You Should See

This really is my favorite thing I do all year.


You should see how creative they are.

Evil-Mrs.-Noodle-attempting-to-steal-all-the-chicken-in-Fried-Chicken-World-for-her-soup kind of creative. You should see how fun it is to have lengthy conversations with a group of eight year-olds about character development. My favorite thing.


You should see the way they flock to the stage on Friday night to show off all their new skills to their parents and friends and perfect strangers. It would make you proud.


You should see how wonderful these kids are to each other.

At the end of each day we all gather and have they share what they learned. You would not believe the whooping and hollering when a kid shows off a new skill. They don't care if their dance move is wobbly, or if their improv game makes no sense, they are so dang proud of their new buddies for being brave. It doesn't even sound real, but I assure you it is.

It makes me want to wave their flag in the faces of everyone who bemoans "kids these days" and their supposed entitled selfish ways.

Can't stop thinking about

  Please Somebody Buy Me This F--ing Bear Sleeping Bag

Perfect for cub naps

and work naps.

And general warmth-during-the-winter-months naps.

Thank you, Buzzfeed.

***

 A few months ago I was shopping for a friend's baby shower 

and for my nephew's Christmas present.

Someone let me loose in a Babies R Us.

I displayed heretofore unexpected self-restraint.

 [I did not purchase the above-pictured bear suit.]

 Because it is impractical

and unnecessary.

I refrained.

Praise be.

~~~

So then my mom sends me this little beaut

  and I had this wonderful and terrible realization

that we totally missed the matching bear suit boat.

Go ahead,

picture a full-grown hominid bear

with that baby cub on its hip.

What. a. dream.

Now if only the grown-human sized bear suit costed a pretty penny less,

(many many pretty pennies)

we'd be well on our way.

That is all.

An Ode to an Alleyway

This door lived in the otherwise unassuming alley behind my building.  It was probably the only notable thing about it until one day...

... I noticed this little friend hiding away back there.

Milford Sound

I have tried to write about fiordland but can't seem to do it justice.

Eventually, eventually.

For now, photos.

Tunes for your Tuesday: The Staves

On repeat since I first came across it three months ago.

The Saturday List

1. First and foremost. It's official: I'll be back in New York on February 22nd! I'm so excited to see my people. I'd be a long-snouted Pinocchio if I claimed that my excitement for the food didn't come in a very very close second. I'm even weirdly excited about having an honest so-cold-it-feels-like-being-punched-in-the-face winter. I don't recognize myself either. One Nor'easter will probably cure this but I'll take it while it lasts. I have also gained an incredible amount of American pride. Absence maketh the heart turn Grinch three sizes too big and whathaveyou. Don't disappoint me, 'Murrica. 

2. A friend posted this link that shows 40 neat maps. The one all the way at the bottom is particularly mesmerizing. Check it.

3. 17 Animals donning Christmas sweaters.

4. It was a good week for music. I've been listening to Fleet Foxes' self-titled album on repeat this week. Especially this track:

5. I've had this song stuck in my head for days. It's catchy; consider yourself forewarned.

6. Last year I was inspired by Kate to make monthly goals instead of New Year's Resolutions. Well, not sure I can really claim "instead" here because I've never been one for resolutions. I left my 2013 list back in New York and I've since forgotten what the last few months of 2013 held in terms of goal-setting but if I'm remembering correctly January-July went fairly well? I'll have to check when I get back. As the new year rolled around I considered doing the same for 2014 but hadn't devoted much thought to it. The only thing I really wanted to include was seeing Katie Herzig live which was kind of funny because I had no idea if she would be touring this year. So I was ecstatic this morning when she announced a tour this spring! Ash and I are planning to make it happen in May and my excitement level rivals that

of Agnes.

7. I just felt like ending on seven instead of six. 

Bye.

…and a happy New Year!

I'm filing this one away in the event I need to quickly cure myself of any future cases of wanderlust. Consider that your warning. Still reading? Fine. Eye rolls sold separately. Knock yourself out. 

Julia and I had grand plans of seizing our summer Christmas and hitting up the beach, since it would be our first spent without our respective families. We had been talking it up for months, plotting the best patch of sand-in-front-of-water on which to plop ourselves, which culinary delights we would be treating ourselves to, and were overly pleased with our "the only white this Christmas will be sand!" proclamations. Then we were invited over to a friend's for Christmas Day, so we decided it was no big deal--we would carry through with our beach plans on Christmas Eve. Well, a couple bumps in the road (stomach flu and unexpectedly being called into work last minute, aren't you glad you asked?) later and it was decided that we would go sometime later in the week. 

It turned out that Christmas Day itself was the one uneventful (and lovely!) day this week. Several days, dreary weather, and another round of stomach flu later and things were looking grim (on all fronts beach-related and otherwise). 

I was enjoying a nice slumber this morning when I was awoken by the ever-lovely fire alarm at dark o'clock and it went off a liiiitle too long to ignore. Julia and I schlepped ourselves down too many flights of stairs and loitered an appropriate amount of time before making our way down the street in hopes of finding an open cafe in which to plop ourselves. This proved (expectedly) fruitless. We lamented 24-hour American diners. 

At some point in the forty minute period between meandering our way out of the building and finding out (hooray!) it was a false alarm, I became aware that I was wearing the same pair of clothes I had worn the previous day for my singular jaunt out of the apartment in search of bland crackers (futile) before passing out at the latelate hour of quarter to notevendarkyet.  I also remembered that I had discovered that my only pair of work pants had earned itself a hole (and I was only donning the aforementioned pair because my only other pair of pants currently smells of mildew after its last four-five day stint on the drying rack).

Things were looking especially rosy this morning. I also became acutely aware of the fact that I could not remember the date of my last shower when we were crammed like pickles into an elevator full of neighbor-strangers. 

Sweet relief was mine, though, upon spotting my pillow. Ahhhhhh, siiigh, eyelids drifting until WHAM. Off goes the fire alarm, again. Please note that "alarm" does not accurately convey this experience. This thing is capable of waking the dead. {zombie apocalypse preppers of the world (?), I would step things up a notch if I were you.} And it decided to go off roughly every ninety-one twenty seconds until there was eye twitching and I'm fairly certain I uttered multiple times just how much I hated everything. I'll be accepting my award-crown for drama q. any day now. (parents of the world, I'll throw in a few extra free eye rolls. just for you). There was much yoga breathing and mantra muttering re: I am thankful for modern technology. I am thankful for modern technology. I am thankful for modern technology that keeps me from dying in a fiery blaze, etc. from between the pillows smashed over my ears (futilest) before the God of modern technology smiled upon us and finally shut that thing off. And no, sleep was not happening after that point. I did indulge in staring off into space for an inappropriate length of time, though (no questions about how that is different from my normal state, Mom. Or Dad. Or Brian. Shoot). 

Well. After a while, Julia and I both decided that we were taking back this day/week and we WERE going to the beach. It was sunny! We were past the plague! We didn't have anything else to do! To the beach we went! And it.was.glorious. 

Twenty minutes into soaking in the sunshine on the beach before we started to feel raindrops and see some dark clouds moving in. No worries! We'll go get those legendary pancakes that Julia has been raving about for four months while we wait for this to pass! 

Oh, I could tell those pancakes were good! Unfortunately, rational Cheryl evacuated the building this morning and never returned because I did not take the hint from my previous day's diet of water and a handful of crackers, or the more--way more--than a slight sheen of sweat that the morning's meander down the street left me sporting, that my mind was bigger than my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I'm certain I did not finish even one of those pancakes. 

But it was allll okay. Because the sun was out! We will get our beach day after all! (This was def. not a ploy on my part to hope that plonking myself on the beach would get rid of that sensation that the room was spinning everrr so slightly--take it easy on those pancakes next time you're recovering from the palgue-iest of plagues, oh chipper one--before we hopped on the bus home). We headed back to the beach and set up camp with our towels and books. This time we got in a good half an hour before the rain started up. We gave it a couple minutes before deciding this probably wasn't going to let up anytime in the nearish future and making our way to the bus stop. And thus concluded Christmas adventures 2k13.

Now get back to your life, future no-longer-wanderlusty Cheryl.

**I will admit that this day was not a total bust. I got my notsayinghowlong space out session! And it is a nice beach that I fully plan to revisit when I'm feeling a little better and also when I've checked the weather report. Plus, it was a nice change of pace to get out of our apartment and immediate neighborhood for a while to see someplace new. And I want to try those pancakes when I actually have an appetite because they seemed amazing. Sunshine on a beach! In December! Day off from work! Your problems are small! Things are mostly good! Fist-bump.

Some Things

1.  Judging by the little flurry of postings on the social media something good is happening slash already happened in Boston? What's this baseball thing, again? I'm serious. Everyone's all "So proud to be from Boston!" and "hashtagBostonStrong" and I'm just wondering if this actually means something because nobody said anything remotely direct in their Facebook flauntings and... that is more than enough typing on this subject. I'm sitting here more or less trying to stay on the same page about whether or not our federal government is back to its usual semi-functioning state.

2.  Also in the vein of what-happened-to-you-it's-only-been-three-months-since-you-left-the-country, tonight Julia and I had an alarmingly long and silent squinty-eyed staring at the ceiling thought session as we tried to determine when Thanksgiving falls each year.  Please note that Thanksgiving graces the very tippity-top of my favorite holidays list.

3.  Speaking of Tip Top.

I had a job interview for a clothing store today and when I arrived I discovered it was a group interview. Fu-huh-huh-huh-hun. Actually, it was kind of fun. Fun in a "welll, even if I don't get the job this was a nice little hour of social interaction to interrupt my hermit-y existence" way. Also, when we went around and introduced ourselves we had to proclaim our favorite flavor of ice cream and What It Says About Us.

Fine. Mint chocolate chip because it's cool and fun and consistently good and gosh I hope my eyes weren't rolling like they are now. I don't know, I had to come up something on the spot and coming up with somethings on the spot is not my strong suit or even my weak suit but rather my weakest suit. I'm just thankful my brain didn't shut off completely and forget every flavor of ice cream in existence.

I normally have a special reserve of hate for just such encounters but this one was surprisingly not awful. What can I say, they have good taste. My go-to group ice breaker is asking for people's favorite flavor of muffin. Although I generally do not make them pop into their cozy b.s. slippers and declare What This Says About Me because that is painful for everyone involved. Also I feel like the fact that I have a go-to ice breaker is telling of my social life but that is neither here nor there. I spent the whole time wondering what in the actual eff is "jelly tip" and why does that sound so atrocious and why oh why is it everyone's favorite flavor?

4.  I went to the library to return something and walked out with three new books. I'm pretty sure Julia and I are going to discover the borrowing limit from the Wellington City Libraries, and soon. Really really soon.

4.1  As I was checking out my three fluffy novels the super sweet and chatty librarian mentioned something about being done studying and I was like "huh?" She clarified with an exuberant, "You get to read real books!!" (?? Please tell me you find this statement alarming. It was right up there with the woman at the au pair orientation--I think she was one of the defensive driving instructors but I could be mistaken, that's all a blur of jet-lag at this point--who proclaimed, "Women aren't good at folding maps, we need the men to do that." Um, what?)

4.2 I love a fluffy novel as much as the next beach-goer but have also been working my way through a stack of psychology books.  Fo' fun. One semester I did a project where I basically got to design a developmental psych study about anything that struck my fancy without the restrictions that come along with actually carrying out the aforementioned study, which was basically the assignment of my dreams, and not the kind where you're being chased through a hedge maze by an evil garden gnome, don't tell me you don't have those. I digress. My study centered around children who have imaginary companions and Marjorie Taylor's work played an integral role in this hypothetical children with imaginary companions study so--

...you can imagine the way I gasped and pulled this gem off the shelf faster than you can utter "nerd alert" and raise a brow.

4.3  Upon hearing that I studied psychology, Super Sweet & Chatty had pretty much the exact same reaction as everyone other person I've encountered here with whom the topic comes up. [nervous laugh] "So are you going to analyze everything we're thinking?! hahahaaaanervouschuckle." ? ? ?
At least this response is slightly less perplexing than its "ohhh! are you reading my mind right now?!" cousin.  I wish wish wish there was a modicum of hyperbole in this particular segment but I'm sorry to report that there are zero winners in this little conundrum.

I think from now on I'll resort to this:

5. Happy Halloween, friendlings! People don't really make a big deal of it in New Zealand but Julia and I are going to host a little shindig this weekend. Costumes mandatory and hopefully we'll be munching on some Reese's pb cups. A true American Halloween celebration for our Kiwi friends.

Here's an unrelated picture of a Halloween past.

Bye.

--Chey

Tekapo: refresh

The bus ride between Queenstown and Tekapo is absolutely gorgeous and it totally kick-started my time in Tekapo-in a number of ways. For one, although Queenstown is stunningly beautiful, the scenery in Tekapo is this unique kind of beauty unlike anything I have experienced. Something about that drive was so wistfully inspiring that it had me rapid-fire drawing up a list of things I want to experience in my lifetime. I don't know. It was corny and sweet, all at once.

Lake Tekapo is my favorite place I have visited in New Zealand thus far and it overwhelmingly earns that title. I had seen pictures of the milky turquoise water with the mountains in the background and the iconic stone Church of the Good Shepherd set among the lupines and knew I needed to see it firsthand. Additionally, I had heard that Tekapo's night skies are unbelievable, which I figured would be an added bonus. Originally I planned to spend only one night there but the weather forecast was iffy so I chose to stay there for two nights with the hope of catching a glimpse of those famed night skies.

Oh, Tekapo. I was prepared for your beauty but I did not expect for you to be so utterly peaceful.

It is a place unlike any other I have experienced. The town itself is tiny but I found myself not minding much. From the moment you arrive there is this overwhelming quietness and peace. I wound up spending most of my time meandering around the lakefront. You find that you could plop yourself on the lakeshore staring off into the distance for the rest of your days and be perfectly content.

Peace takes over the atmosphere even inside the hostel. The lounge has a wall filled with windows overlooking that blue, blue lake. People spoke in hushed voices that were almost reverent.

A woman sat at the bench in front of the picture windows painting her own watercolor postcard. A man sat in the corner quietly strumming away the same little out-of-tune chord progression for what must have been forty-five minutes, or an hour, but I didn't really mind. Another woman's pen scratched away softly as she wrote in her journal. The clouds provided the backdrop for it all, moving in over the lake before receding and allowing the late afternoon light to cast the mountains in oranges and purples for those few fleeting minutes before the sun set, leaving the sky a vast velvety cobalt blue, while the wood-stove crackled and popped softly in the background. 

Queenstown is beautiful in a stunning way and people seem to have a "been there, done that" attitude of conquering the landscape with their bungy-jumping, sky-diving, jet-boating, and adventure sport-ing. Tekapo's beauty is at once both more subdued and more beautiful. People are less concerned with conquering it and care more about simply existing there  for a while and experiencing the place.

It was overcast for most of my first day there but it was actually kind of nice. It almost felt right, contributing to the overall quiet, cozy feel. I figured I wouldn't be able to view the stars that night and was feeling thankful that I had booked a second night. When talking to a shop owner I learned that oftentimes it cleared up at night. I decided to venture out after dark to see if this was the case. I set out thinking that I would walk over to the church to view them but quickly realized a problem with my plan. The areas surrounding Tekapo are protected against light pollution in order to preserve their famed night skies. It was so dark that I didn't dare venture farther than a few steps outside the hostel without a flashlight. Even there, with the light coming from the hostel and a few other lodges, I stood for a long while with my neck craned upwards. Never in my life have I so clearly seen the milky way stretching across the night sky. Astronomer I am not, but I could tell enough to know that the southern sky was a different view from the northern one I am more accustomed to. For some reason it was refreshing to not even try to place the stars into constellations.

There is a gratitude for simply existing that you can't help but feel when you're here. I found myself being acutely aware of my gratefulness for being physically able to walk along the rocky shoreline, quietly happy and thankful that I was able to stand there and let my thoughts get lost in that place. 

Until next time, Tekapo.