My Plans

Hello!!!! I will tell you all about my trip around the East Cape soon. It was fantabulous. For now though, I forgot to bring my camera and hookup equipment to show you pictures. Plus, I haven't really had a chance to think much about it since I've been running doing a hundred things since I got back last night. Well. Running around might not be the best way to put it. I guess it was more of sitting around and doing a bunch of stuff. For starters, I finally read through my WWOOF book (worldwide workers on organic farms - the network that lets you stay with NZ families on their farms and help out for free room and board) and found a bunch of farms that I was interested in helping out at. The first one I called had room for me to come and help out, so I'll be heading up to a little Victorian Cottage on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, where I'll be helping out keeping the garden tidy for the garden tours they run as well as helping out in the cafe. Yay! It is right near Paihia, a town in the Bay of Islands that I visited earlier. It has beautiful beaches and sunny weather. I'm hoping to stay in the north until the south warms up a bit more.

Before I leave, however, I have quite the itinerary. I went to the Auckland Art Gallery today, which was fun. I saw a couple people who work there that I know from a party that I went to with Savage and the flatmates. I actually know people in Auckland that I run into on the street. How cool is that?! On the way there, I walked down from K Rd (short for Karangahape Rd - you can see why they shorten it!) through St. Kevin's Arcade and through Myers Park to Aotea Square. When I got to the square, there was a big to-do going on, and I asked a guy from the local hip-hop radio station what it was all about. He was working a booth where you could win a CD for each year of your age (I promptly signed up) as part of a big hip hop celebration thats going on today and tomorrow. As I went a little further, I got to watch grafitti artists doin' their thing, which was fascinating to watch. Who knew you could create something so impressively intricate with just some spray paint. Its a really neat process to witness. Supposedly there was breakdancing somewhere as well, which I was disappointed not to find, because I LOVE breakdancing. I'm planning to go back tomorrow to see if I can catch some. And speaking of which, I guess I'm going backwards here...

I was having lunch at a Hare Krishna restaurant on K Rd (students pay NZ$4 for an enormous plate of dal, papadam, rice, veggie curry, samosas and pudding and its all super nummy), and happened to look at the shelf of brochures next to me. One of them was advertising the dance performance called 'United States of Celebration', which consequently, has nothing to do with the United States. It is a combination of Haka (NZ Maori dance) and Indian Dance that they will be doing here in Auckland at the end of October. Well, many of you know my penchant for Indian music and dance and I just love the haka. So, of course this caught my eye. And I found out that tickets are totally affordable, so I am so excited! I am planning to come back here for this performance from the north in a couple weeks, so hopefully it'll be worthwhile. But first, also on this brochure, was info about a free Urban Maori Pacific Dance Championship, which will be starting this weekend. I will definitely be going to that if its as open as it sounds like from the brochure. AND the other thing that I found was a $10 workshop where you can learn 'Krumpin' Haka'. I'll quote the brochure to you here, because it sounds SO COOL! "First up its 'Krumpin Haka with Breakdance legend Taupuhi Toki. Fresh from filming in Cuba, check out Taupuhi Toki's brand of Hip Hop that fuses Crunk, Krump, two-step and Reggaeton." Admittedly, I haven't a clue what crunk or krump are and only a shady idea, which may be totally off-base, as to what two-step is. But thanks to Meredith, I definitely know what Reggaeton is (she helped to win a karaoke contest with her saucy reggaeton backup dancing). They call the whole thing Urban Maori Dance. They also have one that's called 'Martial Arts Haka', so maybe if I like the Krumpin' Haka, I'll try the martial arts the next night as well. Of course, I didn't sign up for this in advance, and its tomorrow night, so I hope you'll all cross your fingers for me that I can get in and do some dancin!!!

I also got to talk to my parents, which was wonderful as always. And as an added bonus, I got to say hi to Dale the first time I called, since he was over visiting with my dad before the two of them headed off to the park to play ping pong while my mom was at Spanish lessons. Can I just say how cool everyone in Minneapolis is? Just in case you guys didn't know it!

Umm, so I think that'll be it for now. I promise tales of the east cape soon. For now, you'll just have to live in suspense (since obviously, you all sit around just waiting to hear from me... ;) Haha. Don't worry - my ego isn't that big!). Heaps of love to all of you! Later gators!