A Beautiful Day and other adventures

I want to start this blog post with a thank you. Thank you so much to all the people who read my blog, and an extra thank you to those who then post or email me telling me they think I’m adventurous/crazy/tan/like my water bottle. It really, really, really gives me happy warm feelings and I appreciate the time you put into writing to me. Basically, it makes my week, so I’d appreciate it if you’d  keep it coming. Thanks.

I’m going to take this post backward in time because today (Saturday March 23) was one of those days I want to capture and keep in a bottle for times when I’m sad. I’d open up the top and let a little of the glow out and I’d brighten right up.  Since those kinds of days don’t come around too often, I want to share it immediately. First, it started when I woke up, pulled back the curtains and saw that it was a sunny day after a week of clouds here in Christchurch. The breeze lightly brushed my face, letting me know the day was going to be delightfully warm. Then, I lay back in bed, poured my heart out to my cousin in an email. After I finished being emotional and jaded, I shook my entire body and jumped up. The farmers market was calling! Over the weeks, I’ve gotten to know the market a little better and find it less overwhelming, so I can now take the stalls systematically instead of running all over the place in uncontrollable bliss. Until this week, I chose to eat whatever smelled the strongest or had the best sign. This week I’ll have a Middle Eastern pita! That week I’ll eat grilled muscles wrapped in bacon! Next week it’s bratwurst with mustard, tomato sauce (Kiwis decided ketchup was a useless term), and sauerkraut! The lady with the scones smiled at me so I guess it’s a chili pesto parmesan scone this morning! I floated around, agonizing over which stall to buy from for my market meal, but this week I had a plan: pain au chocolat from the Bellbird Bakery. Walking past their table every week I'd peer into the baskets and they always had the best looking croissants I’ve seen anywhere in Christchurch. I walked to the farmers market with purpose because I knew Today was the Day. 

The farmers market is held at the Riccarton Bush, a park approximately 1.3 miles from the University of Canterbury. I always walk the back roads in more suburban parts of the city because I love to see the neat gardens spread around most houses’ front steps. Clearly the English influence runs deep. A messy garden (my favorite kind) gets dirty looks from the neighbors, and you can't call yourself a New Zealander if you have no garden at all.

I know the only garden-ish thing in this picture are the decorative hedges on the left, but look how peaceful it is! Such a nice break from the busy road I live on.

Every week when I arrive at the farmers market, I still do a dry run past the stalls before I buy anything just in case something new and exciting has cropped up that I need to consider (100% of the time there is something new and exciting. See grilled muscles wrapped in bacon, an oyster pie, cumin hummus). After I buy everything I’m planning on bringing back to the flat (I moved out of the freshman dorm and into UC flats if I didn’t mention that before), I carefully choose a treat to eat in the sunshine by the river while I’m at the park. As I mentioned, today I was sure the pain au chocolat would be my treat. I went to the Bellbird Bakery stall and bought the flaky goodness with so much enthusiasm the girls behind the table were clearly uncomfortable. Cradling my pastry, I walked towards my favorite patch of grass to sit and devour the thing I had dreamed about for a week until a sign stopped me dead. It read “Pulled pork on homemade ciabatta with seasonal sesame slaw.” Wow.  If a charging bull could read, I bet that sign would stop a charging bull. In a trance of wonder I flew to the stall placed my order for one sandwich and stood back to wait. It took me about 30 seconds to realize the very kind and excited chef was talking to me. “Are you from the States?” Cough, “Ahem, ARE YOU FROM THE STATES.”

“Oh wow, sorry, me. Yes, I’m from the States.”

“Where are you from?”

“Boston-”

“Oh great! Boston is beautiful! I once went to New York, and then we drove up to Boston! I loved it! Nice change of pace from New York!” It is absolutely shocking to me that New Zealanders know Boston, but they always do. If people ask me where I’m from and I say the US, they look at me like, “duh, I know that. Nice accent.” Anyway, I went on to tell the chef that pulled pork is one of my favorite foods and her response made me even happier to be buying it from her. She said, “Oh really? That’s great! I am just so happy to be bringing it to everyone! I just love that I can bring it to you!” I love that she loves being extremely busy with no break since nine in the morning because she is sharing her food. And it was fantastically zinging with lots of citrus in the slaw and a little bit of heat in the tender pork. Definitely yum, as the Kiwis say.

Here’s a picture of all my purchases. Multigrain bread, amazing Royal Gala apples picked that morning and oh so sweet, The Sandwich, bagels for Dan because he loved them and had to buy that awful store brand kind because no bakery near us makes them, cumin hummus, pain au chocolat, peppers.

With happiness in my belly, I walked back to campus to meet Sarina and Dan because we were headed out to the beach! Sumner Beach is about a half hour drive away from UC so I hadn't gone yet. Finally on this gorgeous day we made the trek and I am so glad we did.

This photo was taken out of the window on the drive. Not too bad huh?

These shipping containers line the road to stop rocks from the cliff falling into the road.

By this point in my life, I should probably remember how much I love the ocean. Months had passed since I had quality time with the ocean. As soon as we stepped onto the beach, I ran to the water on very fine, soft sand, and stood in the surf looking out at the horizon. As waves pushed against my shins and the sun burned my nose, my soul healed. City living wears away at it bit by bit and I don’t realize it until I leave the busy streets and zooming cars. As soon as I’m out of the chaos, my shoulders relax and insecurities that build up in my brain are momentarily shaken out. It feels wonderful. Today I was reminded of the calming affect of the ocean, and why both of my favorite places in the world center on the sea.

I love the ocean.

Leg face

Super cool plant. Anyone know what it is?

Now I will quickly go through the other adventures I’ve had in the past week. Don’t worry, there will be more pictures and less words.

Last Sunday, Dan and I headed out to Governor’s Bay, about a 20 minute drive from UC, to a fancy café called She Chocolat. They had a stand at the farmers market the day before and everything they had was so pretty I wanted to make a pilgrimage to their actual restaurant.

Chili hot chocolate

Frozen tiramisu. At the bottom of the picture there is a little cup with whipped cream in it. Yeah, that cup was made of chocolate. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka’s factory.

Intricate Easter display. The massive Easter eggs She Chocolat displayed around the cafe were beautiful with swirling blue and green dyed chocolate and small golden stars.

Last Saturday, Dan, Lauren and I went to rugby game. Crusaders, Christchurch’s team, KILLED the Bulls, a team from South Africa. The best part was that the Crusaders had lost two out of two games this season and the Bulls had won three out of three. So it was an especially sweet win for Christchurch. I want to do a special shout out here to Joe Karasch who patiently explained the rules of rugby to me using pool balls. I forgot pretty much everything except for scrum, line out (embarrassing if that’s not what it’s called) and that a score is called a try. I took pictures of everything I recognized, and everything else too.

Yay RUGBY! Well some of us are excited.

One of the best doughnut holes I’ve ever had. Cinnamon sugar covered fried bits of dough. I’m drooling right now. I really need a tissue.

At the beginning of the game, men dressed as crusaders gallop horses around the stadium. They stop on each side and raise their swords.

I whip my hair back 'n forth, I whip my hair back 'n forth! Crusader cheerleaders, the Maidens, came out at the beginning too. They had blond hair and about three dance moves.

Every time the Crusaders scored, huge columns of flame jetted into the air. We were sitting about 15 rows back from the fire and I could still feel its heat. Crusaders are red, the Bulls are blue.

Blurry scrum. You can see the large sword and castle gates in the far right corner of the field. The horses galloped through the gates, obviously. Also I don’t know if you can tell, but the refs are the ones in bright pink.

Blurry line out. Look how high those guys are lifted into the air! They are so big! The great thing about such a small stadium was that even though we had the cheapest tickets, our view was still really good.

Last Friday night I went to my first wine club tasting, 8 Red Wines from Around the World. There was a guy sitting at my table who is blind and has been making wine for 30 years. I didn’t get to talk to him too much, but I really want to hear his story. Throughout the night we actually tasted ten wines, which felt like a lot. Luckily I was prepared and limited myself to only a couple sips of each, but some of my fellow club members were rather rosy cheeked by the time we left. My favorite wine of the night was a Malbec, but in a room of about 45 people, I was alone in that opinion. The majority of people chose the port at the end as their favorite, but I thought it tasted like cough syrup. Moral of the night, Kiri knows nothing about wine.  I still had a ton of fun and got to spend some time with a different group of people. At the end of the night, they raffle off all the half drunk bottles left over from the tasting, and I won the last bottle! It is a Côtes du Rhône that has about two glasses left. I’m very excited about this because it is the first lottery I’ve ever “won.” Wait no, that I’ve ever won, no quotations marks, I’m calling this a solid win.

That was a much longer post than I intended. Maybe it can be used as a study/work break? Or use it an excuse to read something that’s not your email/a textbook/things about the new pope.  Basically, I hope this is used as a procrastination tool. Happy Weekend!