amy bettina logan

rut

2010-06-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

so, im sitting here, bored bored bored, it's too hot to do much, i should be job hunting but recently just haven't been motivated. i had the almost perfect summer job lined up, teaching english to 4-6 year olds in a camp starting next week but then all of a sudden, less than a week before it started, it all fell through so i've been feeling quite sorry for myself the last few days haha. i was so relaxed and calm about everything in the first time in so long and all of a sudden i'm back in the anxiety of having no secure income. will have to go around the bars to see if i can work in a terrace somewhere, or else i will be coming home early! i did see an add today, just on a normal work website, like seek.co.nz or something, under miscellanous, an add for a girl to be in a porno movie for girl on girl action that was paying 200euros an hour! hahaha tempting....(JOKING MUM AND DAD!) anyways, i hate complaining on the blog, so on to bigger and better things

summer has finally come out in full force here in madrid, this week has been an average of 35 degrees every day, last night there was a lightning storm which we watched from my 9th floor window that looks out over the south of madrid, have never seen fork lightning before and it was just amazing. so cool. but still boiling hot.

i have to say i'm very proud of the all whites, contrary to the rest of the world the spanish media hasn't been that kind to them, the opinion after the italy game was that nz was terrible and italy obviously even worse for not being able to trash us. but a boy that i teach told me today that he was impressed but how the all whites played above the media and above the expectations of the world, which i think was quite a profound comment for a 14 year old boy! and he was right, we have a lot to be proud of. the all whites showed us something that is all too common for smaller, 'less popular' nz teams, how close we are to the top, but how we lack that little bit extra to get there. i think the all whites, should they continue on this route, can definitely get there. i'm really curious to know how much funding they got. i also had to laugh when i saw this photo today in the herald with an article about how kiwi fans had clashed with police after nz's last game for staying in the stadium for too long.

the guy in the kiwi costume is just too funny, have to say though, i'm proud that the article didn't talk about how we were voilent or fighting with police, if they had been spanish fans there would have been no hands up in the air thats for sure. i guess the sa police need to use forceful tactics a lot more than we are used to in nz. i just love that guy in the kiwi costume!

the soundtrack of my life in madrid

2010-05-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

these guys are friends of my flat mate, i went to a concert of theirs last year, and a month or so ago i got to go to their house to hear them just have a jam (haha, sounds funny talking about a jam session of accordian and violin, but thats what it was), which is in the old part of Caceres, a beautiful city in Extremadura, (western spain next to portugal), with a view of the old city walls and churches from the window, all very enchanting. anyways, last night they came to madrid to release their new album and i got to go along, and i can't tell you how much i loved it, the music just brings out so many emotions, and you really do feel like you're in a movie. anyways, it's not everyone's cup of tea i'm sure but i really wanted to share them with you, i strongly recommend the album if anyone is interested. 10 euros. absolute steal. the concert was in a retro style jazz bar, brought out my artistic side haha, yup. aparently there is one...

what can i say...i'm a sucker for lamp shades...

trying to be artistic...

the amazing musicians javier and pedro

4am post concert shot

resurfacing

2010-05-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

i'm guna start doing this again...maybe to keep up with all my amazing and creative friends who are blogging their amazingness like crazy...maybe to keep some account of my life at the moment, whichever. getting back into it. sitting here on a saturday afternoon, pondering what to do with myself once i leave spain and force myself to get a life. starting to feel the effects of not being home (with the exception of a whirlwind 10 days for my bro's wedding) in over 9 months, and while i'm really happy to be staying here for the summer, because i'll probably never have the opportunity to do this again, am struggling a bit lately. i need my family. or more of my family in my life anyway. we'll skype today or tomorrow i am sure. haha. anyways, before coming online today i was having a small identity crisis about what to do with my life and trying to think of some kind of skill i have that would allow me to find a somewhat fulfilling job in my life and what was i thinking staying here for the summer without any secure source of income, and sitting here typing this out, i had a thought, and i think i'm guna stick with it. maybe i need this summer, i need this insecurity of not having a proper job and relying on myself in a country where i can't even 'legally' get a job so that when i get home, i will know that i can survive. i don't know when i developed such a fear of the real world, or where i got the idea that i wouldn't make it in this life, but maybe i need these next few months to know that the world isn't going to eat me alive, that i can make it on my own, and that i do (or will somehow find!) have the resources and skills to keep myself going when nothing is for certain... thats what i'm guna stick with for the moment anyway.

2 months in

2008-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Madrid

2008-10-03T02:01:00.001-07:00

¡hola todos!

so I've been in spain for nearly 2 weeks now, and so far its amazing! I don't even know where to start!

The first two weeks has just been kind of exploring and sussing things out I guess. The club has been really really good to us and we are in a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in quite a nice area of Madrid. It's strange to be somewhere where there are no houses, only massive apartment buildings. Everywhere you go, everything is like, 8 stories high, virtually all the parking around town is underground, there is even a stretch of the motorway (11km) that goes underground. I think it's a great use of space, who wants roads and car parks using up space anyone can see?! It does make you think though, everything is underground, even the metro, so it's a wonder it can all fit together. Must be some pretty awesome engineers I would guess.

We've seen a few sights, the Plaza Mayor (above), this awesome little square thing. If anyone has seen vantage point, that's where it was based. It's pretty cool even if there wasn't a movie filmed there. We also stumbled upon the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) the other day, huge! And it's so great there's like a garden kind of in front of it, and it's full of statues of all the old kings – well, not all of them. Some are on the top of the palace overlooking the city, but I think maybe the oldest ones are in the garden. We've also hung out in Retiro – this awesome park with a man made lake in it. It's like a 20min walk from our house, it's huge and so beautiful so many old statues and cool little kiosks/cafes, and the weather is still fantastic clear blue skies low 20s every day. I'm quite possibly the whitest person in Madrid, but not much can be done about that I suppose!

Despite not knowing virtually any Spanish upon arrival, I feel as though I've picked up a huge amount even since being here, I think having a decent grasp on French really helps, a couple of the girls on the team also speak French so that helps too. When my strange spanglish creole isn't working, we can convert to that. However, trying to keep up in a language you really don't know much of can prove difficult, and some days I find I can't form words in Spanish, French or English. I'm hoping we'll get used to it : ) we start Spanish classes on Monday, which I'm really looking forward to – I want to say we're going to pick it up really quickly. Hopefully we'll pick it up really quickly.

The girls are all really friendly and so much fun, we learnt all the really important words like whore and bitch on the first day, haha. And even though they don't really speak English and we don't really speak Spanish, we manage. We had a practice game last night against the u16 boys from our club, it was a bit of a disaster because we were practicing this drop that we haven't done together yet. I was trying really hard to yell in Spanish when I was at centre-back to tell everyone when to press and when to come back etc, I don't know if my Spanish was useless or people just didn't hear me, haha. But no one really reacted haha. We'll get there. A couple have taken us out for Tapas after training (we train 8-10pm every night), and one took us looking for big shoes around the city because people here are quite short and have rather small feet! They're so friendly and happy for us to be here, which makes things really happy for everyone involved really. I'm really glad they're so welcoming.

We have established our locals – we have a tapas bar downstairs from our apartment (2 actually!), a great little restaurant where we can go for lunch (the owner is a friend of our club presidents), and there's a market just down the road, where the fruit lady always gives us there yummy yellow Spanish plum things whenever we go there, and we have a butcher and a chicken man. And yesterday I learnt the word for mince – carne picada : ) There's a huge 'hypermarket' (kind of like walmart/supermarket put together) a couple of blocks away and we have invested in a trolley so that we don't have to carry heavy bags home from all over the place – you know the kind old ladies have. But it's not checkered, it's just balck and it has a grey lid type thing. But I love it, it has great wheels and a good handle – not he kind that makes your hand sore, and it is the perfect height for me : ) everyone is so patient and friendly with us. We stand out like huge freaks, but no one is rude and everyone is happy to help us, despite the fact that we so obviously don't fit in. haha, I keep joking that we are already madrileñas (the name for people from Madrid) but until someone points out that we just look like freaks.

The club has been really hospitable to us, the club president has taken us out for lunch a few times, and the other day we went out for Tapas with the president and also the athletic director of the club. It's always an adventure, and really not that formal between us all which makes things a lot easier. I'm always really nervous about what's appropriate and what you're supposed to say/do etc but it's all pretty casual. The word for centre forward is 'boya' and the word for penis is 'poya' and I guess I got them mixed up when I was talking about Emily and the president just cracked up laughing and then proceeded to educated us on all the nuances of the word 'poya' – we learnt that if someone 'estar un poya' (is a penis) it's like calling them the man. So it's a big compliment. It's such a great ifestyle here, I think I'm going to struggle to go back to normal life after only being here 2 weeks haha! You can work the normal work day I think until 5, or you can knock off at 3 for a few hours and then go back from like 5-7/8 I think. So people have tapas a few times a week. So you go to a bar and order a drink and they give you some food with it, and it's great food. And you usually get a few different dishes and end up very full and drinking a lot. Although no one is really drunk because you're eating the whole time. I have discovered vermouth, they have it on tap in most places, and you start drinking it when you don't want any more beer. Being a girl I prefer to have vermouth con sel – which is when it's watered down a wee bit with like, soda water or something. It's quite nice : ) still am yet to try sangria, but we'll get to that I'm sure.

Anyways, that is enough for today. I feel like this city is serenading me. I really really like it. I hope I play really well so they're just as happy for me to be here as I am!

"courage is the accumulation of small steps"

catch up

2008-09-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

i just moved to spain to play water polo. to live the dream as such. but this is my photo diary leading up to that, please bear in mind it's like a couple of months of photos squashed in here so there will be a bit missed out. not in any particular order either.

a few scenes

2008-07-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

from the same week, a few weeks ago...but i remembered today that i said that i would put weekely photos up...yea. oh well.

Copied Idea

2008-07-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

OK so since i've been home been in a bit of a funk. not a cool funk like the music, like a dead end thats not a dead end but can't be called anything else because there doesn't really seem to be anything else. i really dont' know what to do with my life. Lots of options and not really sure about where to go or how to back myself. Normal i suppose but frustrating never the less.
So, because the job hunt was going nowhere and the polo in europe pursual took a lot longer than expected to pluck up the courage for, i succumbed to temping. So am now answering phones and stufing envelopes in order to pay of credit card and raise funds enough to get to europe. despite the face that europe seems ever more elusive.

anyways, in the last few days 4 things have happened to make me decide to start living again. not that i've been dead by any means, just kind of going along like grayness. anyways,

1.watched mama mia. despite my inability to deal very well with musicals, and the main character being really quite annoying to me with her over excitement, i found myself smiling and quite enjoying the movie and being reinvigorated by abbas classics and the colours of the greek isles.

2. watched welcome to the sticks. french film, went with alex (c's hubb) after my date (my sis) decided she wasn't that into it and coralee had to go to netball. excellent movie, haven't laughed that hard for the longest time. plus it had this amazing documation short before it. = animated documentary. it was radical. and the movie, about someone who is forced to move somewhere he really doesn't want to go and ends up loving it, had a good message in it for me i think. i'm not usually one for going to movies as a way of hanging out, but if it's anything but blockbuster, all of a sudden i can't think of a better way to pass my time and bond with people.

3. chatted with my most lovely friend emma from hawaii, who kept asking me what was new with my life, and i had nothing much to say. which is because i've been choosing to do nothing most of the time when i've had a choice. no i thought to myself, maybe i should start doing stuff so i have something to talk about. seems quite silly but a good point when you think about it.

4. alex is doing an image a day thing on his blog. i dont think i have the dedication for a photo a day specifically, but maybe i could make the effort to do a week in pictures type thing. we'll give it a go anyway. might be pretty boring to start with since i have to find a new muse having left hawaii and my model mats, i will just have to find the inspiration from inside or something like that i suppose...

yup.

almost done

2008-05-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

i can't believe last week was my last week of school ever and that this semester, year, my time here is pretty much over and done.

i feel like since my last update so much has happened, so many dramas and highs and lows that i couldn't possibly try to fit everything in but i'll chuck in some photos and life lessons because i'm procrastinating any my brain is well and truly fried from too much working on the same paper/thesis. it's funny, i seem to be the "type" of person to go to grad school, but i wonder if it will ever happen...right now it's not on the cards thats for sure! foreword: i dont think the photos have much/any correlation to the life lessons but they are just a few that i like...

Life Lesson 1: Sometimes people don't make sense.

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, or how good your intentions are, relationships fall apart. Many people say they forgive, but they dont. And there comes a point where you can only do what you can do. When people are try to humiliate you, sometimes it's better to let them rather than to retaliate. Most of the time, you're not as humiliated as you feel like you are, and the other person looks like a fool. It's better to keep your conscience clear, revenge really doesn't satisfy. only in forgiveness can we be set free from those who have hurt us.

Life Lesson 2: Things are always uncertain. always.

I've been freaking out for the last year and a half, every time someone has asked me how i was or where i was at, i would always say, things are really uncertain. Things are always going to be uncertain. nothing at all is promised to us, not even today. i think i'm at the point where i'm about to step into the unknown, and i dont think it's ever going to stop. when you get comfortable with that, you can get rid of a lot of stress.

Life Lesson 3: Relationships really are the most important things in life.

I made a decision at the beginning of this year based around the idea that relationships are more important than most other things in life when push comes to shove. That decision kind of threw me into living that out. I made a sacrifice for a friend, which was a normal and logical choice for me, but it also made me realise how much i had taken my other friendships for granted. without water polo as a focus or goal, i was forced to be vulnerable with my friends and a really raw and painful way. I don't know how many of them actually realised it, but i felt completely stripped bare for all to judge and draw conclusions about, and i was moved to tears so many times when they covered me, they took the ugly with the beautiful and embraced all of it. Not just observe it from a distance, but embrace all of it. there were others that rejected all of it too, which had their own tears. and that forced me to assess where i was at, and really think hard about the person i am, and the person i want to be, and it also forced me to become ok with myself as a person, not a water polo player.

Life Lesson 4: Don't let fear of falling stop you from jumping...if that makes sense

Honestly i just really wanted to put some pictures of my skydiving adventure on here but it kind of makes sense. i was so terrified coming back this semester, but have had such an amazing journey. definitely not easy a lot of the time, but amazing never the less. i've discovered in myself a resilience that i didn't realise i had. i never even called myself an athlete until a month before i finished playing polo at UH. it turns out i'm a little bit free spirited and actually really enjoy adventure, i think i allowed what i thought other people's opinions of me put me in a bit of a box before. anyways, if you ever get the chance to jump out of a plane at 13,000 ft with a parachute on i fully recommend it!

So this is me, at the edge of the big cliff called life, a vague idea of where i want to go but knowing that there is a big likelihood of it not going the way i want it to, nervous and excited and terrified at the same time, but hopefully ready nevertheless!

stop the traffik

2008-01-20T23:23:00.001-08:00

changes

2008-01-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

today began my last semester of university. in a few short months, my under graduate degree will be finished and i will leave the world of academia indefinitely. yay! it's been such a long time coming!

in other recent news, Coralee and Alex were married on saturday, and the saturday before that was Michelle & AJ. two Amazing days of celebration. i had such a great time at home. it's scary coming back, i'm no longer on the water polo team, because being in Coralee's bridal party required me coming back to training a week late, which my coach was not willing to accomodate and so i made the decision to accept the consequences and go to the wedding. It has been really hard to accept, terrifying and heartbreaking to choose to walk away from the thing that has taken most of my time and energy over the last 10 years, the thing that has brought me the most delight and the thing that i have cried most about. But there comes a point, i guess where i'm at now, where some things are more important. and so i chose my friends, and i will never regret the decision. i can't. it's scary and hard and sad, but i know i'm in the right place, i have more peace than i've had in a really long time, and it will probably good for me to get to know who i am outside water polo. i don't know what's coming, but i'm ok with that. which is a huge step for me! don't get me wrong i've been grieving like no tomorrow. and every time someone brings it up i struggle to keep it together, but i will be ok.

anyways, here are some photos. i'm sorry i still haven't figured out how to arrange them nicely so they'll be all over the place but bear with me k? ta

waterfalls

2007-11-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

today we have a flash flood warning because there is a big storm overhead

it's like waterfalls everywhere off the eaves of all the buildings, and the mountains behind school are almost totally covered.

very cool.

thats all

chip hoo

2007-11-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

life is so good right now.

i think it's coz we just had 4 days off for thanksgiving, and now we only have a week and then 3 days of school left, and then i'm going home after that for xmas and i don't have polo training camps over xmas and new years, so i can hang out with people.

had to make a really hard decision though that is resulting in a lot of drama - choosing polo or a friend, my logical choice is a friend beyond a doubt, coach disagrees and can't understand. so thats tough, feel like i'm burning bridges. trying to be very respectful and not get mad, and i'm not mad at all i totally understand where he's coming from, it's just kind of a no win situation. anyways, today it won't get me down coz i'm in the best mood i've been in for a really really long time.

thursday was thanksgiving and i got to spend it with a girl that i work with who i adore, she's so cool, we (she) cooked the turkey all by ourselves, i bought a pumpkin pie and we had all the traditional stuff. oh so good. and great company, not peeps i usually hang out with but i really enjoyed myself. so fat at the end of the day. so good : )

and then friday i hung out with my dear frien mikaela for the day, we just hung out and ate some yum food and went to the football - my first ever college football game (figured i should get at least one in) and we won! the WAC! which means everyone will be on a big high till the end of the semester coz our football team won their conference. stoked. was def a really awesome experience : ) wish i had photos. we have one more game now, next weekend, which i'm going to so hopefully will get some then.

and yesterday i did a bunch of homework, and also went for a swim that was actually really hard, and then went and had dinner w em and lisa, and then went to longs. i really like that place. so fun, and then went back to robins place to wait for her arrival back to hawaii from her trip home. so good to have her back.

and that's me, very good.

it's been a while...

2007-10-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

well what do you know, you blink and you're already half way through your second to last semester of your university career. there has been so much life going on between this and the last post, but i'll give you some highlights anyway...
we got a flat, we're in america so it's actually an apartment, but its really a flat. i have my own room, and was given a double bed for free so it's pretty flippin sweet. realised though, doing nothing is a funny thing. last year i had no idea how much i just did nothing, because i was always doing nothing with meike, i was never alone (and by nothing i mean something of course, but not planned or anything like that). when you're by yourself it's not nearly as much fun.

this is me and claudia on the couch we made, you can push down the back and voila it's a bed, it's this amazing japanese invention that is very popular in hawaii, it's called a futon : ) i'm sure my educated readers know all this, it's just even though i'm very accustomed to it, i still think they're amazing.

tali and kim and kathryn visited, not much else to say other than they totally rocked my world! first visiters over here other than the parentals and it def gave me a whole new appreciation for hawaii. they're so fun, and were so incredibly patient with me, even when i led us all past some keep out signs on the way to a hike and we walked like half an hour in the wrong direction : )

coralee visited, i don't know if i could ever explain you ya'll how much i love that girl, she truly lights up my life. seemed so normal to have her here, was weird to say bye. feel like i didn't really play the host very well, i didn't take her to many touristy places coz i was like, there's other places to go...sorry reef!!!
school is going well, taking 4 french classes, so that is flippin sweet coz i get so much it, it actualy makes it so much easier. 3 are around my level, one is WAY over my head, but it's probably my favourite ever. my teacher is this amazing mind, beautiful black zimbabwean man about whom i like to make up stories regarding his life before he got to hawaii in my head. we've read a collection of stories from the middle ages, some rennaissance poetry, and now we're up to late 16th century theatre. it's fun, i can understand the readings for the most part, and i can even analyse them to a certain extent, and sometimes talk about them, but it's pretty fair to say that my french academic writing - actually not even academic writing, my french writing is atrocious. so the class has been a source of much entertainment in the least! : )
water polo has been pretty alright so far! we all get along really well which is incredible considering there are 25 of us, all university aged identity crisis know everything girls, we go to full time training the week after next though so we'll see how things go then! haha, no it'll be good, we have some fast girls (can't say much else coz i've only seen everyone swim, have no idea bout anything else) which is really good, gutted i'm not the fastest anymore but i suppose my pride will recover one day : )
summary of life lessons so far this year - life is a roller coaster, and thats ok. it's actually probably good.

love loveA xxox

new beginnings?

2007-08-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

i got in the pool for the first time in 6 weeks today, and i'm still smiling. i even did a few lengths : ) turns out i like the water - who would have thought! i really hope i'm not done with it...

got back to hawaii a.ok, spending thursday with brenda before she went to mississippi or something like that for 5 months or something. just layed out on the beach all day and of course being the cautious responsible girl that i am, applied plenty of sunscreen, but i guess i didn't get everywhere because that night i had the sorest patches just above my armpits...so now i look like i've had a bad reaction to deoderant : ! typical : ) there is a lesson in this people, always sunscreen your pits!

it's been a bit of a stress readjusting, i left home with so much peace like you couldn't even imagine about life and the future and this year and friends and water polo just like, have no idea what's going on but i know it's going to be good. thats a lot harder to walk out once you get to the place where nothing is for certain for real! so we applied for a place that's really cool and the guy was really nice about it all and was like, you're the only ones we're considering and bla bla bla and then friday afternoon he calls saying that someone else has applied and they'll probably go for them so we should look for somewhere else. the same day one of the girls we're supposed to be living with was like, if we don't get this place i'm going back on campus. so that leaves us as yet to find out if we are 4 peeps, 3, or 2. and gutting, love the girl but a bit rude to be like yea yea yea na but that's life i spose. everything will work out it always does though - just have to keep reminding yourself of these things! and then have been really sad - i keep getting excited that school is about to start so everyone will be coming back soon but then remember that so many people aren't coming back and get sad. but then yesterday i got to talk to kezia and alyssa - totally cried : ) and hung out with barry and liz and mark last night so that was really good too. and juliana is coming over next week so i'm totally kidnapping her.
church this morning was SO good. got to catch up with a few peeps and there will be the women's conference on when coralee is here on Moloka'i (another island) so i'm totally guna try to convince her that we should totally go because it will be amazing.

and that's it, taking it all one step at a time, remembering that just because circumstances change, promises of peace don't. it's still there, it's just up to me to stand on it.

ok that's me for today.
love love
A

more home

2007-08-07T15:07:00.000-07:00

just a little bit of home

2007-08-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

Alex's retirement

Rees playing ruggers, you can see him - #5 - with his hands on his hips.

in the city

me and the boys

Nicholas and Kate

breathing

2007-08-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

so i think it's ok for me to say that the recent melt down is over. not sure why it came, where it went but i got my joy back : ) i think it's just maybe readjusting to life at home and you know the constant journey of discovering who you are and that really even if you think you're crazy and nothing much makes sense, you're ok. la vita est bella. lol. i'm so funny : )

anyway the last few weeks have been so amazing. i'm so astounded thinking about my time at home at how much people have embraced me in such a short time. not just you know, been polite and hung out with me but embraced me. yesterday was my last day at work and one of the girls there and i were nearly crying, lol it was actually pretty funny. but made me realise a little bit the human capacity for relationships. people actually have really big hearts. really big. pretty cool.

had an amazing day with my brother just sitting in the sun, chatting, napping and watching tv. he's so totaly my hero. he's playing rugby for tasman this year and even got to play in the first game. so anyone who watches rugby, number 5 Rees Logan is my brother and he's the best ever in this whole world.

got to see one of my childhood friend's beautiful newborn baby -Ashton. now, i'm not one for babies or small children, and most newborns are really ugly let's be real here people. they're all wrinkly and can't open their eyes and just cry and sleep. but this baby, Ashton, is so incredibly amazingly cute. just cant get over it. i'm going over to see them after this actually so better hurry up : )

and have just really been able to have some quality time with peeps thats been so special, not really doing much, just sitting around and laughing and crying and talking.

on tuesday i went to the "lunch club" - a bunch of peeps from church or i don't know where exactly but it was awesome. i totally fell over on the way there and there was no one around but this one awesome girl behind me and i kind of tried to laugh it off and not be too embarassed, and she was going to lunch too with the group so it was an automatic bond time of making a fool of myself. but it was really fun, good food, awesome peeps, what more could you ask for?

and then WEDNESDAY! my boss took all the admin team out for lunch and again, good food, good wine, good conversation. and the last few weeks i had to move because a newbie came in and kind of needs to be near my boss and i missed her! and so it was a good chance to catch up and chat before leaving.

AND THEN on wed night went to life group and Andrew (leader) had taken the day off work to cook a 3 course meal for like 12 people and it was amazing, stuffed chicken, pumpkin soup, the works. and we were all dressed up and it was so fun. and he gave us this sheet of paper with all these clues on it as to what the dishes were, and we had to guess what we wanted for each course. so i ended up eating my soup with a fork. it was so fun. and because they're amazing i don't know why, they got me a present and a little book with nice things written in it to tell me i'm cool. and i got to talk to this guy i haven't really talked that much to about social justice issues that i'm discovering more every day are where my heart is. so that was awesome too.

so, about to go back on thursday, to an incredible amount of uncertainty, don't know if i'll be playing polo next season, no meike, no kezia, no alyssa or juliana or christel or kim or liz or brenda and the list goes on. but i'm actually ok with that. so it'll be good.

my dog is getting old, she keeps pooing inside. isn't funny but not. hahaha.

a few friends are coming to visit this semester too so yay! VERY excited about that.

k thats all for now.

A xxox

breaking down but not

2007-07-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

i haven't been doing very well lately. putting it down to this stage of my life of uncertainty or growing up or something, just because i have no other category to put it under. and it's weird. i'm happy, i'm stoked to be home, with catching up with friends, with my bed, with the awesome people at work, with new zealand. love it and so enjoy being here. and i'm stoked to go back to hawaii no qualms about that! but for a while now, if anyone asks me how i am like, so how are you? i just want to cry. (note: if you read this, don't ask me how I am) ask what i've been up to, how things are going fine and dandy. but for some reason, when i think about how i am, it distresses me so much that it feels like a raging ocean inside my chest and it takes everything i have in me not to have a melt down right there and then. was talking to a friend last week about it and she's kinda going through the same type of thing - actually there's a few of us, which makes me put it down to this time of my life or something. but anyways, she was like, i feel like i've been 18 for the last 5 years of my life. and i was like, sister, i hear you!
i don't know why it happens, it's not like i'm not happy, i'm not depressed, i don't want anything more from my life or any less, it's just something under the surface that comes out sometimes - like at least once a week : )
that's all i have to say at the moment, that's my news. sorry to be so melodramatic : )

oh yea, and my friend luisa had a baby boy last friday : ) ashton. going to see him today yay!

and i bought a hair straightener. i know what's up with that i'm so not into that but must be i spose to buy one! it's a good one too, and i mean i'll use it that's for sure. so stoked about that, first trademe experience woop woop!

that is all
peace

life in the real world

2007-06-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

so i've been back for nearly 2 weeks and am back in the swing of things i guess!

the day after i got home i emailed my old work for a reference and was lucky enough to be offered a job which i started last friday. so for 3 days i did absolutely nothing and slept about 13 hours a night with no troubles and didn't feel the slighetest bit guilty about it, and then friday started work. i'm really happy to be back with the same people i was with before i went to hawaii, a lot has changed at work but i really enjoy the people and am enjoying myself : ) there is a lot to do so i'm always busy which is good too.

other than that i'm pretty boring. i'd forgotten how exhausting working full time is - quite ironic really, i can train 6+ hours a day and manage but put me in an air conditioned office for a day and i'm exhausted. am not doing any training whatsoever other than 2ce weekly club which is good. teaching me to loosen up a bit and not take myself so seriously - at least i hope that's what it's doing! i'm so used to being so focused and trying to get as much out of every training or whatever, but for the next 2 weeks my focus is going to be having fun. i don't know if it's noticable to anyone else but it's a really funny feeling, like this inward argument - my body and mind go into the mode they usually do and then this other part of me laughs the whole time there's no way to explain it but it's a really funny experience, every training and game.

went wedding dress shopping this week with coralee and jess. everything is so exciting. coralee went to kate dowman for a consultation who was really good and professional and knew her stuff and the gowns are gorgeous and i came away feeling very educated. we got it down to 3 dresses, all pretty similar but just a little different. jess didn't want to pay for a consulation so we went spent the best part of a morning (after 3 hours sleep from a night out with mandy before she goes away) walking around and looking (but not trying on) at dresses until we came upon a shop that has a wonderful lady who let her try on anything and knew her stuff and was so incredibly helpful. at some point jess put on a veil and i freaked out and was like, i'm sorry i have to go i'm sorry and had to go have a breather lol. but we found a really nice dress and she's going back with her mum to have a look.

mandy is moving to brisbane in a week and a bit so on friday night after the game and after having a fantastic dinner with greta and catching up with alex and wade (i have missed those boys) i FINALLY got to frankie's after midnight just in time to go to town with the girls to send mandy off and have a happy birthday celebration for kelly. so that was fun, it has been so long since i've been into town there's a new bar (which aparently has been there for ages) where there used to be a clothes shop. so that was a lot of fun and finally rolled up the driveway at like 5 just in time for mum to get up and go to work at 6. the next morning she asked if i had been talking in the car all night because it was still warm when she got in, quite nice really she wan't cold the entire journey to work.

last weekend a friend mike from hawaii was visiting the country so we watched the rugby with my dad and then went into town to the minus 5 ice bar which was fun. was cool to have a visitor. jen from the uh team is here this weekend but i haven't heard from her and wouldn't know how to contact her so that's sad to miss her!

since starting work i have been enjoying my walk from the bus stop to the office down the main street with all the hustle and bustle of the early morning city. i find myself wanting to browse shops and being disappointed this isn't america and they're not open until a reasonable hour. and then i have to remind myself that even in america shops don't open at this hour, it's just because the only place i can ever afford to go to is wal-mart which is open 24 hrs lol. so then i am content to be home around clothes shops in the city in good old nz and am happy to just look at the window displays.

and thats all really. very boring but good. really good. there is always something cool about any scene if you look for it. the other day walking to work i looked up and there amongst all the high rises i could see on the roof of one of the buildings leaves from a garden that must be up there and i was like, that is cool.

anyway enough for now xxox

Tianjin, China

2007-06-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

my journal on the 28th of may (caution, the following might be considered a little crude to some people so i apologise for any offense caused. if you dont want to hear about toilets in china, skip the next paragraph):

we arrived in China today and made it to Tianjin so easily! last time we had to go 4 hours and the bus broke down and ra ra ra. this time it was only 2 and it was such a fun drive. we stopped to go to the toilet at this pit stop type thing and there was a bathroom with only squatters but it was so nice and clean! didn't even smell. I was worried because I remember the bathrooms at Guilin airport last year being so horrible,but this one was really nice. Anyway so there we all were squealing away because we had to squat and "wiggle" because there was no toilet paper. and the cleaning ladies were laughing so hard at us because we didn't really know what we were doing and were all shouting advice at each other at how to avoid peeing on ourselves all at the same time - there were lik 20 cubicles so no one had to wait. poor (name deleted) had to wash her feet afterwards, i guess she had a little trouble. but it was awesome. definitely feel like the team bonded a lot as a result. probably my best toilet experience ever!

so that was the beginning of our trip. it was a lot more fun and foreinger friendly than last year anyway : ) the bathrooms didn't flood at there was bread at almost every meal, so we did alright with that. they had some awesome markets in Tianjin so everyone shopped up a storm, almost everyone in the team (except me) bought a fake prada/chloe/puma/gucci/luis vuitton bag for like $10 NZD or something, it was pretty sweet deals. i bought some cool stuff, but didn't find the right bag. being not the biggest bag person, i'm very fussy even when stuff is cheap.

the water polo wasnt very good at all, we lost all our games which was really disappointing but we didn't have any time together before hand so it wasn't that surprising anyway. we just didn't mesh well as a team. since we got back, our coach has resigned and i'm starting to wonder if it's my turn too. but then who knows. maybe i could just keep playing without international water polo? yea right. anyway i'm glad i don't have to make any decisions right now.

anyways, so now i'm home until august and have found myself a job at an office i used to work at before i left. so at least i know the people and even though the work is totally menial i'm looking forward to catching up with people and earning some money to keep me out of trouble! no more water polo except club so that will be interesting, playing for fun with absolutely zero pressure or expectations...we'll see how that goes anyway!

since being home i've had about 12 hours sleep each night which is totally amazing, haven't even stirred during the night. i love my bed! but tomorrow i start work so that is the end of that. it has actually been really nice to just sit on the couch all day and not do anything and be even too lazy to think about feeling bad for not doing anything.

good to be home, it's not too cold at all, quite nice actually probably like 15ish which is pretty nice for winter here, all the seasons have been coming late though so by the time i leave it will no doubt be very good timing. it's kinda sad to leave the summer in the air feeling though. was talking to my friend in Long Beach today and i got really jealous because she's just chilling at her house in the summer, playing water polo and enjoying evenings on her verandah with friends and riding her bike around everywhere, and i was like, wow. fun.

home and away

2007-05-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

so i'm finally home, but not really. leaving for china on sunday for a week. then i'll be home.

it's funny being home after so long away and actually having time to breathe, i'm usually running around trying to catch up with people or training or doing something. this week i only have the mandatory training and am only catching up with family and yesterday i got the chance to go for a walk and catch the train - something i haven't done for probably like 4 years or something. so that was fun, the local train station has moved and where it used to be there is a community police/probation office type thing, and where i used to skip through to get to the train station and all the druggies used to hang out is a lovely road with brick foot path and everything. the worn down old buildings are still there, but i dont really think they're that bad. which is funny because if they were anywhere else other than somewhere i walked passed almost every day for like 5 years i would think they were horrible and should be torn down. the new train station is very sparkly and clean and next to the local mall - southmall - which has changed so much since i used to loiter there waiting for mum to finish the groceries, i haven't ventured inside yet. the new world and woolworths are still there but i think that's pretty much it.

i wonder if i'm thinkin this way because i have been reading alex's blogs or because i'm feeling old enough to have seen a bit of change in my neighbourhood... i can't even imagine what manurewa will be like when i'm 40...we'll soon find out anyway!

other than that i'm kind of in mourning still, last of all good-byes for the time being was Meike, i made her a book to remember us, i never thought i'd get through it because it's a pretty big book. but i did! and she wrote me a 4 page, typed out poem and gave me a friendship bracelet with my "colours" on it : )
it was very teary, not much was said because i was for once at a total loss for words. and then she was gone... lucky i have been concentrating on living day to day and not getting too far ahead of myself or i would be in total dispair about next year living without her, rather than just getting teary every now and then when i think of her and all my other friends who i will never get to do life with in person for very long periods of time again.

so thats me for today.

A

small change

2007-05-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

it was graduation the other day, it was pretty cool. ok so it was a long and boring ceremony but it was also graduation day of about 15 people I know so I kept myself occupied looking out for everyone.
i kinda feel like i'm a little bit in mourning at the mo, it's guna be so strange being here without these peeps who have been my support network since i got here. who have seen me grow up a little bit and been with me the whole time and who know things about me better than i know myself i think. it's hard being the one who is being left behind... usually i'm the one who leaves! feeling a little left behind, they're all going out to their amazing lives and i know they're each guna change the world in their own way and rock the world of those around them. i forget my own little mission and purpose when everyone is moving on to the next chapter, i have to remember i'm here now and i still have to make the most of it because this too is going to come to an end pretty quick and there is a whole year of life to live before then!
so last night we went out for dinner with the roomies to dukes. the poor girls, em and myself went for a run before we met up with them, thinking there would be like a 40min wait and we'd get there in time for the table, but they wouldn't seat anyone till the full party was there so they'd been waiting like a whole hour for us and then had to wait like another 20mins once we got there. felt so bad for them, sorry girls! by the time we sat down we didn't even converse or reminisce, everyone was so hungry we just stuffed our faces and then left! at least it was amazing food. i love dukes! mmm salad bar...
so i'm going home in 3 days for like a week then we're off to china for a week and then back home for like a month or so. so that will be awesome. i'm excited to go to china again, last time was fun but there was a definite culture shock, this time i feel a lot more prepared and ready to experience it. i also have 2 friends who are guna be in beijing (like an hour and a half from where we'll be) and they will be there for a couple of days with not much to do so i'm trying to convince them to come see me so that would be flippin sweet!
And then when I get home there are people to catch up with and weddings to help plan and get excited about! and a job to find and the task of figuring out how to get around and do all this without a car. as much as i would love to improve my bicycling skills, from manurewa to town is just a wee bit far... although it would be amazing training and i would get a lovely bottom out of it.
anyways must be off, things to do and organise before the day is already over.

love the ones you're with

A

the ship that never sailed

2007-05-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

i've tried 3 times to post this post but every time the internet cuts out right when i go to post. so now i'm in a cafe and that wont happen. but i can't be bothered analysing the whole thing for the 4th time so this will be short

we're not going to nationals. a committee decided that even though we wasted san diego state and have been ranked higher than them since the end of march, they still deserved to go more than us because they played more games and won more games against division 2 and 3 teams. so we got robbed.

in the last 3 posts that never posted i explained that as heart-breaking as this whole thing had been, we still had something to be proud of we've come so far this year as a team and we can hold our heads high. personally my world has been rocked upside down this year, i feel a lot older (lol, maybe have the emotional maturity of a 10 yr old now) and calm about the world and water polo and people and their opinions. so yea it really sucks but i've taken things out of this season that are so much more valuable than a plaque to say we were at NCAAs 2008 and 3 more games.
I got back in the water yesterday with a couple of other girls, but just wasn't ready to pass yet. the funny thing is, neither were a bunch of other girls. i had to giggle. i'll give it a go tonight. we'll see how it goes : )

in other news, i'm done with school! woop woop! had 3 exams yesterday and now i just have to write a couple more pages on a paper and then, c'est tout!
days are counting down to when 10 of my friends leave... i cried the other night, i got to pay tribute to some of them and burst into tears in front of like 50 people. yea, story of my life : )

and thats it for now : )

peace

we nearly went to oz today

2007-04-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

So here we are in the desert, AZ, I seriously don't know how people live here - it's not even summer yet and it's like 40C it's insane. you could seriously get heat stroke walking to your car! today we played Stanford and lost by like 6 goals, had a good first and last 1/4 but were lackin in the middle a wee bit. Still though we're playing a lot better this week and it feels a lot better too, we're all on the same page and lovin eachother and it's sweet.

yesterday we beat san jose state so now we're goin to the 'ship! yay! we did it! after all the drama of this season we actually pulled through and have played a little bit like what we're capable of. it's really nice to know you're not as delluded as you sound : )

so today in the middle of our game we had to get out because there was a dust storm. it was pretty cool, half way through the 2nd it got really cloudy and everyone was stoked because there wasn't any more glare and anyways, but the sky went orange and i was like, is there a fire somewhere? because the air got plump like it was guna rain but it wasn't wet. so i didn't know. and then the refs said we had to get out for 1/2 an hour for it to pass. when we got back in the water was pretty gross and at the time it was all very dramatic. we had to go inside, we hung out in this random room that i called the bomb shelter : )

haha, above is ryan and right is me and kristen getting scared. lol, i got a fringe last week so now when my hair isn't done i look like joe dirt : ) haha!

um... I'm trying to think what else. Did I tell you we're going to nationals!!! woop woop!!

nearly done with school, just 1 day left. then it's finals time and then it's all over! and then we might go to world league in China or I might go home for a few months! either way I'll be SO stoked.

peace

Trade Winds

2007-04-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

The other morning in practice, it was like 7something am and we were just sitting in the dive well passing the ball around, the air was quieter than usual and the sky really beautiful and clear, the sun just popping out over the bleachers, and it felt like summer is coming. For the first time since being here at this time of year, it feels like summer is in the air... yay!

School is nearly done, polo is nearly done for a wee while - just 3 more tournaments - conference, nationals and then the first round of world league in China. And then I have like a whole 5 weeks at home! home! yay! even though it will be winter and I'll have to find a job and won't have a car yay!

My cousin got engaged last weekend yay! I'm so excited for them! it cracks me up though because now tali is like my only close christian single friend so at the age of 22 i'm pretty much a spinster at church. I'm going to be the girl everyone feels sorry for and tries to set up on blind dates lol : )

I cut my hair and got a fringe. I like it, still not quite used to it but it's what I wanted and it'll grow and you only live once don't you : ) have been thinking lately that I sincerely hope that as I grow older, I get more adventurous and more open to trying anything. Like my parents are like that so I guess that's a good sign for me. They always surprise me because I always think they're pretty conservative but then they go and do something crazy cool that makes me smile.

Meike is leaving forever in like 2 weeks I'm really going to miss her. And Kezia and Alyssa and Juliana and Christel and Kim and Liz...next year is going to be really strange and hard. But I won't think about it yet

must go pack, we're leaving again. Arizona this time - something new

For Tals

2007-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

When I was home last, inspired by Alex's tatoos I had a conversation with my dear friend Athalia about whether or not we would get one. She is the only other person I have ever met who would get one on the bottom of her foot! Hers was the fish and mine was the southern cross - if we were ever motivated enough to save the money and actually go through with it.

so anyways, in one of our many hours driving last week, I got bored. I think the photo turned out pretty sweet anyway : )

5-0 streak

2007-04-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

so we just got back from a 8 day road trip, in which we played 4 games. It was a really long trip and involved a lot of driving and most attempts to do school work just didnt' work out for me. So here we are again, now 6 weeks behind in school work, but since we only have 3 weeks left of school I'm searching for a motivation that just doesn't seem to be there. We won all of our games, which is a new record for this season - 4 wins in a road trip, and now we have won 5 games in a row. the games were pretty shocking we were losing to a div 3 team at half time. but we won so I will be happy.

in other news, I'm not really enjoying this whole traveling so much thing. I was feeling really down and disconnected from the world for the whole week and didn't really understand why until I realised that the longest I've been in one place since december is 3 weeks. So it's no surprise really. I just wish I had more time with my friends who are leaving hawaii this semester, it's going to be so hard without them. I had a cry with my other dear friend who is kinda feeling the same way and we decided that we actually can't think about tomorrow, we must only take each day as it comes. And so I won't talk about that anymore.

On a lighter note, I love my team. Even though for some reason we're not playing very well, I just really love getting to know each of them a little more and getting some one on one time with each of them and just being around these girls who see all my weaknesses and the worst possible side of me that I'm sure most people think doesn't even exhist ; ) but still love me. I hope they feel as safe with me as I do with them and that I have something to offer each of them, wherever they're at.

Coralee and Alex have set a wedding date, and I can go!!!!!!!!! woop woop! It's a week after Michelle and AJs, which is on my bday and it's just guna be the coolest week ever! it will even get me an extra few days at home over xmas without causing a kerfuffle with school. I can graduate in May, I think I'm going to do all but my senior thesis next semester (4 french classes and 1 pols) and that way if I don't end up playing next season I could probably graduate without having to be here, if I don't want to hang out in Hawaii. It would be really really hard to be here during season without playing.

k thats my news
big loves
A xxox

Where Am I?

2007-04-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not exactly sure why because I thought that I was a travelling machine and was not the kind of person to suffer from jet lag or have trouble adjusting to time differences, but I guess after a couple of months of only being in one time zone for 2 weeks max takes its toll on even the machiniest machines...

We're in LA at the moment on our last road trip before our conference finals. We had a big win last week against Cal (10-9) which means that if we win our next 3 games then we probably won't cross over with them at MPSFs (conference finals) which means we have a really really good chance of going to nationals. So I really hope that we can do it. Our game against Cal was pretty good, I must say it was a bit of an out of body experience for me, we just got back from Melbourne the day before (10 hr flight) and were pretty dead. And somehow I managed to score 3 goals so I guess I should do that more often? I'm really glad we pulled it together for that game, it showed us what we're capable of - we created a lot on offense and did some really good defense so even though I think we could have won by a bit more, everyone is a bit more excited now. Today we played Santa Barbara and we were up by like 4 goals the whole game and then in the last 4 minutes they came to within one goal, luckily we managed to keep it together for the last minute and come away with the win. It was a bit disappointing because we were in control the whole game and the goals they scored at the end were just from foolish errors (mostly mine). But live and learn right? So on thursday we play CS Northridge and Saturday we play Hartwick and Cal Baptist. It will be good to see the kiwi girls again and have a wee catch up after worlds again. I kinda miss them.

The end of worlds was fun. We lost to brasil - we got wasted by brasil. We lost like 14-9 or something horrible like that. It was a horrible game, we were up 4-1 after the 1st 1/4 and then I duno what happened everything just started falling apart. We started yelling at eachother and stuff, which never happens, and yea it sucked. But we had a big talk after the game and sorted everything out and came together for the last game against Germany, which we lost in over time 10-9. Another disappointing loss but at the same time, it was a good, hard fought game and everyone was forced to give their best. So we came 12th at the 12th FINA world championships.

Our last night in Melbourne was a lot of fun, I even went out! I was even the last one standing! We were hanging out with the Kiwi guys and also the South African guys and it was a lot a lot of fun. I am a sucker for a safa accent and they were pretty good lookin and none of them were sleazy I just had the best time dancing the night away. The next day we had a bit of a sleep and a bit of a gossip session with everyone about the previous night's events and then were off on the plane back to Hawaii.

School hasn't been too hard to catch up on, just had a couple of essays to write and now have like 3 exams to make up but hopefully they'll be ok. I'm just really gutted that we're always coming and going, I don't have much time at all with my friends who are graduating which is really sad. But at least I know to cherish the times we do get together. I just feel a little disconnected - a month is a long time to be away in the middle of a semester and then to only be around every other week, it's hard. But such is life. This time is so weird, it's like high school all over again exept now we have to be grown up once we graduate and start making the right decisions and scary stuff like that. Lucky for me I think I still have a few months before I have to find my way in the big wild world.

Roller Coasters

2007-03-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Worlds has been amazing, as I'm sure it always is and always will be.
We ended up drawing to Cuba last week when we played them. We were pretty disappointed as we'd wanted a win but had to just take it in our stride. The funny thing is that, Italy and Hungary (the other 2 teams in our pool) also drew. So for the first time in Worlds history, we had 2 draws in a pool. So that made for interesting games everone just trying to score as much as we could so we'd go through to the top 12 at least. For Italy and Hungary they were fighting it out for 1st place in our pool to go straight through to the top 8. We lost 17-7 to Hungary, which, although sounds bad and granted, is bad, shows a big improvement of NZ since the beginning of our program a few years ago when we lost 18-1 at the Olympic Qualifiers in 2004. We even scored the first goal and were even after the 1st quarter (gotta claim all we can). So anyways, we also lost by 12 goals to Italy. But the thing is, because this never happened before, no one really knew who should go through as number 1 in our pool - first they said it would be determined by their results with number 3 (us) - so Italy would have gone through, or with their overall goal difference - which would make Hungary go through because they beat Cuba by like 15 goals. They ended up deciding on over all goal difference and it was the strangest sight to see pool side. NZ was happy because we were in the top 12, and Italy, who had just won by 12 goals, were crying and yelling at eachother and kicking signs over, they even smashed a window on the bus. Needless to say it was an emotional night.
So yesterday we played Greece and for the first time I think we were pretty disappointed with our game. We just didn't play the way we have been playing, with the same heart or sight. We went down 6-0 in the first half, and clawed our way back in the 2nd half to bring the final score to 9-5. One good thing though, was for the first time this tournament I wasn't on 2 in the first quarter so got to play a lot of the game, and I didn't even get majored. So I was happy about that anyway.
In other events, I have been watching a bit of diving, There was a kid here who goes to UH diving for sweden so we watched him as much as we could. He's one cool cat. I have so much admiration for divers, they must need so so so much patience to get to even competition level let alone international level. There is something quite fascinating about bodies flying and twisting and turning through the air I must say. And we also got to watch the groups final of the synchronised swimming so that was awesome! they were like throwing people through the air and climbing over eachother and the russians even got a tower of 2 people high out of the water - and in synchro you're not allowed to touch the bottom so they were holding them up doing egg beater. Amazing.
Tomorrow we play Brasil to decide whether we play off for 9th or 11th. I hope we win, Brasil is one of those teams that never gives up and is really emotional and passionate so even though I definitely think we're a better team, we will really have to work hard for it.
It's crazy that we've nearly been here for 2 whole weeks and we'll only play 6 games, but it's so fun. I thought before we came that this might be my last worlds but now I really want another one...getting a bit far ahead of myself I think. It's a wee way away.

In other exciting news! One of my bestest friends Coralee just got engaged last weekend to the most amazing boy who adores her. I'm so happy for them, and they are getting married over my winter holidays, and ALSO one of my other most closest childhood friends Michelle is getting married on my birthday! I'm so excited, it's going to be the best xmas, new years and bday ever!

autumn in the southern hemisphere

2007-03-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

So we just got to melbourne for world champs the other day after coming 3rd in the southern cross cup we had in NZ. I think overall the tournament was a big success and thouroughly enjoyable, for myself anyway! PS I have the cutest niece in the whole world.

I don't know if it's good or bad but more and more I'm just enjoying water polo as this incredible way to bring people together. In NZ last week we had people who had grown up in the soviet union, people who had endured civil war, people who eat pasta for breakfast lunch and dinner, people who I always make fun of like americans and brits, and then us, all together in lil' ol NZ playing a sport that we love. The reality is that really in the end everyone just wants to win but in my brain I think it's such an incredible privelage and so cool to be friends with and play against people from all over the world, from incredible backgrounds and histories. and i just think thats cool

We got to show Meik around a wee bit, so cool, I think she really enjoyed it. So I was really happy about that, we just went to newmarket and had tea. and do you know what I love about Meike? OK so she was on a budget right, and we were in the middle of the shopping district, and Meike spends the last of her money on a bag of tea. Granny's garden fruit tea to be precise. That is was I love about Miek. While the rest of her team went to NZ's poor version of an outlet mall, and Meike bought tea. anyways, then I showed her my old uni, which brought on a big wave of nostalgia eating hummus in albert park and just not going to class. and then we went to Em and Kelly's house so she could see it and they're on the way to Piha. Piha was good. It was an

awesome raw NZ day with wind that blew your hair off and the break going all the way out past the point. I was like, now you get what I mean when I say in NZ the break goes out like 100m from shore.

I was also lucky enough to catch up a little with some good friends while I was back so I'm still on a high from that.

And now here we are at world champs, tomorrow we have our first game against Cuba. They were our nearly last game last time. So it will be a good game and hopefully we'll come out on top!

There is so much going on in Melbourne at the mo, and there was so much going on in Auckland too, there was Pasifika festival, the Auckland Festival and a bunch of sweet concerts and stuff. It just hasn't stopped once coming to Melbourne. As I'm writing this the grand prix is going on right across the road, so that's loud. And also the Melbourne wine and food festival is on right now too. It's crazy! So much to do!

home!

2007-03-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

I'm home!

Only for like 2 weeks, and we have so many games and trainings I don't know if I'll even get to catch up with anyone but wow, I have to say that I think I am possibly the most blessed person in the whole world with my friends and family. Both at home and away. I'm just really blown away right now thinking about it. People are so amazing.

Polo is good ish, we had a couple of really bad games (UH) last weekend, 10 games in 11 days. Killer. and then we had like 3 days at in HI then I came back home to NZ! Then we've just been scrimmaging against Great Britain and touching up on a few of our moves and stuff. It's so good to play with everyone again, and it's so cool to see how much everyone has grown as players, we have 2 girls in Italy and one in France and one in LA and then the HI girls and the Hartwick girls and it's just so awesome to come together again. Everyone is so cool and has improved so much and it's just really awesome.

Tomorrow we have our first official game against Great Britain and then the Southern Cross tournament starts on Thursday. It's so cool there are so many teams here, in the women there's the Netherlands and Germany and Great Britain, and in the Men there are Serbia (#1 in the world at the mo), Italy, Russia, USA and Canada. And we're getting a lot of media coverage and stuff so it'll be really good for water polo in NZ. It's a really exciting thing to be a part of.

It's so nice to be here, it's still summer, the sky is blue and the sun is still setting late and I just really love the feeling in the air at this time of the year...

woop woop!

5 down, 5 to go

2007-02-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'm so tired, and part of me is like why? and the other part is like, don't be stupid.

Starting last friday we have 10 games in 11 days, which is pretty a lot. We're half way now and just have 2 tomorrow, 2 on sunday and then one on tuesday when we get back (we're in California at the moment)

and then friday I go home to the national team and the southern cross tournament. at least we're getting a lot of games in : )

We've been playing ok, it feels like we're putting in a lot of effort and not getting much back, I think if we can cut down on our errors and slow down in our heads a bit we'll be a lot better off for it.

and for those that aren't really interested in water polo... : )

I got to see Viv (my sister) last night for a couple of hours which was really cool, she's over here for work and was staying just down the road so as soon as we got to the hotel last night we hung out for a wee bit. it was nice, I'm going to see her again in like a week but it was really nice to see her in the OC anyway : )

um... here are some sweet photos from when I was home at xmas:

This one is of Kate and Nicholas in the bath, isn't she so cute.

and then I can't remember why but Kate was crying after her bath so had to tickle her

this is prob one of my all time favourite photos - Grandpa and Katie pie eating sweet corn on the grass by the swing : )

and last but not least, the brothers garks. I really love them,

they're so cool....

Um... I can't think of much else to write...oh I got two really awesome bikinis today for really cheap. Like really nice ones that I would pay like $100 each for at home but were $20 each here at Ross. Gotta love Ross : )

k time to go,

peace out cub scouts

This Time of Year...

2007-02-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

I'm usually at the beach. Or playing water polo in some foreign country (other than NZ or USA).

2007 however, has been a whole new story. I have been at school for a month already, while all my friends are lapping up the last hot month of summer and getting fabuloso tans, I have been at school. Taking classes that make me fall asleep because I feel like I'm form 4 again but I have to take these classes because I'm not really going to be at school much from now on.

I only have 4 weeks left till the end of the semester really...

Sorry, OK I'm totally not complaining, my tan is lovely and it's always hot here so it's not like I'm missing out, it's just so weird going to class in January. Like, straight after my birthday. I really don't know how I'm going to survive in the real world. It's so mean, they give us like a good 3 months off school through high school, then at uni they give you like 4 or 5, and then when you start work you're down to 3 for the rest of your life. Who worked that out? I think it's pretty mean.

A good majority of my friend, except for like polo girls are graduating at the end of this semester and I'm really sad about it. I'm in Hawaii for a week and a half and then we go on our next road trip to CA, then I'm back for a few days and then we're off home and to Australia for worlds, and then I'm back to HI for a few days then it's another road trip, then back for a week then it's conference finals in Arizona, and then it's the last week of school. I have a slightly overwhelmed feeling coming over me. Not really, it just sounds a little overwhelming doesn't it?

We just got back from our first road trip, I forgot how long they are. We were away for 6 days and played 6 games in 4 days. I think we got a good kick in the bum so that was good, the first games are always pretty shocking and then you pull your head in and things work out a bit. So at least now we know where we are and where we want to go. And I have decided that I have 5 weeks (thats how long it is till world champs) to become a really good water polo player.

Now I know you're thinking, hang on Amy, you're on your national team you can't be that bad. I'm not saying I'm bad, I'm just thinking I want to be a lot better than I am right now. So no doubt I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm a little dillusional...can you tell?

resurfacing

2007-01-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

I want to get back into this. But there is this weird fear thing thats like hmmm will I actually commit or will I just update once and forget it again for the next 6 months?

Regardles, we'll give it a go.

Uni this semester is awes. I'm takin 3 classes at school just elementary basic core requirements that for some reason are neccessary in the States and then 2 online, one is about staying healthy (I can't believe they offer that at university) and one is about International Relations and Human Rights. We're studying Niger and the food crisis of 2005 and what's been going on since and it's freakin hot stuff. Sad, makes me want to cry but so interesting. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the UN and also has the lowest Human Development Index, which means that they don't have much education and they don't earn much. So you'd think they'd get more aid than most. But they don't. they get an average of $200 per capita a year, the Marshall Islands, where the US does nuclear testing, gets and average of $16,000 per capita a year. It's all very interesting and also very shocking and just makes me want to go save the world even more.

We leave for our first road trip on Tuesday. A week from today. I'm excited. for the first time in a long time everyone is in high spirits and it's really cool and I like it. I hope we do well this year.

The apartment on the surface of things is neat and tidy but underneath something is about to explode. I'm sure it's really not that dramatic it just feels like it. Not very comfortable but am sure things will work out.

And that is the latest. for now I have to go to practice. Should be good.

Peace
A

2006-08-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone!!

I have done so much since the last post! In a nutshell: Went home for a day, then to Sydney for 5 days, then Yongzhou (middle of nowhere China) for a week, then LA for a week, then home for 3 weeks, and then back to Hawaii for school.
Sydney was awesome, got to stay at Olympic Park and hang for 4 whole days with my beloved beautiful amazing sister.
China was incredible, got a taste of what it's like to be famous in a place where you don't know the language, food, culture or where the heck you are and probably half the people you meet have never seen a white person before.
In LA I learnt that, despite my continuous rants about how terrible American food is, it's actually magnificent delightful fantastic after eating only rice and OSM (nutrition bars) for a week : )
The water polo was hard, discouraging, heart-breaking, but also put a determination into me that I don't think I've had in a while.
If anyone is interested I'd totally love to talk more about it and fill you in on everything but right now I can't be bothered and it feels like a bit too much to cover without making many of you fall asleep!
The real reason I'm posting is because I have a strange desire to draw something but Meike (my endlessly patient and wonderful roomie - who is very in touch with her creative side) isn't here and I can't find her pastels. So woe is me, I go to the next thing that she quietly and consistently, through example pushes me towards, and that is keeping my blog up to date for those who might be interested in my meagre existence : )

Have been back in HI for a bout a week and a half, the first week was the big stress trying to find somewhere to live. After being taken incredible care of for a week by one of my team mates and driven over half the island every day, we found an awesome apartment right across the road from school. On the 10th floor of a condominium apartment building (whatever that means) But it is lovely. We have a washer and dryer in our unit, 2 bathrooms, and we even have a dishwasher! Filling the apartment has been a lot of fun (other than trying to balance the bank account - probably the most un-fun thing in the world) thanks to walmart. With it's endless supply of almost everything.
For the first time since being here, I also got to see the freshman orientation - all these clean faced excited young adults and their parents, trying to make the transition as easy as possible. I got to spend a couple of hours and our Campus Crusade for Christ table, and I have to say it was really cute when so many parents came up to us asking for details for churches and info about us, and all these kids were totally mortified trying to hide. So funny and so cute.
Classes so far look pretty hard, but pretty interesting too. I have 2 political science classes - one of which is pretty much about images and advertising which is always interesting. And the other one, we do a whole section on refugees and their rights and just general being, which is totally what I'm into so I'm so excited about that. Then 2 french classes which is guna be awesome considering I haven't done much french at all in the last year and a half, but I always did like a challenge : ) and one english - literature of the Pacific - taught by Albert Wendt - famous NZ-Samoan writer and Reina Whaitiri. So I'm really excited about it. Of course it's going to be pretty political because of how hard it's been for so many polynesian cultures and the impacts of colonisation and thats what a lot of the writing is about, but it's pretty real and I'm excited to learn more about cultures in my part of the world.
Interesting fact - did you know that you can fit all the land above water in the whole world in the Pacific ocean with room to spare!

Training starts next week and I am determined to have a blast in my last year of elegibility. And so it will be : )

Hope everyone is awesome - it would totally make my day to hear from anyone at all : )

much love
A xxox

weddings

2006-06-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

I went to the wedding of my friends Brenda and Marcus today, it was a sunrise service, starting at 5.30 am and we the bridesmaids were ofcourse up hours before that, the first waking up at 11.30pm to be ready for the big day. Let me tell you, it was chaos.

But I think the ceremony was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... the sun came up just as they made their vows and both of them were radiant, you would never had known the bride had had 2 hours sleep in the last 40. It was just 2 people, so excited about their love for eachother and for God and it was just really beautiful to watch and be a part of.

I guess weddings are always like that, I've just never seen the stress and work that goes into even the tiniest little details before; the costs that are paid (whether smart or unsmart) to set up the beginning of their lives together. I've never really noticed before the lengths that people will go to for someone they love who isn't their child. I know my parents love eachother so much but I haven't until now, realised the little sacrifices they make each day for eachother, and the willingness with which they give things up for eachother.

It was just a really cool day.

Will put up photos when I get them : )

much love
A

Warning: Essay Follows

2006-05-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

well I feel like I have so much to tell so hope you've got some time set aside for this essay you're in for.

We just finished school a couple of weeks ago, we did pretty well at our conference finals - we beat USC 9-10 to make the championship game and we ended up coming second so that was huge. Mich could hardly believe it. It was a pretty fun weekend - we were in Irvine and it was just a fun time I think. I didn't really play - I got majored in a couple of games so that was a bummer but it was fun anyway. The girls did really well.

Then we got home with a week to do finals, get out of the dorms and sort everything else out that we needed to do before leaving for nationals at UC Davis in Northern California. So that was a sleepless and slightly stressful week but managed to get on the plane to Sacremento having finished all my work and exams so it was awesome to just be able to think about polo and not have to worry about school or anything. The day we left was such a mess, Meike and myself had spent the whole night before packing so we'd had about 4 hrs sleep and then we got up, went for a swim, got a car from the athletic dept, packed the car and then Meike checked us out while I went to the chiropractor and then we got back to the pool just as the bus pulled up so we just managed to put all our gear (and trust me there was a LOT) in the storage room at the pool before jumping on the bus.

Davis was really special. We started out with 3 seniors at the beginning of the year and we finished with only one, Mari, and Ief was leaving us for national team commitments back in the Netherlands, and our assistant coaches Coralie and Margie were leaving us as well. So it was just a really good time of enjoying eachother and having fun playing together and I duno I just had a really good time. We ended up coming 4th but honestly, it didn't bother me. The last night we had a team dinner which was a lot of fun, everyone ended up giving a little speech about something they enjoyed about the team and saying thanks to eachother and the coaches - even Mich's friend who none of us had ever met before! so funny! and it was just so cool. We're going to miss them so incredibly much next year but I know wherever they all end up they're going to tear it up and keep being their awesome selves.

And then we came home and I spent a couple of days at Coralie and Margie's with Kelly (another Kiwi) and we went sea swimming and hiking and even did a short pool swim - it was a good time just relaxing. Me and Coralie went on this awesome hike around these rocks at a beach and there were all these deep rock pools you could swim in so we went for a dip and then kept going, and there were blow holes - that was cool. And the colours of the sea were so intense and so beautiful it was just rocking this world.

Now I am in Wyoming with my friend Emily from the UH soccer team for a couple of days before going to an Athletes in Action camp in Colorado tomorrow. It's been so nice. She has the coolest "American" house - has a basement and an attic! (never been in a house with either of those before) and from the outside it really looks like a doll house. So fun! Today we went on this little hike at a national park near here and it was so awesome driving out. just a road in the middle of these endless plains with the Rocky Mountains on the horizon. And the sky was so cool, we could see storms on the horizon and you could see lightening and stuff it was so cool. Also this afternoon when we got back, there was an afternoon thunder storm (quite a common summer occurrence) and the thunder was seriously right after the lightning. And you could see the lightning bolts. It was awesome. We were making guacamole and Emily's mum was like "I smell smoke!" and started running around all crazy like to make sure the house hadn't caught on fire or something. It was awesome.

And tomorrow I'm off to Fort Collins. Can't wait. This week is going to rock this world!

K, hope everyone is well - you should totally email me or something

much love
A xxox

Still Alive

2006-04-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

sorry again for being so slack at this. i am going to be making more effort from now on i promise.

so how is everyone anyway? haven't been hearing much from the southern hemisphere lately *cough cough* I hope everyone is fantastic and Debbie if you read this I hope baby is fantastic and healthy and amazing fun even if you never get to sleep and are having to change nappies all day long : )

Here is good, the semester is finishing in 3 weeks and I'm baffled at how fast time flies. It's crazy I tell you. School has been going well - it turns out I'm smart or something - I got invited into the honours program which means I can take harder classes and on my diploma it says that I graduated "with honors" (no u because we're in america). I'm not sure if I will join yet, I haven't spoken to anyone, it would be cool to be a bit more challenged in classes and not just have to regurgitate everything I'm told but I do want to graduate asap and the thought of having to take extra classes isn't really very appealing. But we'll see anyway.

Polo has been improving, we started out shocker losing twice to Arizona which should NOT have happened but it did and twas horrible but then again I guess it was good to get a kick up the bum to get us motivated and realising that even though on paper we have an Iamazing team, we still have to work hard. Next weekend is our conference (league) finals are next weekend and it's basically going to come down to whether or not we beat berkeley to decide if we get to go to Nationals so that will be an exciting game. We've improved a lot this semester I think, and we definitely can it's just all up to us. I hope we do : ) will keep you posted on that one anyway.
I haven't had the most fun time with polo this semester, have had some major communication problems with the coach but we had this massive talk the other day and we both surprised ourselves with how un-stubborn we were and how much we actually listened, it was so good. Now I just have to remember to do that more often if a problem comes up and not get all prideful and try to ignore it and make everyone miserable... lol isn't that so funny how things snowball so much when all it would take to fix things is a bit of old fashioned talking over a cup of tea or something.

Went to disneyland last weekend! It was my second time there, and I have to say to anyone who goes in the future, make sure you scream your lungs out every ride. The first time I went, I thought I was too cool and was trying not to scream, but this time I just let loose, and it was so much more fun. So the key my friends, I guess for any adventure is to scream your lungs and and keep your eyes open and really experience it ya know? yea.

My sister in law had a baby on Friday NZ time, I have no idea what it is, or if everything went ok or anything. Mum and Dad have gone away for the weekend and I don't have their number, Emily thinks I'm really strange for not having my brother's number with my here. I've never thought about it. Maybe I should get it. I would quite like it - to be able to talk to my brothers/sister whenever I wanted just coz I could...My other brother is moving to Invercargill this week he's on the Southland NPC team and he's pretty much the best loch in the world so everyone keep your eyes open : ) Rees Logan yup, thats my brother!

Just watched a really intense movie called "Tsotsi". It's about South Africa and this boy who lives in a shanty town and steals a car that has a baby inside. It's based on a book. It's so good to see film coming out of Africa. What is it about Africa? It just tugs on my heart strings, not even really one place over another, when I look at my map, my eyes always come back to Africa. It could be because it's bang smack in the middle of my map, but I think it's something more than that...and I can't really explain it. Anyone else get that?

OK well I better go, will try to put some photos up, my computer is very stubborn at the mo and isn't uploading so will keep trying but otherwise you'll have to check out ringo.

OK I just found out about the unknown baby - 12.1 Lbs, 59 cm, Terence Nicholas Jens Logan. Will be called Nick most likely. My over 2m tall brother Rees the loch was 54cm when he was born. He is beautiful, lovely fat chubby cheeks but nothing else everything else is hot stuff. His hands are huge. He has a head full of black hair. Following all the voices around the room today (this is mum talking). When mummy was giving him his first bath the other day, his sister Kate asked "where's his fanny?" she really is quite intrigued with him. And he looks like his Aunty Amy - but you shoulda got that at the beautiful part ;)

Alive

2006-02-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

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

homey life

2005-12-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

hey all,

my first week at home has definitely not been what i had expected...it seems something happens every day that just totally throws me for a six (thats kiwi for knocks me in the head sideways = catches me off guard) its been kinda weird, but i'm still really stoked to be home.

have been able to hang out with some really good friends and am finally starting to enjoy polo a little bit again, which totally rocks my world.

today i went dress shopping for my 21st. not that i have ever been a pro shopper, but having not bought any clothes at all for a whole semester, its pretty fair to say i'm a tad out of shape and today was a hard day. but we did find some random dresses to take photos of...

i dont know the free image hosting site that meike has on her computer and i can't seem to work the one that i have found so unfortunately ya'll will have to wait to see them. but there were some pretty random dresses for some pretty rediculous prices going on.

not too much else exciting has been happening, my team won junior nationals (competition over the weekend) and i was awarded best defensive player so that was good. practice has been fun - we've been doing this run over like a thousand hills - that bit sure isnt fun, but the view is so beautiful and the air is clean its not on any streets or anything so you can actually breathe, well as much as you can when you're running up and down hills anyway! and this morning we went for a surf swim in proper waves, which i haven't done in about a year so it was good to get the old heart rate up again diving under wave after wave. and the water wasn't even cold! so that was really awesome.

well, i hope everyone is really awesome wherever they are! don't forget to keep in touch k? k

much love
A xxox

home sweet home

2005-12-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

hey all,

my last week in hawaii for 2005 was a good one, went surfing, went dancing in a torrential downpour, managed to get all my assignments done almost, and did my exams, and packed, and managed to buy a few (although still not enough) presents.

Last Saturday I went to the swap meet (big massive flea market) with Alyssa and it took a really long time to get around the thing - like 3 hours - but I had a good time hangin out with lyss, it was really nice to have some time to just hang out and chill together. And we ate some coconut! was really yum but I hadn't eaten much that day and so it kinda made me feel a wee bit sick after not too long. But twas all just dandy.

And then the Saturday just been we went surfing for practice so that was fun. Only my 2nd time surfing ever so it was a bit hilarious. I can catch the wave fine, just can't stand up. I keep landing on my toes somehow they just bend under for no particular reason and it hurts! but I got up once and stayed up for about 2.75 seconds before falling off. So really I'm the next big thing : )

Saturday night we had our team christmas dinner and we went to this yum Japanese restaurant and it was one of those ones when they cook infront of you with the fire and the flames and stuff. We had the coolest cook he was so excited it was awesome. We had a sinta klaus thing (dutch wrong spelling) when we each bought a present and gave it to someone else. I got a back scratcher/massager, a banana shaped water gun - which i have to say it pretty much the best water gun ever! I got my coach from like 20 metres away, and its just a little one nothing big and fancy or anything. And it says "I went bananas in Hawaii" on it. radical. and I got a men of Hawaii 2006 wall calendar woohoo

and then on Sunday I went to church and got showered with presents it was amazing. and then Sunday night me, Kezia, Alyssa, Meike, Aurelien, Arnaud, Mason, Jeremie and his recently arrived from france doesn't speak any english very beautiful girlfriend, Virginie. We had thai is was SO good. We tried speaking in french for 15 minutes for Vivi, but we were really bad and gave up pretty quick. It was funny to watch their faces when we were speaking wish I had a camera! :D

and Monday I ran around like a chook with her head chopped off, and now I'm home : ) would really love to sleep but have a polo game so have to go to that and remember to drive on the left hand side of the road again. As the plane was landing, I saw my street. I don't know why I've never seen it before! Maybe I've never looked or never been by the window before. But it was really cool. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND!

Everyone back in Hi you better keep in touch or I'll beat you up. Miss ya's already!

Much love
A xxox

my peeps

2005-11-23T23:56:00.000-08:00

OK so my window looks out on to the street, across the road is university, if I cross the road and go down the street thats there, a bunch of my friends live there, if I go away from university down a huge flight of stairs (don't tell peter! he's bringing a team over here next year :P) the pool is right behind me. I'm totally just loving that at home everything was so far away, and I spent so much time just driving everywhere and stuck in traffic, and here everything is 2 seconds away, and I have time to chill, and watch people from my window.

haha that sounds so melodramatic or something. but anyway. I really like watching people walking on the street from my window. people on their way to and from class, people waiting for the bus. Some people run, like you know when you're on your way home and you just have to run you just can't walk? some people look really stressed out, some people laugh and i totally have to gush when I see a boy and girl walk towards eachother, say hi, and then keep going, and one of them keeps smiling, or like, blushes to their friend or something. So fun.

Sometimes if I see someone I know, I yell out at them and tell them I love them. and they don't know where its coming from thats so fun too. a lot of them figure it out pretty quick though, I think the accent gives it away dang it!

I stole this idea off Meike, but sometimes I just want to take photos of random people. Capture something we see in someone we'll never know but will for some reason remember. Capture the uniqueness and beauty of a person, their strength or the way lines cut their face, or how they have no lines on their face.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but basically, people are amazing. Our capacity to love, to hate, to explore, to push limits, to create, to destroy, to survive, to dream, to do anything is so huge, so amazing to me. When I see adds about starving african children, I'm not moved by the fact that they have nothing and that they're starving, that sounds really bad, but theres so much bad stuff it this world. But I can't no matter how hard I try, keep a tear away when I see one smiling. What is it about joy that is so intriguing/compelling/moving whatever the word is?
You're amazing. Go make a little history k? (if you don't know what that means, watch Garden State :D) Say it. I (your name) am amazing.

peace out
A xxox

I so don't blame Persephone!

2005-11-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone

I just ate my fist pomegranite

It was amazing.

It was like 1000 little rubies inside my mouth!

Taste explosion AND glorious to eat! like you just have to get it all over your face and hands and wherever else it ends up.

Meike reckons somewhere along the line someone made a mistake coz she'd rather pomegranite than rubies any day

I dont think its a mistake : )

delightful

have a fabulous day
much love
A xxox

Another Crazy Blog

2005-11-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I've been thinking a lot about all my God adventures as well as my normal adventures. And I want to share them but I don't want to make people uncomfortable if they don't want to hear about stuff like that. So I made another blog, that you can go check out if you want to or are interested and if you're not thats cool too : ) I'll add it to my links

peace out everyone
much love
A xxox

Bittersweet Good-Byes

2005-11-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

So 5 out of the 8 french guys left on Tuesday, it was really sad... but we had some awesome last days together so it will be ok.

On Saturday there was a bbq, that was really cool. Ended up having some really random conversations with people I was not expecting to have random conversations with. So that was cool. And there was like, I don't know maybe 12 of us there? and we made a caterpilar with everyone. Ok so thats when your hands are on the ground, and your legs are on the person behind you's back, and the person in front of you's legs are on your back. Its hard to explain. But it was pretty funny. And we made a pyramid as well, I'm really glad I'm a girl and got to go on the top, coz we were mucking around for ages and I think the peeps on the bottom were pretty much dying. But it was all ok in the end.

And then on Sunday we had a really fancy dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese but everyone dressed nicely and me and Meike wore skirts and the boys all wore shirts and it was really cute. Especially considering that most of them probably didn't even have nice shirts in Hawaii with them. I think a few were borrowed from Thibault - the styly guy. hahaha. But it was really cute.

And then on Monday I decided I would do a secret stealth mission and make the boys who were leaving a Pavlova in my Halloween costume (didn't have anything so just went in a toga - complete with a wreath of real leaves Meike pulled off a tree for me, I knew the skills I learnt at the surf club would come in handy one day!). Because they (pavs, not togas) are really yum. So we went to the apartment of the boys who were staying and set to work. But they had no wisk. And they had no forks either because they were all in the other apartment from the night before. So we set to the egg whites with spoons for a while, and then we went down to 7/11 and stole (yes Juliana, I think we were stealing) some plastic forks, and had a go with them. But then I just gave up. I don't know whether the boys were tryin to make me feel better or just really wanted some pav but anyways, out comes the power drill with plastic forks taped to it. So fun and so cute! But it still didn't work, after a bit of research, I think plastic makes the egg whites not want to froth so thats why it didn't work. But the effort was so appreciated boys! : )

And then we went down to Waikiki to have a look at all the Halloween peeps. There were some really crazy costumes, some things I didn't particularly want to see but it was funny anyway. And we went and hung out and just chatted for a while on the beach. When it got late we all said our good-byes and took a bunch of photos you know, I always think I'm down with good-byes, but they always get me. I didn't cry coz I'm tough, but it was really sad. Definitely tugged at the ol' heart strings. I always get stuck between feeling gypped coz I only get to hang out with people for a short part of their lives, and stoked that I even got to meet them. But we'll keep in touch. And now I have a place to stay in France! And they have places to stay in NZ, the Netherlands, Washington, and Idaho. So really, it's all going to be ok.

And Tuesday was another day...
I'm really behind in school work. And coming home in 4.5 weeks. woa. another year nearly over. I wonder if I'll remember what it was like to be 20 when I'm 40. hahaha sorry Amy's gettin all goopy.

We have now officially started our 20hrs practice a week. So far its going surprisingly well! I hurt my quad really annoyingly last night, I was jumping to take a shot and something just popped. I think its just a strain but I can't jump or use it very well at all and its really annoying. But its ok. It's really nice to be scrimmaging again. Am a bit nervous about going home to the new rules, sounds like everyone is moving a lot and maybe even driving now shock horror!

OK guys, sorry that last bit sounds like a bit of a downer. I'm actually really enjoying myself. Today in Physics we made electrometers. And we got to take them home. I actually felt like I was 10 years old again taking my science experiments home and being so stoked about them waiting to show off to someone and explain all about it. Even if they already know. OK so its this thing like, a piece of video tape reelign tape folded in half on the end of a little metal thing inside a coke bottle with a ball of tin-foil on the top. And you get a balloon and rub it on your arm or hair (so much fun in itself!) and get it all charged up and then when you put it near the tin-foil ball and the tape in the bottle repells away from itself. If that makes sense. I felt cool anyway. Like a scientist on the verge of a huge discovery :D

OK better go. Hope everyone is awesome.
peace out and keep cool
much love
A xxox

Taking the Longs way home

2005-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Meike is going to teach me a song on the guitar. I can't wait. It's going to be hilarious, but then I will come home and wow everyone with my amazing skills. hahaha.

Anyways, so yesterday when I had finished class I decided that I didn't need to go to practice since I have been so active lately that I haven't had a day off in like 2 weeks nearly. So after class I went to go pick up some photos from Longs (drug store so kinda chemist kinda supermarket), which is like a 20 min walk away, and I was all bitter because my moped didn't work and Meike's bike is just too tall for me and woe is me I had to walk!?! But then, I started singing and it was a really enjoyable walk.

And then when I got to Longs and got my photos and started browsing, and then stopped myself because I didn't have time and had to be going. But actually I didn't have anywhere I had to be or anything that had to be done. And so I just hung out at Longs, and smelled all the nice smelling stuff and looked at greeting cards and cleaning products and other cool stuff that is so amazing to look at and inquire about. And I think I ended up spending like an hour there or something it was so fun. And I was singing along with the radio that was on, and then this lady walked past who was singing too! And it was really cool. And I had a bit of a boogie in one of the isles and it was just so fun!

And then I walked outside to make my way home, and there was this awesome big cool rainbow so that made me smile even more. And as I got closer to home it started dribbling but it was like, you know those really nice big fat drops that are so refreshing and when they hit the ground or whatever they splash? like when they hit your cheek it splashes back onto your eye-lashes? yea like that. It was so refreshing.

Anyways, better go. Here is a cool photo of Kathryn Cox when she came to visit

This is my beautiful friend Alyssa at the beach one day

And this is Kezia eating (another beautiful friend)

This is Kezia, Alyssa, Meike and me making human towers.

fun!

ok all, I hope you're really rad. I'm coming home in 6 weeks, thats so soon! Anyone want to come to Waikawau with me?
peace out
much love
A xxox

Crazy/Beautiful

2005-10-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

OK so the last week has been insane. I feel like I've been living like 5 different lives and each one is like, totally different. I had 3 mid terms, we got a new assistant coach (Coralie Simmons for those who have heard of her, was a silver medalist in Sydney), got some sad news from home about a family member, and improved my fire dancing and acrobatic skills!

I feel like I haven't stopped moving for a while, but really, I don't think I want to. I'm having so much fun and such an adventure.

Thursday night I was supossed to study for a mid term on friday and I just couldn't concentrate, and Meike was going to meet the french guys to practice some acrobatic stuff, and so I was like, well I'm not doing anything here so I'll join them for a little while anyway, but I'll totally be back by 9.30 to study. Didn't get home till like 11ish I think, and just crammed early friday morning, but I learnt how to do a flip. I couldn't land on my feet properly and was jumping onto the mat but I duno, have never done anything like that before so felt pretty cool actually : ) and decided if I can make a fool of myself like that with almost strangers, then I can pretty much do anything. And I learnt how to do a proper cart-wheel and we did some hand-stands against the wall it was just really rad.

Meike is playing this beautiful song on the guitar and I'm getting all lost in the moment hahahaha its really cool, its called "jeux interdits"

On Sunday we all went kayaking, we were supossed to leave at like 9.30ish and didn't end up leaving till like 11ish but that was ok because we needed some time to convince Jeremie to come, he was being a real cranky pants because he didn't get to sleep on his bed the night before. But we managed to persuade him so it was really cool. And we just had so much fun, caught a few waves, had a wee swim, kezia found some sea snails and big cyril educated us as to why snails ooze slime! So not only was it fun, it was also educating!
Yannick taught us how to do his radical dance. I wish I had a link for it! *hint hint* and I managed to get a really nice pink nose. You know you've had an awesome day when you get a pink nose : )

And then after bible study we went and had crepes for dinner and they were really good, even with stick to your teeth american cheese. And Meike played her guitar for us and we had a wee sing along, and I showed the boys Manukau city on google, and somehow we got into a chocolate fight with the left over chocolate from the crepes. Kezia put a bit on my nose and after that it was all over.

We spent a lot of the night trying to get a photo of Arnaud smiling, which we finally did, even though he has his eyes closed. But it is a beautiful smile :)

And this is the whole group, twas really quite a lovely evening

Hopefully this week things should calm down a bit, but next week we go to 20 hours practice so I am guna enjoy the chance to breathe a bit while I can.

It would be so rad to get an email or 2 from home *hint* Hope everyone is doing so radly

much love
A xxox

Really cool photo

2005-10-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

This is Arnaud with the stick. Isn't it so cool! I took it, I'm so proud of myself!

Cool Photos

2005-10-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is Aurelien standing on Big Cyril's shoulders.
Aurelien est magnifique au janglange, et Arnaud aussi mais je n'ai pas une photo.
Did I get it right that time?

This is ME! I am the bomb!

I just think this photo is really cool...I think its Aurelien but you can't really see him.

Tuesday

2005-10-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

OK so last night was such a bunch of fun! First of all we all went out for dinner, to this vietnamese place and it was cheap AND good food, and the waiter was really nice. But we took quite a long time there so ended up only catching like the last 45 mins of the fire dancing but that was still really cool, and then we went to cold stone SO good. Vincent had a gotta have it size with a waffle cone and THEN rode really fast (i.e. beat the car) to a beach near by where a few of us kept up with the fire dancing for a while. I got the hang of the stick somehow (yes, this is the same unco amy you know and love) and managed to twirl it through my fingers AND go side to side. So really I'm a pro now : ) haha.
And Meike! Meike was doing the poi on fire, standing on Aureliens knees! And Kezia was standing on Arnauds hands and even Alyssa had a go with the poi on fire. So now we all have some pretty mad fire dancing skills : ) so fun. Em and Coralee and Michelle I wish you were here so much!
And there is a bit of chemistry in the air people. Its so cute! tellement mignon and lots of people in trees ; )
OK have to go practice now. Hope everyone is awesome. Photos to come soon

peace out
xxox

Amy the Fire Dancer

2005-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

So the weekend was really really fun. Not only did I get to laugh at my attempts at french AND learn to juggle almost, but I did some fire dancing with a stick!

So a few weeks ago Meike and myself met a bunch of french guys who have discovered Hawaii is like a home for gypsies or something and have been learning acrobatics and flame throwing from these people they keep meeting. Meike has been hanging out with them and learning lots of cool tricks, and on Saturday night, Meike, Alyssa, Kezia and myself went to a bbq with them, and it was heaps and heaps of fun. They gave us french chocolate on the condition we would have our photo taken with "mini potam" this tiny magnetic hippopotomaus (sp?) that has travelled the world and has his own blog spot. And I was playing around with the fire sticks (unlit) and the boys were being very patient with me it was so surprising! And so I finally got the hang of it a little bit and even lit the stick, but I was too scared to do the cool tricks Í'd learnt coz you have to do them fast otherwise the fire comes down the stick and burns your hands. So I just twirled the stick around a few times in front of me and felt really cool. And then we practiced some juggling (jonglant en francais?) and the boys showed us a few tricks and Kezia got a halo. And it was so rad. And then on Sunday we met them at the beach again, and then tonight Alyssa and myselfs Bible Study and Kezia are coming to the actual place where you learn fire dancing and stuff. So thats guna be awesome.

I am eating snifters. SO good! Aparently they have them in Europe too so Meike tells me, just not here. Thanks Em for puttin them in that pack!

So anyways, here are the photos

This is Jeremie (not Jeremy^^), Arnaud and little Cyril (there are 2) and mini potam with the last of the chocolate

This is Kezia with her halo, Aurelien (sp?) is behind her with the fire stick.

This is Kezia and Alyssa with Mini Potam

FUN!

2005-10-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I'm tryin to make my 21st invites, so my dad has emailed me all these photos reminding me just how cute I was! Thought not many had seen this side of me so will post them for you. Let me know if theres one in particular you think should be on my invite : )

I always have been one for washing I spose...

The Builder

The Runner!!?!??!
Funny though - I was number 5 all the way back then even!

Biker with a mullet! YUS! Mel are you so proud of me??

YAY for Pottys!

This is me stealing strawberries from Dad's garden

Man I'm Hot!!!

Afternoon Nap Time at the Beach

Thats all for now folks. Hope you enjoy : )

A note from Meike

2005-10-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, this is a wee note my room mate Meike wrote for me to help me get started on my blog. See I got a blog a REALLY long time before I put anything on it, so she wrote this for me and I just found it. So you can get an inside scoop on what its like to be my room mate : )

hope you're so rad!

Hello Folks
This is Meike, Amy’s room mate. I got her into this blog thing, but I think she needs to get a hand in keeping it up.
So here’s some news for ya!
We’ve been doing a lot of practice and Amy has even gone for the extra workouts (that are optional) most of the time. Then somewhere randomly on a day either one will pass out in the middle of studying and have the other one wake her up to go to class…
She’s been doing her job, sitting behind a desk and waiting for people to come and swim. She talks to them, receives and returns cards, and supposedly has really interesting conversations and is getting to know some of these people rather well. So well even that TWO! of them asked her out the other day! How sweet is that! So Amy is supposed to go dance somewhere in the near future.. I’l have to keep an eye on her!
So.. she’s busy, and in between activities she tries to make some time to spend with God. Or maybe it’s the other way around, she spends time with God and plans everything else around that! She’s managing very well though! LOL
This weekend there is a retreat and they are going up into the mountains with a whole lot of other Christians. She’s really looking forward to it and I think it’ll be good to get out of here for a bit. I met some of the girls that are going and I reckon it’s going to be a great weekend.
She has taking up giving bible study get-togethers (I don’t know if she used to do that before, at home) but she keeps them in our room and I am rather fascinated. It teaches me a lot and it’s nice to have everyone around. She goes to Cru, I don’t know if that is something common, but it seems like a mass to me. I’ll be going with her to see what it is like sometime soon.
At the end of the day before we turn out the lights we usually have a little quiet time because we both keep a diary and sometimes we end up discussing things just then. Or we just pass out due to lack of sleep.
She has seemingly mastered the art of riding on a moped.. it took a while to get over her fear and the speed limit ;) but she can now be found racing across Dole Street (where we live) and around the pool! Go Amy! Once I get my bicycle I’ll catch up with you!
What else.. well I think this should have helped he on her way, and I probably missed out on a lot of things so she will be motivated to correct me! Let’s have it Amy!!!

Thanks

2005-10-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

So its time for my weekly blog and I was sitting there feeling really boring but wanting to post something, and then I remembered a conversation I recently had with a girl who moved to the states when she was like 12 from Russia and is taking Arabic at uni and stuff, and I asked her what thank you is in those languages, and wrote them down on my thank you page in one of my books, and she was like why do you have all these thank yous? and I was like, well, I just really like the word, and even though it always means the samet thing, it means different things too in different languages when you think about the language and culture and stuff (even though most of the time I dont know what they are myself). haha, that was the first full stop in a while sorry guys! ok so back on track.
And then just now I was thinking, why am I so fascinated by the word thank you? and I came to the conclusion that even though I probably only very rarely express it, I'm really thankful. Quite simple really! Thankful for my friends, every one, seriously people, you have no idea how much you bless me and how much I appreciate you, even if I haven't spoken to you for like a year. You're amazing and I'm so glad to know you. And I'm so thankful for my family, you're actually incredible like you have no idea. And I'm thankful to come from New Zealand, and I'm thankful to be here in Hawaii, and I'm thankful to play water polo, and I'm thankful that even though experts say so many bad things are going to happen in this world (like global warming and extinction of animals and peoples, and the sun blowing up in 50mill yrs time), that I'm here now, and I get to experience them while we still can. I'm thankful that I get to travel so much. I'm thankful that I can see how beautiful people are. I'm thankful that even though sometimes it takes ages and ages, that I can forgive people. I'm thankful I have a camera and all those material things that so many people actually dont have. And I'm thankful that I'm thankful, because thats really hard for some people. I'm thankful that I know God.
So here are the thank you's I have learnt - I learnt the Czech thank you a couple of weeks ago but I lost it.

Thank you (English), Merci (French), Danke (German), Gracias (Spanish), Közönöm (Hungarian), Kia Ora (Maori), Mahalo (Hawaiian), Obligado (Portuguese), Grazie (Italian), Ta (Kiwi/Aussie), Dankje (?), Trimagassi (Indonesian), Arigato (Japanese), Tanks (Pidgin Hawaiian), Tak (Danish, Norweigan and Swedish), Beidanke (Dutch), Hvala (Croatian, Serbian), Sposibo (Russian), Shrukran (Arabic), Faafetai (Samoan), Dankie (Afrikans), Malo (Tongan), Asante (Swahili), Noa'ia (Rotuman)

and thats my list for now. if you have any more, you totally have to let me know.
k everyone, love you lots, have an awesome week.

much love
A xxox

the Weather Rocks my World

2005-10-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

OK so its 8.30 on Saturday night, I was just driving back from the bookstore (yes, I am a fully fledged geek) on my moped and there was all this heaps and heaps of lightning. But I didn't hear any thunder. But it was really awesome. Meike is on her bicycle behind me, so I hope he didn't get struck on her way home! But it was seriously so cool! And the sky doesn't look that cloudy either. It's so awesome. We just don't get it that much at home. Ok so I am sure there is way more exciting stuff to see on a Saturday night but I just think it was really cool and wanted to tell everyone. It like, streaked across the sky like a spot light, but not. Agh, can't explain it. Too cool for me. but it's so cool ok? do you believe me? good. Meike just got home so she's ok you can stop worrying about her. But its really cool. : )

2005-09-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just got back from fall retreat with Campus Crusade, and I know stuff like that is always awesome and God totally always shows up, but I'm totally used to being amped up and jumping around and coming back determined to save the world. But the guy who spoke just totally blew me away he was like, I'm not here to get you amped up so on wednesday you can forget everything that we went over, I'm here to equip you so you can do the things you dream of. I seriously feel like I'm glowing right now, everything he said was just so simple but so true I can't even explain it, but I feel like God is totally kissing me right now.
The camp we stayed at was like a place where school camps go but it was really gross, like, 2 out of the 4 toilets were broken, spiders came out of one of the sinks when you turned the tap on, and there were quite large cane spiders everywhere, and the matress finished at like, my knees. But no one really seemed to mind and it was so rad! And we had a bon fire and smores (for those who don't know what smores are, they're these yum biscuits and melted chocolate and toasted marshmellow all in one. SO good!) and on the last morning the boys made us banana pancakes, and it was really just really rad.
I think I want missionary training, I'm totally on a mission with my team and stuff but don't really know where to start, I guess God will totally show me and its all him not me...just kinda want to be more equipped for this amazing adventure that I'm on. Have been focusing on seeing every day as an adventure, have even started ordering other foods than the usual when I eat out, which is huge! But it's fun.
Emily's little sister is here on a school trip, so yesterday when I got back from retreat we took her to this beach that like, no one goes to and there were turtles there and we swam out to them and they got pretty close but she was a bit freaked out coz we were deep and its scary sometimes, so we went back in but she was so stoked it was so cool, I'm so glad I got to share that with her.
Yea, can I just tell you guys how much God's love totally blows me away...like, breathless...Romans 1:20 - for since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernable in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks).
You're God's handiwork, and he shows Himself off through you. Doesn't that rock your world?
peace out everyone, SO much love!

Hello To The World

2005-09-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
OK so call me lazy but I really want to keep in touch with people from everywhere way better than I am, and no one enjoys the mass emails, so I figure if I do this, then those who are interested can check out whats the haps in my life and where I am and what I'm doing, and then can email me and tell me about you? I duno, we'll see how it goes anyway. But if you email me, I'll totally email you back. Its just way easier to ra on about nothing, if you have something to reply to. Do I make sense?
Anyways, thought I'd try it anyway. Hope everyone is well, and staying cool!
keep in touch,
much love
A : )