How has a month gone by???

WOW! the last blog i posted was over a month ago...... i deff dropped the ball and trying to keep up a good account of my life here! Now it's almost a blur! I am making a promise to write at least once a week from now on! Or else even I wont remember what my NZ adventure has been like. ok.... so my papers (classes) have been in full swing for a good 4 or 5 weeks now, crazyyyyy.. I guess thats my excuse for not keeping up with my blog. Haha, maybe not, as I seem to be rather fond of the being Abroad part of this experience, but not so much the study part.... it's almost like an early form of senioritis hitting me. I must admit its been tricky to get out of. Papers overall are pretty interesting. I guess I kind of wish that I could have come and taken random classes and things I couldnt just take at home, but I did need to make sure that I would be able to transfer credits and allow me not to have a rediculous senior year back in the states trying to make up lost credits. My 300 level history course about WW1 is pretty interesting and I think I like it because it feels the most like a class at Hartwick, size wise anyway. The Lecture has about 40 people in it, but the seminar class that I have once a week for two hours, which is down on the Pipitea campus, a good 30-35 minute walk away from my flat, but usually i take the cable car in the morning and that helps, anyway, the seminar is about 15 people and its really comfortable and we have great group discussions. My 200 level history course on Race and Racism in modern Europe is a bit of a drag. The lecturer is rather dry and basically reads straight from powerpoints. Its only once a week, but its two 50 minute lectures back to back and it just gets a bit boring. I guess to a lot of the ideas we are talking about I have learned in various other classes, so I'm just not as into it. There are probably 85-90 people in that lecture as well, so it gets a bit stuffy. I really enjoy my Maori Studies course though. Its my only 100 level class so the workload isnt too bad, but again prolly 100 in the class. The first week or so of the class was a bit difficult because of the language barriers. Here I am in NZ for like 2 months and now Im having Maori being used so plainly in the lecturers speech and i have no idea whats going on. haha. Add the accent to it and it deff got a little disheartening, because even the Pakeha or white students from NZ all know a bit of Maori from everyday use of it. The language almost was lost, but there was an initiative in the last 20 years or so to bring it back and revitalize the cultural heritage. The other thing about the language that gets tough is just the pronunciation. I'll give you one example which is a bit humourous. Whakapupa is translated to mean ancestors or geneaolgy. So you would prolly see this like i did and pronounce it whaka-pupa. Wrong! So Wh- makes an F sound, so its more like saying, Fuk-a-pupa..... haha.... which sounds like your swearing or something. Some of the words are quite tricky and especially when they have like 20 letters. Or the name of this village we did community service at while at orientation in Rotorua is called Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao'. Got that?!! The Kelburn campus is where the majority of my classes are, besides the one seminar downtown near parliment (the Beehive) and the train station, anyway there is the Te Herenga Waka Marae on campus behind the Maori studies department. A Marae is a traditional Maori treaty house which is used for gatherings of families and for special ceremonies. Marae's are located in almost every village of New Zealand and really tell the story of the ancestors or whakapupa. The tiki figures which are carved into them are the links to generations of family. We were invited as a class to the Marae for a Powhiri (po-firi) or a welcome ceremony in which we would be greeted. Though historically such events were seen to determine whether or not people encroaching on the land were friends or foe, it is often used to welcome guests to the University today. We prepared a special song for the members of the marae and as a class we practiced the song for a week or so. It was a lot of fun. Speaking of songs, I went to a Church about 10 minutes from my flat a few weekends ago and about 4 of the 9 songs we sang were in Maori. It was really neat! It helped me to kind of get the hang of some of the words and pronunciations.



Oh yeah, I forgot that I tend to write giant paragraphs. Hmmm.. So classes, Oh I did forget to mention my Ritual Anthropology class. I really like it. The lecturer is from Germany but has been living in NZ for about 7 years. It's such a funny combination, her German accent is definitely still there, but their is also Kiwi lingo involved too. It always makes me laugh because she says the funniest things without realizing it.



Hmm.. it's 12:15 Am right now and I am very tired.. the last week has been pretty rough. Had 4 essays to write. So far I had nearly no actual homework, besides reading and then bam, all at once before break i get nailed. It was bad because I felt like I was in vacation mode still and then it was very hard for me to write papers. It was almost as if I had forgotten, Yet the same procrastination that i have at home kicked in and it hurt me a bit here. Not proud, but i turned a couple of assignments in a bit late. Didnt realize how difficult some of the research was going to be for a few of the classes. The databases here are a bit tricky to figure out and I swear I spent an entire day looking for 20 sources for one of my papers. It was hell. I was not doing so well with it and it was very frustrating. Just finished my last essay a couple of hours ago and I am now free! We have a full 2 weeks off for fall break! from the 2nd-19th of April! I am still in the process of deciding exactly what I am doing for break. I kind of had the intention of going to Invercargil, which is at the very bottom tip of the South Island, fairly close to Antartica. haha, for Uni Games, or University Games with the Volleyball team. I joined the club team and Uni Games is an opportunity for Uni students to take part in like an Olympic competition of sorts. Because there are only 8 Universities in NZ, there is not nearly the same type of athletic competitions as we have in the states. Uni Games has been going on for like 100 years and the University that comes out on top after all the sports have played wins a cup and its a big deal. My Uni, Victoria, has won the overall cup the last 2 years. Anyway, I have been playing volleyball monday and thursday nights and it's been a lot of fun and really good exercise. I had started a decent running routine and then I got busy with classes and such and haven't had a chance to get back into a schedule. Volleyball isn't such a big deal in NZ, but the club team is pretty good and there are some serious players. I feel a bit intimidated too because I am usually one of only a few white guys, haha, and it seems even the Maori have good ups. Its been cool. Anyway, it was decided we werent going to send the vball team to Uni games because not enough people wanted to pay for the travel and accomadation to get to Invercargil. I didn't know till like 2 days ago tho, so I didnt really make plans for break because I was waiting to hear what was happening. Tomorrow I am going to decide whether I am going to jump in with some mates and rent a car and go to the South island and tramp for a week or 2 or whether i mite go to Tonga, which is like north of NZ, East of Australia and South of Fiji. Haha, I found decent tickets there and if my loan check comes in i might just go for it. I kind of feel like I have travelled most of NZ already and it would be cool to check somewhere else out. Plus how many people can say they have actually been to Tonga?! Either way, it will be a fun break for sure, and I want to make the most of it. In June, before I come home I am trying to see if i can hop over to OZ as well, no not like from the wizard of OZ, haha, corny, but im tired, hence the bad jokes, but rather to Australia for a few weeks. Would like to go up to Cairns which is up near the great barrier reef, head to the middle and check out Ayers rock or Uluru. OOOPS, I ALMOST JUST DELETED EVERYTHING I JUST WROTE! good thing it autosaved, that would have been a waste like an hour...... anyway Ayers rock in the Outback and then down to Tasmania. A friend of mine Josh from Chicago might go so we are looking into planning it. He broke his ankle playing Baskeball like a week into starting Uni, haha, feel so bad for him. He will hopefully be out of his cast by May though. What a crappy thing to happen when your studying abroad. So yeah, 2 weeks off for break started a few hours ago and ill know in a few hours what the plan will be.

Life in Wellington has been pretty fun. It's a compact city and it means that you can walk around and theres also great transportation systems. The waterfront is amazing and there seems to always be something happening down there. Festivals and dragon boat races, markets and plenty of venues to sit and look at the beautiful harbour. Wellington is honestly a hard place to beat on a nice day. I think when I first passed though Wellington about 2.5 months ago I was slightly disapointed with it, but then again it rained like 4 days straight. But honestly we have had some amazing weather over the last month. Even people from Wellington have been somewhat taken aback by the amount of sunny days. Were still reaching about 20 celcius now, but the nights are getting a bit chillier, dropping down to like 9 and 10 celcius, or like 40 degrees. Not so cold, but my flat is a bit older and even most NZ houses have very little if no insulation. So we have like individual space heaters in each of the bedrooms and one in the living room as well. Anyway, Wellington has been good. The nightlife is pretty crazy. Wesnesday nights are big student nights, with decent prices and such. Went out a couple times, but doesnt usually work very well having 3 classes on thursday. There is a break on thursday nights, town is usually super quiet. Oh speaking of which, its funny, like Wellington is the capital city and there some 400,000 people living here, yet people still refer to it as a town, and even I have kind of gotten used to it. It's been really nice, becuase as most of you know I am from a tiny nothing town of 2000 people or w/e and Oneonta is only like 20,000 people. I thought that it would be a bit tough to adjust to city life, but it's been really good. My flat is in Kelburn, and its just a suburb about 15 minute walk from the CBD, central business district, Courtenay and Cuba street which house all the pubs, bars, dance clubs and entertainment. Though its hike coming back up from town as its pretty much straight up hill. A lot of stairs if you go certain directions, reminds me of Hartwick a lot of the time, but if possible its a little worse. haha. I usually dont go all out when we go to town on the weekends. It's deff a bit expensive to go to the bars and such. But its fun to see the diversity of them as well. There are some crazy dance clubs with all sorts of crazy lights and see through floors, or 4 floors with differnt music, theres a place called boogie wonderland that plays like all 70's and 80's dance music, with ABBA being a pretty big player.haha, We even rocked out to Footloose! haha. Then there are some other pubs which are a bit more my speed, just more chill enviorments. San Fransisco Bath House is a great place, and on Thursdays they do this acoustic lounge from 6-8 with some up and coming artists. My friend Frank got a gig there last week and almost our whole group from Australearn showed up to support him. It was a lot of fun and there were some really great musicians that night. My friend Reeta from Finland played the same night and she did some traditional Finnish songs, it sounded really pretty. The next night there was a band called Minuit playing at the same place and i really wanted to go see them. Back in the fall i somehow stumbled upon one of their songs on youtube. It's called Aotearoa, which means New Zealand in Maori, anyway, the song is all about NZ and i listened to it prolly 1000x before i left. I didnt really know any of the other songs they played, but i figured it was worth it for the one song i had become addicted too. Waited until the night of the concert to try and get tickets, went down around 830 on the friday night and they told me that it had sold out. I was a bit disapointed, but they told me to come back at like 1030 before the show started at 11 and i mite be able to grab a ticket. Met up with my friends Collin, Greg, Anne, and a few others at Hotel bristol to play some pool and found out Anne and a couple of Kiwi girls i just met already had tickets to the concert. Went with them after pool to see if could get a ticket and i managed to get one of the last like 5! good timing and i was really happy! The cover band was called Naked and Famous and they were from Auckland. They were pretty good and deff think they will do ok for themselves. NZ music industry is kind of interesting. It's very Americanized. All the songs in the pubs and dance places tend to be the top American hits. It's a bit sad, but there isnt a huge NZ music scene and when there is a good band, they dont really get recognition by NZ'ers unless they get recognized overseas in the states or something. Anway, Minuit was just back from getting a song on Greys Anatomy, which is sometimes a really big thing for bands because they get noticed from this and it can really jumpstart their carreers. Minuit came on and it was an awesome concert. A bit of a unique style and she had a pretty cool voice, but I liked it alot. So the night was kind of coming to an end and they hadnt played Aotearoa yet and i was very sad. She saved it for the end because the song has reallly been a cool thing for NZ'ers. It kind of tells their story and such. I was singing along the whole time and it was realllllly cool to actually see it live after playing it so many times on youtube. She finished the song and there was such an outburst from the audience for her to continue and sing it again, all i could hear was ENCORE, ENCORE, ENCORE! and I jumped in and agreed with them. She deff heard the audience and sang it through again. Then there were like 4 other encores with other songs. It was a great nite. So tired by the end of it, but so worth it. Then next night i went to my first Rugby match, which was a little uneventful, the game i mean. But it was fun none the less. We lost at the very end by 3 points to the sharks of South Africa.

OK...... ITS NOW 1 AM.... for sure need to go to bed now. hopefully sleep in tomorrow and then tie together plans for a great 2 weeks off. SORRY I wrote a novel here and didnt do it in smaller increments. I really do promise to keep better records for my blog because its important. I think i just got caught up in the routine of everyday life that it kind of slipped my mind. Also having so much access to the internet now we have wireless in our house, i tend to use Facebook more often for my contact with people and for uploading pictures..... Kia ora and good night! love and miss you all!