hey smelly cat

hi from burundi. its lovely and rainy here, had great plans to sit by a pool (at a much flasher hotel than the one im staying in) and get a tan to show impres u with when i get to europe but have just been consistently fading since the seychelles.... quite sad really!

\thats cool about finding a place to stay, where is it? Are u sure they don't mind having 2 people to stay? i will stay in a hostel the night before u arrive and be there to pick up my big sister from the airport! Weird to only have like 2 weeks in africa left but looking for to next part of crazy journey!

maybe email me to let me know of where we staying etc?

xx rach

Ooh, that's so cool!!

You can ignore that last email I just sent you then. Ooh, they're married!! Wow!! What a beautiful couple they make too!!

Do you or anyone have photos??

"Pollyanna"... I'll leave that for you to work out. Hint: maybe do some research on "the glad game."

How's holidays?

I'll be back around 13th I think... But not sure exactly what date I'll be in Chch though. I guess maybe a day or two before classes start back? I'll maybe go home for a day or two first, if I have time. And if I have a home. Ahh, so far ahead to plan.

Yeah, the first years have been fine. Been a really good year with them so far. :)

The wedding was great, went down there with Aaron and Ben's flatmate Daniel and came back with Ed, Jess and Sarah. Ben and Caroline officially became Mr and Mrs Dunn just after midday yesterday. They both looked awesome together. I think about 1/4 or 1/3 of the people there were from Bish, so no shortage of familiar faces (must have been 100-200 people in total). Caught up with heaps of people during and afterwards, so it was a great day all in all.

I didn't quite follow the reference to "Pollyanna" - am I just slow or perhaps missing something there? ;)

Do you know specifically when you'll be back in New Zealand? I think you said sometime in June or July, but can't remember exactly. (I guess it'd make sense that you're back before the second semester begins, anyway.) There's been a few people here asking and wondering when you're back. :)

See you around,

John.

Oh so you guys have been reunited? Nice!

Great map-reading skills Banfield! :P

Are you going to the hotel to check it out and see how much it's like the movie, or to stay there? (Are there really thousands of hills in Rwanda?)

Off to have brekkie then take part in a psyc experiment.

Love you both! :)

Hey Alice

hi too from Kigali - your study stuff sounds a bit challenging so glad you survived the first few days getting back into it, and also getting cards back..

we may be a bit wetter than we needed to be this morning because of , er, inherited lack of directional skills (not mine, for once actually, but someone closely related who was map reading to get to the Hotel de Mille Collines). We ended up getting a taxi! \your sister is good company though so will try and make sure she doesn't join gorilla family in the forest..

have a great week.

mum

x

Hey Smalice

I fly into Amsterdam at like 5am on the 3rd of May. So if you arrive on the 4th (in the arvo?) i will practically be an old hand... maybe.

Rwanda is really beautiful, very green - probably because of all the rain... (its pouring outside! :( .....)

Love the photo of u jumping, very alicish!

xx

Yeah man, I bet Lucinda would think you looked great if you got LOADS of dreadz - go for it!! Haha. Still got that mohawk? (Ooops, maybe you haven't told Lucinda about that one yet...)

So what day do you arrive in Amsterdam??

just to correct your queens english, im sure its "loads" instead of lots. pronounced "lowdes". Is that right Lucinda?

Havent seen any gorrilas lately... they don't exactly roam the streets of Kampala. Do u think I should get dreads before I go to london? hehe. mind you the dust here and rough transport combined with weak showers seems to be naturally dreading my hair anyway....! off to rwanda soon although booked to go on bus today and it decided not to arrive... fantastic really.

Lucinda: Thanks! You're still visiting my site... wow! Yes, you'll be please to know some of the dreads are gone... I am in the (long, slow) process of taking them out!

Wow, that's awesome you went to Whistler too! To ski? Did you notice heaps (Kiwi-speak for "lots") of Kiwis there too?

But I'm sure Rachy will make her way over to the UK eventually, right?

Rachy: Do you mean call my cellphone? Are you sure that won't cost you millions of dollars? But yeah, go for it, I'd love to hear from you!

I am now back. AND SO IS MY CARD WALLET!! Thank goodness for that. Musta left it on a bus, and one of the staff had handed it in. Phew.

Uganada huh? Wicked. Seen loads of gorillas yet?

We were a little disappointed not to say and meese OR bears in Canada, but we did buy some bear droppings for a friend to eat.

John: Love how you're taking after Pollyanna! Seriously. Good stuff!

You have to tell me all about Caro and Ben's wedding! Also, what's her email addr again? I wanna email her!

Enjoy your holidays. Glad to hear you took a complete break - something every RA needs! Have the 1st years been behaving themselves?

well done getting rid of your dreds..

Vast improvement!!

OK I will also comment on your travels. It is good to see Whistler again - we went there 7 years ago - and I'm v amused you can now recognise a Kiwi accent. Rach is v aware she doesn't speak like us Brits. We are just back from skiing. Rach nearly came, then decided she prefered to climb up an African mountain than going in a gondola up a French one...

Lucinda xx

hey sister dearest

Canada looks beautiful! quite a difference from the reddy brown colour of so much of Uganda! I think its awesome how u just 'pop' off to other places! good to see your 'grabbing the opportunities' - the speaker of that quote has summitted mt kenya, u prob already know but pretty awesome huh?

Uganda is cool, white water rafting was AWESOME! grade 5!!! wahooooooooooo! hehe but seriously so much fun and with an awesome group of people. Heading south tomorrow towards Rwanda to do a bit of 'hiking' (american accent here).

Let me know when u back from Canada cos would like to ring ya to discuss awesome amsterdam adventure (check out the alliteration, Mrs Brunton would be pleased!).

love you crazy snowman sister!

xx rach

Yikes, seems that important material items have a habit of disappearing on you lately. Hope you're managing ok. As has been said, Canada does indeed look very cool (both literally and figuratively).

Keeping very busy here - holidays began last Friday, but there hasn't been much let up on work. I deliberately took a complete break in Blenheim over Easter with my family, but came back to the hall on Monday. It'll be pretty much all study from now on - assignments due during (yes, during... evil lecturers ;) ) the holidays, and then three important tests right afterwards. I guess, looking at the bright side (as you've taught me to do ;) ), at least it's not four tests - one of them I got out of the way at the end of last term, and it even went really well which was nice.

Still, at least there are some interesting things to look forward to... may be visiting some various flats over the holidays, including the Sarahs' one. Also of course there's Caroline and Ben's wedding this weekend (four days away, wow!). Sure starts to sink in that you're actually growing up and older when your friends start getting married!

Anyway, I should get going. Catch you later, MH3 sister. ;)