Week #5 The Bay of Islands

Kia Ora!

I had such an eventful weekend, I can't remember what I did this week. Monday was class as usual. I have signed up for the Auckland half marathon. Leigh and I are planning on running it together, or a run/walk, but we are both having issues with our legs. My foot is acting up and she is having all kinds of issues. It is really quite sad, our bodies are bailing on us. I've had to use the elliptical machine to keep from hurting my foot any more.

Tuesday I spent the whole day doing chores. Nothing too interesting. Then I went out to a movie with church. Riley, JS, Joel (a guy from Arizona), Max (not from my Arcadia group), and I met at Railway and took the bus together. It was a 40 minute trip to Sylvia Park. We saw Amazing Grace, which was awesome. After the movie, we split up and road with some church people back to Railway. I love this church because this movie event wasn't for a certain group of people, it was for the whole church. They rented out an entire theater and each person paid for their ticket through the church. It was a wonderful group activity because it promotes a fun way to interact with everyone.

Wednesday, Leigh and I went to the grocery store in the morning. We have made our grocery trips into a weekly event of shopping and finding lunch. While we shop we find something that looks good for lunch, then we check out and go to the coffee shop. Leigh gets her weekly coffee and I get whatever it is I get, then we have lunch. The last two weeks we had meat pies, this week we found sushi! I had a strawberry smoothie with mine. I know, very Asian. Then, later that night, Victoria, Leigh and I went to Foodtown again for ice cream. I got Hokey-Pokey (vanilla but butterscotch type balls, a NZ classic), Leigh had cookies in cream, and Victoria got caramel chocolate. Then we came back and traded. Sooooo good!

Thursday wasn't too unusual. I made my kumara and chicken meal again. It turned out well, but I burned the onions. Then, I had the Equippers Uni club. After the fellowship there is food provided and this time it was these really good cheese sticks. They had a breading around the outside with cheese in the middle and they put hot sauce on them. So good! and then you remember everything here is made from scratch. This was just one of the girl's creations. Leigh and I made kumara muffin bread when I got back. We got the recipe off our trusty kumara site, but we don't have a muffin pan so we decided to use my square pan. Once we got started, Steven came in to make brownies (out of the box, so not kiwi). I promise no raw eggs were consumed during this evening of trusty youth, with heaps of health, cooking together. Then Annie and Michelle came in to cook brownies, also out of the box. The brownies finished and more friends came into the kitchen. Then the kumara bread finished, sort of. We at the edges because it wasn't fully cooked. We had a double batch, so we put the fresh batter in the pan and the half baked loaf in aluminum foil with the oven at a lower temperature. This time they took forever to cook. I think the potato throws them off. Next time we are going to make cream cheese icing with cinnamon for the bread. Victoria joined us with a couple pieces of pavlova for Riley and me because we missed it after dinner. By the end of baking we had around ten people in the kitchen bouncing off the walls. It was so much fun!!!

Friday, Leigh and I atempted running. It was a long haul. At two, everyone from Arcadia met up for our activity weekend with Kate and Jane in the Bay of Islands. It was a four hour van ride to Jane's parent's house, where we stayed in caravans in their yard. Janes family comes in the summer and they pull all the caravans close to the water and camp out. Their house has a beautiful view of the bay and a wonderful location for collecting shells. Even the girls from Hawaii and California were impressed with the shells we could find. I have a whole bunch in my windowsill. In the picture, you can see a few paua shells and then some cool spiral ones. The paua shell is found in a lot of NZ jewelry and in Maori art. Jane's mum fed us so much! Friday we had lasagna for dinner, probably 3 times the amount I would normally eat. Then we had huge slices of pavlova. That evening we played catch phrase and watched Whale Rider (I highly recommend this movie). Kate and Jane are so funny in their banter. They are constantly picking on everyone, sweetening one person up then teasing them.

Saturday, we woke up at 6:45 for the sunrise. It was descent, but then I don't normally know what the sunrise looks like. We had muesli for breakfast: granola, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and a little milk. Then lots of toast with this great raspberry jam. After breakfast, we all piled into the van and headed out for an island cruise. It was heaps of fun. Everything was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. I took so many pictures! Leigh and I, plus some other crazies, would jump into the air when the boat was about to go down a wave. Sort of like jumping in an elevator minus the possibility of it breaking. We were on the front of the boat having tons of fun going nuts. I was actually leading the hyper activities, which is a first and would make Nordo so proud. I began the jumping, pretend wind surfing, slow motion running, dolphin signals and many other goofy activities. Leigh and I now have sign language for palm tree, tree with five leaves, dolphin pod, and whale rider. Then there is always the feed me nutella signal! When we went out to the rock with a whole, they made us all get off the front of the boat. So my group stood on the back in the open. We would hang on to the railing for dear life because the waves were so big and if you leaned out you would be sprayed. Leigh and I are also known as the two gigglers, Victoria thought it was after we would eat, but now we just think it is mostly after food and other random times. I am sure this sounds a little familiar to my family. We have a good time! The boat dropped us off in Piahia, a little beach town with lots of food places and shops. Some of us ate at a fish and chips place, which I don't think I want to do for a while. That food is so greasy and I never feel so great after it, but watch me eat it like ten more times! Jane and Kate treated us to ice cream. Then we headed off to the Waitangi Treaty grounds. The Waitangi Treaty was signed by the Maori chiefs and Governor Bledesloe awarding New Zealand to England. The content of the treaty is still debated because there are many original copies signed by different chief, but they have different content. Also, many doubt whether the chiefs actually know what they were signing. The grounds were beautiful though with the original house that the treaty was signed and a Maori building. The treaty was signed in 1840 on February 6th. This is the only thing I really remember because we all fell asleep in the informational movie, including Jane. As we drove back, it began to rain. We lucked out until this point because all of our weather was beautiful.

We waited out the rain in our caravan trailers. I did homework by-the-way, for those who think I'm just on vacation (Dad and Joe, and basically everyone else). I have two papers due soon. After the rain ended, we had a putonk (or lawn bowling) tournament. Everyone had a partner assigned randomly to them. I was paired with Alesa, Jane's mum, and we played Alex and Sarah first and won. Then we beat Jane and Asia, which lined us up for a final round against Leigh and Keith (Jane's dad) in the morning. We had fish for dinner and potatoes and cole slaw. The food was amazing again, with ice cream and pavlova for dessert. Kate gave us a quiz on New Zealand trivia, everyone had partners but Victoria and I! Somehow it was decided that we knew too much and would be fine on our own. This is why I don't play trivia games: I can't remember the highest mountain because I get stuck on Mt. Mitchell and I thought the five dollar not was red not orange (thanks dad, not exactly why this is your fault but you know me...). Anyway, I missed the second round by a point. Overall, they said our group did better than most, but I'm not sure if they were lying to us. That is a possibility. We watched "The Piano," which is a horrible movie, just plain weird. We went to the beach where it was filmed on our trip to the west coast with Kate, but that didn't help its horrible plot.

Sunday, most everyone woke up for the sunrise just by chance, in other words nature called. It was spectacular!!! Pink and perfect! Nora and Joanna would be jealous. We had muesli for breakfast again, then we continued our putonk competition. Alesa and I won by three points in the end! Leigh and I received chocolate and home made olive oil as prizes. Jane led us in a mid morning hike up the mountain. We dodged cow pies most of the way up and tried to keep from slipping in the mud. I have a picture of the silver fern. When they are dead on the ground the bottom side still shows white. This is how the Maoris marked their trails, sort of like bread crumbs. The top of the mountain gave us a great view of the bays and the rock formations. The area we were in was a typical location for a Maori village. You can still see the ditches that the Maoris dug for different reasons. When we were back at the house, some of us went in the water... to our knees. We wanted to try swimming, but Victoria was the only one who really got in that far. She didn't even get her head wet. There is something to be said for water that is colder than the wind when you get out. We had chicken, sausages, avocado, and cole slaw for lunch. It was Alex's birthday, so we also had a home made orange cake. Then we had to pack up to leave. On the drive back, I slept for an hour and a half.

Week #4 Waitomo

Kia Ora!!!

This week was heaps of fun! Monday I went to a bar called Margarita's. They have dollar beer night, so a lot of people go. I tried Tui, but it was really gross. I don't understand how anyone drinks that stuff. Tuesday I spent the whole day studying for my "midterm" on Wednesday. My Maori and Pacific Health Care class is team taught. Right now we are doing the Pacific Health half and we had our midterm on that. Later in the semester, I am assuming I will have another midterm on the Maori health. The exam was pretty simple, all short answer. I was done really quickly. Wednesday night we went out for sushi for Sarah's birthday (a girl from my program). Leigh and I split two types, chicken teryaki rolls and salmon avacado. It was soooo good! Michael and I split an order of egg rolls, but they were not like any egg rolls I have ever seen. They were litterally eggs cooked in a roll, a little like an omlet and sort of sweet. Thursday I made kumara mash (sweet potatoe mash) with onions and chicken cooked in honey mustard. I was really proud because it was really good. It is probably one of my favorite meals and will be repeated many times.

Friday we left for Waitomo! Leigh, Victoria, Riley (a guy from Florida), Kevin (a guy from New Hampshire), and I went together. We stayed in a hostel in Turangi near Mt. Ruapehu because Victoria and Riley went skiing. We stopped on the drive for dinner at a take away place. I had a burger and kumara chips. They put mayonaise, carrots, and lettice on it again with my tomato sauce and cheese. There was also sour cream for my kumara chips. I decided mixing a little sour cream and tomato sauce is the perfect thing to dip the kumara chips in. But, you don't want too much because kumara tastes so good. We also stopped to stretch our legs at one point. Most kiwi towns have a public restroom, so we stopped at the one in a little town. While the guys were in the restroom the girls decided to go see if an ice cream place was open. It was, but it was a little farther from the car than we expected. We got two scoops for $1.60! Hokey Pokey ice cream the New Zealand favorite!!! It brings back taste memories from third grade I swear! By the time we got back to the car and told the guys to go get some the lady closed shop! We felt so bad, but they seemed ok with it. Riley and I switched seats for the rest of our ride. To explain the car, it is a tiny toyota. Three people in the back seat, Leigh is about my size and Riley is taller and has broader sholders but a normal six foot guy. We overlapped on shoulders in the back with the outside shoulders touching the windows. A little cramped, we were nice and cozy. The 4 hour car ride was great though. We sang, joked, and just talked. The hostel was pretty cool too. We had a "dorm room" with four bunk beds. There is a community kitchen, dining room, and lounge. There is also a climbing wall and cafe associated with the hostel, but not attached.

Saturday, we drove Victoria and Riley to bus stop at the bottom of the mountain. They had to buy tickets up to the mountain and then back to Turangi because we had to take the car. Then Kevin drove us to Waitomo to meet a group of our friends at the caves. We stopped on the way in Te Kuiti for lunch, mmm.... meat pies! Then we went caving at 3:00. We had 12 peopl (10 from our group) and 3 guides. They bused us to a place to change into wet suites, gum boots, and hellmates. Then taught us how to absale down and attach ropes to our belt things. (obviously I picked up the terminology) We practiced on a hill then headed to the cave. I was really cold for the first little bit because it was windy and raining out. One of our guides was Fish, he was really surprised when we knew what The Warehouse (their Wall-Mart) was because he thought we were normal tourists, not students. Then got mad at me because I said Maori wronge (he is Maori) and turns out he is only 19!!! yikes!!! Gavin was another one of our guides. He taught a few of us in the back to say Tomaki! when something is really cool. he goes "say Tomaki!!! Brother!!! or Tomaki!!! Cousin!!!" so I always said Tomaki Cousin!!! All of us that heard it were screaming it the whole time. Once we were in the cave we split into a group of 4 with the third guide and a group of 8 with Fish and Gavin. They said that because of the rain the water was 80% higher than normal and about two cm from the cut off point. In other words the demo pics show little ripples of water and it is up to people's chests when they are crawling and our pictures show the water up to our chins when we are crawling. We also had some intense waterfalls that we had to absale down on the ropes. Fish would be at the top of the waterfall attaching us in and Gavin was at the bottom getting the group ready for the next thing. Fish told us to yell once we were half way down. A few times he didn't like how loud the person was and would do different things to them. He sat blocking the water for Max (from the Arcadia group) until he was at the bottom then stood up and he got pounded. He dumped his boot of water on Erin (I can't remember where she is from) and rushed some extra water on Leigh by lifting his foot. Both of them would basically jump down the absale points by running down the walls and stuff. There was one point where we had to absale down into what seemed to be a dead end because there was so much water. Except really there was a tiny whole we had to go into but it was blocked by the waterfall. So you get smashed by the water while you are climbing head first into who knows where. Then you had to turn around in the little tunnel and slide down the tiny waterfalls until you came to a tunnel you had to crawl through. Fish was in the tunnel by the waterfalls to help us through, but it wasn't too reassuring. There was another point when the entire group had to go down the rope into a tiny pool and we all had to fit. I was the third person in and it was up to my waist. This was the only time I was really cold. We also got to go into some caverns with glow worms! At one point we turned out our lights and looked at them all. Fish called them "carnivorous, shit-burning, horney maggots" and that is a quote. They use chemiluminescence to get rid of their waste!!! haha go figure, Advanced Liquid Logic should refer to glow worms instead of fire flies next time, maybe it will sound cooler or just confuse people. While in the cave, we would scream Ayyyyy-ohhhhhhh!!!!!! or "Hey you guys!!!" Fish would get caught up in it then realize this is what the tourists were doing and try to switch it into a song. haha!

When we got back out of the cave it was dark. The hardest part was walking up the hill out of the sheep pasture. We got back into the building with our clothes and showers. I slipped two small rocks down my wet suite to take home when I was in the cave. So, when I took off my jacket they fell on the floor. All three guides saw it and Fish was like "ohhh... theif! theif!" I turned red then he said "they're just rocks you can take them" so I grabbed them up and went to shower. Everyone who saw it said my face was priceless. haha! oh well, I'll never see them again! and I've got my rocks. We got back to the main building at 7:30 and bought the picture CD. Then headed back (2 hours) to Turangi. Everything closes at 7-8ish so we stopped at another cafe/take away place. I had the Hawaiian Burger, which includes the usual kiwi toppings plus pinapple and beats! It was pretty good. Then Leigh and I split some more hokey pokey ice cream and a fried Moro Bar (like a Milky Way, but Cadbary). I had to drive back (wooo hooo! left side) because Kevin was too tired.

Victoria and Riley had a fun time coming back on the bus and had no problem getting into the hostel. They dried their clothes, made dinner and fell asleep. Kevin is the only one with a cell phone, so when they woke up at 11PM they didn't know where we were and freaked out. We had no way of finding out which room they were in and they had no way to find out where we were in general. So they walked to the hostel we were at the night before (we had to switch because there was no room) and got there right when Alex and the other group drove in (they were saying at that hostel). Alex had a phone so they called us and he drove them back. Everyone had a great day!

Sunday we decided to head back slowly. It was nicer weather than Saturday, but still scattered showers. We stopped at Lake Rotopounamu and took a couple pictures, but it was raining so we didn't walk around it. It was the day of rainbows! So while we were chasing them all back to Auckland, we stopped at Waitomo again and did a short walk there. It was the beginning of the Waitomo walkway, which goes through a cow pasture. This is the only point where our whole group did not seem too thrilled with what we were doing. Two people didn't want to ruin their shoes and two were completely happy, I was stuck in the middle because I new I had been playing tour guide and picked the walk, so I felt bad. It was fun though. We cut back on the road though and tried to wash off our shoes some in the public toilets (bathrooms). The rest of the ride back was still lots of fun. A little quiet because everyone was tired but still fun. All in all, a wonderful weekend!

Week #3

Well this week went by fast. I had lectures and tutorials, nothing too interesting. Tutorials take the original lecture class and break it into groups of 20-30 people for a closer learning experience. It gives everyone a chance to ask questions and go over the lectures. Anyway, any time I speak up in tutorials (which is a lot) I get funny looks or you can tell people are paying more attention b/c of my accent. It is pretty funny, but also a little intimidating. I also don't know if my questions are because of cultural differences or good questions. No one has complained so far. I have been doing homework in the evenings, planning our two week holiday, and reading Harry Potter. I have to make deals with myself so I make sure I get my homework done. Not good!

Thursday we had a pot luck at Railway Campus. Leigh and I made peanut butter blossoms. SOOOO GOOD!!! everybody loved them. There was lots of good food again and someone made sloppy joes. A girl from Western Europe, but English isn'ther first language and I don't think she is German, saw the sloppy joes and referenced "It Takes Two" an Olsen Twins movie. Nora and I have wached that movie tons of time, probably our first pre teen chick flick! Anyway, no one knew what the girl was talking about until I finally clued in. She wanted to know if they were the same thing from the movie! There is a scene in the movie when one of the twins stuffs her face with a sloppy joe. It was really funny. I told her they were, but later realized the ones at the pot luck were really spicy. So later I went back and told her that the ones I normally eat and ones for kids are not normally spicy. Our cookies were gone really fast, but Leigh and I had our own individual plates in our room.

Friday I don't have class. I was supposed to do tons of homework this day but really didn't get any done. I met Leigh and Victoria for lunch at the Railway Cafe and we were joined by a couple other people. The cafe is good, I had a burger! They put carrots on it, I felt like I had a whole salad within my bun. It was still very good. Then We went out to go by base travel to ask some questions about renting cars on the south island. Across the street from Railway there is another little cafe. I check every day to see what the muffin special is because I promised myself I can stop and get a muffin if I have money and it is a kind I would like. So far they have had pinapple and chocolat chip, passion fruit and banana, banana choc chip, and some others. I never have money with me!!! or I am in too much of a rush, but on Friday they had a strawberry jam muffin and I had money. It is the little things in life. I also went for a long run in the afternoon. I decided it is a thing-to-do for people to yell at runners along the bay. I had two carloads of people yell at me and scare me. One was a group of Asian tourists screaming What's UP!!! I told some other students and they confirmed my idea of it being the thing to do.

Friday night a group of us went to an International Food Banquet held by the church I am attending. We took the bus up town and got there almost an hour early, so we walked around for a bit. After walking in one direction for a ways, we came to a sketch part of town with people smoking who knows what and strip clubs, so I made everyone turn around. I told them I refused to walk past a strip club and everyone laughed and agreed with me. haha! We went the other way and found a music store with a live band. Basically unless you are eating or doing some sketchy activities, all of Auckland closes down at 7 or 8PM. We made it back to the banquet at the correct time. They set up tables in an arcade, which seemed more like a mall or shopping area above an arcade. There were closed shops all around and the tables were facing a big window that looked out at the Sky Tower. There was a stage in front of the window prepared for live music. It was dark, but every table had candles. The food was also great! I think it was mostly Asian food. One dish was Indian and another may have been Malaysian. Really good food. We walked back after the dinner instead of taking the bus. The picture includes Victoria and Riley, both from the States. Victoria is one of the girls I will be traveling with a lot.

Today was awesome!!! The Arcadia group met Kate (our coordinator) at 10 to go to the West Coast Beaches. She stopped on the way so we could get some fruit at a stand. I got a Nima, a cross between an apple and a pear. It was good, but supposedly mine was not totally ripe or soemthing. We went to Maori Bay and it was beautiful. Lots of pictures and we walked around. Everyone brought a lunch and Kate had something so we could make a fire and have tea. It was pretty funny. She also had buscuits for us! Chocolate chip cookies for those not up to kiwi lingo. Then we walked down the other side of the bay on the beach. Some of us rolled up our pants and took off our shoes so we could frolic in the water. The Tasman Sea!!! I got a few shells and they are sitting in my windowsil right now. We went to Kate's house after leaving the beach to make a Pavlova. A traditional kiwi dessert. It is a white, fluffy, cream cake that you add cream and fruit to. A lot like a marange. She also cooked some tamarillos for us to try because most of us didn't know what they are. She is sending us the pavlova recipe, the fool proof version, and I am going to make it at home sometime.

That about wraps up this week! I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you all for your emails and responses. I am sorry I haven't gotten around to replying. I am not totally sure what to tell you other than what I have already written. But I wanted you all to know I am loving the responses I am getting and I am so happy I did this to keep up with everyone. I am glad you are all enjoying it. Oh! and due to popular demand, I am including a few more pictures with myself in them. Not too many though because I think those aren't the good ones.

Week #2 The Real Dirt

Hey all!
Well I cut the last entry short, so now I am going to fill in some gaps. Here are some things I forgot to tell you about.
Tuesday was Fish and Chips lunch at ispace (the international student lounge). Great food! I met two girls from Germany and another girl from the states. It was one of the German girl's birthday, so they brought a cake. Made from scratch (which is an American saying for sure) a red wine cake. It was sooo good! They were so nice to share it with us and we sang happy birthday, but I couldn't pronounce the girl's name. I hate it when I can't say people's names, it has become a new pet peeve.

Wednesday ispace had a wine tasting. Leigh and I came at 7 because that is when we thought it started, but turned out it ended at seven. So they served us both four tiny cups with different wines then sent us on our way with half empty bottles. I thought it was pretty funny that I (of all people) ended up walking through Auckland with a wine bottle in hand. To be exact it is a Nelson Pinot Noir, for anyone that means anything to. I still have the bottle for kicks and giggles, and I don't know what to do with it. I think I might use it as a flower vase. In the end I was none the wiser because I'm still not sure what I like.

Thursday was ethnic food night at ispace. Leigh and I made snickerdoodle cookies, but they turned out a little dry and needed more sugar. There was tons of food there and it was all good. Some of the French students made crepes and then there was some good sushi. A German student brought some beer and I thought that was funny. German kids are crazy. It was all a good time and I am really appreciating all of the ispace events.

Friday Leigh and I don't have class so we went to the market and stuff. By the afternoon we just stayed in. She is having problems with her foot and I wasn't feeling well. After spending Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning feeling bad, I think I got a mild food poisoning from ethnic food night.

I spent all day Saturday inside my room doing homework and trying to rest. Then at 4PM, Max, Victoria, Leigh and I met up to go to the All Black vs. Australia game. This game determined which team would win the Bledisloe Cup and the Tri Nation Cup. We went to the Globe Bar to get our tickets from Base Travel and have our faces painted. They also served us sausages. Then we took group of four buses to the game. At the game we each got a cardboard sign with "Go All Blacks" on it. It had rained lightly earlier, so we wiped off our seats. Right when the pregame performances were beginning, it began to pour buckets! Leigh and I didn't have rain jackets or anything and we were all soaked to the bone. I was sitting in a puddle and water had even gone through my hoodie.

Cold and wet, the rain slowed after about 10-15min and turned into a light shower to mist. The first picture shows the giant All Blacks flag, the band, some players practicing, and a smart person with an umbrella. The picture to the left is Leigh and me not looking as miserable as we were. I heard Max has some more revealing pictures of our rain battle. But it was a rewarding experience in the end. We saw the Haka and the All Blacks won!!!! 26 to 12!!! Although we were so drenched we didn't stay out to celebrate, we still had a great time taking hot showers once we returned. I have been stuck in horrible weather without the appropriate amounts of clothes (NY St. Patrick's Day parade, snow, band uniform) but I think this was the worst! and that is saying a lot.

Today I woke up to go to Rangitoto, a volcano island, for a hike. However, after last night, no one wanted to go completely. The weather was threatening rain again and I was not the only one who felt sick. So we postponed our trip until next weekend. Instead I went back to sleep, then met up with Leigh and Victoria to go shopping at thrift stores. We took the Free Bus to Sky tower. Then went to the thrift store from there. Then we walked back toward Railway Campus. We stopped at Food Town on the way. It turned out to be a beautiful day.

Tonight I went to Equippers Church again for my second time. It is similar to Lake Forest (my church at Davidson) but people jump more. I am really enjoying it and all of the great people. They are so nice at the church and I am really excited about getting involved. They have a group called Raw Life for young adults between the ages 18-25 that is like our Young Life. It is the same group that I went to the BBQ with. The sermon series is using movies to parallel God's message. It is a lot of fun, they hand out popcorn and get really into it. This week was Saving Private Ryan, it was good stuff. We hang out talking after the service and get to meet people. I found out they don't watch "The Sandlot" as kids, so sad.

Week #2

Cheers!
I began classes this week :( Monday is my busy day. I have Anthropology "The Question of Race and Racism" at 10AM. Then I catch a bus to the Tamaki campus where I have my population health classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. First I have Health Care Ethics with a British professor. He is really funny and quick witted, but you want to make sure you are not the subject of his jokes. I think this class should be really interesting and I should be well prepared for it considering courses I have already taken. After this class I have Maori and Pacific Islander Health Care. Right now we are doing the Pacific Islander half, then we will switch after 6 weeks. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Health Psychology "Behavior, Health, and Development." Which is specifically for students going into health care, so that they can understand the patients better and their psychological pressures. All of my classes have two hours of lectures during the week, plus a Tutorial which is one hour long. Tutorials take very large classes and break them down into groups of 30. This will promote discussion and give students the opportunity to answer questions. I only have one class with a friend and I am on my own for the rest. Especially the two at Tamaki campus. I see these courses as my opportunity to meet more kiwis, which has been fun. There is a girl in my two population health classes named Edith. She is very polite, but speaks up a lot in lectures to ask questions and your are not really supposed to do that.

Leigh and I both don't have class on Fridays, so we take that as an opportunity to explore the city a little more. This Friday we went to a market that is a lot like our flea market. As we were walking back down Queen St. (the main road) we took a detour into a little mall area on the ground floor of a hotel. We were going to a Warehouse, which is their equivalent of Wall Mart, to get black shirts and white puff paint. There were two guys pushing a huge cart thing through a door into the mall, so Leigh held the door for them. They were surprised to find out we didn't want in the door or stay in the hotel. One guy pulled two black T-shirts out of a box in the cart to give us as a thanks. Then they asked where we were from and told us they were from Spain. Then they said we should watch for them at the Rugby game. It was all very funny, including the fact that the cart looked like it had a bunch of trash in it and that is where the T-shirts came from. Right after that we helped a lady pick up a bunch of things that fell out of her wallet in the mall. So we decided it was our day to do some random acts of kindness.


The Warehouse doesn't have puff paint, but we found a big shoe. Size 20!!! It makes me look tiny.
Then we stopped at Esquires Coffee (the NZ version of Starbucks). It was good stuff.

Week #1

Kia Ora (Maori for hello/welcome)
Well I have been bouncing around Auckland all week. I have a great new friend from San Diego County, California named Leigh. We have been to and from all the different orientation events together. I have met people from New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Canada, the States, Malaysia and many other countries. There are around twenty countries represented within our international students. Some of the highlights have been planning fun trips, game night, the museum, and BBQs. BBQs are a big thing down here and I am about to go to another one tonight!

The museum was a lot of fun. They have a lot of neat Maori and Pacific Islander stuff. We also watched a cultural show done by some Maoris. The "Warriors" were so funny! They would mimic each nationality as they were called out. For Americans they said "Hey! How are you? What's Up?" not as funny in print but pretty funny in real life. I also through the rugby ball around on the sports fields. The Museum is in a really pretty park area.

I have been having a lot of fun shopping for groceries and cooking meals here. I tried to make broccoli and cheddar soup, but they didn't have the right ingredients. For example there is no cream of celery soup or cheese soup here, so I got chicken and corn. Then there isn't any Velveeta cheese, so I got cheddar. Well cheddar doesn't melt and all my ingredients didn't fit completely in my pot. I had to improvise, but it turned out great! and I have enough for the whole week. As well as tons of broccoli. I love the community kitchen! It is a great way to meet people and how I got invited to the BBQ tonight. Everyone has a great time while we are making meals.

I love Auckland at night. We have had a few evening excursions. One to Harry Potter and we ran through down town to the theater. It was really funny and heaps of fun. By the way, movies don't have previews and they start right on time. They also give you an assigned seat with your ticket. The international office hosted a pub night at the Globe Bar. The first drink was free on them, so everyone showed up. There was also a DJ and they played some old favorites (Grease Lightning and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun) plus some crazy techno. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I of course spent most of the nigh on the dance floor with some friends and watched all of the kids from other countries dance. They have some different moves and no one knows the walk-it-out dance of course.

There is a great running path by the harbor that is beautiful, so today Leigh and I took a long walk with our cameras. This was only in the effort to make everyone jealous (especially my Dad b/c his run is not this cool). We then took a long detour that brought us out by the museum and back to our dorms. The pictures are also to make JoAnna come visit because I know she will come if she sees the cool walk she can do!!!! and October would be warmer!

Orientation

Hey Everyone!
Well I am now settled in New Zealand. I have what we would call a suite at Davidson, except minus a real common room. My suite mate is Fran, a kiwi! She is great! There is a huge common kitchen area for the whole building. Each roommate pair gets two cabinets, one has a fridge and the other is to store the pots they gave us to use. Then there are tons of sinks, microwaves and ovens for us to cook our food and socialize. It sounds weird but I love it!

Arcadia took the 8 of us in the program to Rotorua for the weekend. It was our New Zealand orientation. On the way we stopped at Matamata, or more recently known as Hobbiton because it is where they filmed the shire (no explanation necessary I'm sure). Rotorua is a touristy town with a lot of geothermal activity. It smells like sulfur or rotten eggs. Once you get over the stench, it is beautiful! We went to the Agradome for a farm show. They showed us the 19 different kinds of sheep, two kinds of NZ sheep dogs, how to milk a cow and sheer a sheep. It was pretty hokey and fun. Then we went to Rainbow Springs. A nature preserve with fish (trout and salmon) and birds (keas and kiwi). The Kea is a mountain parrot that attacks cars and shiny objects. They are extremely intelligent and known to beat monkeys at some intelligence tests. The kiwi is the beloved endangered species of NZ. That night we went to the Polynesian Spa, where you sit in natural hot mineral water pools. It is ranked in the top ten in the world.

I forgot to tell you about Kate and Jane. They are our coordinators! I love them. Kate is like our adopted Kiwi Mum because she looks after the Auckland students. They were both so funny. Everything they said was warning us about NZ, so we titled their speeches at the top 100 ways to die in NZ. No worries though, because most of them were really stupid things people did (drinking accidents, random sex, ditsy sky diving incidents, etc. not anything that really would happen to me). Anyway, they are great!

So on Saturday we went to Waiotapu te geothermal park. We saw the Lady Knox geyser which erupts when you put soap in it at exactly 10:15. Rotorua is one of the last remaining 4 geyser areas in the world. The fifth one was in Russia and it collapsed a few years back. We also saw Lake Champagne, the Devil's Layer, and The Devil's Pool. These are all things where sulfur, arsenic, and iron have created beautiful green and orange colors in the water or on the stone. It is really cool. Then we went zorbing. I can't explain it. You get in a plastic blow up ball and roll down a hill. Fun and weird. That night we went to the Tamaki Maori Village where we participated in a ceremonial welcome, saw some different native games, songs and dances, plus the well known Haka. We had a dinner they fixed for us in the customary style. I found out I don't like muscles.

On Sunday we returned to Railway Campus and I am too tired to write much more.

A few quick things
Food:
Kumara- a type of sweet potato
Bangers and Kumara Mash Kiwi Style- my dinner one night, it is sausage in a circle with the mashed sweet potato in the center, canalized onions on top and lots of gravy. Too much gravy. It was good, but I mostly liked the onions and potato.
Fish- much like your West Virginia fish, fried
Chips- french fries
Fritters- fried whatever, pineapple fritters with sugar are very good

Sayings-
I'll shout you a drink- buy you a drink
Right on
Our toaster looks dodgy- it looks like it caught on fire