It feels like a No Paparazzi Moment...

It has been a while since my last post, so let me apologize in advance...

 Things here have gotten extremely busy.  The last two weeks were dedicated to getting my last minute assignments turned in before my final exams and final assessments were assigned.  It has been somewhat of a bummer because this has prevented me from doing a lot of traveling.. which for me is when I feel most at peace.  However, instead of focusing on the lack of travel in my life, I chose to buckle down, get this stuff done and when I had a spare moment, surround myself with those I love here.  Lauren came over for dinner last week, Brenda and I showed Hillary our famous Mexican night dinners, we planned our trip to Dunedin for the second week of June and Brenda and I chose to lift our spirits/ take study breaks by watching movies that reminded us of our childhood... (we forgot how much we identified with Pocahontas!)

Brenda and I took some time out of our week to see Best of the Fest, which was a comedy tour here in Wellington. We had dinner and Margaritas at one of the only Mexican places in town, The Flying Burrito Brothers (one of our favorite places) and then headed over to San Francisco Bath House Bar where the comedy show was at. It was a really fun time. There were 5 different acts which provided a variety of comedy (some NZ inside jokes that we did not pick up on..) but it was nice to get out of the house and have a good laugh or two after our long and busy week. Last weekend the gang came over for a low-key night at our place- drinks, cards and MASH (my friend Cody and I HAD to show Sam who had never played before-tragic!) And the next day, a few of us got coffee/breakfast and took the bus to see a friend of ours play Rugby. This brought back good memories seeing as how I was one of the Boys Rugby managers (a.k.a. water girl) in high school... it was a pretty chilly day and we did not really dress appropriately for the weather (sorry, Mom).. so we walked around a random mall for a while and then headed back towards Wellington.

The gang.

Smushed.

These are my friends.

Cheerleaders.

Once we returned to Wellington, Lauren and I walked around the city for a while and just caught up.. (we had been super busy with school and seeing as how we usually go to work-out classes and the farmers market together- it had been way too long since last hanging out!) ..so we got dinner @ Sweet Mothers Kitchen which was supposed to be like Southern cooking.. my specialty. While it did not taste like Grandma Georgia's cooking- it was not half bad. Southern style mac n' cheese, hush puppies, and pumpkin pie galore.

I finished the weekend by watching more movies, going to the farmers market with Lauren, and preparing for this week and the big essay I had due-yuck!

This past week consisted of studying, work-out classes with Lauren, dinner with Brenda and coffee with Anneka, Danielle and Colleen!  (some of my roommates from Fiji!!) I always LOVE meeting up with them because I do not get to see them as often as I would like. Its refreshing to hang out with them because it brings back memories of when we first came here; they were some of the first people that I got to meet- and what a great way to come into this experience! (The 3 of them are absolutely WONDERFUL!!) We got to catch up, talk about our crazy Spring Break stories (Anneka and Danielle went to Thailand-sooo jealous!!) and come up with plans that we wanted to do for the rest of the time that we are here!  Colleen had some friends coming into town and she and Danielle had a day trip they wanted to plan for this weekend and wondered if I wanted to go... little did I know, just how fun this trip was going to be...