The students hiked a glacier (pronounced glay-see-err here)
and then saw a lot of rain here in Franz Josef.
They loved the glacier, even though they were quite exhausted afterward
and were retelling the same stories all afternoon. That evening Mark treated us to his
chili. I have to say, Mark is an amazing
chef and we all know chili isn’t complex, but Mark’s chili is just SO
GOOD. We had it over rice, which is my
favorite way to eat chili, and had a good hearty bread. Chili always tastes great on a cold day and
the students were chilled to the bone from walking on ice for a few hours.
I didn’t go on the glacier this time. I had a good time in the small town near the
glacier instead. Hiking isn’t exactly
something I would say I’m good at. Nor
would I claim to really enjoy it to want
to go out and do it all the time.
Melanie is a hik’r babe so she was in her element hiking that
glacier. I had a lovely scone, velvety
hot chocolate, and took a few walks around town.
I made a friend in that wee town at the bottom of Fox
Glacier. He was a horse. Literally.
I stood just long enough to take out my camera and snap a few photos
when he decided he would come over and investigate. I held my hand out for him to sniff me and he
licked my hand. We bonded J Then, his friend got
jealous and came over to lick my hand, too.
People are delicious. Generally
it’s just the salt on our hands they like, but he was so curious. I went back an hour later and he had moved on
to the back of the pasture. I guess our
bond was fleeting at best. Oh well.
Merino wool is wicked popular as a gift from this country
because it’s from a breed of sheep here, Merino sheep. It’s soft, but they make it even softer (for
socks and other clothing items) but blending it with silk, angora, alpaca, and
POSSUM! Now, these possum are not like
ours. They honestly look like giant
sugar gliders in the face and more like a small house cat in the body. Possums here don’t have a nasty face or tail
like our possums. I had a fun chat with
the shop assistant and she explained all the different blends and we laughed
about how gross our possums are. They
are a pest in both countries (US and NZ) but they are at least quasi-cute
here.
Today was supposed to be a nice walk to Peter’s Pond, a
beautiful reflection pond about a mile from the base of Franz Josef
Glacier. Unfortunately it was raining
all day. A steady rain, too. Not a patchy one. So we stayed in today (a few trips to the
bakery and grocery) and the group played games, watched movies, journaled,
interviewed people in the lounge for their papers, and there was a LOT of
Skyping going on!
Dinner was made-to-order omelets. We had chopped mushrooms, onions, tomatoes,
black olives, green peppers, and BACON!
Bacon here is more like ham. If
you want bacon that is more similar to what we put on a BLT (or anything,
really) you have to look for streaky bacon.
And it’s crazy expensive. BLT’s
are not on our menu this trip. It must
have looked like a circus in the kitchen with Melanie, Mark and I running three
pans making omelet after omelet. I love
breakfast for dinner so my excitement rose with each one I made.
After dinner we held office hours again and touched base
with those few people who had to hammer out their last details of their paper
topics or tweaking their interview protocols.
Damn….school work on study abroad.
Their journals and notes and interviews have vastly improved since the
first week. It’s great to see it.
We had a brief meeting today (halfway point GAHHH!!!) asking
what observations they had about how others perceive Americans or what they
thought people were saying about them.
Melanie and I have overheard multiple people (not realizing we’re with
the group) complaining about the “American group.” This is a really common phenomenon as it’s
really common for Americans to speak louder than most other cultures. But you also have to consider there are 15 of
them and just think of what it sounds like having that many 20-somethings
talking, sharing stories, telling about some exciting thing….it gets pretty noisy.
I can’t believe we’re already at our halfway point. A week from today is Sydney. It seems like it took SO long to get here and
now it’s almost over. NOOOOO. Ok. I’m done complaining. Oh…and I had an amazing pastry thingy today
that was drizzled with passion fruit. I
haven’t had gelato yet on this trip (which is impressive since I probably spent
over $150 on just gelato last time) but tomorrow we head to Queenstown and I am
totally having gelato there.
WOOHOO. And Ferg Burger….it’s a
local famous restaurant. Ok….I’m going
to bed now, up early to head to Queenstown!
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