Kayaking 101, Waitangi Day, and Respecting Recreation

Tuesday, Feb 5
I started kayaking lessons. I am so cool. I don't know if you know this but when you kayak you have a skirt-ish thing that also goes over the kayak. This creates the "I'm a paraplegic" illusion. So our instructor is sitting in a kayak in the pool and he flips over so he's basically drowning. Then our other instructor, Bill (we call him Scuttle), flipped him back over.

And that's how you get back up if your boat flips over and you're attached in it.

You should be asking yourself, "What happens if you don't have a person in the water to flip you over?"

Again, John flips over and just like a magic trick, gets out of the water alive. ("I will now escape from a kayak under water" *Ooo!) Really all you do when you're in that situation is pull your skirt and swim out from under your kayak.

I'm happy to know I, too, can escape from flipped over kayaks.

While we were all in Splash Palace learning to kayak (yes, in a swimming pool...I love kayaking class!) all of our red bikes were parked outside. The local newspaper The Southland Times took pictures of our bikes.

Wednesday, February 6
Happy Waitangi Day! It's the day the Pakiha (white men) and the Maori signed a treaty. I'm in favour of it because it means there's no school.

We met at the fountains at Queens Park and started making Valentines. We like to plan ahead. We made them out of coloured paper. It reminded me a little of Stargirl by Jerry Spinneli. After a Turkish Kebab for lunch and some quality blogging we celebrated Ryan's birthday. He's one of the grandkids. He said he went bungy jumping with his girlfriend. I think I can do it. I'm mentally psyching myself up for it.

Thursday, February 7th
Guess who made front page of the Southland Times.
We did.
There's a big picture of Ashley in our group trying to find a space to park her red bike in the already-taken up bike rack. I wish I could post a link but I can't seem to find the picture and/or article in the online version. Bummerface.

I tried a new cereal today. I think I'll stick with Tropical Delight.

Tyler broke his hand. Mark had him and Cameron go to the front of the class. Cameron told the story: "Tyler attacked me, I grabbed his hands and bent them back and broke his finger."
It's actually quite hilarious. Cameron says it almost like it was deliberate. But he's the nicest guy in the world. The irony is hilarious.

Class was awesome. I had my family and recreation class this morning. We talked about how recreation is a scoffed at major because people think we just play all day. Sometimes that's true. But that's not why we choose this major. Second to your health, what you do during your free time is most important. It's what molds you and makes you a person. It includes how much time you devote to spiritual stuff and sports, clubs, meetings, and community involvement. This major is about enriching your life and promoting growth and development. And how much time a family spends together and what they choose to do during that time can make or break a family.

I've been thinking about this a lot today. This class is teaching me activities that all ages can do together instead of just the parents or just the kids; also to avoid parallel activities like watching TV. Joint activities are best.

Cameron and Tyler told me one organization might light us play in the street to get money for them. I went home around 3, talked to Georgina and Jason. I showed them pictures of my family and told them why I have duct tape on my fingers. To take off warts, of course. Jason has a lot of warts so he took some of my duct tape to fix that. His mom is going to think I'm weird.

I took a delicious nap. Haeree told me how she and the Jackapo clique worked out painting a playground tomorrow to get rid of graffiti. I'm excited to get involved in the community like that. Dinner was stir fry (without rice?) and the regular potatoes and the best broccoli and cheese sauce. I LOVE New Zealand cheese. Pudding was a sponge cake with caramel, banana, whipped cream, more banana, and some crushed flake bar. It's called banoffi pie. Mmmm!

After tea Haeree went to Splash Palace. I stayed home because I'm not feeling 100%. ( Pauline and her kids came over to do a project for Harrison. He had to take pictures and print them and just couldn't get any to print at home. They gave me a copy of the pictures. I love these kids. I drew a picture of mountains for Georgina. She's a cutie. Ryan came. It's his birthday today. I made him a giraffe balloon animal. I tried teaching them others how to do it. They're beginners so they're supposed to be abstract. They said I should teach it for my service hours. Good idea.

Haeree came home and we went for a short run. Probably about a mile.We stretched on the grass and talked. Life here is incredible. Haeree and I were talking about why it's so awesome here. The landscape in Invercargill isn't that amazing. Classes are fun but it's not what makes New Zealand awesome. We've come to our conclusion: We have no commitments.

I don't have a job. I don't have a cell phone. I don't even have a watch. I've been plopped here and God has given me what every person dreams of: a second chance at childhood with all the perks of being old enough to cross the street by myself and swim without floaties.

I use a landline phone and ask if my friends can play. We go to the park and swing or play touch rugby. We always meet at the fountains. I have next to no cares. Someone else does my laundry and packs my lunch and makes dinner. I ALWAYS get cookies in my lunch (I was always jealous of the kids who had dessert in their lunches everyday) and I don't have to worry about budgeting my life around rent and Ramen.

I think the best part is I have 34 friends. I can play with any of them. I don't have to worry about being cool, doing my hair (we all suffer from helmet hair every day) or even putting make up on. I'm just going to swim it off, any way.

I am going to have a hard time going back to a life of stress.

Haeree and I also want to make dinner one night. Our list of possible entres include quesadillas, sloppy joes, 7 layer bean dip, smores, rootbeer floats, funeral potatoes, and chili fries.