Sunset and Sheep. That's New Zealand in a nutshell.Friday, February 1, 2008 marks the first day of class. It was pouring rain this morning and I was very grateful for my rain pants and jacket. Haeree wore her jacket over her backpack. With her matching green pants and jacket and a big lump on her back she resembled a Ninja Turtle. Class today only lasted about an hour. We went over what our schedule is going to be and the syllabi. Joyce made me a pita sandwich with beets inside. Old people put weird things in sandwiches but they're still good. (Both the sandwiches and the old people, that is)
Megan Bird, Janell and I walked around town. I hit up a few stores and then I had to use the toilet. The Exeloo is a public toilet. It talks to you. You push a button and the door opens. Then the door closes and a man over the loud speaker says "You have ten minutes." And then the elevator music starts and you hurry and do your thing because you're not quite sure when the door will open. Every Exeloo is wired to play an instrumental rendition of "what the world needs now/is love, sweet love". You have to push a button to feed you toilet paper and then the toilet flushes when you wash your hands. It's the best toilet I've ever been in.
There are 33 of us with matching red bikes. We all bike everywhere because we really don't have a choice. Yesterday we biked to Oreti beach. It was really funny to see all 33 of us biking in a single line. We could take over round-abouts and possibly small villages. (That's Stefanie on her bike at the shop. She's good at taking lots of pictures)
I spent time hunting for perfect shells I have absolutely no use for. I am developing a nice tan and my hair is lightening. I'm basically going to be a babe when I get back to the states.
On our way home we stopped at Kracker Jacks and I made Katie Jo, Jessica, and Megan Bird all have a meat pie. Meat pies are good. And Kracker Jacks is awesome because they only cost a dollar there which is about 73 cents American. After tea time (money bags are amazing!) we went to support Janelle and Kathy in their rugby game. We cheered loud. We're proud of our loud heritage.
In case you didn't get why Kathy and Janelle are playing rugby: Ged is their homestay dad. The first thing he did when we met our families was take the girls to a rugby game at the stadium. Janelle is on the women's rugby team and Kathy took a rugby class when she went to BYU Hawaii. That's Part 1.
Part 2. Ged used to work in the prison and he coaches a city rugby league. Since it's coed, there always needs to be two girls on the field. So one day Ged comes home from the pub and says he was talking to some of his mates from the prison and they signed Janelle and Kathy up to play Thursday at 6. Welcome to the team!
The team name is SKPs. (Escapees...like escaping from prison) It was good to see how a rugby game is really played. Janelle tried to teach us Wednesday night when we were at the park. It's chaos when we play. Well, speaking of rugby, I gotta go. The World Seven Series is on and India is playing Australia.
3 comments:
k... so call me crazy, but something about a timed-toilet just doesn't sit well with me o.0
Bike rides are the most amazing things in the whole world, and I envy your warmth. I suppose you know about the too much snow we've gotten that you will never see... until I post pictures of it on my blog!
I once used a toilet in Germany in about August that had a self-cleaning toilet seat. When the toilet was flushed (automatically), this tiny square gizmo came out of the head and cleaned the toilet seat while it whirled around. I was astounded and happy beyond compare. You cannot imagine my utter disbelief and joy when we traveled to Germany and used the very same toilet.
You know, lots of Japanese are installing these toilets in their homes and especially in public places which also take your temperature, function as a bidet, play music (birds in nature)to cover unpleasant noises and even dry you off when you're done! Can you believe we're actually part of it all?!
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