Aftermath

What would I have done differently?
1. Bond University is a great university with smart professors, good staff, and a beautiful campus. Unfortunately it is full of rich, snobby, unrealistic students who don't know the meaning of hard work and earning your keep. It was a good experience to be around different people, but enough is enough with being around multi-billionaires who just don't get it. If I had to go back and choose a different university to study at, I might just have done it somewhere else but I don't know. Bond did have a tremendous amount of diversity which was really a great experience. Also, if I studied in Sydney I would have been even more broke (how is that possible I don't know..) and I don't think I would have traveled as many other countries and cities within Australia as I did. Sydney is a huge city with a lot more to do and see and I think it would have kept me in the city more than Gold Coast did.
2. I would have planned my New Zealand trip differently. We pretty much were confined to one main city, which wasn't even all that great. I probably would have tried to schedule all the activities in Queenstown or on the North Island. NZ was kind of a waste of money and time but at least I can say I've been there and what not.
3. I would have made sure I sky dived over the Great Barrier Reef. I was supposed to do this but unfortunately ran out of time.
4. I would not have taken Drugs and Behavior and I would not have taken Australian Popular Culture. These two classes were awful. I didn't learn anything. First off I hate science so the Drugs class was torturous. Second, as I have previously stated, I learned more from traveling and talking with Australians than taking a stupid class on it.
5. I would have fought harder to get into the classes I originally wanted to take: Global Politics and Islam and Oil in the Modern Era. They rejected me from taking them and instead of meeting with an advisor I kind of just said oh well and took these two other boring and pointless classes. Although the upside would be I would have had a lot more schoolwork to do if I had been accepted into these classes.
6. I would have scuba dived. I know it doesn't matter but it's always good to have a friend scuba dive with you. I should have just not cared and dived while I was in the Whitsunday Islands. It was only $60AUD and it was the Great Barrier Reef! I still saw sooo much stuff with the snorkeling I did, but I did the night scuba snorkel so it's clear I could have done scuba diving no problem.

I really had a great time in Australia and can't wait to go back one day. I spent alot of money and am in alot of debt right now, but it was well worth it. I was able to go to four different countries and several different cities and islands throughout the last four months. I learned alot about Australian culture, and lack-there-of. Australians are very open and kind people (for the most part..). For example, I was in a bus station standing around. I end up having an in depth convo with a stranger for like 15 minutes. I learned so many new things from him and he learned stuff from me too. This type of thing seems to be rare in the USA. I found it easier to talk to random people off the street in Australia than in the USA.

Some of my favorite memories include 1. Sky Diving 2. Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef 3. All of my adventures in Bali 4. Seeing and hearing the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra at the famous Sydney Opera House

Future Study Abroad Students: Keep an open mind. Don't overpack because you will end up buying a lot of stuff here. Travel every weekend if you can. See a show at the Sydney Opera House. Sky dive. Scuba. Talk to as many people as you can wherever you are whenever you can.

Fiji Stopover

Instead of going straight home after Australia most of us from Bond Uni decided to do a stop-over in Fiji. My friend has a timeshare so six of us rented it out for the week. It was pretty damn cheap, a good deal. It was in Port Denauru, Nadi, Fiji. It was at the Wyndham Worldmark hotel villas. Pretty much we laid by the pool almost every day and just relaxed alot. I read some books and got a lot of sun. It was between 90-110 degrees F daily. One day it rained a little bit which was the day I was going to rent a scooter which is too bad. Jen and I took a catamaran to an island called Beachcomber's Island. It was real nice. Cool coral sand. The water was so clear and refreshing. We had a buffet of Fijian foods. The island was so small that we were able to walk around it's outer beach around the whole island in less than five minutes. This island is also where the international dateline is; so I was in two days at once sort of! On the last day we had to move over to the Sheraton Villas which were even nicer than Wyndham's. It was great. I didn't drink much this week, maybe two out of the six nights. It was just a good week of sleeping and what not. Actually, I watched two seasons of this HBO show called The Wire, which is one of the best television dramas I have ever seen in my entire life. I highly recommend you to rent the DVDs or something. At the airport we met up with the other Northeastern Bondies and Joe P was generous enough to buy us all several shots of this alcohol called Bountry Overproof, 58.5% proof rum. It was gross but it did the job. I took some Advil PM and slept the entire plane ride to LA, which was great. In LA Jen and I went on a mini-adventure on some random buses to In-and-Out Burger, a famous burger joint with very cheap food that's only located on the West Coast. It was delicious. Then we still had another 5 of the 9 hour layover left. I finished watching the mafia hit show Underbelly, a show based on true life events of the drug war mafias in Melbourne, Aussie (which I went to) from 1994-2004. It was a good show, only 13 episodes. The flight from LA to Boston went pretty quickly although I was unable to sleep much. Unfortunately our friends who took the flight to JFK had electrical problems on their plane and they were diverted to Dallas Airport, which sucks. We are lucky we missed the storms and stuff. We arrived and the airport lost my bags, but fortunately they found them right away and I was all set. Jen was sweet enough to drive me home and now I have been back in good old Massachusetts for one day now... with 3 feet of snow and more snowstorms to come. I went from 115 degree weather to 15 degree weather in a matter of hours... Yay..

Last Week

The last week has come and gone quickly.

Week 13 and Week 14 - Bali, Indonesia Trip!!

Bali, Indonesia

I arrived home from New Zealand on Monday. It was a good trip, but on Sunday the white water rafting was canceled, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. I ended up meeting some Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, and as you all know, I love these guys. lol We talked and went to a local bar and just chilled. I learned some new Hebrew words.

Tuesday it was pouring out so I got a ride to the tavern and met some friends there for drinks.

Wednesday I slept and packed and then left Bond University at 330AM for a flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

We landed in Bali and checked into the Hard Rock Hotel. It was snazzy. I liked it alot. Day 1 there we walked around, got food, drank beers at the Centerstage Bar in the Hard Rock Hotel. Got dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. I got Nasi Goreng, which means Fried Rice. It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. It was also Thanksgiving so it worked out that I got such a good meal. Some people went out after the bar but I was exhausted and decided to go to bed. We woke up early the next morning and rented a car and a driver named Nelson. We drove to a place on the western side of the lower tip of Bali called Uluwatu. It is a famous surf spot. One kid surfed while we tanned on the decks above the rocks there. It was a hott day. The Indian Ocean is a very warm ocean too. Cools you off, sort of...

Then we went to a Monkey Temple on the cliffs. It was huge and hundreds of monkeys were everywhere. They were eating and jumping around and were not intimidated by people at all. The temple was pretty as it overlooked the ocean and pretty cliffs.

The temples do not allow women who are menstruating inside of them. They consider it unclean. It is kind of funny to see posters strewn about saying "Women with periods may not enter." lol.

Then we drove to Jimbaran Bay and saw the beach. It was pretty corroded but there was a whole strip of seafood places. They were kind of expensive so we went to Nusa Dua instead and got food at a Lotus Flower joint. It was delicious. I got Indonesian soup and Balinese chicken spring rolls. The currency of Indonesia is a Rupia. One USD = 12,500 Rupiah. One AUD = 8,000 Rupia. So at first you can get confused when you see "Balinese Springrolls 28000 Rupia" and then you realize.. Oh shit.. thats not even $3 bucks for spring rolls!

After Nusa and dinner we shopped around a bit and then drove around Denpasar. It was about 8 oclock and even though we could technically keep the driver for longer, we decided to go back. We showered and got ready and went to the band playing down at Centerstage. Their name was "X-Cite" they were a full band who played all different types of American songs from Shakira to Billy Joel to whatever. We were singing along at one point lol. Some of the bar staff were so cool: Mustang gave me a rice paddy hat. I wanted to take it home to wear for Halloween but it was just too big to deal with bringing to Fiji and all over the place. Hogi was a manager there he was real nice too. After Centerstage we walked to the club spot in Kutu (which is where we were staying) and went to a club called Bounty. Bounty was huge. 2 floors with over 5 different rooms. The first room had ethnic Balinese music being played live on hand drums and with tambourines. They had a good deal for scorpion bowls: Buy one for 45000 rupiah get one free. That's about 4 dollars for 2 gigantic drinks by the way. We all drank a few too many. Danced. Talked. Laughed. Sang. It was really a good time. We didn't get home until really late.

Saturday in Bali: I woke up and was like whoa I drank way too much. I drank Arak which is clear liquor made from rice. In Bali there are hundreds of rice paddies but the natives are starting to sell their paddy's to construct buildings and other things on because the rice paddies just aren't profitable enough anymore. I slept late then went to the beach and the pool and just chilled. We got lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We then shopped around and Jen and I got facials. Everywhere you walk people are like massage? massage? (do not pronounce it like Massage American style say -mah-sah-g, separate syllabus) The facials cost less than 4 bucks American. Colleen and Tom arrived (I might even be getting my times wrong but this all happened maybe not in this order though). And Colleen and I checked into our own room. We went to the pool then went and got food. This time I got Mie Goreng, fried noodles, which was awesome. The food here in Bali truly impressed me. Then we showered and went to the other room. We have some cocktails and headed out to Bounty area again. We partied in Bounty for awhile but knew we had to be up early for Sunday's festivities.. White water rafting and Elephant safaris!!!

Sunday: Colleen and I were up real early. We got breakfast at the hotel, which was bomb digs. Really good food! Fresh omelets made to order etc. We then got picked up and driven 1.5 hours away to the river, the Ayung River. On the way we saw more rice paddys, more of the scooters that almost every person in Bali owns, and again, hundreds of dogs. I am telling you, I have never seen so many dogs in my life. But supposedly most of the dogs aren't strays, they live with families but fend for themselves for food and then come back and protect the house, cattle, and other animals that a family owns. There have been 4 cases of rabies recently on the island, although it had been eradicated since the early 1980s. Culling of dogs was authorized by the government in order to reduce the threat of rabies but many home owners are in outrage. How could you tell if one dog is a stray and one dog is owned but just roams free? Well, you can't! Most of the dogs look filthy so you can't tell like that either. We talked to our driver about it and guess what. He eats dogs. You read it correctly, he EATS dogs. He asked me if I do as well and I was like UMM my dog is my best friend!!! Aw KC I miss you.. lol Glad I got to see you on webcam!! hahah Anyways I guess back to white water rafting..

White water rafting was definitely not as intense as the first time I went in Cairnes but it was way more cultural and beautiful. We had a few bumps, one enough for 2 people (including my friend lol) to fall out. It was pretty hilarious. Our guide kept asking if we were okay the whole time and I just wanted to be like DUDE we are fine there aren't any Level III rapids like the brochure says!! But we saw natives bathing and washing clothes and cleaning pots and pans and stuff it was crazy. We saw people filtering out the sand to make pottery and use as like concrete and stuff. We saw amazing hotels and rice paddies and beautiful trees hundreds of feet high with Tarzan-like rope swings and stuff. Heard some monkeys but didn't see any. It was a total of 8KM long. It was definitely fun! After this we went had to walk up hundreds of steps. It was intense and locals were bothering us to buy stuff the whole time. $1 dollar please $1 dollar. I am telling you, some of this stuff was worth WAY more than $1 measely dollar. We would have bought stuff but we left our money in the car to stay dry.. Poor people..

Got to the top and went to hot showers. Two girls were in it.. naked.. It was a trip. Colleen blurts out "I am going to wait until we are home to shower!" so loud. I just went in with my bathing suit on and then she followed suit. I guess Americans just weren't raised to.. um.. be so open.. In New Zealand women were showering naked all over the place in the hott bathes too. Then our driver brought us 45 minutes away to the Elephant Safari!!!

We got to the Elephant park and went inside. There are 27 elephants in this park. They were all rescued from Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia, and 6th largest island in the world. The elephants here are being slaughtered for their ivory and what not so an American man who married a Balinese woman descieded to do something about it. He rescued them and brought them to a land parcel of land in Bali. There is about to be the first ever birth of an elephant on Bali, ever, from a set of the elephants. There are only 6 male elephants so the women tend to fight over the male companions. It takes 18 months of pregnancy for an elephant, double that of a human! These creatures are actually mammals, as they are completely covered in hair. Their cute heads are full of reddish hair. They are so gentle and sweet and let you pet them, feed, them, they smile on command, and lots more. They can start having children around the age of 20-25 years old and live until they are approximately 75-100 years old. Two other cool elephant facts: Their trunks contain over 50,000 different muscles!!!! Their legs have certain creases they are only their own, no replicas anywhere; just like the human fingerprint!!!

We played with two different elephants for awhile, feeding them coconuts and sitting on their legs and stuff. I felt bad but then realized the men who work there are kind to these elephants; they have dedicated their lives to training them and befriending these guys. The elephants get fed so much food and are safe here in this park. We watched a show where the elephants demonstrated basketball skills, math skills in which I held up a number and they did math 4 + ? = 6 and the elephant took the 2 out of my hand! Smart guy! lol. They did some other tricks. It was cool. The music in the background was so corny though. Then we got on and rode them!

It was pitch black and we got on the elephant, Hamoush, and rode around for about 15 minutes through a nature jungle walk. We saw crazy huge spiders and stuff. Our elephant was misbehaving and it was pretty scary. She was hungry and kept reaching up to the trees for food. When she did this the entire back of her would tip, including the seat Colleen and I were on, and it was close to making us fall off. It made it more exciting though! I always seem to get the hungry animals aye? LOL It was cool. Then we got off at the restaurant and I will tell you, wow was the food great or what! It was bread, brushetta, salad, soup, bread crusted chicken with potatos and vegetables, and then a molten chocolate dessert. MMM MMM. Unfortunately I was having really bad heartburn and couldn't even eat it all. :( I have been getting heartburn lately and I've never had it before. It sucks really bad.. Then our driver drove us back to the hotel. Saw so many dogs in the darkness on the way back. We watched some movies and passed out.

Monday- The next morning we got breakfast and then went to the pool for alittle bit. We then got 90 minute FULL body massages, and I mean FULL body massages, with body scrub, yogurt scrub remover, and then a flower bath. It was intense. It felt best when she was rubbing my shoulders. It was my first ever 'professional' massage. Then we went shopping around the city. We got a ton of stuff. Cheap too. Then we got our hair braided on the beach. Not only was this a bad idea because the lady did a crappy job on my hair, but because we were literally attacked by heaps of Balinese women trying to sell us junk. I ended up buying 3 necklaces, 3 singlets, my nails were done almost without my permission, and I got a sarong. So intense. They made you feel so awful if you didn't support them at all. It was quite the experience. Suprisingly enough though they had licenses to do what they were doing! We got into a coversation with a surf 'instructor' on the beach and he was talking about Obama and how he was excited for change. He was excited Obama said that we aren't Muslim, black, white, Asian, or Christian, we are all Americans. He was like you guys don't like me because I am Muslim but I hope one day you will realize I am a good person too. It was an interesting talk.

This was certainly not the first person to bring up Obama. Almost 100% of the time when asked "where are you from" and I would respond America, they would instantaneously say OBAMA! you have a new president! He studied in Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) for years! We love Obama! Do you like Obama?? OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA.. lol it was annoying by the end but it was great that the people are keeping up to date with the international community and its politics. I was reading the Jakarta Post and liked many of the articles alot. Good opinion peaces and stuff.

That night we got a buffet dinner which was good and then headed up with our friends to Bounty, Paddy's and a few other places along the night club strip. We didn't get too drunk because we were getting picked up at 8:20 AM the next day, but it was alot of fun.

Tuesday- We were picked up by 2 guys for a full day tour. We picked up another couple, grandparents lol, from England. They were nice though. We went to so many different spots through the day I am going to just list them:
Silver making shop: People were hand crafting silver jewelry and other items.
Tapestry making shop: People (including 8 year old kids) were making hand woven tapestries and hand painted tapestries. They were very pretty and unique.
Barong Dance Show: A traditional Balinese dance performance. It was veryyy strange but a good experience. They had a good god and a bad god and the people rallied behind the good god to kill the bad one. There was a huge dragon-like creature at the begining, called the Barong I think, who danced around and stuff. It was pretty and these people must get 1. so hott in these intricate and thick costumes and 2. bored of doing the same exact show every single day.
Coffee Plantation: We saw coffee bean plants and coffee being roasted. Cacao beans for chocolate. Passion fruit (So delicious). Pineapples (really cool to see growing out of the ground). And some weird fruits as well. Giganormous spiders too. I tried some of the local hot chocolate it was good. Saw some of the hottest peppers on earth. It was cool.
Painting Village: Went to a local painting shop and saw people hand drawing and painting. WOW! It was really impressive. They were so sweet and so talented for real. I ended up buying 2 small paintings for less than $50 American. I don't have any money left but these people need the business.

After the Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005 the economy of Bali has suffered tremendously. People were scared to go to Bali thinking more terrorist attacks would occur. I never felt unsafe in Bali at any time. There are security guards everywhere. If you enter a nightclub or a hotel you are searched and your car is searched (not like everything but enough to know if you are a terrorist or not ya know?) and even the underneath of your car is looked at from a mirror device. People should not be afraid to go to Bali at all. The people are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life and we should not allow Islamic terrorists such as Jemaah Islamiyah stop us from traveling to a place that is so beautiful and friendly. The Balinese people literally depend on tourism to live. I once read 93% of the Balinese economy is based on tourism. That's the whole economy! Bali's population is about 90% Hindu and 10% Muslim.

Another thing we did: Ate lunch while looking at an ACTIVE volcano! It wasn't spewing lava or anything but it is indeed an active volcano. It blew up in 1998 and killed 1000 people its path of lava and molten hot destruction. Our guide said we were lucky because we were so high up and usually it rains but this day we could see all of the volcano although clouds and what not were roaming through it at times. It was a magnificent site and the pictures just don't show how amazing it really was. We then went home got room service and watched movies in the hotel room for the rest of the night. The next day we checked out and laid by the pool most of the day. I finished reading a book and swam and relaxed. We got lunch at Pizza Hut lol. It is a very popular spot in Bali! Oh and I saw my first Dunkin' Donuts since being away! I got a cafe latte!! For dinner we ate at a cheap local spot. My last Balinese meal! Then we got a $4 dollar taxi to the airport and ended up taking a very many shots (some free from the Duty Free shop, 12 year old whiskies and stuff! wow) with some other Bond Uni kids and got on the plane. The security to get through was very intense. They searched every person's carry on luggage. They threw away my suntan lotion that I forgot to put in my checked baggage. :( Colleen has all of the elephant photos so I will try to get them from her and post them as soon as possible. I am also working on the previous weeks entries as you finish this. I just think this was the coolest and it is the freshest in my mind. Thanks. Full photo album addresses:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232014&l=4822c&id=1812695

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232014&l=4822c&id=1812695

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232015&l=58ed4&id=1812695

Week 11

Whitsundays and Airlie Beach

I took a plane to this deserted one lane airstrip called Proserpine. We then took a cab to Airlie Beach. We walked around and got some food and drinks. The next morning we went to the Marina and boarded a boat called Powerplay. We were off toward the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped two times and snorkeled along the Great Barrier Reef. It was beautiful. I took an underwater camera and got some real good shots. Beautiful colored reef and heaps of different kinds of fish. There is one fish that was the size of a pre-teen human. For real. So huge. It would come right up to you and let you pet it. I was feeding it and it slurped up my entire hand in its mouth. So cool! It is the only male of its species in this bay, as there is only one male in each of the bays. When it dies or moves on, a female from the bay morphs into a male and grows 20X its size and then takes over. So bizarre. The food on the boat was real tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At night everyone was really tired but I made some random people stay up with me. People on the boat were from all over the world: England, Germany, Ireland, America, Australia. It was cool.

We went to the second best beach in the entire world, White Haven Beach. It's sand has never been sold except one time, to make the Hubble Telescope. It was the softest and whitest sand I have ever seen or experience in my life. Truly beautiful. You may be wondering what the best beach in the world is then. Well, I will tell you. It is a PRIVATE beach in Mexico, therefore you can't even go to it! So go to White Haven because it's the best beach you will ever actually see. We saw tons of sting rays just chillin' here. They were laying on the sand and I started chasing them around. We also saw a pod of porpoises or dolphins on the way here. It was cool. We couldn't tell which they were. I got real tan and had a good trip.

Week 12

I got back from Whitsundays on Monday pretty early. I just relaxed and had Don's steak night for dinner. I stayed in Tuesday to finish my terrorism paper. It was over 2600 words. I think it came out pretty well. I had to figure out how to stop the terrorist problem caused by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. If anyone is interested in reading it, please let me know. Maybe you are looking for an employee in a policy forum.. Hey I am looking for a job when I get back! I also had to finish a paper on "Is popular culture in Australia distinctive and if yes, how?" So boring. We had to write it on several movies we watched in class:
Bra Boys (Surfing gang in Sydney)
The Dish (did you know that without Australia and the help of their crew and the use of their satelite down in southern Victoria the world would have NEVER seen the first man walk on the moon???)
Crocodile Hunter (it was corny because the FBI was searching for some stupid lost transmitter and a crocodile ate it)
Chopper (has anyone heard of him? he's nuts! he killed several people and went to jail and wanted his cell changed so he had his ear sliced off to move cells. now he is free and is a celebrity! he even stars in a don't drink and drive commercial YouTube clip of it: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XpQeZEmien4 ) Watch the clip. Also the star of the movie was Eric Bana! (from Munich etc.)
Rabbit Proof Fence (a sad movie about 3 Aboriginal children who were taken from their mother and put into white camps over 5000 miles away. they ended up escaping and 2 of them made it back to their mother. it is intense. imagine a 12 year old and a 7 year old walking 5000 miles while cops and everyone is looking for you. they ended up being taken away a second time and escaped and walked home a second time. one of the women's daughters was taken from her when she was older and she hasn't seen her since. this is a true story. :( ......
One television show either Summer Heights High or Underbelly. People if you like you will like The Office you will like Summer Heights High. I heard it was actually going to be piloted in the US soon. Check it out. I wrote about Underbelly, a show based on true events in Melbourne from 1995-2002. It's just like an episode of Sopranos. Very good. I actually was able to get all of the episodes and am now watching episode 5. Very good series. The courts wouldn't even allow it to be played in all of Victoria (the state which contains Melbourne) until recently only 4 episodes have shown because there are still several murder trials going on!

Thursday Kayte, Brooke, and I left for Brisbane on the train and then caught a flight to Christchurch, New Zealand on the South Island. We got in and it was already 11 o'clock, but we met some Americans in the hallway of our hostel and ended up catching a cab to the city center and going out until about 4 AM. The guys were real nice, one is a fire fighter in NYC and the other a international money trader in LA. We drank and danced. The Kiwis (name for New Zealanders) were actually really sketch. The cabbie who drove us there was cool as. (Okay you may see me use this type of lingo "cool as" "sweet as" its a line used here and Australia very often and I like it alot. Sweet as translation: I confirm that what you are proposing is good by me" so cool as in this specific context would be: I confirm that this guy was cool. Get it? Got it? Good.) So why was he so cool you wonder? 1. He was like it's illegal and I could use my job and I have never done it but what the hell sure all five of yahs can get in the taxi! 2. He dropped of us of at a good spot and 3. He is a Crocodile Hunter Impersonator! Straight up! Someone in the front seat was like hey man you look like Steve Irwin! and all of a sudden he whipped out a business card saying he did impersonations. We were like noo way man! But he was like I was in Brisbane all last month, I swear! Okay, in Brisbane is "The Australia Zoo" which unfortunately I never got to but that's okay and besides the point. This zoo is the zoo created by Irwin and his wife many years ago and is famous really. So yeah! Cool aye?r>
The hostel: The hostel I found online is called Jailhouse Accomodation. It was a jail for almost 100 years! There is one cell they left completely untouched and it has scratching on the wall and what not from past inmates. It feels eerie inside and it's kind of cold. Everything is concrete. It is pretty cool. Definitely one of the coolest hostels I have ever stayed in. The beds were crafted for athletes who played in the Cup games in 2002, aka they were so comfortable. The showers were perfect temperature and water pressure. aka this place was better than my dorm at Bond! lol. Very cool place to stay for sure. Cheap too. Kayte and I got our own room so we didn't have to bother sharing with 16 odd people in a dormitory.

The next day we got picked up and went on jet boats which were cool. Jet boats are boats that propel water through the boat and make it go very fast virtually sliding on the water. They are actually much safer than other boats because they have no engine dropped into the water. I asked why they don't use them more often and he said I wish I knew! I wish they did! It was cool we got soaking wet. Christchurch was pretty damn cold but that's okay. Then we went on a horse ride near the water and what not. It was okay. Kinda slow and stuff.. My horse kept eating all of the plants on the side of the road. It added some excitement to it.. lol We then chilled at the farm for about an hour and had tea. I chased around some of the sheep because they were so annoying and they kept running away from me. There were four sheepdogs here who were awesome! They loved to play catch and were real smart dogs, fast too. One of them was so pregnant she looked like she was about to pop.

We got home got dolled up alittle bit and took a taxi to the gondolas. Little did we realize how expensive this taxi was going to be. WOW. So we got to the gondolas and took the ride up. It was cool. We were able to see all of Christchurch and the mountain side. New Zealand has hundreds of sheep everywhere on all side of you at all times. Bah!!! Some are so annoying. Some seem mean. We chilled at the top and then got dinner. We asked for the side best for the sunset and she put us on the exact opposite spot. What a loser. We were all pretty mad, I'm telling you. How long do you need to work somewhere to not understand which side looks 100 trillion times better when the sun sets.. Ugh. The food was good but it wasn't enough. We were still kind of hungry. Then we left. Hopped on a bus and then another and got back to the hostel. We were pretty beat so we watched tv and chilled. I saw this book called like the Yiddish Policeman's Union or something and really wanted to take it from the Take One Leave One book rack but I didn't have a book to leave so I was going to hold off until Monday to take it.. Of course come Monday the one book on the entire shelf that I was interested in was gone.. For real who in their right mind wants the same book as me like that in a 2 day radius?? The cameras alic;">must have been on me and then realized they wanted it and took it before I could. Jeesh. (lol)

Saturday we got picked up in the morning and headed towards some 'natural hot springs' at a spot called Hamner Springs. It was a gorgeous ride up there! Huge mountains. Rolling rivers. Sheep.. Obviously.. Cool bungy jump spots. We got to the little country town and shopped around. Strange shops. Bizarre shops. Very weird.. Then we had lunch.. or I had potato salad and carrots while everyone ate sausage.. :( I told them no pork ! grrr.. There were over 40 huge ducks chilling around the picnic spot. They would bite at our toes asking for food so I snatched one of the chicks and held her. The pic makes it seem likes I'm choking her to death by I swear I wasn't lol. Don't worry Mom I washed my hands afterwards. Then we went to the hot springs. It was kind of weird too.. They were like regular pools.. Seriously.. but.. just.. hott... I guess it was all natural heat from underneath though. Some were 40 degrees celcius which is like 107 F about I'd say. Those hottest ones wreaked of sulfur. I didn't mind the smell too much. We then shopped around alittle more (for what I don't know lol nah I actually got some chocolate fudge that was out of this world yum yum!!). It was a cool experience at least.

Sunday we woke up all extra early and stuff to go White Water Rafting on the Rangitata River!! Wahoo right?? Wrong. They canceled it and never called us. We called them and they said the river had bad conditions and was too dangerous to go rafting that day. Ugh. The one main part to the trip was canceled. What a bust.. So we walked into town and shopped and had lunch and stuff. Then we were out ideas and options to do really so we got beer and went back to the hostel. I got beer with Stein in the last name cuz I thought it made me look cool.