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Our sunday afternoon tramp.
The Tikitimus Mountains (I think thats how you spell it)
The Wind Farm Race. Had spectacularly massive windmills to ride under, but you had to get to the top of the very steep hills first to get to them.

I should really be doing my homework but... I dont really feel like it

Today, Sunday March 7th 2010, something awesome happened: My host dad said that I was the best exchange student to be staying with his family! Ok, now this may sound pretty whatever and it was just said as a side comment right before dinner, but I have to say this comment was massive. My host dad is nothing like my real dad and he just does not say things like this or voice them. He is very cool and often very sarcastic (like my dad at home) but in a different sarcastic way that you can't always tell if he is actually being sarcastic. He says real things and sarcastic things in the exact same way. He is very friendly, a very hard worker, and a great businessman. He is very well known around town, and in fact, the whole Ryan family is very known around town. But anyways, with the personality that he has he often does not say things very seriously to me. For example: when I got my new haircut and I asked him if he like it and he said, "It looks gay." Or when I finished the Moonshine race and beat his estimated time for me by 25 minutes he said, "that was a pretty good wee effort." However this is not negative at all, when he called my haircut gay joking around with me he knew that I knew him well enough that I would not get offended and find it funny. And with my bike race, he knew I did good but he did not want to be over complimentary of me cause that could make me cocky or something. So thats why before dinner when he said that I was the best exchange student to have at their house was so huge to me. This is also precisely why I made this post, just because of it.  My host dad is a very interesting person and has lived a very interesting life along with my whole host family and I should really write about them more. I'll try to make that my next post but I really think I should do it at the end because I learn new things about them and the amazing things that they have done everyday.

This past week and weekend definitely had its ups and downs for me.  Way more ups though (actually there werent even any downs durring the week). I got my new haircut, I became the Southland 3,000m champion (the most southern province of NZ), had an awesome mountain bike race at a wind farm, and had an incredible tramp up to the top of Bald Hill. The downs consisted of miscommunications and not having a cell phone that resulted in a guy that I thought I was pretty good friends with blowing me off and missing my first Saturday night party that I was supposed to go to. Those two things dont relate to each other though. The other down came from America but that is pretty much resolved, but it is definitely weird to have your home country life collide with your experiences in your exchange life. BUT ANYWAYS that comment tonight totally made my weekend and the downs feel like nothing to me now. Its nice to say that the worst parts of my whole exchange so far are so few and so minor that they can be forgotten within a day. New Zealand is pretty F-ing awesome... or should I say SWEET AS BRO!

side note: you can't wear tennis shoes and jeans here. They will call you a snean or a shnean, I am not really sure which. Just never do it. I unfortunately did it my first day of year 13 camp and no one was there to tell me it was a mistake. So when I was up in Dunedin I got a $30 pair of Dunlops which I am very happy with. Shoes here are so expensive! like $200 a lot of times! This is another up for me.

also... Jason kyte if you are reading this I dont have your e-mail but if you send it to me I can find out more about Tuatapere. The Bald Hill we hike up today was in the "Longwoods." It is also right by Tuatapere. I will also definitely make it to the Clifton Caves before long--- anyone reading this like "what the hell is he talking about?" my cousin posted a comment on my last post about his friends that used to live near my town

more dictionary words just so i dont forget later  (note: some are offensive but I just want to show what it is like.)::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bogan= white trash i think?

mufty= you can wear whatever you wan to school

puffter= someone you think is queer or someone who is British

puffed= panting 

lemon aid= sprite

skux= I still have no idea what it means but I hear it all the time

mountain oysters= sheeps testicles

root= to have sex with

yank= what americans are often called sometimes offensively sometimes not

suss= figure out

In the future for me----

this weekend- to Queenstown for the Motatapu mountain bike race and will be there all weekend

next weekend- to Christchurch for AFS camp. will be all the South Island kids