Gosh, where to begin. I am beyond excited at what I received from my secret santa. My bio says that I am interested in learning about different places/cultures around the world. Unfortunately, I am in grad school and am unable to travel yet, so I am trying to "visit" these places through things like this exchange.

Since we live across the world from each other, the gift took longer than expected and I just received it this week. I saw my package was from NZ and right away saw the many stamps that were on the package. I can't believe my secret santa paid so much to ship the gift to me but I really appreciate all that she did. I am actually going to save these stamps and put them in my travel book I have for the future.

As I opened my gift, I saw a decorated container made of metal. Images decorated the container with different pictures related to New Zealand (NZ). To say I got excited was an understatement. A note was attached to the package and discussed the reasoning behind the gifts and a little about my secret santa. I am excited to follow up with her and email her in regards to the gifts and NZ.

As I opened my container, 2 packages of candy were on top. One called Pascall Pineapple Lumps, and another called Jaffas (The original). Reading the back, they are both made in NZ and you can only get them there. I love things like this that I cannot experience here in USA. I tried the pineapple lumps and loved them! They were actually really good (no artificial colo(u)rs and made with real fruit juice a huge plus!). The Jaffas were good as well but I definitely think I would buy more of the Pineapple lumps if I had to choose. I loved that I got to try both of them though and am so happy my secret santa sent me them to try!

As I continued to open my package, the next gift was a CD of the Nature's best 40 NZ Number Ones from 1970-2013. The CD looks really interesting and I can't wait to check it out the next time I'm in my car and driving to work and can listen to it. I'm excited to see what kind of music is captured on this CD that I have not heard before.

Next, I saw a book titled "Maui and other Maori Legends". I LOVE books and learning as much as I can. I have never heard of these legends before and am so excited to read them. I am planning to read one a night. It is good to know about these legends as I am sure the people of NZ read them growing up and it will be good to be able to try and identify and understand their culture better should I ever travel there in the future.

Finally, A calendar was placed at the bottom of my package. This calendar contains images of national icons and famous artwork (from kiwi fruit to pavlova and Marmite). It also has all of the NZ and AU holidays in the 2017 calendar. I am definitely going to hang this calendar up and plan to look up all the holidays that are foreign to me on the day that they occur.

Ultimately, I really want to thank my secret santa for such amazing gifts, and especially for taking the time to make such a thoughtful combination of gifts to really give me a taste of the kiwi culture. I will save everything that was sent to me (except for the candy which will be gone tomorrow ;) - I will save the bags though) and add them to my traveling portfolio of places I want to visit and items related to that place. I am excited to continue an email exchange with my secret santa to learn more about NZ and the life/culture there. Thank you again for everything. I really appreciate it!!