One of the boys told me a bit of his story the other day. The short of it is something like this:
His mom kicked out of the house when he was 13. He didn't have any other family to take him in, so he moved in with a friend and started selling drugs to support himself. He's bounced around, crashing at various friends' places over the years, and was most recently living with his girlfriend. But they just broke up, so he's got a home visit this weekend in which he's packing up all his stuff and looking for a new place to live.
But I hope to see him back here on Monday.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
From Albany, NY!
Timeline since graduation:
Graduation: May 22, 2010. Moraga, CA. Bachelor of Arts degree. Valedictorian.
Move out of my apartment, and onto the floor of somebody else's: May 24, 2010. Walnut Creek, CA.
Start full time temp job at SMC Admissions: May 25, 2010. Moraga, CA.
Work 8:30-4:30, M-F: May 25 through June 30.
Mail everything I own, minus one backpack, to the east coast: June 30.
Cyber-hitchhike (via couchsurfing.com) from Oakland to Seattle: July 1-2, 2010.
Chill in Seattle with Michelle and her flatmates: July 2-5.
Hitchhike from Seattle to Montana: July 6.
Have an awesome time in Montana: July 7-15.
Attend Rachel Richardson-Osredkar's wedding: July 16, Pleasanton, CA.
Fly to Albany, NY: July 19-20.
Lasallian Volunteers Site Visit: July 20-22, 2010. LaSalle School, Albany, NY.
LV Orientation/Retreat: July 23-August 2, 2010. Philadelphia, PA.
1st day of service (aka work): August 3, 2010. Albany, NY.
Move in to my room in the Brother's house: August 3, 2010. Albany, NY.
Camping trip in the Adirondacks with 6 students and my supervisor, Ken Hackett: August 4-5.
Weekend: August 5-6.
Back to work: today!
Okay, now that's over with, here's a bit of what's been going on in a more user-friendly format. Summer after graduation was a bit of a whirlwind. After school ended I had to move out of my apartment on campus, so I moved in with my friend Celine in Walnut Creek and slept on her floor while I worked in the Admissions Office at Saint Mary's for another 5-6 weeks. Had a pretty good time and pretty much financed my cross-country move, which was good. After I finished work, I caught a ride to Seattle with a couple girls I met through couchsurfing.com, a traveler networking website that is absolutely awesome. If you are reading this and you think you're a little bit of a free spirit (or want to become one) I definitely recommend checking it out. I've met CSers all over the world, and the experience has always been awesome.
So, I went up to Seattle to visit Michelle, a good friend of mine from high school, then I hitch-hiked over to Montana to see my mom and some of my other friends who just finished school (or didn't). Notably, I also took a side trip down to Butte, MT for the National Folk Music festival, "Somebody shoot that thang!", which was awesome. I flew back to CA for the wedding of a good friend of mine, then came out to Albany to really get underway with my post-grad life.
I am serving for at least the next year (and probably the next two) with the Lasallian Volunteers. The LV program is founded around the Lasallian tradition(which I will explain shortly) and each year places volunteers all around the country in schools and social services centers aimed at helping poor and underprivileged populations. There are 57 volunteers this year living in 22 Lasallian communities from San Francisco to New York, and lots of places in between. We perform work that ranges from teaching elementary, middle, and high school to tracking students in inner city schools, to caring for the elderly. I myself am working at La Salle School in Albany, NY in the outdoor recreation department. On a day-to-day basis, myself and 2 other volunteers run the afternoon and evening programs for the boys (it's an all-boys school) - basketball, softball, etc. and on about a weekly basis we also organize and run off-campus trips like camping, rock climbing, or caving. Our typical work day starts at noon and ends at 8 or 8:30, with a break for dinner, though our day in full starts at 7:30 with morning prayer.
The school is a residential facility for court adjudicated boys typically sent here for anywhere from 6-12 months. Most of our boys are relatively local, coming from towns/cities within about an hour's drive from Albany, but we do have some boys from further away. None of our boys are from New York City. Boys end up at La Salle School for any number of reasons, most of which I have not yet heard about, but I will fill you in on that as I get a better handle on it.
So, a couple things about the Lasallian tradition, in hope of giving you some idea of what drives this whole program: In the Rule of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (aka the De La Salle Christian Brothers) it says: "The Institute is concerned above all with the educational needs of the poor as they strive to become aware of their dignity and to live and be recognized as human beings and as children of God." It also says, "The Brothers are entrusted with their mission by the Institute, a mission especially to the poor. As a community they become increasingly conscious of the reasons for the poverty that surrounds them and so become earnestly involved in the promotion of justice and human dignity through the educational service they provide." The basic idea, which comes all they way from Saint John Baptist de la Salle way back in the late 1600's, is that education provides an outlet by which the poor can be raised up out of their poverty. Though the number of people committed to living a religious life as a Brother shrinks every year, the number of people involved with the mission is continuously growing. In the LV Program, our commitment is threefold: to Faith, Service, and Community. "This is really a triple movement: seeing reality, looking upon it with the Word of God, being committed to actions that transform. This plan is what all authentic Lasallians should try to live out. The encounter with God in Lasallian terms will never be an individual search, but a community adventure; it will never mean running away from the world, but it will mean commitment and service in the world."
So, the idea behind the Lasallian tradition is that through the values of faith, service, and community, and by the virtue of education, we can make positive changes in the world. The work is not easy, but it is valuable and rewarding. This is something I am proud to be part of.
Mmm, I am sure I have much more to say about the LVs, my site, and my new life, but I'm afraid I have been at this computer too long already, so I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I will do my best to write more as things come up. Also, please take some time to explore the links I provided for the LVs, the Brothers, and de la Salle. If you have any particular questions you'd like me to answer, don't hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email!
Alex
Graduation: May 22, 2010. Moraga, CA. Bachelor of Arts degree. Valedictorian.
Move out of my apartment, and onto the floor of somebody else's: May 24, 2010. Walnut Creek, CA.
Start full time temp job at SMC Admissions: May 25, 2010. Moraga, CA.
Work 8:30-4:30, M-F: May 25 through June 30.
Mail everything I own, minus one backpack, to the east coast: June 30.
Cyber-hitchhike (via couchsurfing.com) from Oakland to Seattle: July 1-2, 2010.
Chill in Seattle with Michelle and her flatmates: July 2-5.
Hitchhike from Seattle to Montana: July 6.
Have an awesome time in Montana: July 7-15.
Attend Rachel Richardson-Osredkar's wedding: July 16, Pleasanton, CA.
Fly to Albany, NY: July 19-20.
Lasallian Volunteers Site Visit: July 20-22, 2010. LaSalle School, Albany, NY.
LV Orientation/Retreat: July 23-August 2, 2010. Philadelphia, PA.
1st day of service (aka work): August 3, 2010. Albany, NY.
Move in to my room in the Brother's house: August 3, 2010. Albany, NY.
Camping trip in the Adirondacks with 6 students and my supervisor, Ken Hackett: August 4-5.
Weekend: August 5-6.
Back to work: today!
Okay, now that's over with, here's a bit of what's been going on in a more user-friendly format. Summer after graduation was a bit of a whirlwind. After school ended I had to move out of my apartment on campus, so I moved in with my friend Celine in Walnut Creek and slept on her floor while I worked in the Admissions Office at Saint Mary's for another 5-6 weeks. Had a pretty good time and pretty much financed my cross-country move, which was good. After I finished work, I caught a ride to Seattle with a couple girls I met through couchsurfing.com, a traveler networking website that is absolutely awesome. If you are reading this and you think you're a little bit of a free spirit (or want to become one) I definitely recommend checking it out. I've met CSers all over the world, and the experience has always been awesome.
So, I went up to Seattle to visit Michelle, a good friend of mine from high school, then I hitch-hiked over to Montana to see my mom and some of my other friends who just finished school (or didn't). Notably, I also took a side trip down to Butte, MT for the National Folk Music festival, "Somebody shoot that thang!", which was awesome. I flew back to CA for the wedding of a good friend of mine, then came out to Albany to really get underway with my post-grad life.
I am serving for at least the next year (and probably the next two) with the Lasallian Volunteers. The LV program is founded around the Lasallian tradition(which I will explain shortly) and each year places volunteers all around the country in schools and social services centers aimed at helping poor and underprivileged populations. There are 57 volunteers this year living in 22 Lasallian communities from San Francisco to New York, and lots of places in between. We perform work that ranges from teaching elementary, middle, and high school to tracking students in inner city schools, to caring for the elderly. I myself am working at La Salle School in Albany, NY in the outdoor recreation department. On a day-to-day basis, myself and 2 other volunteers run the afternoon and evening programs for the boys (it's an all-boys school) - basketball, softball, etc. and on about a weekly basis we also organize and run off-campus trips like camping, rock climbing, or caving. Our typical work day starts at noon and ends at 8 or 8:30, with a break for dinner, though our day in full starts at 7:30 with morning prayer.
The school is a residential facility for court adjudicated boys typically sent here for anywhere from 6-12 months. Most of our boys are relatively local, coming from towns/cities within about an hour's drive from Albany, but we do have some boys from further away. None of our boys are from New York City. Boys end up at La Salle School for any number of reasons, most of which I have not yet heard about, but I will fill you in on that as I get a better handle on it.
So, a couple things about the Lasallian tradition, in hope of giving you some idea of what drives this whole program: In the Rule of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (aka the De La Salle Christian Brothers) it says: "The Institute is concerned above all with the educational needs of the poor as they strive to become aware of their dignity and to live and be recognized as human beings and as children of God." It also says, "The Brothers are entrusted with their mission by the Institute, a mission especially to the poor. As a community they become increasingly conscious of the reasons for the poverty that surrounds them and so become earnestly involved in the promotion of justice and human dignity through the educational service they provide." The basic idea, which comes all they way from Saint John Baptist de la Salle way back in the late 1600's, is that education provides an outlet by which the poor can be raised up out of their poverty. Though the number of people committed to living a religious life as a Brother shrinks every year, the number of people involved with the mission is continuously growing. In the LV Program, our commitment is threefold: to Faith, Service, and Community. "This is really a triple movement: seeing reality, looking upon it with the Word of God, being committed to actions that transform. This plan is what all authentic Lasallians should try to live out. The encounter with God in Lasallian terms will never be an individual search, but a community adventure; it will never mean running away from the world, but it will mean commitment and service in the world."
So, the idea behind the Lasallian tradition is that through the values of faith, service, and community, and by the virtue of education, we can make positive changes in the world. The work is not easy, but it is valuable and rewarding. This is something I am proud to be part of.
Mmm, I am sure I have much more to say about the LVs, my site, and my new life, but I'm afraid I have been at this computer too long already, so I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I will do my best to write more as things come up. Also, please take some time to explore the links I provided for the LVs, the Brothers, and de la Salle. If you have any particular questions you'd like me to answer, don't hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email!
Alex
Friday, June 4, 2010
Valedictory Address - Saint Mary's College of CA, May 22, 2010
Dear Saint Mary’s Class of 2010,
What is the point of an education?
At the beginning of this year, my father wrote me a birthday letter. In it, he said:
“Just keep in mind that up until now you have only been preparing for the fun part of life. One more year of school and the preliminaries will be behind you and you can get on with the game of life. I don't have any idea what life holds for you so just hang on and enjoy the ride.”
At about the same time, a good friend of mine, who tends to be what you might call a ‘free spirit,’ sent me a famous quote from Father Alfred D. Souza. It said:
“For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, some unfinished business, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
These are two seemingly opposite philosophies, one focused on life’s journey, the other on its destination; but both of them are right, and, in a way, they are not so different after all.
In one sense, we are finishing a preliminary. Some of us will walk across this stage and be honored for 2 years of work on a nursing degree, some of our classmates have already gone on from here after three years working toward engineering degrees, most of us are being honored today for 4 years on one of the many other degrees offered by Saint Mary’s College. For a lucky few of us it has been 5 or more years of hard work to get to this day.
But these degrees are preliminaries. They lead into graduate study opportunities, work opportunities, scholarship and travel opportunities. They are something that simply needed to be done. Our years here, however, have not just been preliminaries. The full term of our college experience has been about more than just this day.
At Weekend of Welcome in 2006, my group spoke with Ed Biglin, the Chief Technology Officer for CaTS, and he asked us a question. He said, “I have in my briefcase a Saint Mary’s diploma with the President’s signature, but blank lines where a name and major are waiting to be filled in. For $160,000 we can fill in all the blanks, and it’s yours. Who wants it?”
After the time we’ve had to grow as people here at Saint Mary’s, would you want it? Would you give up the time you’ve spent doing service? What about your favorite professor? Your best friends? What about your cultural experiences, Oasis dances, Outdoor Adventures trips, Church confirmations, travel abroad experiences, January Terms, movie nights, classes with the Christian Brothers, seminar discussions, and athletic events. What about everything else that didn’t necessarily come from a textbook?
Saint Mary’s is more than just a degree, it is an experience. Nowhere on my degree will it indicate that I lived in a Brothers’ community in New Zealand and taught high school math for three months, nowhere will it show that I travelled to Houston to support the men’s basketball team in the Sweet 16, nowhere will it show that I once climbed Halfdome in a snowstorm with one of my best friends from Saint Mary’s.
My father said the fun part of life is next, and I hope he’s right. But I also hope, for each of us, that some of the fun part of life has already gone by, and that today is one of the most fun parts we’ve ever experienced.
As we now move to a new phase of our lives, I also think of the admonition my father left me with, to hang on and enjoy the ride. Life is full of obstacles, and most of us probably have no real idea what we are about to get into. Law school, grad school, med school, business, volunteering, living on our parents’ couch until we figure things out; there is a lot of uncertainty in our futures, and those uncertainties come with trials. But, as Father Souza says, these trials are life. Every time one is passed, another blocks the way. The challenge is to stop looking at life as an obstacle course and rather to see it as a roller coaster.
Like a roller coaster, life has peaks and valleys, long climbs and fast drops, sometimes it even goes upside down. These so-called obstacles are what make the roller coaster interesting. They make it what it is. When the ride finally ends, the parts we remember are the parts where we were scared or excited, startled or tossed around in our seats. They are the parts where we had to hold on the hardest and, when we look back, they’re the parts we smile about. So like my father said, “hold on and enjoy the ride.”
Now, my classmates have all been in seminar enough to be wondering at this point when I will finally get back to the original question: what does all this have to do with the point of an education? Go back to Ed Biglin’s $160,000 degree. If the point of an education were just to learn the stuff in the textbook, we would all have skipped the tests and taken the diploma.
Instead, we toughed out years of hard work so that we could have an experience, so that we could add some twists and turns to our roller coaster, and that is the point of an education. To talk about being a life-long learner, you really have to talk about roller coaster construction, because the education is in the obstacles, and you are not just on the ride, you are building it.
Before I give up this place of honor, there’s one more thing I want to say to you all. I can see behind you to all the parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends and supporters sitting in the stadium, and I know that not a single person who will walk across this stage got here all by him- or her-self. Whether your parents, your high school teachers, a Saint Mary’s donor, a staff member or a professor, whoever it is, make sure that soon, before the novelty of today wears off, you call those people, you send them a card, you do what it takes to let them know how thankful you are. For my family out there, please know that I am thankful for you. And for my classmates sitting before me, this could all have been a lot different, but I enjoyed the ride. Congratulations class of 2010, and thank you.
What is the point of an education?
At the beginning of this year, my father wrote me a birthday letter. In it, he said:
“Just keep in mind that up until now you have only been preparing for the fun part of life. One more year of school and the preliminaries will be behind you and you can get on with the game of life. I don't have any idea what life holds for you so just hang on and enjoy the ride.”
At about the same time, a good friend of mine, who tends to be what you might call a ‘free spirit,’ sent me a famous quote from Father Alfred D. Souza. It said:
“For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, some unfinished business, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
These are two seemingly opposite philosophies, one focused on life’s journey, the other on its destination; but both of them are right, and, in a way, they are not so different after all.
In one sense, we are finishing a preliminary. Some of us will walk across this stage and be honored for 2 years of work on a nursing degree, some of our classmates have already gone on from here after three years working toward engineering degrees, most of us are being honored today for 4 years on one of the many other degrees offered by Saint Mary’s College. For a lucky few of us it has been 5 or more years of hard work to get to this day.
But these degrees are preliminaries. They lead into graduate study opportunities, work opportunities, scholarship and travel opportunities. They are something that simply needed to be done. Our years here, however, have not just been preliminaries. The full term of our college experience has been about more than just this day.
At Weekend of Welcome in 2006, my group spoke with Ed Biglin, the Chief Technology Officer for CaTS, and he asked us a question. He said, “I have in my briefcase a Saint Mary’s diploma with the President’s signature, but blank lines where a name and major are waiting to be filled in. For $160,000 we can fill in all the blanks, and it’s yours. Who wants it?”
After the time we’ve had to grow as people here at Saint Mary’s, would you want it? Would you give up the time you’ve spent doing service? What about your favorite professor? Your best friends? What about your cultural experiences, Oasis dances, Outdoor Adventures trips, Church confirmations, travel abroad experiences, January Terms, movie nights, classes with the Christian Brothers, seminar discussions, and athletic events. What about everything else that didn’t necessarily come from a textbook?
Saint Mary’s is more than just a degree, it is an experience. Nowhere on my degree will it indicate that I lived in a Brothers’ community in New Zealand and taught high school math for three months, nowhere will it show that I travelled to Houston to support the men’s basketball team in the Sweet 16, nowhere will it show that I once climbed Halfdome in a snowstorm with one of my best friends from Saint Mary’s.
My father said the fun part of life is next, and I hope he’s right. But I also hope, for each of us, that some of the fun part of life has already gone by, and that today is one of the most fun parts we’ve ever experienced.
As we now move to a new phase of our lives, I also think of the admonition my father left me with, to hang on and enjoy the ride. Life is full of obstacles, and most of us probably have no real idea what we are about to get into. Law school, grad school, med school, business, volunteering, living on our parents’ couch until we figure things out; there is a lot of uncertainty in our futures, and those uncertainties come with trials. But, as Father Souza says, these trials are life. Every time one is passed, another blocks the way. The challenge is to stop looking at life as an obstacle course and rather to see it as a roller coaster.
Like a roller coaster, life has peaks and valleys, long climbs and fast drops, sometimes it even goes upside down. These so-called obstacles are what make the roller coaster interesting. They make it what it is. When the ride finally ends, the parts we remember are the parts where we were scared or excited, startled or tossed around in our seats. They are the parts where we had to hold on the hardest and, when we look back, they’re the parts we smile about. So like my father said, “hold on and enjoy the ride.”
Now, my classmates have all been in seminar enough to be wondering at this point when I will finally get back to the original question: what does all this have to do with the point of an education? Go back to Ed Biglin’s $160,000 degree. If the point of an education were just to learn the stuff in the textbook, we would all have skipped the tests and taken the diploma.
Instead, we toughed out years of hard work so that we could have an experience, so that we could add some twists and turns to our roller coaster, and that is the point of an education. To talk about being a life-long learner, you really have to talk about roller coaster construction, because the education is in the obstacles, and you are not just on the ride, you are building it.
Before I give up this place of honor, there’s one more thing I want to say to you all. I can see behind you to all the parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends and supporters sitting in the stadium, and I know that not a single person who will walk across this stage got here all by him- or her-self. Whether your parents, your high school teachers, a Saint Mary’s donor, a staff member or a professor, whoever it is, make sure that soon, before the novelty of today wears off, you call those people, you send them a card, you do what it takes to let them know how thankful you are. For my family out there, please know that I am thankful for you. And for my classmates sitting before me, this could all have been a lot different, but I enjoyed the ride. Congratulations class of 2010, and thank you.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Recap of the last...month and a half?
Okay, so I have to admit up front that I am about the cheat on this blog post. I wrote a pretty detailed letter to my Dad when I got back from NZ, and I'm just copying and pasting that letter here. The only notable edition I'm making is that, in the 7th paragraph, my paper is now due this Monday, and I've written a bit more of it. Still have a long weekend ahead, though (but not long enough).
New Zealand was awesome, and being back at school sucks. Lol. I had a great time, but what else would you expect when I spent 8 weeks living off my savings and worrying about little to nothing? I mostly just kayaked all the time, but did get to a few other things on the side, including a day of rock climbing and a couple days of farming. Fun story, I helped a friend of mine give shots to 700 sheep. Which is to say, I gave shots to 700 sheep, because he was drenching them (which means he stuck a tube down their throat and blasted their stomachs with parasite killer). I actually think I got the better job, since all I had to do was grab a loose flap of skin behind their ear, shove a big needle in it, and push a lever to deliver the shot. Got myself in the thumb twice, as well, but I didn't inject myself with anything, so no worries. Mostly the shot was just vitamin B12, anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered too much.
By far, kayaking was the highlight of my trip. It took about a week to get everything sorted out in Christchurch when I got there, what with having to wait for Johanna to arrive before I could pick up the car, then getting a set of boats that we could only hold onto for a week, and also having a social event to attend in the city, but eventually the trip did get underway. Interestingly, after one day on an easy river near Christchurch, Johanna decided she wasn't as keen on whitewater kayaking as she thought she would be, so I drove her out to Arthur's pass where she went and did some tramping, and I ended up kayaking without her for the entire trip. I went up to a place called Murchison in the northern part of the south island and spend almost 2 weeks there just paddling. There's probably 15 rivers with decent paddling that are all within a 20 or 30 minute drive of Murch, so heaps of people camp there around Christmas/New Year and just paddle every day. I got in with a group of really good paddlers willing to show me a few things and I had an awesome time. My paddling ability went cruising skyward, and I'm a real confident grade 3 paddler at this point. I've started taking on some grade 4 rapids here and there, but it's not well within my ability yet, so I'm being pretty choosy about what I'm willing to run and what I'm not.
After Murch I went back to Christchurch to switch boats, then headed down Queenstown way. I stopped near MountCook on the way and did a day of rockclimbing with a couple gals I met in Murch, which was cool, then went the rest of the way and did some paddling around Queenstown with a few people I'd met along the way. Only spent a couple days in Queenstown because most of the water around there is far and above my paddling ability, but it was a nice stop anyway. The area is beautiful, which was definitely a plus, and I found a free campsite at one of the river takeouts, which was also quite nice.
From Queenstown I headed up the west coast with a gal who found me through an online travelers' community called couchsurfing.com. She ended up being a complete nitwit, and I was glad to see her go after a couple days in the car with her, but whatever, it's all good. After I offloaded my cyber-hitchhiker, I met up with some people from Christchurch and we did a couple easier rivers around Hokitika. We had a few beginners with us, so it wasn't anything major, but the rivers were absolutely gorgeous and had a few fun places to stop and play in little waves and whatnot, so it was all good. One of the rivers we did near Hoki is called the Crooked, and it flows out of a glacier. The color was awesome, and the water was freezing. One of our beginners fell out of her boat 3 times, and I think she was a little wet and miserable by the end of the river, but she kept a brave face on, so good for her.
From Hoki, I finished the loop up to Murch and did a couple more day paddling there with a guy I met passing through. Ended up having an awesome time the second time through because of how much my paddling had improved. Went out and confidently did a couple harder rivers, and on the way out we stopped at Maruia Falls and dropped it. Amazing experience. Maruia is a huge waterfall, about 10 meters tall, spans the whole river. Adrenaline rush in the extreme. WAterfalls are cool, though, because they're a lot easier to take on than something like a cliff jump or a bridge jump. When you're going off solid land you can always stop yourself, but in a river, once you leave that last eddy, there's no turning back, and leaving an eddy is real easy.
Anyway, after Murch I went back to Christchurch and crashed with a friend of mine for 4 or 5 days. He works from 4 AM until about noon, so we went and played in the surf in the afternoons, which was heaps of fun. I got a fair bit of important work done in the mornings while Dan was at work, as well, which was definitely a good thing. I had a 16 page paper due the Monday I got back, and I had a bunch of stuff I had to do for a job application, and I managed to get all that more-or-less done before I left NZ.
Back here in the USA, things are not nearly so adrenaline pumping, though in some ways exciting nonetheless. I'm excited to be graduating in May, though I don't know how I'm going to survive this semester. Most of my classes aren't too bad, but my senior essay is due in something like 3 weeks, and I am not nearly as far on it as I ought to be. I had a hard time focusing on schoolwork in NZ, what with people always coming up and asking if I wanted to go paddle, so I haven't really made any progress on my paper since October, when I wrote the initial proposal. I'm not too worried about getting through it, but it is definitely a little stress ball in the back of my mind, and may become a big stress ball before the end of all this.
Besides that, though, I'm taking 3 music activity classes, so I'm getting to play a lot of trombone this semester, and i'm also taking my regular academic classes. This term shouldn't be as hard as most of my others because i'm not taking any upper division math classes and I only have 4 academic classes instead of the overloaded 5 i usually take, so that's good. I'm thinking that after i've finished my thesis i might actually be able to find the time to go out and have a bit of fun this semester, and that would be nice.
I'm applying for jobs, now, as well. The application I was working on in New Zealand was for Teach for America, which is an organization that places teachers in disadvantaged schools. I just had my final interview with them last Tuesday and I should hear back about whether or not I've been accepted on March 8. I'm pretty confident they will hire me, but you never know, maybe I screwed up my interview and just don't even know. In addition to TfA, I'm also planning on applying to Lasallian Volunteers, which is (as the name indicates) a volunteer organization through the brothers that run my school. I think I like the opportunities I could get through LV better than what I could do after TFA, so I'm leaning that way, but I have to wait until I'm a little farther along in their hiring process to decide. And, I guess if everything were to go pear-shaped, I could always work on the ranch for the summer and figure out my life from there.
That's about the long and short of it all, though I'm sure I could go on for ages about my time in New Zealand. I'm not sure when i'll post again next, hopefully relatively soon.
New Zealand was awesome, and being back at school sucks. Lol. I had a great time, but what else would you expect when I spent 8 weeks living off my savings and worrying about little to nothing? I mostly just kayaked all the time, but did get to a few other things on the side, including a day of rock climbing and a couple days of farming. Fun story, I helped a friend of mine give shots to 700 sheep. Which is to say, I gave shots to 700 sheep, because he was drenching them (which means he stuck a tube down their throat and blasted their stomachs with parasite killer). I actually think I got the better job, since all I had to do was grab a loose flap of skin behind their ear, shove a big needle in it, and push a lever to deliver the shot. Got myself in the thumb twice, as well, but I didn't inject myself with anything, so no worries. Mostly the shot was just vitamin B12, anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered too much.
By far, kayaking was the highlight of my trip. It took about a week to get everything sorted out in Christchurch when I got there, what with having to wait for Johanna to arrive before I could pick up the car, then getting a set of boats that we could only hold onto for a week, and also having a social event to attend in the city, but eventually the trip did get underway. Interestingly, after one day on an easy river near Christchurch, Johanna decided she wasn't as keen on whitewater kayaking as she thought she would be, so I drove her out to Arthur's pass where she went and did some tramping, and I ended up kayaking without her for the entire trip. I went up to a place called Murchison in the northern part of the south island and spend almost 2 weeks there just paddling. There's probably 15 rivers with decent paddling that are all within a 20 or 30 minute drive of Murch, so heaps of people camp there around Christmas/New Year and just paddle every day. I got in with a group of really good paddlers willing to show me a few things and I had an awesome time. My paddling ability went cruising skyward, and I'm a real confident grade 3 paddler at this point. I've started taking on some grade 4 rapids here and there, but it's not well within my ability yet, so I'm being pretty choosy about what I'm willing to run and what I'm not.
After Murch I went back to Christchurch to switch boats, then headed down Queenstown way. I stopped near MountCook on the way and did a day of rockclimbing with a couple gals I met in Murch, which was cool, then went the rest of the way and did some paddling around Queenstown with a few people I'd met along the way. Only spent a couple days in Queenstown because most of the water around there is far and above my paddling ability, but it was a nice stop anyway. The area is beautiful, which was definitely a plus, and I found a free campsite at one of the river takeouts, which was also quite nice.
From Queenstown I headed up the west coast with a gal who found me through an online travelers' community called couchsurfing.com. She ended up being a complete nitwit, and I was glad to see her go after a couple days in the car with her, but whatever, it's all good. After I offloaded my cyber-hitchhiker, I met up with some people from Christchurch and we did a couple easier rivers around Hokitika. We had a few beginners with us, so it wasn't anything major, but the rivers were absolutely gorgeous and had a few fun places to stop and play in little waves and whatnot, so it was all good. One of the rivers we did near Hoki is called the Crooked, and it flows out of a glacier. The color was awesome, and the water was freezing. One of our beginners fell out of her boat 3 times, and I think she was a little wet and miserable by the end of the river, but she kept a brave face on, so good for her.
From Hoki, I finished the loop up to Murch and did a couple more day paddling there with a guy I met passing through. Ended up having an awesome time the second time through because of how much my paddling had improved. Went out and confidently did a couple harder rivers, and on the way out we stopped at Maruia Falls and dropped it. Amazing experience. Maruia is a huge waterfall, about 10 meters tall, spans the whole river. Adrenaline rush in the extreme. WAterfalls are cool, though, because they're a lot easier to take on than something like a cliff jump or a bridge jump. When you're going off solid land you can always stop yourself, but in a river, once you leave that last eddy, there's no turning back, and leaving an eddy is real easy.
Anyway, after Murch I went back to Christchurch and crashed with a friend of mine for 4 or 5 days. He works from 4 AM until about noon, so we went and played in the surf in the afternoons, which was heaps of fun. I got a fair bit of important work done in the mornings while Dan was at work, as well, which was definitely a good thing. I had a 16 page paper due the Monday I got back, and I had a bunch of stuff I had to do for a job application, and I managed to get all that more-or-less done before I left NZ.
Back here in the USA, things are not nearly so adrenaline pumping, though in some ways exciting nonetheless. I'm excited to be graduating in May, though I don't know how I'm going to survive this semester. Most of my classes aren't too bad, but my senior essay is due in something like 3 weeks, and I am not nearly as far on it as I ought to be. I had a hard time focusing on schoolwork in NZ, what with people always coming up and asking if I wanted to go paddle, so I haven't really made any progress on my paper since October, when I wrote the initial proposal. I'm not too worried about getting through it, but it is definitely a little stress ball in the back of my mind, and may become a big stress ball before the end of all this.
Besides that, though, I'm taking 3 music activity classes, so I'm getting to play a lot of trombone this semester, and i'm also taking my regular academic classes. This term shouldn't be as hard as most of my others because i'm not taking any upper division math classes and I only have 4 academic classes instead of the overloaded 5 i usually take, so that's good. I'm thinking that after i've finished my thesis i might actually be able to find the time to go out and have a bit of fun this semester, and that would be nice.
I'm applying for jobs, now, as well. The application I was working on in New Zealand was for Teach for America, which is an organization that places teachers in disadvantaged schools. I just had my final interview with them last Tuesday and I should hear back about whether or not I've been accepted on March 8. I'm pretty confident they will hire me, but you never know, maybe I screwed up my interview and just don't even know. In addition to TfA, I'm also planning on applying to Lasallian Volunteers, which is (as the name indicates) a volunteer organization through the brothers that run my school. I think I like the opportunities I could get through LV better than what I could do after TFA, so I'm leaning that way, but I have to wait until I'm a little farther along in their hiring process to decide. And, I guess if everything were to go pear-shaped, I could always work on the ranch for the summer and figure out my life from there.
That's about the long and short of it all, though I'm sure I could go on for ages about my time in New Zealand. I'm not sure when i'll post again next, hopefully relatively soon.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Half-way Through
Hey Everybody,
I've been in New Zealand again since December 14 or so, but haven't been able to communicate back much due to a general lack of convenient internet facilities as well as being a bit more interested in going out and having fun than locking myself down at a computer and writing about what I could at that moment be doing.
Regardless, I have a couple minutes here at a computer, and it's dark outside so there's not much else to be doing, so I thought I'd fill you all in.
It took about a week from my arrival to get going on everything. Johanna flew into Auckland instead of Christchurch, so I had to wait for her to travel overland (and sea) to get to Christchurch before dealing with the acquisition of a car, which we are renting together. That was Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday night we managed to get hold of kayaks through the Christchurch Whitewater Canoe Club, and Thursday saw us finishing off a few details in Christchurch (our last paper due for Seminar) then heading north a ways to go paddle the Hurunui River on Friday. The top section of the Hurunui is grade 2 and was a good way to get our feet wet, but proved a bit too stressful for Johanna. We had arranged to be back in Christchurch Saturday for a social paddle down the Avon, which runs through the middle of the city, so we took off from the Hurunui after one short run.
Saturday was a good opportunity to meet people in the club, and was an enjoyable afternoon with a bit of a barbecue feed at the end. Johanna decided she wasn't too keen on kayaking right away, so we returned her hired boat to the club and I gave her a lift into Arthur's Pass, where I said goodbye to her for several days as she traipsed off into the back country.
Having left Johanna in the high country, I went and tried (and failed) to meet up with a friend near Oxford, a bit inland from Christchurch. That plan falling through, I instead went out and stayed on farm in Scargill with Donald, a good ol' bloke I met at the paddling social. I had to be back in Christchurch Wednesday night to make a boat swap, so I hung out with Don until Wednesday morning then headed back to Christchurch.
In the city again, I swapped out the LiquidLogic Remix I was paddling for a pretty ancient looking Thunderbird with some of the hardest rails I've seen on a boat. They're so sharp it makes the RPM look like a sea kayak... but that's not important. What is important is that I arranged to go paddle the Hurunui again that Friday with Bill, Linda, and Becs. Bill and Linda run the gear shed, and Becs is the trip coordinator for the club. It was nice to go out with some people who knew the river because they took me down the gulley section, which is class 3 (whitewater classes in NZ go from 1-very easy to 6-you'd better be f***ing awesome). In the meantime, namely Christmas Eve day, I went surfing in the Thunderbird at Sumner, which is on the edge of Christchurch.
After the paddle with Bill, Linda, and Becs, I managed to score the club's new boat, a Riot Thunder, off of Linda, since she didn't plan on using it again. The only rule - give it to Debbie on the 6th of January, or I will hunt you down and hurt you... I took the boat and headed up to Murchison the same day, which brings me to the best part of my trip so far.
Murchison is the class 2-3 kayaking capitol of New Zealand. There's heaps of rivers up there, heaps of paddlers (especially around Christmas/New Year), and heaps of fun. From Christmas day until January 6 I paddled 2-3 times daily and progressed from a so-so class 2 paddler to a semi-competent class 3 paddler. Sweet as. I met up with some ol' boys from the club, basically all the guys in charge, and they taught me heaps in the 4 or 5 days I was paddling with them. After they left for Hokitika (the class 4-5 capitol of New Zealand), I hooked up with some freelance paddlers who were rocking it as well. I took a brief break from river-shredding to get some safety under my belt, attending a pretty full-on river rescue course at the NZ kayak school on the 2nd and 3rd of January. Learned heaps, but need to invest in some gear now...
Anyway, left Murch on the 6th to bring Debbie's boat to Christchurch, picked up a new boat on the 7th, and am hanging out with Dan English, a cool guy I met in Murchison who is also in the club. We've been surfing this weekend out at New Brighton, and tomorrow I'm planning on heading back up to Murchison for another week or so. There's some cool club trips going out next weekend and the weekend after, so I might try to come back this way to get on those, but we'll see what happens. The paddlers are starting to empty out of Murch, so I might try to head down Wanaka / Queenstown way in the coming weeks to see if I can find some paddlers around there.
Ah, I should also mention that Johanna came safely out of Arthur's pass and met me in Murch, did a couple day trip up to Nelson with some Israeli gal she met, then I dropped her off in Nelson Lakes Nat'l Park for a tramp, and met up with her again here in Christchurch this weekend. She's traipsing off to Queenstown this week, but I'll probably catch up with her again in 2 weeks or so. She's decided she isn't kayaking, so I'm just freelancing it right now with club members and anyone else I can find who has a whitewater kayak on the roof of their car.
I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Now that 2010 is underway, don't forget to check the use by dates on the dairy in your fridge. :-)
Alex
I've been in New Zealand again since December 14 or so, but haven't been able to communicate back much due to a general lack of convenient internet facilities as well as being a bit more interested in going out and having fun than locking myself down at a computer and writing about what I could at that moment be doing.
Regardless, I have a couple minutes here at a computer, and it's dark outside so there's not much else to be doing, so I thought I'd fill you all in.
It took about a week from my arrival to get going on everything. Johanna flew into Auckland instead of Christchurch, so I had to wait for her to travel overland (and sea) to get to Christchurch before dealing with the acquisition of a car, which we are renting together. That was Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday night we managed to get hold of kayaks through the Christchurch Whitewater Canoe Club, and Thursday saw us finishing off a few details in Christchurch (our last paper due for Seminar) then heading north a ways to go paddle the Hurunui River on Friday. The top section of the Hurunui is grade 2 and was a good way to get our feet wet, but proved a bit too stressful for Johanna. We had arranged to be back in Christchurch Saturday for a social paddle down the Avon, which runs through the middle of the city, so we took off from the Hurunui after one short run.
Saturday was a good opportunity to meet people in the club, and was an enjoyable afternoon with a bit of a barbecue feed at the end. Johanna decided she wasn't too keen on kayaking right away, so we returned her hired boat to the club and I gave her a lift into Arthur's Pass, where I said goodbye to her for several days as she traipsed off into the back country.
Having left Johanna in the high country, I went and tried (and failed) to meet up with a friend near Oxford, a bit inland from Christchurch. That plan falling through, I instead went out and stayed on farm in Scargill with Donald, a good ol' bloke I met at the paddling social. I had to be back in Christchurch Wednesday night to make a boat swap, so I hung out with Don until Wednesday morning then headed back to Christchurch.
In the city again, I swapped out the LiquidLogic Remix I was paddling for a pretty ancient looking Thunderbird with some of the hardest rails I've seen on a boat. They're so sharp it makes the RPM look like a sea kayak... but that's not important. What is important is that I arranged to go paddle the Hurunui again that Friday with Bill, Linda, and Becs. Bill and Linda run the gear shed, and Becs is the trip coordinator for the club. It was nice to go out with some people who knew the river because they took me down the gulley section, which is class 3 (whitewater classes in NZ go from 1-very easy to 6-you'd better be f***ing awesome). In the meantime, namely Christmas Eve day, I went surfing in the Thunderbird at Sumner, which is on the edge of Christchurch.
After the paddle with Bill, Linda, and Becs, I managed to score the club's new boat, a Riot Thunder, off of Linda, since she didn't plan on using it again. The only rule - give it to Debbie on the 6th of January, or I will hunt you down and hurt you... I took the boat and headed up to Murchison the same day, which brings me to the best part of my trip so far.
Murchison is the class 2-3 kayaking capitol of New Zealand. There's heaps of rivers up there, heaps of paddlers (especially around Christmas/New Year), and heaps of fun. From Christmas day until January 6 I paddled 2-3 times daily and progressed from a so-so class 2 paddler to a semi-competent class 3 paddler. Sweet as. I met up with some ol' boys from the club, basically all the guys in charge, and they taught me heaps in the 4 or 5 days I was paddling with them. After they left for Hokitika (the class 4-5 capitol of New Zealand), I hooked up with some freelance paddlers who were rocking it as well. I took a brief break from river-shredding to get some safety under my belt, attending a pretty full-on river rescue course at the NZ kayak school on the 2nd and 3rd of January. Learned heaps, but need to invest in some gear now...
Anyway, left Murch on the 6th to bring Debbie's boat to Christchurch, picked up a new boat on the 7th, and am hanging out with Dan English, a cool guy I met in Murchison who is also in the club. We've been surfing this weekend out at New Brighton, and tomorrow I'm planning on heading back up to Murchison for another week or so. There's some cool club trips going out next weekend and the weekend after, so I might try to come back this way to get on those, but we'll see what happens. The paddlers are starting to empty out of Murch, so I might try to head down Wanaka / Queenstown way in the coming weeks to see if I can find some paddlers around there.
Ah, I should also mention that Johanna came safely out of Arthur's pass and met me in Murch, did a couple day trip up to Nelson with some Israeli gal she met, then I dropped her off in Nelson Lakes Nat'l Park for a tramp, and met up with her again here in Christchurch this weekend. She's traipsing off to Queenstown this week, but I'll probably catch up with her again in 2 weeks or so. She's decided she isn't kayaking, so I'm just freelancing it right now with club members and anyone else I can find who has a whitewater kayak on the roof of their car.
I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Now that 2010 is underway, don't forget to check the use by dates on the dairy in your fridge. :-)
Alex
Sunday, December 13, 2009
In New Zealand again
Hey All,
So, I had planned on video blogging (vlogging) again from New Zealand, but it's proving to be more difficult (both expensive and technically challenging) than I had planned since I don't have my own computer. Hence, I will have to settle for typed words.
My flight over was pretty good, though long. I ended up next to a very chatty Iranian woman who is a Ph.D. student at Stanford in chemical engineering. It was both good and bad in that, when I was awake I had someone to talk to, but anytime I was awake, someone was talking to me. I did get about 6 hours of sleep on the plane, 2 decent meals, and got a bit of work done on my last paper for the semester. All in all, time well spent.
Since getting to New Zealand, life has been full of many logistical challenges, and involved a bit of hurry up and wait, but it's all good. Johanna and I successfully met up, procured a car, procured kayaks, built a roof rack, did some kayaking, met some people, and went our own ways. She is currently spending a week in the back country near Arthur's Pass, and I am chilling on a farm with a new friend of mine, doing a bit of kayaking, and having a pretty darn good time. I have to switch out boats on Wednesday night in Christchurch, so I'm sticking to the local area for now and doing a bit of kayak surfing in the ocean. I did run part of the Hurunui River earlier this week, and I'm going to run the main portion of it on Christmas Day with some people from the club. Saturday I plan on heading up to Murchison to meet Johanna and do some kayaking there. This is about as far as current plans go.
I know I said I would try to update pretty frequently, but what with camping out of the car most of the time and spending heaps of time in the back country, I'm not sure how much that will actually happen. I'll do my best, though.
I hope everyone is having a good winter and enjoying the holiday season.
Merry Christmas!
Alex
So, I had planned on video blogging (vlogging) again from New Zealand, but it's proving to be more difficult (both expensive and technically challenging) than I had planned since I don't have my own computer. Hence, I will have to settle for typed words.
My flight over was pretty good, though long. I ended up next to a very chatty Iranian woman who is a Ph.D. student at Stanford in chemical engineering. It was both good and bad in that, when I was awake I had someone to talk to, but anytime I was awake, someone was talking to me. I did get about 6 hours of sleep on the plane, 2 decent meals, and got a bit of work done on my last paper for the semester. All in all, time well spent.
Since getting to New Zealand, life has been full of many logistical challenges, and involved a bit of hurry up and wait, but it's all good. Johanna and I successfully met up, procured a car, procured kayaks, built a roof rack, did some kayaking, met some people, and went our own ways. She is currently spending a week in the back country near Arthur's Pass, and I am chilling on a farm with a new friend of mine, doing a bit of kayaking, and having a pretty darn good time. I have to switch out boats on Wednesday night in Christchurch, so I'm sticking to the local area for now and doing a bit of kayak surfing in the ocean. I did run part of the Hurunui River earlier this week, and I'm going to run the main portion of it on Christmas Day with some people from the club. Saturday I plan on heading up to Murchison to meet Johanna and do some kayaking there. This is about as far as current plans go.
I know I said I would try to update pretty frequently, but what with camping out of the car most of the time and spending heaps of time in the back country, I'm not sure how much that will actually happen. I'll do my best, though.
I hope everyone is having a good winter and enjoying the holiday season.
Merry Christmas!
Alex
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Back in the USA
Ok, so I'm back. I've been back for about 2 weeks, actually. Working. A lot. I had a fantastic time in New Zealand. Really, truly, and absolutely amazing experience. Honestly, Life changing. But now I'm back. And I'm busy. And it's probably apparent from the length of these sentences that I'm tired. In fact, I should probably be sleeping right now instead of doing this, but I felt it necessary to at least begin writing an ending to my first New Zealand adventure.
So, to begin with, I haven't blogged since 2 weeks before I left New Zealand, and now I've been back in the United States for 2 weeks, which means (for those who may be having difficulty with the simple math) that it's been 4 weeks since I've written. An entire month. I feel kind of guilty.
Since my last blog, there were several significant events (not including coming home) that are worth mentioning here. First, kayaking. I finally managed to get hold of the people I referenced in one of my first blogs, the people I was hoping to have a social life through, and we went kayaking Saturday/Sunday. It was sweet. We did the Aniwhenua section of the Rangitaiki (?) River, and it was mean as. The people I met up with were all real cool. Two of them were very experienced kayakers, the other two not so much. The river was beautiful and fun, even for the experienced ones. The river runs through a deep gorge, a canyon really, with vertical walls rising straight out of the water in many places. The area is lush and green. The river is deep, with plenty of opportunities to eddy out, to play around, and to just enjoy the company of good people and good water. We drove down Saturday afternoon, camped Saturday night, kayaked Sunday morning/afternoon, drove back Sunday evening, and got back Sunday night. It was a cramped car (5 people in a Subaru with heaps of gear and 5 kayaks on top), but a good car. We had a misadventure (driving half an hour up an old logging road looking for a river access that wasn't there, all the while bottoming out the car on a regular basis and having to retie the boats several times due to roof-rack slippage) and a good time.
Following the awesome kayaking trip, I went to school for a week. It posed many challenges, as it does, but I survived. ... I should correct myself. I didn't really go to school for a week. I went to school for 3 days, then Thursday and Friday were teacher only days I decided to skip. I opted instead to fly to Wellington on Wednesday night after my calculus study group, where I stayed for 2 nights with Katherine, the sister of Fran, a teacher at the school in Auckland. I toured Wellington a bit, with particular interest in the parliament building, and then began a long hitch-hike up to Thames, in the Coromandel Peninsula, about an 8 hour drive away.
The hitch-hike itself was interesting, 3 rides in particular. I got one long ride, about 2 hours or so, from a young couple in a van. There were 2 seats in the front of the van, which they occupied, and no seats in the back, which I occupied with 3 dogs. But it was alright. The couple was cool and really nice, and they went out of their way to drop me off in a good location for catching my next ride, a girl my age on her way from work. She had an interesting life story. She grew up on a farm with 4 sisters, made a few mistakes, and dropped out of school when she was 15. She spent a few years figuring things out, and is now doing quite well in a small product marketing firm. She is in a program to finish up her schooling so she can become a manager in this firm, and seems to be in good standing with the owner, who actually invited her to leave the job she had and join the firm. This girl drove me for at least 3 hours, maybe longer, and we had some interesting conversations about religion, ethics, decisions, life, experiences, and all sorts of good stuff. Really a nice ride. My last ride of particular note became interesting when it happened twice. This guy picked me up and drove me for about half an hour, then dropped me off in a town where our directions diverged. He came back through town about an hour later, however, and I was still there. He happened to be heading my direction now, after having gone home to change out of his work clothes and borrow his wife's car. He was on his way to visit some people from his church, and his first stop was a pick-up, one of his fellow church members who was going out with him that night. Well, the guy we were picking up was just in the process of cooking his dinner, and offered us some, so there was a bit of a feed. Then I ended up walking out with a Book of Mormon. It wasn't aggressive or intrusive, and I didn't want to be rude, so I took it. I didn't really want to carry it, but I did anyway, and I still have it. I think it is important to educate yourself about other people's beliefs, so I will hopefully find the time to read it eventually, just out of curiosity.
I ended up in Thames about 6:00 PM. It took me 12 hours to get there, and I was supposed to meet some friends from Auckland about 6:30. Unfortunately for me, they ended up a bit late. No worries, however. I wandered around Thames, had a bit of food, and was in a restaurant enjoying the company of a nice retired couple when my friends finally showed up around 9:30. I hopped in the (very full) car and we headed up the road toward the Pinnacles, a small 'mountain' we were planning on hiking up the next day. We set up camp late that night and stared early in the morning. We made it to the top of the Pinnacles around 12:00 or 12:30 and had a good time enjoying the close-up of the inside of a cloud. Supposedly the view is breathtaking on a clear day, and judging just by the quality of the view from below the cloud layer, I believe the rumors to be true. We hiked down and headed back to Auckland on Sunday night.
I went to school Monday, and stopped by briefly on Tuesday morning, but spent most of Tuesday getting ready to leave New Zealand. It was sad to go, and my calculus boys seemed a bit torn, but coming back was a necessity, like it or no. I had an awesome trip, and am absolutely glad I went.
E noho rā Aotearoa - (Goodbye New Zealand)
So, to begin with, I haven't blogged since 2 weeks before I left New Zealand, and now I've been back in the United States for 2 weeks, which means (for those who may be having difficulty with the simple math) that it's been 4 weeks since I've written. An entire month. I feel kind of guilty.
Since my last blog, there were several significant events (not including coming home) that are worth mentioning here. First, kayaking. I finally managed to get hold of the people I referenced in one of my first blogs, the people I was hoping to have a social life through, and we went kayaking Saturday/Sunday. It was sweet. We did the Aniwhenua section of the Rangitaiki (?) River, and it was mean as. The people I met up with were all real cool. Two of them were very experienced kayakers, the other two not so much. The river was beautiful and fun, even for the experienced ones. The river runs through a deep gorge, a canyon really, with vertical walls rising straight out of the water in many places. The area is lush and green. The river is deep, with plenty of opportunities to eddy out, to play around, and to just enjoy the company of good people and good water. We drove down Saturday afternoon, camped Saturday night, kayaked Sunday morning/afternoon, drove back Sunday evening, and got back Sunday night. It was a cramped car (5 people in a Subaru with heaps of gear and 5 kayaks on top), but a good car. We had a misadventure (driving half an hour up an old logging road looking for a river access that wasn't there, all the while bottoming out the car on a regular basis and having to retie the boats several times due to roof-rack slippage) and a good time.
Following the awesome kayaking trip, I went to school for a week. It posed many challenges, as it does, but I survived. ... I should correct myself. I didn't really go to school for a week. I went to school for 3 days, then Thursday and Friday were teacher only days I decided to skip. I opted instead to fly to Wellington on Wednesday night after my calculus study group, where I stayed for 2 nights with Katherine, the sister of Fran, a teacher at the school in Auckland. I toured Wellington a bit, with particular interest in the parliament building, and then began a long hitch-hike up to Thames, in the Coromandel Peninsula, about an 8 hour drive away.
The hitch-hike itself was interesting, 3 rides in particular. I got one long ride, about 2 hours or so, from a young couple in a van. There were 2 seats in the front of the van, which they occupied, and no seats in the back, which I occupied with 3 dogs. But it was alright. The couple was cool and really nice, and they went out of their way to drop me off in a good location for catching my next ride, a girl my age on her way from work. She had an interesting life story. She grew up on a farm with 4 sisters, made a few mistakes, and dropped out of school when she was 15. She spent a few years figuring things out, and is now doing quite well in a small product marketing firm. She is in a program to finish up her schooling so she can become a manager in this firm, and seems to be in good standing with the owner, who actually invited her to leave the job she had and join the firm. This girl drove me for at least 3 hours, maybe longer, and we had some interesting conversations about religion, ethics, decisions, life, experiences, and all sorts of good stuff. Really a nice ride. My last ride of particular note became interesting when it happened twice. This guy picked me up and drove me for about half an hour, then dropped me off in a town where our directions diverged. He came back through town about an hour later, however, and I was still there. He happened to be heading my direction now, after having gone home to change out of his work clothes and borrow his wife's car. He was on his way to visit some people from his church, and his first stop was a pick-up, one of his fellow church members who was going out with him that night. Well, the guy we were picking up was just in the process of cooking his dinner, and offered us some, so there was a bit of a feed. Then I ended up walking out with a Book of Mormon. It wasn't aggressive or intrusive, and I didn't want to be rude, so I took it. I didn't really want to carry it, but I did anyway, and I still have it. I think it is important to educate yourself about other people's beliefs, so I will hopefully find the time to read it eventually, just out of curiosity.
I ended up in Thames about 6:00 PM. It took me 12 hours to get there, and I was supposed to meet some friends from Auckland about 6:30. Unfortunately for me, they ended up a bit late. No worries, however. I wandered around Thames, had a bit of food, and was in a restaurant enjoying the company of a nice retired couple when my friends finally showed up around 9:30. I hopped in the (very full) car and we headed up the road toward the Pinnacles, a small 'mountain' we were planning on hiking up the next day. We set up camp late that night and stared early in the morning. We made it to the top of the Pinnacles around 12:00 or 12:30 and had a good time enjoying the close-up of the inside of a cloud. Supposedly the view is breathtaking on a clear day, and judging just by the quality of the view from below the cloud layer, I believe the rumors to be true. We hiked down and headed back to Auckland on Sunday night.
I went to school Monday, and stopped by briefly on Tuesday morning, but spent most of Tuesday getting ready to leave New Zealand. It was sad to go, and my calculus boys seemed a bit torn, but coming back was a necessity, like it or no. I had an awesome trip, and am absolutely glad I went.
E noho rā Aotearoa - (Goodbye New Zealand)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)