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.