CHEESEFEST 2010!!!!

Alright, I know its been a week and some, but again, like last week, if I had time to write before now I would have.

It has been a busy couple of days since our last chat. I believe when I left I was going to my weekly couchsurfing meeting. The night was fantastic as it always is. Nothing in particular jumps out at me as being particularly note worthy. But I"m sure it was a great night. They always are.

On Thursday night I worked late. Yannik and I went to Fantastic Mr. Fox when he got home from school. It is always a good plan to go to the movies in the afternoon on a weekday with him. That way you disturb the least amount of people. Yannik normally has this innate fear of the cinema for some reason. He loves it once he is inside and everything, but getting him inside is normally quite a chore. However on Thursday he ran right in. I think he believed we were actually going swimming although I tried to tell him we were going to the "big DVD" as we call it. Regardless, Yannik did quite well. He lasted for almost an hour until he started to yell and beat his chest in the cinema. I could tell we were almost to the end so I asked him to stop and we made it all the way to the end. Fortunately, it doesn't take long I think for people to realize they are in a movie with a special needs person. So after the first couple of outbursts they stop turning around to stare (which is appreciated when you are the one trying to calm them down). Anyways, Yannik behaved quite well, especially for sitting through an entire movie. I enjoyed the movie too. I didn't know the story myself, but it was quite. An odd animation style I thought, and was surprised so many people liked it. That night we had some delicious beef bulgogi and then yannik went to bed around 8:15ish. I had to stay up and aware though till about 11 when his parents got home.

Friday marked the beginning of the weekend long "Chinese Lantern Festival". It was the Chinese New Year, and every year the city of Auckland helps them bring it in with style. So all of Albert Park was decorated with laterns of different shapes and sizes. Along with lined by figures of lions and dragons and lucky crickets and such. Not to mention the huge line of delicious asian food stalls that lined either side of the park. There were bands and performances occurring all night long. However the headliners were a group called Hanggai. Which was started by a punk rocker turned Mongolian Throat Singer. And they were AWESOME!!! Cool enough that I took money out to buy their CD and then couldn't find the booth got fed up and gave up. BUT... They were really cool! You could still hear this kind of punk influence but done through throat singing. Fantastic! So I went there with several couchsurfers. There ended up being roughly 14 or so of us, and we enjoyed a picnic in the park (not to mention some delicious Vietnamese food from a vendor). Afterwards Chris and I made our way to a little Irish pub and shot some pool.

On Saturday I hung out in the morning till I got a call from a friend. There was another free concert in a park by Kingsland. So off I went (it took two bus rides since Auckland public transport royally stinks! (don't get me started)). The concert was part of the Auckland Sounds of Summer series and it was very much typical Kiwi's at play. The band that was playing was the Batsams, a group from Dunedin. They're bogan appearance was well matched by the other long haired shirtless guys in the audience. But it was still alot of fun. Not to mention Kit Kat was there giving away free dark chocolate Kit Kats. (Speaking of which their slogan in NZ is like "make it a Kit Kat" or "Have a Kit Kat" or something like that. Way more lame than "Give me a break... ") Anyways, that night Kevin (my French cs friend I was with) and I went over to Miriam's (another French cs friend of mine) house for her birthday celebration. Miriam lives in like a Commune house. It s this massive place where 21 people live. Everything is included in their rent, and every night 3 people cook dinner. Each week each tenet has 1 chore that they need to do. Its a very cool set up. I like the sound of it as communistic as it sounded. Haha. But more importantly they had both a ping pong table, and a fire pit in the yard. More than this, they had set the projector up outside and taped Krape Paper to the stairs. So you could sit around the firepit, and watch what was playing on the projector all while singing songs to the guitar. It was a great night. At midnight we put on the Roomba (which apparently is a new wave of exercise videos where you dance your way to fitness) we then proceeded to learn several fat burning dances. As odd as it sounds it was a lot of fun. That night I fell asleep in their hammock on the porch overlooking the city of Auckland's lights. It was really beautiful.

On Sunday I took it fairly easy. I was invited to go to Waiheke for the races, but missed the bus (again! Don't get me started). However it was actually a good thing since the ferry was shut down due to Tsunami warnings from the Chilean earthquake. Leigh and Christoph were at the west coast beaches that day, and they got soaked in a wave that came way up on the beach and caught them by surprise (even though it was on the west coast). I was also invited to be a cheerleader for some female friends of mine who were going to a roller durby. I thought that sounded incredible. I mean ROLLER DERBY!! However, I was very let down to see it was much more a practice than anything. But I did get a good low down on the rules of Roller Derby (I was unaware there was such a thing as rules in roller derby) along with an idea of the Roller Derby scene in Auckland (Yes its much of what you would think it was).

On Monday night I had improv which went well. Some nights you're on and some you're off. On Monday I was on which always feels good. Afterwards 3 of us went over to a house and just hung out and played some video games. It was good improv group bonding time.

Tuesday night I made some tasty bean burritos. I'm embarressed to say, that I almost like my bean burritos now as much as meat burritos. What has living with Vegetarians done to me? After that I went to a French photo exhibit at a French restarunt with my French friend Kevin. I found quickly that it was slight entirely to much French for me. But I did find a peice of vital information out. That on the next day, Wednesday. There was a Cheesefest. Thats right, a Cheesefest.

Well I pulled some strings and got out of work early. Showed up at the Langham hotel (Schnazzy place might I add). And there in this beautiful place, was the most beautiful event imaginable. 30 dollars, thats 21 US dollars. And all the most delicious gourmet cheese you could eat! For thirty dollars you got a complimentary glass of wine, and entrance into the conference room. Once in, all your troubles went away. As you looked around and saw roughly 50 Kiwi cheese producers all displaying their finest cheeses for you to simply walk up at eat. Scattered throughout the room were tiny islands of barrels on which were placed loaf after loaf of delicious french bread. Amongst the cheese vendors were wineries doing wine tastings and suggesting wines to pair with your cheese. And to top it all off there was a stand of Kiwi brand Ice cream giving out samples. Oh. Oh! It was the epitome of Dairy Heaven. I must have eaten easily 7 pounds worth of cheese. Such glorious cheeses. And Cuisine magazine was there and had set up a table displaying all the gold medal cheeses and listing their names so you could go find and taste them. And they were selling cheese so CHEAP. I bought a block of cheese for 5 dollars that normally would have easily have been 30 had I got it in the store. It was the best 30 bucks for a festival I have ever spent. I couldn't believe it. Gouda, Brie, Edam, Cheddar, Hollinder, something I couldn't pronounce, Ricotta... The list goes on and on. Not to mention I was with Kevin (again my French friend) who like to make comments on how much stinkiness a cheese had. Man I had a blue that just melted in your mouth. Of course I suppose thats why it had the gold medal for Kiwi blue cheese. Well I could rant on and on, but needless to say, WICKED AWESOME CRAZY SPECTACULAR!!! (My brain is so clogged with cheese right now or I would think of better adjectives.)

After Cheesefest I walked on down to My weekly CS meeting. Another fantastic evening. I said my goodbyes to several people as I would not be back for three weeks. As I should say my goodbyes to you folks. My parents are coming on Saturday, and I will be MIA for 2 weeks as we travel the north and south Island. I will try to write as we go so I don't just have one massive entry when I return, but who knows if that will actually happen. So now I am off. I must go be shadowed for the evening by the woman that is going to replace me for the next 2 weeks. Hope you all are having a good old time in the freezing states. I'm loving Summer. :-)

Warm Regards,
Wes