[: Partying up in Monaghan :]

This year has been non-stop. I can't believe I've actually updated this (I was procrastinating it so much), but Sammi said I have to...so I did. I've been missing home a bit lately, just my whanau. It's hard with everyone started uni, jobs, future etc and I'm not there to see it all happen. But it's still having an incredible time here, enjoying the most of this once in a lifetime experience,
My days basically consist of school all day (and it really does feel like alllllll daaaaaaaay), chilling out at home, and then going into town on the weekends or to a party.
Last weekend I went to Jonny's brothers 21st. We had a lot of fun dancing, singing, drinking, laughing. Then spent all of Sunday playing Guitar Hero III. Woohoo!
Then this weekend I have an 18th to attend. A fella who looks so much like Biggles, that I have re-named him Biggles. Hahaha. Should be good though.
Well, I'm gonna try update more frequently now.

-Rachel

[: Austria Baby!! :]

SKI TRIP TO AUSTRIA!! WOOHOO!

(and no broken backs)

Ah...and the adventure began on Saturday 10. Phoebe came round to mine and we stayed up all night watching retarded horror films about evil banshees who wait in the shadows and get you when the lights are out. Next thing we knew it was 2am....not a very smart idea on our behalf, so we hit the sack. 3 hours later we were up again, getting the last of our packing sorted and getting ready. Lisa and Phoebe and I spent a good while watching cruddy early morning commercials in sign language waiting for Brendan to come down and take us to the school. At about 5am a car pulled up outside, a bit early for visitors. Next thing I heard struggling at the door and went to go check out what was going on. But not to panic, it was only Grainne and Geraldine after what seemed to be a very good night on the town (they were out celebrating).

So, 6am we were at school, not long after we were on our wonderful coach trip to Dublin. A lovely fun-filled trip. Got to the airport, wandered around for a bit, had a coffee, rung home, ate chocolate, looked at all the Irish touristy stuff for sale...and then we caught our RyanAir plane, of course after an hour or so delay. The plane really freaked me out because they were having troubles with it and it is the most budget plane company up in the air. But we managed to survive so it's all good!

We arrived in Germany, and it was B-E-A-UTIFUL!! Everything was frosted with snow...an absolutely stunning scene. We had a 4 hour coach trip to our hotel (Sonnenburg) in Austria, with one stop for food and stuff. Driving on the opposite side of the road freaked me out. The food was really good, but confusing. Luckily we had...TOM THE TRANSLATOR to help us out! Hahaha.

We didn't arrive until very very late....and to get to the hotel we had a wonderful hike up through snow. Fun fun. The hotel was really nice though. We were the only people staying there. I shared a tiny room with Emma, EmmaJane and Phoebe, and oh the laughs we had. We sorted out all our skiing stuff that night, danced around to ABBA for a bit and then to sleepybyes we went.

The next day wake up call at 7am. Had breakfast. And then out on the slopes for our lessons. I had serious boot problems and was on the verge of tears it was hurting so bad, so I had to go back to the hotel, got my boots changed but went to Garmish, Germany with Mrs Wright for the day. It was a really good day, got to see the town and some German culture. Woooooo!

That night we went to a fantastic ski show. The stuff they did was amazing. Synchronized skiing, jumped through hoops of fire, fantastic tricks. It was incredible, really really impressive.

For the rest of the week we spent all day skiing, went to little Austrian restaurants for lunch (and ate their crazy food. Yummy, but crazy) and then had cool little activities organized for the afternoons and evenings. We went ice-skating, swimming, to the Zugspitze (highest point in Germany), to Garmish, went to a different ski slope and went to a music-cafe to watch a live band.

<- This is the Zugspitze

The whole week we had so many laughs; blasting ABBA songs through the hotel, watching Mr Pollock dancing about after having a few lovely German beers, making Chuck Norris jokes about Tom and so much other retarded stuff.

When we were up on the Zugspitze we were taking photos and we met a lovely fellow from Australia who offered to take photos of us on our cameras. Good fun, had a nice wee convo....but later, when flicking though my camera, I found a little collection of photos he had accidental taken of himself. Hahahahaha.

The final day we spent in Munich, and we managed to get some really good shopping done (finally got myself a big warm winter coat), went to a nice little German restaurant with a French waiter, perved on the German boys, had a little tour by our bus driver and just had a blast. Munich is so old and so beautiful. I'd love love to go back!! But at 5pm we were back on the bus, then at the airport...and after spending a few hours wandering the little shops we had we finally boarded our plane. It was a smooth flight, but had some difficulties when we arrived. One of the boys somehow lost his passport in Munich airport (we didn't need it to board), and they couldn't let him through for ages. Eventually they let him out, and are gonna have a serious search for it. We popped outside towards our bus and seem to have brought the gift of snow back with us! The coach trip back was awfully long and boring. My iPod is now half broken (I HATE TECHNOLOGY!!) and I basically slept the whole time.

Finally (substitute) Home Sweet (substitute) Home.

Took me forever to unpack, but had a blast. Really want to go back. I picked up skiing really quickly and apparently have a natural knack for it. Woohoo! I'm considering taking it up when I get back to NZ. Always a possibility

-Rachel

[: New Years :]

So, as the year was drawing to an end I was beginning to get a little bit panicy at the fact that I might not have anything to do! But the day before the last one, Phoebe got a text saying some people we new were going to a local pub for New Years. Since there was nothing better to do, that is where we went.
So we dressed up, have a few drinks, and then off to some random pub we went (in which the taxi driver totally ripped us off). It was a really good venue and they have a live band playing. We had a few drinks (and I managed to finish my very first Guinness all my myself!!), we did lots of singing and dancing, met some great Irish locals and had a blast.
Haha, at one point Phoebe and I went out for some fresh air (all the dancing and whatnot), and Phoebe thought it would be a good idea to go out to the fire exit. Only once we got out did we realise we couldn't get back in, and after a quick stroll around outside we realised we were actually closed in and couldn't get out to civilisation. Panic! So we looked around...and eventually ended up having to crawl through a bush to get back onto the main road to get to the front so we could get back in. Oh the joy. Haha.
At midnight everyone got up on the dance floor, linked arms with strangers in a giant circle and jumped up and down shouting songs at the top of their lungs. It was great fun!! A really good way to come into the new year.
I did feel a little bummed out that I couldn't have come into the new year with my NZ mates, but this was defiantly a great experience.
Our taxi back was great fun. We were sharing a taxi with a lovely woman (who may have had a few too many vodka and red-bulls) who was giving us a very detailed tour of everything we went past, and telling us we just had to go back tomorrow and she'd shout us to a Guinness and cranberry (but we were far too tired the next day to go back anyway). Got home, waiting for Lisa to get back (town was packed and she couldn't get a taxi), and then hit the sack.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

-Rachel
xoxo

[: Christmas :]

Ok, so I realise it has been over a month since I updated, but this is due to three main factors:
1) I have been ultra busy
2) I am lazy
3) I have a new found burning hate for technology
But now I am sitting here in a free lesson and I'm gonna try update you, but this will be broken into a few different posts. This one consisting of the Christmas period.

Christmas was incredible. Oh my god, I have never seen so many presents! Santy certainly delivered. I can't wait to get the photos up to show you! The night before I popped down to check out what was under the tree, but in the morning (after Grainne waking us up at 8am overly excited) I basically had a heart attack as we could hardly even get into the living room there was so much stuff. And then the unwrapping began.
Grainne, Brendan, Megan, Lisa and I sat around in the living room in our pajamas for a good few hours unwrapping presents. Megan...oh man...I think she had a little freak out over how much stuff she was getting!! I got some fantastic body/face scrub stuff from my parents (thank you so much) which is still keeping me going. From Grainne and Brendan I got slippers, pajamas, a bathrobe, body stuff, and gloves. From Grainne's sister I got some really good hand/nail/feet stuff. From Lisa I got an absolutely beautiful copy of Alice in Wonderland which I love to pieces. And I got a few other things here and there. I felt to spoilt!
It was really hard having my first Christmas away from home and my whanau, but there was so much going on that it kept my mind occupied which was good. All day we had people coming in and out of the house, so much food to be eaten. That night we went to Grainne's...moms? i think. We ate loooootttttsss of food (spuds, turkey, ham, more spuds, veges, gravy, white sauce, more spuds), and there was loads of delicious cake. Afterwards, whilst everyone was good and near comatose (Brendan even went off for a nap) we sat down and watched a bit of Emmerdale (only in Ireland), then Mamma Mia, and then there was lots of singing and dancing around the house. Seriously great craic!
The next few days basically consisted of getting fat (we're still working on Lisa's unlimited supply of chocolate that her parents send her every so often. Haha)
It was really really awesome. Very family orientated. Very food orientated.
Oh, and Brendan proposed to Grainne a few days prior!! Very exciting! The wedding is in December 2011, and hopefully I'll be able to come back for it.

-Rachel
xox

(oh, forgot to mention I went to mass for the very first time. Didn't feel as awkward as I usually do. Was a really nice service. Shook hands with strangers. Yay!)