Mt Fyffe

Morena Koutou!!!
Sorry for the delay in this post. My computer crapped out when I tried to upload all of my pictures from this past weekend. Macs and NZ don't really mix well :(

Anyway! Let me recap this really adventurous weekend. So me and 9 close friends rented a van and headed back up to Kaikoura (no tsunami this time!) for a tramp up Mt. Fyffe. We decided to make it a 2-day event because we heard Mt. Fyffe took a while to get to the summit. On Friday we waited for everyone to get done with classes and got on the road at around 6:30 to get to Kaikoura around 8:45ish. On the road there was a lot of "Hey Cow!" and "Big Booty." Oh, don't worry, I'm bringing this back to Beantown :)

Once in Kaikoura we found a campgroup close to the place we camped the first time, Paia Point, still across from railroad tracks and angry sheep. But also directly on the beach. It was picturesque and gorgeous. We set up our tents (Frank) and Kelsey, Geoff, and I tried to visualize how all three of us would fit in a 2-person...epic snuggles, eh? Then we all bundled up and walked the 20 feet to the beach and stood around and gazed upwards. The most beautiful stars I've ever seen. (Except for maybe in Lincoln, VT) It was partially cloudy, so every once in a while there'd be intense coverage but then a wind would blow and a smattering of stars would appear. You could see Orion doing his cartwheel and the Southern Cross. I made up some constellations b/c I have no idea what I'm looking at, haha. "The onion ring!" was my favorite :)


We crawled into bed kinda late and there was a light rainfall during the night. I, of course, was freezing and woke up with my hair soaking wet from the condensation of the tent. Yuck. Anyway, we got up early and the camp grounds dude had put a note on our van reminding us to pay $10/person. Damnit! We thought we had outsmarted them again...Grrrr...Oh well.
We got to Kaikoura to get a little map of Mt. Fyffe to figure out the best possible way up and down the mountain. Of course, it was just a 5 year old drawing totally not-to-scale....but that was good for us...:-\

Once we got to the carpark, we got our gear together and started the hike. I remembered my inhaler this time, but it didn't help at all. It was a 35 degree incline for miles and miles. No muddy path, no switchbacks, no trees. Gravel road straight up. Hey, that's not hiking. I was hurting badly. I hadn't had a filling breakfast either, so I was just a whole lotta mess. Stephen, the nicest human in the entire world, was being super sweet and trying to distract me. So we played 20 questions and "3-letter animal names!" Then I got into it better and started playing along. "There are 9 countries with 4-letter names! Go!" or "There are 7 -stans...go!" (1st one: Chad, Mali, Peru, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Togo, Laos, Fiji. 2nd one: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) Nerd alert!

We got to the adorable hut and it seemed like it was just going to be us. There were 4 bunk beds, a wood fireplace, and an outhouse. Oh, and water that tasted like smoked bacon. Yuuuuck! We dropped our packs and grabbed extra layers and hiked the summit. We saw that there was snow at the top of a lot of the peaks and yep! Mt. Fyffe had snow at the top, too! Not a lot, mind you, but enough to quench your thirst from the nasty bacon water. Liz and I leisurely walked up the summit and took some amazing shots. On one side there was a perfect view of the Kaikoura peninsula, and on the other side there were beautiful snow-capped mountains. I got a second wind on this part of the hike. I would skip ahead and stop and call down to Liz and say, "It's totally worth it! The view is great! Come look!" It got super windy near the top (around 1500m) and at one point it was blowing so strong that I just outstretched my arms and leaned a little into it and let the noise of the wind drown out my heavy breathing. I pictured the wind blowing away all my muscle aches, lactic acid build-up, and all my worries about making it to the top...and any other residual worries I carry with me. It was heaven. Chilly, breezy, beautiful views. Just gorgeous.

Liz and I were the last to reach the top, but whatever, I set me own pace on this one. It was great. All 10 of us decided to take some hilarious pictures. Jumping, posing, 10-person pyramids!!!! Yeah that was a difficult one. Our athletic, nimble Kelsey had to climb up nine people to get to the top. It was great.

I was so happy at the top, and on the tramp down I wasn't even tired. My muscles ached, but it was a good, productive ache. Ah, so much fun. Back at the hut we saw that 3 people had joined our party and put their stuff next to ours in the hut. No biggie, we had a ton of tents to use. We ate our dinner, bonded with the three random people, played some cards, watched an AMAZING sunset against a backdrop of snowy mountains, star gazed for a bit, then passed the eff outttttt. I hadn't slept so hard in my life. Zzzzzzzzzz. But, the wood stove was kept on and the doors/windows were closed against the crazy wind. It became a sauna. I was on the top bunk and found myself sprawled out in 1/4 of the clothes I started with. I was sweating so much and I got stuck to the industrial-strength plastic mattress on the bunk. Super super yuck. It got better once Jon opened the windows and doors.

The plan was to get up at 5ish to climb the summit again to see the sunrise at the top of the mountain. Heeeelll no. My legs were on fire when I woke up. I tried walking maybe 100m and I just collapsed. Awesome, legs, thanks for that. I was the embarrassment again. Sweet Nicole walked back with me and she, Liz and I watched the sunrise on our own. I'm sorry, but we had an amazing view ourselves. We walked out to a point and had front row seats to the "gawjus" sunrise. It was a cloudy day (per usual) and the sun bounced off the clouds in really interesting ways. The sky was pink and red and orange, and there were some interesting black-ish clouds that looked out of place. I said it looked like God was doing a watercolor painting and had some charcoal on his fingers and accidentally smudged the painting.
Then we looked behind us. The mountains looked like they were on fire. The sun was reflected off the snow and pink clouds were enveloping the peaks. Totally volcanoes! It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. There were long, white, clouds, the namesake of NZ in Maori (Aotearoa=land of the long white cloud). Then the long, white clouds became long, pink clouds...Ah! So pretty. My pictures dont do it justice at all.

A few hours later the sunrise summit crew came back and we all had breakfast then got our gear together and started to hike down the mountain. We took a different path (thank goodness!) which lead us down a ridge of a mountain. Eep, kinda scary, but gorgeous, and exactly what I had hoped for. Then we got to a place and Geoff and Nick called out that they had seen a wild boar. SOOO COOOL! But...really kinda scary. If there hadn't been 3 billion of us with giant packs, the boar could've easily taken us. Eep. Anyway, good thing for traveling in Mongolian Hoards all the time. We tramped through the woods and saw some adorably curious fan tails (birds) that loved Liz's Muesli, haha. After a happy, soggy tramp down we heard water and knew we were close to the river we were gonna follow back to the car. We reached the river, dumped our bacon fire water and refilled it with the coolest, clearest water. Aaaah so refreshing. Then we tossed our shoes off and walked through the river to get to a rocky landing for lunch. After munching on some 2-day old soggy PB&Js we kept going and this is when the fun started. We had to jump across rocks over fast-moving river water and scale some rocks to get around an impassible river, then just trudge through the river (shoes and all) to get to a path again. Path is relative also, more like jumping rocks. I was the happiest I think I've been so far on a hike. It was like hidden exercise. I played a game with myself. I'd scope out some rocks and say, "Left foot there, right foot there. 3 points if you get it without stopping, 10 if you get it without stopping and skipping that rock there." I was in my own little zone. When we had to cross, no hesitation, just hunker down all the weight of my body and my pack into my legs and trudge through. Thankfully Stephen and Nick were there if you lost your footing and needed a strong boy to fall on. The sensation of walking through a river with boots on was incredible too. If you ignore the painful rocks in your shoes, it was quite pleasant. The water was cool on my aching feet and the force of the river was a good challenge and resistance against my shaking legs. Then you got out of the water with sloshing feet and soaked shorts, but still, so happy.
We crossed the river about 10ish times. At one point, I was walking with Emily and I shook myself out of my introspection and said, "Do you smell cow?" Then we knew we were getting close to the farms we passed on the way in. No longer were there smells of trees and dirt, no more sounds of fan tails happily chirping in the forest, it was now cow smells and river sounds. Then we found some bullet casings (dont wanna know....there really isn't any big game in NZ...wild boars maybe?) Then we saw a dude with 2 adorably, happy, wet dogs fishing in the river.
We crossed the river one last time and followed the gravel road to the path we drove down to get to the car park.

It felt so so so amazing to take off my nast-tastic shoes and put on some jandals. My poor toesies were torn up and the rocks from the river had cut my ankles badly, but still so happy. Smelly, aching, sore, but productive and proud. It had taken us about 2.5 hours to get up Mt. Fyffe the day before, but going down, it had taken us about 5 hours...Eep.

We drove the twoish hours back to ChCh and I passed out in the car on the way home. Kelsey and I went to Captain Ben's the Chinese Fish and Chips joint near campus (Oh, that's no lie...that actually is an amazing combination. Cheeseburger and spring rolls, don't knock it till you try it!) That night I took the happiest shower of my life and then passed out.

Ah. Mazing. Weekend.













Kelsey and Me


JUMPING!










Sunrise






here comes the sun!


Beginning of THE river :)





Monday and Tuesday were fine, just going through the motions of class. I was an uber nerd in my Te Reo class. I haven't lost my teacher's pet side from Elementary School...oh god. I'm still THAT girl.
But last night, Cody and I made Sushi with his roommates!!!!!! So much fun! They had bought salmon, avocados, cucumbers, and carrots. When I reached their flat Cody was making sticky rice and prepping the sushi. Never in my life have I seen boys willingly prep food so meticulously....How awesome, eh? I've always been really curious about making sushi but always thought it was too difficult and too much hassle, but not at all! It was amazing. Raw salmon? Not so bad actually. And if I do say so myself, I'm a pretty stellar sushi roller :) Mine was prettiest, but then when I went to cut it, it got mutilated, boooo....That was Cody's job. It needed a lefty's touch.

Anyway! So. Pretty good weekend and week so far. I'm still an uber nerd, but I love it. People make fun of me for coming to NZ to study and I get really defensive b/c, damnit! I like learning! Bite my butt!!!

Haha, whoa, I'll calm down.

Kisses and aroha to everyone! xoxo

G

Kiwaha: Maori and Kiwi

Tree of Life


Kia Ora koutou!

Today I had my usual Maori-filled day. Starting with Art History learning about rakau whakairo or carved meeting houses. Snoozefest. Then we learned about Colonization of Indigenous Peoples in my next class and saw super gruesome pictures of horrible genocides. Yuck and sad. Then! In Maori, I had an amazing class. Not only did I feel like I was finally caught up, I also felt like I got the vowels down pat. Ok, for example, there are 5 short and 5 long vowels but there are words like "mauiui" which would be super helpful in Scrabble, but still kind of a pain. You have to parse it actually, "ma-wee-wee" to actually get over the initial shock of 6 vowels together. Also, the "ou" and "au" combinations are fine for the Kiwis here b/c they have those vowel combinations, but I have to channel my Francophile alterego and pretend I can create those vowel combinations, like in "koutou" So hard to say.

Everyday in class we learn a Kiwaha, or slang. This is what I have so far:

Ehara, ehara: Not even, Bull!!!
For example, at a bar, this Maori bloke was talking to me and I had to ask, "I'm sorry, how old are you?"
"22..."
"Ehara, ehara!" He was DEFINITELY 17/18
Then he walked away...SUCCESS!!

Karawhiua (ka-ra-few-a): Go big or go home!
For example, while getting ready that same night, we were debating heels or not...
"Karawhiua" If you're gonna do it, do it big...(and remember everyone here is barefoot, so nbd if you take 'em off :) )

E iro, e iro: You filthy maggot!
I haven't gotten a chance to use that here. Generally Kiwis are very polite, but I promise I'll keep you posted :)

Ka mau te wehi: That's amazing! Mabruuk!!

But today in class, we learned a proverb, or Whakataui:
Moe atu nga ringa raupo: Marry a man with calloused hands
:) :) :)
Dear Maoris, I agree. Love, Gracie

So some Kiwi Kiwaha?
Sweet as: Awesome, cool!
Basically, they chop off the rest of their similes and leave them incomplete, which for a lingy nerd, kinda bugs me. But! It's adorable when people say it. Just the first time I heard it was in a noisy room so I heard "sweet ass" and I was like, "....thanks? that's pretty bold, mr. kiwi....i'm awkward...."
You can also say: Hard as, steep as, pissed as, knackered as...

Oh! Knackered= tired

Nectar= sweet, but apparently only colloquially in a city, Blenheim (blen-um...not blen-haym. I made that mistake)
Maggot= sick drunk...b/c apparently you look pale and yucky. And the next day you crawl around like a maggot all day... Also a Blenheim-ism

Wag= skip a class
Unco=abbrev. for uncoordinated
Wops or Wop wops= boondocks, way out in nowhere
Chilly bin=cooler
Jandals=flip flops. Oh! Word of caution, you can't go out past 9 in NZ wearing jandals. They wont let you into places b/c it's some hazard. But before 9, karawhiua and be barefoot! :)
Pissed=drunk
Taking the piss= making fun of...
Boot= trunk
Heaps= tons, lots and lots
Singlet= muscle tee
Tea=dinner
"Gracie, what time are you having tea"
"...isn't that always 4pm?"
"Wow, Americans are weird. That's early as"

There's definitely more, but it's Linguistic heaven. I have Kiwaha coming from both ends!

Also, the seasons don't swap easily down here. March 1st is the start of Autumn (don't say Fall, apparently that sounds stupid as :( ) This week was beautiful. I walked barefoot 3 of the 4 days around campus. Actually yesterday I walked out of my flat without shoes on or near my person. Didn't even notice until I stepped on an acorn and squealed. Today, Mother Nature decided enough was enough of this beautiful weather. It was...oh, 50 today? Which after 70s-80s is f-f-f-freezing. It surely wasn't 50 when I left my flat this morning, but by the time I got out of class at 6pm, it was pouring, freezing, and slippery. Grr. Still gorgeous when it rains. But dude. I'm gonna miss summer, I can feel it. My freckles are starting to fade. Boo!

Earlier this week I was writing in my journal under my tree or the "Tree of Life" and I had a realization. I'm. In. Love! This place is just magical. The past couple of weeks I felt as though the world was happy for me. The sun was shining but also a sweet breeze. The cicadas were humming, the birds were chirping, and the grass was perfectly smushy under my toes. I was in heaven. Clean air, quiet streets, beautiful, friendly people, amazing landscapes....it's just ridiculous!
I know I'll definitely be ready to come home in three months, but right now, I can't even think about it. I've made such great friends here and luckily a lot of them are from the States/Canada, but what about my Kiwi friends?!?!

So again, I know I'll be dying to come home in June, but it's not easy getting to this place! I'm gonna have to come back...
This is what I've been planning for the past few weeks tho. I've been thinking about it heaps and I really want to come back for my Masters. NEU doesn't offer a kickass Masters in Linguistics, so why don't I come back to Canterbury to get a Masters in Indigenous Studies in 1.5-2 years!?
Ok, ok, ok, I know it's ridiculous to think about leaving when I've only been here a month, but seriously, come here and you'll see how I'm digging my heels in for June to come. June. Don't do it. Please!?
Also, I'm a planner, this is how I work things out. So I'm gonna talk to my sweet as Profs and ask them if it's feasible for a Pakeha (non-Maori) to major in Indigenous Studies and then UNPFII here I come! Ok, I'm done. I promise :)

Alrighty loved ones! My weekend is jam-packed with intense tramping back to Kaikoura at Mt. Fyffe. Apparently the views are incredible, but also pretty windy, so hopefully my new intense tramping gear (expansive as) will weigh me down :)

Kisses and aroha (love)

Cheers!

Queenstown Getaway

Kia ora, everyone!!
Before I talk about my hilarious weekend in Queenstown, I have to tell you all that today in class I found my calling! Sounds goofy, I know, but bear with me. Ok, so today in Indigenous Peoples we watched a movie about the UN and Indigenous Peoples and they followed a handful of Indigenous People from Amazon, Russia, Canada, Greenland, Togo, etc and it was just fascinating! Everyone in class was bored and chitchatting and I got so pissy b/c I wanted to hear every word!!!! So UNPFII (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) seems ah-mazing. It's linguistic-y, it's psych-y, it's travel-y....So. Cool. Of course I fantasized about being an expert witness or liason or SOMETHING......but realized a little white girl from the US wont be as informative as an Indigenous Person, but hey, maybe I can just be their photographer?? As we speak, with kiwi(fruit) in hand, I'm doing research on when the next UNPFII meeting is after 2010. Maybe after I graduate NEU, I can spend some time in NY and work there? Oof. Dont get me started, I'm so excited! Seriously, I'll keep you posted, it's awesome.

Ok! So my crazy weekend in Qtown!? It was a series of unfortunate events that led to a (hindsight) great weekend. Long long long story short, I was basically homeless for three days. I ended up sleeping on couches, in cars, on beaches...Yuck. But! I got to see Francisco, who I haven't seen in 4 years, which was amazing. It was so nice to actually be in the same country after 4 years of being pen pals. It was really great. I met his friends Sacha from South Africa and Marius from Germany. They all work in the same orchard together and they migrate in their tiny nugget car around Qtown area. So the reason we were homeless? Well their friend Kike was on a 3-day hike that was supposed to end on Friday morning, but by Saturday afternoon he was still MIA. I, the worry wart, was really freaked out that he didn't show up, but the boys just assumed that he had hitched from Glenorchy back to Alexandra where their caravan is...Hmm...Fingers crossed, right?

Queenstown was amazing. It's seriously heaven. I can't even begin to describe how magical it is. The flight from ChCh was only 45 minutes and I didnt put my camera down once. I think I took about 100 pictures just from the air. Here are the highlights :)














Uh hello, Lord of the Rings!?!?!?!










Absolute Heaven


:)


At least 3 ladybugs landed on my this weekend...so much good luck :) :)


Skipping stones













Lake Wanaka
Where we stayed in a hostel the second night (thank god for beds...)


The Remarkables...are truly remarkable


Flying into ChCh

So that was my amazing trip to Qtown and Wanaka! It was definitely an adventure, haha.

I hope you enjoyed the pics, and more are to come of a Lantern Festival in town.

Besos to everyone and please please send healthy, recovering vibes to my sick puppy in Atown. I wish I was there to snuggle with him right now :(
::Virtual snuggles to Nikki::

Sweet As!

So this past weekend was extremely eventful. I didn't have any classes on Friday so a bunch of us decided to go back to Taylor's Mistake and scope out a few rocks to jump off of :-\ Ok, it sounded all fine and dandy until we got there... Eep. Anway, so we did the usual hike to Taylor's Mistake, no biggie, and then the boys were like, "Oh yeah! Down here!" Oh you mean that rock face that leads into a bunch of bushes? Of course you do...So following the leader, we tramped down these sketch rocks but the view was definitely worth it. It was beautiful. The water was so blue and the cliffs and hills around us were just unbelievable. It was nuts. Anyway, so the week before, a bunch of boys had found this little nook and said, "Hey! I think I can jump off of this!" So they got into the water and dove around for a bit to see if they could reach the bottom and they deduced it was a perfect place to jump off of. Ever since then, adrenaline seekers/curious people were hounding these guys about where it was. Thus, the trip back to Taylor's Mistake.
Anyway, so there were about 15 of us on this particular trip and I was starting to chicken out a bit, but I just said to myself, "Gracie, grow a pair. You can do it!" So Kelsey and I followed the boys (after they had jumped a handful of times). We shakily made our way up the side of the rock and looked over and saw how far down it was...20-30 feet? Yuck. Anyway. So the boys said to us, "if you walk out to the edge, you can't come back!" I didn't take that as a "You can do this!" instead of a warning... Oh well. So I forgot all my logic and said, "You can doooo this!" I stepped off the ledge and did it. I jumped! It was one of the scariest things I've ever done, honestly. It took so long to hit the water and my body was reacting so strangely. I knew I should keep a perfect pin jump, but my poor fight/flight reaction decided against that. Which led to this beautiful bruise I have on my thigh now. I think I tucked my leg underneath me when I reached the water? I dont actually know. But in this picture (courtesy of Kelsey) you can see my little lean. Yuck, again.
When I hit the water, I immediately lost my bikini top, of course. So I had to fumble under the water for a bit and situate myself before climbing onto the rocks back to the group. People told me that I looked LIVID when I was in the water. Damn straight I did. I had NO idea why I had just done that! YUUUCK! Anyway I got onto the rocks and oh joy, the barnacles cut up my legs/feet. Awesome. It was kind of funny though. Every single girl that jumped got torn up by the rocks on the way out, but the boys? Totally unscathed.
So the moral of my story? I did it. I'm proud of myself for doing it. I'm not sure I have to do it again, but there's a little part of me that's intrigued. I'll definitely do a smaller jump, but this particular one? Eh...not so sure. But seriously, totally proud of myself for doing something completely out of character :) But also seriously, doubt I'll do it again.....

The next day we were all scheduled to go to Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura to have a little hiking/camping excursion. We were planning on leaving at 9:30 but oh that didn't happen at all. We left around 12, I think. Awesome. Once in the car, the ten of us trampers, played the best car games. Big Booty, anyone? Awwww Yeah, Big Booty. Don't worry family, just you wait till we take a road trip out here...I'll teach ya :-P Also, "HEY COW!" You shoult "Hey Cow!" at cows, if they look, you get a point, if a horse looks at you when you scream "HEY COW!" you get two points. Sheep? Well they're too busy chomping on grass to care :)


It took us a few hours to get to Hanmer Springs. Henry had heard of a great tramp up to a waterfall halfway up the mountain so we definitely wanted to go there. The hike was intense. It was beautiful, but exhausting. I think I might have developed a touch of asthma from the stupid flu I had before I came here, b/c I swear I was breathing through a straw. I felt kinda bad b/c people were trying to get me to keep walking and I was stubborn and not having it. I should probably bring an inhaler next time I go on a hike :-\ Whooooops. Oh well, I wont dwell on my unpreparedness. We reached the waterfall and it was spectacular! Just a skinny little waterfall in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome. The day was beautiful and super hot, so we all wanted to cool off--it was f-f-f-f-freezing.

We continued up the rest of the tramp up to the top of the mountain. It was fantastic. A little bit of climbing rocks, and hurtling tree roots. It was gorgeous. So we reached the top and I SWEAR that Peter Jackson filmed some bits of LOTR here. It was exactly Rohan (NERD ALERT), but seriously, totes cool. PS. It was Mount Isobel--not as cool as if it was Mt. Isabelle, but phonetically, basc. the same thing :)

After munching on some snackies at the top we decided to make our way down. Since we had gotten a late start, it was 4:30 by the time we got to the top so it was about time to start heading down. We took a different way, which, ended up to the be a completely WRONG way...but did we care? Nah, not really. It was beautiful, nbd :) We got to a completely unfamiliar place and just decided to walk back to the touristy Hanmer. Once in the middle of town Stephen and Jon decided to just run the 5K back to the car and bring it back to us. How they could run 5K after hiking? No idea, but more power to them. They made it in like 30 mins. Sheesh.

We debated for a while about what to do next. Go to the thermal springs? Eat dinner? Drive to Kaikoura? All three. We went to the thermal springs and snuck onto a water slide :) Ask Geoff about the G.S. (green slide) I didn't get a chance to appreciate it, but apparently it was life changing. Then we got some fish and chips, or in Kelsey and my case, awful sausage burgers with beets. Yuck. Then we drove to Kaikoura to find what turned out to be a prime camping site.

In Kaikoura, about an hour plus away from Hanmer, we found a great camping site right on the beach. It was fantastic. Cold, but fantastic. The three girls got a tent to themselves and some of the boys slept in the giant van. After setting up our tents and getting ready for bed, we all ventured to the beach for a little bit and saw these prime rocks that just begged to be climbed. All 10 of us made our way up these rocks and watched the beautiful stars and picturesque moon. It was perfection. Perfect summer night.

The next morning, the girls were woken up to, "Get up girls! There's a tsunami coming!" Uh, what? Yep. Tsunami. As you all know by now there was a horrible earthquake off the coast of Chile and a tsunami warning was issued for the entire coast of NZ. So we got up and packed lickity split and got into the van. We made our way into the city to see what civilization was saying. Then we got kicked out of every single beachy spot we got to. No one in Kaikoura was freaking out. They were saying that they get tsunami warnings all the time...still, I was nervous. Luckily, nothing happened and we spent the day inland. So Kaikoura? Gorgeous! The beaches were amazing. They dont have sand, its just little pebbles that mold to your body when you lay down and you dont even have to worry about getting sandy. It was amazing. Then we got kicked out, so yeah, not so fun. But I'll definitely go back there when it's not so...oh, tsunami-rific?

Then we made our way back home! Everyone else was going to the cricket game so Kelsey and I tried to get tickets but were unsuccessful. Then I passed out :) Haha, oh eventful weekend! Here are some of my favorite pics of the trip!

xoxo