10 Day Challenge - Day 7

Choosing four books is practically impossible with how much I read. I tried to narrow it down to books that really affected me, so here goes:

1. The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Henry and Claire are such inspirational characters! When I read Claire, I'm just in awe of how patient she is and how she reacts to such a weird situation. Henry deals amazingly well considering he is constantly in danger. Either of them could falter, but they never do. Claire loves him from the moment she meets him, which I've never experienced so it's really crazy how easy I believe it. The writing flows like poetry, too. A far-fetched situation seems so real, and the tragedy is almost beautiful. This book made me want to be a writer.

2. The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I read all four books in four days. It was insanity. I have never ever fallen in love with a book so fast. I was the biggest anti-Twilight person you could imagine up until the second I decided to try them. I hate scary things and I especially hate vampires. The whole thing just sounds ridiculous, and I wanted to slap the girl who fell in love with a killer. Then my mom read them and became obsessed and I was bored at home on Christmas break and the rest is history. Bella is awkward, sarcastic, pale, has brown eyes and brown hair, loves to read, and a million other things that remind me of myself, so this helped me in reading. Say what you will about the craze, but Stephenie Meyer knows how to write for her audience. I've never seen such amazing details. I've never been such a fanatic about any other book series. I'm still obsessed, years later. I know Edward's a fictional character, but that doesn't stop me from loving him. 

3. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. I was 

against Harry Potter, too, in the beginning. As soon as the first book came out I got it for Christmas and couldn't get past like chapter four. I tried again when the second book came out, but no luck. I read them all in like 6 days before the last movie came out. I did have to push through the first two books though, but it turned out to be worth it! I had seen the movies and read different articles so I knew basically what was going to happen, but I cried like a psychotic baby during Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows and I NEVER CRY. Part of it had to do with being so wrapped up in everything Hogwarts and having practically no sleep for a week, but either way, it was great writing. Just thinking about it is getting me emotional, so I'm going to stop now. **

4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book taught me a lot about myself and changed my perspective. She proved how hard it is to start over from scratch in your life and how scary it is to try new things and new places. She also showed that it was all worth it. Just because I have no idea where I'm going in life doesn't have to be a bad thing. It also made me eat a lot of pizza. 

I have read everything by Nicholas Sparks that I can get my hands on, so his works are all my honorable mentions. 

**Note to my future person: I will partake in Harry Potter marathons that will steal hours from my life. You should go ahead and practice liking it. Also, you must always let me watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 alone because it makes me cry hysterically. I need to make that clearer. I (the emotionally challenged, masculine communicator) will be sobbing loudly and grossly for the last thirty minutes of the movie and will still be sobbing during the credits. You're not invited. I've got a rep to protect. 

Kia Ora!

     If you ever get the chance to study abroad and you don't take it, you're an idiot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQL6PD94yFA). This summer I took advantage of our study abroad program and traveled down under to New Zealand! I say "took advantage" because I traveled there to take two upper-level English courses in three weeks and paid a reasonable amount of money to do so, and ended up having the best time! Who knew school could be fun?

We stayed in Wellington for two weeks and Queenstown for one week. 

     Ok, I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions I normally get when I tell people that I went to NZ. No, it is not Australia, nor is it connected to Australia. I didn't see any castles. Kiwis speak English, so I was completely able to function. It's a first world country, so I was staying in a hotel not a grass hut. I flew there, because you kinda have to. There was a major time difference and it was winter. I know I went in June, but I promise it was winter. 

     WARNING: You are now entering the nerd zone. Enter at your own risk.

     I took a travel writing class which was really cool. I learned a lot about writing a travel piece and about non-fiction writing in general. I feel like non-fiction isn't covered as well as it should be in most writing classes, so I really enjoyed everything I learned. I also learned some random trivia about faraway places through all the reading. 

     Here's where things get weird. The other class I took was a LORD OF THE RINGS class!!! I'm going to shoot you straight. I had never picked up a book or seen a movie before I signed up for this class. I read all the books (including The Hobbit) the week before we went and finished the third book of LOTR once we got there. I really enjoyed the books. Then, we watched all three LOTR movies back to back to back (9 hrs of the precious!) and I couldn't help but become obsessed. We spent our class days discussing how the books and movies went together and the difficulties in creating Middle Earth. We also went on an awesome LOTR filming location tour! We stood in Rivendell (sort of) and in the forest from the Fellowship (where the hobbits hide under the tree roots and such). We also went to the WETA Cave! WETA is the company that did all the special effects. They did Avatar and a lot of other movies as well (Google it geez). We also went horseback riding at the base of the Misty Mountains, NBD. It was a nerd's paradise. The only thing that made it better was knowing the stars of The Hobbit were lurking about filming (Sir Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom, Martin Freeman**, etc.). Unfortunately we never saw them. Three of us were lucky enough to paint models of Aragorn and Frodo while we were there! It took three hours and they are perfect. Real Talk. 

     We went to a Crusaders rugby game! We also saw a play about a weird family with technological difficulties, one about the All Blacks, and one about Churchill and his dysfunctional family. I rode a freaking horse. It was a great experience and I'm glad I did it, but this girl was not meant for large animals. It's just a fact. We ate a million apples and mentos and drank wayyy too much coffee (if that's possible). I could go on and on and on forever about the rad things we saw and did, but I won't. I'm sure they'll just be referenced throughout future posts, so be prepared. I'll save all the dirt about my classmates for another blog post. Cliffhanger!!

 Crazy Coffee from Fidel's 

WETA Cave 

 Scenery from The Fellowship of the Ring

 Me and Cecile (which they pronounced Sessile-- which must have been a joke)

 Who's this hottie?? 

 Frodo chilling in the forest 

 Sauron

 Wellington 

 Wellington 

 Wellington's Cable Car 

 Queenstown

Queenstown 

Wellington

Note to my future boyfriend: You don't have to love Tolkien, but you need to pretend you do. Otherwise I'll spend hours making you watch the movies and convincing you to like them. Also, you'll need to love New Zealand, even if you've never been there.

**My six degrees to John K. took a turn for greatness in NZ. As many of you may know, Martin Freeman played Tim Canterbury on The Office (UK). Tim is the character that Jim (US version) is based on. This was my in! I was in the same city as someone who more than likely knows or has definite connections to John K! I kept my eyes peeled for the entire trip, but no luck. One day John and I will sit in our living room and laugh about this. Then we'll watch LOTR.