ok so i'm really bad at updating.  today was great and so was yesterday.  yesterday i got to meet ricks (check out new facebook album) as well as several other very interesting people (including a guy who did a lot of the set design for the LOTR movies) and see beautiful houses and gardens.  i even went kayaking in the stream by ricks' house for a little while (and got soaked because it started raining while i was in the boat).
some quick things:
i now have experience in golf, tennis, and working on an orchard.
i got some great piano books for very cheap at a rummage sale.
lots of indian people work on the orchards here.
people are paid per tree instead of an hourly wage.
i am really bad at golf but not as bad as i thought i would be.
most people in new zealand seem to have dogs and have very close relationships with them.  i haven't met anyone here with a cat.
families seem to be much closer here.  they live closer together (frequently on the same plot of land in different houses) and see each other more often.
we play lots of board games.
in general i feel a lot more comfortable around older adults here than i do in america.  there is less of a generational awkwardness it seems.  people of all ages go to wild parties (for example last night i went to a 21st and 50th birthday party that were being celebrated together... everybody was drinking, mingling, having a good time despite the huge age gap), play sports, etc.  basically, the adults act a lot more youthful and i think it's a good thing.
this evening i went to tracey's dad's house with tracey and colin for dinner.  he and his partner deborah made a delicious dinner of roasted vegetables and pork with homemade lemon cake and whipped cream for dessert.  we played a board game and then i wandered outside to pet their pig and look for eels in the stream.   sure enough i saw a huge one right next to the bridge so i ran and got tracey's dad and we took a spear and went back to hunt it.  unfortunately it had moved away by the time we got back but we threw meat in the water and a little one soon came.  i let tracey's dad spear it because i wanted to wait to get a bigger one for my first eel.  he hit it and flung it out of the water and it wriggled all around horribly... then he chased tracey with it and then chopped it in half with an ax and gave it to the chickens.  it was pretty funny.
a cool thing about tracey's dad's house is that it used to be a school house in the 1800's but tracey's dad is very handy and converted it into a beautiful home.  he added lots of rooms as well as a loft and a deck outside.  everything inside is made of wood and there are lots of pretty carved things.  the windows are all original too so they are made of huge, heavy panes of glass.
well i am going to go to bed now.  v. tired (i get up at 7ish regardless of whether it's the weekend or not) and not going to bother rereading.  in closing i will say i feel so lucky right now for getting these experiences.  i can feel myself changing and obviously i can't describe how but i can say the world seems a lot bigger yet at the same time lots of possibilities feel much more attainable than before.  i am having the first inklings of how iowa city will feel when i see it as a part of my past instead of my present.  ok well that's enough for now, there is a lot going on in my head that won't be sorted out tonight.  will try to write again soon.

missing halloween-related festivities but had a great weekend anyways.  went to my first 'hen's party' in wellington.  wellington reminded me a lot of iowa city and every bar that we went to was full of people dancing and good music (ESPECIALLY the 80's one).  also experienced my first live male stripper.  he was dressed as a fireman.  they are much better looking in the movies but the whole idea is still pretty uncomfortable.  it was fun though.
school tomorrow- i am beginning to do more teaching this week and am a little nervous but not too bad because all the kids are so well-behaved.  also everyone is allowed to go barefoot whenever they want so most of the students never wear shoes- new zealand really is perfect for me!  we went downtown for kabab's today and both colin and i didn't wear any shoes... nobody cares!  growing up in iowa city i remember people yelling at me out of their cars to put shoes on or that i would cut my feet because i would always go barefoot... not here.  feels good.
i finished reading the reluctant fundamentalist today (recommended by tracey).  i've also read see ya simon, the boy in the striped pajamas, and the hobbit (which they are currently filming a little to the north of us!!!!!!).  would recommend all but see ya simon which i found a little trite.  maybe i just have a different sense of humor than the author does though.  also it's a young adult book (as is the boy in the striped pajamas).  ok this is disjointed and short but i'm going to read and do lesson planning stuff! i will try to write more often even if it is brief.

just wanted to do a quick post of some updates:
-new zealand won the rugby world cup, we watched the game with several of tracey and colin's friends and got fish and chips (i got a corn dog which is just a 'battered hotdog' here.  they even battered and fried the stick it was on.  it reminded me of that simpsons episode where they deep fry the entire plate and the guy breaks off a piece of the fried wine bottle and eats it.  ANYWAYS...).
-we went swimming in hot pools by the sea a couple of days ago which was great... especially considering the chilly/rainy weather the water felt so good.
-i had to go to the doctor today because of a near asthma attack on a walk this morning.  as i mentioned in a previous post i have had awful allergies since i got here and it's been building up in my lungs so each day i have had a harder time breathing.  i am not going to go into great detail but i felt like i was going to faint and was really afraid there was something horribly wrong with me because of how light-headed i felt.  tracey and colin were so kind, they heard how much i was wheezing and struggling to breath (i was near tears because of frustration and fear) and they insisted on taking turns carrying me to the car so i wouldn't pass out.  the doctor gave me some pills and an inhaler which already have helped immensely.  so hopefully that's the end of my breathing problems...  apparently a lot of people have allergy problems in this area, especially at this time of year.  Tracey said her grandpa had to move to Australia because of how bad his allergies would get (he had the same symptoms as me with the wheezing chest problems).  so that's my update.  i want to go outside now because it's beautiful today

morel season again!

there are morels here and nobody knows what they are or that they are good to eat!!  driving in the car today i saw some growing out of the mulch on the side of the road.  we stopped and sure enough, they were morels.  a bit too old to eat but definitely morels.  colin says tons of them grow in his mom's orchard and he used to hit them with hockey sticks when he was little because there were so many (much like our apple baseball i guess).  they are going to take me mushroom hunting there very soon!

It's 9 am here in Hastings.  I just finished my breakfast of tea and fruit (an apple and an orange from Tracey's mom's) and am listening to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!  I've been doing all of my usual internet things (reddit, democracynow, daily show, NPR, etc.) to feel more at home because even though it's beautiful here and Tracey and Colin are fantastic hosts I am still a little homesick.  Also I am unfortunately allergic to their dog plus there's a ton of pollen in the air from all the Spring flowers so I've been very allergic and wheezy since I got here.  My lung capacity is really low so I easily get out of breath even though I've been taking plenty of allergy medicine/other anti-histamine type things.  I think I will probably adjust over time and it's not like allergies will keep me from being able to teach, I just want to be able to jog or exercise without feeling like I'm having an asthma attack after half a block.  If anyone has any recommendation for medicine or things I could do to reduce allergies please let me know... I already have eye drops (I have to use them several times a day because my eyes get really red, something that very rarely happens at home) and the two medicines I mentioned earlier but if anyone has anything that's worked for them it'd be great to not be sneezing, sniffling, wheezing, etc. constantly.  Okay sorry so much of the post has been complaining about allergies but it kind of sucks.
Despite less than perfect health I've seen a lot of really cool things in the past few days.  Yesterday Tracey and Colin took me to the bay and we walked along and caught little crabs and star fish.  We also went to a black pebble beach and walked around Napier.  I brought home some sand dollars and rocks to paint which is something Tracey does pretty often (she's very arty).  Tracey and I also played Wii games yesterday including ones where we rowed against each other and had to knock each other off of things with bats!  We went to Colin's grandma's house yesterday which was very nice.  She has huge, beautifully kept gardens and a pool table and on top of this looks like the queen of England.  She (like all New Zealanders I've met so far) was curious and friendly and anxious to have us back.  Also she was wearing an awesome purplish iridescent shirt and I wish I owned it.  Oh yeah also the older lady next door to Tracey and Colin is named Dot.  She drives a little sky blue car with the license plate DOTZZ and EVERYTHING in her house  matches.  It's all pink and flowers and lace and plates with flower on them and she's great.
Today I'm going to try to do some Wii Yoga or some sort of fitness thing after I finish this and then Colin is going to take Tracey and I to the school to pick up some things.  I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like there, school starts next Tuesday because it's holidays here before Term 4.  Tracey says Term 4 is the most fun because it's the last and the shortest and we get to do swimming and other fun things that don't happen the rest of the year.  I'm a little nervous about working with 6 year-olds again just because I know how much harder it is for me to get their attention compared to older students... but I'm sure necessity will help me pick up quickly on things that work so that by the time I'm head teaching it won't be a disaster.
I guess on that note I'll finish this since I want to go see what it's like outside.  It looks very sunny and breezy.

it's the end of my second day in new zealand!  yesterday was pretty much just travelling so I am not going to cover it... I didn't get to hastings until 8 pm even though i arrived in NZ at 7 in the morning.  today i got up at elevenish and tracey (my host sister) showed me around the yard and neighborhood.  they have a lemon tree so i cut up some lemon and we put it in our tea.  there are tons of ripe oranges and lemons everywhere so i've been eating fruit all day (lots of fruit is ripening now all over the north island and it's very cheap).  tracey's mom lives nearby so we went over there and I got to meet her mom and little sister Jody who is 6 and will be in the class I am student teaching in next week.
then we all went hiking and to a honey factory place.  tasting all the different honeys gave me a taste for it so i've been eating spoonfuls of honey all day plus honey with bread and butter (i just finished a piece before writing this).  i tried to get a phone card but the one i got wasn't compatible with my phone so i have to figure that out... right now i'm content to just have internet and will be trying to videochat over facebook tomorrow.  tracey and colin have darts, ping pong, and foosball and they love playing cards so we played some games after dinner.
okay well that's enough for now.  i am still pretty jet-lagged today so i'm going to go to bed soon.  it's something like 4 in the morning in iowa city but only 8:30 pm here... i will finish reading the hobbit and watch the daily show then bed.  yes.  also old crow is $45 here.  seriously.  it's insane.  old crow!??

testing

Sitting in the CR airport waiting to board the plane to Chicago.  Then LA.  Then Auckland.  Despite the huge trip looming ahead of me I am comforted in knowing that I have season three of Arrested Development (thanks Matt Henry) on my computer.

I will try to update this blog fairly often so that friends/family can know how/what I'm doing.  Will write again soon!