Invercargill...

Me and Julianne painted a church.

This is the city that I have been living in for the past month. It’s a small town on the south of New Zealand and is the most southern city in New Zealand.

My roommate Julianne and I live with a host family named Jason and Annie Sagmyr who have 4 kids. Hannah-18, just left for University in a nearby town so I haven't met her yet. Ruth-15, Tim-13, and John-8. They are a lovely family and we absolutely love living with them. We actually started the first couple of weeks with a different host family, but had some problems so we moved. Jason is a guitarist and he works at SIT, the school we are attending, which I'll talk about a little later. They are basically just a typical family. It is such a joy to be around them because they are very close and love to have fun. There is always humor and laughter going on in the home and it's nice to see such a close family. It's something that we discuss in our classes and this family emulates it. They often spend time together just hanging out or going to parks, or watching movies.

So my day to day life here...I am attending classes at the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) as well as doing classes from our BYU professor, Brad Harris. Monday through Wednesday is

our classes through SIT. These are all of our outdoor classes and the courses are called Certificate in Adventure New Zealand. They are mainly taught by a man named John Kappa, as well as other assistants depending on the activity. John is the most incredible professor I have ever had. He is an awesome outdoors man who goes surfing, kayaking, rock climbing, tramping, hunting wild animals (not kidding, hunting wild boar and things like that), and outdoor survival skills. In addition to all this he also has a broad knowledge on numerous subjects. There are a variety of majors on this trip and through talking to John and listening him speak to others he can give you fabulous advice and talks and knowledge on biology, psychology, recreation majors, indigenous tribes. Anything you could want he’s practically an expert on. That is something very interesting about the New Zealand education and just attitude toward life. They are very broad in their knowledge. It’s not like America were you are so focused on your one area of focus.

So our Mon-Wed. has been spent learning kayaking, surfing, rock climbing, and tramping (hiking). I'll write more about those in their own posts, but needless to say it's the most fun I've ever had in class, and the most I've ever had class held on the beach.

Thursday I have a full day of class from 8-11:30 then from 1-4:30. It's a very long day, but we are lucky and don't have class on Friday because of it. I have a Family Life class which is basically about how to have a happy family later in life, and a Strengthening Marriage and Family through Recreation class. The Rec. class is probably my favorite because we talk a lot about how doing recreational activities together can really make a difference in a family and that is not something I've ever thought about before.

So that is my class schedule. The weekends are typically spent exploring around Invercargill, going on bike rides, or just hanging out with friends. We like to go to Queens Park which is a large park in the center of town, on the same idea as Central Park but on a much smaller scale.

Queens Park Rose Garden

One favorite weekend activity was going floundering where you take big nets out into the ocean and one person goes out deeper and the other stays shallow and you drag poles, that are holding the nets, along the ocean floor. Flounder live on the bottom of the ocean so you pick them up with the net. We only caught 1 but at least I got to see one. It’s quite a small fish and very flat.

I also tried slack lining a couple of times over the weekend. That is where you take a flat rope that’s used for belaying. I can’t remember the technical name, and you try it between two trees and then try to balance and walk on it like a tightrope. People get super awesome at it and can do things like yoga on this rope. It’s incredibly hard to do though because the rope is dynamic and shakes a lot as you are walking on it.