From Kiwis to Samoans...

So i'm off to another foreign land...the land of Samoa! Glorious! The Kiwis will surely miss us all as we embark on another adventure for a time. We're all so excited for the heat! If you all could just be praying for this hard time as we go and have to struggle through our class where we have to snorkel all week. It'll be truly rough having to go study the fish down under. And laying on the beach will be equally hard. And dancing with the Samoans and living in little huts. Hard times lay ahead my friends. The hardest thing though (in all seriousness) is that we'll have no form of communication with anyone for 3 weeks. Don't despair when you don't hear back from me right away ;) (because i know you'll all be despairing;) By the way, in the picture up on the right, on the far right is my one roommate Ashley, who is SO sweet and seriously identical to me. It's kind of weird how twinnish-like we are. My other roommate Colette will be shown in another blog. I know you're all dying to see "this other one" who is equally amazing. Anyway, I'm off. I love you all!

Bonding with the Livestock

The other day a few of us went into the fields of New Zealand and tried to catch a sheep to put a jersey on it. Who ever knew that sheep were such little racehorses! Never let appearances lie to you...that was my profound lesson of the day. We never did attain our goal...which means that we won't be getting treated to ice cream any time soon by one of the staff workers. Sad day. Ice cream and sweets come few and far between here where we live. We eat all organic food and are constantly hungry. It's pathetic. We're all dying 1/2 hour after we eat a big meal of vegetable soup. I'm so glad to be eating healthy and the food is delish, but I feel like I'm eating way more because I'm always so hungry! And civilization is a half-hour away, so there is no hope of buying food. The only time we're in Christchurch is on Saturday or Sunday. We all love being in the rainforest-type atmosphere with a ton of outdoor things to do, but at times I feel a little trapped because I have no car, no cell phone, no friends outside of my 15 friends here, and only monstrous hills to have to climb back up if I want to run or bike down to civilization ;) Oh the woes of Dana ;)

Glorious Hot Days + Glorious Views

So here is my typical day. Soaring in the wind above the herds of sheep as they graze below me on the hills of New Zealand. There has never been a more beautiful place that I have ever laid my eyes on. Seriously. It's incred. We've been lucky to have good weather...I heard that they didn't have a summer until the week that we showed up. Thank God for warm weather...for those of you who know me well (even semi-well), you know that this is the biggest blessing that God could ever give me ;)
As for my kiwi adventures...they have definitely been brill. I couldn't ask for a more gorgeous place to live in. The 15 other students from all over the U.S. that I'm living with never cease to amaze me. It's been really cool getting to know people that I wouldn't necessarily be friends with otherwise. We all feel that way...that we're all really different but are able to come together and realize how similar we really are. This is such a good test for all 16 of us to show Christ's love when we're with each other 24/7 (literally).

The Night of the Irish

So this, my friends, was the night of the Irish. It was a truly glor time. Actually the most fun night I've had in New Zealand so far. We got this strong urge to go (Jamers and I) up on stage at the Irish pub in Christchurch. We didn't expect to go there, but alas, the Irish music called us in. It has been so much fun meeting people from alllll over the world (literally) with all different kinds of accents. I wish that I could pick up the Kiwi accent...but alas, I don't know that it will become part of me because I would probably sound Amerikiwi or something. No good.