Summer photos!

http://www.edoud.fotopic.net/ for all of the photos from Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand

more band pictures then you could ever look at

for those of you who dont get enough pics of the band:
http://www.purduebandfan.com/

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i thought i updated already...

So I thought I wrote an update since skydiving out in the glaciers of new zealand! apparently it didnt take if i did write something. A full day bus ride to Queenstown where the place was in full swing for ski season. Nice quiet hostel. Spent the next day out and about tramping around town - lucked out and had good weather. gorgeous setting. Glacial lakes set amongst snow covered mountains. Queenstown is more or less just a big ski base, so I almost felt bad not going - but when you are a horrible skiier its not as much fun to go fall down a mountain by yourself! So anyway, got my workout wandering these deserted trails up in the hills around town and down by the lake. The next day (thurs.) was my day of traveling back home: queenstown to auckland to LA to chicago to Indy. definitely got my frequent flier miles in. all a blur of course by now. called home from LA and got some friends that had moved in already at purdue to come to indy to pick me up.

spent a couple of nights on their couch - had to be at purdue on friday morning at 8am for band student leader training. Cymbal section leader this year - a bit stressful, but its got its good points. Lots of work before auditions even happened on Sunday. But luckily it turns out that I didnt have to march drill during band camp! almost relaxing! hahaha. So an entire week of band camp trying to get 6 rookie cymbal players into shape for the first game. Big tuba/drumline party on Saturday night to celebrate the end of my last band camp ever. time flies! We're going to have a great time this year - we're already getting along so much better and our group of student leaders is working together as versus the debacle that happened last year. I already know my only free weekend is that of Nov 6th! Time consuming to balance on the games i have to go to and those that we are taking drumline roadtrips too (northwestern and penn state)

Not to mention that I am supposed to be applying to grad school, taking GREs and of course finishing up classes. Nothing too bad in and of itself, just everything adding to make a decently hard semester. Friday and Saturday I'll be at mortarboard leadership camp at Camp Tecumpseh. Jumping right back into it.

by the fire...

so saturday my plan of having a drink at the pub and going to bed was foiled by the rugby match and hanging out with the group of irish i met on the glacier hike - never a chance of keeping up with them! anyway, made it to bed around 3:30... then an 8am bus to fox glacier. pouring in the morning on sunday. cleared up enough and i took a LONG hike out to the glacier by myself. also another short one around in the rainforest. so incredible to see this temperate rainforest leading right up a mountain side into a glacier. fox glacier is longer but flatter then franz josef. a nice hostel here too. the town of fox is much more quiet then franz josef. basically nothing here. but nice to be away from it all taking it easy. stayed up for awhile last night just watching movies with people. relaxing. a good sleep in this morning helped too. scheduled to go sky diving at 1pm so i headed over to the place around noon. very busy there as the weather was bad in the morning and some people had jumps canceled. watched the people before me go and the sky clouded over - when they got back thought the day might be over. sent up a promise to be good and the sky cleared more then it was before. so up we went - the other person jumping was a guy traveling from the czech republic. just the 2 of us and the 2 instructors up in this little cessna. all the way to 12,ooo ft. about the same height as mount cook i believe. actually got to really see all of the southern alps and look down on the glacier. above the low layer of clouds it is sunny and you can look out to the whole range. also watch the sun gleam off the tasman sea not so far away. and then over the site... shoved out the door and falling, screaming. not so much the fear as it was with bungi jumping. just awesomeness. falling at 200kph. watching the plane fly away and the mountains recede. hit the cloud layer and the parachute pulls you up short. then the glide down is silent, peaceful, watch the green get closer. gorgeous views. safe landing but still took my ears awhile to finally pop back to normal. an incredible experience. so lucky to get it in today! the rest of today has just been wandering, hanging out. tomorrow a bus to queenstown

ice cold..

so i'm in new zealand now for real. and it likes to rain here. got into christchurch on wed night - kevin felder - band friend studying abroad- met us at the airport and helped us get into town and to a hostel. emily and i ended up changing in the morning to this super nice all womens hostel down the street. free soup and even hot towels for goodness sake! spent thurs morning getting travel plans sorted. then met kevin for some wandering around - cathedral and botanical gardens, then on to 2nd hand shops. got myself a coat for staying warm. grocery store and back to the hostel for a bit. regrouped for dinner out at a pub. went on to the holy grail - huge sports bar downtown christchurch. there we happened to run into helen - or at least she saw me and emily and jumped us! she was there with some dukies leaving the next day for fiji. the four of us played a terrible game of pool and then headed off to bed. thursday emily and i took the transalpine train across from christchurch to greymouth via arthurs pass. rainy in the whole country that day. overcast but we saw some mtns. emily headed back and should be on her way home tomorrow. i took a bus south and arrived in franz josef around 5. walked around a bit then an early night. today did a full day glacier hike - definitely tiring but incredible to actually walk around on a glacier. a 2.5km walk out to it and then probably 3-4 hrs on the ice hiking up and down and all around. sneaking through crevasses and underneath worm holes. good times had by all! the ice is such an incredible blue - felt like i should be filming an imax movie. rainy off and on, but i guess it is the rainforest here. hung out with an american and some irish during the tour and am headed off in a bit to watch the australia v. new zealand rugby match down at the pub with them. headed down the road to fox glacier tomorrow and then on to queenstown. hopefully run into all of them there and have a big night wed! haha - will be rough first few days of bandcamp...

FijiBure

from the Auckland airport en route to Christchurch... Stayed up all night with friends on the 2nd, bus left thehotel at 4am... not so fun. and i was feeling pretty sick and stupidly popped some benedryls so was basically incoherent in my goodbyes. sad times indeed :( but emily and i made it to Fiji. we were met by Simon who was our homestay host. he drove us back to his family's place in Namatakula. His wife Judith met us out front and they almost immediately had us inside eating the most delicious meal i have had in a LONG, LONG time! fish cooked between plantains, octopus cooked in soy sauce, a plate of sliced tapioca, taro, and sweet potato, and meat in taro leaves. definitely slept well and woke up to a cloudy but not raining day. one of the sons, izo, walked us around the village - had to put on a sarong to be culturally acceptable. then the 2 other guests headed off to nearby Beqa island and we rode with them to the ferry to see the mountains. verdent is definitely the word. mountainous rainforests that run right up to the ocean along the coral coast. back and a huge, delicious lunch. Then Tema took us out walking on the reef during low tide and taught us to catch octopus! find it hiding in a hole, pull it out, then turn the head inside out and rip off the ink bags. we found 5... then tried some raw sea urchin.. back home we sat around in the kitchen with the women chatting for a bit. then had a kava ceremony with some of the guys from the clan. interesting root like taste for sure. not that bad though. makes your mouth go numb but didnt really have any cool effect on me or emily. huge dinner of parrot fish, eggplant, and chicken with noodles. then back to hanging out with the guys and impressing them with our drinking abilities. they all seemed to get drunk off the stuff but we didnt really feel anything different. left this morning fromt the Nadi airport and am now almost to Christchurch - just another 3 hr plane ride!

rainforest, full moon party, great barrier reef

so friday was all about finding free activities. jaime, emily, jenn and i headed over to the botanical gardens and found cool spiders and pretty flowers. wandered on the jungle boardwalk and hiked a trail up a hill to a lookout pt. then walked the 3k or so back to the hotel. had our fairwell dinner, free and tasted like it ;) then i finally had a night out on the town... back at 3am still though!
saturday, up early as per usual for a day trip out to green island with kashia, rob, mike, eric, and chris. i ended up being mom/troup leader since somehow we all ended up booking under my name? anyway, hilarious results of course. snorkeled for awhile, walked around, ate buffet lunch for a long time when it was pouring, slept on the beach in sun and drizzle, then went reef walking during crazy low tide. found awesome blue starfish, a reef shark that swam around my ankles, and a stingray! back to the hotel for a shower and then to the full moon party at AJ hacketts.. bunji jump out in the middle of the rainforest. great view from the top of the jump of cairns, the ocean, the gorgeous full moon too! not gonna lie, it was a little intense flinging myself off a tower 200 ft up. still makes my stomach drop to think of it! but apparently i got pts for style... so the energy mob onlookers tell me ;) i asked to touch water and ended up dunked up to my chest - soaked and laughing did way too many jangling rebounds back and forth. ah good times indeed. was dizzy for awhile after that! so another late night, but still...
sunday - today - up even earlier for our day trip to the great barrier reef for snorkeling. 2.5 hr ride out and then a long time snorkeling at the first place. amazing to immerse myself in such an incredible array of life! didnt use a wet suit as it made me float too well - bah to bouyancy! more of the energy mob showed up after lunch and we went snorkeling at another sight with lots of sea turtles. then on the way back boom netting - holding onto a net and being dragged behind the boat until most of us fall off. good times all around, a bit sunburnt now and swaying from being on a boat so long - now time to pack for fiji and nz... huzzah!