it's been a longtime coming

Alright so it's been 2 wonderfully stressful and stimulating months since I arrived in New Zealand. Alot has happened but I'll do my best to reccount as much as possible.

On y va: My first host family is a family of 6. Peter and Anna, my parents are very kind, and caring people. Anna, a GP, is norweigian and so the family is all fluent and oftentimes speaks norwegian in the house. Peter is a Kiwi farmer who has been nearly everywhere in the world. Their children are Synove (at uni) Ragnhild (a year younger than me) Jimmy (2 years younger) and Richard (4 years younger). Ragnhild has become a good friend of mine. Within my first 24 hours here I helped to herd sheep and also ate lamb. We eat meat with absolutely every meal, which is an unfortunate change from my vegetarian diet which I followed for the better part of the past year and a half. I have tried and eaten everything put in front of me and I seek every opportunity to try my hand at something new. I go to the farm with Peter every chance I get and I've grown to enjoy "feeding out." I'm trying to say yes to everything I can but I'm living in the sticks and it's dificult to get into town often.

I go to school at Mahurangi College and I have become good friends with a couple girls and a few guys. My classes are Drama, English, NZ studies, Photography and Painting. I'm loving my Painting and Drama classes but otherwise school is quite a bore. I'm in level 2 classes, which is the equivalent of grade 11.. so you can see how challenged I am by the work i get here. ..But I get out every so often to go on trips or stay with other Rotarians.

I got to go skiing at Mt Ruapehu (Mt Doom & one of the worlds most active volcanoes) a couple weeks back. Skiing at 2700m is much more exciting than Wentworth at 250m. It was probably the best skiing experience that I have had to date, and we (2 Rotarians and I) are planning to go back for another shot at the volcano.

August 15-17 was my orientation here where i got to meet all the inbounds and outbounds. I am truly here with a wonderful group of people. There are students from Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Austria, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, CANADA, and the states.. haha jokes. Petra (Finland), Caio (Brasil) and Lea (Switzerland) are most probably my best friends out of the whole group, though everyone is really close. The week after orientation I got to do my presentation on Canada which went extremely well. Being mostly all sailors, the rotarians were blown away by the tides in the Bay of Fundy. and I presented them with the Rotary club of Sackville's Banner for which they were very thankful. My Rotary club is full of some really genuine people, most importantly Mick Saunders. I have had the pleasure of staying at his place on a few occasions and he and his wife June are truly two of the most interesting people that I have/will ever meet. I'm really thankful that he has taken an interest in me.

thats all for now. I'm planning on updating the blog after a significant event during my exchange.
laters.