Final Weeks.........

Alrighty, this is almost it. I've got a few more weeks left. And it's kinda sad to think I'll be leaving all these cool people I've met in the past six months. It's been frickin' amazing, and it's gone by really fast. After the dive I had classes for 2 more weeks. Not too bad, I've also been blessed to have not had any "finals," although some of the papers counted for final grades. So I have about a week to just take it all in and relax while others study and take tests. On Friday the 6th there was a final dinner party for the residents of WSA, our apartment complex. It was Medieval themed so I took about two hours and made a sweet costume and helmet. The cost was $20 for all you can eat, one free drink, live music and time to party with some really neat people. The night went really well, awards were given out. I received the "You always know when I'm around" award. After the dinner and dancing and trying to catch eels in a eel pond, people went out to continue dancing around Auckland. I had papers due the following Monday and Tuesday, so Saturday and Sunday where spent studying and writing. This is where my weeks get really interesting...

Sunday I woke up at 10am, worked all day to finish the paper with breaks every 2-3 hours. I finished up around 8pm, watched a movie and then went back to edit the paper. By the time I finished, it was 2am (I edited with some friends). The Eurocup 2008 was beginning and the games are on at 4am and 6:35am. I had the opportunity to watch Germany v. Poland with some German friends I met here in NZ. We went to a bar (at 6:30am) and watched the game with 150 other Germans... with an all you can eat breakfast and 150 screaming Germans, it was an amazing sporting event! AMAZING! Since then I've watched most of the games with other internationals and have gained a new love for futbol/soccer. (Especially watching the Netherlands play- they're sooooo good!) Jakob, Dave and I decided we needed to go swimming after the game ended at 8am. We looked online and found a nice hotel that would have a pool, unfortunately the pool was closed for renovations. But they offered a complimentary swim at the local YMCA, Tepid Baths. So, we went. We got in and swam around for 2 hours and left... awesome. I handed in my papers and gave a presentation that afternoon. I also met up with my class for a practice run for our final project on Tuesday (I haven't slept in over 30 hours....) So you can imagine how my brain must have been functioning. Hahaha. That night I got some sleep (about 4 hours) because I had to wake up and watch the Netherlands game at 4:30am. I had my final that afternoon, and joined my classmates for a drink to celebrate the end of that class.

Wednesday night has been great for the past month or so. Salsa dancing! But this time my goal was to dance with women over 30... pretty sweet goal. The two girls I go with usually brought some other people, and I just thought it would be fun overall to get some older ladies to dance with me. By the end of the night I achieved my goal, 4. One woman was easily 65 and had been to Cuba a few years back (maybe like 30) to learn the Cuban style salsa. She also mentioned her grandkids and that she was leaving for France the next morning. Two of the other women had beginner skills and the other lady had no idea how to salsa, so I just spun her around. Overall, a very successful night!

Thursday I hit up Victoria park market and Ocean Hunter, another spearfishing store. I wish I knew about these guys earlier, they were a lot nicer and offer a lot more trips to go diving, oh well. I got a new snorkel and some gloves with my gift certificates I had won from the competition on the Queens Bday. That night a few of us participated in the Kiwi tradition of burning a couch during finals week. Hahahaha, a whole couch!

Friday- Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament! You better believe it! Just like Air Guitar, there is a comp to RPS. And we got a free wrist band for just participating! Zach got 2nd in the nation and received a ton of gifts from Woodstock, the drink sponsoring the event. He got a leather jacket, some shirts and hats, coozies and a bunch of other stuff. I got through to the 3 or 4th round. After staying out pretty late, we headed back to WSA, Saturday was an even bigger event.

Saturday- THE ALL BLACKS RUGBY GAME! I woke up at 6:30am to watch the Netherlands game, went to the same bar and ate the breakfast again, only this time it was with Dutch people. After the game I went back to bed until 11:30ish. I did some editing on videos until about 4pm. At 4pm everyone began to "get ready" for the game. We put on All Blacks gear and got a little rowdy. The game was amazing, we spent $60 for tickets and were located in the front row at the endzone. You can see us in the picture. We also got on TV a few times. The camera focused on 5 little boys standing in front of us and we basically took the attention away from them. It was cool hearing the Haka come from a bunch of huge rugby players, also knowing that earlier this year I lead the exact same Haka! The All Blacks beat England 37-20. Incredible. After the game we walked back to the city hitting up some pubs along the way. The Dogs Bollicks had live music and people danced, even some of the Englanders who had been beaten earlier that night. I stayed out with Christiana until 4am and got to see some interesting street performers. It was an amazing night.

Now it's Sunday night/ Monday morning and I'm typing this up. I'm glad, knowing that I'll be seeing most of you in another 6 weeks. I'll give you guys some more stories later. Peace.