so i am faced with a bit of a conundrum
have just come back from conference, and i'm pretty sure my flat mate is back from utah, but she isn't home, it's pushing on 1am, and i am thinking i should go to bed soon. however the problem is that jacqui and i share a room, and while she was away i was using her bed, because mine is the top bunk, 6 feet off the ground, with no ladder! the ladder got moved with the painting and has now vanished into a vortex, leaving me sitting on the floor wondering if i should borrow her bed again and risk the weird moment of being woken up at some crazy hour when she comes home or maybe jsut sleepin gon the couch to sort it out tomorrow.
tehehe, the things we wonder about eh
i am excited to do laundry.
i know this sounds sad to most, but any traveller knows what i mean. after one backpack for 10 days and wearing my pajama top on the last leg of our roadtrip today because of a lack of clean clothes, laundry is quickly rising to the top of the pirority list for tomorrow.
The road trip was awesome though, I wouldn't have traded that for any flight no matter how spacious. There were all the predictable problems of 4 day drives with 5 people and geared squeezed into a station wagon, but at the same time, the "getting to know" time was so great, and i really enjoyed it! Thanks Ange and Leigh, Stu and Stefan!
Conference was so great, Pinawa was a beautiful spot to have it and over the week I got a good chance to get to know a lot of the other workers from many of the other bases around canada, including some really great and encouraging kiwis, fijians, samoans and aussies. Had a good dose of south pacific pride, and recovered from the isolationist identity crisis i was having (mostly as a result of jetlag)
anwyays
it's bed time, i'm sure i'll have lot to type later
will post some pics from the road trip, and maybe a video or two if i can work out how lol
love ya
hill

So I am back on the beaten track.
In downtown Winnipeg to be precise.
Things here are great, the conference went really well. It was so good to meet people from so many other bases and get a bit of context from finding out about the work that is going on with other YWAM bases. Also, on a VERY good note was hanging out with the other kiwis and aussies that i got to meet there. was sooooo good to not feel so out numbered, and really swim in a bit of south pacific pride! alsocool was meeting a few of the fijian and samoan workers who really know how to party it up and laugh, A LOT
so yeah all in all it was a good time with a lot of encouraging teaching, socialising and relazing. We went rafting down a big river too and caught a turtle for the kids to play with and also managed to almost get a tan. between lots of cycling and kayaking and rafting i cirtainly did my excercise to attempt to compensate for the ridiculous amount of amazing good food they fed us!!!
it was good fun
anwyays
so we are now resting it up in YWAM Winnipeg for th night, relaxing and chilling out, and hopefully catching up tonight with a couple of the girls from my DTS.
then we are driving slowly back tomorrow to saskatoon, then the next day to calgary and then the day after that to vancouver. i'll have tuesday off to relax and get my room together, good too as jacqui will be back from salt lake city then too and we can organise our room together.
ok Heather and Dave jsut arrived!!!! have to go
love ya
will psot again later

so, conference is going really well, and I am enjoying getting to know a bunch of other YWAMers from all over Canada, as well as a couple of Kiwis, Samoans, Koreans, and just about everyone else from everywhere else. I didn't htink I'd be in much internet contact, but it's currently 1am, and after a pretty intense "woah, i have to write this idea down before i sleep" moment i am now so awake that i figured i would post again since the last one was a sad length of time ago.
It's been great to be back, had great "run and hug" moments with stefan and stuart and dan and some of the other familiar vancouver faces, and am looking forward to a few more when the winnipeg trio make the drive up here to hang out with us. Also,had a really great 5 hour hang out with my mate Dan who (worst timing of all!)flew out from England to spend a week in Vanocuver arriving saturday night, about 8 hours before i was due to leave for conference. so we hung out for 5 of those 8 hours, for once jet lag working in my favour, keeping me cheery and awake till well after 4am when i needed to pack and get ready to leave for the airport at 5!!!!!
My room in Vnacouver is pretty sweet, sharing with another girl from the base, Jacqui, and also sharing the flat with another baser, Pam. So yeah, back in a girls flat, and looking forward to good times ahead.
It's been super weird at conference, though good too, but have had a few moments (like, maybe 15!!!) where i'll be listening to something, freak out and think "woah i shouldn't be listening to that, i'm not staff, i'm only a student" then freak out again when yes I realise I am infact a staff member and will be for the next two years! YIPES
But all things considered, it's been great, i am unjetlaggged (almost) and keeping on keeping on.
love you all loads, email me and tell me good kiwi stories! i'm almost all out of brotown episodes, so need some real life kiwi news soon!!!
will post again next week, most likely with some legendary road trip stories after the mammoth drive home over the better part of three provinces! should anyone choose to check, we are driving from pinawa/winnipeg, manitoba, all the way back to Vancouver, british columbia. yeah baby!

So the day has come! (Sorry this is only for Aucklanders, unless anyone else is really really really keen!)
My buddy Caroline has come back from Canada, and I am going back to Canada,
aaaaannnnddddd, it is Caroline's 22nd birthday.
So...............................in honour of these wonderful
occaisions, we are having farewell/welcomeback/happy birthday drinks,
so we can all hang out, catch up, hug, party, chill out and see each
other, for the first time in ages, or for the last time for a while.
When: Tuesday 15 August 2006, 5pm and onwards (Caroline and I will
hang about, and you can all come and go as you please......)
Where: de Post Belgian pub, Mt Eden Village, opposite Circus circus
Come along for a little while, or the whole night, and bring LOTS of friends :D
Love you all muchly, and you better show up!

For everyone else not in Auckland, who can't make it to drinks, will post again super soon, but in the meantime i'm going to go watch the amazing race!

oh oh oh and good news, I GOT MY VISA LETTER TODAY! CANADA HERE I COME!

So it turns out that I am indeed a material girl in a material world.
Trying to organize this whole “moving to the other side of the world” debacle is turning into a huge headache, an expensive headache and mostly making me want to break things, throw things at travel agents or cry. Or maybe all three at once.
It’s so far taken me 2 website visits, 6 phone calls and 2 visits to work out what my baggage allowance is. Sad but true, it’s only 30 kgs! So my whole little New Zealand life is going to be summed up in one and a half bags (not two bags of equal weight, apparently one must be large and the other small) and the maximum weight allowed is 30 kgs. And call me a material girl if you like, but moving my whole me to Canada in 30 kgs of luggage? Yipes.
I suppose this will make me really strict with myself on the limits of crap I am allowed to bring, as well as very appreciative of every ounce that I do bring, that makes the cut. Sigh
I know I shouldn’t let stuff bug me, but I guess if I am not even able to begin coping with the big stuff, I might as well let the little things drive me crazy in the interim.
Church have planned a going away lunch for me after church next weekend, and this weekend I am roadtripping to Hamilton to pick up my friend Amy and her bf Luuk, so we can hang out for a bit before I go.
I can’t believe how busy this last 3 weeks is getting, and the emotional crusty roller coaster it is becoming. I watch my life happen at a barge pole distance today, shake my head, and weigh up the options of moving to Antarctica. Penguins are good company right Krista?