Where in the World is Meredith?

I am sitting at my kitchen counter writing this last post after my long journey home. I am so thankful to have been able to go on this trip and I learned and did so much, veterinarian related and otherwise, honestly more than I thought I would. I will never forget this trip, my experiences, all of the amazing people from Loop Abroad and in Thailand (both at Spicy Thai and ENP) that it made it not only possible but fantastic, and of course my fellow College Vet 1B girls (and Julia!). Although we have only known each other for 16 days it feels like we have been friends for years, and I know they would agree with me. I couldn't have asked for or imagined a better group of girls to experience everything with. Having the right people with you and on your side males everything so much better and they did just that. I was worried I wasn't going to fit in or I was going to have problems making friends but that wasn't the case at all. These girls were all so amazing and so open and

Monday, June 30th 2014 Today was our last day in Thailand. We started off with a light breakfast and packing at the hotel then an early lunch at a delicious vegetarian buffet. Then we spent our afternoon at the airport mall before. I got a massage for a little because I didn't have much shopping to do and got some snacks for the plane at the grocery store. We all got beaded bracelets together to remember each other by, even though we knew we would have remember each other anyways, and we all pitched in and got one for Julia too! Then we went to the airport and checked in. On the way to Hong Kong I'm sitting with Dani and Sam and for the rest of the way home I'll be with Megan and Tatum. I am so not ready to go home and I am going to miss this place, these experiences and the people so much. I had such an amazing time and I am so glad I was able to do it. 

Sunday, June 29th 2014 Today was one of the longest, sweatiest, and most rewarding days I have had. We started off our day with an early breakfast and then began our long trek up the mountain to the Doi Suthep Temple. The first half took about an hour, hour and a half or so and we thought that part was hard! The second half took about two hours and was crazy steep! There were points where we were more climbing than hiking and essentially going straight up, but we did it! It was so rewarding and I couldn't have done it without my girls (and of course the music we played over portable speakers helped!). We were all so encouraging of each other and I honestly don't think any of us could have done it without each other, much like many parts of our trip. Even though, or maybe because, I was drenched in sweat by the time we got to the top lunch was delicious. But we weren't quite done yet, we still had 300 steps up to the temple, that we had to climb in temple wear (shoulders a

Saturday, June 28th 2014 This morning we went to the Tiger Kingdom!! It was such a blast. We got to go into the medium, small and smallest tiger enclosures and pet the tigers and take pictures with them! They are such amazing animals and we went around and saw the big tigers and the baby ones, but we couldn't pet them. I took tons of pictures and will be posting them when I get home! We also got to feed the macaws! After the Tiger Kingdom we went to the Orchid and Butterfly gardens (which is also where we had lunch, they had delicious fried bananas!) which were so beautiful! They had tons of colorful butterflies and rare orchids. After lunch we went to the Chang Dao Temple and caves. Dan taught us about temples, Buddhism, and some Thai history while we were visiting the temple. Then we hiked in the bat caves! It was so cool! The cave was so big and just kept going on, was full of bats and it was just awesome. For dinner we went to a Thai/Burmese restaurant and we had quite a scar

Friday, June 27th 2014 Today was cat day!!! We went to a cat shelter to do a neuter. First we learned about how to restrain cats, typical diseas and problems they have, and did some physical exams. Unfortunately there was only one cat to neuter but everyone got to do something!  I injected some pain killers and monitored the cat while he was under anesthesia. The shelter was like cat heaven! Most of the cats got to wander all they wanted, there was tons of food for them whenever they wanted, there were beds and things to sit in/on all over, and there was a room that was outside for them to get sun. I loved being able to cuddle with cats all morning! After lunch we went back to ARK to check on the dog that had the emergency surgery yesterday and to play with the dogs of course! Then we went back to Spicy Thai to relax before the mall. At the mall we spilt into two groups of 5 to eat and shop. My group decided to buy a whole cake for our dinner! We also had smoothies and fried rice, bu

Thursday, June 26th 2014 Today was surgery day!!! We learned about anesthesia and neutering then got into two groups of five to do the neuters. We did one before lunch and one after, my group did anesthesia and monitoring first and surgery second. Anesthesia and monitoring was fun and during the first surgery I took pictures for Dan (one of the guys from Spicy Thai) on his phablet! For surgery we all distributed the jobs between us and I got to cut and expose one of the testicles! After we were done with the neuters we watched Julia and Christy do an emergency surgery on a dog that came in with a huge wound on his left hind leg. It was really cool to watch them do it and to hear their discussion about what they were going to do. Then we headed back to Spicy for a night in with take out and a movie. It was a really great day and I can't wait for tomorrow!!

Wednesday, June 25th 2014 Today was blood day at ARK! We learned about fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, the diseases they can transmit to dogs, and how to test for and treat them. Then we all got to draw blood so we could test the dogs for heartworm, Lyme disease, anaplasma, and erlichia. I loved drawing blood! After lunch we went to Santisook Dog Shelter and watched Pong and Julia do surgery on a dog there. Pong neutered him while Julia did some eye surgery to open his eyelid so he could see. The dog's other eyelid is completely shut and she didn't have the right tools to be able to open it safely. After showering we went to dinner at Jeh Auan, which is Noom's favorite restaurant, and had amazing Pad Thai! After dinner we went shopping at the night Bazaar and I got almost all of the souvenirs I wanted to get plus a bunch of elephant pants of course! It was a pretty late night but it was still tons of fun!

Tuesday, June 24th 2014 Today was swab and slide day at ARK! It was so much fun! I remembered to charge my speakers last night so we could listen to music in the back of the truck on the way, so the car ride seemed much shorter. In the morning we learned about aspirates, mast cell tumors, lypomas, ear swabs, mites, skin scrapes, mange, parasites, schirmer tear tests and blood! After we learned a ton we got some dogs and did some skin scrapes, ear swabs and practiced blood smears. After a delicious lunch at ye same local restaurant we went to a clinic and used their microscope to look at all of our slides. First we had to stain them and we all ended up with purple fingers. While some people were looking at slides the others were practicing figure 8 knots and sutures for the cat and dog neuters later this week. We finished pretty early and headed back to Spicy Thai and looked at blood cells, mast cells and lypomas on the computer and listened to heart sounds. We went to Dinner at a resta

Monday, June 23rd 2014 Today was our first day at the Animal Rescue Kingdom (ARK)! When I woke up to air conditing I was so excited! We had breakfast of toast, cereal, eggs, bacon and coffee and headed off to the shelter. Most of the time before lunch was spent learning about how to do physical exams. We have work books with all the information we are learning in them and Julia is a great teacher. Everything is really interesting and she always makes sure we understand. We went to lunch at a local restaurant, I had chicken fried rice and it was so delicious, then we went back to the shelter to perform physicals in groups of two on the dogs. While the others were doing their physicals we practiced with our terms for placement on an animal. After our day at the shelter we came back to Spicy Thai, showered and headed put to dinner at a local restaurant. After a delicious dinner we stopped at the grocery store for ice cream before heading back to the hostel for movie night! We watched Fr

Sunday, June 22nd 2014 Today we left ENP. This morning when we woke up there was a baby bat flying around in one of the rooms but it landed on a big net and we captured it and let it outside. Then after breakfast we went to the elephant vet, walked over to see Jungle Boy and Hope (who threw a banana peel at Amanda!), and went to the shop (I bought an elephant shirt!). After lunch we went on a good bye elephant walk and each room gave a presentation on a different elephant then we got in the van to go back to Spicy Thai. Once we got back to the hostel we gave our laundry to the laundry lady and went to the market. At the market I had a smoothie, a dumpling and pad thai for dinner then did some shopping (I also had a chocolate coconut waffle for dessert). Then it was time for a shower and some well deserved sleep in air conditioning!! Tomorrow we go to  the shelter! 

Saturday, June 21st 2014 This morning we weeded the little corn field ENP has on their property. It was fun except that we all got attacked and bitten by ants and I'm pretty sure we all came away with rashes on our arms! Most of them went away within a few hours because they were just irritation. We only did that for a few hours and then we had some time to relax before lunch so I read of course! After lunch I went to the elephant and got to see an abscess cleaned. We started really late there because someone brought a tour through and we can't work with the elephants when there are people there because the elephants get too freaked out so I didn't get to see or do much. I did get to go tubing again though!! Tubing was wonderful but unfortunately I lost my toe ring, so I am going to look for a new one. Tonight was the farewell dinner with traditional Thai food (all too spicy for me except for the fried sweet potato) and dances by the village children. After that we all g

Friday, June 20th 2014 Our chore today was cutting corn! We had to wear long pants and long sleeves so we didn't get irritated by the corn or pesticides (I did get a rash on my neck from carrying the corn though!). We all climbed into the back of a truck and drove to the corn field. On the truck I was talking to one of the other volunteers and we found out that she goes to school in Scotland with one of my friends from camp! Small world!! Once we got to the field I got a machete and started cutting corn. We put the stalks in piles, the Thai men tied them up, and then we carried them to the truck. Once we finished up there we had snack time and then moved to the next field. This field had much bigger corn stalks and I just carried them to truck, no machete for me at this one! Once we finished cutting we had lunch and waited to get picked up (we wouldn't fit in the truck with all the corn!). A pickup truck came and we all got in the back and went to 7-eleven on our way back for

Thursday, June 19th 2014 Yesterday at the dog clinic the tech said she could use two extra people this morning if we could spare them because it was the other techs day off, so Julia decided it was a good idea to draw names out of a hat because we all wanted to go and I was one of them! The other 8 scooped elephant poo in the morning and Cassandra and I went to the clinic to hep out. We made dog medicine balls from rice and canned dog food and helped give morning medications. Then we all went to the village school to play with the kids, we changed first because we needed to have our knees and shoulders covered out of respect. We made and bought bracelets, played games, had tea and cookies, some people got foot massages. One of the little boys had this pet beetle that was maybe an inch/inch and a half long and was carrying him around and showing him off to us, he even tied a string to the beetle's leg (the other end of the string was tied to a stick) like a leash! After a deliciou

Wednesday, June 18th 2014 It rained so much last night and this morning we woke up with cooler air, no electricity and a toad tangled in the bottom of my bug netting. We tried to get him out and he went under my bed and we couldn't get him so we just left him there. There was electricity in the main building (they have a generator) but not in the houses. This morning we worked in the elephant kitchen washing pumpkins and melons, seperating out the ripe bananas, and making medicine balls. The medicine balls were made from mashed banana (hand mashed by us), ground corn, and rice meal. It was super fun to mash them! Then we unloaded a truck of bananas before lunch. After lunch eight of us went to the dog clinic and two of us went to the elephant vet. I was at the dog clinic and we did some wound cleaning on our own then the vet nurse (they have no vet) showed/helped us with some harder cases. Julia is going to come with us to the clinic tomorrow to give her some veterinarian opinion

Tuesday, June 17th 2014 Today was our first full day at ENP. I woke up way before my alarm so I read for a while then showered and went to breakfast (toast, fruit, cereal). After that we did our morning chore which was elephant walk today. Our Volunteer Coordiantor Jane (he is amazing! He is so funny and very nice) walked us around the park to meet some of the elephant families (the babies are so freaking cute!!). The youngest ones like to chase the dogs around and it is so funny! Then we helped feed the elephants and unloaded a whole truck of watermelons, which will only last for two days with forty elephants in the park! Lunch was really good today, they have so many different kinds of noodles! After lunch we met one of the elephant vets, watched one of the baby elephants and his family take a bath in the river, walked to the dog shelter, and saw the other animals they have at the park (like water buffalo and pigs).  The dogs got really  excited about all of us being in their run s

Monday, June 16th 2014 Today was my first morning in Thailand! After a breakfast of eggs, cornflakes, toast, bacon, and juice we headed out to the Elephant Nature Park (ENP). We all got volunteer t-shirts (they are really nice!) and water bottles with cloth holders so you can carry them over your shoulder like a purse and watched an elephant documentary on the way there. Once we arrived we learned the rules, met and fed some of the elephants, and had a little tour. We had a few free minutes before lunch so I walked through the gift shop and got an elephant ring!! Lunch was buffet style and had tons of different kinds of Thai food. Everything at ENP is vegetarian so hopefully I get enough protein! After lunch we moved into our rooms. There are two rooms of two and two rooms of three, I was in one with three people (including myself of course!). The four rooms are all in one small, square building and there is a bathroom across from each room with a toilet, sink, and shower. It is rea

Saturday, June 14th/Sunday, June 15th 2014 Today we left for Thailand! We started out with a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. It wasn't too bad, especially because I had already experienced a long flight like that going to New Zealand. I switched off between reading, watching movies & TV shows, and sleeping (I started and almost finished a whole book on the way here!) so it didn't seem too long. We got two meals on the flight, brunch (ham frittata with bacon and potatoes) and dinner (chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots) and they were pretty good! We got snacks along the way too. I am getting along really well with the girls so far, so that's good! After our layover in Hong Kong we took a bus to the plane to Chiang Mai and boarded it right from the runway! We got food on that flight too, I think I have eaten like 6 meals today! Once we arrived in Thailand we were greeted at the airport & brought to Spicy Thai in tok toks! The tok toks are so cool and hard to expla

Friday, June 13th 2014 Today marks the start of another journey. This one is shorter but so adventurous and a little bit more scary than the last one. Today starts my journey to Thailand. I am going to be working alongside a veterinarian, and other pre-vet students from around the country, taking care of homeless dogs, elephants at a nature park, and even baby tigers! I know no one else that is going, well, not really. Some of us have chatted in facebook ok and one of the girls goes to UD, but I don't really know her. So even though with great staff and great girls it is kind of like going alone in a sense. I am going to be in a  foreign country where I don't know the language or truly know the culture, with no one to lean on, but I know I can do it. The journey started off a little rocky when my to JFK this evening got cancelled. JetBlue put me on a flight out in the morning but since we leave for Thailand from JFK tomorrow morning at 10am I needed to be here tonight. So, I g

On my way home I figured I migh hit some troubles, I was flying home into a major storm, but I did not expect to be spending the night in LA, which is exactly what happened. From LAX I was supposed to fly from LA to Boston with a stop over in Dulles (DC). The flight was delayed for an hour due to "late aircraft arrival" so I decided to check the rest of the flight status to see when I would be getting home so I could let my parents know when to pick me up. Although the leg to Dulles was still going out, the plane would not be traveling on to Boston that night. I went to the desk to see if there was anything going to Boston from LA that night, nothing, from DC to Boston the next morning, full. My only option was to stay in LA and fly out the next morning. Luckily, I didn't have to pay to switch my flight and I got a huge discount on my hotel. Although I had hoped I would be spending my night in my own bed, the day defintely could have gone a lot worse. Instead of flying an

Sadly this journey has come to an end. I was debating weither or to say that this is really the end of  journey, but it really is. Yes, I hope to come back some day but it will never be like this and with these people. I ahve had the most amazing trip and I cannot thank everyone who helped my get here enough. And money isn't the only thing I need to thank people for, even though without it this wouldn't have been possible (thank you so much Mom and Dad xo), but also the people who helped me become the woman I am today, the woman who got to experience a new country kind of on her own, with people she didn't know. I never would have been able to do all of the things I did here with as much grace, respect and responsibility if I hadn't been raised right (again, thanks Mom and Dad xo) and had all the experinces and friends I have had over the years. Like I said before, this trip was absolutely amazing and it has added some new facets to my every growing personality. I am no

On Monday night, after our morning exam and Super Bowl Monday, we had our farewell dinner at Rossendale Winery down the road. But of course we had to see the farm before dinner, dresses and all! Brett raises bull beef but he uses dairy breeds because they have a better temperment. We also got to see some of the grapes and he told us all about how his winery, resturant and event/function buisness (mainly weddings)were started. We had a lovely dinner and wine tasting (I found a wine I really enjoy!) at the restaurant followed by thank yous to our guests and hosts, the recieving of our completion certificates and some awards. The awards were all very funny, I recieved the "Forgot to Count" award, and reminded us a little of why we came here in the first place. After we all took what was probably hundreds of pictures out back, we said good by to our hosts and guests and piled on to the bus to head back to Lincoln for the last time. It was a really great evening full of great food

This weekend we had our last trip of all and we went to the west coast to the little town of Hokitika. The drive over there was so beautiful and full of moutainsa and braided rivers. We arrived there late afternoon to check into the backpackers and explore the town. There were some really great shops and I got myself some more yarn and a really cool walet. After having a delicious dinner we went back to the backpackers to change to get ready for the bonfire. The boys headed down to the beach to dig a pit and build a fire and, to my surpirse, they actualy did it, and the fire was pretty good! We spent the evening on the beack taking pictures, watching the sunset and realxing with music around the fire. I headed back in fairly early to shower and head to bed as I had an early wake up call on Saturday, 5:30am! On Saturday 18 of us piled on to our bus at 6am to head to Franz Josef for kayaking and sky diving. We started off the morning with a three hour kayak around Lake Mapourika. It was

Yesterday we had our last real farm trip but we went out with a bang, another three farm day! I won't bore you with the details and I'll try to keep this short and sweet. The first farm we visited was Rosehill farm. It was different from any of the farms we visited because it was a very wet farm and actually needed to drain water from the land, not irrigate it. The owners were very nice and got onto our bus to give us a guided tour of their farm where they grow some crops but mainly raise sheep and beef cattle. The best part was when we drove through the cattle field, the cows just looked at us a little and saundered away from the bus, they weren't scared at all! After this farm we stopped for lunch at a camp ground and crossed over two bridges by foot so we could get some good pictures and met our bus on the other side. Then we headed over to the Chaffey farm (the one I had to write my Ag Blog on). This farm is fully irrigated and grows crops and grazes cows in the winter

This weekend started Friday afternoon for us when a bunch of us went into the city (Christchurch) to go to the International Buskers Festival, which is essentially a street performers festival. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and, other than one horrendous act, the performers were all pretty good. My favorite one was Reuben DotDotDot even though I only saw the end of his performance. He used to work for Cirque du Soleil and the part of his act that I saw was acrobatics. He was using a Chinese climbing pole held steady by four memembers of the audience. He did some amazing stunts such as climbing to the top and holding on with just his hands while his body was horizontal, sliding down using his torso wrapped around the pole, and climbing to the top and completeing a full circle on one hand with his body horizontal. He was amazing! Many of us arrived back at school for dinner and spent the rest of the evening lounging around. On Saturday a few other kids

Today we took a short trip to a stud farm just down the street from us. Essentially they are a horse breeding facility. They have a handful of stalions on the grounds that they collect semen from to use on site and to ship out to buyers. They also perform artificial insemination (AI) on mares they have on the property and mares that people send to them and foal the mares. We got to see all the stalions, the semen collecting, storing and shipping facilty and processes, where the mares are kept, where the foaling mares are kept, where they keep the mares and their foals once they are born and a foal being bucket fed because he won't suckle from his mother. What I found most interesting was when we got to watch AI being performed, it is a very short process actually, and we got to see a different mare being scanned (ultrasounded) for follicles after she had been given medicine to help her ovulate yesterday. Although I do love horses and I think they are beautiful creatures I am not ne

On Wednesday we went to three farms in one day! It was a long day but super interesting. The first farm we went to was another sheep farm, which all knew a good amount about but we learned about his farm specifcally. After he talked to us for a while we got back on the bus and drove around his property while he was pointing out specifc things he had mentioned earlier. The one thing I found the most interesting where the fallen trees in the shelter belt (a belt of trees to shelter the livestock from the winds and other weather conditions) from a wind storm. These trees were pretty huge and the fact that they were all torn out fromt he roots was amazing to me and indicated that it must have been a really strong wind. After that we went to the second farm, which was really just his house, we didn't go out to see his farm. He had a beutiful lawn that we all sat on while he told us a little about his farm ( he used it to grow crops and now his son uses it as a dairy farm) and a lot abou

On Tuesday we went on two trips, a livestock auction and the International Antarctic Center. We went to the auction first which was actually pretty cool. One of the men working the auction talked to us about how it all works, how the animals are sorted and things like that. There were so many sheep and we did get to see them being auctioned off but that wasn't as exciting as the cattle auctioning. The sheep auctions were just done with the sheep in their pens and the caller standing on a platform just over the pen with the buyers in front of the pen and then they would walk over a few steps to the next pen and contine as such. For the cattle auctions which ever cattle (or set of cattle) were being auctioned came out into a ring and the bidders were sitting in auditorium style seats looking down at the cattle. While the cattle were in the ring therewas a man in there to make sure they went in and out. Once the bidding was done the cattle left through one gate and it started all over

On our free long weekend we went to Queenstown, the center for adrenaline activities in New Zealand. The weekend was such a blast! It was about a seven hour drive on Thursday to get there so when we arrived we all got settled and head out into town to look for dinner. I ended up with a few other girls at a Japanese restaurant and had what I refered to as "Japanese chicken noodle soup", which was delicious. After dinner we went out for drinks and we ended up all only paying for one drink each that night due to a promotion and some generous Kiwis! We didn't stay out dancing too late though because many people had to get up early the next morning. I got to sleep in a little bit and spent the morning wandering around town and we ended up in the Queenstown Gardens. It was a really nice walk and had a playground and a cute rose garden. After lunch and swiss ice cream I headed over to go extreme canyoning, which was amazing! We got all geared up in our wet suit socks, booties, o

On Wednesday we went on a day trip to Acheron farm. The man that owns and runs it (Scott) was such a nice man and was great to have us! First we learned all about his sheep and how he farms them, when he brings them in to sheer or vaccinate or drench etc, when and how he breeds them, when they lamb etc. Then he tought us about the buisness part of the farm. His main income is from wool and not meat so he told us about how they class wool, what is good and bad, how much wool you get per sheep and about his contract with Smart Wool. He also has a few cattle so he told us about them too. Then he brought in some sheep to show us handling and explain how he condition scores them (a condition score hoe healthy the sheep is based on how their body feels/looks, basically if they are too skinny or not). Once we had lunch we walked up the "hills" (you would probably call it a small mountain) where the sheep live. The walk was a little tough but we made it and the view was breath taking

On Monday afternoon, post-lunch, we headed over to the wildlife reserve to walk through the "zoo", have a guided Kiwi tour and experince some native Maori culture. The first thing we did was walk through two of the three different sections of the reserve, Wild New Zealand and Heritage New Zealand (our guided tour was of the third section, Natural New Zealand). Wild New Zealand was my favorite because it had more exoctic animals, the ones that were brought in from other countries and now live here, such as wallabies, deer, lemurs, monkeys, etc. All of the animals were so adorable and I took tons of pictures! Heritage New Zealand is the section of farm animals such as miniture horses, peacocks, goats, cattle, etc. I am not sure how peacocks classify into farm animals but I guess the do here in New Zealand! Once we walked through those two sections we had some time before our Kiwi tour so I spent some time in the gift shop getting some gifts for people at home and even something

This weekend was our first free weekend and we went to Kaikoura, a beach town. Most people did water activities such as whale watching and dolphin swimming but I took the road less traveled and did some hiking, cave exploring and 4-Wheeling. The bus picked us up at school on Friday after lunch and we all piled on with our backpacks stuffed for our weekend adventures. About half way to Kaikoura we stopped for a bathroom break and found out that the bus was "running a little hot" so we wandered around the little town of Chaviot for a while, had some tea and checked our e-mails. We ended up having a big group dinner there because fixing the bus was going to take a while. There was a nice resturant that offered to bring us platters of food for $10 per person. We had so much food we couldn't even finish it all! The resturant owner was so nice and was able to cater to both our vegetarians and our gluten free students as well. After dinner we hopped on the bus for the rest of ou

So yesterday (Wednesday, January 8th) was our first farm trip. During class they told us that the bus was going to pick us up after lunch, at 1:15, in front of the dorm to go and the university's dairy and sheep farms. We got out of class early had some time to relax and then after lunch we all went to go put on our boots and wait for the bus. At this point it was about 12:45 and people were going to go sit in front of the rec center to get wifi. I sat on the benches by the dorm because I didn't need wifi, I was just reading my book, and it was sunnier there (plus it was right were the bus was picking us up). So there I am reading my book and I check my watch it says it is 1:40, so I just figured the bus was late so I went over to the rec center where everyone else was before to see is Dr. Griffiths or Susan had told them anything and there was nobdy there. I walked all around and in the rec center, checked the cricket field and still nobody. I tried calling all the phone numbe

Today we started off by visiting the local weekend market in Christchurch. This market was huge and has pretty much anything you could want. A bunch of us got mini donuts for breakfast and they were amazing! After wandering for a while it started to rain and we seeker shelter under an unoccupied tent and watched the people who walked by. We also purchased souvenirs and got more tea! While waiting for it to be time to head into the city we sat on a field and listend to live music. Once we headed into the city we went to the Canterbury museum and botanical garden, which is one of the top ten gardens in the world. It was so beautiful and we took so many amazing pictures. There was a pretty cool street art exhibit at the museum too. For lunch we went to the boat docks and had toasties on the river. For those who don't know, a toastie is basically a grilled cheese and you can add other things. Then we headed back to the garden to continue our picture contest and wander on the trails. On

Today we went to Akaroa, a small town on the ocean roughly an hour away from Lincoln University. It was such a beautiful drive and we stopped at a stone beach where we picked up New Zealand green stone which can be polished into gems. The beach was beautiful! I could have spent a whole day there alone looking for nice stones, skipping rocks and relaxing. You aren't supposed to swim there because the waves are really rough and the water will take you under really quickly because of the rock surface and rip tides but even without a swim it was still amazing. Then we stopped at a little town and went to local ice cream shop and walked around a bit taking pictures, playing on the playground and learning about the deer farming industry (yes, they farm deer!). After a nice break we all loaded back into the bus and continued up the mountains and down into Akaroa. The mountains were so beautiful and the roads were so windy and steep that I am amazed how buses can go up and down them with s

After a long one and a half days of travel all most of us wanted to do was sleep but it was barely noon here so we had to stay awake until bed time! The first thing we did was went on a little scenic tour of Christchurch with our bus driver, Robbie, who is the biggest hoot! Then we went to the mall where we all came to realize how expensive simple items such as shampoo and sunscreen are on an island. Then we cam back to the university and had dinner and did a scavenger hunt. Then we all conked out until the next morning. The following day we had our first class which was more of a spew of information about what was coming up and showing us where the computer lab is. After lunch we all went into town to go to the bank and have a look around. When we came back we all went out onto the rugby field and proceeded to play soccer, nap, read books and get sunburned. We have all now realized how very important sunscreen is here. After dinner we all went to the local pub and had (for most of us