20 Weeks in Pictures (Weeks 11-20)

CHRISTMAS UPDATE PART 2: 

Week 11: Getting shaved by a crazy Bulgarian.  A group of students were shaving their heads to raise money for breast cancer awareness and a friend offered to find me $50 to donate if I did it.  She found the money and the skin on my head saw the sun for the first time. 

Week 12: Tybee Beach in Savannah.  Tybee is known for two things- a pier and a swarm of jellyfish that attack during summer.  Luckily when some of the GRSPs decided to come and visit us they were nowhere to be found and we spent a relaxing day on the beach.

Week 13: The Armstrong Atlantic Rugby Team (I’m front row, second from right).  This is before our big grudge match game against the Savannah Shamrocks- the local men’s team- also my first ever game.  We started well with a couple of quick tries but then the Shamrocks brought on their impact subs: Hawaiians with arms wider than my head!  Luckily we were able to hold on for the win.   

Week 14: A whale shark cruises the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.  This is the largest aquarium in the world, with over 8 million gallons of water and 60 exhibits.  We visited it as part of a GRSP trip to Atlanta.  Our other stops included the ‘World of Coke’ factory (A word of warning: trying to drink samples of all 60 Coke products without stopping is NOT as much fun as it sounds...) 

Week 15: Some of the GRSP’s during our weekend in Elijay, North Georgia.  We rented a cabin in the mountains above a stunning lake.  As you can see the ‘Fall colors’ in the trees really started to come out and I went a bit tree crazy- this is one of the few photos in my camera with people in it!

Week 16: With some of my favourite United Statiens: Megan, Tershal and Robert.  Robert was at first convinced that New Zealand sat somewhere above Sweden, but we have moved past that and become good friends.  All three are great fun to be around and helped me celebrate my 22^nd Birthday in Savannah.

Week 17: The unfortunate Thanksgiving turkey, which is about to be carved by my host parents.   Thanksgiving is a big deal here in the USA; a good excuse to catch up with family, to relax and to stuff yourself full of delicious food.  I had Thanksgiving dinners back to back- by the time I was finished eating you could nearly roll me down the road...

Week 18: Tinkerbell and Lawrence of Arabia.  Mia (from Denmark) and I agreed to help out in this Rotary charity auction which raised funds for the local library.  As literary characters we would move around the crowd and charm/demand/plead higher bids from the Rotarians.  Good fun. 

Week 19: Festive Swedes!  As soon as my classes finished in Savannah I joined a car going south to Miami and the Bahamas.  The girls are wearing our road trip essentials- Santa hats and novelty sunglasses.  On the way down to Miami we explored the historic cigar town of Ybor and had dinner with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia!

Week 20: Our cruise ship ‘The Norwegian Sky’ (the fancy one in the back).  It was my first ever cruise and it lived up to all expectations.  There was unlimited food (a good start), the chance to explore Nassau and the Bahamas, and even a private island so we could sun ourselves in the middle of winter! Oh and did I mention the unlimited food...

Hope y'all had a great Christmas- wishing you the very best for New Years

Craig 

20 Weeks in Pictures (Weeks 1-10)

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!

Has it really been 5 months already?  It’s strange thinking about the passing of time over here.  The more I think about it, the faster it seems to slip through my fingers.  The way I see it, it’s better just to relax and enjoy the ride.  And what a crazy ride it is: these last 10 weeks have seen me travelling from the northern mountains and lakes of Georgia to the islands of the Bahamas.  It really is the adventure of a lifetime.

The people of Georgia continue to amaze me with their hospitality.  Sure the Rotarians have pledged to be friendly, honest people, but they have really opened up their doors and lives to us over here in a way that is overwhelming at times.  There is also a culture in the south that is similar to small town New Zealand.  As you walk or bike Savannah’s streets people go out of their way to say hi to you, as if they know you.  Also unlike Wellington and Whakatane, conversations in elevators are very common (Wellington is more formal and Whakatane doesn’t have elevators...). 

That’s not to say that Savannah is perfect.  My university of Armstrong Atlantic is in the south of the city, which is an urban sprawl of strip-malls and residential houses.  For a student without a car, trying to get anywhere is difficult, and to get downtown by bus is over an hour.  On weekends the Armstrong ‘Pirates’ find themselves stranded on the (dry) deserted campus of AASU (see what I did there!).   Luckily for us, the campus caters to our needs pretty well, with a good dining service, full gym and plenty of sports teams on campus. 

I’ve found myself playing a lot more sport since I arrived here.  As a Kiwi I got talked into joining the University rugby team, which has been a great experience.  There is a lot of pride in the Armstrong jersey and we’re a good group of mates off the field as well- catching up for parties and weekend retreats.  Tennis is also a popular sport at Armstrong (we have the champion US women’s team) and I’ve had a lot of fun challenging friends to games after classes finish in the evening.  I have also just finished a golf class through the university (yes, we get academic credit for golf!), in which we spent 3 hours on a Monday playing the local course- not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Anyway enough of the boring text, I’ll let the pictures tell the story!

Happy Holidays!

Craig 

Week 1: In front of the famous Chinese Theatre in Downtown Hollywood.  Jonathan (the other NZ student) and I stopped in Los Angeles for a few days on the way to Georgia and I jumped at the chance to see Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis at the premiere of the movie “The Expendables”

Week 2: This is the summer sun setting outside my host mother, Judy’s home.  Judy welcomed me into her household and made sure I was set up for University.  Her house sits on the Isle of Hope, a friendly community that’s surrounded by marshland.  

Week 3: Lightning strikes near our university campus.  I was at the beach an hour before I took this picture and saw how quickly the weather can change from a cloudless day to a lightning storm.  Warning sirens were going off telling residents to stay inside their homes.

Week 4:  Leading a haka at the Savannah Conclave.  The conclave was the first time we met the other GRSP students and it was a great weekend.  On Saturday night we had to perform a cultural item and I spent the day teaching three Welshmen, two Hungarians, two Australians, an Italian and a Kenyan the Maori Haka.

Week 5: My official presentation to the Savannah West Rotary Club.  I put together a short film and PowerPoint presentation about New Zealand and presented it to Rotarians.  They seemed to like it- especially my Australia jokes...

Week 6: We had another Rotary gathering this weekend, which included fun at an artificial lake created for the Atlanta Olympics.  We participated in challenges such as sand sculptures and sailing boats made from cardboard and masking tape. 

 Week 7: Treasure Savannah Day.  I helped volunteer for the school in helping to pick up litter around the central city.  This was a bit of a forced publicity shot (I was the only guy there) and I wasn’t really sure whether or not to smile for the camera while picking up trash rubbish. 

Week 8: This week I went to my first American football game: Georgia Southern vs. Elon State.  It was an unforgettable experience.  The guy standing up at the right of picture would do a chant and victory dance every time GSU would move downfield. 

 Week 9: This is the group from our trip to Helen, a replica Bavarian town in the middle of Georgia.  We camped out in tents and had a great time exploring the town.  By lucky coincidence there was also an Octoberfest beer festival on at the time we were there...

Week 10: This is Imogen (from Scotland) and I relaxing on a yachting trip around Savannah’s marshy islands.  These islands were used by pirates such as Blackbeard to hide from the British navy and we nearly found ourselves marooned on one of them when our dingy ran out of gas!

Weeks 11-20 Coming soon...