Thailand, and various activities.

Here is goes again.
It's just a few days now before i leave for Thailand.  Thailand? Yes. I don't know if i mentioned it before, but on Monday me and a group of friends from youth group along with our youth pastor are headed over seas to Thailand to help out in different schools and serve on a 2 week missions trip.  It's going to be soo much fun, and i can;t wait to get on the airplane and take off.  But not before spending a few days in Tauranga first too see some old friends and of course, take place in the world's largest skinny dip (the current record is 412, but we're about to smash it).
In more sensible news, my mum, aunt, uncle, and cousin, were just here yesterday after a week long tour of the South Island.  It was great to see them all again, and it was also awesome to show see mum after ten months, and show her the places and people that have made my year so amazing.
I guess is all i have to say now.  I'll have to be sure to write an update after our Thai adventure and tell you all how it went!

South Island - A thought to ponder

Hello again!
This is pretty late, but i guess better late than never, right? Everything is going really well.  I've switched host families for about 3 months while Helen and Neil are overseas in Europe.  I'm currently living with our youth pastor from church, Marty, and his wife, Kate.  They have a 2 year old boy named Issac, and an 8 year old boy named Jayden.  Things never get too boring with a full house, so that's a plus.  I've also had the past week off while everyone takes mid-year exams.  During that time I've been working with a good friend of mine who does cow milking shed repair, and I've been learning a lot from him regarding engineering and welding and things like that.  Other than that, things have been pretty good and uneventful. Our Thailand missions trip is coming along good and we are getting ready for that, school starts back up for me tomorrow but not much more to report on!

This place is ROCKING (pun intended)

Well last night i had my first earthquake here last night at about 10:30. I was just about asleep when suddenly the bed shook a little and i just thought the cat had jumped up on it, but it didn't stop.  I couldn't figure out what was going on, and then everything started shaking like crazy! my dressers were wobbling against the wall and causing a huge noise.  So i jumped out of bed and ran down stairs as fast i could to find everyone downstairs.  It was a lot less intense downstairs then it was upstairs, but it was still a pretty good shake!  The whole thing lasted about 45 seconds, but it was very scary to have the whole ground just shaking beneath your feet.  They said it was a 7.0 magnitude quake about 30 miles south of the coast.  All my mates at school said it was the only one they had ever really felt, so i guess it was a good experience? Just not one i would want to go through again.  Well all that is over now though, and we are off to Aukland tomorrow since we are on school break for two weeks.  We will be in Aukland for until Monday, and then Monday night i'm going to stay at a friends house and early the next morning we are driving about 3 hours east to the center of the island for a snowboarding trip to Mt. Ruapehu.  I'm really looking forward to that, it will be heaps of fun. Well there isn't much else going on now, so i'll write about more later.

Update

Well, as usual, its been a while since an update.  Everything is going good here, and the winter months are coming around.  It has been really raining here the heaters have been turned on.
School is already 1/3 of the way through for me and every thing is going quite fast.  I have my music evaluation coming up and I've been working on that lately.  I need to do a piano, bass guitar, and drum solo for a grade in music theory.
Some of us older guys from youth group have been busy planning our missions trip to Thailand that is coming up in November,  We are going in to dig wells and do other maintenance, so that will be a lot of fun.
There isn't a whole lot of other things new here, and i guess i should probably get started on my homework.

WOMAD

a fun weekend at WOMAD. we picked up garbage from 8 to 12 at night in exchange for a free ticket to the festival. there were some really cool bands playing and art displayed.

Update

there's been a lot going on lately.  its about 1 in the morning now on Monday, I just got back from a friends house and i thought a blog update was needed.  I've been here for close to 2 months now and everything is settling well. I've met A LOT of new people and have made tones of friends.  my weeks are busy with handbell choir on Monday, small group on Wednesday, church band practice on Thursday, and youth group on Friday.  I've also joined the school orchestra playing double bass (upright bass) and percussion.  we have the day off tomorrow because of our providence's anniversary.  School is fairly easy with almost no homework.  I'm taking year 12 History, English, Painting, Music Theory, Business, and year 13 Economics.

Just a typical weekend in New Zealand

Lake Rotokare

Arrival

Well i've finally unpacked, settled in, and have found time to get my computer out of my bag.
"At the moment i'm out swimming in the thick soup that is life" This is a quote from one of my mum's daughter, Miriam, and can pretty much sum up exactly what i'm doing right now.  The weather here is beautiful. its about 18 degrees Celsius (65 for you back in the states) and sunny.  we are seated right below a mountain and only a few kilometers away from the sea.  We made a short trip up to another property, of many, owned by my family more south and in the hills.  The view was incredible and just as NZ is pictured in movies. I start school on Tuesday and i'm excited to see how things progress this week.

Only 8 days now!!

It's getting so close! I just got back from an awesome surprise going away party. I love all my friends, I'll miss them! But I'll make new ones. I'm also getting very excited about meeting my fellow New Zealanders and also my host family and host sisters from Iceland and Malaysia! I just can't wait!

13 days

It's weird saying that, but it's coming fast!

Family Affairs

My new family for a year! Helen and Neil from Hawara Taranaki.  Along with three other hosted students