Catching up never felt so good!

So I’m sitting here munching on pineapple lumps, a very delicious NZ candy (probably because all the candy here has REAL SUGAR and not high-fructose corn syrup as do all sodas!), and I’m realizing how much more fun this blog could be if I was writing in the present such as now. I’ve been playing catch up for a month and I’ve decided tonight that I will summarize the events that have occurred since returning from trip until right now, tonight! It may skip some details, but then I could blog about more than just what I do, but more how I feel about New Zealand. Perhaps that might even be more interesting. Oh, and if you’re wondering, right now I’m currently feeling that Imogen Heap + Pineapple lumps (which don’t taste anything like pineapple) are a great combination. Also, once this entry is done I can finally e-mail everyone and let them know I have a blog. I was hesitant to do so until I knew I’d actually be keeping it, which I am! Yay…but for serious, here we go:

So Saturday I woke up at Hannah’s flat exhausted and returned home to try to sleep, except I ended up trying to clean my room, as I hadn’t exactly moved in fully. This process took a couple days and all of a sudden it was MONDAY, the first day of class! But thankfully I don’t have class on Mondays…so I spent the day flat shopping!

Tuesday came around and I finally had something to do, which was nice. It had been almost 80 or so days since I’d been in school. But Victoria is no Vassar. I walked into my Maori class to find 150 other people!! The professor was also a bit shocked and decided to try and split into two streams (which means sections, for non-Kiwis). My Maori class is on the campus marae, which is the area of meeting for the Maori. On the marae, is a whare (far-a), which is the meeting house, where I have class inside on the floor. Upon entering, the memory of speaking at the marae near Auckland popped into my head. I am so glad I had that experience, as it keeps being a useful memory! After my intro to Maori class, I moved on to Maori music, also taught at the marae for its lecture. The class is very performance based and we have to sing/dance with Maori. So glad I’m taking the language class too!

Tuesday night found me baking cookies for the first time in my life. I burnt a couple and felt silly. The reason for the backing was that it was Anna’s Birthday, one of my flat mates. She turned twenty, which is great as know I don’t feel so old (the others are 19 and 18). To celebrate we had a dessert party and skipped a proper dinner…always a good idea. Briar made her famous vegan chocolate cake, still SO GOOD! And all the guests brought dessert, should have taken a picture of the fine fine spread. Anyways, it was a fun night and we celebrated Anna’s birthday well.

Wednesday found me in criminology, introduction to criminological thought. Pretty interesting and I think I’ll keep it. So that with my other two papers (courses) = a full course load (60 points) and thus 4 credits at Vassar. My timetable (schedule) is quite light, though I have a tutorial for each class. Tutorials accompany lectures and are smaller (20 people) and taught by a grad student. As a Vassar kid, this system is very strange as my lectures are 100+ people! And yet apparently I’m in small classes for Vic(toria Univeristy, also referred to as Uni). My three lecturers are all wonderful and interesting and I’m very excited, though I’ve been a bit bored with the lack of work. I will find something constructive to do with my time, I swear!

I also met with a music professor, the head of music composition, as I had submitted a CD in order to pass out of 100-level papers. It turns out I was accepted, though I can’t take the offer as the Comp classes clash with my other papers and I already like my papers. We scheduled a meeting and at that meeting, we had a wonderful hour long chat about music and we went over some of my stuff. It was very helpful and he even served tea. Makes me wonder a bit about Vassar, when a professor at a huge university can take the time to do this with me why Vassar professors often meet for like 15 mins…hmmmmm. Oh well! I also think I have key card access to the music practice rooms, of which there are only fourteen!!! I can’t reserve them as I’m not performance, but I can use them when they are free, which is rare.

Thursday of this week found me at an IFSA-Butler event. We met at Te Papa, Wellington’s museum, which contains a giant squid! From there we were split into groups and had to complete a sheet of questions about things around the city. When we were finished we were to open an envelope that had directions to dinner on Butler. My team was great! We raced through the museum, and then sauntered our way over to the City information center. On the way we think we saw a pod of dolphins in the harbor and stopped for gelato. We even took pictures of it to show IFSA staff. We believed that we might win if we took our time and enjoyed ourselves, though perhaps that was only to rationalize the gelato stop. We eventually ended up at the library, spent too much time there, and realized we would be late. We got to dinner late and turned in our sheet. Much to our surprise we won! We were rewarded with gym bags and a gift certificate (which still hasn’t come…). Perhaps our theory was correct.

Friday found me on a run to the beach, in Crim, and watching Moulin Rouge. Every year Vassar throws a Moulin Rouge party and I never understood why people got all hyped up. Now I do! I’d seen the film when I was much younger and obviously did not understand the random singing. It was a nice quite Friday night, which was good, especially considering that the next night would be our FLAT – WARMING.

SATURDAY, the day of our NEVERLAND THEMED FLAT-WARMING. (Yeah, all caps = excitement.) Briar was Peter Pan, Alan was a very interesting Tinkerbell, Anna was Captain Hook, Sophie was Wendy, and I was Michael Darling with teddy bear from Pack ‘N Save for only $8.00. We invited heaps of people; I invited the Americans. The Kiwis and Americans even mingled! We provided just the space and music, as most parties are BYO here, which makes a whole lot of sense, economically speaking. We also invited our neighbors and many of them came! We now know our neighbors, which is sweet as (cool). Because of our housing regulations, we had to shut down at midnight, so we took the party to town! Though I lost Briar’s PJs and my teddy bear for more suitable clothes. It was an epic night and lots of fun.
Sunday I woke up so happy and content with New Zealand, with my flat mates, and with life. We have a chores list, we have dishes rotation, and we cook communally. We know our neighbors, and they’re awesome. Life is just soo good! Later in the afternoon, Briar, Anna, Sophie, and I headed to Newtown, a neighborhood in Welly that had a street fair.

Monday the NZ magic continued as I ended up taking a late night dip in the ocean with some flatmates and some kiwis. We discovered phosphorescence in the water! If you moved your hands or kicked brilliant blue lights lit up. It was amazing, but also freezing so it didn’t last too long. What a great way to kick off a week!

After class Tuesday, I spent a couple hours vacuuming our new couch, that we obtained for free from a friend of Anna’s. I’m a bit allergic to it’s dust and or cat hair…but it’s too comfy for me to let that stand in the way. Tonight was my first night for cooking. I made meatballs with tortellini and beans. Very yummy and my flat mates appreciated my American-sized portions. Oh, I also baked cookies on Sunday and didn’t burn them! In fact they were amazing with chocolate chips, coconut, cinnamon, and some other spices. I honestly don’t think I can ever follow a recipe perfectly, I also have to change it. Mostly for the best, but not always… After dinner, I headed to the tramping club. They blew me away with their organization so I signed up (20 dollars, as they don’t have an activities fee) and another 30 dollars for a trip this weekend. We leave Friday night and get back Sunday night.

Wednesday found me starting some homework, and then heading out for student night. Still not use to this not always studying on school nights thing…so weird! There’s time to study and enjoy life? What a country!

Finally, and oh me oh my, you better believe this next word: TODAY, Thursday, March 11, 2010, I went to class, 2 hours in the marae for intro to Maori. I think my knowledge of the language just tripled. After class Hannah, Max (another IFSA kid), Grace, and I headed to town as some of us are headed out tramping on that trip tomorrow! I am borrowing Anna’s pack as they cost around 350. But I bought some polypropylene base layer for 45, a bit pricy but there was a two for one deal so guess who’s know a member of Kathmandu? I am! I also know own a spiffy headlamp flashlight that has an incredible 7 LEDs (only 11 at a grocery store!), a bowl, collapsible spork and knife, a pack liner, and some food as we need to provide two breakfasts and two lunches. Oh and the torch (flashlight) was supposed to be a headlamp as the tramping club gave an important talk about the dangers of hiking while holding a flashlight. After all this shopping, we all got a ride back up the hill from one our neighbors! I walked in the door to find some left over dinner, consumed it, played some of Briar’s keyboard, and guess what? STARTED TO BLOG.

Gosh this is incredible. I’m not blogging in the present. Hi, how are you? Crazy huh? So yeah, trip this weekend. Very excited for it, charging the good old camera and such. Tomorrow I only have criminology in the afternoon (round three) so I can pack well and feel prepared. I have little experience overnight tramping as I’ve only really been a day hiker. I’m a little worried about my hiking boots as I blistered a bit after the Tongariro crossing, but buying new boots this week would also be a very bad idea. Hannah, Max, and I are all in different groups, so hopefully we’ll meet some Kiwis! The club runs all sorts of trips and I’m keen to do some Alpine ice climbing, though that happens much latter in the trimester. Well all for now! So good to be in the present.

Also, I'm supposed to bring pasta sauce for our dinner on Saturday night...everyone in my group is bringing one thing that will hopefully morph into dinner!