What the hell have I been up to - 2009 / 2010 Update

Well its been ages since I've blogged and I wanted to post what I've been up to, so here goes:

August / September
I was still trying to make the adjustment to being home. It wasn't as easy as I thought. I missed my friends, teaching, Provo, gym with Ande and Kjell, shopping at Ross, Costco and Old Navy and having a routine that I love. The food is so rich and wonderful here that I found comfort in it and put on about 7-10 lbs. I still haven't lost any of that weight but its all good. I was staying in Hamilton and then travelling to Auckland for a change and sorting out school. This was a really hard month but learned none the less.
I got a part-time job teaching at Worldwide School of English in Auckland city in New Zealand. The job was great and I was loving being back in the classroom. It was driving my crazy not doing anything so the work was just what I needed. The teachers there were so great to work with. It was so different from teaching in an LDS environment e.g., they had pub night, teachers and students would go have drinks, and students hung out for breaks to have a cigarette and coffee. Not only was the job good but the hours and money were great too.

October / November
Got accepted into the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in the Applied Linguistics PhD program. I have a great supervisor who is so flexible, simplistic and just awesome to work with. I love the school and the application process was so much more simplistic than applying for a PhD program in the states. Some things I like about the application process was: the application is a 2 page application form, you are notified of the outcome within a month, you are notified by email, mail and text and my supervisor looked over my application before submission to ensure the best possible outcome. My program is solely research with no class requirements. I study from home, school, down country and even overseas. Another great thing is that I have access to some great financial assistance. The downside is that I have to be totally self motivated and organized which is not always easy to do. However I'm excited to be here getting my PhD.
I also took a quick trip to re-energize myself and it was great.

December
December 5th I performed with the CCNZ alumni maori culture group for the Church College Closing celebration. It was such a great evening and just full of nostalgia. I cried through 50% of the performance just thinking of all the great memories that Church College provided me. I grew up in the dorms, went to school there and have such great life time friends from it all. It was great to see so many people at the concert and it was awesome to do maori culture again. I absolutely loved it.
On the 18th I flew to Gold Coast Australia to spend Christmas with my brother Sinclair and his family and mum and dad. I arrived to hot sweltering weather which was awesome and we went straight to the water park and swam most of the day. My trip consisted mostly of beach, pool and eating. I still have that 10 lbs I found and I can truly say I'm officially a pumpleduff!!!! This food is killing me (literally) so I need to make a change there. My body misses Kjell to push me and Ande to support me!!!

Surfing 101

My brother is an avid surfer and he said he wanted to give Paul and I a surf lesson before we left. So here we are at the beach (can't remember the name, I know ...) getting our surf on. Remember its Winter here but NOTHING compared to the Utah winter. The water was cold to begin with but it was fine once we got going.



Here we are at the beach unloading the boards. My brother designed the stickers on the boards.



This is just before we started paddling out. As you can see I hardly have a surfing physique but I figured what the hell, lets give it a go. This was not as harrowing as my bungee jump (refer previous post) that apparently provided of you with hours of entertainment.



Right here I'm feeling the cold water and asking my brother if he could just push me out rather than me having to paddle. Me paddling out is kinda like Shamu doing the dance move "The Worm" yeah not pretty.




Here we are beginning the paddle (or in my case my brother pushing/pulling me) kinda like a tug boat being towed.




Here I am starting the great stand up stance, slowly pushing the board down while trying to keep my balance (I bet you are on the edge of your seat) watching my form, steady on there now ....



.... and then I crash and burn. Here I am just falling off and not quite making it up. Aren't you sad you didn't get to see that in slow motion in HD!



Here is Paul up and standing like he has been surfing for years on like his second go. Yeah I don't feel inadequate at all but I do want to scratch his eyes out :)



Here is my sister in law Tina who was freezing and didn't even want it get it. But she thought she better so she slowly walked in the water with a wet suit on, got on the board, stood up and then got out. She didn't even get her hair wet, so yeah I wanted to scratch her eyes out too :)



Here is my baby bro. He's awesome and Paul and I had a great day. He was such a patient and fun teacher even though he did say later that he wanted me to paddle cos he was getting sick of pushing me. He would line us up and push us into the wave it was fun. If we were out there on our own who knows how long it would have taken us.

Everybody bounce bounce ...

One afternoon with nothing to do the kids and Paul decided to play on the trampoline and have bouncy competitions. It was so fun to see who had the funnest jumps and it was quite hilarious to watch, so here are the best shots from the bunch.



Everyone jumping with Cyprus taking the best jump in this shot.



Paul definitely taking the best jump award in this shot. He even has added facial expressions for full effect and use of most of his limbs :)



Celsius wins here with great height (so much that you don't even see his face).



This is my favorite! Seeney boy wins this with his "hey watsup" or "just hangin out" pose. His cheesy grin just cracks me up.

Gold Coast IROAM tour

My brother took us on a tour right up the gold coast. Most of it consisted of lookouts, beaches, rocks, more beaches, surf comp and more beaches. It was really beautiful. On our tour route we saw baby clubs where mothers and their babies gather together and the mothers workout. This ranged from exercises, walking and running with baby strollers, and more exercises, kinda like a mother baby bootcamp. At the end of the tour we had a quiz to see if we could remember the names and places and we did really well.



Here is a map of our tour that we took and names of the beaches. Gotta love those Aussie names with aboriginal background e.g., Tallebudgera!!!. You really have to get your tongue around those ones.



This is Paul and I at the beginning of the tour. Our first stop ...um I can't remember the name but fun still the same. We were in Australia in the Winter Season. We had a few really cold days but most of the time it was really nice. Gotta love warm winters as opposed to 4 inches of snow!!!!



Here are the 3 amigos (me mum and Paul) at ...ummm I can't remember the name of this place either. It really was a great tour and I'm pretty sure I paid special attention to each beach, the description and associated facts that went with it



There was a surf competition at this beach. It was the Mark Occulupo long board classic. This beach was called ... um yeah still can't remember (I know useless huh).



And after a long day and great tour here again we are still enjoying the tour and I still have no idea where we are. Some of the things I enjoyed the most this day was seeing some of Sinclair's graphic work in different places around the coast, seeing the odd beach here and there and remembering all the names of the beaches.

Whanau (Family) and mini me ...

My brother and his family in Australia were so much fun to be with. Not only did they love Paul (the kids called him Uncle Paul) but they showed us a good time and we loved spending time with them. We did a bunch of things plus it was great for me to see how much my nephews and niece have grown up. My brother (Sinclair) does graphic design from home and we were able to see him at work up close and personal. It was very impressive.



This is my brothers car with his graphics on it. His company is called IROAM.



This is on Sunday before going to church with my niece (Cyprus) and nephews (Celsius, Seen, Cave and Reef). They are so much fun to hang with and they absolutely loved Uncle Paul.



My youngest nephew Reef hung onto Paul the whole time he was there. When he was getting ready for church he asked Paul to do his hair and then he wanted to look just like Paul so he went and got his vest on to. He was so a mini me version of Paul. We just had to capture the moment with this pic!

PS Missy (the dog) wanted to be part of the moment too.