a happy day :)

-excerpt from an email i wrote

"i had a fantastic saturday, that more than made up for my previous saturday. last sat, the hall was supposed to bring us new internationals to kapiti island (bird scantuary) and then to lindale for ice cream. lindale is famous for its ice cream, and everyone knows it.
but the trip got cancelled because of bad weather. and it was the SECOND time it got cancelled! so i woke up for lunch, read the announcement on the whiteboard, ate lunch, and spent the entire day in front of the computer wishing i was somewhere else, anywhere else in the world but weary wellington.

so yes, that was my saturday last week. but two days ago, on friday night, i was chatting with a friend after icf (international christian fellowship) and he was asking me how i find wellington. he was born in auckland, but his parents are singaporean and he goes back to singapore like once every year. so i was like, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr idon'treallyknowhowtolikeitihaven'tbeenaround and then he was like, well why don't you go out? what do you do on saturdays? i was like AHHH HAHA and then explained what it had been like. and he took pity on me (as everyone in the world does; i seem to be in perpetual distressed damsel mode around the globe or something) and he was like, okay what are you doing on sat, tmrw? and i was like, er, nothing? (there was supposed to have been a trip to the Red Rocks to see seals but it got CANCELLED on thursday because the weather forecasts predicted BAD WEATHERRRRRR AHH) nothing at all and he was like, okay i'll take you around.

and he did! he picked me up ouside my hall at abt two, and he was like, okay i don't really have any plans, is there anywhere you want to go? and i was like, no, so he drove on. he wanted to bring me to a mall i think (quite lame, but it does also highlight my desperate situation; i haven't actually been to a mall. i've been to town, but town's just streets of shops. not a building. no mall.) but when we got there parking was absolutely crazy-they don't do stuff right in new zealand- so we gave up and he drove on. and then apparently we were quite near to a lotr film site and i wanted to see it so he took me but it was a letdown; just a normal river and i don't see how it had looked so magnificent when frodo was crossing the river with the witch kings behind him. well then after that i was telling him that i haven't seen any sheep here and that if new zealand wanted to salvage its reputation of being mehmeh land i would need to see some soon. and he was like, i'll take you. and so he drove out of town, and after a while (by this time after the mall plus driving, it was more than an hour of being in the car) I SAW SHEEP! on the hills grazing as we drove on the motorway/highway. so all's good, i've seen sheep and can reassure everyone back home that new zealand has sheep. hahahahahaha. i even saw cows. :D
and and and GUESS WHAT! we went to lindalllleeeee!!! we were like, driving and driving and driving and i was wondering where on earth we were and suddenly i saw a bilboard that said somethingsomethingsomething LINDALE and i was like GASSSSPPPP LINDALE??? and he grinned and he was like, what? no, we can't be going to lindale BUT IT WAS HAHAH I WENT TO LINDALE AND I HAD TWO SCOOPS OF FAMOUS ICE CREAM. he said that after we were at the lotr site and drove out to see the sheep, lindale was pretty much on the way so he just decided to bring me there. yayyyyyy.
the ice cream was okayyyy la. i mean. fig and honey was awwwwesome but then again it generally is a kickass combination but then i had their medal winning feijoa and it was weird. haha.

and i spent like, an hour on my two scoops! i didn't realise i eat so slowly. =Pp so it was turning dark by the time i'd finished. and then i thought, oh okay it's over right, since nz goes to sleep at five o'clock. hahah. but apparently he isn't like the usual laid back kiwi. soooooooo we continued.
actually, the day was a bit tiring, trying to figure out his own person against what i've learnt of the kiwi culture so far. like, i thought that all kiwis go to sleep at five right, but he doesn't. so that took a bit of delicate figuring out and asking little questions here and there. quite tiring.
so anyway, turns out he wanted to bring me to see the night view on mt vic because i'd commented on a postcard of the view when we were at lindale and waiting for me to finish the ice cream. i thought that was pretty cool.

but the weather was disgusting. the entire day's weather had been disgusting so even after we went to the top we both decided we didn't want to walk up to the lookout point so we stayed in the car and talked and i even made up stories. hahaha. don't you wish that it was you i was telling stories to? i would have liked that.
then afterward we hung out at his place and watched family guy and then he drove me back. we thought of him showing me the clubbing scene, but the weather was too bad and we were both tired from the day so we decided against it.

:)
like my email? very long hor.

i got to run now,

much love,
rach"