USA Day 17. Golden Gate Park

So today I hopped on a bus (after running around trying to find a timetable and get the exact change since drivers don't give change on buses here) and headed over to Golden Gate Park.

I was planning to walk there like I have everywhere else but it was 4.5miles from where I was staying and judging from what I read it would be 4 miles uphill… and then the park itself is huge, so all in all I couldn't be bothered. And the bus was only $2 each way!

So after walking up a weird path (think i just picked a bad entrance to the park) I found myself at the conservatory of flowers! I didn't pay to go in but I did get to wander around the gardens which had a big enough selection of flowers to keep me happy!

 These were possible my favourite!

 The flower gardens were lovely and it was here I decided to have my lunch (an idea lots of other people seemed to have as well!

 My picnic spot!

 Just a picture of my and the conservatory!

 I wandered around for maybe an hour or so to get my bearings before attempting to actually find what I wanted, as the park is really big and the roads and paths don't make much sense and definitely don't resemble the map! First up was Shakespeare Garden

It was actually pretty tiny but I loved it nevertheless!

 Oh and wandering around I often stumbled across these signs!?

 I wandered all around the park and despite the weather looking really gloomy it was pleasantly warm!

 Japanese Gardens

 I thought I'd rest my weary feet for a few minutes here and no more than 5 minutes later I get approached for a survey - I've done 5 surveys since I got to America!?

 This was my last view of the park before I jumped back on the bus to downtown. A homeless man attempted to have a conversation with me the entire ride back to central so the bus journey was fun. Once I got back into Downtown the sun had well and truly come out so I opted to sit in Union Square and read in the sunshine

 It's a really popular spot to laze about as it's beautifully landscaped and in the very middle of Downtown

I did pop into Macy's (a department store) to browse the cosmetics hall and long story short a make up artist ended up doing my make up. Since I wasn't going anywhere and it was going to be washed off in about an hour I figured I should at least take a photo!

Anyway that's it for today tomorrow, can't believe my time in San Francisco is nearly up!

(& I'll be up to date posting these soon (hopefully)

007 Leaving Party

It's completely crazy to think we're having leaving parties already! it's most definitely not OK! I still have 34 and a half days left in New Zealand… not that's I'm counting and attempting to treasure every last minute here or anything.. Regardless of it feeling premature Friday evening was Orchard Park's Leaving Party, it was 007 James Bond themed so everyone really went all out - I should have taken some photos of what some of the other girls were wearing as everyone looked gorgeous! 

 Me and Anna went round to Hanne's to get ready with Tiffany, Shelby and Centaine for a few hours and it was so fun and girly! I ended up doing Anna and Hanne's make up and we all played dress up trying on about 100 different dresses before we settled!

 I was definitely coerced into wearing my outfit!

 It was a super fun evening, we all got a 'little' tipsy and had a complete ball! George's braces were also a star attraction the evening

 In between munching on vegetarian lasagne Anna got up to do her speech that Brett had asked her to do on behalf of all us inter nation students who were leaving. Needless to say a few people got a little emotional - it's truly crazy to think my time here is nearly up. I just can't comprehend how quickly time has flown while I've been out here - I swear I only got off the plane a few months ago, an entire year as certainly not passed!!

At the end of each Semester Orchard Park take a group photo and this year my camera got the honour! Orchard Park really has turned into a little family, and it's kinda weird to think I know every single person in this photo and i'd call almost all of them friends!

 To stop ourselves getting too emotional we headed back to Hanne's cottage where the evening progressed in a very dignified manner - as the photo above clearly demonstrates

Copious amounts of singstar continued into the early hours until our lovely RA's turned up and told us to turn it down, before doing an obligatory song themselves!

It was an amazing night- one I'm definitely going to remember. It's just not sunk in that's it's probably the last time we're all going to be in the same country since from monday onwards people are heading home once their exams are done - scary!

Settling In

I can't believe I've been at uni 2 weeks already - this semester is simply going to fly by! 

The first week we had lots of activities for being an international student, and I spent most of the days doing forms and paperwork but almost every evening we did something which was great as I feel like I already know so many new people here!

One of the best activities (which we all thought would be a bit rubbish) was the Scavenger hunt! Orchard Park was split into 3 groups and we had a list of tasks we had to complete and take photos of, we started off on Campus but soon we ended up in town and then we got to play a free game of bowling!

we got bonus points if we got strangers in the photos so here's my group with a busker!

 We needed to make a Hum Pyramid but none of us fancied standing on each other so we did this instead!

We managed to fit 25 people into a Public Toilet!

 Then there was O week - basically Fresher's Week. I don't have too many photos of this but every evening was a fancy dress theme!

 Cowboys and Chiefs / Jungle - the night I got given a free cowboy hat

The BOCs Party - we had to dress up as something beginning with O or P (for Orchard Park)

A Princess, A Pineapple, A Prisoner, A Painter, A Panda and a Panther!

Mt Maunganui

I had the most amazing day at the beach! Everyone from Orchard Park who was going on the trip gathered together before heading over to the bus - we were running late as we had to wait for people but needles to say, it's New Zealand, so the bus was running late itself!

The journey there was pretty smooth although quite a few of us weren't feeling too great towards the end - however the view when we got off the bus was so worth feeling nauseated!

Hanne, Me, Anna and Alyssa 

(Anna's photo)

It was the perfect day at the beach - the water was crystal clear, the sand soft and golden, the sky was the perfect blue, and it was an ideal 38degrees! 

I think the day was made even sweeter by the fact we'd only paid $5 for the bus there and back, and they threw in free snacks, and a lunch of fish and chips!

Yuka and Ash 

 Sunning ourselves after a swim! (Yuka's photos)

Once we got back to the uni we were told momento was offering us free food as well! So we all sat down and bought ourselves a pint of the locally made plum cider (which was yummy) so we watched the sun set while sipping our ice cold drinks over the lake listening to an amazing DJ (Yuka went up to ask where he normally DJs and we're definitely going to be going to electric soon!)

New Room!

So I'm finally in my new room at Orchard Park. It's a lot bigger than my past few university rooms, its got two windows and unlike my last room at Waikato it doesn't make me want to cry (it's the little things). I'm in cottage 25, room one with Ana from Sweden, Ana from Norway (nice and easy to remember) and Sherie from China :)

 My little bamboo bowl with opal lining I picked up in Singapore

 new keys :)

 My little collection of keyrings- I'm trying to get one from each place I visit!

Venice, Verona, Phuket, Sydney, Dubai, Singapore and Brisbane

 My bits and pieces on my shelves

 Window number 1! Looking out over some grass and a small carpark

 And Window number 2 features a tree

 And from the second window at the front of the 'cottage' you can see our little deck and that's outside the front of the house!

I'm already much happier with this room compared to the last one which smelt, had wallpaper peeling off and where everything with chipped and looked like it needed replacing!