Getting Back into the Swing of Things

It has been so amazing not having to wear that sling everywhere! My arm is almost totally healed, and I've spent the last week or two slowly getting back into the swing of things. I've played 4 games, and each is getting better. Also there are so many other things I can do again! For example, I can finally try out our Super Swing!

Sunday afternoon we went down to show it to some youth from our branch, and I finally felt up to trying it out. Here's some of my favorites from the afternoon...

 

Hannah, one of the YSA's, complained that that first picture makes her look like a "mum" so I had to post this other one as well to make her happy :D

Mercy, riding like a pro :)

 

Tyler, visiting from Boise Idaho, "learned the ropes" really quickly and had a great time :)

3… 2… 1…. Jump!

 

Sagey, our little dare-devil kept saying, "Higher Noah, higher!"

But the most daring trick of the day goes to Joycie… "No hands, Noah, no hands! I not even holding on!"

Practice Exam

What do you think of when I say "Practice Exam"? ...I'll bet words like "backpacking, tent, stove, compass, campfire" probably weren't some of the first ones to pop into your mind!

This Wednesday night we had a "practice exam" in my outdoor ed class. You see, our final exam is a 5-day expedition that includes backpacking, snow caving, rock climbing, and whitewater kayaking. So its only logical that a practice exam would be an overnight backpacking camp, right? Right.

Our class is quite small (14 guys, when everybody shows up), and a big part of having fun with our activities was getting to know all the interesting characters in my class.

 

Meet Flynn and Phil...

 

 Cam and Roy (Yes, Cam is hiking in the knee-high school socks and gumboots, and Roy is holding a knife. Apparently he lost the sheath...)

 

 Koki (he's a Japanese exchange student, and I'm pretty sure he'd never been outside a big city in his life before this)...

...and Josh and George. These were my two crazy tent mates, and oh boy have we had some adventures.

It started with an extensive gear check during lunch,

Then we drove 30 minutes up out of the city and into the National Park.

We only hiked about 45 minutes into our campsite, but the trail was pretty exciting :D

When we got there, we set up camp, then explored the river and found a good place for a fire.

 

Once it started getting dark we cooked ourselves a delicious dinner of pasta, cheese sauce, sausages and rolls.

We then lit a nice fire and proceeded to "roast marshmallows", except that New Zealand marshmallows are posh little pink things covered in powdered sugar, and they don't roast very well :P

The next morning started bright and early, eating breakfast and hiking out in the dark, cause we had to be back to school for first period.

 

We came out of the forest to a beautiful sunrise.

Staying awake in school that day was a struggle, but I survived, and the trip was definitely worth it!

Forever Strong

 

If you're like I was before moving to New Zealand, the Haka is something you had only ever seen on the movie "Forever Strong". (If you haven't seen Forever Strong, put it at the top of your Netflix queue or something, its that good :D)

Anyway, I now have a much better understanding the Haka. Our school has its own Haka, and as you can see below we have an inter-house competition to see who can do it best, as well as doing it at Rugby games, important assemblies, when representing the school in foreign countries etc.

 

We had a big rugby game today, against Hamilton Boys High, and this is the video my dad took of us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP8SVDrE_O8 

I recommend turning the volume all the way up so you can tell what it was actually like :) I'm somewhere on the second row, and Danny and Oak there as well.

Visiting Dad at Work

Most people would love to have a day off to hang around at their dads' work, right? Well that is as long as your dad isn't a hangman (hahaha punny!) ...or an emergency doctor!

This post has taken me ages to do, because it was a lot slower typing with only one hand, but about a month ago I spent my first (and hopefully last) day with my dad in the ER.

*DISCLAIMER*

I can't remember anything from the whole morning, so the "official story" is what my parents told me about what happened. It could very well be that they are just trying to protect me, and in fact I spent the morning on a top security mission hunting down alien terrorists and that then the government brainwashed me. This is in fact the more likely scenario...

So... apparently I got dropped off at work, (I work at the YMCA during the holidays) and started playing ball tag with the kids.  Then I did something I'd done a hundred times playing tag before... I vaulted the railing that you can see below. Yup, that one with the big sign that says "FOR YOU OWN SAFETY PLEASE KEEP OFF RAILINGS". Well, I can honestly say I had never noticed the sign. But anyway, I tried to vault the railing, and something went wrong. Supposedly I caught my shin, and fell headfirst to the gym floor. My shoulder took most of the force but my head snapped around and got whacked pretty good too. I was out for a whole minute, and some of the kids told me I was twitching but I'm not sure I believe them :)

 

Basically the first thing I remember is laying in the hospital bed with these three little angels looking down at me :)

The hours I spent in the hospital are really confused, but I remember part of a blessing that I got from my dad and young men's president (who also works in the hospital), and I remember random bits of ceiling and conversation as I got rolled around on the snazzy hospital bed. I also seem to remember a quite attractive nurse with a Scottish accent asking me confusing questions, but I'm not sure :D

Finally I was diagnosed with a concussion and an acromioclavicular joint separation (basically my shoulder was busted), and was allowed to take off that terrible neck brace and go home.

Probably the best part of the day was walking in the door and receiving a massive stack of get well cards from my sisters and their friends. I'm gonna quote Mercy's, cause it was so sweet:

Dear Noah,

I hope you will heel quicky and heel totally so you can play basketball and you can play with me, play the viola and other things you choose to do. I know you will heel at least most of the way even if it takes longer than we were expecting because Neto [my YM president] came from were he was working at the hospital to give you a blessing with Dad. I know Heavenly Father will watch over you. Get Well Soon!

So there you have it :) And of course she was right. I got the sling off my arm yesterday, and I'm hoping to get some game time in our big rivalry basketball game against the local Catholic Boys school next week :)

P.S My dad made this really sweet video of the whole incident... if you're interested here's the link: Noah Gone Goofy

Super Swing

Meet Jason Gaastra. He is The Man. The son of our district president, he is an arborist (tree doctor) by profession, and was also one of our EFY counsellors this summer. He and his dad saw the massive trees in our back yard, and decided that they were gonna build a 'Super Swing'.

I'd like to say we were all very helpful, and that he couldn't have done it without us, but to be honest we pretty much spent the whole day messing around with his spare equipment...

   

  

   

And yes, that's Mercy tied up in about 50ft of rope :) Who would have done such a thing, you ask? Me?! What, no! I'd never do something like that… :P

Well here's the finished product. It actually swings about 10ft higher than Mercy is in that pic… we've fixed it up since then :)

 

 

P.S We'll even let you swing free of charge if you come visit… please? :D