Hard to Catch up!

So even on the days where it may seem to us like we arent doing very much, I still seem to take a long time to get it all out on my journal. So, to have to catch up an entire week seems difficult right now! I should always read my last post before I start a new one because now I dont know where I left off. Rotarua? Turns out I just missed seeing Kelly MacDonald in Rotarua because her email arrived when I returned to Auckland. Now I'm not sure if we will get a chance to meet up on the other side of the world. :) Some of the things Jo and I have been doing: Tuesday we were going to go to the thermal pools but it was raining and we both got in late from work (also the last bus leaves Weiwera at 7:40 so we wouldnt have had long there). So instead I found a flyer on a free slideshow about tramping in NZ put on by Active Earth which is a company that runs tramping tours. It had some amazing photos and really looked like it would offer a sweet as trip, seeing teh side of NZ many tourists dont get a chance to be a part of since it is so far off the beaten path. It also wouldve given us a chance to further explore our new discovery of ourselves eh? However afetr we really thought about it, it seemed like the kind of trip you needed to have more time for...there was so much we wanted to do on our time off that we wouldve missed by being in the back woods and on several mountain tops. We have also discovered it is most often cheaper to explore on your own and just pay for travelling there. It is good though to see what is out there. At this event they had free wine (from a box mind you, but I rarely turn down requests that say free in them) and you got 20% off everything in the store so I bought a pair of "jandals" which I havent been able to add to my vocabulary here because I still prefer sandals :P They are heaps more comfortable than my old ones (which I discovered during cleaning the Rotarua mud off them have a heel that is pushing 2mm thick). We went down to the sky tower on Wednesday to explore the casino...JoAnna won few cents on the slots so that was exciting...we spent it on more spins! hahaha she played the 2cent game and I tried to play a dollar but you couldnt, it had to be 2 dollars so I just watched and took a few of Jo's button pushes. There was a little band there playing and salsa dancers (supposedly from the audience, Jo thinks they were paid because they were too good to be randoms) entertained us for awhile. We were ID'ed twice so we will thank them when we turn 30. We checked out the orbit restaurant prices while we were there (the spinning eatery at the Sky Tower observation deck) (oh and also saw our first transvestites which took some convincing for jo to believe one was truely a boy- thats how good he was, to be quite honest the bugger looked better in a dress than I ever would) The prices at the restaurant are quite high, so I am dragging my feet and beign hesitant on commiting to going, there wasnt even really anything on the menu I wanted...it would be more for the experience of eating there. If they had lamb chops in mint sauce I might be more willing because its soemthing I want to try somewhere nice....or even good fish. We'll see. As I continue my tales you will see why I am even more hesitant now. At work I also got to go out on some community runs, and my first client had quite the story. He was a missionary for yrs and played in a quite famous christian rock band which has tourned North America but I cant breach confidentiality, and got a brain tumour and chemo that resulted in brain damage. He and his wife stopped their missionary work but quite often thanked god during the assessment for what they had, ie. a very accessible home, very helpful children etc. Actually they are attending a huge outdoor weekend christian music festival in the area this month called Parachute if you mightve heard of it Sarah or Bev? Maybe if you google it you will recognize some good bands. The next client was Maori and the nurse travelling with us was quite rude to him but I dont have the energy to go into it, I was just quite appalled by her manner of interviewing. Yesterday I got to go to the zoo again with the clients. Definately a different experience than with JO. Definately more fun with JO, plus we had better animal viewings. I took on the role of describing everything to our blind client who loves animals, so that was actually quite fun. I later heard her back at the house telling people what she had seen so she was definately paying attention. This lady is always givign me hugs and saying oh youre such a sweet girl, such a good girl. SO of course I like her hehe :P I'm still getting sunburnt even with spf 50 and spf 30 on top of that! It boggles my mind. Jo's approach is to wear long sleeves and pants but I just cant do it. Last night Jo and I went to Mission Bay and had THE BEST icecream we ever had at Movenpick a switzerland company. I cant even type the flavour names because they were unpronounceable. We planned on walking the beach with them but I couldnt walk and eat it at teh same time...thats how good it was! One scoop I think was carmaletta and had chunks of carmel in it....the other was...no i cant do it...but it was vanilla'ey with chocolate chunks. Then we walked the beach picking up shells and wading our feet...still havent been in swimming. After work we booked our flights to the south island and that ran us about 330NZ. We then went down to look into Bay of Island tours for this weekend...and the lady there was...oh dear...she left me speechless...it was like when we entered the tour shop we had walked into her family home and she had no idea why we would be there. Jo tried to inquire on bus prices to the Bay of Islands...and its really hard to describe...the woman acted so stunned...long pauses and weird looks at us...blunt bitchy responses...Jo and I kept lookign at each other unsure of what to make of her. We were even trying to be extra polite to see if her attitude would change. No luck...we walked out onto the sidewalk and stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. neither of us knew what to think...she had me so shocked I could barely get words out....but as we walked up the street I definately thought of some things I wouldve liked to say to her. At the tourism centre we did book through I discovered that I reached my limit on my Visa. Something that until that moment had crossed my mind. Oops. I cant even explain the thoughts that ran through my head after that. Jo did her best to reassure me that everything would be fine, and she paid for what we had booked for now. I am hoping that the SWIF funding was reviewed today so I can get some money enough to leave the country at least. Jo also took care of our first two weeks of rent so I am going to have a heap load to pay when my time comes around :P I didnt want to have to tell anyone about this because I couldve very easily kept it a secret. But a bird plopped on my shoulder while at the zoo, and my only witness was blind. However when one of our clients lit therubbish bin on fire and my preceptor broke her shoe trying to get to it I offered up my tale to her to ease her suffering over the loss of her shoe. (she had to walk the zoo barefoot). And I only tell you so that we can put an end to the myth of it being good luck. Whereas I missed my train home that evening, which I ran all the way to catch skipping a much needed trip to the loo, which I then had to hold for the wait until the next train and accompanying ride and walk around Auckland booking our trips, plus the odd lady at the tour shop, plus the sunburn, plus the declined VISA etc etc. I figure is enough evidence to reject the hypothesis. We have no real plans for this weekend because Becks told me she heard that it is calling for rain all weekend, and the tourist info lady confirmed it, so we booked for next weekend. As I sit here in the little office on the prarie...it is indeed pouring. My new raincoat is proving handy. I was allowed to leave work hours ago but chose to stay because well, its shopping day so I can stay and eat and also Jo wouldnt be back until later anyway. I had my meeting with Mathijs (Mah-tace) today, the Auckland University liason to talk about the placement so far...he was really nice. I also tried to get our non communicative autistic qualities TBI client to interact with me today to no avail by dumping out different coloured blocks in front of him and then proceeded to sort them to see if he would at least watch me (he instead kept his eyes squeezed shut laughing (I thought crying at one point) to himself). Our other non communicative client played pool with me, beating me once again....and answered some questions in the communication book with me: fave tv show is coronation street, liked the monkeys best yesterday. SO I am starting to do stuff on my own while Becky does paper work. Jo and I might do the thermal pools tonight, she was going to look into see if the tuesday special really exists and if not we would go even in the rain I guess (which has just stopped suddenly) I think this would be a good time to run into the main house and eat some lunch. I have missed a lot of stuff but you will hear it all I am sure when I get back and dont stop talking for a month straight. Jo says I talk too much. I'm trying to cut back...savign my stories for Emily, I know she will listen. Chris too...I may have to get them together so i can save some breath. Maybe rent out the hall and show my pics and tell my stories all at once...hahaha....oh later today I am hoping to work on getting pics up....I think I will go back in and put them with corresponding posts so you will have to search (we'll see about flickr colleen). I asked the lady with the laptop and she said after her work is done so we will see what I can get done (I got blank cd's last night chris so my potential to take pics has just exponentially expanded!)