Make-shift Pancake Day!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

This morning, Nancy, Emily, and I got up to watch the sunrise. It was probably the last time I will watch the sunrise in New Zealand and it was a gorgeous sunrise. On the way back to the motel Emily brought up that we were planning to make pancakes for breakfast, but we didn't have a spatula or butter or oil for the pan. We were like okay maybe we can figure this out and just flip them in the pan and maybe we will get luck y and they won't stick. We ended up finding a spatula, but still did not have anything to grease the pan. Nancy suggested we make our own butter, so we started shaking there little milk containers like the ones you pt in coffee to try to make butter. No go. Next, we had some frozen cheesecake in the fridge so we tried putting some of that on the pan and using it instead of butter didn't work. Our room was pretty smoky  by now, but then I was like okay well now we have a layer of pancake on the pan so we can try to make them on top of that, but that did not work either. We were about to give up and just wait for a store to open and then just go grab somethings, but then I said, "wait why don't we make them in the microwave?" We weren't sue if it would work, but it was worth a try, so I put some pancake batter on a plate and Emily put it in the microwave and cooked it for a minute and guess what, it worked. You can make pancakes in the microwave. We told the others and they were unsure at first, but it so worked. The pancakes looked and tasted like pancakes. So now April 5th is official make-shift pancake day; we are going to celebrate it every year and make pancakes in the microwave. It was so much fun and we were laughing so hard when it actually worked. Emily, had learned to play the ukulele while we were in the Northland, so she made up a song about our make-shift pancake day to the tune of bruises. It is so funny and we even got a video of it.We then went and shared our pancake song and discovery with the other girls. That song ans making make-shift pancakes really made my morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgyF0jR2xdA

Before leaving the motel, we sang Te Aroha to James and then gave him our gift and then sang lean on me to all of them. I think just about all of us were in tears by the end because it finally hit us that we are leaving New Zealand and may never see each other again. We want to do reunions in Provo, but we will probably never see James again unless we get back to New Zealand, which makes me so so sad. I am really going to miss him. I am glad we are going to have reunions with the girls and Jacobs in the fall, but it will still be hard to get all of us together.I will have to make it a priority. I am really going to miss all of the other girls. We were so unified and as Jim and Linda say, out of their 9 study abroads, their best group. I hope I do get to see all of the girls again, we have become such good friends. I also hope I can keep in contact with Jim and Linda and James. Jim and Linda are so amazing. They really made this trip. It would not have been the same if Jim had not decided to do New Zealand from again. I have learned so much from him and he really has become a grandfatherly figure to me. I am going to miss him and Linda so much. The 16 of us decided that we want to make a children's book for him of our story in New Zealand with pictures. It is going to be so cute. We wrote the story on our drive back, and I love it.

Once I got back, I tried for a few hours to talk to my family, but it never really worked very well, internet and skype was in and out. I did finally get it to work to talk to my poppop though and I was so excited. I love talking to him and telling him everything. I am so glad we have grown closer while I have been in New Zealand.