ouch

i have decided that God meant for all eyebrow hair to STAY WHERE IT IS- on people's faces.

the sea is silver here, at least half the time. whenever the sun is partially behind the clouds, the water turns to silver, rolling glass. and until yesterday, i hadnt seen a SINGLE cloud since three days prior. the rest of the week is supposed to continue on in a similar fashion.

the week has come and gone. i have done SO many stupid things since i've been in this country, and most of them i have not bothered to jot down here because they will be all the more entertaining in person- plus they're too elaborate to write out in a reasonably amount of time. but this one's simple enough:
for the past month, i've had trouble hearing from my right ear. there are reasons for this, but i couldnt fix the problem in the way i am usually able to, and it took about a month to finally get in to see a doctor. so yesterday i found myself in a humbly-sized waiting room, watching a toddler try to pile four teddy bears into an ingeniously made play-cart made for three teddies. finally, a doctor entered the room and called out what i thought to be my name, though of course my right ear was facing him so nothing was a guarantee (by the way, as someone who DOES sound, not being able to hear completely has totally freaked me out) but i got up and followed him to the room. 45 minutes later, i emerged with my problem almost entirely solved and went to the desk to make a followup appointment. another doctor was waiting there talking to the receptionist. i told the receptionist that i was Margaret McClellan and that i just needed to schedule a follow-up on friday. both she and the doctor looked at me, and soon they were joined by the doctor who had dealt with me. turns out, the dr who had called "my name" 45 minutes ago had actually called "Bailey"! shooooooooot. i was so embarrassed, and not for the first time. conversation ensued but noone was angry, or no one showed it! they were really humorous and kind about it actually. whenever i do something stupid here, i feel like it gives people a reason to utter "stupid americans" under their breath. i have this paranoia that most people worldround think we're idiots in general.. and let me just say that i havent proved that wrong during my time here!

thanks for continuing to keep up with me. saturday marks my mid-way point, and after the kids' school holiday is done i will have just a month left! i have already been planning my 4 days of summer, and hopefully i'll get to see you before orientation and school start up! after those few cold days we had last week, it's really warmed up, for which i'm thankful because life without central heating is cold.

take care of yourselves, be blessed!

growing

two thoughts stemming from two worship songs i've learned here:

"this is how we overcome"
i sang a song with this line repeated as a bridge during the first worship service i attended in New Zealand. keeping this phrase in mind has given me near immunity to homesickness and especially loneliness, relative to the weakness/breakdown i know i'm capable of. i dont remember much of the rest of the song, but it's all about hope and finding strength in God and really, that leads me to the next brief thought:

"You're all i have"
Seriously. i dont have much to elaborate on this- who else do i have here? no deep relationships, no clubs, no activities aside from my times of communal worship. without God's constant presence, i'd be alone indeed. being here has reminded me more than several times that we cannot afford to lean wholly on the people around us because no matter how well-meant their intentions are, they will fail us (and we them).

crumpets

i want to dedicate a post to the spongey lightness that is a crumpet. crumpets are the honeycomb of bread (in conceptual shape/form, and perhaps divinity), the treasure of the back corner of Foodworld. please, if you go to Shaws or Hannaford and think to look, check to see if there are crumpets sold. i dont know if i could ever come back to the US if they're not available, and that would be a problem because i cant wait for a taste of summer and home....

and CRUMPETS!!!!

hot DAWG

ooh boy. it's chilly in here. maybe this'll be quick (then again...)


last week I had heard that some americans were floating around Whangaparaoa. they're missionaries- 11 of them. all college-aged, from incoming frosh to junior, plus an older adult named margaret who's running the operation. i met a few of said americans during the evening service this past sunday, and was informed through the grapevine that they keep a pretty open house (they've rented a house and host people at all hours of the day and night to my knowledge and experience!)... so i hopped in my car after i did my church thang and drove down the road feeling hopeful. i knocked on their door and was welcomed in. seems they were just as delighted to find me as i was to find them, though in different ways. still, a taste of home. they're from a church in Atlanta, and Margaret has lived on and off on Whangaparaoa and so since they had housing hookups and such, they came here to minister to the churches and youth in the area, as well as to do some general community outreaching. they are super!! the majority of them dont even have a southern accent.
there's Erin, who i met at church at first and who is extremely welcoming and friendly; Carl, who reminds me of a guy at gordon who's name i dont know, but in any case Carl is completely cool, easy going, and a little toned down from some of the more excitable ones in the group; Morgan, who is the closest girl to my age and who i have little trouble conversing with; David, who has striking eyes and bears a very strong resemblance to someone i cant quite put my finger on; Van, who's face looks just like Jon Misarski (and i told him so, as well); Austin, who is the closest guy to my age along with David, and who seems to be very keen on getting a try at driving my or any car he can- he hasnt driven here yet at all; and my fingers are about to snap off. there are more- Anders, Lauren, Jordan Lee, John, and then Margaret. they're holding a 4th of July party this saturday, on the 1st of July (haha...???) which is just spectacular because otherwise, who would care? but i'm excited. initially i was going to head to coromandel on saturday but i think i'll push my trip back because a woman from church wants to take me to a local rugby game and then i have to celebrate my country's independence (early)!

i visited them again tonight, and more wonderful times were had. they held a Bible study as well, and we talked about life in Christ. the idea that hit me today was that we can tell what or who we worship by where we put our time. erin voiced that concept and of course, it resonated because it's something i've been thinking about. i have come a long way since i've been here, but as always i have a long way to go. this is not discouraging to me, but rather heartening, because i know that every step of the journey will be with God, and if i stray, He'll find me and set me right. priorities. where are my priorities? where are yours? and how can we tell? actions speak louder than words, both written and spoken. but thankfully God sees past our contradictory actions into our hearts. we do the things we dont want to do

i talked to my family today. and that gladdened my heart.
i also received a letter from stacey. i read it on a walk around Gulf Harbour (well, it didnt take THAT long, hahaha).
i'm running out of steam here... but know that if you read this i am thinking about you. for sure. i miss life per usual but God once again has proven that His timing is perfect and His plan unmatched in the arrival of these new friends. within minutes of entering that house i had more connection with the people within than i had been able to gather up since i've been here with the kiwis. God knows what we need, and He'll provide it.

i'll post some pictures soon. the only reason that the flow of pictures has dried up is because they take time to edit down to size (they are gigantic when they come straight off my camera).

lots of love, heaps of blessings on you.

big 1-9

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER!! you're honestly the best.



this is my desktop right now. why? my heather is so serenely resting her head on my arm. i miss the metaphoric resting we were able to do with each other. karen is looking quite lovely, too :oP
i love the pictures we took that evening. girls are beautiful.



ben wu called yesterday! and i talked to him and to mike smith! it was so nice to realize that i dont have to feel like i'm far away.
it's freezing here today. ay yi yi. the coldest day yet. really violently windy out. mandy even called this morning to let me know that if i wanted i could keep the kids out of school, because she was worried about the cold. mind you, it's not below freezing. i sent them off to school, a bit late so they could catch up on their rest (it was a late night last night). but still, there's no escape from the cold, because the heater here is pretty weak. we havent hooked the gas heater up yet, which is supposed to be so much more powerful.

last night Caleb's second and last night of his production took place. "A Forest Tale". i dont know that i've ever been to a bonified elementary school play before Caleb's, so last night was an experience. all i need say is that it's just like in the movies. it was almost too cute, you know? meticulously designed costumes, big choruses of young kids singing and doing arm motions, themed around environmental preservation...... and if you order now, we'll throw in new zealand accents, free of charge! which, by the way, makes the whole deal all the more adorable. incredible.

my previously mentioned trip has changed in most every way possible. it is going to be longer than 2 days, because next weekend starts the kids' two-week holiday, and during the first week they'll be with their father up north. instead of going to Napier i have decided that i'm going to scope out the Coromandel, which is roughly across Harukai Bay from where i am
(http://www.backpack-newzealand.com/mapofnewzealand.html is the best way to quickly look up places in NZ, i use it daily) and around 4 hours driving distance, or a bit more. there's plenty to see and do, and initially i had wanted to skip down to Hobbiton and then up to Weathertop (Matamata and Port Waikato, respectively) but i dont know if i can reasonably do that :( we'll see though. i still have a week to figure things out.

i was thinking of my childhood yesterday and i came to the conclusion that i had a pretty stinkin great one. when i was little i would spend all day outside playing until it got dark, and sometimes even after it got dark. we'd play by the porch light, barely able to see the soccer ball or wiffleball but unwilling to quit for the night just yet. and after dinner, sometimes we'd rollerskate in my friend's unfinished garage, where a foundation of concrete made for smoothe gliding to the Backstreet Boys (for the record, i was generally the only girl in this group of friends- the Backstreet Boys were a band of choice for me back then, they were also the band of choice for some of the guys i hung out with.) otherwise, we'd run through the woods or play capture the flag in my backyard. during the summer we'd ride bikes to the "center of town" and buy pints of ice cream and share them.
and even in high school, life was sweet. i used to live for Inside Out Soul Festival. Kearah and i would count the days from the start of school in September! i'm not kidding. i'd spend my study hall periods making Relient K collages, and kearah and i would draw pictures of our Inside Out escapades during classes we shared (they usually included mountains, gondolas, bees, suns, teaspoons, a stage or two, wildflowers, a river, etc). i'd travel anywhere i possibly could to see Relient K, because they were more a part of me than any band i've ever known or heard to date. even now i dont deny that or dismiss it as teenage obsession. Inside Out was so meaningful, entirely sentimental. For those four days i didnt slow down for anyone or anything (good thing, bad thing, you decide). Loon Mountain... and now it'll never be the same, and i'm missing the fest, but on the other hand i'm not really missing it- because the event i cared so much about doesnt really exist any longer. It's cool that God lets us have memories, you know? I'm sure He could have made it different for us. But we CAN remember, we can remember the things that dont exist anymore, the way things were, the people we are far away from or who we might never see again. We recall that things were good then, and we see that things are good now or will be good in the future, and we know that God does and creates amazing things and is not silent in our world today.

i have been text messaging WAY too much.
and i received a noteably superb email from Josh Sturgeon last night.

buy his cd. i did all the guitar parts on it.

just kidding, ahhhhahahahha. yeah right!

hum

my dad and Copeland are in atlanta.

so just a quick word or two. the evening service on sunday was incredible, i felt the Holy Spirit in a really powerful way.our singing and our praying and our dancing went for so long that there was no sermon. just two hours of praise, repentance, communing with God.

yesterday i met up with Julia (trust me, it was a lot more complicated than just that) and we went out to lunch for my birthday, as she's leaving tomorrow and wont be here for it :( we went to this great place called The Wine Box and had lunch in style. She also got me a jade drop necklace as seen in the top right hand corner of the pic below:

that's perfect because it's a pretty new zealandy thing, and something that i have seen everywhere and fancied buying for myself, but i wouldnt have ended up purchasing it because.... i want to save as much as i can? something like that. anyhow, thanks J, it has already been a 21st birthday to remember! :)

i am starting research today on a trip i'm going to take in two weekends. i plan roughly to do my large travel trip then, so i can feel like i've done something exciting, and then i can continue to save for the rest of my time here. i plan to spend under $100 NZD if i can swing it that way ($20/night in a hostel is a good price, and if i stay two nights.....) and therefore take off on friday morning and head south. there are three places i mean to hit- and i cant remember the name of one of them. but I will make my first stop in Matamata, better known as Hobbiton, about 4 hours south of here. i will carry on further south to some nice, free hot springs, and eventually make my way to Napier/Hawks Bay for some wine tasting. now i just have to fill my itinerary in a bit, so that it's nice and full and i can experience as much as possible!

well despite the wind, it is a beautiful day out. i'm going to go to a beach and walk, or maybe shakespear.... i'm not resolved one way or another yet. i miss you guys more than ever!

nope

as far as i know, sheep still dont speak english.

this is the one thing that i know..

these are from midmorning, yesterday (thursday).
i see rainbows here daily. many times each day, usually. i'd say that this week i've seen AT LEAST 30 quality rainbows. yeah. so beautiful all the time...












and these are from today!

distant shores and the islands will see Your light as it rises on us

sorry for the blurriness of the sunrise pics. my batteries were crucially low so i was hasty; plus i wanted to try a new setting, which i never quite got the hang of in my few moments left of battery power. oh well! they're from saturday morning, when i got up just after 6am and hiked up into Shakespear Park to catch the sunrise. I ended up seeing the sun set over the mountains later that day as well :)

and if you could see what it is that i see

whew. what a week since i last posted.
i sing for joy at the work of Your hands
just some food for thought, and what i was thinking about myself on a walk i took today. i havent done too much- dropped the kids off, did some light grocery stock-up, came back home, walked to rob's for a change, cleaned, and took the long way home. it took me about an hour to get home, as opposed to the 15 minute walk i had on my way there. today began in a bitter-cold spurt, and as i waited outside a classroom in the chilled morning air so i could talk to a teacher, i thought to myself.....

boy, my toes are cold.

and no, mom, i wasnt just wearing birkenstocks. actually, i was wearing the smartwool socks grandma got me, and sneakers! hah.

Over the weekend, julia came for a night. on saturday mandy and the kids and i went into auckland to visit mandy's brother dirk, and then went to Victoria Park to look around the shops and see if the vendors were packin anything worthwhile. Julia met us there and we squashed into the car to drive across the bay and back to whangaparaoa, singing and laughing almost the entire way back. J handled it pretty well :) When we got back, Mandy took the kids to rob’s for the night, so J and I had the house to ourselves! Quite an unexpected surprise, but it was nice. We made spaghetti-meat-sauce and rice. Then we decided to scope out Whangaparaoa’s nightlife, and headed down the road to check out 3 bars in all for the night.

Mind you, these bars were anything but city-type bars. The first one we went to was called Kinja, and is a Japanese restaurant and bar. The first thing we noticed upon arriving was that we were the only people under 50. But Julia saw that they had a beer on tap that she likes- Monteethes or something to that effect- and so we decided to have a drink. She ordered at the bar, but when the bartender asked me what I wanted, I said I’d like to see a drink menu. In response, he said in a rather agitated, condescending tone which was neither necessary nor becoming of him, “I’m too busy to make drinks right now…” and something else snide which I’ve pushed from my memory. I was a bit stunned, because it was my first time approaching a bartender… and their job is to serve people and NOT be too busy for customers… and he was just plain rude! Needless to say, I did not become a patron of Kinja that night. We sat down and had a chuckle about it, and Julia drank her beer. A waiter-type came and set two plates of neatly-cut fruit in front of us (mandarins, kiwi, nashi pear, pineapple) and we thought, well, the fruit is redeeming at least, even if the attitudes of the employees are lacking. Just as we were about to leave, the bartender was clearing tables a bit (oh yes, so busy right?) and came over to take J’s glass since he could see she was almost done. Then he saw the fruit plates and in a passive-aggressive way informed us, smiling and faking playing nice, that he could see we got fruit, and that that fruit wasn’t meant for us, and then even had the gall to remark something about how I got free fruit while I bought nothing. Hah, I would have bought something if you’d have waited on me! Enough said.

We continued into the center of Whangaparaoa where we checked out Babalu’s and Imbibe. We spent the most time at Babalu’s, where Julia bought me a drink and I had my first-ever encounter with a bouncer- which went smoothely enough, because we weren’t doing anything wrong. He just checked our IDs. When we entered the building, everyone was watching the All Blacks rugby game (vs Ireland… All Blacks won) on a huge screen against the wall. Once that was over, The lights went out, the music came up, and most people drifted over towards the three pool tables at the far end of the place. J and I took issue with the fact that Babalu’s (and Imbibe as well) was way too big- there was so much empty space which gave both venues an air of deadness. I think of bars as packed places whether the actual room has lots of or very little space. They’re exciting partially because of spatial reasons- people or tables or this or that fill the area and make it seem like it’s the place to be, give it intimacy. Babalu’s, especially, was like a local concert venue- pretty large, leaving room for potential packed houses… but inevitably poorly attended. However, set up near the entrance to the place was what looked to be an inflated, fair-type attraction- along the same vein as the big blow-up gladiator ring you might find at a fair or at Gordon’s Harvest Fest ;) Only, this intrigue had a bucking bronco theme. Can you imagine people who have been drinking clambering up onto the blown-up rubber platform, straddling a cow-spotted mass of...??... and fighting to hold on as it increases in speed? At full velocity it threatens to inflict whiplash, I’m sure of it. The…. thing itself was an hour’s worth of entertainment, but the guy running it- New Zealand’s very own 60-year-old cowboy- was almost as good in his tight, belted pants, tucked in denim shirt, snowy white handlebar moustache and sideburns, and (of course) straw cowboy hat.
We lasted at Imbibe for all of 10 minutes. We walked in, pushed through the crowd: there actually was a crowd at this one right up near the bar, and this was encouraging, but in the grand scheme of the entire room it was still quite pitiful-looking. But we decided to get waters, sat in front of one of those fake fireplaces (Julia was freezing), and soon headed for home. She made us white russians and we chilled out in front of the tv watching “The First $20 Million is the Hardest…” or something like that- one of the worst movies I’ve ever sat through. I also recently viewed A History of Violence with Viggo Mortensen, because I wanted to check out something with an actor from Lord of the Rings- that is, I watched until I could take no more. It was neither compelling nor appropriate to be seen by these eyes; even if it hadn’t been graphically sexual, I wouldn’t have had much desire to continue on after a while. Enough was enough.

Church the next day dealt with Hell. As I’ve told some of you, I have never heard a more straightforward, honest, gentle yet firm sermon or talk given on a more taboo topic. To put it simply, Hell is a taboo topic among humankind- we ridicule it in our movies and media, simplify it to this place with fire and a funny looking red demon hopping up and down and cackling, waving a trident and thrashing his tail. In Whangaparaoa, there’s even a pizza place called Hell, and as you might imagine all of the items on the menu have “something to do” with “Hell”... the phone number even has 666 at the end of it. But the reality is that it exists, and that most people are going there. The sermon convicted me, really deeply got to me, because never have I wished for someone to go to Hell, no matter the differences we might share. But through Tim’s talk I realized that most of the people in this world will end up there. We didn’t discuss much about the physicality of Hell, what it’ll look like and such, but we did read some scripture in which Jesus talks about Hell. In the Bible Hell is described as a place of torment, anguish… and ultimately, persisting loneliness. In Hell you are eternally separated from God, let alone other people- but the God part is all that matters at that point. Before and after services, the church was abuzz with approval of the topic at hand, and both the service before the one I went to as well as my own service seemed to appreciate the discussion. I bought a recording and will hopefully be able to share it with some of you. I know listening to a sermon for an hour or so can be boring but you should ask me about it and give it a listen, at least for a little bit.

Today in the grocery store, the song that goes, “Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance; I’m gonna praise You, I’m gonna praise You”. Interesting that American Christian music not only makes it over here, but into the music rotation at major grocery store chains.

oh! i meant to inform the public before, but now that i've remembered...: i was by myself in shakespear park last week, and i was walking along the path after about 3.5 hours of hiking and exploring when i came up to a flock of sheep milling about. i stopped in my tracks, eyeing one that was standing and staring blankly in my direction, made doubly sure that i was alone, and recited the bah-ram-ewe chant.. you know, just to make sure i wasnt missing anything. if sheep really can talk and that's all we have to say to cue them, it's worth a try.

Ooh, they’re selling bags of golden kiwis (8 or 9 in each) for 49 cents!! That’s amazing! In the US that’d be like 30 cents!

Aright, I’m going to leave it at that. In a word doc, this is about 3 pages long.
Love and blessings!

a few from Waterfall Gully, more to come.

***just a note. about that last picture of the supposed "gentle beasts"... i BEG to differ, from personal experience! ;)

cold house

I had a dream last night featuring Jeromy and the one and only Jon Misarski. Well, it was more featuring Jon but as I drove past this garage sale that Jer's family was apparently having I saw him dancing with his much younger, very adorable cousin. I asked him today in an email whether he has one of those or not, so we'll see :) And then- you know how in elementary school your class assembled into a line whenever you all walked somewhere? Well this class that Jon and I had been in last semester was walking down a hall in a single file line, and we were all giving the person in front of us back scratches. He was in back of me, and if dreams are any indication of reality then Mr Mizz gives quite a mean scritch.

Today is infinitely sunny but slightly too windy for sitting out on the beach of Army Bay in shorts for an hour+ reading. Which i did. but i was a little cold at times. i had fun with seagulls, but i just wrote that account to jer, and just suffice it to say that i love watching seagulls fighting and being territorial. it cracks me up. i've seen so many bird fights during my time here.

this weekend, you will be proud to know that i made some friends!! it's true. i even went out with said friends on monday, which was the Queen of England's birthday and, as such, a national holiday. i met Ally and Jo, sisters and both 19, at a church service at Whangaparaoa Baptist at 6pm on sunday. i also went to a 10am service at Christian Life Center in Orewa (oh-REE-wah) and have decided that i will go to both services each sunday that i can manage to. the good thing about having so much time is that i can fill it with church activities. like small group (working on it) and two services on sunday. the CLC service in Orewa was pretty cool- but one thing that i still am musing over is the band. for starters, the entire band consisted of kids- none of whom could possibly have been over 23. i'd never seen an entirely youthy church worship band, save for at Gordon. then, there were 5 lead singers. and the 5 of them (3 girls, 2 guys) looked like a teen band- stylish clothes, stylish HAIR (that was the big thing, they had teen pop star hair), and all of them were beautiful. it was an interesting part of the service. the pastor, however, was phenomenal. a great great great speaker. he compared us as believers to shops- and Jesus to what we have inside our shops. how do we get people to want to come in? Jesus is the door, but we are the pre-door, the potential door to Jesus' door. are our shop windows clear to see through, or dark/dirty/tinted? is our shopdoor closed or open, locked or unlocked, difficult or easy to open? etc.

the second service was the most active baptist service i've ever been to, but it was a specifically youth service. we heard about direction and were charged with thinking about what God wants us to do... not in the years to come... but even within this very week. what is my purpose in my short time here? the typical college student doesnt spend her entire summer break in some far off country with so much time on her hands, in such proximity to a native family, etc.
here's the concept that stuck the most with me from either of the services:
Have faith in God
not faith-in-God-working-in-a-particular-way in a situation.

Praying specifically is called for sometimes. but othertimes, we are blinded and handicapped when we provide God with options on how He can work in a scenario. as of sunday, i started praying differently in that respect.

well, thank you dad and mom for calling. and thank you dustin for writing me a letter :) i swear i think of writing letters everyday but am holding out because Mandy and i are going to hopefully make some nice stationary/postcards. and thank you jeromy for your frequent and ever-witty emails.
i love you all, everyone- and i miss you!

dashed plans

i was going to start this post in a different manner, but i just titled it "DASHED plans" which in turn reminds me of Dan Ashley, which reminds me of yesterday. so there, i shall begin.

yesterday, i was the one who took a sick day. as you can imagine, balmy, blue-skied saturdays are not the best days for being sick, especially when you have NO responsibilities to handle for the day. my head and throat just werent in it, though. so i stayed around the house alone, watching movies and drinking tea. i honestly must have had over ten mugs of tea. this house doesnt deal very quietly with wind- so the whole day i listened as air crashed into the sides of the house and rattled around outside. it looked so nice out, minus that. but i finally got the courage up, and made sure to get bundled up (well, i mean i brought a hoodie) and took a step outside for the sake of fresh air, planning on making my way to Fisherman's Cove and back. upon entry into the outside world, i realized that it was warm /despite/ the wind, and i peeled my hoodie off and found myself to be quite comfortable sporting a tanktop, sandals, and some cords.

i dont think there's been a much more beautiful day since i've been here.

i arrived at Fisherman's Cove and the tide was way high. the highest i'd seen it yet. the waves were rowdy, but the sun's heat was radiant and powerful, and so i hopped onto a ledge that was part of the cliff by the shore and sat. Fisherman's Cove is not a beach, more of a little inlet i'd say. a guy came down with a windsurf board and zipped right into the midst of the bay, till i could roughly make him out in the distance- then he flopped over, disappeared behind the waves, and in another 7 minutes he was back to the cove where he had started. an older woman in a wetsuit sat in the waves on a floatie noodle for almost as long as i ended up sitting in my spot, which was at least half an hour if not more.

now some of you are waiting for me to get to the Dan Ashley part. as i sat there, meeting the tide nearly face to face on that rock, i thought of everyone i know who surfs or has surfed. this includes my mom, josh and dan all of ex-bromley 101, jer, miles, etc. the waves werent well-developed in such a small little cove, but i imagined that they would be at least the equivalent of New England waves if not better-- and that they would be more rideable on a full beach, down the road at army bay or the like. still nothing like Cali of course. at least, they werent yesterday.. but people surf here, that's for sure. so perhaps i have yet to see :) i'll check them out today, perhaps- it's raining out now and likely for the next few days (good call shuff, your weather report has proven true).

so yes. that's it, no big story about dan. i just wanted you to know that i was thinking about you. after that excursion, i came home and watched more movies and drank more tea. Mandy had bought me medicine, a movie (well, rented), and cans of soup among other things and dropped them off before going to rob's. so incredibly kind of her! unfortunately, the can of soup that i opened, which had initially sounded promising (something like malaysian red curry) turned out to both smell and taste like it had green pepper-flavored broth. i love green pepper, but i hate the flavoring of green pepper- here's the difference: green pepper is fresh, crisp, watery; green pepper flavoring is none of the above- have a pizza with green pepper as the topping, then take the green pepper off and eat the plain pizza. then you'll taste what i'm talking about. anyhow. egh.

today i am going to at least one, if not two, church services. i am also going to talk to the manager of a small cafe down the road in Manly about getting a very part time part time job. like, a-few-random-shifts-a-week-type part time. and that's the agenda. my throat still hurts but i'll get over it. i'm going back to bed. i had gotten up early in hopes that the rain hadnt started yet so i could catch the sunrise, but it's 7:30 and there's still no light coming through the kitchen windows, which means basically that there IS no sun today.

buenos dias/noches!

pics