lake rotokawau is one of my favorite places around campus! its a 5 minute walk from the dorms but it feels worlds away. during the day, the water and shore is beautiful and at night, the path to the lake is covered in glow worms (which i didn’t know actually existed before coming here). everything about being here is pure magic.
i’m finally settled in and getting over the 19 hour ahead time jump. i LOVE new zealand. its like the perfect mix of northern california and southern ireland, which happen to be two of my favorite places. believe it or not, this is the campus! its so beautiful, even in balmy weather (got that one from my awesome kiwi roommate). the campus is on a horse ranch next to a volcanic crater, which is now a lake, surrounded by forrest. the picture below is the view from our common area. its pretty epic! i find it amazing how much the vegetation differs within such a small area: from jurasic looking palm trees to lush rolling hills to fields of beautiful yellow flowers. it can look like a jungle out of jurasic park then a few minutes away looks straight out of the shire in lord of the rings. its pretty trippy! there are lots of trails to hike and roads to explore, when i’m not studying of course. the classes i’m taking are fantastic (all 22 credits worth) and it feels like everyone here has been friends for ages. needless to say, i’m having a blast here on the other side of planet earth.
*side note: the internet is terribly slow here (if the internet is even working at all) so i will definitely be posting less. i’ll still try to update regularly, just not the same ‘every-other-day’ posting schedule i’ve been on lately
hume lake is a christian youth camp in central california. it is a beautiful area and one of the best parts of visiting is the random people i always seen to run into. this trip, i ran into my friend erika and her family as well as some kids from my high school. such an unexpected surprise! the lake is so gorgeous and lazily floating on water is the most peaceful thing i can imagine. sometimes when i’m stressed, i imagine floating on the lake without a care in the world. this is the life.
old pine by ben howard was the anthem of my recent camping trip to kings canyon and hume lake. whenever i hear it, i just feel like i need to be out in nature. i must have listened to this song everyday while camping, whether it be in the tent to fall asleep, while cooking or while canoeing on the lake. since this song was so pertinent to this trip, the titles of my camping posts will be lines from this lovely song.
that being said, these are the only pictures i took with on the trip with my digital camera because it decided to die the first day there. so unfortunately that means i didn’t get any campfire or night time pictures besides a few blurry ones from my iPhone. oh well, next time i know to check the battery before i get to a campsite with no outlets and no electricity. lesson learned.
i love farmers markets because they make for a wonderful combination of organic, locally grown food and beautiful flowers. the farmers market on wednesdays in santa monica is truly one of my favorite things about la. so much so that i’ve made over an hour and a half long trips just to go there. it is one of the biggest markets i’ve been to and on top of that, its great for people watching. you can always see chefs buying for their restaurants, florists with bundles of flowers and people with yoga mats grabbing produce after class. we found some yummy treats (post coming tomorrow) but the best part is experience walking around and seeing all the interesting and unusual foods, plants and other goodies. oh how i wish it was closer to home.
