The Other Side of the World

A little red hat for my most hospitable Aussie uncle:
And our born-again couch! The cushions are covered in sweat-shirt material. So very cozy!

I’ve been picking at food all day while lounging around the house reading stuff for school. Your basic lazy Sunday. It’s crazy what you can eat without sitting down and having a meal:

3 cups of tea
1 cup cocoa & honey
1 tsp vegemite (yes I eat it on a spoon, and yes this is certifiable insanity)
2 slices whole grain bread
2 slices of meatloaf
4 apples
2 handfuls raisins
1 handful pecans
2 large parnsips, roasted with cinnamon
bowl of steamed peas with homeade ketchup

hmmm, I guess it’s not that much. You could even make 3 meals out of it if you rearranged it. Exciting stuff, I tell you . . .

How ironic that it’s a Canadian book. Please note, I accept packages in the mail . . . . Which reminds me - I lust over mail as well. What a wealth of opportunity you have to gain my everlasting affection! Just joking of course . . . surely you already have it?

Voici Brooke. Also, voici the free ugly, filthy couch we acquired the other day. Lovingly being returned to coziness by $32.00 of fabric and some ingenuity.

I’ll post a picture when it’s finally done. Should be a beauty.

This is the photo I ended up using for my Midwifery placement profile. You know, the one they give to all the midwives and pregnant women, and their families. The one that they peer deeply into the (glossy paper) eyes of and thereby determine if you will fit into their deeply personal and intimate event. What criteria for a digital camera and a short arm to deal with!
Actually, I asked my housemate if he thought it was ok (he said it looked a little odd) and then my Midwifery placement co-ordinator saw it and said “what a great photo”. So, here’s to hoping it’s not one of those Durian-like love/hate black/white scenarios.
Ahem. Not to obsess over a photo of myself or anything.

What I am actually meant to be talking about is how my first week of school is now over. In all honesty, school is still school. It hurts your brain, and your bum to sit in class for 5 hours a day. I am still squirmy in my seat, resorting to permajeanandsweatshirt, sleepy as I read my dead-rainforest’s worth of readings and I still hate getting up in the morning. But, somehow you don’t notice these things so much when you’re surrounded by a group of women who are quickly finding their way from 17 astoundingly different backgrounds to the heart of something we all want very much. Yesterday we sat in a happy clump during a break in our Human Development class (shared with other courses/departments) and laughed as people kept coming by and asking “So, why midwifery?”. We looked at each other - the South African mother of teenagers, the triathlete with two toddlers, the former body-piercer, the family planning counsellor from Hawai’i - and expressed how subtle and pervasive the reasons for being here were. And then gratefully basked in our shared understanding that we could all speak to that question for hours, and yet no explanation would quite reach the true answer we all carry inside us.

Five things that I would consider thus:

1. an armful of chestnuts, roasted and peeled
2. an oily massage until I fell asleep (and there are those of you who know how truly long this would be)
3. ears candled in a dark, quiet room
4. a bowl of soup, from a big pot of the same, delivered to my warm bed
5. grumman-canoed to an island for a picnic (with cheese) on a blue blanket

Not too unreasonable, I hope?
(as per usual - someone direct my future lover to this list, please)

On the bridge over the Hokowhitu River
Entrance to the Botanical Gardens (not usually so eerie-looking!)
The Square (centre of town)
Duck pond in the square (I frequently look into their eyes)
I just noticed this today. Isn’t that lovely?
The Lovely Library
Walkway to the library entrance (where the sweet little cafe is)
A street with lots of interesting little shops/cafes (and the wool store!)
outdoor seating at a cafe
One of the million and a half tiny Chinese restaurants (there is a crazily disproportionate ethnic population here. Hurrah for international students . . . )

So, I’d forgotten that information overload felt a bit like your head was the interior of a piano replete with multitudes of tiny hammers going non-stop. It’s all fine and good however, class was cozy and intimate, friends-to-be were friendly and forthcoming and apple-and-bus-and-banana sharing and I even learnt how to properly wash my hands (under the fingernails too!). I even took lovely photos. Maybe when I’m not so ridiculously tired, I’ll even post them!