Okie dokie folks.... so I finally found the patience to upload some photos on the rediculously slow interweb here. I wish I could show you everything but I'm just going to have to be very selective. And they are in no particular order. So.... this is the view in the morning from my bedroom door. I uploaded them pretty small too so they're not that awesome. You'll just have to let these serve as an appetizer and then I'll show you the true glory when I get home.





The lake we camped by.





Haha ok... so have you ever heard of docking lambs? Yeah me neither. Apparently you have to cut lambs tails... and... "other things" off during their first year. If you don't flies lay maggots and whatnot. Anyways so we went to help a local farmer named Grant dock his lambs. This guy is like freaking crocodile dundee. I kid you not. Anyways I enjoyed myself despite being covered in sheep blood and poop. It sort of brought a whole new perspective to the whole biblical lambs-with-the-shepherd thing.



Another shot of the lake





This crazy swamp thing by the lake. The picture doesn't do it justice.




So your eyes do not decieve you. That is indeed a nearly-decomposed cow. I know I know, you'd probably rather see pictures of other rad things, like more of the lake, or where I live, or my roommates, or the people I spend nearly every waking moment with now, or whatever. But I decided the dead cow had to make the cut. We went for a hike around the lake and this puppy was in a field right by the trail. Memories.



In other news, we went caving yesterday. I didn't take my camera because the caving experience included near-complete-underwater submersion. We followed an underground creek through a cave and it was incredible. There were GLOW WORMS!! Unbelievable! And underground waterfalls that we had to descend... like 20 feet of it. And cave wetters which look like a cross between a giant cricket and a spider. And all sorts of goodness. We were underground for 3 hours. Big caverns with stalactites and mites, as well as very tight places for good amounts of time. Swimming through underground pools of water. The whole shebang. All I can say is WOW.

School is going good. We sit in lectures for at least 2 hours every day which has been a big challenge for me, but I think I'll get used to the idea. I'm really going to learn a lot about myself and my relationship with God. We do have a little bit of homework but the guidelines leave a lot of room for creativity and the purpose is to help seal the stuff we're learning, so it won't be bad. Transitioning to student status is weird... in more terms than just classes. It's been a long time since I was just a "student." It's good though. We're at the end of week two, week three starts tomorrow morning.

We took a trip into Whangarei on Friday afternoon... it's about an hour away and is the biggest city north of Auckland. It seems like a cool town. We just wandered around a bit, had a cup of coffee and whatnot. We don't have real coffee out here, just instant coffee. Which sucks. I'm finally figured out how to make tea bearable... milk and sugar. So I'm starting to pick that habit up.

It's been fun finding out how people from other parts of the states and the world view people from Oregon. There are a few other people here from the states, the only other one from the west coast is Mary, one of the DTS leaders. People seem to think Oregonians are pretty extreme outdoorsy and fearless... and coffee snobs. Haha. Every once in a while somebody calls me "oregon." Which is actually a pretty awesome nickname.

Ok well... I'd love to launch into a funny story about something but I've already been sitting for an hour and a half. And I don't really have any. At least... and this will shock all of you I'm sure... I haven't had a single "endearingly awkward as ass" moment since I've been in NZ. Weird. Anyways, I'm out. Goodnight.