Hey! Spoken word sounds interesting - you'll have to demonstrate when you get back;-) I'm taking 20th century literature and media and social change. the engl one is a bit over my head at the moment but should be okay I think. lots happening here. joined about a million clubs, from meditation to dancing. well, not quite a million maybe, but seven or eight. went to the first winetasting of the wine society yesterday, was very cool. also saw a dramasoc play the other day - I'm sure you would have enjoyed it, too, my culture-buddy! missing ya. xx barbs

Rachy, thanks for your comment - you know you may get even more hits if you update again... (Hint, hint). Ray, cheers for your comment too. Maybe you could organise for peeps to experience something similar in Chch? There's def a lot of homeless people out there... Sleep in the Hagley stockyards (with a BIG GROUP of people!!)? Chch square?

hey nerd yep will email u my password as am to stupid with technology and also takes up my time on the net here in the city its more expensive. thanks heaps and glad u liked the letter, must be weird tho cos i would have written it so long ago! xx rach

Wow, good job with the homeless night, that's amazing, what an experience Alice!

PS: Rach, if you wanna tell me your password I can log-in to your travel journal and put a site meter on. If you're not comfortable with that, you can: Sign up on sitemeter.com Then go to "get HTML code" or something like that. Then copy and paste that code into one of the boxes on your travel journal on your "my settings" page. Like the box where you describe yourself which ends up on the front page. Does that make sense?

Rachy, thanks for your comment. And thanks SO MUCH for your letter!! As I said before, I loved getting it! Mummy, thanks for your comment - that's so great you've decided yes!! Excited? Apprehensive? At peace with your decision? (Is it still a secret?) Barbs, danke! Glad you're impressed with the German, even though it's so not true - alfalfas are good! How's things going with you? What courses are you taking this semester? Thanks for your email!

wow alice that was real interesting ur latest entry. its so sad that people actually live like that. just like people here in africa living on the streets, begging etc it reminded me how lucky i am! its funny that people that are so worse off that you can still be so friendly, like the couple you spoke of and lots of people here too. we are definately very fortunate people though. on a totally diff note i cant work out that sitemeter thing, i have it but its not on my homepage so i gave up, stupid technology and anyway i dont want to find out that no one realy visits my site... plan at the mo - fly to see mum, do a safari in kenya cos still havent really seen wildlife here in africa, then head to europe to get on my bike. xx rach p.s very proud of my big sis, doing amazing things, with such varieties of people and sharing her awesome personality with the world!

Yay! Totally love the alfalfa challenge. Good German. big hugs:-) Barbara

yes! that's the book - well i basically agree with everything but I think that as it was specifically bout Asia it doesn't all apply to our experience. Like NZ for example is a western culture which is uniquely kiwi but canterbury needed american missionaries to start a student life movement here. And i'm sure there's lots of other exceptions but I really feel it's true that natives can be more effective in the long run especially in use of funding in Asia. Was a challenging read and made me think about what I personally feel about the topic. Also thanks for the counsel - I've decided to take your advice and am even quite excited at moment, but don't tell anyone as i haven't yet officially announced it (in fact you're the first to hear). God bless, praying that all things go well with you this week, Sarah Beth (do you like the new nickname?)

Myron, well done for getting out there and doing it!! Not everyone has guts enough to do so, and a lot of people just talk about it but never go. So good stuff!! Ka pai! What was your favourite part? Most hated part? Grossest part? (I def remember what that was for me!! LOL.) Scariest part? (Blind-folded rock-climbing?) Most I-never-thought-I'd-do-this part? How was your team? Who were your instructors? Tell me all about it!

HEY! how are you? outward bound is such an amazing place im so glad i went, it truly is life changing. thank you so much for your support! Kirst

When you reach 10,000 visits one instantly appears on your site, but I guess you would have a while to go til then... Kidding! Go to sitemeter.com and sign up. There's a cool little map function where you can see the world map with dots showing where your visitors come from.