Thursday, January 7, 2010

Field Study Reunion

FYI: I tried hard to condense it, but this is a really long, reminiscent post, and probably only interesting to my fellow field study friends. Consider yourself warned. While in Utah, I got together with some good friends that lived with me in Tonga and New Zealand for Fall 2006 semester. It was wonderful to see them!
Since then, I've been thinking so much about how blessed I was to be a part of that trip. It was the semester right before I met Josh and it truly taught me so many important lessons.
I lived in such beautiful places:
New Zealand
Tonga
Met such remarkable people:
Family in Ha-apai
Family in Okoa
Made wonderful friends:
Family in Whakatane
Good ol' Butch
Robyn and Jane
Did some crazy fun things:
The Shotover Jet
Through the Canyon
Aukland's freaky bungy thing
"Camping" at the base of the Frans Josef glacier, without camping gear. Not on purpose.
But we survived the freezing night.
Bungy jumping in Queenstown
Just far enough to dunk my head into this river.
Played on the Buller Gorge Swingbridge. A little too wobbly for my liking.
And did some difficult things:
(Living a month in Tonga. Enough said. I'm a wimp.)
First night with Jane in Ha-apai. Scared out of my mind. Bathing in hand-sanitizer all day long.
Finding strange creatures in the sea. And then eating them. With the natives watching your reaction. (Difficult, but really awesome actually).
Octopus. The catch of the day. I lived with a fisherman while in Tonga.
This field study gave me awareness and appreciation. It tested and stretched my character. I grew tremendously as an artist and a person. I still reflect on the memories of my time in Tonga and New Zealand and the many lessons I learned.
Thanks to my dear friend Robyn, for the reunion lunch, and for reminding me of what an awesome experience we had!

4 comments:

parker said...

What cool places you've been!

Robyn said...

Thanks :aura, I'm so glad you guys could come and spend time with us. I think it's hard for people to understand what a crazy growing experience that was for us all, I can never to short blogs either, it was to amazing to sum up in a paragraph!

Robyn said...

and I should always read over my comments for spelling errors before I post them :)

Diana Hulme said...

wow. thanks for posting these - i haven't ever seen any of your trip. you were so tan, by the way!!! :)