Praxis: round two. [ding, ding] learn!
it is tomorrow. well, it's yesterday's tomorrow, so here is an update with some exciting stories. exciting for me, at least...
Sunday:
drove up to Auckland. picked up a hitchhiker in Waikanae and drove him all the way to Manukau. his name was Jonas and he was from Germany. Met Mell in Auckland and went to her church. hung out at her place later and crashed there for the night.
Monday:
drove all the way out to Parakai, to a community called Peacemakers where our first module was being held. it was cool seeing people again. the Mystic, the Justice Maker and the Comedian (Dallas, Jen and myself) were reunited :o) it was great fun. the house we were staying at was huge, with something like 10 bedrooms and 3 lounges. the module was called 'reflective practitioner' and we talked a lot about spirituality. i got some people addicted to Catan. muahaha. stayed up late catching up with Jen.
Tuesday:
you've got to love it when you wake up out to views like this:
Peacemakers have their own pool!
some kind of tree...
today we covered spiritual traditions and personality. it's a lot of work, and the assignments are going to be interesting. i've got assignments for three modules this term. a lot of work!
after all the learning and meals, we played games all night. played a couple of games of Catan with my new converts.
Hannah, PK and Aimee: Catan converts...
played Phase 10 as well. the other people playing weren't as competitive as the Palmie Team Xers, so i had a chance to win :o) i also played some weird justice making game on a laptop with Jen. we never did get our prisoner released, but we got more of our team imprisoned. hmm...
Wednesday:
cooked up some french toast for breakfast. it went pretty fast and nobody died. both good signs. talked about simplicity and spiritual timelines. pretty interesting stuff. we cleaned up the house and those who weren't doing the next module said goodbye.
Hannah, Jen, Alana, Aimee, Rachel, Mark, PK, me and Dallas
me and Dallas crashed at Jen and Hannah's flat for the next few days. the second module was being run in Auckland at the Praxis offices.
Thursday:
the second module was 'introduction to counselling'. today's stuff was all theory. some of it i'd learnt about back at uni doing my Educational Psychology papers. it was all pretty good stuff though.
Jen went out and bought Phase 10 afterwards, so we played that tonight back at her flat. Dallas turned up with a Leunig DVD with a bunch of animated shorts on it, so we watched that while playing. some were pretty funny. others were pretty random.
Friday:
today was a lot of practical stuff, putting things we learnt yesterday into practice. everyone was trying to bring out the lingo, like 'introducing secondary introjections' and other such phrases. the great thing was that we all knew what each other was on about :o) i got to do a role play in which i played a non-complient counselling client. fun stuff :o)
Dallas cruised home tonight. me and Jen went up Mt. Eden and looked around, then went to Greg's (one of the Praxis workers) house for dinner. he lives with his family in a community with a lot of single mums. hung out with the kids of one such mum and had a great time. Me, Jen and Greg walked her and her kids home and we got invited in by her 5-year old to watch the Care Bears movie. i got invited to sleep over, but had to decline.
me and Jen went for a random drive later, we were going to go to one of her friends' houses, but drove past it and kept driving 'til we ended up at Piha. we hung out in her car and just talked. it was awesome. cruised back to the flat and mucked around for ages. we were both really tired, so everything was funny :o) ended up going to bed at 2:30am or something.
Saturday:
Jen, as a campus minister at a Catholic school, is involved with kids from Young Vinnies. it's some kind of Catholic group. i don't know anything about it, but there was a big meeting of all the Young Vinnies groups from Auckland, so Jen had to go to it. i tagged along. it was interesting. there was a concert and lunch was put on, so that's all good.
me an Jen went into Auckland city later and saw 'Meet the Robinsons'. it was great :o) we borrowed a projector on the way back to the flat and set it up in Jen's room, pointing at the roof. chilled out and watched Troy. watched The Black Dahlia. it was a film noir that made no sense to me. maybe it's because i was really tired, but even Scarlett Johansson didn't save the movie for me.
Sunday:
said my goodbyes and drove away from Auckland. no hitchhikers on the way home. stopped in Palmie for an hour or so and caught up with a bunch of Team Xers. that was cool :o)
managed to get a photo of the cool sunset on the way home from Palmie. it's not easy taking photos from a car moving at 100kph
pretty cool, huh?
got back home safe and sound.
and that was my trip to Auckland!
Sunday:
drove up to Auckland. picked up a hitchhiker in Waikanae and drove him all the way to Manukau. his name was Jonas and he was from Germany. Met Mell in Auckland and went to her church. hung out at her place later and crashed there for the night.
Monday:
drove all the way out to Parakai, to a community called Peacemakers where our first module was being held. it was cool seeing people again. the Mystic, the Justice Maker and the Comedian (Dallas, Jen and myself) were reunited :o) it was great fun. the house we were staying at was huge, with something like 10 bedrooms and 3 lounges. the module was called 'reflective practitioner' and we talked a lot about spirituality. i got some people addicted to Catan. muahaha. stayed up late catching up with Jen.
Tuesday:
you've got to love it when you wake up out to views like this:
Peacemakers have their own pool!
some kind of tree...
today we covered spiritual traditions and personality. it's a lot of work, and the assignments are going to be interesting. i've got assignments for three modules this term. a lot of work!
after all the learning and meals, we played games all night. played a couple of games of Catan with my new converts.
Hannah, PK and Aimee: Catan converts...
played Phase 10 as well. the other people playing weren't as competitive as the Palmie Team Xers, so i had a chance to win :o) i also played some weird justice making game on a laptop with Jen. we never did get our prisoner released, but we got more of our team imprisoned. hmm...
Wednesday:
cooked up some french toast for breakfast. it went pretty fast and nobody died. both good signs. talked about simplicity and spiritual timelines. pretty interesting stuff. we cleaned up the house and those who weren't doing the next module said goodbye.
Hannah, Jen, Alana, Aimee, Rachel, Mark, PK, me and Dallas
me and Dallas crashed at Jen and Hannah's flat for the next few days. the second module was being run in Auckland at the Praxis offices.
Thursday:
the second module was 'introduction to counselling'. today's stuff was all theory. some of it i'd learnt about back at uni doing my Educational Psychology papers. it was all pretty good stuff though.
Jen went out and bought Phase 10 afterwards, so we played that tonight back at her flat. Dallas turned up with a Leunig DVD with a bunch of animated shorts on it, so we watched that while playing. some were pretty funny. others were pretty random.
Friday:
today was a lot of practical stuff, putting things we learnt yesterday into practice. everyone was trying to bring out the lingo, like 'introducing secondary introjections' and other such phrases. the great thing was that we all knew what each other was on about :o) i got to do a role play in which i played a non-complient counselling client. fun stuff :o)
Dallas cruised home tonight. me and Jen went up Mt. Eden and looked around, then went to Greg's (one of the Praxis workers) house for dinner. he lives with his family in a community with a lot of single mums. hung out with the kids of one such mum and had a great time. Me, Jen and Greg walked her and her kids home and we got invited in by her 5-year old to watch the Care Bears movie. i got invited to sleep over, but had to decline.
me and Jen went for a random drive later, we were going to go to one of her friends' houses, but drove past it and kept driving 'til we ended up at Piha. we hung out in her car and just talked. it was awesome. cruised back to the flat and mucked around for ages. we were both really tired, so everything was funny :o) ended up going to bed at 2:30am or something.
Saturday:
Jen, as a campus minister at a Catholic school, is involved with kids from Young Vinnies. it's some kind of Catholic group. i don't know anything about it, but there was a big meeting of all the Young Vinnies groups from Auckland, so Jen had to go to it. i tagged along. it was interesting. there was a concert and lunch was put on, so that's all good.
me an Jen went into Auckland city later and saw 'Meet the Robinsons'. it was great :o) we borrowed a projector on the way back to the flat and set it up in Jen's room, pointing at the roof. chilled out and watched Troy. watched The Black Dahlia. it was a film noir that made no sense to me. maybe it's because i was really tired, but even Scarlett Johansson didn't save the movie for me.
Sunday:
said my goodbyes and drove away from Auckland. no hitchhikers on the way home. stopped in Palmie for an hour or so and caught up with a bunch of Team Xers. that was cool :o)
managed to get a photo of the cool sunset on the way home from Palmie. it's not easy taking photos from a car moving at 100kph
pretty cool, huh?
got back home safe and sound.
and that was my trip to Auckland!
