I love New Zealand, I love wine, I love wine in New Zealand!

YAY Wine Appreciation tour of New Zealand
This weekend I went on a cool trip through the University rec center to see wineries in the Otago region. We left at 7:30 Yikes! and we visited 5 wineries Sat. having tastings at all of them and lunch at the third I believe- by that point how could I remember we really needed it. The first place we had lunch was also very cool because they had an aroma room where they separated out all possible smells that could be in the wines and covered some of the labels up so you could smell and guess.
We stayed in Queenstown overnight and Sunday we enjoyed 3 more wineries and another delicious lunch of breads and cheeses and olives and sun dried tomato spread and salami and chutney and salmon. We were all feeling pretty lovely on the way home when we stopped for fresh fruit frozen yogurt. Then the 11 of us were driven back by our group leader/designated driver along one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on. I rode in the front, because all the winding made me feel sick, and we listened to Sufjan Stevens. Wine Lessons~ I thought I'd share some of the things I learned- what I remember at least- It was really helpful going to so many different wineries and trying so many wines in a row. You can really start tasting the different nuances of the wines.
Lesson 1-
New Zealand produces a very small amount of the world's wine but they are fast becoming well known. They have won numerous international awards including the Burgundy and Pinot Noir Trophy at the world's largest and most prestigious wine competition in London. Beating out French wine for the first time ever with one of the wineries we visited's 2000 Pinot Noir reserve.
Lesson 2-
Pinot Noir is one of the more difficult grapes to grow, but for some reason the grapes love the variable climate of the Otago region. The region is now one of the top 5 producers in the world for Pinot Noir. The wineries in the region mainly produce whites~ Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris (same grapes as the Italian Pinot Grigio) and then Pinot Noir of course, the only red. There was a winery that had a plot of cabernet sauvignon in some "hot" soil they said. It was good wine, that's all I know.
Lesson 3-
Everyone always talks about wine having flavors of strawberries or thyme or something and I never understood that. Well its not that they put strawberries in to ferment with the wine. The reason it tastes similar to other fruits or florals is because the skin of the grape has similar chemicals in it as strawberries or something for example. The grapes in Otago often are smaller so they will have a greater ratio of skin to fruit and therefore are often fruitier. The thyme or lavender or dust even in the area also contributes to the overall taste of the wine slightly because the grapes can't help but be affected by their environment.
Lesson 4-
All grape juice is white/clear. Red wines get their color from being fermented in the skins for awhile. Rosé wines are often either a mix of white and red wines, but in Otago some wineries do a Pinot Noir rosé where they just keep them in the skins for half the time and create a rosy color rather than a deep red. These wines are quite good in my opinion.
Lesson 5-
They used to put rose bushes at the end of the rows of grapes because rose bushes are more susceptible to disease or problems and they offer an early warning sign for the vineyard. Now they are rarely used because the technology of grape growing has moved beyond the "canary in the coal mine" alarm system. Also on protection, the grapes have nets on them this time of year because they are growing ripe and the birds in the area have developed a taste for Pinot Noir. For frost, they plant the grapes on a slant and use blowers to blow the cold air down and away from the grapes. In extreme cases they use the local helicopters that take people up skydiving to come and hover over the grapes pushing the cold air away.

I think that wine intrigues me so much because its a lot like people

Why People are like Wine
~There are so many different components in a wine; smells, tastes. What the interpreter finds in the wine depends on their own background. Different interpreters may notice different characteristics in the same wine. ~Some years are better than others. Some are drier, wetter, etc. It really just depends on what's going on. ~It doesn't matter how critically acclaimed a wine is. A wine may be named best in the world and while all may be able to appreciate the quality of that wine, that doesn't mean you will like it. It may not suit all different tastes. You may prefer wine in a box.But if that makes you happy then the box wine means just as much if not more than the fancy wine. ~ It seems that younger people often enjoy younger, lighter, and fruitier wines. As we get older we can often appreciate the complexity of a full bodied, well aged wine. ~Nature vs. Nurture- both the environment in which the wine grows and its natural genetic components contribute to the way that the wine will age and taste. I'm sure there are others, these are jut the ones I happened to think about.

There is nothing like jumping off a bridge to make you remember that you are alive
Our wine tour took us by the oldest and one of the most famous commercial bungee jumps so two people from our group decided that they really wanted to do this and we stopped for them. It is the kawarau bridge bungee jump. 43 meters- about 141 feet. So this guy, AJ Hackett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.J._Hackett), not only decided to tie himself to a super stretchy rope and throw himself off of things like the Eiffel Tower, but decided, hey, lets get people to pay us money to tie them to stretchy rope and push them of bridges and things. Brilliant! What do humans love more than to be reminded of their own fragility briefly before returning safely to the ground adrenaline pumped? Its over so fast and hardely worth it, but Its totally a head trip because you are fairly safe I would say. Your head still inevitably says don't jump off a bridge. I think it satisfies another sort of human urge too. You know how when you stand on something really tall and look over the edge for the briefest of moments you have a small urge to know what it would be like to jump? I mean of course you don't do it because you would obviously die and we are programed generally not to do things that will make us die. But here, you can jump. Its safe to just jump.
Everyone relax, I probably won't go jumping off bridges, its kind of expensive. But the thought when watching them occurred to me that I think I could do it. Could do it, not want to do it. Particularly this one b/c there is water at the bottom and I could easily think of it as me diving into the water, only right before slamming my head through the surface and toward the not so deep bottom, I would safely be lifted up again. This wouldn't work with all the bungees, but for this one I was vaguely reminded of water country where the high divers dove into a really deep pool from a crazy height. For me, if I ever did it, it would be more of a satisfying my childhood urge to be a great high diver at water country rather than the adrenaline, because I hate being scared. Its not fun for me at all. I would not pay someone that much to make me fear for my life. Not cool for me, but lots of people are into that. Could you jump off of a bridge? I didn't think I could until I looked at it.

Some tips on self defence
I have enjoyed all of my classes so far, we did some contact improv in Improvisation today and my religion class and psych classes are going well also. I keep having to miss Qigong for various reasons but have kept up with self defense. Yesterday we learned about how to get out of grabs and headlocks and strangles and I think he said at some point we would learn some knife fighting....interesting....?! You better watch out I guess when I get back. I'm still not amazing at practicing things without accidentally hurting people. Andy expressed his concern, but I said I certainly wouldn't purposely hit him too hard with my elbow or something, haha. So I do have a few simple tips to try and remember on self defense.
~Try to avoid getting to the point where things are physical. It is not cowardly to run away as fast as you can and avoid a bad situation. Trust your friend/foe instincts.
~If faced with a life/death or extreme harm situation go for the eyes! Use anything-especially your thumbs to poke the eyes, it will not be pleasant and will disable and distract your attacker
~Just because you have less strength than someone else doesn't mean you should give up. You can be quicker and smarter and know ways to apply less force to do greater damage. Rather than use fists, use elbows and put the weight of your body into it. When aiming to hit something, aim through it a few feet. Use distractions to get away.
~If someone grabs your wrist or arm, the most important finger for them to hold on to you is the thumb, so make their thumb let go. You can twist your arm in to make them let go or bite or hurt the thumb
~if someone is way taller than you- bring them down, either applying a force to the groin or hooking your leg around and heal in the crook of the leg behind the knee ~ mainly do something! most of the moves require some demonstration so its hard just to tell you.Our teacher is a big guy so he's good about letting us try these things and feel more comfortable about it, if nothing else I think it builds confidence.

Caring about Kiwis
I think things are going well between Andy and I. It is hard knowing that in the end I'm leaving and we are both going to be upset about that. Its inevitable. I am a big girl though and I mean yah we haven't been dating all that long, but long enough to start caring about each other. Any relationship even if just for a little while takes some attention and I am not too keen on half-assing a relationship. That hardly ever goes well for anyone. I think the best we can do is be realistic and aware of the circumstance but not let it make us less genuine because we are afraid of getting too attached. We've talked about it and are on the same page so that's good I think. I try not to worry about it too much, I am a classic over thinker. But yah, we still have fun together and its nice to have someone around that I spend a decent amount of time with and who knows me a little better than a lot of other people here.
All of you who knew me as a child, or even a year ago probably, would be amazed because I have been learning how to cook things I don't normally eat with him and I actually like eating things in stir fry or curry or something like zucchini and mushrooms and peppers and all kinds of spices I don't normally use. I'm getting there with the whole cooking thing, branching out from Italian. I do eat at Andy's flat a lot haha. I really get along well with all of his roommates and they all make such great food, Matt makes home made bread and Kitty likes to make desserts. They're all about fresh food and cheese is a separate food group. They also have a huge tub of kalamata olives. Yum! I guess with a woman as well, the way to her heart is through her stomach. Or with me speciffically through cheese and olives....
All in all going well. No worries about me you guys, I've just told you I can beat people up fairly well because of my self defense class, so ultimately I can protect myself, though I doubt I would ever need to protect myself against Andy or any of my other guy friends here. As far as protecting myself emotionally, I don't think getting hurt can be helped in this situation but you know, I understand that and am ok with it. Sometimes we miss out on good things because we aren't willing to be a little vulnerable with other people. I've noticed this a lot in myself with all these crazy travels. So I guess we'll see.


Sorry I have been taking so long writing. I have been traveling for the past several weekends and I actually have had to do a decent amount of school work. So I start organizing pictures and writing and generally get sidetracked. I think this weekend I might take a break and just do some school work. Maybe get my hair cut, its getting a little unruely, and look for some warm clothes. They have really fun second hand shops here on account of all the students. So here are some pictures! I hope you all have a good day! http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin

sorry old again-(Mar. 19th) ~accept the offer form albi

Sorry that I've taken so long to write this email- you see I have started to write it several times,but I have generally been just too busy to get to things- I'll explain further down~ Its all out of order too so sorry.

Self-pity party of a few days ago
It is an amazingly beautiful St. Patrick’s day in Dunedin, and I’m outside the library in the sun, just allowing myself to wallow a bit in my own self-stupidity. In a moment I’ll let it just be funny and not feel so bad about it, but I need a moment to feel ridiculous. So, I’ve not had a phone for about a month here because I figured that I had one that could be sent here and that would save me some money. Horrible planning on my part, I pestered my mom a bit to send me the phone and she was finally was able to, it cost a little bit, but still worth it I figured. I go to the phone store today and ask for a sim card and he takes my phone to make sure it fits, opens the back of it and lifts the sim holder and takes out the Italy card. In one moment the truth washes over me. I am an idiot. I was supposed to send the sim card back to the company I rented it from when I was in the states, instead I sent them the battery for the phone. I have no phone battery but I do have one Italian sim card. Ahh. The company said that they got the rented items back and were done with it, no one seemed to notice that I sent a battery instead of the sim card. So now, what to do. It will take awhile and be pretty expensive to get a new battery plus the sim card, it would be less just to buy the phone I was avoiding buying in the first place. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it today. Maybe tomorrow. On the other hand I guess its been nice to feel like I am a bit unreachable, though my friends wouldn’t agree. So yah, feeling pretty dumb about now. But I’ll deal with it.

Rest of the Day
So at that point two days ago I was feeling pretty crappy. Not only the phone situation but I was quite bogged down with fast approaching deadlines particularly on my honors applications. You see I generally get my school mail forwarded to my gmail account. Well when the password for my school mail was updated I failed to update that info in google, so my school mail wasn't forwarding for 3 weeks. I was suspicious and tested it by emailing myself which worked. Anyway I figured it out eventually and fixed it then ended up with about 300 emails to go through, some of which are very important and required attention asap. Ewww. All of this coinciding with me realizing that I've done no work the past three weeks at school here and I should go ahead and do all of it now. So I was going through emails and who should contact me, but Sarah Abboud (one of my friends form UR that played Ultimate with me and was a senior when I was a 1st year)! She was here! She's in a masters program for marine biology that was doing some field stuff in the south pacific so she and one of her friends in the program were traveling around New Zealand for their break. So it made the day much better and I went and met her and her friend and we went to the botanical gardens and down town and then the next day they went to Cadbury and a beer factory while I did work, then we all met back up again later and went to see Penguins and Seals at a wild life reserve! They were so cute. We went out to see them on this amazing four wheeler thing. We got pretty close too. The seal pups were playing and the penguins were pretty low key. They are this rare species of yellow eyed penguin and this place does a great job of preserving their habitat. The penguins live 18-22 years and they choose a mate/partner at about 2 or 3 then stick with them for life if the first time mating is successful. Nice. It was really fun reminiscing with Sarah and relating our Frisbee team's soap opera drama to her friend and having someone to share Dunedin with.

Other important things I forgot to tell you about- back step a bit to last week

Women's Self Defense Class
A really good class I think. He's great at being very practical about it. If you're being attacked you aren't going to remember some amazing complex moves. He's all about least amount of force, simplest things that will do the most damage. He works on making it more about muscle memory as well so that things can become more of a reflex. I missed it this week b/c I was seeing penguins, but I'll go again next week. I think more than anything its nice to give people confidence that they can do Something in a situation like that.

Improv Class- Accept the Offer!
So this is going really well so far, I do have a bit of reading but its mostly really fun so far. Even the book I read. I always feel so playful and willing to try things after class. I think next week we might do something with contact improv as well. So one of the basic teachings in improv in order to keep things going and help your partner is to say yes to any offer. So your partner says "Oh I see you got a new sweater", you don't say, "no i didn't", or "its pants not a sweater". You say, "yah my grandma gave it to me. I just love all the hand stitched kittens on the front." or whatever. So if some says, "oh John how are you doing since you lost your leg in that horrible snake charming accident?" - you now only have one leg- so go with it, don't avoid it. Another big one, which I may have mentioned before is to play! Its like we once knew how to do this spontaneous stuff, but now we've forgotten, so we have to go back to how we were when we were little. Which is funny because that coincides with lots of things that I am learning in child development about the significance of play and social understanding in people. Oh yah today I also learned that there is research supporting that generally the only child, or then the oldest has the highest IQ and so forth on down, possibly because the later you are in line, the less attention from parents you get. So a lot of a person's intelligence has to do with early learning and stimulation. Plus genetics and whatnot. That is also a cool class, I tend to simultaneously relate to things in there by remembering being a child and thinking ahead to when I will be a parent some day. Everyone should be required to take child development if they are going to be a parent. Hopefully I'll remember it i guess. I do have a book. haha

The PARADISE TRIP!!!!!
So now we come to last weekend. I had an amazing trip with the tramping club. We were about an hour and a half north of Queenstown, if you watch the bachelor evidently they went there. It is a place really called Paradise. We went up Friday night it was about a 6 hour drive with a stop for dinner in there. Then we camped and got up early for our tramp. I went on the "easier" tramp which I think just meant it was shorter. We started at 9:30 and got back at 4:30. We went up the mountain to a pass then up a little higher for a better view, it was like walking up stairs with the occasional climb for several hours. Then we ate lunch up there and headed down which was actually much more mentally challenging as opposed to physically challenging going up. Sometimes you had to turn around and go backwards. Anyway it was great and it was challenging but I did well I think. I am not in awesome shape, but i think there is something to be said for endurance being ingrained in me I think. I don't know if its a mental thing or I know how to breath correctly, but I handled it really well I think. SO yay I am a tramper, and not the kind that's bad! Then we hung out that night and cooked and the next day played at a lake!

THE BEST THING EVER-WE HAVE TO DO THIS!!!!!
So we NEED to do this with ultimate. Take two old crappy sleeping bags and get in them, lay a tarp down. Then WORM WRESTLE without using your hands, it is thoroughly entertaining. IT MUST BE DONE! Refer to pictures... picasa- i will add the seals later. http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin have a lovely day everyone, i will get back on top of sending things once this work clears up!

old sorry (march 9th) Long Beach and Jandles, Playing and Princess Buttercup

Sorry its been awhile i think. so many things~

Favorite Kiwi phrases and words
~ Keen
Cheers
wee (like little)
Jandles (flip flops)
Tramping (hiking)

Developmental Psych and Improv class
Both going well. Right now we're doing prenatal to early childhood cognitive, neurological and perceptual development. He says its the most boring part, but i think its cool so far so that's a good sign i figure. I feel like everyone should take this class before having children, and i also find myself thinking that i wish i had learned more when I was little. There's a bell curve of when your brain has the most synapses- the things that connect your brain basically, then the connections that aren't used and stimulated go away and you can't get it back. So its much easier to learn say language or an instrument in the gap before you loose connections in your brain. Too late now.
Improv class is awesome. I wasn't sure about the Professor, I thought he was a little weird at first but I quickly discovered how awesome he was. He makes up the class activities as he goes i think,in true improv form. We basically spent the first class getting to know each other and getting used to being spontaneous. We talked about improv as being similar to playing when you are little. Making simple things into something extraordinary. Basically he said we were going to play. I'm totally cool with that. It surprised me at how many students felt awkward and uncomfortable being spontaneous though. It was a little sad. You can play every day even if you grow up.

Making friends with the locals
So I guess I couldn't give you a good Under the Tuscan Sun story, but it seems that I am kind of dating a Kiwi boy now, on the bases of I'm not going to be here all that long so we'll just see what happens. We met at a party kind of randomly about two weeks ago and he and one of his friends made sure me and another girl got home safely. He asked if I'd like to get coffee some time, and I figured why not he's cute and really nice. So we got coffee maybe a week ago and ended up spending the day together going to the museum and the butterfly gardens and the botanical gardens. Then yesterday he and his flat mates, who are really cool, took me to the Peninsula to a cute garlic festival and then to a beach on that side of the bay. It was a bit cold so we all went back to their flat and watched Princess bride, because what else is there to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? He made me spinach curry for dinner and then to top off the evening we all made chocolate pudding and had a dance party in the kitchen, haha. His flatmates were particularly impressed with my 80s music selection. All in all a good day.
For all parents/concerned family members I know you worry about me with new people being that I am thousands of miles away, but try not to. This is not something so serious. I'm just having fun with new friends. I trust myself, and I'm only here for a little while. I'm not going to run off to New Zealand forever so don't worry. And so that you can feel a bit better about it I will gladly tell you about Andy. Oh yah, his name is Andy.

Random Andy Facts~
Andy is 24, I'd say medium height and build. Blond hair and beautiful blue eyes that seem to be a New Zealand thing. His mom is a teacher and his dad works in wind energy technology. Andy is an x-ray technician/radiologist and is studying nuclear medicine, I can't remember exactly what that entails, I'm pretty sure its not quite as cool as it sounds, but its still impressive. He seems to really like it and tells me about it and jokes about it, honestly I don't always understand the medical jargon but its still cute. He lives with one of his best friends from when he was growing up, Matt, who is a medical student, and another guy, Ian, who is originally Canadian and I think getting his masters in something about submerged volcanic something and then Ian's girlfriend Kitty (maybe a nickname?) she is awesome. She is a Kiwi and lived here all her life but her parents are both originally American, she works in design. And then there is a new flatmate, Ryan who is a second year Kiwi student at the University. They are all really cool and we got along well almost immediately. They decided it would be important to teach me lots of New Zealand slang which was funny, and I was also introduced to the New Zealand specialty, Hokey pokey ice cream. We went to get ice cream and I was like "what's Hokey Pokey"? I immediately heard a simultaneous gasp from Andy, Kitty, Ian and the store clerk. Followed by the store woman asking me "where are you from"?! So I didn't have a choice but to try it and it was good, kind of caramel like. I also found out that the dance exists here as well, you know, put your right hand in, put your right hand out...anyway Back to Andy-
-he loves to cook and seems to be quite good at it
-he can pretty much recite the Princess Bride by heart
-he knows the name of every bone in the human body
-he has a large collection of Flight of the Concords and international movies
-he loves to laugh and be silly- but he also think very practically
I'll keep you updated, but so far we have fun together and it's really nice to have Kiwi friends. Now you can all say awww.

Long Beach= best place ever
On Friday I went to Long Beach with a lot of my American friends. There were about 20 of us at some point. It was pretty awesome. Long Beach is about 25 min away from the city and probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to. The drive was beautiful but a little scary on the side of the mountains going the wrong way on the road. It was like Costa Rica but paved.
We camped in a cave and stayed up late listening to music around a campfire. It was nice to look out of the cave opening at the stars. They are so bright out here, you can see more of them away from light pollution. The roar of the ocean a few meters away drown out the crackling of the fire and I fell asleep watching the shadow of the flames dance on the cave ceiling.
I woke up at dawn to see the sun rise with a few of the others. We huddled together quietly to resist the morning chill. The soft glow of the sunrise crept in and the sun rose slowly beyond low clouds. I felt like I was such a part of the rhythm of life. Night Sky, sun rises, sun sets, waves in, waves out, tides in, tides out. Never changing and always changing.
I felt like running or moving or something even though i didn't get much sleep, so I did. But the sand was cold on my feet, and i stopped and stretched and just soaked it all in.
One of my neighbors Chris and I walked down the beach to explore. We decided it must be at least a mile judging by the time it took us to walk up and back. It was so quiet, like we were the only people around for miles. Not many of the others were awake so it was quiet, but it was nice to have a friend to walk with. We each had our own quiet solitude, but with company. Exploring the shore we found all kinds of cool shells and types of seaweed. Sometimes we would meander together or one or both of us would stop to pick something up. It was like we each had someone to share our momentary treasures from the sand with. If I could just get up every morning at dawn and be here, and exercise or walk and then stretch and meditate I know I would be the most peaceful person.
Later we played Frisbee in the waves. It was so much fun. You'd jump to get the disc and the waves would end up coming and knocking you sideways. It was great. We hung out in the sand and stayed until almost 4. I think there is less ozone here so we had to put lots of sunblock on. I did somehow get burnt under my arms. I guess I just didn't think to put sunscreen there. Here are some pictures, but they don't really do it justice. http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin Sorry so long, I hope you all have a lovely week. ~

sorry a little old- goonies never say die and lots of little things

Lots of little things going on
~Sleepy
I've been so sleepy lately. I thought something might be wrong with me, but i think lots of others are feeling similar. Probably a mix between walking so much more than normally, being so tired from meeting people and being exposed to new things, and I think maybe I haven't been getting enough protein and iron in my diet. I certainly haven't been eating poorely, I say this as I finish off an entire jar of Kalamata olives. I just haven't been eating much meat or eggs I guess. I thought of making up for this by getting a meat lover pizza tonight from pizza hut- a heart attack in a box for sure, but hey if I must. The staying up late and partying so much kind of wore me out a little too.
Yesterday I went to the botanical gardens to read, which are amazingly beautiful and about a 5 min walk away. Think Maymont, with mountains surrounding it and more tropical looking plants, young and wild looking. I fell asleep on a bench in the sun for about 2 hours. Then I went to bed at a decent time and still didn't wake up until 11:30. I need to get a sleep schedule going. I think I'll adjust soon.

Railway Trip
This was pretty fun, kind of made me feel like we were going through the great valley from that movie the land before time- you know with little foot and Sarah the triceratops. Anyway it was beautiful and fun. I learned the Polish word for sheep but I have no idea how to spell it for you. We stopped in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and got out and had a BBQ. I wanted to stay there forever, sitting on the hill.
Oh I also learned another Polish word. There were sheep all over so there was some dried sheep poop on the hill that you had to watch out for and I said to watch out for poop. The polish people didn't know what I meant and were like shit? and I said well yes, but poop was the nicer thing to say like if you were talking to children. They thought that was funny because in Polish there is a word Poopa which means butt. But its the nice way to say it to a child, its cute like hiney or something. Coincidence? Who knows?

Market/Yard Sale
The other day I stumbled upon a really cool market by campus where people were selling old/secondhand things. It was pretty awesome. I got a beautiful scarf for 5$ NZ and earrings that originally were from India for 5$ NZ , some books for little to nothing. A wool sweater for 2$NZ an under armor kind of shirt, gloves and sunglasses for 5$NZ and my big splurge was this really cool vintage leather jacket. I'm not much for leather, I didn't even buy leather in Florence really, but this was just too old and cool. Its dark green and just fits me, and has a stamp inside that says genuine hand crafted New Zealand leather. I bought it for 15$ US. I think a good purchase.

A Million Little Pieces
This was one of the books I got at the market. You may have heard of it or read it even maybe. Its pretty good so far, I've just started it. Its about a man's journey through addiction to recovery. Its had some criticism for not being completely accurate, but I don't mind. He's a good writer. I like that he writes how he thinks. Not particularly structured. The character is relateable too. Not that I've ever been an alcoholic and addicted to cocaine, but we've all felt a little lost sometimes. We've all felt scared or uncertain about the future and maybe most of us have also felt at some point that we were broken into a million little pieces. I find that I get a little too into it so I have to be in the right mood to read it. But I like it.

Class Today
Today I had my first class. Religion and Globalization. It seems like it will be cool. I'm not sure its exactly what I wanted it to be, but it still seems like the best choice of class for me at the moment. Its bigger than I'm used to on average. There are about 40 people and we break off every now and then for small group discussions. Also my final exam is 65% of my grade and 1 paper is worth the other 35%. That's a little weird to me. Oh well. So far so good. We just had an overview of the class basically. We began by talking about the story of religions being similar but with different approaches. The image of blind men all asked to touch an elephant then describe what an elephant was. Its the same elephant, but the man who touched the trunk said well an elephant is pointy and sharp, the man who felt the tail said an elephant is like a rope, and so on. Not that this theory or approach is true or not, but either way, even if its the same elephant it matters greatly which part you have hold of. So we will be talking about some of the things that make major religions unique and how they have been affected by change in today's society, namely globalization. Christianity is first. My first lecture is on the phenomenal spread of Pentecostal Christians. sounds interesting. I wonder if he's ever seen Jesus Camp. ~My crazy lots of class day is Thurs. and I don't have class at all on Mon. or Wed which is cool I suppose. I also signed up today for short classes at the recreation center- Women's self defense and Qigong.
Poetry of the Earth
I found some cool poetry books written by New Zealanders. A lot of them focus on the earth in some way which is cool. I've been in a poetry mood lately. I've felt inspired by it. I've been trying to just go with things, doing what I feel and saying why not a lot. I had been getting away from that lately and I want to feel that spontaneity again. It makes me happier and makes me feel more natural and alive.