Easter weekend

Hi everybody,
I hope you had a good Easter weekend. Liubi and me certainly had. We drove down to Wellington to have a great weekend and for me to participate and perform in the NZ Salsa Congres. It was an amazing time!!!Wellington is much more beautiful than Auckland! The pictures will talk for themselves....It was so cool to see 670 km of sheep, trees, cows, trees, horses, trees and from the beginning! We arehappy to finally see something from the country!!

The Salsa congres was wonderful! Liubi also came along on Friday to try some new dancing stlyes like Zouk or Samba...in the evening I performed with my team and we got selected to perform in the Australian Salsa Congress in January 2010 in Sydney!!!Wooow I have to start saving money:-)...

For teh rest of teh weekend it was just a lot of dancing and partying and Liubi enjoyed herself in the Te Papa muesum and on the seaside of Welington.
On our way back to Auckland we made a stop over in Taupo and guess what we did there! YES Skydiving!!!!Amazing!!!JUmping out of a plane from 15.000 feet...But I´ll start teh story from the beginning: The actual thing to do in Taupo was bungee jumping and touching the water. Liubi wanted to do this but was suddenly not sure anymore because in Queenstown on teh South Island they have a much higher bungee jump and we are going there already next week. Finally she decided she will do it in Taupo. Ok we went there and she did it!!!It´s an amazing panorama...
Afterwards I wanted to do skydiving....don´t ask me why I just wanted to have this experience and I got it. I took Liubi with me of course and in the Bus when Steve the driver asked her why she doesn´t do it and she didn´t have an answer so he imitated a chicken:-) and she changed her mind and doesn´t regret it:-)
We had 60 seconds of freefall and then gliding with a parachut through the air over the beautiful lakeof Taupo. We had perfect weather: sun sun sun and hardly any clouds.....
I was freaking scared I can tell you but I´m so happy I did it and it´s an enormous adrenalin kick!!!I can only recommend it to everybody!!!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!I´m trying to upload the videos as well but I´m not sure if it works because our internet is sooo slow here!!!

I hug you all!!!

Vanessa

living life...

Hi there,
some short news from Auckland...My Dad left yesterday again so Liuba and me have to start cooking again:-)no fabolous dinners in Brasilian restaurants anymore;-)
We also went to a very cute French restaurant with very cute waiters wis a very nise french accent:-)...loved it there and I guess we'll go there again one day...
At the moment Liuba and me are quite salsa fanatic and I'm dancing quite a lot because the congress is coming closer and closer and we're also arranging out trip to Wellington. Liubi decided to join me so we're figuyring out how and with whom we get to Wellington how long we stay etc etc...After the easter weekend there is also the mid semester break coming up and we still don't know what we really want to do or where to go. We just decided we'll do skydiving and since the weather is getting worse and worse we'll have to do it soooon!!!
The university is going quite ok...lots of things to do mostly quite boring but it needs to be done because we get grades for this and the lectures are just broing because the lecturers just explain what's in the textbook in a very lame ppt!!!My only course which I really enjoy is the toursim course because it's very interactive and we can write logs do assignments that we can pick ourselves so we have to put soemthing in to get soemthing out I like that and I enjoy parts of the strategic thinking for managers but only parts because it's a a management game with a lot of figures and a lot of numbers which I don't like but the other part of the class is called critical thinking and I just love to discuss with the teacher or ask nice questions:-)
We also needed to hand in teh first assignments it was all a bit of a rush because when my dad was here I didn't take muchtime for studying so now it's catch up time...
Liubi and me also need to take our chance and try the whale and dolphin tour again my Dad was lucky teh second time he saw them...he advised us to swim with them as well we'll see what we can do...
For the rest some things went also wrong:-) I had to change my dancepartner for the third time now and I fell trying to do a backflip so I'm covered all over the place with nice bruises of all colours and we got a small idea that we got ripped off buying our car because it didn't start anymore yesterday but the day after it just did...I don't know what's wrong with it we thought it might have been the battery so when it started I went to drive it for an hour so that the battery could recharge again a bit...since that time it works so keep your fingers crossed it stays like this!!!
I guess that was it for now...have to go to class soon we'll have a guest lecture on intercultural communication today from the woman who wrotethe book we are using during class...
Keep in touch!!!Miss you:-*
Vanessa
PS: Thanks for the webpages Philip very interesting!!!!

long time not hear...

Hi everyone,
just a short news update because time is running:-)and there are the first deadlines coming up...
School is getting busier and busier...unbelievable...and sooo many (unnecessary) textbooks to read...unbelievable!!!
The lastest developments is short: bought a car, a sweet (green of course) Renault Clio, I dare to drive now...;-)not that easy witha right left problem in left traffic!!
My Dad is here so I´m trying to spend a lot of time with him...
Last weekend we went all together to Rotorua and we saw a real Kiwi for the first time!!Amazingly funny animals!!!
We also went to a Maori village and saw a traditional performance...Fantastic experinece!!!
Liubi did her first (two) skyjump(s) from the Skytower here in Auckland....192 meters...I´ll try to put the video online!!!
Salsa Congress 2009 in Wellington is coming up during teh Easter weekdn and I´m going to participate!!!We have a nice performance...I´m curious...if we win we go to Sydney;-)
On Wednesday I´m going to a Coldplay concert and still cannot believe it!!!It will be soo much fun....
We went on a whale and dolphin cruise but weren´t that lucky because we didn´t see any of those...so we got free tickets to try again...that will be next weekend...
Next weekend we´ll go to Coromandel as well...
So like I said just a short newsupdate bec I have to catch up with some Uni work....
Take care everyone...
missing you...hope you´re all well...
love
V

settling down...

Hi people,
it´s time for a short update but first of all 2 general remarks:
I´v been asked about making comments on the blogg. I guess you just have to click on "comments" under the post you want to comment and then write your comment and post it...I´m looking forward to your comments...I hope it´s quite clear how to comment now;-)
The second thing is when you don´t want to wait 3 hours in front of the slideshow till it finally showed all my 537 pictures just click on the slideshow and it will link you to my photoalbum where you have a thumbnail overview and you can have a faster overview of the pictures. I hope that makes it a bit easier to follow the blogg and see some more pictures:-)

Great...for the rest: Liubi and me are enjoying the summer here though it is also raining quite often and quite hard. On Friday we had no choice we had to go to the supermarket to buy food and we were not even off camous yet and already soaking wet!!!It was fun though:-)

On Friday we or better Liubi cooked for some people here on campus a traditional Moldavian dish and I helped a bit which was very popular in the end and everybody was very much filled:-)Afterwards we went out to party in the city...those pictures are on facebook:-)

So as you can read we are slowly getting setteled here...We had 2 introductions last week for the university one was with a typical Maori welcome procedure but we were not allowed to take pictures. Tomorrow the lectures will start at least for Liubi. I have my first one on Tuesday. We both have quite a nice schedule: Liubi has Wednesday&Thursday off and I have Monday&Wednesday off. We both take 4 courses and I hope we´ll like them!!!
We arranged everything at school concerning our insurance and student ID, opened a bank account, explored campus, went shopping, I went to the movies, we went to the ocean, complained about food etc etc etc...

OH I almost forgot the most important thing: Liubi is doing salsa now as well:-)
I guess I became a bit addicted...but ok it keeps me busy and in shape so nothing bad about it:-)
Tonight we´re going to a social dance with a guy from Switzerland who does salsa as well...here the exchange students are either German or from Switzerland...very funny...and all other students are somewhat Asian...

I guess this will do for a post again...I just cannot keep myself short:-)
Miss you all tons!!!
Love,
V

Happy Valentines Day for everyone!!! I hope you´re doing fine....

Arrival in NZ and first days...

Kia Ora from New Zealand,
that I arrived you probably know already but how I got here was actually a desaster...It took me almost 3 days to get to Auckland and the worst I arrived alone. Liubasik had to prolonger her stay in Europe by 10 days because she needed a transit visa for Australia which we didn´t think of so she didn´t get her boarding pass and had to go to Berlin to get this visa. It worked out so I expect her here the 11th 12.35 local time...FINALLY:-)Looking forward!!!But back to my trip...I started alone from Frankfurt to London Heathrow and there the desaster started! I was supposed to have 2 hours there until my connection flight but out of those 2 hours became 28!!!I thought I´ll never arrive!!!Because of the snow the airport was closed and then the cabin crew ran out of hours...After a very long flight I finally arrived in Sydey where I was supposed to have a connection as well after 2 hours but it took me 8 this time to get on the plane. You can imagine I was totally exhausted and tired when I arrived in Auckland and the last thing that could go wrong was that my suitcase wouldn´t arrive....and surprise surprise it didn´t!!!!So I claimed it as lost luggage and then the lady made my day she said it arrived with an earlier plane and was waiting for me behind the counter...so I got it and went by taxi to the student accomodation which is quite nice but the campus is huge!!Takes me 10-15min by foot to get out of here....The first 2 days here I only slept and since 2 days I started living here as well. I found a supermarket and yesterday I went to the city center for the first time. It takes 20min by bus and the weather is beautiful!!!It´s like 30 degrees and omg how much did I miss this feeling of melting suncream on my skin...beautiful, I´m on holidays:-)
The Food is surprisingly expensive here and they definitely have too much fast food and too less fresh food here. 2 days ago I walked 35 minutes just to get some apples. I also found a kind of shopping center with a cinema in it and since it was closed because of a holiday I decided to go to the movies and see "Yes man"!!!If you want to have fun I strongly recomment this movie!!I somehow reminded me about HRQM:-D(say yes to everything....)
Oh btw to Maria: in the plane I saw "Nights in Rodanthe" with Richard Gere and Diane Lane you have to see it it´s so great but don´t forget the package of tissues;-)
In the city yesterday I followed Hanna´s advice and went to Mrs Higgings....d*** I need a bonuscard for this one. You can buy ovenfresh cookies and they are delicious!!!I also went to Starbucks which is really extremely cheap here in comparison to Europe! I spent some time near the harbour and decided to look for the salsa school and once I found it it was closed. So Monday 6pm I´ll be there again:-)
It was so funny, during the flight to Sydney when we firstly were sitting in the plane for 6 hours before the airline decided not to fly anymore I met an Australian guy who was sitting next to me and 28 hours later I had two Dutch next to me and from Sydney to Auckland I had 3 Swedish girls next to me:-)
Every time I hear this language I miss Helsingborg a lot:-) I had a great time there guys....seriously!!!
Today I want to spend some time at the beach and hoping not to get a sun allergy before Liuba arrives with my medication and for the rest I really need to buy a cellphone number because we need to recharge our electricity with a phone call and I need to do it soon:-)
I´ll pass the number around so you can reach me any time....
I miss you all people....to Liuba: I repeat, come here asap:-)
kisses and hugs from
Van

getting ready....

Hello again,
now....it´s almost time...the big trip may begin!!!A lot of things to organise in the last days in Germany where I am with Liuba at the moment. It´s impossible to fit everything 2 girls need in a suitcase of only 20kg each!!!!So we´re dealing with this monkey;-) and not succeeding very well ;-) we´ll see....we are creative enough :-)
Though we hope we get a little more excited/relaxed from tomorrow on when we are done with all the preparations....We´ll also have a small farewell party at my place tomorrow from 8 o´clock on so you´re very welcome to join:-) will be fun!!!!Mostly for guys because we are almost only girls;-) no just kidding...
So I hope you´ll all very kindly follow our blog...pictures will follow soon as well because now Liuba and me are both well equiped with cameras....so we try to get as many impression as possible for you!!!
When I´m writing next time I´ll be already in Auckland....OMG still can´t believe it!!!!