My Big Boots...: Dear Father Christmas, for Christmas I would like a dinosaur model and can it please be a Parasaurolophus? Oh, and a marble.

Well, now it's time for me to let you know what else has been going on in my life in the past month and a half. For the most part, things have been school, the occasional jam (everyone's super busy lately, and I haven't been able to go half as often as I would like), and some miscellaneous things thrown in between. These are the highlights though:

Busking on Cuba Street with some other dancers (didn't make much money, but that's not really the point)

Going to see: The Avengers, The Grey, and Dark Shadows in theatres (I'm now realizing that I've gone to see quite a few movies while I've been here... hmmm..)

Dancing to a Batucada drum circle on Cuba Street (Cuba Street is sort of the hub of activity in Wellington, it's the go-to spot when you get here, because there's always something going on). Batucada is a type of percussion music originating from Brazil. My friend Scott and I were walking down Cuba when we heard this fantastic rhythm down the street, and a huge crowd of people. We naturally went to investigate (it was also on our way home). There was a circle of about ten drummers, on various percussion instruments, playing this really up-beat, energetic music, all conducted by a man with a whistle. A lot of people there were sort of swaying to the beat and such, but I couldn't really help getting a little bit more into it- shocker I know. Sooooo, I gave my things to Scott and started to dance- outside the drum circle at first, but then they ushered me inside. It was so much fun! I can't really convey how goofy-happy I felt. Here is a taster of Batucada music, so you can see what I mean:

I saw the whistle conductor-man a few weeks after and he recognized me. He invited me to their next performance. It was kinda different being recognized for something like that, actually, here's how the conversation went (I was just walking home from work, and was pretty tired):

A man and I walk by each other...and from behind me I hear
'Hey! Hey!'
I turn around slowly.

He says 'Hey! I know you! You know how i recognize you?'

Me: 'No' (I wasn't really in the mood to chat, I'll be honest)

Him: 'I saw you dancing' [Me- blank expression, this really doesn't narrow it down much] '..on Cuba street' [me- still blank expression, cuz this really only narrows it down a little bit more] '... I was with the drumming Batucada group'

Me: 'Oh! no way man, you were awesome!' [smile]

We exchanged names and hand shakes, and that was that.

I have nothing really more to add to that story, so I'll move on to another highlight...

Getting to know Yasu- he was one of the super awesome guys dancing with our group, who left for Australia about 2 weeks ago. He was from Japan and was a really good popper. In case you don't know what popping/locking is, here he is doing his thing:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=407242389307772

It was really great getting to know him, he was always a good guy to have around, gonna miss you man.

Practicing for the inter-hall Stage Off next week- this is basically where each Victoria University hostel gets a dance performance together and performs it for a panel of judges who decide who has the best dance. I am dancing in the hip hop section of ours, and we're working pretty hard to get it ready for next Wednesday- the big night.

Oh, the quote in the post title requires explaining. Stephen (my neighbour) and I have made it a habit to go to a cafe at least once a week, buy good food, and either read or study, whatever the case may be. Today we continued on our tradition, and on our walk up the stairs back home, we somehow got on to the topic of writing letters to Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, as Stephen called him. Apparently, as a 3 year old child, Stephen had written the above letter to Father Christmas, requesting a very particular dinosaur model... and one marble. He also spelled his own name wrong several times, but managed to spell the dinosaur's name correctly (I hope you don't mind being forever immortalized in my blog Stephen!). Being me, I proceeded to look up said dinosaur when I got home, because I had never heard of it, I'm ashamed to admit.

This is what a Parasaurolophus is supposed to have looked like:

Now, I don't know about you, but my first thought was "AH! That looks like Ducky!" (From The Land Before Time, for any of you unfamiliar with the Ducky I'm referring to). This then resulted in me looking up the dinosaur Ducky was supposed to represent. Unbeknownst to me, I had stumbled into a veritable cartoon dinosaur controversy on the internet. Some sources swear up and down that she is a Parasaurolophus, others say she is a Saurolophus. Here is an entire article about the subject if you're interested:

http://landbeforetime.wikia.com/wiki/Dispute_over_Ducky's_species

Also, in case you were wondering, these two dinosaur species are not one and the same, though their names are quite similar. I decided not to take a side in the debate, but instead spent my time finding a video clip to remind myself (and by default all of you) how wonderful Ducky is. And here it is (the video clip turns into weird promo things at about 2:12, but up until then, it's gold):

And, I've saved the best highlight for last- another photo shoot. Mark and Rob got a few more photographer people together, and we got our people together, and we all traveled out to Fort Ballance. This is an old army base, which is actually owned by Peter Jackson (the director of the Lord of the Rings movies). The land is still open to public access however, so we had a pretty sweet spot for some photos. There were well over 200 photos taken over the course of the day, but here are some of my favourites (and a few more of me, in case you're keen to see yours truly...).

P.S. Koodos to Rob Wilson and Big Mark Photography- these guys are amazing, and if you need some photographers in New Zealand, they should be your guys!