yes I'm still alive... sorry its been so long for those who have wanted updates!
Anyways, here I am back in Hawaii ish. It's week 7 of school and so far I've been to about 3 or 4 of each of my classes. We didn't get back until Feb 1st and then left on the 7th for a week and now, a week after arriving back again we are off again for another 8 days. It doesn't stop I tell you!
Home was good, I didn't get to see my family as much as I wanted to which was gutting but I did get to hang with polo peeps a LOT and that was heaps of fun. I am in love with my country. Everything I saw was like the most beautiful thing in the world I felt like such a tourist. haha.
The preparation for the Commonwealth Tournament was pretty tough, we had a week between xmas and new years in Tauranga, there were about 20 of us sleeping in a class room literally right next to the pool. It was an outside pool so that was really nice, and the Marae experience of communal living was surprisingly fun. We ran up Mount Maunganui a couple of times, which was one massive slog I tell you, but the view was awesome. It was such a killer but I decided that if I was any kind of runner or something I would be into mountain racing. Definitely a feeling of accomplishment (for the non-kiwis I honestly don't know how big the mount is but it is called a mountain so it's not that small...)
Anyways, then we got a couple of days off for new years and a bunch of us went to Emily's batch at cooks beach,which was a nice break, mostly consisting of sleeping but also got to see a few beaches I'd never been to before and that was awesome.
Then we went to another place for another week long camp, known as death camp II. We pretty much died. For my birthday the team filled my car up with balloons and shaving creamed the outside and I got a book called "Amy the Amethyst Fairy" and I even got cake. So it was a pretty good day considering we did about 5 hours of training during it...
Then we came back up to auckland for a tournament with England and Japan, which went pretty well we won it so that was good for us and our confidence going into the games. I won the MVP award which was really funny and cool, have never won an MVP before so I was stoked.
And then we left for Perth. I think I laughed more on this trip than any other trip I've ever been on, our manager Sharon was such good value and it was really cool to be on a trip with the NZ mens team as well and being able to watch and support them and hang out. We ended up coming third which is what we were expecting.
It was nice to win something for once and to send our coach Peter off on a good note. We got him this massive Pounamu (greenstone - has a lot of cultural meaning - they're Taonga = treasures, and you can't buy themyou have to be given them) hook which means strength, prosperity, and fortune over the water. It was really hard to say bye, we took him to the airport on the last day b/c he was going straight back to Hungary and it was really hard to say bye, I was surprised by how close we all were to him. But it's ok we'll be in touch he'll be around. Can't get rid of us that easily! And after that it was the usual mad rush 7hr flight home, 4 hrs at home then back to the airport to come here!
Hawaii has been heaps of fun so far with the extra kiwi girls here, especially em its so fun having someone in training I can properly wrestle with who can laugh about it and not get all upset. And just to see her all the time once again. Can't wait to start playing with her!
ok guys, for now this must be it, I know its not that entertaining but I am out of practice
peace out, would love to hear from anyone. Kelly whats your blog address?
So much love to everyone
A xxox
