Beach 2.0

It’s Monday, my project is done and I only have one class! I sat out in the grass in the sunshine beside the river/stream that runs through campus and read a few geology appendixes about structural stuff I haven’t learned. I was struck by the beauty of the earth, the complexity of the earth and how this sunshine must be a gift from God for all the poor geology students who didn’t get much sleep the night before :) Sarah (my flat mate) was sitting with me between her classes and a duck came up and started eating her toe! Yeah...there are some very tame birds on campus.


At the Clubs and Socs (clubs and societies) building there is $3 lunch everyday of the week. It’s Indian food. Today is was curry, noodles and veggies. It’s always vegetarian :(. The dessert is usually an apple crumble or something like that. It is always a good amount of food and I always see someone I know. :) As I was debating what to do with the rest of my beautiful sunny day, I had the epiphany GO TO THE BEACH! Of course. This is supposed to be one of the last sunny summer days in Dunedin. Where else would I rather be?
From that moment on I was on a mission. I asked everyone I ran into if they wanted to go. Within an hour and a half I was in a bus with Kaite, Simon and Kimberly heading to St. Clairs. St. Clairs is the nearest beach to Uni. It started getting cloudy, but we resolved to have an awesome time regardless. We got there and very few people were on the beach, but there were a few older ladies walking their dogs. I got to talk to one lady for a while so I could pet her two dogs :) We set up out towels and tried not to fall asleep. It was a little cold to be sunbathing, but not too cold for a nice nap. I read some Proverbs and 1 John. I haven’t had too much time to read recently. It was such a great time to relax, take in the beauty or the beach and be reminded of the wisdom that is offered to those who seek it and the unconditional love offered to everyone!



Katie and Kim fell asleep so Simon and I [[ps: it’s so weird that someone else is named Simon other than my brother! New Simon is very nice and a good friend....but I do wish sometimes that is was Brother Simon that was here]] went on an exploration walk down the beach. Our inner geology psyche lead us to a huge sea cliff down at the end of the beach. It was beautiful! There is a huge species of seaweed/kelp stuff that was all over. It looked like a living, breathing beast when the waves moved it. We bouldered a little bit, well we didn’t really at all, we just held on long enough to take pictures ;) hahaha. It was a good walk and talk though. We both, like everyone else, have no idea what to do after college. We are just both happy to be in New Zealand at the moment.

The four of us headed back to our flats for dinner. I think I had grilled cheese or something.
Laura and I planned a little ice cream social for 8pm at Rob Roys. They have the hugest ice cream cones for $2.20...they are double scoop for the price of single scoop! So a bunch of Butler people, Whitman people, geology people and a few kiwis (namely Sophie and Charlotte who are geology majors and Sophie is the kiwi host in the flat behind mine.) It was really fun. I got hokey pokey ice cream. It is seriously the best flavor in the world! It was invented in NZ, it is vanilla ice cream with small pieces of toffee in it! After ice cream a few of the people I don’t know as well were heading to the beach for a night time jam session and Frisbee session. They have bought cars so Laura and I hitched a ride with them. Beach 2.0 for Jena today! We could barely see the Frisbee, but one of the guys brought a guitar and we sang some classic American songs...such as rock me mamma like a wagon wheel, twist and shout and brown eyed girl. Well, as we were singing brown eyed girl (at the top of out lungs) a big wave came (because the tide was coming in) and I had buried my feet (like you do at the beach)....so....I freaked out and started jumping and running. THEN MY CAMERA WAS NO LONGER IN MY POCKET. NOT GOOD. I rushed around looking for it, but that was a lost cause...the ocean had eaten my camera in a torrent of angry water and seaweed under the cover of darkness and clouds. MASSIVE LOSS 1.0. :( I might have a few less picture for a little bit, but mom is going to send me her old camera soon. So don’t worry too much.
I think I am learning about handling disappointment and inconvenience. These things don’t seem to matter in the long run and in the moment they aren’t worth freaking out about.
So we continued to sing and dance around on the beach till we got too cold and headed back home! I’m really bummed about my camera but such is life. Not everything is always pleasant and when it isn’t I’m still going to be. :)