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.