion levels were the way they were and where the ions had come from. It ended up being a really interesting topic and I learned quite a lot for the whole experience. I pulled my first (and hopefully last) all-nighter since coming here and ended up turning in a 62-page report to my prof with 5 minutes to spare. :O) I am glad that classes are over, but I'm also sad in a way because it means that part of this experience is coming to an end and that I won't be continuing on to the next level of classes here at Waikato.

Now, we're in the middle of 4 weeks of studying/finals. I don't actually have a final until Nov. 6, so I've definitely had some time on my hands. The first task of the break was to drive Andrew and his geeky-car buddies up to the Auckland Airport. They were heading off to a solar car race in Australia, where the Waikato team, which has been building a battery-operated car for the past 2 years, would race their baby from Darwin to Adelaide (about 2000 miles of red dirt) against other team cars from around the world. It turns out that the international students going on the trip found out two days before leaving that they didn't have a ride to the airport 1.5 hours away. So, they were eventually able to find a friend's manual van to use, but no driver. Guess who got roped into this little adventure. Me, that's right. Turns out that I'm one of few people who know how to drive a stick-shift and are willing to get up at 5.30am to head to Auckland for their 7.00am check-in. It ended up being a fine trip because the guys let me sleep on the way up and bought me coffee before they left. :O) The van itself was another issue.... Apparently, in order to turn the darn thing on, you have to press a sequence on buttons on the remote clicker before getting into the van. The guys neglected to tell me this. Also, whenever you turn the van off and take the keys out, the van is programmed to remain running for 30 seconds or so. Well, this made coming home quite an adventure and I hadn't (or more like couldn't) leave the carpark yet! Everytime I went to turn the car on, a theft-alarm would sound and everyone in the carpark would turn and look around from the beeping car. Man oh man, I felt like an idiot. About 10 minutes later, after sending up some prayers, pushing a whole ton of buttons and maybe even doing a wonky-dance outside the car, the car started. :O) That was a good moment. Needless to say, I didn't stop anywhere on the way home, so I wouldn't have to go there that whole process again.

Later that day, Ashleigh and I jumped on a bus to Tauranga to hang out with Amanda's fam for a few days. Looking back on it, I can't really think of anything that we really did besides shop, take walks and hang around the house. It was a lot of fun. The best part of the trip, besides hanging out with Amanda's fam and watching A Place in the Sun and Man vs. Wild daily :O), was the picture exhibition that we went to see downtown. The exhibit was called "Earth from Above". Basically, a street had been closed and about 60 large-scale aerial natural and industralial wonder pictures had been set up throughout the whole area. This is one of my favorites...

Each one had a description and environmental facts about NZ consumption rates and world projects to protect the environment. It was a neat experience. You can check out this French guy's stuff at his site.

Since arriving back in Hamilton, we've been bumming around, shopping, pretending to study and hanging out. A few weekends ago, Wayne, Ashleigh, Amanda and I headed to the Hamilton Gardens. The Gardens consist of extensive grounds of both planned, themed gardens, a rose garden and also areas along the river that are a bit more natural in their composition. It was a beautiful day and I managed to get the others skipping rocks and climbing trees along the river before heading into the theme gardens.

THere were probaby 6 different garden areas that reflected different countries of the world: English country, Italian vineyard, Indian temple, Japanese traditional gardens and of course, the American backyard. Each were wonderful to walk through, expecting the American garden. It consisted of a pool, deckchairs and a few plants, along with a terrace overlooking the river. I was pretty disappointed with their interpretation of American landscapes, but what can you do? My favorite was probably the Italian gardens, which were complete with an ampitheater, vine-covered terraces, fountains and lush gardens. As my camera called it quits after the American garden (which I didnt' really deem worthy of picture space either), I don't have pictures to show you all yet, but I'll be grabbing them from Ash before we all leave. I'm pretty sure that we're all going to have to do one big picture-swap from all of our adventures together. :O)

This past weekend I travelled up to Auckland to meet and stay with the Lamb of God community there. I stayed with a wonderful couple, Maryanne and Greg, along with TJ, a Cook Islander staying with them, and her beautiful 3 month-old son, Samual. I was able to hang out with a large part of the community for the whole weekend because a good chunk of them live in cluster (on the same street). There were a lot of people my age and I got taken along to a women's desset night on Saturday with a few of the girls. It was a blast and we definitely got severe sugar-highs from the amounts of mousse, pies and cremes we ate that night. It was also New Zealand's National Elders weekend, so I was able to meet all 8 elders from around the country and got several accommodation offers if I'm ever in their part of the world. On Saturday, Maryanne took TJ, Samual and I to a Butterfly house. Man oh man, it was so hot in there, but awesome! You walked into the room and there were hundreds of butterflies flying around and landing on you. I even picked up a buddy for about 10 minutes before she decided to find someone else (not pictured here, but definitely loved). :O)

Going to mass and the prayer meeting with the community was a great experience and it made me realize how much I really miss and need a Christian support system in my life. I'm not ready to come home, this I know, but I also know that when I do, I'll be excited to be back in such a place. Everyone in the community was wonderfully generous and accommodating. Maryanne at one point let it slip that I'm a coffee drinker and from then on, whenever I entered someone's house, a cup of coffee was placed in my hands. It was an awesome weekend and they chided me for not coming earlier, so that I could have spent time with them over the entire semester, which I'm beginning to agree with them too. I'll be going back to stay with Maryanne and Greg right before I leave for the South Island (Nov 9) and during my transition time between flying back from the South Island and going to Oz (Nov 29).

Now that I have only 1 week before exams, it's coming on crunch time and I should probably start studying as soon as I finish this blog. A large chunck of people have already finished and we've beginning to have to say good-bye to some of our friends. One of the German girls, Susie (whom I call Susi-Q), left yesterday and a few other friends left over the weekend while I was gone in Auckland. Last week, a bunch of us went out to have a good-bye dinner at a Mongolian BBQ of sorts, called Gengy's in downtown Hamilton.

I'll miss these girls (Brynn, Rhonda, Melissa, Amanda, Me (obviously), and Mallory). Anyways, I really can't think of much else to say and I probably won't be blogging again until after I leave for the South Island (in about 1.5 weeks)... so... God bless and happy All Hallow's Eve to you all!