After 6.3

Some of you may know that on the 22nd of February a 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurch -- AGAIN. Yes, about five months earlier we were hit with a 7.1 earthquake, so we were pretty confident lightening wasn't going to hit the same place twice, then BOOM.

Me and my mother have moved cities, moved islands in fact! Now we live in Wellington -- the capital city of New Zealand. I am really sad about this of course, Christchurch is a beautiful city (which is now destroyed) and it was my home for 11 years. Not to mention I went to an amazing school (the best school in the world) and had my BFFL Josh.

The thing about earthquakes is that there is the initial quake, which is terrifying, and afterwards everyone's emotions run wild and it seems difficult to stay sane.

During the earthquake I was at the University Library. Suddenly the room started shaking violently, the power went out, and people started screaming. A pipe broke and it started raining inside. I grabbed all my stuff (no way was I going to leave it behind) and we evacuated. Outside, I was lucky to find someone I knew and decided to stay with her. The unfortunate thing about the University is that it is an hours bus ride away from my house, which I estimated would take maybe 3-4 hours on foot to get home. I always promised my mum that if there was a disaster that I'd walk straight home, but when it actually happened I was way too scared to voyage out there on my own! I told her I was going to stay with my friend, and try to eventually get home. We walked for 2 hours, and during that time I managed to contact a couple of people and check that they were fine, and of course we were hearing all sorts of rumors, such as certain streets and roads were destroyed, including one that I would have to go down to get home. So I txted my mum and told her I was going to my friend's house and was going to stay there with her. The cellphone coverage was really bad, but when I eventually got her replies 1 hour later, I could see she wasn't happy about my decision. But I knew that attempting to get home with all these aftershocks on my own would be dangerous, possibly resulting in who knows what...

I kept trying to txt another best friend of mine, who was in the city center, but with no luck. I was panicking because we could see a lot of smoke and dust and could here alarms and see police and fire engines and ambulances driving in. Me and my friend got in some University student's car, someone who we didn't know, but one of the girls we were walking with knew. We spent the next 5 hours in the car going around the back suburbs and trying to get out of the horrible traffic which was hardly moving. There was liquefaction everywhere, and about half the houses we saw were destroyed. Seeing these things on the news is one thing, but when you see them with your own eyes is completely different. I couldn't help but wonder if it was all a bad dream. Finally we arrived at my friends house, and I called my mum and did my best to calm her down, told her my friends address, and soon after she came with our neighbor to pick me up and take me home.

Once I got home I felt much better, and I finally managed to contact my friend who was in the CBD, she told me that everyone was absolutely freaked, but no one was dead. I'm convinced that if I had been at school on that day that I might have been injured or killed, because me and Josh often walk around and could have easily been doing that. This hit with no warning.

Like I said, the initial thing was bad, but it was even worse afterwards... I wrote that during the last earthquake we stayed raw quite easily, and had clean water back in a few days. No such luck even 2 weeks after this quake! We decided that we'd had enough of all this, and started packing. The combination of packing, and having hardly any food and water meant that I did have to eat some cooked food. Which is ironic really, because packing really requires a lot of energy and strength, and here I was eating food that provided me with neither. My body responded not very well, of course, and now have the flu! >:|

Yesterday we finally had our whole house packed up and drove up the coast of the South Island to catch the Ferry to Wellington. My next few posts will be about me exploring this place, which I will share with everyone with some pictures.

And tonight I get to see some of my family and my 2 little brothers :)

Vegetarian/Vegan/Raw Expo 2010

So much fun! :D

The day started off with me meeting my BFFL Josh in town.

We had to walk a mile or two to get to the venue, but eventually... we made it! The day was like rly warm.

It was so crowded.

We walked through Hagley Park to get there. It was pretty cool, you gotta admit. There were blossoms on the trees, flowers scattered, sort of like a fairytale. It probably wouldn't be a fairytale if you had allergies though, then it would be a minefield.

But back to the soothing pictures.

The lol moment du jour was when me and Josh went up to a table to grab a free sample, and the lady was like, "Hey Gurlz!", and Josh was like, "Ahem. Excuse me?" and she was like, "Uh... and Guyz..." I laughed for the next ten minutes.

Food! Food was so tasty. Of course, I only ate the raw vegan stuff. I bought a bottle of Kombucha, too, 'cos I was so thirsty. But ew, it did not taste good. The stuff we brewed at home was so much better. (No offence to the guy who made it if you're reading this, though why would you be. Are you a stalker or something?!)

We had one each of these. On the left are Chia Swirls, and on the right are Chocolate Velvet Slices. They are even better than they sound!

I had a Lucuma Luxury drink. This is the drink stand.

I had a Quiche Lorraine. That sounds like a person's name, or is that just me?

Josh had a truffle, as usual. Because Josh always has a truffle. What am I getting Josh for his birthday in two weeks? A truffle.

Can you spot my mother, I mean, uh, Waldo? Chances are, you cannot.

Haha. Thar she is.

I had a slice of gateau as well, and me + mum halved a raw tortilla wrap.

The day was so great, perfect weather, great food, except for my mum constantly making inappropriate jokes in front of Josh. Just kidding, I do love you mum. :)

Peace and Raw Food,
Felic x

24 hours away from Water Kefir happiness...

We started fermenting our Kefir Grains a day (or two) ago.

For anyone that doesn't know, Kefir is a grain that you ferment, and it is filled with healthy bacteria and goodness.

We found great tutorials and articles about growing and fermenting Kefir. I'm so grateful for the internet, it makes being raw so much easier. And everything else, as well.

...I'm sorry, I was just distracted by the full moon just outside my window.

Anyway... What was I saying again? 

Kefir! Right, I found a great tutorial and post from GreenMomZoe's blog, but the Water Kefir post and Video are specifically here.

We're currently up to a 'stage two' fermentation. We added 1/4c orange juice to make an Orange Lemonade (kind of like Fanta, hopefully), and are letting it ferment for a further 24 hours. I tasted it, and it was sort of like Lemon Ice Tea, very nice :D 

I hope to post the 'Slice of Happiness' Energy bar recipe soon. I'm still developing it. I brought samples to school for my friend Josh to try, and I think he liked them, but they still need improvement. I have managed to develop a Chocolate flavour and a Vanilla flavour! I really like both, but I need to add more sweetener I think. I'm not used to my food being very sweet.

So far we're 2 days into the new block at school. There are two blocks in a term, every 5 weeks. Every block we choose new classes to take. Anyway, I'm not really a bunker at school but I don't take many classes (we have quite a lot of freedom, I already attend University part time, and do some subjects that aren't offered by correspondence), but this block I picked a ton of classes, and so far my attendance has been perfect! Granted, it's only been 2 days. But I plan for it to continue! But with taking a lot of classes comes the most ridiculous amount of homework. I tell you, what a waste of time. For maths I have to find out all these name origins of measurements, for history I have to read 10 pages about WW2, for Health I have to keep a food journal (more on that!), for French I have to write about what I want to do when I 'grow up' AGAIN (I've already written it about 50 times), and for music I have to listen to a massive CD, and read complicated excerpts. I don't think I've ever had this much homework in my life.

So anyway, this block I'm taking a class on Nutrition! I know! As a Raw Vegan, I get to take a class on Nutrition, I felt like it was Christmas.

The first question the teacher asked the class was, "What is nutrition?"

Some skinny guy (drinking an energy drink): "It's, uh, getting, like, 5 vegetables a day and meat and..."

The next question: "Do you care about nutrition?"

The same guy: "Uh no."

Teacher: "Why not?"

Guy: "We've got fast metabolisms."

Everyone applauds.

That's actually quite common at my school. There aren't many fat people, and everyone eats badly, because clearly the crap is not going 'straight to the thighs'.

So I get to keep a food diary for the next few weeks, and the good news is that I'm sure I'm getting my 5+ vegetables per day.