Birthday and Handball Weekend!

During orientation at NC State one of the student speakers told us that we had to resist the temptation to travel every weekend because we were going to miss so many social opportunities right at our universities, but I didn't really consider what she was saying at the time. I write this because a couple days before my birthday I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with that weekend and I was pretty set on the idea of traveling to the Wiatomo Caves and Ragland, but then I remembered what the speaker had said and all of a sudden it made sense. What was the point of spending my 20th birthday alone, even if it was traveling, when I was surrounded by awesome friends here in Palmerston? I decided to stay here for my birthday and had an amazing time! I went out to dinner with my four best friends here at a Korean bbq. They gave me some great presents including a knitted red and white hat and a greenstone necklace! The greenstone necklace meant so much to me because it's a big part of the culture here and the symbol they gave me was an infinity loop which symbolizes eternal friendship. Earlier in the day my friends Lizzy and Richard gave me an awesome collage of pictures from out mid semester break trip and an orchid (my favorite flower) to keep in my room! After the Korean bbq we met up with about a dozen other people at Rosie O-Grady's pub and hit the town! We played pool for a little while there and then moved to the Fish which is a great little bar in Palmerston North that serves really good cocktails. After we stayed there for a while and did some hilarious dances, we tried to go to High Flyers which is more of a dancing club. We stayed there about 15 minutes and decided to leave because it was a little out of control. So we ended the night at our favorite place which was Murphy's Bar. Great music and great friends made the night a memorable one. :) Needless to say I had a lot of fun, but definitely needed the Sunday to recover.

The next weekend I also stayed in Palmerston North because it was the weekend of the handball tournament! It was an all day event on Saturday and we had teams from Wellington and Hamilton come to play with us. I played for the Massey Women and Men because the men didn't have a goalie. The first game I played with the women was a pretty bad loss because we played the men's team that wound up winning the whole tournament. I wound up winning only 1 out of 5 games that I played that day, but it was a blast anyways. I also got knocked out pretty badly during one of the last games when I took a handball to the face. Turns out goal keeping is pretty dangerous and painful ;) After the tournament, we got cleaned up and changed and went out to Malbas, another bar in town, for some awards and drinks. We finally got to mingle with the other players and I met some really cool people. I ended up winning an award for best knockout and got to spend $20 bucks at the bar, which I used to buy a couple of shots for some friends and I. We stayed at Malbas for a while and decided to move the party to Zoe's flat. A ton of people came and it turned into a pretty crazy house party. The whole team of Spartanz (the champion men's team) showed up and several players from the other teams and of course everyone from our two teams. I met a couple of French guys and of course started talking in French with them which was awesome! At some point we had a hilarious dance party in the living room and of course videos to prove it. The party ended around 2:30 and we went home for some much needed rest. I don't think I've ever been more sore the next morning from all the activity during the day and night. Who knew handball was such a social sport.