In Which New Zealand Happens

Saturday: I spent the day packing and travelling to the airport. I watched "Yes Man" on the plane. The book was much, much better. Go read it.

When I arrived in NZ, it was late at night, and I had to check into a hostel. I'd never been to a hostel before, and I was kind of scared. First, because I noticed that there was already someone sleeping in my room. Next, because there were 4 other people sleeping as well.


Sunday: I woke up and met my roommates, and was relieved to find that they were also on my trip. There were 49 of us in total on the trip. Most were from Macquarie, and the group I initially spent time with were from all over the globe. There were Americans, Australians, Germans, Danes, Colombians, a Mexican, and a Brit.


At lunch, we went to these rocky hills where scenes from Narnia were filmed, including Aslan's death and resurrection. So, since it was Easter, it made sense for us to be there.














Afterward, we traveled to a farm in Flock Hill, and learned about sheep and wool. We had some time to kill before dinner, so we all planned to travel to a "nearby" waterfall. We followed the signs, but it lead to a dead end with a huge mud puddle. Some gave up and went back, while others decided to try different paths. After two hours, my travelling companions had all given up. The rest were on bikes, so they went back without me, leaving me to find my way back home.

2 more hours later, I finally found my way back. The sun had set during this time, and everything was pitch black. I had my iPod to illuminate the way. I tried using short cuts, but this actually added time to my journey. And one point I ran into a field of cows.

I used these two hours to reflect on life, like one does during a walkabout. The sky was absolutely beautiful. You could see so many stars.

(Turns out the waterfall was actually beyond the mud puddle from earlier, but the recent snow meltage had caused the huge pond to appear in the middle of the path.)

Monday: Oh, this was Glacier Day. We climbed 5000 steps...or 500 steps...up a rainforesty mountainside to walk onto a glacier. I ate a piece of it. This was a very sweaty, tiring, 4 hour process.

Tuesday: During the day, I finally found my waterfall. It was beautiful, but the best part was the afternoon/evening, where we arrived in Queenstown and traveled up the mountain side to race in luge karts and bungee jump. The only people who did this were about 10 of us, including my roommates and their friends. This was a lot of fun, and bungee jumping is one of the greatest experiences I've ever had.

We ate that night at a Mexican restaurant called Sombreros where we all wore sombreros (except for the Mexican, who didn't want to perpetuate stereotypes). The food was amazing though, and even the Mexican agreed that it was like real Mexican food.

Wednesday: My second activity for Queenstown involved a horseback ride around some of the locations used in Lord of the Rings on some of the horses used in Lord of the Rings. It was rainy, and the horses were hard to handle at first, but it was still wonderous to look at.

We ate dinner at Fergburger, which has the best burgers ever, and we should eat there again tomorrow.

At night, the plan was for us all to meet up at a bar and then visit a nearby "ice bar" where everything is made of ice, and you get to spend 30 min in there (since it's small, and othere people want to get in). As you know, I have sworn off bars entirely, and since I wasn't really bonding with the people on my trip (i.e. they all got wasted before we even left for the bar), I knew I'd be miserable. I still came along for the ice bar, because that was something unique.

Since we had a big group, we went in two halves. My drunk roommates told me to wait for them and go in the second group, but instead I went in the first group, and it was the best decision I made the whole trip.

I barely knew any of the people in the first group, and I was basically just counting down the 30 min I had to spend in the ice bar. Suddenly, a girl came out of nowhere and started taking pictures with me and her friend. We got to talking, and we basically stayed together for the rest of the night.

Even after the ice bar, we didn't go out to various bars to get drunk like everyone else did. We went on a quest to find brownies. We never found them, but I was glad I had finally made real friends on the trip. (For the rest of the trip, the girl and never got drunk on the nights everyone else did, even though she does drink.)

Thursday: As we said goodbye to Queenstown, we were greeted with a magnificent rainbow that stretched across the sky. I wasn't able to get great pictures of it, but at one point it framed a mountain perfectly, and it was the best thing I'd ever seen.

We spent that night on a cruise boat in a fjord. The quarters were very cramped, and the cruise was quite cold, but that didn't stop us from swimming in the water. I even managed to do a lap around the boat in freezing water, although I barely made it.

That night, the girls and I played various board games, including Guess Who, except instead of asking the regular questions ("Is your person wearing a hat?"), we asked abstract questions ("Is your person a pedophile?").

Friday: We spent the morning cruising around the fjord, and getting a spectacular sunrise over the ocean. At lunch, I had a peppermint slice, the greatest dessert ever. Imagine aYork Peppermint Patty and a brownie had a baby. We then drove a lot, stopped at a fruit stand, with delicious fruit products and beautiful roses. We ended the day at another out of the way place near a lake.

I skipped a stone.

I got my future read by one of the fellow tour members who had tarot cards. I'm either supposed to "stay the course" or "make a change in my life," I forget which.

The girls and I explored the area, playing on a seesaw and playing ping pong. Everyone eventually ended up in the hot tubs.

Saturday: Most of the day was spent driving back to Chrsitchurch and the scary hostel (where the trip began). Nothing truly exciting happened. The tour bus left us, and my new friends and I just wandered around the city.

Sunday: I said goodbye to my new friends, and eventually caught a plane back home. This time, I watched "Bolt." I'm pretty sure everyone sitting around me thought I was weird for a) choosing to watch Bolt out of the huge library and b) crying during the emotional parts. I think it made me miss my dog.

And that was my trip. What have we learned?

In Which John Has a Pretty Sweet Week

Monday: After auditioning for the Godzilla plays, Abby, Andrew and I lied in the field and watched the clouds, then the sunset, then the stars. Abby said it was the perfect moment, and if she were to die right then, she'd be satisfied.

Tuesday: I got into one of the plays which is about a sperm's adventure. I play the Narrator. I convinced the director to let me play it as Eros, god of love, lust, and sex, rather than the boring professor-type she had written. I'm just trying to make it so I have a costume similar to Pit from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Wednesday: I participated in an improv competition among three Sydney universities. Australians have a lot of different improv games than Americans. We didn't win, but everyone (the audience, the other competetors, and the judges) loved my serious, realistic scene about a marriage proposal that never occurs.

Thursday: I watched Twlight with the Thrill Seekers. Not every day can be great.

Friday: I visited Allie and Amy's home to eat Passover dinner. It was absoultely amazing, and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I have to get ready for New Zealand tomorrow.

So, I'll catch up with you guys in 10 days.

In Which John Has More Birthdays Which Make for the Best Weekend Ever

The week was just spent doing stuff and things and shopping at malls and stuff.

On Friday, Taylor and I got ready for a birthday party. It was Disney-On-Ice themed, so we had to dress up as Disney characters, and then go ice skating. I went as Lumiere and Taylor went as Babette the feather duster from Beauty and the Beast (Abby was originally supposed to go as Babette, but homework came up). Our costumes were pretty good, and the fact that we came as a pair helped with the awesometicity.

This was the first time I've been ice skating since kindergarten, so I was really shaky at first. But I eventually I learned to stray from the wall and skate without looking at my feet. I only fell down when we started a chain of skaters and it got a little hectic.

Afterward, we went to a Japanese karaoke bar. This was amazing. We got our own room where we could sing as loud as we wanted to. The songs were pop songs, but the videos that played were generic Japanese music videos that were either live dance performances or tragic love stories or racing car video games. I was the first person to get a schor of over 90 points with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," but the best part of the evening was right at the very end where the birthday girl (and everyone else) sang "Under the Sea" and we got a perfect 100.

Saturday was going to be a big day. We had plans to go to the Glebe Markets, eat at Pancakes on the Rocks, and spend a night at Luna Park. It was supposed to be a huge event with the whole theater dept, but only me, Abby, Andrew, Taylor and two other theater members came. At Glebe, we ate in a cafe, and suddenly Taylor proposed we sing a song. We're theater people, so there is nothing unusual about that request. But then she started counting down for us to start singing, and I realized we hadn't picked the song yet, so I thought we were just supposed to "know" what we were going to sing. As it turns out, the other 5 already picked the song. It was Happy Birthday.

The day turned into my belated 21st birthday celebration. I had expected that we might do something like this, but I didn't expect it for today. So I was surprised. It was my first surprise party. I've always wanted one.

We shopped around in Glebe for a bit, and I ate some of the best candy ever. It was called licorice, but they were sour fruit flavors, softer, and very long strings.

We then walked all the way to Pancakes on the Rocks, which I've heard plenty about, but was expecting an IHOP type place. Pancakes were involved in almost every menu item. There were the desserty pancakes as well as dinner crepes and meals. I got Potato Pancakes, expecting latkes. Instead, I got buttermilk pancakes with potatos and spices...inside the batter. They were glorious.

At this point, the other two theater members left, and there were just four of us. We had to walk to Luna Park which was on the other side of the Sydney Harbor. Thus began the most magical evening ever.

The four of us walked along the Harbor Bridge. The view was spectacular. We made a pact to return to the center of the bridge every 10 years. I hope we stick to that.

On the other side of the bridge, we became a crew. We got new names. Andrew was "Blade," Abby was "The Moonchild," and Taylor was "Sister Nightmare." I have reasons for picking all these names, each of which relate to something from back home. I was dubbed "Professor Lightning." Together, we became "The Thrill Seekers."

Luna Park was magical. I acted like a little kid the whole time. We rode on various spinning rides and ate ice cream and failed at carnival games and explored the Coney Island Funhouse. And even though the Ferris Wheel closed before we could ride on it, we did sit on the harbor and watch the boats go by. It was just perfect.

(My camera stopped working, so all of the pictures from Luna Park are in Taylor's albums. Friend her and enjoy. There are so many I wish were my profile pic.)

We then went back to Abby and Taylor's for Funfetti cake with cream cheese icing. And we watched "Reefer Madness: The Musical."

And I loved my friends and appreciate everything they did.