Field trip

Mixed Feelings

From Tove whom I will miss enormously.

Today I woke up feeling sick for what feels like the first time in years. I am so used to being sick all the time in NZ, so this feeling is almost foreign. Sneezing all morning I realized that the day should be spent in doors (even though its beautiful outside and 28 degrees) catching up on things and resting my protesting body. I think the three day bender is realistically the cause of this, but i'm gonna go ahead and pretend it's cause I have been working too hard at school this semester... Yeah right.
A lot of thinking has been done today, mostly about the fact that I am leaving this place in 15 days to spend a few weeks in NZ with my family and friends. Some of you might think that this would bring nothing but joy to me, and it does, until I realize that some of the people I leave behind I will not see for a very, very long time. This makes me really sad. There are a few people here that I have become really close with, and without them I would have been the loner kid from NZ with no friends but herself. I started to write a little something about them all, but it made me too sad. They know they will be missed, but more importantly that they will be visited one day when I travel the world with my ridiculous amounts of money after i am a successful documentary maker lady. But coming home is exciting. Jerry, Family, my Devo ladies, and my other Chicks and Dudes that I love - get ready to smile cause I will SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS!!   (If I survive the cramming for exams, trips out to pipe masters and crazy amounts of last week partying that is going to occur..)

Chicka chika yeah...

Giving Thanks

Thanks giving.
A holiday where people in America give thanks for all the great things in their lives.
Or, as some have said to me, a day to give thanks that arose because the pilgrims settled and slaughtered the Indians... I am not sure this is something I want to celebrate, but hey, who doesn't want another commercialized public holiday where everyone spends far too much money and eats till their belts burst?

I may sound cynical, but in actual fact this is one of my new favorite holidays. Thanksgiving is definitely rad.
I didn't know much about this holiday, and didn't really know what to expect other then the amazing food that everyone raved about. I was invited to share this day at my Hanai Mom's house with some 27 family members, friends, and my two guests Marissa and Tove.
We arrived, sweaty and excited, to the Lyman residence with a bag full of delicious homemade Swedish cinnamon buns in hand. The house had been rearranged to fit one long line of tables down the middle of the living room. This was accompanied by 27 chairs of assorted colors, shapes and sizes. This was all on a slight, but idyllic lean due to the recent excavation of the basement below. We did the whole meet and greet thing and started on the wine. As you do. Then came meal time.. The food definitely lived up to its reputation. The most tender turkey I have ever eaten (times two), a ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salads, sweet potato, bruchetta and most importantly gravy, all lined the bench. The Americans sure know how to put on a good feed!
We ate, drank a little (or in cousin Arthur's case a lot) and talked to a lot of cool people.
All stuffed full of food we had a wee break before desert.. A selection of Marion's amazing homemade pies were the main event. I don't think I have ever tasted something as good as her pumpkin and pecan pie. Delicious.
Needless to say I went home that night with my food-baby of a stomach went straight into a food coma.
Sadly I forgot that I had my camera with me, but Tove got a few photo's of the desert and family at the end of the evening.
This is a holiday I will be bringing back to NZ.
Get ready people, next November 25th is going to be Lucy's attempt at giving thanks the American way.

The Swedish buns

Kaniela, Art and I

Mom and Marissa who was to full to stand

What was left of the pie. SO yum.