Weekend Adventures!

I had a very good first week of class apart from dealing with a bit of a sinus infection. I'm taking Society and Culture, Film, TV, and Media Studies, Pacific Art Studies, and Statistics. I'm enjoying them so far, they seem like they will be interesting courses- besides stats..I could do without it but it's something I have to take in order to graduate :) In other news, I finally got my cell phone working this past Monday and by Thursday I lost it. I don't know where, I don't know how. All the sudden i realized I didn't have it. go figure, I would do something like that. If it doesn't turn up, O WELL! I will just live without it. I've done it most of the time i've been here anyways, so I don't think it will be a huge issue.

It was my friend Amanda's birthday on Thursday and Mariel's was today-Sunday. We spend the weekend celebrating. We had this awesome cookie tower for Amanda on Thursday night. There's this little tiny shop on Queen Street (main shopping strip of the Central Business District (CBD) where I live. It's called Mrs. Higgins- and they sell fresh baked cookies all day long :) Mariel and Katie went and bought one of each kind that looked good and then made them into a tower and shoved a candle in the top!



Saturday we spent the day about 40 minutes west of Auckland. I rented a mini van and 7 of us piled in! Apparently I'm the old lady of the group and was told that I had to rent it because i was the only one old enough. Most of our friends are 19-20 and I'm ancient, turning 22 next month!! Anyways, we designated Mariel to drive being that she's the only one of us that has ever driven from the right side of the car on the left hand side of the road! She did a great job and we had zero problems the whole day! Here's us in our sweet ride!



We drove to Waitakere Ranges Regional Park where we did 2 hikes. The first was to Fairy Falls and the second was to a bigger waterfall. The first hike was completely downhill the whole way and took about an hour. It was a beautiful walk, we had a gorgeous day- sunny, no clouds, and just a bit chilly. The walk back was nice too and probably the equivalent to doing an hour on the stair stepper! There had to have been 100s upon 100s of built in steps leading back to the road, but it was a fun hike! I'm feelin' it today!! We stopped and ate our lunches in our cool van, stopped at the visitor's center of the park and got some great info for our next hike and got some sweet scenery shots!





After our second hike we drove a bit further down the road until we reached Piha Beach. We are definitely going to go back there once it starts to warm up! (We think it's the beach the scenes from the 2nd Narnia movie were filmed at, but I have to double check on that) It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It's places like this that are a blatant reminder of God's power, and hand in creation! I was simply in awe, I'd never seen anything like it. We found more stairs to climb up this huge rock formation- that's accessible when the tide is right :) We stayed for a while and explored a bit but had to have the rental van back by 5pm! But we had a fantastic day exploring and hiking and being out of the city for a day!






Our birthday celebrations continued with some BBQ chicken pizza from a local place and chocolate cake with pink icing (proudly made by katie) It was mariel's 21st so we splurged on a bottle of sparkling wine! We were all exhausted from the day but we had a good time celebrating and playing games! It was an awesome weekend and now I'm ready for another week of classes!

We went back to St. Paul's church this morning. We are going through the book of Galatians. The text this morning was a wonderful reminder of Christ's love for his children. I leave you with these words:

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Gal 3:26-29

My Flat!

Well, it has been an interesting first week in my new flat (apartment). The week started out a little rough when we moved into our apartment and found it a filthy mess! Luckily, we were not responsible to clean it up! After talking to our building manager, a cleaning company was sent the next day! There are five of us in our flat. We each have our own bedroom and we share the kitchen and living area. We have to bathrooms as well. Sarah, one our our flatmates is from South Carolina. She's really great and Mariel and I get along with her really well. Shub and Phil came as a little surprise to us, and after speaking to them we learned that 3 American guys lived here last semester..which would explain the dirtiness. Now I know what you're all thinking.. Shub and Phil sound like boy names. That would be correct. We attempted to move out when we learned that we would be living in the same flat with 2 guys, however by the time we came back from our first orientation weekend, it was too late to move. So, it hasn't been so bad. We actually barely see each other. Mariel and I are sharing food and meals and everyone else kind of does their own thing too. Seems to be an OK system for all of us! So, after a stressful move in week, we are finally organized and are beginning to prepare for classes which start on Monday the 20th, Sunday for all of you reading in the states :)

Here are some pictures of our flat!!


bedroom..

kitchen..


living room/kitchen table

**IKEA made bank furnishing our building**

some highlights/random facts for the week
1. free samples from the starbucks that just so happens to be on my walk to campus :)
2. Indian food. never tried it before. but i loved it. who knew? (mom i know you're shaking your head and laughing right now!! )
3. turning light switches down to turn ON the lights.
4. not getting lost the whole day and had my first "bubble tea"
5. buying all our school supplies from a Japanese dollar store!
6. Kiwi fruit. tastes better here for some reason
7. planning a trip to tour the south island over our mid semester break
8. eggs in new zealand have orange yokes. like ORANGE.
9. fush and chups. i like the chups, not so much the fush! (fish & chips)
10. riding 6 miles along the bays on a bike. don't remember the last time i rode a bike. i'm feeling the after effects!!

this week has mainly been filled with settling in, going to the gym, wandering around the city, trying to get my cell phone unlocked, getting to know new people, figuring out class schedules, and sleeping in. I know what you're thinking, "how can you sleep in when you're only in NZ for 4 months.. well let me tell you that it will be the only week all semester that that will be happening! My schedule starts at 9 everyday but mondays and i have absolutely no classes on Wednesdays! A few other girls from our group don't either so we're hoping to make that a day to take some day trips out to some of the other islands close by!

Mariel and I are going to go to St. Pauls church in the morning. A friend of her family lives down here working in the ministry and that church was highly recommended to us. I'm looking forward to a nice day of relaxation after a fully day of walking the city today! I covet your prayers as I being school this week and adjust to life here :)

Orientation Weekend

Kia Ora again!

I was able to secure some internet here in my apartment pretty quickly today! There is a pizza place located in our building that offers students access to their wireless connection that is cheaper than our building offers! Hopefully it will work out well for us!

This might be the longest I will ever post, but orientation was FULL of activities! I will just start at the beginning and hope I don’t bore you too much. We landed in Auckland at 6:30am Thursday morning. We were greeted by Kate and Jane ( our fabulous Arcadia University program directors) who took us straight to Kiwi International Hotel where we showered, had coffee and muffins, and headed out for an exciting day getting to know the city. There are 14 people from all over the USA in our group ( and when I say “our” I’m referring to Mariel and myself…She is the friend from Geneva who came with me and who I’m also living with!) We spent the day walking around the city, getting our bearings, and fought off the urge to go to sleep. We hiked up North Head after walking down Cheltenham beach. Then we went up the Sky Tower for a view of the city from above. We went out for a nice “pizza” (not by Chicago’s standards) dinner and fell fast asleep by 730pm! I slept a good 12 hours!

Day 2- Friday consisted of traveling to Rotarua- a tourist town 3 hours south of Auckland. Along the way we stopped in Hobbiton where the Shire portions of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. We only stopped through for lunch, so we weren’t able to tour anything, but were able to pose for a picture in the “hobbit hole.” We continued on and arrived at the Agrodome where we watched a farm show followed by a tour of Rainbow Springs where we saw rainbow trout, kiwi a tuatara – all unique to New Zealand. Following this we checked into the Sudima Hotel. We toured the town and ate dinner at a fantastic little Italian place. At night we went to the Polynesian Spa located next to our hotel and soaked under the stars in a hot mineral water pools. It was a great way to unwind. Now, I know what you’re all thinking. “WOW, that sounds awesome!” right? WRONG. Let me explain.. the town of Rotarua smells of nothing but sulfur.. to me it smells like rotting eggs/farts. The hot mineral pools were very relaxing, however, we looked down towards the end of our soak and realized how much floating dead skin we were sitting in and were thoroughly disgusted! It’s winter here, did I mention that? So it did feel good to soak in the pools, but it was hard to get over the smell.

Day 3- Saturday consisted of visiting a Waiotapu a geothermal park where were watched lady Knox geyser erupt . We had a 2 hour lunch break after this where we went to the local grocery store to buy something cheap to hold us over until dinner. We then went back to the hotel to gear up for our afternoon of ZORBING! Zorbing is an athletic event here in NZ. We changed into our bathing suits (remember it’s winter- so I wore t-shirt and shorts over mine ) and driven to the top of a hill where we paired off and waited in line. Two by Two we dove headfirst into a rather large plastic ball partially filled with water. We were then hurled down a hill. The whole thing lasts for about 35 seconds, but it was thrilling all the same! After calming down and catching our breath from laughing so much, Mariel and I climbed out and raced to change out of our wet clothes!

Following our showers and a bit of downtime we were picked up on a bus and headed out the Tamaki Maori Village where we experienced an traditional Maori welcome , concert of song and dance, and a hangi Maori Dinner prepared in underground ovens. (very delicious) Completely exhausted, we returned to the hotel for a well deserved night’s sleep.

Day 4- Sunday we made the 3 hour trip back to Auckland where we settled into our apartments! 3 hours in a small coach bus going over hills and around corners doesn’t do well for my motion sickness- needless to say I had a pretty bad headache and was pretty crabby by the end of the trip! One thing we’re trying to get used to is driving on the left hand side of the road.. we’re being extra careful crossing streets and always looking to the right first, not the left!

That’s enough for now, Thanks for reading (if you made it this far)

Kia Ora!
We just got back from our orientation weekend with Arcadia University and are jumping into our orientation week with the University of Auckland! We have some scheduled activities and meetings, but a lot of free time to get acquainted with the city! I only have a few minutes, so I'm going to leave you with my address so you can start sending mail!! :) When I have more time I will post about orientation and my first week here!

Rebecca Lagestee - 4D/2
c/o Wellesley Student Apartments
8 Mount Street
Auckland 1010
New Zealand

Blessings to you all!

I'm HERE!!!

Well, I'm here in Auckland, New Zealand and I'm loving it already! The flight over was fabulous! I slept most of it, and watched movies to pass the rest of the time! I made it until about 3pm here before I started to get sleepy. We spent today traveling around the city by foot and by bus visiting lots of different places.. mostly to keep us awake and moving! We have about an hour before dinner so we came to an internet cafe because if we stayed in our "hotel rooms" (more like a hostile) we'd fall right asleep! The next few days, we will be traveling to Rotorua, which is about 3 hours south of Auckland to experience some Maori culture and some relaxation as well! I won't have access to the internet again most likely until Sunday or Monday! Keep us in your prayers as we travel around. I've met a lot of great people and have been enjoying getting to know them so far! I'll post my address next time when I find out my apartment number! Have a great weekend!!

2 more days!!

So, I'm on Skype now, and I'm still trying to figure it out.. I'm under BeccaLag so add me or call me sometime on it if you want to :)

I spent the day today with family and it was absolutely wonderful. Dad made what i kept calling, "my last supper" and both sets of gradparents came over after church for lunch as well . We also celebrated TJ's birthday, he's 24. Happy Birthday Teej :) Here is a few family pics we took, it was beautiful outside!!


Overall, I'm feeling ready-- I know that I'll never be able to fully prepare myself for this trip, but I'm feeling good about everything. Still a little nervous about the flying part, tho! This will be my last post until I'm all settled into my apartment in Auckland! I have 4 days of orientation before we reach Auckland, so I will try to post as soon as I can. I'll be able to call home upon arrival to let my family know I'm safe! I covet all your prayers for this journey! Until Auckland....