Week 5, This week could have been awesomer

From my deck after a huge hailstorm

I had high hopes for this week, I mean it was the one year anniversary of my trip to Italy, which was pretty awesome. Well the way this week went, I was missing Italy even more. Here's a recap:

First, the bad news

-As you read in the previous post, I spent quite a bit of time battling with Bank of America, and as I finally wrested my money from them, I received a phone call that my car was stolen. Now, I guess I can be thankful that I hadn't actually picked the car up yet (thanks BoA), so I'm really not out much, except my precious time when I could be at the beach, or hiking, or I guess doing some of my research. So in case you missed it - No Car, back to square one

-I had been planning to write a post about how awesome Magic Jack is, I mean they really helped me this week with enabling me to scream at BoA for free, and coach my Mom through texting for free. Well Magic Jack stopped working on Wednesday. I spent 3 hours on tech support and they still couldn't figure it out. Just as I was signing off with them, I decided to try my own tech support of deleting and reinstalling and it worked - so for now, Magic Jack you're forgiven, but don't act up again

-Both of the above happened in the same day, so I ate some prosciutto and put on my stripes in honor of Italy anniversary day and I started to feel better, because frankly when don't prosciutto and stripes make you feel better. Without going into the details, the rest of that day I got caught in the rain in white shorts, and I had left my laundry on the line, so suffice it to say I would have much rather been in Milan eating risotto, gelato, and sipping red wine while looking for TI.

The Good News:

-Found a volunteering position at the Aro Valley Community Center where they have put me in charge of managing the organic gardening after-school program. I think they may be surprised how little I actually know about gardening, but I'm excited to learn while I teach the kiddies

-In my research methods class this week, we learned about Copernicus. Really? Its like this course was made for me. Last week DDS, Copernicus this week - I don't see how I can't get an A. For those of you not up to speed, these were two of my nicknames in high school, yes I was/am a huge nerd. Something stressed in class was how everyone ignored Copernicus' theory, until Galileo came along and took credit for it and just because he lived closer to the center of the world at the time (Rome), everyone gives him credit. Hmmm, you may want to remember that when discrediting any of my theories while I'm way over here in NZ. Also funny how everything leads back to Italy this week....

-In my Maori Business class, the professor who is also a former business owner, told us a story about how they had been attempting to make sausages more healthy given the bad rap sausage was receiving, so they added CHEESE (of course, that makes everything healthier) and renamed them Sizzlers. Pure brilliance.....next week, fried pies....

-Found out that Bret McKenzie, from Flight of the Concords, is my neighbor, meaning he lives about 6 houses away. I walk by his house everyday. I was informed that Kiwis "don't do celebrity". I think this means that while I'm not allowed to ask for an autograph, I can stop by with some carrot cake.

A few other random things of note-

-Kiwis don't mix chocolate and peanut butter, they just don't do it. Reba, this is your paradise.

-Still zero on the kiwi hug counter, LJ's paradise. Anyone want to take the over/under on my first hug from a kiwi?

-Personal learning for the week, I don't excel at group work. I'm too bossy, impatient, and a nerd. This week I just did all the work and then sent it to the rest for comments. I find this method more efficient.

-Made a German friend in gym class (specifically Fight Do which is basically Mortal Combat as a workout, lots of upper cuts and elbows). She warned me ahead of time that the instructor stunk, so I gave her my number.

Today there was the first huge rainstorm, actually there was hail, and I got stuck in it, of course, came home and put every warm layer I brought with me on and got into bed and was still cold. Then just an hour ago, huge rainbow. So, the ultimate cheese factor moral for this week is - at least when there is rain, there are rainbows