classes begin!

Kia ora! So its been a lot of fun adjusting to life in Wellington over the last week or so. It was a bit quiet on my street as most of the other Americans and international students took the time to explore the wonderful regions of NZ. Even my two roomates hopped on a plane to Christchurch and did some camping. Leaving me and my Kiwimate Kirsten an empty house. I was offered to go on a couple of trips, but had to decline mostly because of money issues, as a loan situation hasnt quite been worked out yet, and 2, because i visited a ton of places already and it was nice to just stick home. The weather was amazing the entire week here, with a few days spent going to the beach and enjoying the waterfront and harbour. I even went and got a haircut, haha, so it wasnt such a bad week. It was kind of funny though, it was orientation week for all the first years, basically in NZ most people get there degree in 3 years, and just kind of skip all the introductory classes we tend to take, or the gen-ed classes. So here i am in the quad surrounded by all these fresh 17 and 18 year olds basically away from home for the first time. Kind of made me feel old! haha. Just funny to hear them talk about the parties and going to the pubs and stuff.

Here is a paragraph for Laura! Haha, apparently I just tend to write one larrrrrge paragraph rather than seperating thoughts. This would be true. I got to go to an acoustic lounge at the San Francisco Bathhouse and hear some great musicians on thursday night. They were all really chill and there was just this awesome vibe. Its free on thursday nights, so i deff think it will become a regular hangout spot. I went with my friend Reeta from Finland and she is actually going to be playing at this weeks event. We then grabbed some Indian food, i really havents explored many international foods as of prior to this trip, but we got 2 different kinds of curry and went and sat down by the waterfront. It was a lot of fun. I also had a few friends over to see my flat one night and I made dinner. They said they were suprised by my cooking ability, but i think they may have been flattering me. haha. All I made was pasta, rice, a hearty salad and garlic bread (garlic bread was a summer thing for our apartment last summer in Oneonta). Haha a quick shout out to Laura and Megan in their spanish wonderlands!

Lets see. So this weekend i went down to the waterfront for the anual Dragon Boat race which turned out to be a lot of fun and drew in a big crowd. Basically all the big businesses have these friendly competitions every year for bragging rights. The weather was amazing and the harbour is just awesome. There were all sorts of vendors, crafts and musicans all about and plenty of Hokey pokey ice cream, a NZ favourite! (I have to get used to British spelling, as professors will take off on essays when we dont use it) ugh, apparently you can set your Microsoft word for the British spelling though. There was also a Asian influence to the festival and there were some really cool dragon chains of people with the big costumes on and running around. I got some great photos that day, wish i could upload them, but still unsure of the mystery of my laptop cord and why its taken almost 3 weeks to get here... ugh...

ON the bright side, I received notification from Hartwick that I got a John Christopher Hartwick Nomination, and being recognized as a Faculty scholar! Super stoked about this! A bunch of my friends deserve CONGRATULATIONS as well, as they too were recognized for their achievements. Now im in the running for the final scholarship which is only given to 6 people, but basically means that my senior year would be completely paid for!!!!!!!!! WOULDNT that be nice? haha. Fingers crossed, now i just need to get a bunch of reccommendations and get my resumer all sorted out.

I cant remember if i posted what my classes were yet, but heres a breakdown of my schedule.

Monday- Maori Studies from 4:10-5 PM
Tuesday- Race and Racism in Modern Europe 11:00-12:50, Modern Rituals (an anthropology course) from 2:10- 3pm
Wednesday Maori Studies again
Thursday- WW1- The Great Sacrifice 12-12:50, Modern Rituals, and Maori Studies
and FRIDAYS OFF!

So my schedule isnt toooo demanding, but there are Tutorials which i still need to sign up for. Not sure exactly how they work, but basically, since this is a large university, they are like smaller groups than the lectures and you get a tutor, or a grad student to kind of lead discussions. Should be interesting. So that may add to my schedule a bit and make me not have so much free time.

We have about 2 weeks off for Fall break coming up in the beginning of April. It seems like a really big vacation, so i am trying to see what my options are. I would love to be able to do a little more travelling, maybe even hop over the Tasman and check out Australia, Maybe Tasmania, Fiji or some of the other pacific islands. Im going to wait and see what other people are up to, and if i have the funds or not. If i cant make it out of the country i am going to look into doing a bit more trekking on the south island, maybe try to tackle the Milford Track, world famous for its beauty. I didnt really have the chance or time to do this on the first leg of my journey. Either way, I think break will be a fun way to explore a bit more.

This week we also get to sign up for clubs. I am excited about this, as more opportunities to meet kiwi students and also to work out and have fun. I am looking into joining the tramping club to see some more sights, the volleyball club, i might join a netball team, which is kind of like basketball, but not, its kind of a european sport, and maybe look into the rowing club. University sports are A LOT different here. They dont really have the same system as we have in the states. But they have a thing called the Uni Games in April which are like an olympic styled games set between the main 8 universities in NZ.

Welll thats about all i got for now, HOPEFULLY, FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED, my laptop cord will arrive soon and i will again have access to my photos and upload some of the new ones from around Wellington, including my flat, the view from campus and the waterfront. Next post ill let you know how classes are and whether i can understand my professors or not! though they speak english, the kiwi accent is funny and sometimes a bit tricky to understand. haha. I feel like ive lost mine a little bit since I moved in with other Americans. Haha, maybe ill get it back. Off to my first class of the tri-mester and excited to get my brain working again! I miss you all and hope everyone is doing amazing and braving the snow at home! Ill try to send some of the NZ sun stateside for you!

haere mai to my blog once again, or welcome in Maori! For the those faithful followers I have certainly left you hanging and i apologize. It has been quite a struggle to get online without my laptop and still being on the road for a while, but i FINALLY have settled in at Wellington and hope to keep a better record of all that occurs. Last time i checked in i was still in Auckland and had yet to meet up with the other international students. Well we finally did and it was strange, i mean it was weird to be around Americans again! They were all fresh off the plane and just seemed SOOO American. haha. Listen to me, as if I am saying im not American anymore. Let me explain, its more just the attitude and the outlook and such, i had it when i first got here, but after like 7 weeks, i think it wore off and i started to feel like i really kinda belonged here. It was almost a shock though, i had only met a small handful of Americans on my whole time travelling, and then bam, there were like 80 of them (us). I was a little skiddish around them almost, first off because I didnt want to sound like a know it all becuz i had travelled and knew the country kinda, and second off because idk, just funny to see what they were most worried about, which tended to be centered around where to go out, and what bars were best. I was surprised to see that after there long plane ride here, most were right and ready to hit the town and go to the pubs, so much for jetlag! I think another thing that kind of happened, was i realized how little money i really had, and deff knew my restrictions. This kind of put me in the position to hold back, but yet trying not be antisocial at the same time. In the end I hung out a bit, but still kind of felt a little akward. We spent a night in Auckland and had a few orientation type things, and then jumped on the bus for 4 more days of orientation in Rotorua. There were both students from my Uni, Victoria, and from Auckland Uni, in our group and we did some fun things. The first day we learned how to play rugby and had a few games of touch rugby out in the back field behind the hostel. Then we went and learned the Haka, which is a traditional Maori war dance. It is most recognizable from the All Blacks, which are the NZ national Rugby team who pretty much are like gods here and sweep up at international competition. The haka was a ton of fun to learn the words and the movements, and to put all this energy into making scary faces and sticking out tongues out. Just youtube it, if you want to see more. So we learned all the movements and such and then the instructors split up the girls and the guys and told us to drop down to our skivvies. haha, we did and then put on these like loin cloth type traditional costumes and got our faces tattoed. Face tattoos are representational of power in the Maori culture and tattoos on the thighs and buttox are often only held by chiefs. We performed the Haka and had a blast. The rest of Orientation week we did a bunch of things, got to meet some pretty cool kids and wander around Rotorua a bit more. We did a day of community service where we went to a local Maori settlement, which sat on one of the most geothermal areas of Rotorua, and we got a tour of the village. There were some really cool things here and I got an insight into some traditions that were quite interesting. The geothermal activity plays a big role in the way the live their everyday lives, including earth ovens which they called their own "microwaves" would cook entire meals, to the baths which still were open for everyone in the village to use. Our community service project was basically de-weeding some of the grounds from non native plants. It began to rain and for a bout an hour and a half we pulled up bamboo stalks, and other brush. It was actually really enjoyable and felt good to do some manual labor. I ended up standing in the big dumpster and squishing down all the brush and trees to make more room. haha. That night we went to Tamaki village and were treated with an awesome welcome and showed some of the Maori performances. It was great. Then we were again treated as we were fed a traditional Maori hangi, or earth oven meal. It was awesome, it felt like thanksgiving, because i just kept eating and eating. I literally had to loosen my belt! My friend Corey from Texas got to be the chief of our group and he led us into dinner. We finished off our dinner by singing a song together and learning some words of wisdom. When Maori's are asked what is the most important thing in this world, they respond by saying, "It is people, it is people, it is people". I really took this to heart. It was so cool to see how everyone at the dinner came together after this, and it gave me kind of a simple outlook on life, that we often take for granted. The following day we had yet another awesome experience as we went to Waitomo to go caving. After 2 bus breakdowns, the same bus, haha, we arrived in Waitomo and split into different activities. I chose Honking Haggis Holes and our group of ten ventured off into a cave to abseil, or basically repel into this giant cave with our wetsuits and headlamps. It was sooooooo crazy! man what a rush. Our first abseil into the cave was almost 35 meters! or like 100 feet! Our guides were awesome and it was sucha blast. We made our way through the caves for about 2 1/2 hours and did more abseiling, traversed waterfalls and crawled on our bellies through very small tunnels, certainly not for the claustrophobic! That night we all had a little goodbye party as the two groups were splitting up and all the friends we had made from Auckland were parting ways. Our Wellington group was due to fly from Rotorua to Wellington the next day, but i decided to take the bus instead, as it was over 100$ cheaper, but 7 hours longer. haha. o well, there was another kid who was gonna ride too. He however didnt secure a ticket and was nearly left behind twice. haha. Finally arrived in Wellington, where it was gloomy and wet, haha, on the 18th of Feb. and caught a Victoria Shuttle to my housing. At this point i had no idea what to expect when it came to where i was going to be living during my time in Wellington. I knew i would have a Kiwi-flatmate, but other than that i was completely unsure. We pulled onto my street and it was a dead end, with all these small houses on it, it looked really peaceful and quiet. Got my keys from the RA down the road and went and checked out my flat. I have a kiwi-flatmate named Kirsten and unfortunately, haha, jk, but 2 other Americans living with me. I was kind of hoping to end up with more Kiwi's, but they are pretty cool. Shallin is from California and she was with a different program so she had been there a few days and Brodie is from Westchester New York. He plays rugby and was hoping to play here as well. Our flat is pretty nice. We have 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, kitchen with all the cutlerly and pans there, and a back deck. Laundry is just a floor below and we dont have to pay for it! Our house is on the corner of the street and we have a little front lawn with a tree for some shade. Overall i was very happy with it. Some of the other kids from my group ended up in overflow housing, basically a hostel like dorm, downtown. They were a bit jealous i got a real house. A few others ended up just down the road so its cool. My room is pretty big actually, with a really comfy bed, a desk, a bookshelf and a closet. My window looks out to the next house a few feet away, but it keeps my room really nice and shady and cool. Just a few yards down the road there is a lookout over the city and the harbour and it is pretty amazing. For those of you who saw the picture i posted of Wellington from Mount Victoria, just imagine the view from the opposite side of the city basically. Its pretty amazing. I like how its only like a 15-20 minute walk to the city, but like Hartwick there are SOOOOO many stairs, its rediculous. haha Prolly even 10x worse than Hartwick actually. But its still not bad, and for being just outside the city our street is really quiet. We had a day of international student orientation and went through a few of the protocol things, got registered and enrolled in classes and i just got my student id card. We went to a few of the pubs and saw some live bands which was fun as well. The first year students just got here yesterday and the returners will be here soon too. There are 20,000 students here, so it will deff feel a bit biggger than tiny 15 person classes in Hartwick. I already got to see some of the lecture halls that fit like 400+ people and was a bit turned off by it, but will see what happens. SOOO i got my classses all set up. I am taking four papers (classes). THEY are- A history course titled Race and Racism in in Modern Europe, which is a 200 level course, Another history course titled- The Great Sacrifice: WW1 which is a 300 level course. An Anthropology course titled- Ritual in the Modern World at the 200 level and Maori Society and Culture which is just a 100 intro course. A bunch of us took the bus like 25 minutes outside the city the other day to a beach that was super beautiful. We wandered up the beach for a while, but realized the Red Rocks which we wanted to go see were a few hours out. We still had a lot of fun and i got to talk camera shop with a couple of others. I had come down with a cold a few days before and kinda felt reallly blah... it was one with the barky kind of cough that just hurts your chest. I realllly didnt want to be sick, but i think i caught it from the US kids who all had just come from winter and sickness. haha. idk, but i kinda have been taking it easy the last few days. There was a rugby game the other night i was going to go to, but i was a bit tired. But the Wellington Hurricanes won! i will prolly try to go to the next game. There was also an all whites soccer game last night as well, but again, ill have time to attend these as i still have like 4 months in Wellington. A group of us went to the farmers market on sunday and got some fresh produce, which was sooo nice and it was held just behind Te Papa, the national museum right on the harbour. I actually am contemplating whether or not it is possible for me to get an intership there, or somewhere in the city. Maybe even pick up a small job under the table so i can actually live! it can be a bit expensive to go out and food and such, so will see. I dont want to hold back from going to all sorts of cool things because i am broke, so i am thinking about just taking out a private loan, and just enjoying myself here because it is kind of one of those once in a lifetime thing. Money shouldnt get in the way, but there are also all sorts of art and music events held which are free and tons of things happening around the city. I may not enjoy the bustle of city life, but it has been nice so far, Wellington isn't a daunting city and it deff has it advantages. Welllllllll i think that i have caught you up to speed a bit. I will keep updating as i go to my first classes, which i still have like a week till! so i have all this free time, and some of my friends are going to explore the south island, my roomies are thinking about buying a cheap car and i am just going to find something to do this week! haha. shouldnt be too hard, but to telll ya the truth im ready for papers to start so i can feel busy again, for those of you who know me well, i deff would rather be busy than lounge around and do nothing. Well i am getting a bit hungry, so i am going to go find out what i can do about dinner and then a couple of us might go to a comedy festival tonight! Cheers all!

hey all! Well one leg of this adventure has now officially come to an end!! ;( but at the same time I am excited to start the next! I meet up with the other international students in Auckland tomorrow where we spend a night and then head to Rotorua, to the same hostel i was already at, and have like 4 days of orientation before heading down to settle in Wellington. I still have yet to find out who my flat mates are or what classes im taking, so this should be fun! I am currently staying with the Dorman's in Auckland, and i think i am going to go out for a swim! As it is a beautiful sunny day! Check facebook for new pics!!! I get my laptop cord in a few days and then i hope to start skyping with some of you! miss everyone!

FORGIVE me readers, for its been what feels like weeks since my last post! haha... sooo I last posted when I was in Franz Josef glacier on the west coast and I have done quite a bit since then. From Franz Josef we headed south along the coast and stopped at Lake Matheson which has reflective views of Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ at about 15000 feet! From there we stopped through a few small towns, an old gold mining town and a neat jade or pounamu stone factory. Instead of going straight to Queenstown, I stopped at Lake Wanaka for a night. It was beaaaaautiful there! This leg of the journey took me out of lush rainforest into more dramatic mountain scenery, yet it was barren in parts as well. The lake was this amazing blue colour and it was fantastic! The scenery really started to remind me of the Lord of the Rings a bit. In Wanaka I ended up getting a 6 bed bunk dorm all to myself! it was a change from always having others in the room, and it was almost too quiet. That evening i took a walk up to a 1000 meter look out point and took in 360 degree panaromic views of the southern alps and the lakes that surrounded the region. I had to stay for sunset, and it was well worth it, though a tad chilly with the wind! For those of you on facebook, my profile picture of me jumping is from Wanaka and it was me waiting for the sun to go down, so i got creative and a little bored! haha. Next day i slept in a little, then went and sat by the edge of the lake until i had to catch the bus to Queenstown. Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world and it is a bit commercial, i didnt think i would like it actually. But it was again beautiful, with these jagged peaks overshadowing the city, they are called the Remarkables, and it makes sense. Queenstown had a flair to it for sure, but it lived up to its name. We stopped by a bungy place on our way into the city on the bus and it was good fun watching everyone walk up to ledge and dive off into the canyon below! I reaaaaally had no interest in bungy, but seeing it, mannnnn i wanted to do it! I opted out this time, but if i had more money i defffffff would have done it, though the one we were at was rather lame at only 43 meters, i would have done the nevis at 133 meters!!!!! A bloke in my hostel had just done it and he showed me a video of it, loooooked amazing. In that exhilerating kind of way. Got a free barbie at the hostel that night, which was nice, not to cook or pay for a meal! Next day made plans to climb Queenstown hill track, got all my gear ready, packed a little lunch, made it up this super steep road to the start of the path, took a little break, haha, thought i was in shape, but jeeez..... but this is when i realized that i didnt have my camera!!!!!!!!!! how could i forget that it was in my other bag! I was royally upset with myself, cuz i wasnt going to do the walk without it, but i didnt really want to walk back and get it! haha. so i grudgingly went back down the hill to the hostel, got my camera and decided to go to the beach instead and over to the queens gardens, as it was bloody hot out and i didnt really want to do the hike in full heat. Ran into some British chaps i had met in Greymouth and sat and chatted with them for a while. Finally got up and around and went to do the walk and i again ran into the Aussie girls I had met in Franz Josef, it was Australia day, apparently a big holiday, and they were alll decked out and probably had been drinking since about noon. haha. Paid my respects to their festivities then headed up to complete the track i had planned. It was a little cooler out this time around, but it was a great walk. Met a German guy about halfway up and then was talked the rest of the way up and for a good 2 or so hours, he was pretty cool. He used to work as a guy who would deliver bone marrrow! So he would be sent from Germany to like LA and deliver this like precious stuff! pretty neat job, but lots of pressure id imagine!...... we decided to head back down the hill and i got back into town in time to grab a burger at Ferburger, which had giant burgers, but delicious, then ran into yet another aquaintance from Alberta Canada. I got my burger and then we went down to the pier and watched the sun go down again, it was crazy, it wouldnt get dark until nearly ten pm. Pretty cool. Went out with them as Queenstown is known for its nightlife as well. It was a fun night, we all just enjoyed goofing off and all. They had these drinks at this bar that came in tea pots, and you would pour little like shots out of them, kinda wild! Made plans earlier to go to Milford Sound the next day, so I didnt go overboard or anything. The ride to Milford Sound was stunning, even though i was a bit sleepy due to the eves festivities. The scenery got more and more dramatic as we headed into the fiordland national park, which is a huge World Heritage area. The bus stopped before we got to the Homer tunnel which is an engineering feat. We stopped by a little spot where the bus driver told us we could take our water bottles and fill them up with the water from the stream as it was 99.8% pure and was runoff from a glacier! It was chilllly but oh so crisp! Got to see the Kea, a mountain parrot, and then we headed into the Homer tunnel, which took something like 40 years to complete. Its only 1.3 kilometers long, but its through this massive mountain. Apparently they have a naked run through there every year! Haha, sounds like fun! The scenery was even more dramatic on the other side as we approached Milford. Now Milford Sound is a major iconic image of NZ, and in the world really, you prolly have all seens pics of it and didnt realize it. But as we got there, it was almost as if i had been there before, as its image is plastered upon so many guidebooks and postcards, it was almost a letdown, DONT get me wrong it was nice, but it wasnt the same. We took a cruise through the fiord, which was neat, a bit cloudy though, to the Tasman sea and then back through the fiord and under some really big waterfalls! Drove back out through the tunnel and instead of going back to Queenstown, i jumped off at Te Anau for a night where I had thought about doing the Kepler track, a three day hike in the area thats well known, but easier to do than the Routeburn or the Milford, which you have to book with the DOC like 6 months in advance!!!!! Did some laundry at Te Anau, which was nice and was looking for a quiet nite, until i got asked to stop by the pub by my Dutch friend to get her to grab food to make dinner, turns out i got a beer, and then this Mexican-Canadian guy decided to buy us all shots of Tequila.... UGH... haha.... Disclaimer, i am not an alcoholic, and have spent very little money on alcohol this trip, but since queenstown it seems i have been give more opportunities to go out. Well we had a few, they had karaoke (sp?) and we just had fun making fools of ourselves. Back to Queenstown, where i spent another 2 nights, Did another walk up to the other side of the city and had some good views, tried to sneak onto the Gondola to ride back down, as it again was a bit of a hot day, but i got caught, haha, and walked back down! It was ok...... OHHHH right, so one of the reasons i havent really blogged is because at this point, i somehow misplaced or Lost my power cord to my laptop!!!!! Ughhhhh so frustrating, i could not figure out what happend to it! I called the bus and asked if i left it there, the last like 3 hostels i was at and retraced my memory, but i still dont know what happend to it! So i havent been able to upload any new pics at all, im running very low on my memory cards, and i have had to pay outrageous prices for internet, the last place i was at was $1 for every 10 minutes! This hostel has free internet! Hence me taking the time to update you all on my travels, and at other places theres always someone waiting to get on, but its quiet here. Ok, so then i headed on the bus to Dunedin on the East coast, our bus broke down, and we spent about 3 hours sitting outside in the middle of no where! Ended up chatting with this Korean guy who came to NZ to learn english, it was neat trying to test and see how much he had learned, he deff needed a little more work, but nice none the less. Spent 2 days in Dunedin, it was a decent place, but i didnt really plan anything, i was a bit tired from the last few days, i hadnt gotten the best sleep and had been trying to solve the issue of my laptop. Decided to go and do someting normal in Dunedin so i went to the movies! haha seems dumb, but it was nice. I saw Sherlock Holmes and it was pretty good! Headed to Lake Tekapo from Dunedin and spent 3 full days there! it was a tiny place with a population of like 300 people, but its a very scenic place known for its sky! There are hardly any lights thus making is super clear. The lake was again this crazy blue colour and it was frigid as it tooo was fed by a glacier. SOOOOOO refreshing, but you shiver when you get out, but then the sun attacks, the weather was amazing the last nearly 2 weeks, its been great, but almost too much sunshine! haha. Ok. Did a couple of hikes around Tekapo, opted out of going to Mt coook as i ended up in a room with these 2 guys who snore like there was no tomorrow, I DONT KNOW HOW SUCH NOISES CAN COME OUT OF A PERSON! i really got like an hour of sleep, not fun. Jumped on the bus yesterday and instead of going straight to Christchurch i took a night in Methven, small place, where i am now and heard there was a walk about 15k outside the city which is supposed to one of the best short walks in NZ. Couldn't turn it down, the hostel offered free bikes, so i jumped on the bike at around 2 and set off on my way, turns out it was more like 30k away!! thats like 19 miles! ughh... im not a biker by any means, and it again was quite warm, deff needed to stay hyrdrated..... FINNNNALLY got to the place after a relatively flat start of the trip, a nice downhill then walking my bike for a while up this gorge... what did i get myself into! haha. it was 430 by the time i started the walk! Which was in pretty place, this huge farm of sheep and red deer..... they said the wlak took like 2 hours, i only went about an hour in to the Washpen falls, stopped there for a bit, then walked back as i knew i would have to get home before dark, I was sooooo tired by then, and i got this crazy biker arm tan. haha. I was sooooo close to hitching it back to town with my bike, cuz it was hell... the hills were endless, but i stuck it out, just hoping to get back in time to go to the store and get food for dinner as i was starving. Turns out i took a long way there, and then realized there was a little bit of a shorter way back, which i actually cruised back . Spent the night here, wish i had slept better, again a crazy snore-er mannnn how do these people sleep themselves! Got free breakfast here, which was awesome, the first time i have had eggs in like 6 weeks! Got to go shower and pack up, the bus comes in an hour then off to Christchurch for 2 days i think, THEN to Kaikoura for a couple, then my trek comes to an end as i fly out of Christchurch on tuesday the 9th back into Auckland, where i spend a couple days then meet up with the other university students and have orientation in Rotorua! Sooooorrrry i havent posted any pics yet, its frustrating, but thanks to mom i am getting a new power cord in a few days!!! Misssing everyone! Its hard to believe this trip is over, yet a new journey is about to begin! cheers all!