This is going to be really long, but it was a fantastic week

I haven’t updated in a while and I apologize, but yet again I have been super busy running around and exploring the greater Wellington areas.
Monday I had religion class, which turned out to be a huge let down, compared to last weeks class. After class Chris, Brian and I deposited money for booking hostels in Samoa. We did this through a company called “Flight Centre” with a man named Stuart. He was very friendly and helpful despite having overly spiked hair. I left before everything was finalized because I had to make a religion tutorial. The tutorial turned out to be kind of interesting. Although we discussed a really boring and pointless paper, we found that the class was half and half kiwis and Americans. I was pretty disappointed by this because I didn’t come here to learn with more Americans. There were 2 people from Texas, 2 from California, 2 (myself included) from NJ, and 2 from Colorado. Pretty interesting that that was how it worked out. So the professor split the class up by Americans v. Kiwis. We were all kind of shocked by this because it was the opposite of facilitating cultural learning, so we all sort of made a joke about it. After that I went to my psych class which proved to be quite boring because I had already learned about the information they had covered. I then met up with Chris, did some homework in the library and then I cooked hamburgers with Chris, Stephen, Morgan and Brian.
Tuesday... ugh, I can't remember what I did. It must have been fun but not fun enough for me to remember. I went to sociology, went to psych... OH. Sorry this is sort of stream of consciousness, haha... I went to Chris's and we got Fish and Chip's together and then went to the tramping club meeting with Stephen. After that we went to the Matterhorn (our favorite bar) and got coffee and tea.
Wednesday I didn't have class so Chris, Stephen, Brian and I spent the gloriously warm and sunny day outside. We finalized everything for our trip to Samoa (Stuart at Flight Centre hooked us up with some great accommodation and also ferry rides). We ate Nando's - this delicious chicken place with really delicious spicey sauce they put on everything called Peri-peri sauce. I'm drooling thinking about it. Chris, Stephen and I have eaten there at least 3 times this week. haha. Then we went down to the beach. We sat there for a while, I tried to find starfish and sting rays with no success. Then we played on a playground and made plans to go bowling. Chris and I went grocery shopping and then went to his place on Aro St. and got some Indian food for dinner. Then we went bowling with a group of people for a couple hours. (My bowling game is improving!) After that we went to Stephens for a while. We played Jenga, watched Summer Heights High and then played "Kings" the card game. The night ended with us all getting Kebabs.
Thursday I went to class all day. I had two tutorials in the morning, which I was pretty disappointed to have woken up so early to get to. My psych class revolved around developing a thesis for a paper I've already started working on. My sociology class, which is a 100 level, was about HOW to write a paper. Hahaha. After class Chris texted me saying it was really nice out and was wondering if I wanted to go on a hike. So I made my way over to Aro Valley (where Chris lives). He made us lunch and then we went on a hike that started right near his house. The hike was amazing. Well, I guess there was nothing really substantially different from this hike than any other aside from the fact that it was basically in Chris's backyard and also still so close to Wellington. We climbed along a ridgeline of a Mountain, up steep hills, through some really prickly bushes, and up some wooden steps. When we reached the top (after about an hour of hiking up hill) we saw a spectacular view and both of us were amazed at how far we had climbed and how high up we were. We saw a view of the entire back of Wellington, the bay, Mt.Victoria and also Cook Strait, of the area of water between the North Island and the South Island. We climbed further, toward a wind turbine.
We came to a pathway that lead to these strange cement structures. They were circular and somewhat underground with a main entrance and multiple chambers or rooms. They were obviously abandoned and were covered in some really creative graffiti. We climbed on top of them and took loads of pictures and also explored inside them. It was extremely windy and both of us were getting blown around and also getting pretty cold because our sweat was drying and we didn't have sweaters. But we endured it to explore a bit more of the cement structures and also continue to hike for another hour. We continued on a path that lead right next to the fence line that seperated Wellington from the wildlife reserve called Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. We came across a grey pony in a field. It was the first horse I'd been able to touch/be close to since coming to Wellington and it made me want to ride really badly. It was accompanied by a white goat. So cute. We explored a bit further, trying to reach the wind turbine, but the hike looked steep and it was starting to get dark, so we turned around. We took the road back for part of the way because it was faster and then we took a shorter pathway down the mountain, so we made it back much faster than we expected.
Thursday night... oh Chris and I made plans to get Burger Fuel (this delicious burger place on Courtenay Pl) but it was closed by the time we got there. We ended up eating some crappy Chinese takeaway and then met up with Stephen, Shannon and a friend of Shannons. We went to Stephens and Brian came over. We watched Summer Heights High and talked.
Friday... I went to my sociology class which was extremely interesting. We talked about gender and sex as two different ideas. I had some notion of this concept because of Elizabeth writing about challenging the gender binary, but I still found it to be a really engaging and interesting class. Chris and I met up afterwards to get Burger Fuel (which we had been craving since we missed out on it the night before). After that Chris, Stephen and I went to the library and did some homework. Then we went to my place, Stafford, and I cooked dinner - Beef Satay for me and Chris and Stephen had tofu teriyaki (because someone is vegan) - and Shannon chilled with us. We ended up heading over to Stephens for a little, then to the Malt House, then with Derek and Morgan added on we went to the Matterhorn and met up with Stephen's flatmate Sonya (who is really cool). We ended the night at Stephens and then getting kebabs. Haha.
Saturday was absolutely beautiful outside. Actually, this whole week was, which was why it was so good. Saturday though was a particularly great day, especially because I spent it with my two favorite people here. Chris, Stephen and I went to see Shannon play in a rugby game (she's on the women's club team). The game was located in the most random, far away town. We had to take two buses to get there. The first bus took us from Wellington to Lower Hutt. Lower Hutt is a good 15 - 20 minute drive from Wellington and is really boring. But the drive was beautiful, we got a good look at the bay area and of the landscape surrounding Wellington. We caught our second bus (after some very confused conversation with our Maori bus driver who didn't really understand us). This bus took us around the suburbs of the nearby towns. We were really nervous we would get lost, but our bus driver managed to pull through and brought us directly to the field we were looking for. We got to the game (after over an hour of travel) and watched Shannon play. Her team won by a lot. It was a pretty cool game to watch and we cheered Shannon on despite being surrounded by people cheering for the other team. The other team was comprised of some massive Maori or Samoan looking girls. They were enormous. Their advantage was that they were extremely intimidating and hard to knock down, but they couldn't run so Shannon's team just breezed past them whenever they were in possession of the ball.
During halftime we went into the club house for the local rugby team. It was really bizzare and empty. We got some really shady food from there and Stephen bought a beer that was brewed at the club house and was their very own brand of beer. Haha. After the game we talked to Shannon for a bit and then she went off with the team and we went off to explore.
We walked about 20 minutes to the nearest "town" which was very small. We sat near a bus stop playing "I'm going to a picnic" and talking. We caught a bus that took us back to Lower Hutt. We got coffee and hung around the Hutt for a bit. We wanted to explore more, but the Hutt offered us little to nothing to look at. We looked around a deserted parking lot and saw a man fly fishing, but that was about it. SO we caught a bus back to Wellington and went down to the pier area to relax. We took LOADS of pictures on the way because it was so wonderful and sunny out. We ended up getting Nando's (again) haha. While we were walking there we had a pretty gratifying encounter. A family of Kiwi's stopped us and asked if we were from Wellington. We sort of glanced at each other and answered an unsure "yes". They then asked us where they could find a grocery store and also what were some good places to eat. We happily answered them and gave them directions. We felt really great about it because it sort of warranted us as Wellington residents now.
After eating some delicious Nandos (Chris challenged me to get "hot" instead of "mild" sauce and I agreed to as long as he got "extra hot", which both he and Stephen did) we went to the Civic Square (one of the favorite locations in Wellington) for an Earth Hour concert (it was earth day, and you were supposed to turn your lights off from 8:30 - 9:30 to conserve energy in a world wide way). The concert sucked, but I got a candle and got to participate in something I care about. We went to Stephens for a little and watched "Summer Heights High" in the dark (to conserve more energy) and drank some wine to celebrate. We ended the night watching Summer Heights High bloopers, which were hilarious.
Sunday was another gorgeous day. Chris, Stephen and I got lunch together at "Dixon Deli." I had bagel and lox (which I had been craving), Chris had french toast, bacon and bananas (which he had been craving) and Stephen had a coffee (because he was feeling off). Then the three of us went to the library and did homework outside by Civic Square because it was too nice to actually sit inside the library. However, we got cold after a while and went to Borders (the library closes at 4? so stupid) and studied there until 7. Then the three of us went to Stafford, I cooked pasta, we watched some episodes of "The Office" and then played a game of scrabble. The three of us have been playing so much scrabble that the games have become way more intense. Chris and I got really competitive in the end, I won with 236 points (we're all trying to break 300 by the end of our time here, haha).
And now here I am, writing is ridiculously long post. I hope someone actually takes the time to read this entire thing because it really was a wonderful week. I wish that every week was as fanastic as this. However, I must prepare myself for the cold, windy and wet fall that is upon Wellington.
This week Henry is coming on Wednesday night and will be in town until Monday! I'm so excited, I can't wait for Henry to meet all my friends and to show him the city that I've come to love.

I will now proceed to post a billion pictures in a seperate post.