the weekend update
random bits: one day we were joking about driving and i pulled out the old line "where'd you get your license? a cracker jack box?" i didn't think my kiwi classmates would get it, since they don't have cracker jack here, but actually, they have their own version of the joke, and it involves a corn flakes box. similarly, when you make a joke about wheaties (such as, you are strong, you must have eaten your wheaties this morning), the kiwi version involves weet-bix (pronounced "wheat-a-bix"; i know, go figure). believe you me, friends, wheaties are much tastier. weet-bix is like giant shredded wheat but drier.

it's saturday here, the first of march. it has been raining for ten days, but today we have gotten a reprieve. not in time for my hike. gosh, i was soaked to my underwear. i drove 30 minutes to go hiking in the kaimai (pronounced: car-mys) mountains. not five minutes into this hike i wanted to do, i came upon a stream. except that after 10 straight days of rain, it was like a gushing river. and as full of bravado and chutzpah i may be, i was not stupid enough to ford that raging stream by myself. that's how bad movies start. so i turned around and hiked up this hill that led to an outlook over sentinel rock. when i got there, i could barely see 20 feet (i sort of expected it) so i dropped trou and had a wee instead. i wasn't worried that someone would sneak up on me. most kiwis have sense enough to not go hiking, in the rain, after 10 consecutive days of rain.

speaking of bladder issues, we were at the lakes diving on tuesday and i REALLY had to pee. waiting was out of the question, and i've tried to pee in the bush with my wetsuit pulled down but let me tell you, it's not a pretty sight. so i just swam into the lake, with my wetsuit down around my knees, and used the very large toilet that was at my disposal. unfortunately, there were people at the shore, and they knew exactly what i was doing (mostly because i announced it...). one of these people was andrew, my instructor, and i just decided to make fun of myself first and declared that i had indeed scraped the bottom of the barrel of shame. and how could i do this, what kind of girl did my mother raise?

on thursday, when i was out on the piss, we ran into my taekwondo coach at this bar. he works for a security company and was there doing the security thing. he bought me and a friend a shot of tequila each. this is a small fucking town.

thursday was also when two of my classmates discovered my feelings for our scuba instructor. being boys, they had no idea. i actually told one of them because he was offering another guy to me. the second guy found out because the first has a big mouth. anyhow, my point here is that i think classroom dynamics are going to start to change. it's a good thing i start kayaking soon. oh andrew, how i will miss thee. :)

i guess that's it for now.