Final Dinners

Final Dinner with Friends
Throughout the semester, there had been a group of us that often went places, did things, and went to the bars together. Who came varied on the night and occasion, but everyone (who was anyone) made sure to come to our dinner on the waterfront, at a restaurant called "The Waterfront." Heare are some pictures from the occasion:

Emma, Amy and Me at dinner

The whole group of us

The meal was a great time. I had a magnificent white chocolate raspberry martini to drink and a really yummy steak. It was still early enough that none of us were thinking goodbyes yet, but it was the last time that all of us were still around to do something together.

Final Program Dinner
On November 7, Lauren and Tommy (if you recall, they were the program organizers who was with us for orientation) met with the seven of us studying in Auckland for a nice, fancy dinner at White, another waterfront restaurant, but this time in the Hilton hotel. It was nice to see the other girls from my program, whom I hadn't seen in a while.


We had a full course meal, with wine, appetizers, entrees and then we almost ordered desserts. We were going to get two mixed platters of desserts, but then we decided that it would be much cheaper and possibly tastier if we just went next door to the gelatto place. We retracted the order for the dessert, but the chef was insulted that we didn't want it anymore. As a result he himself made a few platter with mini espresso brownies and mini blueberry muffins. They were absolutely delicious. Then the group of us went over for gelatto. It was so good! I had a really nice chat with Tommy's girlfriend who was there. Tommy and his girlfriend had been together since high school, but went to different universities. They both came to University of Auckland however to do their semester abroad. Whereas she went back to her university back home, Tommy decided to stay in Auckland and they did two years of a really long distance relationship. With my time in New Zealand coming to a close and uncertainty setting in, this conversation with Tommy's girlfriend was just what I needed to be certain that I wanted to commit to staying with Matt.

Final Dinner with Matt
The second to last night before I left New Zealand, Matt decided to make me a special dinner. There's not much to write about, he made venison and blue cheese stuffed ravioli with a blue cheese sauce he made from scratch. We had both (ironically) been saving up tea lights for a candle lit dinner. I had the table lit up with tons of tea lights and Matt came in with more. He had even bought a lighter for the meal. It was tasty and special.

DInners

So in case anyone doesn't know, I'm back at home in Illinois now. I still have so much I want to blog about though, so I'm going to continue making posts despite the fact that my adventure has ended. Throughout the course of the semester I had many important dinners, I thought I'd lump them in an entry together. Here it goes:

Alumni Dinner
One program the University of Auckland offers to international students is the alumni dinner. Alum of the university sign up to host international students for dinner and international students sign up to eat for free and make small talk. Being the self-respecting college student that I am, I would never turn down a free meal and alas, signed up for the program. I hadn't heard anything by my midsemester break so I assumed that I wasn't going to be invited to dinner. Sometime in September, however, I received an email and was told I, along with two other girls would have dinner at Jennie and David's house. On September 26, the three of us met up and tried to find Jennie's apartment. We had the hardest time! The numbering was confusing and we buzzed the building and apartment we thought was hers, but we had no luck. We tried calling them, but we had no answer. About 20 minutes after when we were supposed to have been there, Jennie called Ida's cell phone and they came down and brought us up to their flat.

The couple reminded me of grandparents. Jennie consistently called us "darlings" and gave me a giant hug (especially considering how tiny she was). Before dinner we sat in their family room (I have an urge to call it a parlor though) and ate cheese and crackers and fruit and drank white wine.

During the time before the meal Jennie and David made an effort to get to know us. I talked about my background, both family and education and explained why I chose to study in Auckland, New Zealand. Ida (pronounced ee-duh, not Ida like Idaho) was from Denmark and told us about what it was like coming from a drug-ridden country, but one that also pays for one's college education. Ida also told us about how distinct the dialects of Danish are in Denmark. Depending on what part of the country one was from, there would be different words for the same things and demonstrated the difference for us. She said that people would adjust their accent depending on whom they were talking to. Her parents came from a different part of the country than where they raised her and from where she studied. That means she had three different dialects mastered. The third girl, whose name I can't remember, was a first generation American, whose parents came from Vietnam. She told us about growing up as both Vietnamese and American, it was pretty interesting.

Dinner was really nice. She made some kind of a curry, rice, salad and shredded carrots with coconut and raisins. I didn't think the carrot dish would be very tasty, but it was delicious! There we had more philosophical and ethical discussions about life in New Zealand among other topics. I learned about Jennie and David. They had been a part of the program for many years and their niche in life seemed to be to give foreigners a home. They consistently were host parents for Uni students and had a few "adopted daughters" that lived around the world. Jennie herself went back to school a few years ago (she's in her 60s or 70s) to get a masters just for the sake of loving learning. She works at the Short Loan (reserve) library on campus.



After a long, but enjoyable dinner, Jennie served us baked apples with ice cream for dessert and sent us on our merry way. David didn't want us to walk back in the dark (though they really weren't that far from campus) and dropped the two girls off at Parnell (an area of Auckland where another student accommodation is) and dropped me at Whitaker. David and I had a nice conversation about his adopted daughters on the drive home. It was quite lovely.

I visited Jennie a few times at Short Loan before leaving Auckland. She's so sweet! It was a great experience.

Whitaker Place Formal Dinner
On October 8, my student accommodation hosted a Formal Dinner. It was toward the end of classes, but before people started studying for exams. The meal was completely paid for and all we had to do was show up looking nice and with the optional bottle of wine. The day before the dinner, I went shopping with my friend Katie and her friend Laura. Laura is an Aucklander so she helped me find a dress shop that I liked. And she did a wonderful job! I fell in love with a dress and it was super on sale.

The evening of the dinner I got all dressed up, bought a couple of bottles of sparkling wine for myself and my flatmate Helen and made my way over to International House (another student accommodation just up the street with an actual dining hall). The room looked amazing. The theme was Casino Royale. There were candles and tiny cards on the tables. The food was fabulous and there was so much of it. It was a lot, a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Myself and three of my four flatmates.
This is my current background on my laptop.

Me and Claire, one of my friends and RAs.

Me and Innes. She's one of my friends from
Germany. She helped me with my homework
and practiced speaking with me.

Matthew and I after the dinner. He
lent me his coat like a gentleman.

Dinner at the Sky Tower
My favorite meal during my time in New Zealand took place exactly a week after the formal dinner. Originally it was supposed to take place on my birthday, but I thought the group dinner I will discuss later was going to happen at the sky tower and I wanted to make sure Matt took me there first. It was my birthday present and a delicious one indeed. Matt's philosophy about the sky tower is that it costs $25 to get up to the viewing deck anyway, so you might as well get a meal out of it, as he told me on the fourth day I knew him.

Here's a picture of Matt and I all dressed up for our dinner:

We arrived early so we went up to the observation deck first. It was okay, but after the Eiffel Tower, no view of the city quite looks so good.

The view from the observation deck

Then we went upstairs to "Orbit." The restaurant rotates, hence the name. Matt ordered us a really nice bottle of Savignon Blanc (a sweet white wine that New Zealand is known for) as we decided on our mains.

Fun Fact about New Zealand: In NZ, an entree is a smaller main course, whereas a 'main' is what we would consider an entree, basically a meal sized dish.

Matt got some kind of steak (can't remember) and I got the seafood risotto. My dish was okay, it was a bit bland for my liking. The steamed vege we got was tasty and Matt's dish was also delicious. To be honest though, my favorite part of the meal was the next two courses. Next was the dessert. I got the chocolate and caramel mousse, which came with a scoop of hokey pokey ice cream. Matt got just the ice cream and some wafers that came with it. My dessert was tasty. Just when I thought our meal was about to end, Matt decided to go all out and ordered us a magnificent cheese board. It had cheddar, brie and bleu (our favorite). It came with wafers, grapes and strawberries and these tiny, little jam-esque things in a few flavors. It was really fun because this was the only dish we shared and the cheeseboard had an exponential amount of possibilities. I would try the grape with the brie and would suggest it to Matt, then he would try the cheddar with one of the jam things and would suggest it to me. Between the board and the nice wine, it felt like we were cheese connoisseurs or something.

The whole affair took about two and a half hours, we saw the entire city of Auckland two and a half times, from sunlight to sunset. It was absolutely lovely. After our meal, we stopped at a convenience store, picked up some specialty soda (pink grapefruit flavor for him and blood orange for me) and a bag of gummy snakes and headed back to his flat. We watched the first Star Wars and called it a wonderful night.

Well folks, I have a few more dinners to write about, but speaking of dinner, Mom wants to go to Olive Garden. Take care all.

Queenstown at Last

So I'm going to admit it, I didn't write about Queenstown in my journal. I always thought I'd get around to it, but I just never did. This means unfortunately this blog entry won't be quite as comprehensive as the past ones. I'll try my best to remember... we'll see how this goes.

For the entirety of our South Island trip, the other girls were looking forward to Queenstown, but it was kind of sad once we finally arrived because it meant the end of the trip. Literally as soon as we hopped off the bus in front of our hostel we ran into four American boys who live in our apartment complex. It was pretty funny. That was a Sunday night and I left Queenstown Thursday morning.

Queenstown is known as the adventure/excitement capital of New Zealand. It's a huge tourist attraction with the (first or second) highest bungy in the world, skydiving, jet boating, wine tasting, horse riding, luges, and of course plenty of snowboarding. Unfortunately I can't do a lot of those things so my time in Queenstown wasn't quite action packed. We checked into our hostel Sunday night, had dinner and then went out to meet the rest of the Stray people for drinks (we were staying at a different hostel, long story, totally not worth telling). That was somewhat fun/somewhat boring. We came back moderately early, nothing too exciting from memory.

Monday, a few of the girls went bungy jumping. I spent the day exploring the town (mostly shops although I got to the park another day) with Katie. We also met the two girls sharing our room with us in the hostel. They were very sweet and very British. I really enjoyed the random people we met during our travels. These girls had been living in the hostel for months and working to afford to live, drink and shop. Sounds like quite the fun life to me. We had a chill evening on Monday because we were going to Milford Sound. It's legitimately supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to go because the road to the Sound had been closed for the past three days due to the flooding. We boarded the bus for the five hour drive (each way) not knowing if the road we needed to take would be open by the time we got there. We needed to board the bus that morning in case the road did open so we could get there on time. Luckily, the road did open and five hours later, we arrived! There's no way my pictures could ever fully show you the beauty, but I'll try anyway:



And finally, one of the best part of my South Island trip available to you in video form:


When we arrived at the Sound we quickly boarded a ship for our two and a half hour cruise. It included commentary, a free muffin, and the opportunity to go underneath a waterfall. It was a really neat experience and worth the ten hour round trip. When we returned we got the world (or at least New Zealand) famous Fergburger. It was THE BEST BURGER OF MY LIFE. It was huge and amazing and delicious. Served with bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado, it was totally worth the wait and $11. Look at Steph and her burger in all its glory:
The next day was fabulous. Some of the girls went snowboarding, but I had no desire and Katie decided she didn't want to either. While all the girls were spending the day cold, getting bruised, we decided we'd go to the spa and get relaxed. Katie and I decided to get exfoliating body rubs, it was so wonderful. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. It was a really nice girl's day after a tiring but incredibly enjoyable vacation. At some point during the trip we went to Patagonia, an amazing chocolate shop with expensive, delicious gelato. I also bought Matt and myself a wasabi truffle each. That night we also went out again. It was a strange night, some random, 30-something woman kept trying to get me to dance with her in a deserted bar amongst other things. By the end of the night though, I managed to have a nice time on my last night on the South Island. Thursday, I left for the airport. Unfortunately they made me check my bag... and charged me $80 for it. I was really upset and had budgeted for my trip perfectly and ended up having to pay money ($2 for 15 minutes mind you) to use the internet at the airport in order to transfer money to my eftpos (debit card) and pay for my bag. BUT, the good news is that they had a Patagonia in the airport and I was able to try the legendary hot chocolate before I arrived in Auckland.

Well that's about it for my South Island trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Now I can actually start writing about what I want to talk about. Topics for the future include: Formal Dinner, shopping trips, dates with Matt, school, Kiwi-isms and more!

En Route to Queenstown

Continuing from Franz Josef...

On the Way to Queenstown
The goal of the next two days, essentially, was to get to Queenstown. We stopped a few places, but Queenstown was firmly in everyone's mind.

The rest of the day out of Franz Josef was mostly spent in transit. We stopped at a place that had extremely blue water. It was pretty neat. See:

We eventually ended up in a small town called Makarora. On the bus, one of the deals that were offered to us was a nice meal that the bus driver valued at $25 for $10. I didn't really feel like cooking that night so I took him up on it. All of the girls I was traveling with decided to make their own meal so while they all made dinner, I hung out with one of the other groups of American exchange students. As much as I love those girls, it was pretty nice to get away from them as well. Dinner was tasty: we got lamb shank, carrots, peas and mash. We also were offered mull wine, but I thought it was horrible. Does anyone like mull wine? It's wine that is warm. To me it tasted sweet in your mouth, but when you went to swallow it, it turned harsh and ultimately hurt my throat. I'm not a fan. After the meal, I stayed around—it was a cafe/lodge place where we also paid for our accommodation—and a group of us played euchre. With nothing really to do and feeling tired after a day of traveling, I hit the hay early.

Wanaka
The next stop during our journey was Wanaka. A small town, reminiscent of my perception of Colorado, it was very nice. We stopped there for some down time and for lunch. We went into a variety of shops and I bought my mother yet another gift (that woman is going to be spoiled upon my arrival, I swear). For lunch we went to a place called The Ritual Cafe. It was one of those places where the atmosphere just kind of spoke to me and I knew instantly that's where I wanted to go. I got an amazing pasta salad with green pasta noodles, feta, red capsicum (bell pepper), pesto and a bunch of other vege (it's vege, not veggies in NZ). I had been craving pesto so it totally hit the spot! On the way out, I picked up a pumpkin and chocolate chunk muffin I had been eying throughout my meal. I just couldn't walk away. (I must have been really hungry when I wrote this entry!)

Onwards
The next stop we made was at a lookout point close to Queenstown. Here are some pictures from the site:

It was so windy up at that hill it was insane. I was afraid I would literally be knocked over. Next up was an amazing fruit and vege store. It had an awesome tasting table and I had the tastiest kiwifruit I've ever had in my life. One of the greatest things about fruit and vege shops is other than how tasty it is, it's so bloody cheap! I got two or three kiwis, about two perfectly ripe red capsicum and a large fruit leather for under $5. Shortly after that, we arrived at the AJ Hackett bungy.We watched a video about the making of the bungy. In case you didn't know, the bungy was invented in the 1980's by AJ Hackett and a business partner of his in New Zealand. The place where we watched the video was the site of the very first bungy. One of the girls from our bus decided she couldn't wait a moment longer and that she needed to bungy jump then and there. It was cool to watch her jump, but it was kind of annoying because then we had to wait for her. In the meantime I had to resist urges to buy things from the gift shop. I eventually bought myself a new pair of funky sunglasses because I sat on my other pair while sailing in Abel Tasman. Below is a picture of Milford Sound (which I will get to in my next post) reflected in my new schnazzy sunglasses. Photo credit goes to Ashley Chin.
Well the next and final stop of my south island trip is Queenstown. I'll tell you all about the thrill capital of New Zealand and stop at Milford Sound, a glimpse of which you got in my sunglasses above. Much love from NZ!

That One Time, When I Climbed a Glacier

Good news! This coming week is the last week of classes. That means that will have nothing to do other than study and hang out and write in my blog. So I give you permission to bother me about writing another entry. Now onto Franz Josef.

Franz Josef

A tour of Franz Josef Glacier in 1906


When we arrived in Franz Josef, we stopped at the Franz Josef Glacier Guide place. They showed us a video about the options and what we'd need for the next day. I double checked that I could do the hike with my back. They told me that it might be a bit tough for me since there were some tight spaces and low caves, but that we should be able to figure it out. I felt up to the challenge.

That evening we unpacked at our hostel, made dinner, enjoyed the giant hot tub (the size of a small pool), got ready and went into the bar by the hostel. It was a very nice bar, with a nice, chill atmosphere. We had a great evening and met people from the Kiwi Experience bus (another tour company) and some locals. The next morning, we woke up and got ready for our glacier hike. In New Zealand, one says gla-see-ur, rather than glay-sure like we do in the States.

We walked over to the place and it was unfortunately pissing (pouring) down with rain. We were trying to bet if the hike would be canceled. Luckily it wasn't. I wore many layers in order to stay warm: a tank top, polypro long underwear, my really warm knit sweater (from Gap, you know, before they changed their logo) and a raincoat of my own. They supplied us with a waterproof overcoat. On my legs I wore Matt's rainbow polypro pants and the waterproof overpants supplied to us. They also gve us wool socks, gloves and a hat. Unfortunately, I accidentally left my gloves at the place, so I didn't have them for my hike. At first my hands were freezing, but they generally got used to the cold/went numb so it was okay. The worst part for my hands was when we'd have to hold onto a rope and I'd be gripping the soaking wet rope cord.

The hike was a really amazing, once in a lifetime experience. We took a bus up to the carpark (parking lot) closest to the glacier. Believe it or not, but we had to walk through a rain forest to get to the glacier! New Zealand really is an incredible place. Once we were at the rocky ground in front of the glacier, they split us up into two groups: one that was more confident and wanted a more challenging hike and one that wanted a bit more leisure and perhaps some help. I knew that it would be best for me to go with the second group so I made sure to split myself off, regardless of what the rest of my friends were going to do. Luckily, four other girls joined me. Our guide was named Jack and was extremely handsome. EXTREMELY. Don't believe me? Below is a picture of myself, my four friends and beautiful Jack:


He taught us a bit about the Franz Josef glacier and its history. Over the years it has retreated and advanced, it seems unrelated to global warming. The night before, it snowed the most in three years. IT was the first time our guide had ever seen so much snow in his career at the company.


We climbed the part of the glacier that didn't have ice on it. That part was horrible because it was straight uphill. Once we got part to the snow and ice, it was time to put our crampons. We kept them on our bum bugs. They are called bum bags, NOT fanny packs because a fanny in New Zealand is well, a body part you just don't talk about with just anybody. Crampons are little spiky attachments to our shoes. They help your feet not to slide around on the ice and snow. They took a bit of getting used to to walk with, but it was quite easy once I got the hang of it. It was really important that we lifted our feet up straight and put them down facing forward so we wouldn't twist an ankle. Below is a view from the glacier looking down.

The climbing experience was really neat. There were steps carved out of the ice. Often times they needed to be re-carved a bit, which is where Phyllis, the guide's ice pick (see group picture above) came in. He would fix the steps or make new ones. We went through an iris, which is a wall of ice that's being separated, but essentially doesn't want to be yet. You can't quite tell in the picture below, but the ice is actually blue. There's nothing in it that's causing it to be blue, but rather its so dense that the ice just looks blue. Normal ice is 7% denser than water, but blue ice is around 97% denser than water.
This iris was one of the wider ones we went through. The walls were often so close together you'd have to actually face them, suck in and scrape by. I'm not a very claustrophobic person, but when your pinned up between two walls of ice and are exhausted, but have no room to breathe (pretty much literally) until you get yourself out of there, it kind of freaks you out.

Overall, the hike was an enjoyable, but challenging experience. We carved out a spot in some snow for our bums while we ate our sandwich. We had plenty of snowball fights against the other groups. Six hours later, we were tired and on the bus back into town.

That evening we had tim tam slams (which I will explain in my Kiwi Vocab chapter) and went back to Monsoon bar. It was an interesting night.

Onwards
The next morning, we woke up and were absolutely freezing. The space heater was off and we couldn't figure out why. Then, our phones didn't have any reception. We were quite confused. We hadn't had reception for much of our trip, but I had been texting Matt the night before so I know I had had service at one point. Soon enough, we found out there had been a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch. It was the same magnitude as the one that killed thousands in Haiti earlier this year.

We got ready to go to the next place, but first we had to check out. I saw the ice cream freezer by the reception desk and I said to the woman, "So if the power is out... the ice cream is going to melt anyway, right? Would I possibly be able to get one?" She said that she really couldn't because they didn't know when the power was going to come back on and that it wasn't a good idea because of stock checks. She also said, "What do you want it for anyway? It's the morning." I looked at her, and said to her (in retrospect it was a very pathetic voice) "for breakfast..." She gave in and I had a delicious hokey pokey ice cream bar. It was awesome.

Well it's 1 a.m. here and I'm tired. I'll continue this soon hopefully. We're finally getting to the end of my South Island trip. Guten Nacht!

The Town with 25 People In It

More on my South Island Trip:


Barrytown
Yesterday, we arrived in Barrytown. Our bus driver/guide, Trouble joked that he would give us a tiki tour (brief, tour, the highlights in Kiwi). Turns out the tour took all of five seconds. You see, the population of Barrytown is literally 25 people. We stayed in a 'hostel' behind a bar, which also doubled as our place for dinner. I had a tasty chicken burger for dinner, which came with a voucher for a free beer. We moved in our stuff and headed down to the beach to watch the sun set. The walk to the beach definitely looked shorter than it really was. On the way, we passed plenty of cows roaming the pasture on the left, as well as the Barrytown cemetery on the right. In the graveyard, in addition to the gravestones and graves, were more sheep! It was absolutely hysterical, one of those "only in New Zealand..." moments. After a second or two I realised they were attached to leads, like the ones we put my dogs out on in my backyard back home. Katie even went into the cemetery to try and pet the sheep, but they were quite skittish.



When we finally got to the beach, the clouds were in the way so the pictures didn't turn out the best. I got some pretty colours out of it nonetheless:

After the sun had set, we returned to the bar. Barrytown is known for its "fancy dress" nights at the bar. The walls in the bar are covered with the most ridiculous (and sometimes nude) pictures from these nights. Fancy dress, really just means dress up. For example, our night in Barrytown we were having a "P Party." Our outfits had to start with the letter. P. There was a semi-dodgy closet, which we could build the contents of our outfit with. I tried to be a prep. Katie was a pirate, Meg was Paco the construction worker, Ashley was a pimp and Melissa was her prostitute.

"Paco the Construction Worker"

"Katie-Pi-rate"

The P Party wasn't nearly as exciting as we hoped it would be, so we went to bed not-too-late. The next morning, we woke up early to carve a bone necklace. It was frustrating because we were told to be ready at 8 a.m., but no one came to get us. It was cold, rainy and windy and no one could be found. By 8:30 we were annoyed and woke up our bus driver. He showed us where the house where we'd be doing the carving was and we walked there (it was just down the street). The woman had a full blown shop in the back (think a wood shop) and apparently wasn't expecting us until 9. The first think we did was pick out the design we wanted. I chose one of the fish hooks. I thought it was pretty aesthetically pleasing and it stands for strength and safe travels over water. After that, the woman picked out a piece of bone that fit nicely with design and we traced the design onto the bone with a pencil. Then, she made the piece smaller and carved the intricate curves out of the center. The rest was up to us, though she of course guided us, showed us how to use the machines and what to do. We trimmed the piece of bone until it was at the line we had traced and was curved. The rest of the steps were all about perfecting the piece of bone. We used a drill to smooth and round out the edges and used several different types of sandpaper. I was literally sanding for hours. I also added a line as a detail. It was a meticulous process. The whole experience took about four hours, ending with her polishing the bone by rubbing it on a fine sandpaper machine.

Working so hard made me really appreciate and care about the necklace. I originally thought about giving it to a friend of mine (I wonder if he'll read this...), but I might just keep it for myself. The woman who helped me explained to me that if you're planning on giving it to someone you're actually supposed to wear it first. That's because the bone will absorb your oils and so by the time you give it to someone it has the oils in it. In a way, you're giving him/her a piece of yourself.

After the bone carving was done, I headed back, packed up, ate some random snacks that were laying around in my bag of food and boarded the bus for Franz Josef.

That's all for now. Franz Josef was an amazing time. I climbed a glacier! Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog entry. Sorry they're so scarce, but the semester is wrapping up here and so I don't have very much free time. Miss you all!

Abel Tasman National Park

I'm sorry this is so overdue! You wouldn't believe how busy I've been with schoolwork, it's simply awful. Whoever said you just have fun while being abroad was a liar (or didn't take 300 level classes like me). Anyway. I left off from my description of my trip with my day in Abel Tasman and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I recommend you read the previous blog entry.

Abel Tasman

Yesterday was a really nice day. We woke up at 6:20 AM in order to watch the sun rise. We went into the outskirts of the Abel Tasman National Park dressed in a strange pajamas/warm clothes mixture. We walked through the very wet sand and puddles and tried to find a good spot to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, the sky was too cloud for us to really see much. It was kind of a bummer, but at the same time, it wasn't too bad because we had an adventure to get there (jumping over puddles, sinking in the sand, etc.). I was also glad we were trying to make the most out of our time in Abel Tasman. By the way, the name of the place we were staying at, which was cabin style with a community bathroom, showers and kitchen, was called Old MacDonald's farm! So funny.

Because we had woken up so early, the rest of the morning was quite leisurely. We made breakfast (oatmeal and scrambled eggs) and packed a bag for the day. We were driven to Kerikeri, a favorite vacation spot for Kiwis and tourists alike, to start our day of sailing. The beach was gorgeous, I love the picture below:



You may not be able to tell, but the water was so blue and the beach amazingly golden. One of the best parts about traveling with the Stray bus was that we got awesome deals on activities. I saved over $60 on the fully day sailing experience. It's kind of hard to detail what we did during the day because a lot of it was just spent on the boat. The Skipper offered lots of commentary such as the history and the story of New Zealand's discovery by Dutchman Abel Tasman (thanks to your people, Nora), though many people say Captain Cook discovered it, it was nearly a hundred years after Tasman that Cook came to the island. The Skipper also explained that the park was established in 1947. The owner of the land lobbied the government to buy it off of her and turn it into a national park. Eventually the government agreed. Interestingly, there were sections of the land that had a different owner that the rest of the land. Those owners would not sell their land to the government, which means that even today there is some privately owned land within the park, much of which is homes rented out. Because it is a national park, there are no roads so all the houses were brought over on boats. There is also no electricity or water supply so people must be completely self-sufficient.

We stopped at a few islands during the course of the day including one where we took a beautiful hike through the 'bush' (forest in Kiwi) and ended up at a beach where the boat met us. At that point we grabbed our lunches off the boat and had a lovely beach picnic. I even was daring and went in the water in the moderate cold!

The view from one of the islands:

What the trail in the bush looked like:


Me during the walk in the bush:



There was plenty of coffee and tea on board and we spent the day enjoying the water, islands, sun, drinks and company. We returned to the Farm and spent the rest of the evening making/eating dinner, doing some laundry, checking the Internet and watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which was on DVD in the TV/computer room. I tell ya, no matter where you go, even when you cannot receive cell phone reception, you cannot escape American influence. Later in the evening, we bundled up with as much warm clothes (see below) as possible and star gazed. I saw five shooting stars, the most ever! Being that secluded gave us a spectacular view of the heavens.

Me brushing my teeth after getting all bundled up to view the stars.

Barrytown

I will update this entry with some stories from Barrytown sometime soon (hopefully), but I wanted to get a little more of the blog done so I don't fall so far behind. But it's after midnight and I have a test tomorrow so I must go. Thanks again for reading :)

The South Island Adventure: Christchurch, Kaikoura & Picton

I've been back from the South Island about a week now and figured it's about time to share my adventures with all of y'all. Overall, I had an amazing experience. Saw beauty that is not done justice by my pictures and did things I know I will never have the opportunity to do again. The trip made me fall in love with a whole new side of New Zealand and has thoroughly convinced me to encourage everyone I can to come to this wonderful, beautiful country in order to see the things I have with one's own eyes as well as do things like climb a glacier or watch baby seals play under a waterfall or two.

With the exception of my time in Queenstown and the explanation of the method of travel below, everything has been prewritten in my journal (I had to do something on those long bus rides, afterall).

The Bus and the crew
A few months back, a few friends and I decided we wanted to do something awesome over our semester break. We resolved to book transportation on a backpacker's bus called Stray, specifically the Willy tour. Below is a picture off the map of our itinerary. We started in Christchurch and worked our way counter clockwise to Kaikoura and ending in Queenstown.

The way the bus worked, was that we could hop on or hop off whenever we wanted. The white circles are places that were mandatory to stay overnight. Some locations required us to stay more than one night. In theory, we could stay longer at any of the dots, but we needed to get to Queenstown on Sunday, which only worked if we stayed the minimum number of nights at each of the places.

The group of us girls called ourselves "Team Natural Woman" and eventually we added "AKA Team Stone Cold Fox" to the title. Below is a picture of the seven of us:

From left to right: me, Katie, Ashley, Meg, Alexs, Melissa and Stephanie.

The Trip

Christchurch
It's day one of my South Island midsemester break trip. I feel like mother because I wasn't excited about the trip until I got onto the airplane. I woke up to my 6:45 alarm this morning and before I could reset it, I fell back asleep. The next time I woke up, it was at 7:18. Meg, Ashley and I were supposed to meet to walk to the bus at 7:20. Luckily I was able to get ready extremely quickly. We were able to get to the airport in plenty of time.

The flight was fine. For the majority of the hour and a half flight I was planning what we would do in Christchurch with the help of my Lonely Planet guide. Once we landed and collected our things, we found where the city bus picks up at the airport and took a bus into Cathedral Square. It's called Cathedral Square because, well, there's a big cathedral in the city square!


Our hostel is essentially in the square and is very nice. We have our own room since there is seven of us and most rooms have four bunk beds. There are tvs and movies as well as computers and a bar downstairs. After we dropped off our stuff we went for a walk around the city. We walked through Cathedral Square over to High Street and back again. For lunch, we grabbed fish and chips from a stand in the square and enjoyed the nice weather and the psychotic seagulls fighting for our attention. The man who owned the stand was simply frying prefrozen fish and chips and selling cans of coke that specifically said "do not sell individually." He must be making an absolute fortune.

After lunch, we stopped by a farmers market. We were kind of bummed we had just eaten so much because we would have loved to eat some fresh fruit and baked goods. Next, we went to the botanical gardens (New Zealand seems to have one in every city). We saw some pretty dahlias that are beginning to bloom, but otherwise the flowers were pretty much still dead. We decided to return shortly afterward for a midafternoon nap, which lasted about until diner time.

For dinner we headed to Dux de Lux. To this day I'm still unsure whether its pronounced "ducks deluxe" or "do de loo" if that makes sense. Anyway, the restaurant was kind of strange because it had a cafeteria feel to it—we were given our salad and had to grab our silverware and a table—but the food was very nice and expensive! I had amazing salmon. It was one of those dishes without much food on it that always looks fancily plated and is delicious. We sat in the restaurant and talked for a few hours. It was nice. The other four girls were not to arrive until around 11 at night. Stephanie and Katie had classes that Friday afternoon that they really needed to go to and therefore took a later flight. I had missed a class in the morning, but it wasn't a very big deal and I wasn't about to cheat myself out of a day of vacation and the opportunity to see another New Zealand city. (In retrospect I'm really glad I came early now because Christchurch is currently in pieces after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck just a week after I left).

After dinner we headed back to the hostel, presumably to go to bed (though it was quite early). Once we arrived, however, a woman at the bar told us to come get free drinks. We looked at each other and decided we couldn't possibly turn down such an offer. We were given two free drinks and a free shot, each. I asked one of the bartenders what the occasion was and he simply said "Why the hell not?!" at which point I decided we were going to have a great trip. The atmosphere wasn't that great though so shortly after, we attempted to sleep, though we were awakened when the rest of our party arrived.

This morning we woke up pretty early, packed up and went to McDonald's for breakfast (another indicator of the good trip to come). We came back and shortly afterward boarded the stray bus.

I was excited for a 'backpacker's experience.' I was hoping we would have people on our bus from all over the world. While there were some non-Americans, the majority of our bus were American, University of Auckland students on their midsemester break. The dynamics changed as people hopped on and off, but for the entire time, 15-20 of the 24 people on the bus were from America.

Kaikoura
When we arrived in Kaikoura we checked into the Adelphi Lodge, our hostel. It most definitely has a character of its own. As soon as we came in, Melissa said it smelled like her grandmother's house. The floors have patterns on it, the walls have black and white pictures framed by old scraps of wood. The wallpaper is textured. Eventually, we walked around for a bit and went into the touristy shops. We stopped by the beach and took many pictures enjoying the beautiful scenery. I think Kaikoura is the prettiest place we went throughout the trip. Here are some pictures.

A stop we made on the way to Kaikoura

Starting that night and for the rest of the trip, we made our own dinners. It was much more cost effective and since being back in Auckland I've realized it helped me become more independent and more confident in my ability to cook (or at least to organize meals). The hostel offered free pumpkin and coriander soup and we watched Feris Bueller's Day Off. For the rest of the evening we hung around the hostel and went to a pub across the street.

The next morning we got up and packed and went to the beach for a bit. It looked quite different with the morning sunlight. I plugged my iPod into the bus's speaker system on the bus ride to Picton. We started out with some chill Counting Crows, John Mayer, James Taylor and Jack Johnson, etc. Then, I realized most of the girls in our group (myself, Meg, Alexs, Melissa and Katie) really like country music, which I took as the perfect opportunity to play my favorite country playlist. It was so much fun. We were all sitting in the front section of the bus and essentially had a sing-a-long. It totally made me think of/miss my roommate from the past two years, Amanda.

We got off at one point to see some seals. They were so neat/cute! They liked to play around and swim and pose for pictures. Sometimes they talked to us too! They were quite interesting to watch. The second seal stop we made, we walked along a really pretty path and ended up at a waterfall. There were at least 50 seals there.
Picton
We, semi-unfortunately, were in Picton for over 24 hours. It's a nice, but extremely boring town. We arried at our hostel, called 'The Villa' sometime shortly before lunch. We stayed in room number seven, a.k.a. "The Swamp" (I'm still not quite sure where the nickname came from). After we dropped off our stuff, we went into the small town center and ate at a cafe/diner/restaurant thing. We each had a burger and chips. Extra ketchup/tomato sauce (there IS a huge difference) was 50 cents each. It's pretty commonplace here and I don't like it.

For the rest of the day we mostly wandered around. We tried to go to the Edwin Museum, which holds the ninth oldest boat in the world, the only surviving immigration boat to Australasia. The cost was $10 though and we were unwilling to pay that. We looked around the lobby for a while and tried to find someone with a boat to take us out on the water. Unfortunately, it was a rainy, Sunday afternoon in the winter. There was absolutely no one out. Half of the group decided to go for a walk, but my feet hurt so Steph and Alexs and I went to the library to use the internet. We also walked around and visited some shops. We stumbled upon a craft store and bought some friendship bracelet string.


When we came back, we made bracelets! I hadn't done that in years and really enjoyed it. I only made one for myself but I intend to make another one for Katie. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, playing Scrabble and drinking a lot of tea.

We made soup for dinner with garlic bread and salad. We played a few rounds of cards and then it was time for free apple crumble with free ice cream. It was delicious! Eventually, Katie and I decided to get into the hot tub and Meg joined us. It was nice talking with Meg because I didn't know her at all before the trip. Some other people from our bus eventually joined us. It was nice getting to know them and I would consider them friends by the end of the trip.

Soon after, we took showers and got ready for bed.One of the men sharing our room with us was from Israel. I told him "Lila Tov" or good night in Hebrew. He told me it made his night. You know what they say, wherever you go, there's always someone Jewish...

When we awoke the next morning, we were greeted by sunshine. We headed over to the kitchen for free breakfast and more tea. We found out that unfortunately the ferry had broken down and our new bus driver would be three hours late. It did give us the opportunity to take a hike before leaving though. A group of us headed out and walked up to 'Bob's Bay.' It was a nice, but muddy walk. Alexs and I walked around the beach for a bit and walked back together. Again, it was nice getting to know another person better. She's very nice. Once we got back from our walk we had lunch and went back to the villa. We had time for another cup of tea and game of scrabble before the bus picked us up. There was also time for a picture of me in the hammock in front of our lovely hostel:
The one thing that did bother me about leaving Picton so late (2 p.m.) was that we couldn't go wine and mussel tasting. Trouble (our new driver) explained that it was because we would arrive in Abel Tasman at 10 p.m. that way. The thing was though, that we arrived after dark anyway so I thought we might as well do the tasting. I was not very happy about that. His idea of consolation for not taking us tasting was to take us for the scenic route to Abel Tasman. Let me tell you, the scenic route should be called the nausea route. I've never gotten car sick in my life, but there was a two stretch in there when I was constantly nauseous. It was horrible! We made a stop at one point and I got ice cream, which totally hit the spot and made me feel a bit better. Plus, I asked Trouble to put on some air conditioning or something so it wouldn't be so stuffy.

Outside Able Tasman we stopped at a Pak and Save grocery store and got food for the next few days. I gathered food for lunch the next day as well. I needed to pack my lunch because I spent the day sailing. It was definitely a highlight on my trip. I will detail it in my next blog post, which should also be posted sometime this weekend.

Wonderful Weekend in Windy Welly

Last weekend, I went to Wellington for three nights. It was Matt’s (the Kiwi I’ve been seeing) sister’s 21st birthday. It is the capital of New Zealand and somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since arriving in NZ. He left at noon on the Friday and returned Sunday evening. I booked my flight a few weeks after Matt and therefore left at 2 on Friday and returned Monday at 9 a.m. I had made plans to stay with Mary Bess or Beth (two friends from my orientation) on Sunday night.

On Friday I was nervous. I had to take my German test, eat lunch, turn in an assignment and get to the Air Bus stop by 12:35. And then there was the whole matter of meeting my new boyfriend’s entire mum’s side of the family. Luckily, I got everything I needed to done and was picked up by the Air Bus at Queen St. and K’ Road. For $21 return (round trip in Kiwi) I was provided with the transportation to/from the airport. It was about a half hour drive.

I had checked in the night before. Security was extremely limited—I kept my shoes and belt on! There’s no liquid restrictions for carryons on domestic flights; it was beautiful. I flew in on an airline called Jet Star, it’s pretty new to New Zealand and the seats were über comfy, as nice as first class on the whole airplane. After a short, one hour long flight and giving my aisle seat up so a big Islander guy, we had a pretty smooth landing at the Wellington International Airport. Matt was there waiting for me just outside the terminal; there was no parking so his mum was just driving the car around the lot.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport, there was a huge gust of wind that almost knocked me over. I sighed, and said, “It’s like I never left Illinois!” We had the 20 or 30 minute drive back to Tawa, the area of Wellington Matt’s mum, nana and aunt live in. Because we were surprising Belinda and she was still at work, we went up to Nana’s house for some delicious snacks. I was excited to meet Nan, I’d heard some stories about her, seen her knitted jerseys (sweaters), and was told she liked to cook and bake. Matt, Raewyn, Nana, Pop and I talked for a bit. Soon enough Matt’s cousin Jess and her boyfriend, also named Matt, came home and we chatted with them a bit as well. They broke out some old photos of Matt and Belinda, which were pretty entertaining. Eventually we made it down the hill (Nan and Pop live up the street from Matt’s mum—jealous) and surprised Matt’s sister, Belinda.

Matt yelled ‘hello’ as he entered the house. Belinda ran up to him and yelled “You Dick!” and gave him a giant hug. Belinda had been trying to convince Matt to come in for the weekend for weeks, looking up flights for him, etc. He had told her he had promised to spend the weekend with me. Little did she know, I was just coming with him! She was so mad/upset/excited that she almost started crying. I met James, Raewyn’s longtime partner (they live together too) who was very nice as well. We sat around talking for a while and eventually Adele, Belinda’s friend came over.
The four of us (Matt, myself, Belinda and Adele) then went shopping! I had two missions: find cute flats and a cardigan. I fulfilled both of them and also bought a card for Belinda’s birthday. The cardigan I bought, it turns out, Belinda was also wearing at the time. Apparently, every Kiwi girl our age has one. On Sunday, Belinda and three of her friends were all wearing the cardigan in different colours. We had a lot of fun and came back home. We showed Mum and James what we bought and then Matt and I watched one of James’ favourite movies: The World’s Fastest Indian.
The World’s Fastest Indian is a Kiwi film about a man named Burt Monroe, played by Anthony Hopkins, who is determined to make his old Indian motorcycle the fastest in the world. It’s a funny, interesting and entertaining story of his friendship with a young boy and his unbelievable determination to arrive at, race in and win the Bonneville, Utah’s speed trials. I would recommend it for a nice, not-too-heavy, enjoyable film.




Saturday was Matt and my day to ourselves. We borrowed Bindie’s car and headed into Wellington City. We walked by the Parliament building and the National Library of New Zealand. It was a nice day for walks; a bit brisk, but we were fine with our fleeces. Then, we went to Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. We spent about two or so hours exploring the museum. It was really interesting seeing the views of the world, earth, society, history, etc. from a New Zealand perspective. Some notable parts of the museum was the giant squid they have preserved, a climbable human heart scaled to the size of a whale’s (which was huge!) and a section of the museum that was outside, where I learned about New Zealand trees and saw huge boulders that were millions of years old. The neatest exhibit, to me, was the Tapa exhibit. Tapa is a pacific art form made from bark cloth that comes from the paper mulberry tree. It is or was made in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Niue. I had just finished studying it in my pacific arts class so it was really cool to see them in person. One of them that we had looked at in class was even on display! Matt’s a geography and ex-physics major so he was the knowledgeable one when it came to the science downstairs. He would add to what the exhibits had to say. It was neat because I was the tapa expert! I tried to guess which country the tapa were from without looking. It was pretty fun.

After that, we stopped by a market and walked back to the car. The next stop was the botanical gardens. Although it was out of bloom—it’s winter here, remember—the gardens were still pretty. It was a big park with lots of hills and trees of all different shapes and sizes. We walked around; Matt and I stopped at a café near the greenhouse, had some soda, split a cheese scone and just chatted; it was lovely. We walked around the greenhouse, which had plenty of flowers in bloom so that was nice. Then we walked up to the top of the gardens where the cable car stops. It has quite a nice view over the city and we took some pictures there. We walked back stopping every now and again. We had some really nice conversations.



By this time, I was absolutely exhausted. Matt drove me by his old primary school and we passed the street his old house was off of and returned home. We watched a movie before dinner, but I just slept instead. Raewyn made penne Bolognese for dinner and we had delicious bread with it. We then started drinking in preparation for our night out and played some karaoke games on Matt’s youngest sister’s PS2. Eventually we went out to town. Matt volunteered to be sober driver so us girls (Belinda, Adele and Belinda’s boyfriend’s sister, Brenda and I) were the ones drinking. The first bar we went to was called The Establishment; it was all right. At midnight we wished Bindie a happy birthday. Shortly after, we went to another bar called—ready for this?—Boogie Wonderland. It was a legit disco, with floor tiles that lit up and plenty of disco balls. As we entered Grease by Frankie Valli started playing! They played other songs like ABBA and Shout. I felt a bit like I was at a wedding. We stayed there for over an hour, went to a few other places, back to The Establishment, made a McDonald’s run and came home around 3:30.

Sunday was a big day for the whole family. Matt and I got up and began to get ready to have lunch at Nan and Pop’s house. At some point (I can’t exactly remember the circumstances, but they’re irrelevant anyway), Raewyn and I ended up having a heart-to-heart. We talked mostly about family and how it seems everyone’s family is a little messed up in some way or another, the New Zealand versus American health care systems and a few other topics. I really enjoyed the conversation, both for the insight into her life and perspective. I generally enjoy those types of conversations as well. And I felt special that she would share somewhat private or touchy things with me.

When Matt was ready, we went up to Nan and Pop’s. We weren’t the only ones though. With us were Uncle Hamish and Aunt Lauren and their three sons, Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Eva and their two children, as well as Aunt Trish and her two children. Needless to say, there was a lot going on. The lunch was honestly my favourite part of my weekend. For those who don’t know, I come from a very small family: I’m an only child, my parents are divorced. I have a few aunts, uncles and cousins scattered across the States and Israel, but I hardly ever see them. It was amazing to be in such a loving setting, with a group of family that were truly interested in each other and that traveled throughout the country just to come celebrate Belinda’s birthday. It was also really wonderful to see Matt interacting with his family. They all just adore him. His relationship with his Nana reminds me of the one I have with my Zadie. Matt had not seen his family since Christmas so they were showering him with questions and praise. He seemed to just be glowing in his family’s attention; he was so happy and it was really special and made me feel quite happy myself to see him like this.
After lunch and plenty of treats, we walked back down the hill to help set up for Belinda’s open house. On the electronic picture frame was a slideshow of Belinda throughout her 21 years. There were cupcakes (instead of a cake), savories and meatballs and plenty of treats made by Nana and Raewyn. There was also sparkling wine, which was a fun treat to be able to drink ‘champagne’ with the ‘grown ups’ legally. I met more family and friends of the family and schmoozed around. It was a nice afternoon. As Matt’s family began to peter out, they said goodbye and gave me hugs and told me they would hopefully see me again. I hope I’ll see them again too.
We had to take Matt to the airport so Raewyn, James and I accompanied him. We parked the car and came in and sat with him until it was time to board. Raewyn had offered her home to me again for Sunday night, so rather than staying at a friend’s flat I decided to spend the night there. I thought it was funny that I was the one at Matt’s mum’s house and he was back at Uni. I went to bed early because we had to leave at 6:50 AM in order for me to catch my flight back. Raewyn works near the airport so she simply left for work a bit early. I thought she was just going to drop me off and head to work, which would have been perfectly fine by me, but she parked the car and came in and sat with me! I thought that was really nice. We talked a bit about my thoughts on NZ and Uni so far as well as my study abroad experience. We also talked about Matt a bit and some other things that will stay between us girls. It was a nice end to my weekend. She walked me to the security line and gave me a hug. She told me I was always welcome if I ended up in Wellington again, even if I was without Matt. It was clear that she truly meant it, which again, meant a lot to me. About an hour and a half later, I was in my flat back in Auckland, ready to work my butt off on my midterms.


Overall, I would say my weekend in Wellington was a success. I didn’t make it up to Mount Victoria, but I saw a fair chunk of the city. I met the majority of Matt’s family (all of his mum’s side, and I’ll probably be meeting his dad and other grandparents next month) and we got along well. I also got to see Matt where he grew up and with his mum and sisters. And, very importantly, I found out that my bag does fit in the overhead compartment of the airplane for my trip this week!
This will be my last blog until the third week of September or so. I leave on Friday for Christchurch, on the South Island and will be doing a 12 day backpacking trip all around the South Island. I’m nervous and excited, it very well might be the highlight of my trip. I will be sure to take plenty of pictures to share with everyone as well as journaling all the different things I do in order to type them up here. I will most likely not have Internet access, but can receive calls for free on my mobile phone so let me know if you would like my New Zealand number to contact me.

Much love and thanks for reading!

Kiwi Culture

Over the past three weeks, plenty has happened. Most of it, however, has been day-to-day nothings, that I won't waste your time talking about. The focus of this blog entry, will be New Zealand culture: that of the people, the schools, the family and whatever else I think up to include. As always, feel free to offer feedback, particularly with this entry. I'm interested to hear what my fellow Americans have to save about my perception of the Kiwi life.

Living Arrangements
If a student is from the Auckland area (within an hour's bus ride), s/he almost always lives at home. In fact, University of Auckland has a policy that non-Aucklanders get first dibs on student accommodations and since spaces are scarce enough as is, I've only met a couple of Aucklanders that live in student housing. At Drake, I think a lot of students who live in the Greater Des Moines Area live on campus or in apartments. In fact, I would even goes as far as to say there's a certain stigma attached to being a commuter. I wonder why so many students back home feel the need to get out of the house as soon as possible. Perhaps it represents independence and adulthood? Or Americans' irresponsible attitude toward money in which students would rather spend money on rent and their own food for the sake of feeling like an adult or convenience rather than beginning to pay off loans. Who knows; just thought it was a point worth mentioning.

Resources
Listen up, Drake University, you're behind the times. I know we only have 4,000 students and we couldn't possibly have anywhere near the 13 libraries Auckland Uni offers to its 40,000 under and postgraduates, but I think there are some things you could learn and truly apply to the libraries.

One would be library tutorials. I believe these do exist at Drake, but they are not particularly encouraged or specialised. Two of my four classes (the other two don't require much research-related work) essentially required library tutorials. Although they did not take attendance (no classes really do. Some do in the tutorial sessions because they require students to attend a certain number of tutorials in order to pass), the lecturers set up the times and advertised the specialised sessions in class and via email. These library tutorials are specific to the class. For example, my 18th century British literature library tutorial helped us understand resources relevant to literature and the time. The librarian gave us subject headings (i.e. '18th century history and women') that would aid us in narrowing down our research. They instructed us on helpful web searching strategies as well as identifying the difference between the catalog and the book searching tool as well as the databases. I even learned something important about j-stor, a database I use in the States, that I did not know before.

Secondly, Auckland Uni has one librarian specific to each course (major). My library tutorial (described above) was instructed by the English librarian and my Pacific Arts tut was instructed by either the Fine Arts or Pacific Studies librarian. Though I think it may be unrealistic to expect Drake to have a librarian per major, they might have one for most journalism classes, one or two for health sciences and pharmacy, one for fine arts, a few for business in which PR and advertising majors should be included and some for the sciences (bio, chem, psych, physics, etc.), one for the school of ed, social sciences (sociology, anthropology, rhetoric, history) and a few others for the rest of the liberal arts classes. Though it is run differently than the rest of Drake University, I know that the Drake Law School has very well trained library experts that are prompt to get back to your requests. I suppose the website has the chat feature, but it can be a bit intimidating not knowing who you are talking to and awkward messaging them. By establishing a contact, a name and a face to whom you can contact with if you're having trouble finding a source or unsure about citing one, I feel students would be less inclined to give up or give into the pressures to plagiarise.

And how about free coursepacks, eh? Two out of the three classes that had coursepacks were free. How amazing would that be? Instead of having to spend over a hundred dollars at copycat, with proof of your ID and your name being on the course list, you could get all the class readings for free.


The Experience" and Drinking Culture

Although the following may be unique to students like me that hold my work ethic, I've found a big difference between the purpose of Uni between here and in America. Much of the content for the Kiwi perspective came from a conversation I had with Matt's mother, Raewyn (I'll explain later).

So in my view, I go to college to get an education so I can have a career in the future, bottom line. Though I'm involved in various student organizations, they are just for fun or to build my professional skills. That doesn't mean I don't care about them; I am quite passionate about ADPi and honors council, but school really does come first. As for partying, you have to be 21 in the States to drink legally so it is somewhat difficult and completely illegal to party for the majority of my time in college. Drinking/partying/staying up late is generally just a distraction from all the work I have to do/should do on the weekends. Perhaps this is a pessimistic view, but it is quite true to some extent. I do balance my activities, schoolwork and having fun pretty well back home. Like any student, I do get stressed (just ask my roommate back home about my breakdowns every semester at midterm), am not always as focused on my schoolwork as much as I shouldbe. Though I sometimes lock myself in the Olmsted student center on Saturday nights and write papers. Grades are extremely important to me and I maintain a perfect GPA.

That's not the way university is seen in the land of the Kiwis. According to Raewyn and my own observations—Please hold off on your judgment or jumping to conclusions here—few Kiwis care that much about grades. It's not that they don't care about what their learning, or that they're lazy, rather its simply not assigned that high of a value. All universities in New Zealand have similar entry qualifications, so it's not much of an issue in high school. In terms of University, students mostly care about passing—getting a C or higher. On the other hand, Kiwis have a pretty good work ethic. Most study for tests far in advance; there's a month given to study for/take exams at the end of the term. Matt likes to put things off until the last minute, but he has absolutely no problem pulling an all nighter, finishing his assignments and then working on a few more. What he turns in isn't crap either, if he doesn't think it's good enough, he'll rewrite it. Even if it is 3:30 in the morning. Moreover, drinking and partying is part of the experience. Uni seems to be equal parts "getting on the piss" as they say here and doing work. Since the drinking age is 18, almost all Uni students can drink legally and it is pretty much expected. Bars don't have a closing time like they do in America, they often stay open until six or seven in the morning. I've been told many times by my Kiwi flatmate that it's great when you throw up while drinking—it means you have room for more alcohol!

Overall there's not as much pressure to get good grades here. It's more about passing. Since arriving, I've had to reevaluate my priorities. Grades are definitely important because when I apply to law schools they will request my Auckland transcript, but at the same time, it won't affect my GPA back home. Wednesday night is the night for students to go out here. There are cheaper drinks and no cover charges. There's been multiple times where I've had a hard time deciding if I should go out or if I should do homework. I am on exchange, but school is also important. This is still currently something I'm trying to resolve (so far, I've made a habit of setting goals for myself and allowing myself to go if I fulfill them).

These are some of the differences I've found within the university sphere of New Zealand life. I should be writing another blog entry very soon (i.e. tomorrow) about my trip to Wellington.