The First Semester Comes to a Close

The month of June has FLOWN by, which means that the semester is over and I am having a hard time believing it. This past week or so has been too full of good byes, as most people who go abroad only do so for one semester. I didn't realize that I would be such anomaly in staying in New Zealand for 2 semesters! It has been very sad to say farewell to all the friends that I made these past 4 months, but I am looking forward to meeting a whole new bunch of people next semester.

In other, less depressing news, I went on a lovely trip to the Otago Peninsula last week. It's about a 40 minute drive out to the peninsula from my flat and it is absolutely beautiful. I wish I had known sooner that I live right by such natural beauty! There are all kinds of beaches and wildlife to check out on the peninsula. My friends and I went to Sandfly Bay, where we saw sea lions and even a yellow eyed penguin! It was so cool to see these animals in their natural habitat. The sea lions are pretty tame animals, so we were told it was ok to be a few meters away from them and take pictures with them, but as my friend and I approached one of them it suddenly snapped it's head and BARKED at us! It scared the bejeezus out of us, and luckily my other friend was able to capture the ridiculous moment of terror:



After Sandfly Bay we went to check out the albatross center, but it was too late so it was closed. However, a lady who worked there who was just heading out for the evening told us to stick around until dark and to watch the blue penguins come in to their nests for the night. Well that sounded pretty awesome so we headed down to the water and after waiting for what felt like ages the little penguins came in! It was dark so it was difficult to see them, plus they are the smallest type of penguin in the world, but we heard them coming in and it was SO COOL. I wanted to sneak up on one and take it home with me, but I figured it wouldn't like that too much so I refrained. Now, you may think that I live in the arctic tundra seeing as I live right next to penguins, but no worries it has yet to even snow here.

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the blue penguins, as the flash would terrify them, but here are other pictures from my afternoon out on the Otago Peninsula:











Now I am just hanging out and anxiously waiting for my family to arrive!!! Then I'm off on a 2 week New Zealand traveling adventure with them!

Hangin out in Dunedin

Due to looming finals I have not gone on any great traveling adventures lately, but there has been plenty going on right here in Dunedin.

A little while ago my friends and I had the great idea to make cookie monster cupcakes...which are as awesome as they sound. First we made chocolate chip cookies, then we made the cupcakes, and then came the tricky part of constructing the cookie monster. We made blue icing for cookie monster himself, and used white chocolate chip buttons stuck to dark chocolate chips to make the eyes. We cut a little hole in the frosted cupcake, stuck in a cookie, plopped on the chocolate chip eyes, and voila! A cookie monster cupcake! Our artsy friend took a picture of the final product:



This past week my flat decided to host a giant slumber party! We pulled all of our queen size mattresses together on our common room floor, invited over our neighbors, and had a grand ol' time. We made some delicious homemade poptarts (although they took SO much work!), watched a movie, and told some stories. It was just like those big slumber parties we used to have back in the day, although we are not the care-free kids we used to be. I woke up at 10:30 the next morning surrounded by empty mattresses, as everyone had gotten up early to get on with their busy days.

Here are some candids from the night:






Classes are done and finals are starting this Wednesday, and I can't believe my first semester here is already come to a close. In the next couple of weeks many of my American friends here are heading back to the States, as most people are just studying abroad here for the semester. I'm glad to be staying for the full school year, as there is still so much I want to see!