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.