A few of my favorite things

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about why I love it here so much. Its easy to know that its great here, but there are so many simple pleasures that get drowned out by the big picture. So with that being the case I have decided to start taking note of all the things that make Wanaka so wonderful for me so I could share them with you.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

- Laying out and swimming in the lake

- The local walks

- Driving on gravel roads

- Seeing Gods INCREDIBLE creation everywhere around me

- Picking fresh raspberries in my back yard

- Spending all day in the sun

- Driving in my car or being out anywhere and suddenly realizing “Holy crap this is where I live!”

- The long days (5:30am till 10pm its light)

- Worship at church

- Cutting fresh lavender for my room from my backyard

- Attaching beautiful memories to great music

- The concerts

- My co-workers and work in general

- Camping in what seems to be completely secret places

- Having picnics

- The trust within the community (i.e. can leave car unlocked with keys in it and not really worry)

- My boss taking us out on his boat (this Saturday he closed the gym early and took us wakeboarding!)

- Making coffee at work, my favorite part is pouring the steamed milk in and trying to make it look pretty

- The amazing local wines

- Swimming in the lake by moon light

- Working on the wall!

- Bouldering by the lake

- Walking barefoot

- The view of the lake from my house

- The slow pace of life

SO those are just a few of the simple joys in my life. I wish I could paint you a better picture and you all could expierance it first hand. There are so so many more, and I will be sure to keep track of them. In all honesty there are not too many things that I don’t like about this place. I was wracking my brain trying to think of the things I don’t like and this is what I came up with:

- It being such a transient town (but now I have some good friendship with some locals!)

- Knowing how laid back the culture is and not always adapting. i.e. I show up to places relatively on time or 5 min late, and still to wait because everyone else functions on the "kiwi clock." (not always the case but most the time its true)

- Having the one day in two weeks that it isn’t sunny fall on my day off.

- The fact that the F word is so common that they don’t even censor it on TV

- AND most importantly the fact that the people I love the most aren’t here with me.

Really that’s all I could think of at the time. So there you have it, now you can sorta see the reason I am having a hard time sorting out when to leave. Its like paradise here! Mom and Dad I cant wait to have you here!!!!!

Here is the link to my most recent pictures:

http://unt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2167483&l=6eb52&id=23902206

http://unt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172080&l=f50d8&id=23902206

A glimpes into the mind of Maggie

Recently I have had lots and lots of questions about what I am doing with my life and what do I thing is next. So I am going to do my best to give you a glimpse into my mind. I cant promise it will make sense to you, because it doesn’t even really make sense to me yet.
I have been really back and forth about what to do with my life. Stay here, go back to the states, stay here, go to the UK, and on and on and on. I think I have been a bit confused because I have had a lack of ambition or aspiration. I have recently realized that the reason for that may be the fact that I am actually living my dream right now; which is a really cool thing. SO now that I have that cleared up I have just been trying to focus on living in each day. I have always struggled with that, but I figure, there is no better time than now get past that struggle. There are 4 things that I know for sure and I am trusting that God will sort out it out for the best.
1) I would like to be home next Christmas
2) I would like to live in the UK for some period of time
3) I would like to go to Africa when my sister and her family go in March of 09
4) The thought of leaving NZ is gutting to me.

I really have no idea what will happen with these desires and thoughts. But I do know that as of right now I love life and if God has provided this for me than I can trust that whatever is in my future (these 4 things or something else) will be great.
Right now there is so much exciting and fun stuff going on that I constantly wonder when real life will start. I am assuming that after my parents come, and I have less fun stuff to look forward to, my rose colored glasses will come off. But who knows?!
SO that’s a little picture of what I have been thinking lately. Oh and there is one other thing I know!
5) I miss you guys like crazy and SOOOOO badly wish that you could come visit me so I could share this paradise with you. Really Really Really want you all to come here!

A not so White Christmas

The past few weeks have for sure been interesting and new. The things that have been most fascinating to me have been:
- Christmas and the festivities surrounding it
- Learning how to push start my car and having to do that every time I wanted to drive for 3 days
- Having work be sooo busy
- Getting my car fixed and the service of the technician
- Spending New Years eve at a Reggae concert

SO Christmas was pretty wonderful. Because it was such a different way to spend the holidays, I wasn’t nearly as homesick as I had expected to be. I started the morning by having a skype Christmas with my family. We got to open presents together over the web cam, so that was an interesting twist. Then I went over to a friend’s and we sorta hopped around houses together. The first stop was to have an egg and champagne brunch with a group of fun people. It was fantastic there. We had a bit of a Christmas dance party in the sun and I taught them the College Life classic game of Big Booty. They LOVED it! After all of that we were pretty tired so we took a nap and then had a wonderful Christmas dinner that Rich and Nicky prepared. After the little wind down we went over to another friend’s for a few drink and just a good hang out. Later on that night I did try my hand on fire baton twirling, which is Definitely a Christmas first, and I do have to say it was pretty fantastic
My steady Strider has not been so steady lately, which is a shame. But I did take him in for his safety inspection and Merry Christmas to me, he passed. I was pretty excited that nothing had to be fixed for the time being; but to the dismay of my excitement, the next day he wouldn’t start. So I spent 3 days push starting him every time I needed to go somewhere. Haha I finally got into a shop and it turns out that nothing really serious was wrong. I just needed a new connector bit. But the thing that really blew my mind was the service and the “kiwi culture.” I took it in on New Years Eve and for one reason or another I couldn’t get up to the shop to pick it up. Anyways I got a call from the shop at about 5 saying, “Hi Maggie, just wanted to let you know your car is ready. We’re closing up shop now so I’m just going to put your key on your back tire. Happy New Years.” And I hadn’t paid anything. I mean they have my plate numbers and my name, but still it was pretty cool.
Work has been going well but we have been off our face busy. The café has been sooooo full on that we had to take down the menu and only do coffee and baked goods. And even then we couldn’t cook fast enough to keep the cabinet full. But on the up side the days have been going by really fast.
New Years was Wonderful! I hadn’t had plans for the longest time, but last minute I decided to go to a Reggae concert with some friends. We went to see the Black Seeds (there kinda a big deal here) and it was great. It was for sure a fun way to bring in the new year.
As for upcoming events there are some really exciting things happening soon. I have two fesivles coming up in the next few weeks. Base Camp is having a big party with 4 or 5 different DJ’s lined up. AND my parents will be here soon!!!!!!!!!!! Also on a side note, my high school friends Brenna and Patrick just got married!! YAHOOO Its about time! So congrats to yall (Brenna, I know your checking this compulsively so I thought it only appropriate. I hope the honeymoon was great!)