So I've completed my first week of academia after returning from three weeks of vacation. I must say that, while three weeks off is great for study abroad students who want to travel, it is an absolute crap system in terms of structuring a semester. I can take three plus weeks at the end of a semester (i.e. our winter break back home) because you've had closure to the term and all your finals and assignments are done, but when you do it halfway through a semester it's just enough time to really suck all the motivation to do work out of you. I pretty much just got into the swing of not doing anything work related for the entire duration of the break, so this past week has been a little rough. Luckily, unlike some of my friends, I had no assignments due the returning week, but I've got some papers that I could use a head start on if I could've found the motivation this past weekend.
I really wanted to get some work done this weekend, but as it turns out this blog entry is probably the most productive thing I've done in the past week. I've been both antsy and exhausted this past week, and I'm not quite sure that's a good combination when I should be awake and attentive in the classroom. Oh well, I'm sure everyone reading this feels terribly sorry for me that I got three weeks off in a foreign country to go galavanting about. I'm sure I'll come around in the coming week(s), after all I really have to since I actually have papers and assignments due relatively soon. I'll just take the past 7 days as a buffer period in which I have slowly re-immersed myself into the world of learning.
I've got to admit, even though I've got a little under two months left here I'm starting to get excited about getting back home. Not to jump the gun or anything, it'll just be great to see everyone during the summer I was contemplating staying here a couple of weeks after the semester ended, but I actually really want to be home for the last summer that kids in my class will be home. I mean after this we've all got to face the terrifying real world. I guess it's gotten a little weird knowing that everyone back at home is winding down their year and gearing up for summer break when it's autumn over here and I've got a few more months left of school. It's easy to convince yourself you're not missing out on things back home when you're going on a road trip all over the countryside of New Zealand, but it gets a little less convincing once you're sitting in a classroom while it's getting colder outside when it's summer back home.
Anyway, that's probably enough of me complaining about how hard I have it over here is tough ol' kiwi land. The pictures in this entry are from the sand dunes we went to on Cape Reinga on the norht island. This cape is home to the 90 mile beach (which in actuality is only about 60 miles, go figure) which oftentimes people drive along. We, being the wise college students that we are, also decided to go driving on the beach. Unfortunately it's tough to complete the whole stretch when you're two wheel drive rental car is riding quite low to the ground due to 5 passengers and a trunk load of luggage and you have no real idea of what the tide is doing or whether it's coming in or going out. The drive was an adventure to say the least and after gunning it through a somewhat large stream of tidal water we reached a rocky slow that we could not pass over (not for lack of trying mind you). In the end we turned around and retraced our steps back to the starting point of the beach (we didn't quite make it to any of the four or five other entry/exit points). I'm sure the rental car company would be delighted to hear we gave their vehicle and nice coating of sand and saltwater, because everyone knows those two things go really well with automobile paint jobs.
Back to the dunes, we spent a good chunk of the day exploring and running around the sand dunes. It may not be that amazing to those who's seen sand dunes before (because I feel like if you've seen one dune you've probably seen them all), but being that this was my first dune experience it was one of my favorite places we went on the trip. They were renting out dune sledding boards in the parking lot, but my friends and I preferred to go with the cheaper method of hiking up the giant sand dune slopes and then sprinting as fast as we could all the way down. I will admit that I took a few epically great spills and proceeded to wake up the following days finding sand in pockets, ears, hair, shoes, and everywhere else that sand is near impossible to remove in full from. We also spent a lot of time jumping off the edges of the hills, which made for some of the more interesting photos you can see in this entry. It kind of felt like a natural playground for adults, which in all honesty there should be more of. At the same time though it was also a really surreal and serene place to just walk around. You venture off and feel like you're in a totally alien environment, which is kind of a terrifyingly liberating feeling. You feel like you could just walk into the horizon and get lost in this desert world (which is really in the middle of a very temperate and well forested region).
Anyway I'm sure the pictures speak relatively well for themselves and there's only so many ways I can describe a sand dune, so I'll just leave you all with that and give an update hopefully in a few days most likely on our canyoning experience. However, given my current work ethic it might be more than a few days before that entry actually surfaces.
So I've completed my first week of academia after returning from three weeks of vacation. I must say that, while three weeks off is great for study abroad students who want to travel, it is an absolute crap system in terms of structuring a semester. I can take three plus weeks at the end of a semester (i.e. our winter break back home) because you've had closure to the term and all your finals and assignments are done, but when you do it halfway through a semester it's just enough time to really suck all the motivation to do work out of you. I pretty much just got into the swing of not doing anything work related for the entire duration of the break, so this past week has been a little rough. Luckily, unlike some of my friends, I had no assignments due the returning week, but I've got some papers that I could use a head start on if I could've found the motivation this past weekend.
I really wanted to get some work done this weekend, but as it turns out this blog entry is probably the most productive thing I've done in the past week. I've been both antsy and exhausted this past week, and I'm not quite sure that's a good combination when I should be awake and attentive in the classroom. Oh well, I'm sure everyone reading this feels terribly sorry for me that I got three weeks off in a foreign country to go galavanting about. I'm sure I'll come around in the coming week(s), after all I really have to since I actually have papers and assignments due relatively soon. I'll just take the past 7 days as a buffer period in which I have slowly re-immersed myself into the world of learning.
I've got to admit, even though I've got a little under two months left here I'm starting to get excited about getting back home. Not to jump the gun or anything, it'll just be great to see everyone during the summer I was contemplating staying here a couple of weeks after the semester ended, but I actually really want to be home for the last summer that kids in my class will be home. I mean after this we've all got to face the terrifying real world. I guess it's gotten a little weird knowing that everyone back at home is winding down their year and gearing up for summer break when it's autumn over here and I've got a few more months left of school. It's easy to convince yourself you're not missing out on things back home when you're going on a road trip all over the countryside of New Zealand, but it gets a little less convincing once you're sitting in a classroom while it's getting colder outside when it's summer back home.
Anyway, that's probably enough of me complaining about how hard I have it over here is tough ol' kiwi land. The pictures in this entry are from the sand dunes we went to on Cape Reinga on the norht island. This cape is home to the 90 mile beach (which in actuality is only about 60 miles, go figure) which oftentimes people drive along. We, being the wise college students that we are, also decided to go driving on the beach. Unfortunately it's tough to complete the whole stretch when you're two wheel drive rental car is riding quite low to the ground due to 5 passengers and a trunk load of luggage and you have no real idea of what the tide is doing or whether it's coming in or going out. The drive was an adventure to say the least and after gunning it through a somewhat large stream of tidal water we reached a rocky slow that we could not pass over (not for lack of trying mind you). In the end we turned around and retraced our steps back to the starting point of the beach (we didn't quite make it to any of the four or five other entry/exit points). I'm sure the rental car company would be delighted to hear we gave their vehicle and nice coating of sand and saltwater, because everyone knows those two things go really well with automobile paint jobs.
Back to the dunes, we spent a good chunk of the day exploring and running around the sand dunes. It may not be that amazing to those who's seen sand dunes before (because I feel like if you've seen one dune you've probably seen them all), but being that this was my first dune experience it was one of my favorite places we went on the trip. They were renting out dune sledding boards in the parking lot, but my friends and I preferred to go with the cheaper method of hiking up the giant sand dune slopes and then sprinting as fast as we could all the way down. I will admit that I took a few epically great spills and proceeded to wake up the following days finding sand in pockets, ears, hair, shoes, and everywhere else that sand is near impossible to remove in full from. We also spent a lot of time jumping off the edges of the hills, which made for some of the more interesting photos you can see in this entry. It kind of felt like a natural playground for adults, which in all honesty there should be more of. At the same time though it was also a really surreal and serene place to just walk around. You venture off and feel like you're in a totally alien environment, which is kind of a terrifyingly liberating feeling. You feel like you could just walk into the horizon and get lost in this desert world (which is really in the middle of a very temperate and well forested region).
Anyway I'm sure the pictures speak relatively well for themselves and there's only so many ways I can describe a sand dune, so I'll just leave you all with that and give an update hopefully in a few days most likely on our canyoning experience. However, given my current work ethic it might be more than a few days before that entry actually surfaces.
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