Kiwis, Maoris, and me- oh my!

Kia'Ora,

If you'd like, please come follow at me at the blog I'm keeping for my experiences here in New Zealand!

"Keeping Up With The Kiwis"

It'll get more regular (and have pictures!) when we're not tramping around random hostels and campsites.

Hope you are all well.

Cheers!

Hello from down under

Kia Ora, friends!

I realize I dropped off the face of the planet the last few weeks blogging wise, but I was too busy having fun to do much of anything else!

After I finished my finals, I snowboarded in Park City for a couple days, went to Paris*, then Kauai with my family and cousins, and now...I'm in New Zealand!

It's so beautiful- I literally started chuckling as I walked out of the airport because it looks and feels like the English countryside mixed with Hawaii.

Today we did THIS.

And tonight we're doing THIS, which I'm assuming is like a Hawaiian luau, but Maori.

The people are awesome.

The accent is awesome- we imitate is as much as we can, when locals are not around haha.

Lots of people don't wear shoes- awesome. I made a joke in my currently-rubbish-status NZ accent about how stores should put up signs that say "No Shirt, No Shoes- Preferred."

I saw a sweet tree house today, awesome.

I'm totally out of my element in this Chaco-and-fleece world I've immersed myself in, but I'm growing partial to being granola!

Thank you for all your emails and notes, I love you all and only wish you were all here with me!

Cheers!

("Cheeahs" in a Kiwi accent ;) )

Any last words?

Because I'm in Hawaii, the last place on earth that will celebrate the New Year ...

does anyone have any last words for the year before they rest their peace?

I would say "Good riddance, 2009, you felt like such a chore."



2010, let's do this!!

Peace out, continental US!

Part I of my Pacific Ocean 2010 travels commences today!

See you all in a week!

Videos are the new pajamas

Because I cannot give you all Christmas Eve pajamas via my blog and my sister is forbidding me from posting the pic of my whole fam in our footie PJs from mom, I am posting the top three videos that got me through the semester.

The videos that kept my roommate running into my room to see what the fuss was about.

Yep, it's this one again... Yep, I'm lame... Yep, you're laughing at me... OK...


And like Christmas Eve pajamas, these should come as no surprise to loyal followers, as I've posted these before. But, to follow my first argument, they are funny enough to watch again. And again...

In no particular order, there was AUTOTUNED OBAMA:

TRACY (pronounced "Tray-say")

and...who needs Rosetta Stone when you have MIRANDA teaching you "pretty much a lot of the Mexican language?"

Pixie Dust Personified

So remember how I've been calling New Zealand 'Neverland' since April?

Oh yeah, no big deal,

but I found out my NZ roommate was PETER PAN for Halloween.


If this is not the pixie dust on top of this holiday in the sun (and rain, apparently), then I don't know what is!

the stuff of blogging ubiquity

Here I go with "letters" to things in my life. These were actually really fun to do.

Dear holiday in the sun for the next 6+ months,
Come into these loving arms! Best idea ever!

Dear Courtney, Ray, Ty, Brooke (and Trent?),
Can't wait to partake of Mary-Kate and Ashley (plus vintage Megan Fox) goodness together with our fams. Most hilarious Christmas tradition!!!
(PS These two videos (here and here) are MONEY)

Dear Neverland,
I will see you soon! But not before Hawaii with the fam...I know, I know, I would hate me too...

Dear Cabela's,
Thanks for providing me gear for Neverland. Frankly, I was terrified when I walked in, as your patrons and crevasses of retail space ooze all attitudes pro-NRA, pro-wearing camouflage-for-daywear, pro-Sarah Palin, pro-let's drive-V-12-monster-trucks-just-because-we-can, all of which I am scared of.
And I'm going to keep that preposition dangled.

Dear New York,
My heart still aches for you. Every day. And especially now at Christmastime, when so many of my friends have been taking trips to see you. Just thought I'd let you know.

Dear Places,
I am so glad I can fall in love with you because when I do, you never let me down. The healthiest open relationship I will ever have.

Dear life,
THIS NEXT CHAPTER IS SO EXCITING THAT IT WARRANTS CAPS. ARE YOU EXCITED?! BECAUSE I AM!

Dear Utah,
As a whole, you weren't terrible, but you weren't great either. But this semester, you really killed my soul. Frankly, I'm planning on never seeing you again! Sianara.

Dear Lord of the Rings DVDs,
Get ready for some quality time together this Christmas...

Dear mind,
I put you through a lot. You are my biggest trial, and also what I am afraid of losing most. I hope by that time I will be carefree enough to slip peacefully into old age.

Dear Awkward Man (boy)?
I am not revealing anything else about our flirty date (?) last weekend because I still can't wrap my head around how awkward you were when we parted ways. Like, I am sorry for you, your awkwardness and presumable other issues. Why are you so good on paper?

Dear 6-inches of shorn hair,
I don't miss you! I am enjoying my long bob.

Dear Mom,
You are so funny for looking up the Samsonite Trolley Suitcase. You love me so much, that you would spend time on the phone with their customer service only to find out it is not sold in the USA yet. Love you, Charita!

Dear Ray Flyer,
Your text to me about kitchen dance parties made my day. I can't wait.


Dear bank of vocabulary,
I can palpably feel you waning right now, much so. I apologize, much. This semester was busy and I didn't have time to read much. I feel like I've much regressed, but all will be ok again after a book or two (one can never read too much). Much is an ugly word, used incorrectly much of the time.

xoxo

Happy holy days

Since I grew up with so many Jewish friends and neighbors, one of my favorite classes at BYU was one about how Judaism relates to Christianity.

(Every fall, some kids set up a sukkot in the SWKT quad, which has always made me smile.)


I emailed my former professor the other day asking him if he could send me a reading I had since lost about the relationship between Christmas and Hannukah...he responded, saying he had since contributed the information to a BYU Religious Studies Center blog.
Click here for it.


Happy holidays to you and yours!

I think I'm a little bit in love with you

Type in 'Lykke Li' on Pandora Radio... because Swedish techno is great, and they deserve some love after being wronged...

This is what my life in Scandinavia would look like: friends wearing suspenders and maxidresses frolicking around in drapes...enjoying the few hours of sunlight in a clean white walled house. haha.



I have an averse reaction to the library. I feel physically sick to my stomach. Maybe because I just saw BYUSA (or people posing as BYUSA- that would be epic if it were true) dishing out free egg nog in front of the Wilk and one guy puking very loudly 5 feet from them. I'm seriously dry-heaving here in one of many pro-Shh zones...

As if finals weren't nauseating enough!

Because this picture deserves a re-post

and she's 17 today!

(I can't believe it.)

Happy Birthday to Katherine!

also known as K-Dawg, Hurricane Katrina and her favorite, Kathy! teehee!



"Are you going to blog about this?"
JUST DID ;)

For fellow foodies

I found this article analyzing food marketing & placement on menus very intriguing...

see if you agree!

image via NY Mag

Because anyone who knows me knows...

that this warms my heart:

A Senator's Gift to the Jews, Nonreturnable. - NY Times


I would also like to start wearing a mezuzah necklace, and have one at my house.

MAZEL TOV.

My Zippity-Doo-Dah Christmas List

Hint- I already have everything I want.

I always make informed, calculated, non-impulsive purchasing decisions, which doesn't leave me any room for appreciating a surprise. Just never been a big gift-receiving person, I guess!

Right now, my parents are generously supportive of me, my imagination (why NOT have the world, moon, and the stars too?!) and my adventures. All of my college tuition plus all of my traveling shenanigans have cost about 1 (ONE) year of my sister's school tuition. Probably less, actually.
And probably less than say, what my Upper East Side cousins pay for a year of private elementary school (and they have 3 kids).

Mind blowing. Haha, okay no more dinero talk, it's tacky and taboo. OK.

But honestly, I don't want anything else in my life right now. It seems like everything but memories (and thus, writing material) is junk.

Because I've moved so much over the past 5 years, I've come to love wearing out and paring down my stuff. I am the antithesis of a pack rat. I do not have shiny dreams of establishing and decorating a home (yet?) and making thrifty DIY furniture, because a) I am NOT crafty and b) that would mean STUFF.

Unnecessary STUFF that I would have to pack up at some point soon anyway.

STUFF that probably wouldn't fit in 2 duffels for an airplane flight to somewhere new.

(Basically, my nomadic days are far from over.)


Which brings me to maybe the only thing I'm lusting after, although its real functionality is pending review...

This SUITCASE-SLASH-SCOOTER.

...So that when I have a flight from a terminal at Heathrow that the unphased security lady says will take 20 minutes to walk to... and it's final boarding call... I can just zippity-doo-dah on by...

(instead of looking like Ameri-trash classlessness running to the gate...eek...but I made it, rest assured!)

Because doesn't graduating college mean also graduating from duffels to suitcases (slash-scooters!)?

Half of my [head's] got a grip on the situation

I thought it was absurd when my high school teachers would harp on us to always be true to who we really were, because teenage years are such a poor prediction of how one is going to lead his or her life.

Since at BYU there is a markedly lesser amount of existential crisis at surface level, these "who am I" questions are significantly more implied.

But I still think it's absurd to believe you have to have yourself figured out.
At least for me, the more I learn about myself, the less I know. So I'm always a little puzzled when people advise me to be true to myself. It's like when my parents would tell me to "just do your best."

They had to add "...with the time you have" to that statement because it was and still is the hardest statement for me to digest.



#MusicMonday - John Mayer's Battle Studies...if you didn't get the title I altered from Half of My Heart

AND of course MirandaSings Christmas Album!!! ;)

Booty shorts ALARM!

So. many. amazing. things...

Gossip alert

I thought Monday's Gossip Girl was the worst episode yet, but THIS RECAP embellished my memory.

Hilarious as usual.

Could I product place NY Mag any more on my blog? Methinks not.

xoxo and carry on...