Happy June! Although it doesn't seem like it could possibly be June already.
a) there was snow on a mountain this morning in visual distance.
b) I can see my breath in my poorly insulated flat
c) I was not prepared for winter in June!!!!

The funny thing is, last year at this time I was in Ghana, Africa. I guess June is my travel month! I am consecutively missing the early Burlington summers (which are my favourite). No complaints!
I was able to complete my last New Zealand assignments in the last week of classes. I have become a great procrastinator since living in New Zealand. Kind of a good trait if you look at it from a different perspective. I put off all the work, have tons of fun- but when it's time to do my work I am pretty good about buckling down and getting it done. ie, I understand that if I am on an Australian vacation for 10 days, I will be doing work for 2 days straight. So that's good!
Hopefully that works with my finals. I am starting to study tomorrow (Wednesday). All exams are 60% of my final great and are cumulative. Long story short, I NEED to study quite a bit. My exams are on the 8th, 11th, 12th, and 15th.
This whole week is supposed to be "study week"... an equivalency to UVM's one reading day.
Another reason I need to really be studying tomorrow and Thursday... I booked another trip!!!!!
Friday morning, I'm bussing it to Rotorua. It's about 7 hours away and has heaps of tourist stuff. It's known for representing the Maori culture and hot springs. I'll probably visit a hot springs spa for a few hours and do some zorbing
Saturday, I'm meeting Leah and Jarad in Taupo (1 hour bus ride). They are planning to sky dive if the weather holds out (cross your fingers!!). I'll either a) take pictures or b) wait for them to do activity 2.
We'll arrive back in Wellington on Sunday 8:30pm.
So that's definitely an exciting thing to look forward to this weekend. They've been planning it for a week or so, I just jumped in last minute. Another part of the North Island that I should be seeing. It would be a bit embarrassing to see more on the South than the North where I was living!
My kiwi friend Kelsi's best friend Ayden came up to visit for the past 5 days. She came up a few months ago and we loved her! So that was a good time having her in town. I picked her up from Courtenay Place on Friday and we surprised Kels! Ayden is moving to Texas for the summer to work for Camp America then Canada for 2 years. So it was her "goodbye nz" trip to Wellington. We hung in Friday due to the obnoxious cold and rain... then had quite an exciting Saturday! Shopping in the rain (not a great plan by us seven girls!!!) and had a crazy night. Matthias' friends were throwing him a going away party/Graduation party so we went there then in to town. Sunday- most unproductive day. I left the girls' flat twice. One being to get pizza and two being to meet up with a group at a cafe. We (Leah, Matthais, Dani, Jon) headed down to the Plum Cafe for a little weekend catch up. It was nice! But we headed back to continue our recoup!
I joined the nicest gym in Wellington for the week. It's called Les Mills and I pretended I wanted to join long term so they would give me a free week pass. I went yesterday and tonight and it made me miss working out so much! It's just nice to get your mind off things and move! I loved it! Can't wait to go back tomorrow! :)
Today, Kels, Ayden, Leah, and I went for a quick lunch and played at a park. It was awesome! The park was called Central Park, located in Brooklyn (the next suburb over from me). But no, it was not even close to Brooklyn, NY or NYC in general.
Their parks are ten times cooler than ours. They had this structure where you hop on a rope with a little saucer on it and swing to the otherside. It zooms to the other end where you honestly think you will run into the wooden poll, but two tires shoot you back and just bounce you around. It sounds so confusing. I'll have to go back and get a video of myself or someone else doing it. I was screaming and laughing- craziest ride ever.
Below: Leah gets the wild ride ready:


Here I am playing in one of the structures.


Central Park:


The design students have finished all of their final pieces and are starting to head home. One of my New Zealand friends Alice left today at the same time as Ayden. She lives in Auckland and should be back before we leave. But it was still weird/sad seeing her leave knowing she won't be here until the end of the month.
It made me think of saying bye to all members of our international family- which I am totally not ready for!
I love and miss everyone at home and am excited to go back but at the same time, I don't want this experience to end. I love it. Wellington, New Zealand, all my friends, the different foods, lingo, COFFEE, and just.. everything! I wish NZ was so close and I would be able to visit frequently. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I KNOW that I will be back sometime, but I just don't know when that will be.

Here's a list of all the places I will be in the month of June.. world traveling!
Wellington (obviously)
Rotorua
Taupo
Christchurch
Greymouth
Franz Josef
Queenstown
Tekapo
Dunedin
Auckland (airport)
San Francisco (airport)
New York (airport)
BURLINGTON!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'll check in after my Rotorua/Taupo trip! xx