Beer, Mussels, and Rock Climbing

This weekend has been much more relaxing compared to my previous two weekend trips. Because I had a mandatory fieldtrip on Sunday, I decided to hang around Christchurch on Friday & Saturday. On Friday, after my classes ended at noon, Daniel and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach in New Brighton. It was a beautiful day, and as we are slowly transitioning to fall weather, I want to take full advantage of all the nice weather. We walked up and down the shore, laid out on the beach, and walked around the little stores in town. On our way back to campus, we stopped and picked up some DELICIOUS Thai food for dinner. 

I had a very relaxed morning on Saturday. I tried to get as much work completed as I could while also trying to plan more trips for the semester. Saturday afternoon I went to the Belgium Beer and Mussels Festival. There were lots of booths at the festival with tons of beer, live music, and then a food truck that sold different varieties of mussels. I went to the festival with two of my friends, Nicole and Erika, who unfortunately were into beer and mussels as much I was. I could have stayed at the festival all day. In the end, I did try a variety of mussels which were delicious and a traditional Belgium beer to go along with them. 

Today I had my rockclimbing fieldtrip for the climbing class I am taking. We traveled out to Castle Hill, which is a popular place for bouldering. It was my first real experience with outdoor climbing so I was a bit unsure about how I would do. We learned many techniques for climbing and then were given different routes/rocks to try these techniques on. Overall, I thought I did pretty well, much better than I expected. I was able to get more of a feel for what I’m capable of doing climbing-wise and what I’ll need to work on this semester. My body is so sore from climbing all day, and my feet are screaming at me for wearing climbing shoes 2 sizes too small. I’m excited to go back to Castle Hill in May for our 2nd fieldtrip, though, to see how much I’ve improved through taking this course. On our way back to Christchurch, we stopped at a famous pie shop, where I bought ate a delicious Moroccan lamb meat pie for dinner followed by a cherry pie for dessert. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all,

Erin