Catlins

Semester break is less than a week away...I can't believe how quickly time is flying here! Last weekend I had to go on a Plant Ecology field trip (who ever heard of weekend long feild trips??) to the Catlins, which is a beautiful region of NZ between Dunedin and Invercargill. We got there Friday night and then Saturday did two plant field projects, Saturday night identified plants, and Sunday did another plant field project and looked at more plants! Botony overload. One cool thing was we saw this really old huge tree...but then we found an abandoned house and walked inside and there was a dead sheep on the living room.

The week has had some beautiful weather too...and Tuesday was my birthday! After 7 straight hours of class, Ann cooked a delicious dinner and then a bunch of my friends came over for the night. It was really fun! Thursday night was some more celebration...it was also my friend Katie's birthday so we went out for a long Italian dinner (it's nice here because most restaurants you can BYOB) and then went out to town. We convieniently ran into our program director at one of the bars who knew the bartender so got us all drinks for free, which was great.

Yesterday I went to see my flatmate Ditte in a play. She was great, but the play was really strange...I felt like I was at one of Roger's plays at Trinity! Then I went to Sand Fly Beach with some friends. It was so beautiful! We had to walk down this really cool hill which had sand that kind of looked ilke a mountain of snow. Not so fun walking back up it though! There were some sea lions on the beach...and I went swimming in the freezing water! Afterwards some of us went out for Indian food and ice cream, and then went to Spencer's at relaxed. We watched American Idol and Project Runway which felt weird! I don't have a TV here so watching TV on rare occasions feels really strange.

This morning Andee, Spencer and I went to this big farmer's market and stocked up on fresh fruit and veggies, and we are about to head to another beach. We have to take advantage of it now because starting tomorrow it is gonna rain until break!

Fiordland

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile...I got a little bit lazy but I'll try to update more. A couple updates since I last wrote...

-Last weekend I went on a tramping club (what kiwis call hiking club) trip to Fiordland. My group was of about 10 (Andee and Ann included) and we were heading to Livingston Ridge. We spent Friday night under an overpass, and then Saturday morning began our walk. We hiked up this one mountain, and then went up even higher to be on Livingston Ridge. It was hard, but sooo beautiful! We hiked for a couple more hours along the Ridge, so it was just insanely beautiful views the whole thing. Then we had to hike down to the hut we were staying at though, and that was a challenge! It was so steep that we were turned towards the mountain holding on to grass, and sometimes we would slip and slide down a little. We finally got to where we were staying though, after about 9-10 hours of hiking. We made a delicious pasta dinner and then played a few games of Mafia. We had a visitor though...one possum kept coming up to us, and it drove the two boys on our trip a little crazy and they made it their mission to throw things at it and try to scare it away. The next mornign we woke up to frost! Winter is coming too quickly. Then we hiked back to where we started, and headed back to Dunedin.

-Spencer, Hillary, Andrew and I bought a car together! It's pretty normal for international students here to get crappy cars and then sell them at the end of the semester. So...I am now the owner of a 1989 manual station wagon!

I have to run because I am leaving for a weekend long Plant Ecology field trip (awful!) Miss you all!

WIldfoods Festival

Hi!
Sorry to anyone who’s been reading for not updating in awhile! Just a little from the week…

-On Monday I tried going to a yoga and meditation class and decided that is the last one of those I’m ever going to. Meditation is not for me.
-On Tuesday I had my first field lab for my Plant Ecology class. I had been pretty excited for field labs….but this was a completely miserable experience. It was raining, windy, and freezing. My feet and hands were numb for literally the whole four hours. Every lab you work with a partner and do a different project, and I worked with a Kiwi guy named Daniel and our project was about relative abundances of different plant life. So we had to gather life biomass samples…aka pulling out grass and weeds and sorting them which is really hard when you can’t feel your hands! I still have trouble with the Kiwi accent sometimes…pretty much the only words I could understand Daniel say were repetitions of “it’s f***ing freezing” and “plants and s**t.”
-Wednesday evening I went with Spencer and my flat mate Ann to the movie theatre to see the movie The Watchmen…which was really graphic but also awesome.
-Thursday marked the beginning of the weekend for both Sean and Felicia’s birthdays (both friends from my program) so there was a party at Felicia’s house. It was really fun and I met a lot of really nice people…and was completely shocked to see Sean do the NZ 21-year-old birthday ritual called a yardie…which basically drinking this huge container of 7 beers all at once. Don’t worry family…I will NOT be doing that on my birthday.

Friday morning was beautiful….perfect weather for a roadtrip! I set out with my friends Andee, Hillary, and Andrew in a crappy red rental car we termed “the Demon.” I conveniently forgot my license in another purse, so I have yet to try driving on the left side of the road. We were heading to the west coast of New Zealand, an 8 hour drive, for the annual Wildfoods Festival, a really fun festival where everyone eats tons of crazy food and that is just generally hilarious. We stopped along the way to make lunch on the beach, and at a Salvation Army to get some costumes. Hillary and Andee got jean short overalls, I got neon purple elbowpads and kneepads, and Andrew got a pastel jacket and hat. We also got a hilarious 3 dollar 2003 hip-hop CD, which saved us on our drive. Our drive took us through Arthur’s Pass, a series of mountains in the middle of the country. It was easily the most beautiful drive I’ve ever taken. We arrived at Greymouth around 8 and checked into our hostle, which was wicked nice and really cool. The decorations and theme were from Africa. We then quickly left to catch sunset at the “pancake rocks”, these really cool rock formations on the ocean. I can’t explain how beautiful it was…and I forgot my camera at the hostle! So I’ll have to steal pictures from my friends. Anyway, we headed out to dinner at an Indian food restaurant (Andrew and I both ordered our dishes “hot” and were literally crying”) and then went back to bed.

Saturday morning we got up pretty early and went for a bike ride (the hostel had free bike and kayak rentals). I went off on my own and explored Greymouth and went to the beach. It was really cool; instead of sand the coast was all rocks. The waves would come towards shore, but also go both ways sideways, and would hit the rocks and then come back and collide into each other. We got back, and while making breakfast met a guy from Colorado named Jessie who was taking a couple of years off before going to college and had been working in New Zealand and hitchhiking around. We invited him to come along with us, and he ended up staying with us the whole day and night. He was really nice and what he was doing was really cool and brave…but there were times when we could tell he was really lonely. When we made dinner late that night, he commented that it was the first sit-down dinner with people he’d had in months, which I can’t even imagine.

Anyway, we headed off to the festival in the Demon. And it was HILARIOUS. The atmosphere was completely crazy, which was fitting for the kind of mood you had to be in to eat what you did. I was a pretty awful vegetarian for the day…all in all we tried grubs, shark, rose wine, testicles, heart…and waffles and corn on the cob. We ran into some of our other friends from Dunedin and just generally hung out for the day. Around 7 we headed back to the hostel, made dinner, and went to bed exhausted.

This morning we woke up and hit the road. We stopped in Arthur’s Pass for a quick 2 hour hike, jumped a fence of a sheep farm and ran around in the fields, and in SPRINGFIELD, NZ for some ice cream. All in all, it was a really fun weekend!

Free Fallin

A couple highlights from last week:
-I played tennis with Hillary on this court that is part of a freshman dorm complex right behind my flat. At like 6:30 everyone started disappearing and we wondered if it was to a dining hall. Turns out there is a freshman dining hall right next to the courts that doesn’t swipe cards and has delicious lemon cake…
-I went to the beach on Wednesday after classes. Being on the beach in March on a school day was awesome! And I got to surf again.

On Friday our Arcadia group headed to Queenstown, the “adventure capital of the world.” We were supposed to go luging once we got there, but it was raining so the place was closed due to slippery roads. Kind of a bummer, but we got passes to go back any time within two months for free.

On Saturday we got up bright (actually dark…before sunrise) and early to hike a day of the Routeburn Track. New Zealand has seven or so famous “walks” that are multiple day hikes where you camp out or stay in huts along the way. The track was completely beautiful. First of all, we saw not one but two rainbows! It’s like the country is actually magical. The plant life in the woods was really cool. It was so green with twisted trees and moss everywhere and felt like we were in Lord of the Rings. We eventually summated at a hut at the top of a waterfall, and then part of our group continued on up another mountain to a lake. I can’t describe how beautiful it was. I’ve been loving New Zealand, but the scenery on the day of hiking has been the biggest confirmation that I should be here. It was so incredibly beautiful and surreal and I don’t think there is anywhere in the world like it. All in all, we hiked 26 kilometers that day, about 16 or so miles.

That night I went out with a few of my friends to take our mind off the bungee jump the next day. Highlight of the night was seeing a bunch of women in 80’s outfits doing crazy dorky dance moves around the bar. It turned out to be one of the women’s bacheloret (no idea how to spell that) party. It was like Trin 80’s dance comes to NZ!

I woke up Sunday morning completely terrified. Bungee jump day! First though, our whole group went to do jet boating. It was probably one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. You’re in this big motor boat going so fast between walls of rock and doing 360s and the driver is insane and you get sooo close to the rocks.

After jet boating, out group split up for bungee jumping. Some didn’t jump, some did the Kawana Bridge, the original commercial bungee jump where you can go into the water, and some did the Nevis, a 450 foot drop known as the most intense jump in the world, with 8 and a half seconds of free fall. For some reason, I chose to do the Nevis. I still don’t know why, because I’m a huge wimp! The bus ride to the site alone is intense. You’re right on the edge of an enormous cliff. Then you get there, and in groups of six are carted on this gondola-like box out to the jump site, which is suspended in the middle of the air between the mountains. I made the mistake of looking down in the cart to the river and rocks far below and got completely terrified. We finally got to the jump site, which was swaying slightly in the wind. The jumpers were heaviest to lightest, so I became more and more terrified as I watched friends jump before me. One of our program leaders, a 30ish rugby player named Shane, jumped and was still shaking from it throughout the rest of the day, which wasn’t comforting! When my name was called, I had to sit in a chair where one of the instructors hooked up the bungee to my harness. I was clearly terrified so he was joking around hooking the bungee to my shoelaces and stuff. I wasn’t amused.

What followed was kind of a blur. I walked to the edge of this mini-diving board thing with the instructor holding onto my harness in the back. I could hear my friends cheering me on and Shane yelling “Don’t look down!” That part was impossible, since you had to look down to shuffle your feet out. At that point, I shook my head and didn’t understand how I was possibly going to willingly jump off that. But, the instructor told me to put my arms out, and told me to jump when he reached 1 and then counted down from 5 and I just did it without thinking.

I thought I would be too terrified to scream…but I was wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever screamed that loud in my life. The first 1-2 seconds of the fall were complete terror. The feeling was so unreal I didn’t even know what to compare it to. Once my body moved from horizontal to more vertical though, it became less scary and my screams turned a little more excited. After falling the whole way, you bounced up, and then down and up again, and after that second bounce pulled a red handle next to your knee to release your feet so that you were sitting up. After doing that, I bounced a few more times up and down and starting laughing hysterically. I couldn’t believe I was alive! The most amazing part was hanging from the bungee, sitting there being pulled up, and just surrounded by all of these enormous mountains. I had adrenaline pumping and was totally peaceful at the same time. Bungee jumping was incredible, and as terrifying as it was, I’d definitely do it again! I was so proud of myself for doing it even though I was SO SCARED! It was one of my goals when coming to New Zealand to experience as much as I could, and bungee jumping was definitely an experience.

Hiking and stuff

Sunday was kind of a lazy day. I went to swim laps though with my kiwi host Nick. The pool is insane. There is a lappool, a water polo pool, a diving well, a kids pool, channels that move you along, hottubs, and a waterslide! Steve told me that Nick used to be a swimmer but...I'm skeptical. He swam about four laps but was hilarious about it. I taught him how to flip turn and what streamline was.

At night I went to dinner at Andee's flat and had stir fry with her and her Canadian flatmate Janine who introduced me to sweet chili sauce...delicious! Then I went to church with Andrew, and we both fist pumped with pride when a sevenish-year-old boy walked by us with USA flag bandana on. Later a few people from my program got together to watch "Liar Liar" and I went to bed early since Andee and I planned a 6:30 am hike to Mt. Cargill (a mountain within walking distance of campus).

....but at 6:30 Andee texted me saying that her bed was really comfortable. So we ended up going at 4:30 pm! with a bunch of other people from our program. The hike was awesome. Round-trip was about 5 hours. It was really different from hiking (I should say "tramping") in New England. The plant life near the bottom and middle of the mountain was almost like a rain forest! It was really peaceful being out of our crazy college town. There are pretty much no animals in NZ besides birds, but we heard some really bizarre bird calls. And the view from the top was insane! It is sureal how beautiful New Zealand is.

Today I had my first day of classes. I started off with The Body in Asian Religions, which seems like it's going to be really interesting. Andee is in my class as well and texted me, "Our professor is beautiful!" before I got there. He's like thirty and british. Then I had Plant Ecology. That professor is also British, and sounds like those old man british voices that narrate movies you watch in science classes. Then I had Maori Society, which seems like it might be a little bit boring, followed by Plant Ecology lab. I realized how bizarre that professor is (he sang us the instructions on what to do in case of fire), but I'm really excited because we have seven field trips where we'll sample and do intense botany stuff that I have no idea how to do.

After a long day of class...it's time for dinner! Ann is making corn on the cob...so obviously it's gonna be a good one!

Train Trip and Kayaking

Friday was another beautiful day. In the evening, the international students had a train trip to some gorge I don't remember the name of, but that was absolutely beautiful. And they gave us a free bbq and I had the most delicious veggie burgers ever! Afterwards Ann, Andee, and I were pretty exausted so we got some famous NZ Hokey Pokey ice cream and watched a movie.

Yesteday I went on a trip to a harbor with Kayaking Club. I'm still deciding whether or not I want to join. The gear is really cool! I've only ever done two person kayaks, and one person is a ton more fun. People were flipping left and right though! The guy who was instructing us made us water exit (aka flip ourselves over on purpose!) to make sure we would be able to get out if that happened to us on a real trip. So we had to do that and it was freeeezing afterwards! I don't know if I've ever been as thoroughly cold as I've been in New Zealand. It's much different from being outside in the snow or walking around in the winter. It's like a damp, bone-chilling cold you can't get rid of. And my feet are all cut up from stepping on clams in the harbor after the water exit! In spite of that though, kayaking was still really fun, and I think would be even more fun on real trips down rivers.

Tomorow is our first day of classes but I just realized...I don't have any! On Mondays I'll have genetics but only for the last 6 weeks of classes, and genetics lab but only every other Monday. So tomorrow I'm free!

Surf's Up!

Okay. Surfing is officially wicked fun. Or trying to surf that is. We got to St. Clair's beach and it was a beautiful day. I never thought I'd see weather in Dunedin that could actually be considered beach weather! Our group was split up to make lessons more managable, so we had some time to lay on the beach. Then, we geared up in our wetsuits and got foam-top boards so we didn't kill ourselves with fiberglass. The water was crazy! From the coast the waves didn't look that big, but being in the ocean and trying to get out far enough was definitely a challenge. We all were thrown around numerous times. Standing up was wicked hard, and all of the girls in my lesson (myself, Erin, Andee, and Kelsey) were doing a pretty bad job, so during the middle our instructer took us to shore and made us practice more pop-ups and told us to do some push-ups for the next time we surfed!

Being in the water was just so fun. It was freezing though-thank goodness for wetsuits! I was so determined to stand up by the end of the lesson that I probably tried riding more waves and wiped out more times than anyone. But finally right at the end, all four of us got up! It was such an awesome feeling!

After surfing the girls decided to stay on the beach for a little and take advantage of the sunshine. Later, I played tennis with Hillary and Justin from my program. It only my second time playing since October, but it felt great. There was also a big ref chair on the court, so we rotating being the line judge which ended up being pretty funny.

Highly Suspicious

I finally have internet in my room! It felt so good to skype my mom yesterday and be able to talk to some of my friends.

Tuessday I went to a cardio kickboxing class with Rachel, Ann, Spencer, and Hillary, which was actually pretty fun. After dinner, my Kiwi host and flatmate Nick had organized an international student meet and greet, so we went to that and met a lot of awesome people. During the party Nick played this really weird song called "Highly Suspicious" that has become our flat's unofficial song because it is so strange, catchy, and hilarious, so the six of us got really into it.

Yesterday we had a "mandatory" three hour international student meeting, which I went to but regret doing so. Although one cool thing was the mayor of Dunedin is apparently also an opera singer, so he sang to us. After setting up a bank account, I decided to go for a run, where I ran into many "Cook-a-thoners." The Wednesday of orientation week a popular bar named Captain Cook's Tavern hold's a ridiculous event in which students go stand outside from 10 am on drinking and dressed in costumes (two guys in our program went dressed in dresses.) So while I was running the streets were full of these kids, and I would get random high fives from people dressed as Barney, guys dressed as old ladies ran next to me for about 50 meters, and a girl dressedl ike she was taking a bath fake scrubbed me with her brush. It was so bizarre and hilarious.

Later on Andrew and I went to find a Catholic Church to go to mass for Ash Wednesday. People in New Zealand aren't very religious, but we found a church but it said that the mass was in the Dunedin hospital chapel, so we went there. It was weird going to church in another country. Some things were different like the Lord's Prayer, but something that was cool was at the part where the priest says things to pray for and everyone says "Lord hear our prayer," he let people speak out and say things they wanted us to pray for. One of the New Zealand women said, "For the people of America, so that they will follow their new leader." It's weird how into Obama the Kiwis are. I've been asked so many times who I voted for, and everyone talks about how great he is. However, in New Zealand politics he would be considered a conservative candidate.

After flat dinner, I went over Andrews with some other kids from the program, and we hung out and played Catchphrase. Now I've just eaten the best blueberry muffin of my life, and am about go to surfing!

You can take Americans out of America, but you can't take the America out of Americans

Hello! I am missing everyone at home so much, I can't wait to get internet in our flat tomorrow so I can skype you guys!

Yesterday Andee and I were about to head to the gym for a step class, when a guy from our program texted us to come play pick up soccer in the rain. And it was soooo fun and muddy. Then I went back and cooked my first flat dinner...and it was good!! I'm so proud. Our final flatmate, Rachel from Canada, arrived last night and she seems really nice. Then I played some cards with the flatmates and then headed out to Captain Cook's Tavern to meet up with people from my program. Around 1 we decided that we were all hungry so we found a 24 hour McDonalds! First of all, it was sooo much slower than in America. Not exactly fast food! And inside was DISGUSTING. It was as if everyone thought it was a sitdown restaurant where you leave your dishes to be picked up because there were bags and wrappers everywhere. Also as we were leaving two girls sprinted out, one pushing a huge sign and one pushing a high chair they were stealing. Definitely a weird McD's experience.

Today is the first day in Dunedin without rain (yet anyway...it is on the forcast for later) and it's so nice to see blue skies!!!

Cheers!

I think we're all getting in danger of seasonal depression. It's still raining!!! But it's okay, because I met another flatmate last night--Ann from Michigan. She seems really cool and is really into running and yoga. Today has been a day totally packed with boring errands. I had to do course registration, which I thought would be really overwhelming, considering my flatmate Steve told me it took him 5 and 1/2 hours. But I found this really cool botany professor that was like, "I don't know what's going on either so let's just bluff through this" and signed me off for every course! I'm taking Genetics, Plant Ecology, Maori Society, and The Body in Asian Religions. Tonight I'm cooking dinner for my flat, so I'm a little terrified. I told them I would have a pizza place on speed dial just in case.....

Crazy Kiwis

Okay. First off, Kiwis are absolutely insane. I have never ever ever seen people drink more. One of my friends told a kiwi that a lot of times in America when you turn 21 you have to do 21 shots in the night, and they responded, "that's all?"

Anyway, yesterday Spencer and I found 5 dollar sushi! Which means 2.50 American dollars. Amazing! Then we went on an adventure to a store called "Warehouse," which is sort of like Walmart, and then walked four miles back to Hillary's flat in the pouring rain to watch Zoolander. I don't understand how it can be raining for so long here! Hopefully it will clear up soon though. For dinner Steve made our flat salmon, mashed potatoes, vegetables (the first carrots I've ever liked!), garlic bread, and some pie made out of a vegetable that begins with an R that was really good. I'm getting terrified for my night to cook! I couldn't find Kraft Mac n Cheese in the supermarket so I'll have to figure something real out!

On a sidenote, I cannot understand half of what my Kiwi-host Nick says. He is constantly mumbling and talking in Kiwi slang. And everything is "as." "Hot as" "sweet as" "good as." And nothing ever comes after the as!

After dinner Spencer and I were going to head over to a party at Sean's....but then the rain and cold made us change our minds and eat some Hokey Pokey and watch 10 Things I Hate About You! But most of our program kept texting us to come over, so we ended up going and it was really fun. [No one here talks on the phone. Texting is very cheap but talking is wicked expensive, so everyone is constantly texting. My Canadian flatmate Steve though says that only about half his friends in Canada have cell phones. Weird!] At midnight though the power went off because Sean and his flatmates hadn't paid the electricity yet! It's definitely weird not being in a dorm and having everything included, and instead having to figure out bills and everything.

I'm off to do a stop-raining dance, miss you all!!

Rain Rain Go Away!

Hey again! So it is still raining here in Dunedin...good thing I overpacked so much I brought rainboots!

Last night I met up with a bunch of people from my Arcadia program at Spencers, and we all went grocery shopping and cooked dinner together. Dessert was hokey pokey ice cream which might have replaced black raspberry as my all time favorite flavor ever! SO DELICIOUS. Then some of us went out to a bar and hung out for awhile...I got my brother Nick what I think is the perfect birthday present, a "National Beerdrinkers Association" t-shirt, free with two pitchers, which Kiwis call jugs. Most of the music played here is American, so it feels weird to here Riannah and Kanye playing. "Viva La Vida" came on and it made me miss summer Trinity!

Today I met another one of my roomates, a girl named Ditte from Denmark. She seems really awesome and is really into tramping (hiking) and rock climbing so I'm planning to go on some trips with her this semester. Besides that nothing really uneventful so far today...except while Steve and I were coming back from the grocery store we saw literally hundreds of bagpipers on the streets! I loooove bagpipes. Dunedin was settled by Scottish settlers so there is a heavy Scottish influence. And I had my first taste of "Tim Tams", this amazing cookie wicked popular with Kiwis and Ausies. Ditte told me the "proper" way to eat it is with both ends cut off, and use it as a straw in hot chocolate and then eat it quickly, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Also, you can't say fanny pack in New Zealand. As Jane described, a fanny is a vulgur word in NZ that means "a woman's front bottom." So here they're called bum packs.

Kia Ora!

Kia Ora! (That's hello in Mauri, the launguage of the native New Zealanders.) So far I've been so out of contact...life has been crazy! I don't have internet or phone yet in my flat so once the internet happens I should be in much better contact. Anyway get prepared for a long post...

Alright so: I flew to Aukland on Saturday, and suprisingly the 13 hour 10 minute flight went by quickly! Air New Zealand is a wicked nice airline and we had great food and our own individual tvs. I may or may not have watched three entire movies. We got into Aukland at 730 am Monday and had the hard task of trying to stay awake all day to beat the jet lag. I met everyone in my program, and they are all awesome! Everyone has a huge enthusiasm for life and for doing as much as they can with it and experiencing as much as they can in New Zealand. A few of the ones I've so far become pretty close to are Andee (girl from Hamilton who is hilarious and down to earth and immediatly became a great friend), Hillary (also from Hamilton, wicked sweet and a great singer), Lauren (Davidson, lives in my flat complex), Sean (hippyish guy who's really easy to talk to from Roger Williams), Andrew (fun outgoing guy from Hamilton, Hillary Andee and Andrew all knew each other before coming), Spencer (really nice gay guy from George Washington who is a ton of fun and gonna be my squash buddy), and Mike (a shy nice skateborder from Oberlin). Our program leaders were Jane (overall New Zealand Arcadia leader), Kate (University of Aukland leader, those kids were with us on orientation), and Shane (our University of Otago leader). I fell in love with Jane. She is a fiftyish year old woman who has such an enthusiasm for life and New Zealand and did her best to create a geniune friendship with everyone. She seemed to have a story for everything that could go wrong in New Zealand though. I can't count the number of times I've heard her say "Last year this really lovely student from ____" followed by something like "Brown University, had a few too many drinks and got into a fist fight with a transvestite in Aukland and lost, so pleaseee stay off of this street if you go out tonight!" Shane is really cool and relaxed, and a huge rubgy fan, like many New Zealanders.

Out first day in Aukland we walked around the city, which is the largest in New Zealand. It was great to be in the warm weather! We did a little walk up an old volcano and went swimming in the Pacific Ocean, which was really warm and much saltier than any water I've been in before. It was so awesome to be swimming with the mountains in the background! Totally beautiful. And the bottom had sand dollars EVERYWHERE. We then went to an aquarium and saw some cool animals like sting rays and penguins. We then went for pizza (I don't recommend salmon pizza to ANYONE) and then to our hotel. A group of us went later to an irish bar later, where we ran into more people from our program. There was some really cool music (a guy playing a recorder?) and it was really chill and relaxed.

The next day we headed to Rotorua, a town my Kiwi Host Nick refers to as "Rotovegas." On the way we stopped at a farm show, which might have been the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Basically there was a huge stage with tons of sheep and stuff going on like a herding dog running over them...could have done without that trip I think! Then we went to a nature conservatory and saw some New Zealand animals, including the Kiwi which is adorable! We got back to our hotel in Rotorua and walked onto the beach, which was bizaree! Everything smelled like sulfur because of the hot springs there, and there was all this boiling water everywhere. And dead birds.....Anyway a group of us went to dinner for some great Indian food (not as good as yours though Shah!) and then at night we went to the hotsprings, which were like natural hottubs that were HOT and supposedly have healing powers.

The third day of orientation we went to this park where we saw boiling mud (I didn't really get it) and then went to see a geiser errupt, one of like six in the world. Then we saw all this cool stuff like this neon green pond that was all natural due to whatever minerals were there. We went back to Rotorua to get our bearings, and then went zorbing! Zorbing is this weird New Zealand activity in which three people get into a huge plastic ball, some water goes into it, and then you get pushed down the hill. It sounds dumb, but it is SO FUN! Then though, Andee, Andrew, and Justin's zorb popped! Which has only happened twice the place ever. And they got really banged up with fat lips and cuts on their heads and all over their bags, so it was pretty scary. Something bizarre but refressing about New Zealand is that nobody ever sues. Emergency hospital care is free but the other side of that is that nobody sues for car addidents or anything dumb like they do in America. So the people at the zorbing place made sure they were all right, gave them some free t-shirts, and we were off. That night we went to a Maori village, and it was easily the coolest thing I've seen so far in New Zealand. They did some reenactments and sang and danced and we had a great dinner cooked underground. On the bus ride back the bus driver made us sing a bunch songs and it would be corny to explain but to be in it, was a great bonding experience and good last night on the North Island. We ended the night with a trip to a couple of bars in Rotorua, which our program basically took over seeing as it was a Wednesday night, and just hung out and listened to the great music.

The next day, we departed for the South Island. As great as the North Island was, all of the Otago students really bonded, and we felt like we were ready to move down to the more uninabited and (in my opinion) beautiful South Island. The airport had absolutely ZERO security. Nothing. As Jane put it, anyone that would want to take a plane from Rotorua is an idiot. We flew to Wellington and then to Dunedin, and then were all cabbed to our flats. My flat is beautiful. There are six bedrooms, a common room and kitchen, two bathrooms, and a laundrey facility. It was just built in 2006 so it's new and juts overall really nice. Only two of my flatmates are here so far (three girls are coming), but the two I've met are Nick and Steve. Nick is my Kiwi host and is completely sarcastic and hilarious. He is a skinny med student who lives in Aukland and seems to hate nature. Steve is from Canada and is also really nice and funny. So I came in, and Steve cooked us dinner (we're going to rotate days of the week...I warned them that the only meal I've really mastered is Kraft Mac n Cheese) and it was delicious. Our flat is in a complex of five other ones, so at night we hung out with a bunch of the students in them and played kings. Nick made us do one of the rules as the (some name I can't remember) rule in which everyone had to stand up and made the Maori war yell and face (which is like sticking your tounge out...reminds me of Jake's bay face!) and that ended up being hilarious.

Today has been very hectic. The Arcadia program had a meeting about picking classes and Monday I'm going to register. A group of us went to get cell phones and run errands. I feel like I still have a ton of stuff to do, but I'll get it all done eventually. Anyway....sorry for the long message, but so far so good! I'm totally falling in love with New Zealand. I feel stranglely relaxed here. No one here gets stressed about ANYTHING. And Dunedin is a really great city. There is so much so close, and there are pretty much only students in it! (Otago is like 24,000 kids). The University is beaitufl as well. The arcitecture kind of reminds me of the long walk and chapel at Trin. The one thing I do miss is the small school way of registering for classes- Monday is going to be hectic! I miss you guys though, and hopefully once my internet gets up and running we'll have lots of great skype sessions! Please let me know what's going on with everyone.

Also, be prepared. I am bringing the term "sweet as" to the states. Just wait for it.

NZ Bound!

After three relaxing days in Laguna Beach with my aunt, uncle, and cousins Ryan (3) and Quinn (6 monthes and my godson!), I'm finally on my way to New Zealand. It's been awesome getting to hang out with the family and play with my cousins, hang out on the beach, run in the sunshine, and to get to go shopping and go see a chick flick with my aunt. Ryan almost broke my heart though as I was reading him a bedtime story, and he told me, "You can't get on a plane. You can't get on a plane, okay?"

In about five hours I'll be on a thirteen-hour plane ride (maybe with Ryan and his two shopping bag "suitcases" packed with hotwheels!) Last night I was wicked nervous, but now I'm just excited. After monthes of reading about New Zealand and gearing up for the trip, it feels incredible to be finally on my way!

By the way, if you're on skype and don't have my name already, it's Kris88311, so give me a call!

Bye America!!!!!!!!!!!

First post!

Hey everyone!

I thought I was allowed to do my first official post since I'm techinically on my way...although really I am spending three days in Laguna Beach with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins to hang out with them and break up my trip a bit. I'm currently on a three hour lay-over in Denver. [Sarah: I've had that annoying french song I filmed you dancing to stuck in my head for the last 2.5 hours. Thanks for making my layover even better :) ] I've also had a layover in Washington and thought I was sooo smart and crafty getting a flight that was only 99 dollars.....and then I had an excess baggage charge of 125 dollars because one of my bags weighed 70 pounds. Typical. So I think when I get to Laguna I might have to ship some stuff home, because one of my future flatmates also just warned me that the weather there is already getting cold, and I packed a ton of summer weather stuff. Maybe I'll just wear tshirts and shorts anyway and think about how much colder it is in New England!

In spite of my bad packing...The Office played on my flight! Which I am taking as a great sign that this is going to be an awesome trip. "One day Michael came complaing about a speed bump on the highway. I wonder who he ran over then."

Love,

Kris