All of these shots are from this past weekend in Queenstown. As you can tell, quite breathtaking views.




Today was a monumental day. On my walk to campus, I was stopped and asked for directions and was successfully able to point the poor woman in the right direction. (The fact that she was looking for the street that I live on is beside the point.) Nonetheless, I decided that this meant one of two things - I either successfully posed as a Kiwi or I appeared to be an educated American. Either way, I'm making progress.

Last weekend, Natalie, Whitney, and I rented a car and drove to Queenstown, a popular ski town about four hours away. The myriad of fall colors that are quickly taking over seem to complete the already picture perfect landscape that is New Zealand. So again, the drive had me captivated. We arrived Friday night and had a great time exploring the quaint, New England-like downtown and shopping at their outdoor market. We went for a hike on the Ben Lomond Track on Saturday, which turned out to get my heart pumping a bit more than I had expected, but that's New Zealand for you. I even managed to take quite a spill, shall we say, towards the end of the hike. A couple bruises and scrapes were well worth the absolute laughter that ensued. Let's just say I lost my balance going downhill, butt-bumped a few rocks along the away, did a couple rotations of tumbling, and was fortunately stopped by a tree. Permission to laugh granted.

It's beginning to set in that I only have two more months here, which is a bit scary. The last three months have gone by so fast, I am only anticipating how quickly the next two are going to come. The beauty of coming with other U.S. students from all over the country and living with other international students from all over the world is the unbelievable diversity and knowledge that you get from meeting and getting to know so many different people. The downside, however, is that you get five months - five months to live, eat, and breathe with people who will go back to their different homes all over the world five months later. I'm just trying to take in all that I can while I still can.

Congrats to those of you who are DONE for the semester and GOOD LUCK to those that are almost finished! I think of all of you more than you know.

XOXO.