The University of Auckland

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I posted. So much has happened since I moved into my flat over three weeks ago. I guess the best place to start would be the beginning.

Move In
I moved in on a Tuesday. Tommy helped me bring my bags up to my flat (number 9, room 2), wished me the best of luck, gave me a hug, and left. About 10 seconds after the door closed, I thought to myself "Oh. My. God. I'm on my own." There would be no meeting up or group outings, no one would be checking in on me and the people I had spent the most time with over orientation were on their way to Wellington and to Melbourne, Australia. I took a deep breath in, and said to myself that I might as well get started unpacking. My room is nice enough. I have a bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe, nightstand, and some additional shelving. It's quite small, but it definitely does the job.



At some point during my process of moving in, Liam must have come home. He introduced himself as one of my flatmates. He's from England and is studying international business here for a year. Since then, we've become good friends, sharing our international student experiences, comparing British English and American English and learning about each other and our respective cultures. Later that day, Liam and I went to the supermarket. I was very thankful to have him show me around and help formulate my to-do list (i.e. get my student ID photo taken/ID made, fill out the paperwork to get a card that says I'm over 18 so I don't have to carry my passport around with me when I go out, etc.)

No. 14 Whitaker Place
Over the next few weeks I would meet Brooke, Helen and Michael. My other three flatmates. Brooke is a Kiwi. She's lived all over the world, but moved back to New Zealand three years ago. She does her own thing mostly because she has her own Kiwi friends and boyfriend but when she's around we often talk and I'm friendly with all of her friends. They give me a better glimpse into what a lay Kiwi is like. Helen is also from England. She goes to Nottingham. She studies Psychology and is very British and sweet. I've enjoyed learning about her life back home as well as hanging out with her. She's a great friend and has been there for me on a few rough days I've had. Finally, there's Michael. He's from Austria and very nice, but mostly keeps to himself. He stays in his room a lot, but if we invite him out with us he often comes. I appreciate introversion, but I hope he puts himself out there a bit more so he can grow from this experience.

Whitaker is a very social building and most of my friends live here. There's always something going on. Whether its parties or movie-watching or study parties, there's pretty much never a moment of silence or boredom. I've made friends from all over the world: across America, England, New Zealand, Ireland, UAE, Germany, Spain, France, Canada, Australia, South Africa and China just to name a few. I truly love living here. It's like living in an apartment (I have to cook and clean for myself, provide my own toilet paper, etc.), but there are RA's in case I would have some sort of a problem. The location is perfect, located off Symond's street, a street many university buildings are on or off of.

Classes
Here, school is that thing that interferes with travel and enjoying New Zealand. But, I suppose since that's the true reason I'm in New Zealand, I should spend some time in my blog describing it. I've switched my classes around a bit. I'm now enrolled in Pacific Arts (an art history/pacific studies paper), The Novel, The Native and The New (an English/History paper), Making Disabilities (which I'm counting for my Rhetoric major hopefully) and Intermediate German 2.

I was originally enrolled in a history class with 400 students in it, but I decided I should take harder papers (they call courses/classes papers here) and that I would much rather be in a smaller class. It was an extremely frustrating and laborious process (I was sent to 6 different places and it took me 5 hours) but eventually I was enrolled in my English class. It focuses on 18th century British literature, which is something I've previously struggled with. This should prove to be a challenge, but I'm more experienced and a harder worker since the last time I tried to read Swift and the like. The paper is a 300-level (it's the highest offered for undergrads) with most students being in their final semester of Uni. The lecturer, Erin, seems very down to Earth and easy to talk to. Our class as a whole has about 50 people, I'd say, but she also teaches the tutorials of about 20 students once a week. I've enjoyed having these tutorials so far. It reminds me of the small, discussion orientated classes I'm used to at Drake. I don't like Erin's lecturing style, but that's not to say I particularly dislike the lecture-tutorial format.

I'm also enjoying the other three papers. My Pacific Arts class allows me to learn more about Pacific culture (not only New Zealand, but also Samoa, Tonga, Hawaii and a few other islands) as well as satisfy my Artistic Experience requirement for graduation. During lectures, my professor is extremely intense, talking for the full two hour period with only a 10 minute break. Needless to say, my wrist always hurts after that class. Making Disabilities seems interesting so far, but to be honest, I'm beyond the level of analysis we're doing. Still, I wouldn't be considering disabilities in the way in which I am without the paper. And, I'm really excited for our first project. We have to put together a portfolio of 10-15 pictures depicting Auckland's relationship to disabilities and describe/analyze them in relation to a particular quote from a class reading.

Finally, I'm so glad to be taking German! It's not very hard yet—though German never has been for me, to be honest—but I still learn new things every day. I'm very thankful that I enjoy the course because I take it 4 days a week and it's my earliest class. At the conclusion of the paper, Stefan (my lecturer) recommends us to take the German proficiency exam. It's internationally recognized and I could put that I'm fluent in German on my resume if I pass.

Travel
Last weekend, I took my first weekend trip with people from Whitaker Place. The following description is taken from my journal so that's why it's in past tense:

I'm currently on my back from the Bay of Islands. Myself, Irish Heather, Sarah, and Emily are in one car, while Nick, Liam, Brian and Helen are in the other. Unfortunately, we've only been here about 27 hours. It's been a great trip though. We attempted to leave at 8:30 AM yesterday (Saturday). As soon as we started to drive, however, we heard a strange noise coming from the back, right tire. We stopped before we even made it to Symonds St. Turns out, there was a giant spring lodged into the tire! Nick made fun of Heather (who is driving) for the fact that we hadn't even left Whitaker before we needed to go back to the rental place. Once we were there, we had our tire changed and hit the road.

I slept for part of the drive because the night before Helen and I went to see the British comedy Four Lions at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Then we went to Wendy's (Helen's first time) and back to Whitaker. We went into Matt's room (my very close Kiwi friend here) to borrow some CD's, talked with him and Glen for a bit and then went to see the drag shows! The first one was at a bar called Naval. The theme of the drag show was Glee (can't wait to tell Mom that!) and they had about three songs and dances prepared for us. A bit later, we went to Family, another gay bar on K' Road. This one was more like a nightclub, but I was not in the mood/prepared/dressed for that sort of atmosphere. Family's shows weren't as good though, but I knew all the songs they lip synced. One I had even sang for a concert in the fifth grade! Anyway, we got back pretty late and I woke up pretty early. But, I was NOT going to let that affect the weekend.



When we arrived in Paihia (the island we stayed on) five of us decided to go kayaking. We grabbed a quick, proper good (a British phrase I've been working into my vocabulary) lunch and headed to the kayak rental. We kayaked to a really pretty island, which Nick nicknamed 'Shutter Island.' I promise it was not as creepy as it sounds! We explored a bit; everyone had a few beers (I only had one since I'm not a big drinker) and we played some frisbee. Next, we went to Tore Tore island. We hiked up a path and came to a beautiful view. We sat there and chilled out for a bit. Nick took a 'boy band' shot of us. I, of course, fell coming back down. It didn't really hurt, I honestly thought it was hilarious and just sat on the ground for a minute laughing.



It was time to head back and boy, was it windy! This wind, of course, caused giant waves. Less than a meter off the rocky coast, Nick and I capsized. It was freezing, but quite funny. The worst part was that my flippy floppies fell off and I cut my feet up pretty badly. With Brian's help—he acted like our kayak instructor throughout the day—we flipped it back over and continued. Nick and I knew we'd have to be very careful for the rest of the trip back. Whenever there was a large wave coming, we'd stop paddling and focus on centering our balance. We finally made it back to shore and were quite exhausted. This description may sound somewhat brief, but the kayak outing took us a full 3 hours. I ached so badly!



Per my suggestion, the five of us climbed into the hot tub at the hostel we were staying at. It was pretty much the best feeling ever after being freezing and uncomfortable in a kayak for three hours. We freshened up, reunited with the three girls who didn't go kayaking with us and went to dinner (at the same place we had lunch, unfortunately). By this time, I was absolutely exhausted. Even though it was only 8 p.m. all I wanted from the world was some sleep. While everyone else went to the bar next door and grabbed some alcohol and headed off to drink at the beach, I slept. They said they had a great time, but I did not regret going to bed early in the slightest. This is reflective of what I was told at my orientation: I'm studying abroad and I need to do what I want to do. It's my 5 months to have the experience of a lifetime and I should do what I want/need to in order to make the most out of my time in New Zealand.

When we woke up that morning, we checked out and found some breakfast. My throat really hurt and I had a cough so Helen and I went to get a hot chocolate and flat white, respectively. A flat white is a kind of coffee drink. It's similar to a latte, but made with tastier coffee and stronger. It's made with one shot of espresso (for the small ones anyway) but with less milk. Anyway, I grabbed a croissant for breakfast and some money from the ATM. (in addition to croissant I ate the muesli bar I brought with me in case we didn't get breakfast. I was quite prepared for the weekend, people were teasing me a bit about it, but I just blamed it on my 'Jewish Mother' personality.

Afterward, we headed off and walked a while around the rocky beach. It was pretty, fun and exciting.



Then we drove to the supermarket, grabbed some food for lunch and headed out to Haruru Falls. The waterfall was really neat. It was quite large and beautiful. We could walk on rocks right up to it. I've never been so close to falls before. I feel they would never allow such a thing in America. There would be a fence in front of it so we couldn't get to close to the edge for fear of accidents and resulting lawsuits.



Next, we went for a big, 5k trek. It was fun, but tiring. We stopped for lunch, which was amazing. Six of us split three French baguettes, turkey and cheese. I had a banana and some chocolate as well. After a tiring walk, it totally hit the spot. On the way, we stopped and took some pictures. I fell again; big surprise—not. On the way back, we powered through the path. Doing the second 5k in about 50 minutes rather than the normal 90 minutes. I think the walk back was more enjoyable because we were so direct. I got into the zone and was very into the hike. When we got back into the car, we had some more chocolate, turned on the iPod and chilled out for the car ride home. I had a fabulous time at the Bay of Island. During the walk, I decided I was really glad I chose to come to New Zealand. This weekend was so accessible. There's so much nature at my fingertips and I'm loving it.

Orientation

Hello, all! I've now been in New Zealand for about 15 days; I can't believe it. I have so much I want to write about, it's been a whirlwind of an experience so far. To start with, I'll recap my orientation, which was an amazing introduction to New Zealand.

The Airport
At the Chicago airport (my mother and Mark drove me up there), my mom made quite the scene. She had kept it together for most of the day, even as I was checking in at the ticket counter. But, when I went to get in line at security, she lost it. "My baby, my baby," she cried. As she wrapped her arms around me whining and crying and rocking me as if I still were a baby. Mind you, this wasn't in a corner, or even to one side. We were in the middle of the walking space by security. People were trying to walk around us, some people thought we were in line, others just thought my mom was nuts. Eventually she was able to let me go and I got in line. Did my mother leave? Nope. She stood there, watching me wait in my line, waving frantically whenever I looked back at her. I may be picking on her, but I don't blame her. We're going to be across the world from each other from the next five months. Once I got through security, I saw that my flight was delayed by an hour. So I was at the Chicago airport at 1:30 p.m. for a 6 p.m. flight. Eventually, I met Kristie, who heard me talking on the phone about New Zealand and asked me if I was with Study New Zealand/Study Australia. Kristie proved to become a friend throughout orientation, I'm hoping to visit her in Melbourne, Australia if I can afford it.

The Flight
The flight was surprisingly fine. I was worried about how it would go with my back, but I got up and walked around about every four hours. I slept for a good 6-7 hours on and off. For the rest of the time I watched The Book of Eli and chilled out. Soon enough, they were handing out the customs forms and the minutes until the ETA dwindled. At 7:30 A.M. on 1 July, I arrived in Auckland.

Day One
I was nervous for customs. I'm not sure why, but I was terrified they'd not let me into the country or something. Luckily, my fear was without warrant and I got through customs just fine. They even let me keep my peanut butter! The customs in New Zealand is notorious for being extremely picky with food and shoes being brought into the country. The country is very watchful for insects that might harm the beautiful trees and other New Zealand plants. Once I was declared fit to enter the country, I went to meet my fellow program participants. What I saw when I found them, did not make me happy at all. There I was, sweaty and tired, makeup-less and jet lagged and they had the audacity to film me? Luckily, Brian, the cameraman explained, he wouldn't use any bad footage of us. The Education Abroad Network is currently having their promotional videos redone, with footage from Australia and New Zealand for the first time.

Anyhow, we eventually all made it on to the bus, which took us to our hotel, in the city of Auckland. We were whisked away, however, into a back meeting room where we did some standard introductions and an extremely brief overview of the next few days. We were then given about an hour and a half. We could shower if we wanted to (there was a shower in the gym area, we were unable to check in since we were there at 9 or so in the morning and check in wasn't until 2 in the afternoon. I chose instead to skype my mother and send some friends/family emails letting them know I had arrived)

Afterward we had about 30 minutes to explore the city so a group of us went for a little walk. We soon discovered Auckland is incredibly hilly. After we regrouped the 23 of us on orientation (though six girls were going to Australia) walked down to Queen Street, the main street in the downtown area. This is the one that has the giant cinema, plenty of shops, several malls shooting off of it and my friends Gucci and Louis Vuitton (by the way, I swear I am going to dress up and go shopping in those stores before I leave). At the end of Queen Street is the harbor, with passenger ferries. We took the ferry to a town called Devenport. It was quite funny because with an Australian accent, Lauren, the woman in charge of orientation, sounded like she said 'Davenport,' which made me feel like I had just gone back to Iowa. Devenport is a cute town a 15 minute ferry ride from Auckland. It's its own community (complete with a library, which I thought was nice), but is essentially a part of Auckland. Much of Devenport's inhabitants commute daily to their jobs in the city. Tommy, who studied at the University of Auckland and loved it so much that he transferred, moved there and now works for TEAN, grabbed our sandwiches for lunch and we met them on the beach. There were children and mothers playing by the water and Mary Bess made funny comments like "It's like we're surrounded by water—we're on an island!" and admiring the "cute, little naked boy."

After lunch, we walked up a giant hill with a gorgeous view of the city. See for yourself:



We took pictures at the top and I volunteered to be part of the promotional video. I'm pretty sure I look like a dweeb in it though... We climbed down, took the ferry back and I finally had some downtime. First, however, I had to get my suitcases up to my room. This may sound like an easy task to you, but that would mean you do not know about my suitcases. I had a backpack, a relatively small carry-on and a pretty large suitcase. In addition, I had an oversized, bright blue bag from hell. The hotel even gave me a cart to push it all on. Again, sounds nice. I finally got to the elevator, it opened up and I pushed my luggage in. Correction—I attempted to push it in. It was too wide to fit in the elevator! It was horrible. I was mortified and frustrated and needed people I had just met to help me figure out how to get all my stuff into the elevator. Eventually, I got it all up there and got unsettled. Then, I took a very much needed shower and got ready for dinner.

For dinner, we went to a tapas restaurant! The food was delicious and I got to know people who would become some of my closest friends from the program. I had my first glass of wine in New Zealand at the restaurant, a Savignon Blanc, a wine for which New Zealand is very famous. It was delicious! That's one thing that really bothers me about the drinking age in the States, I sometimes wish I could order a glass of wine with my meal back home. Not for the purpose of getting drunk, but rather for enjoyment and to compliment the food.

After dinner, we came back to The Quadrant and went to bed around 8:30 at night; we'd had a long day.

Day Two
The next day was our Maori cultural experience day. Maori, I learned once arriving, is pronounced MOW-ree. They are the native people of this country and are fully embraced within modern Kiwi culture. There is minimal racism and other negative feelings and actions directed toward the population. Many Maori descendants don't look particularly Maori because there's a history of interracial marriage and procreation. The following description of the day is written in past tense as it was in my personal journal, with additional commentary from what I've experienced since first recording the events of day two.

Yesterday was a long and action-packed day. I woke up at 7:30 because I had gone to bed at 8:30 the night before. When it was time to meet, Michele, my roommate at the hotel and a fellow Auckland Uni student, went downstairs and met the rest of the group. We went in a van that held about 10-12 people in each. We drove to an area with a huge crater.



There were signs all around saying not climb in. Apparently, it's because the crater is technically an archaeological site. The three drivers turned out to be our three Maori tour guides. Michelle, one of the guides told us that as a child and even into her adulthood, she and friends would often run or even roll down the massive crater. The guides were youthful, two were probably in their twenties and the director, Melissa was probably in her thirties. The three guides introduced themselves in Maori and explained to us that in their introductions, they traced their tribe and families' lineage from the beginning onwards. It was pretty elaborate. The purpose behind the retelling of ancestry is to hopefully find a connection with someone. After the retelling, they finally said their names. This piece of information, which almost always comes first in an American introduction, is the least important to the Maori people. It is not about who you are, but rather where you came from. Then, Pania (not sure about the spelling, but it was pronounced pawn-yuh), recited a prayer. Maori prayers, as I would learn as well in Rotorua, are not really to a particular God, but rather just and overall thank you. When one recites a Maori prayer, it is to be done in the presence of whatever one is being thankful for. For example, you wouldn't give thanks for the sea in the forest or in your home, but rather in the ocean.

We walked around the crater and the guides explained to us the history of the place. The volcano, like other mountains (giant hills?), the Maori people inhabited were tiered, or terraced. If you can imagine a wedding cake, that's what the hill looked like. The people had pounded the ground down into multiple levels as a defense strategy. Each terrace was surrounded by massive 8 or 10 foot tall fences that enemies would have to climb over in order to fight the local tribe. If the invaders had won the battle, they would have to climb another fence and fight the next level. Thinking about it reminded me of a video game, personally. It was crazy to try and imagine people actually changing the shape of the mountain and going through so much to gain land.

On the sides of some of the levels were holes in the ground to store kumara. Kumara is the Maori word for sweet potatoes. They would build shelter for the holes to protect the kumara from wind, rain and insects. The harvested starches would then last the tribe through the winter.

The next stop for our cultural experience was the Auckland Museum. The Auckland Museum is big and has many components with some permanent exhibits and other temporary ones. The temporary one running right now is called Kai to Pie. Kai in Maori means food and pie means pie. The other name of it is "Auckland on a Plate." They feature food and cultural information about the more than 30 ethnic groups represented in Auckland. We didn't have time to go through that at all, but I intend to go back to the museum sometime soon. On Sundays they have free food samples, which I'm always up for! The exhibit we visited was the Maori one. The first thing Michelle showed us is the war canoe, called a Waka in Maori. It was insanely huge. I didn't have the time to devote to taking nice pictures so I decided to wait to take pictures until I return. The war canoe was made out of one continuous piece of wood from a single tree. The front of the boat had a carving of a head with its tongue sticking out. For this reason, we know the intricately carved waka represents a male ancestor. This is because the protrusion of the tongue is only allowed to be done by the males. It represents intimidation and fierceness. Women are not allowed to do this, for the sake of balance.

Balance is a major theme within Maori culture. Women were not allowed in the waka and Michelle explained, people who are not knowledgeable about the Maori assume this is sexist. This assumption would be false. Women give birth and therefore represent life. The opposite of life is death, so men are the warriors that kill. It would be wrong for something that is supposed to bring life into this world to take it away. A lot of Maori stories and culture seem to be built around the sense of balance.

According to Michelle, Maori tribes were often matriarchal before the British invaded. The British imposed their sexist, patriarchal, Victorian marriage lifestyle upon the Maori and the culture switched. It became patriarchal and stayed that way. As with most native peoples, there was a period in which the Maori were very discriminated against. One of the tour guides explained to us that the reason she wasn't taught the language as a child was because her grandfather had been beaten up when he tried to speak Maori in school. He, therefore never spoke it to his family, thus not giving my guide anyone to learn the language from. In what seems to be recent years, there's been a movement to embrace the Maori culture. She did an intensive year-long program in which she learned how to speak the language and learned a lot about the culture. Nowadays, I've been told there really isn't any animosity between Maori and the other Kiwis. Most signs have both Maori and English on them and I often hear Kia Ora (a standard welcome in Maori) at formal events.

The rest of my museum experience included looking at the weaponry and other artifacts. Next, we saw an awesome cultural show. It included traditional song and dance as well as amazing demonstrations of how they would use their weaponry in battles. It's one thing to see the items in a glass case, it's another to see them in action. Finally, they performed a haka. A haka is a traditional Maori dance, whose purpose is to challenge and intimidate the enemy before charging into battle. It's extremely high energy and truly is quite intimidating. The New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, perform a haka before every game. I encourage you to watch the embedded video HERE, it really is quite cool.

After that, we went into the Marae (muh-rhye), the holy meetinghouse. Out of respect, we removed our shoes before entering and were not allowed to take pictures. The different pillars of the house represented different ancestors and were again intricately carved. I've tried to wrap my mind around how many hours upon hours it would take to make one of these supports, let alone enough to create the massive meetinghouse and I simply can't. It's really quite incredible. Then, it was time to go. Before leaving the museum, we rinsed our hands with water to wash the holiness away so we didn't carry it with us for the rest of the day. If holiness was with us all the time, then it wouldn't be holy, right?

On the steps of the museum, was Lauren with bags of fish and chips. The chips (like thick fries, but not quite as thick or lightly cooked as wedges) were both white and sweet potatoes. Interestingly enough, the sweet potatoes aren't redish orange here as they are in the States, but are a much lighter, almost white variety.

Next, we sat in the car for about a half hour long drive to a beach on the west coast. Auckland is on an isthmus so it has beaches on both of its coasts and it doesn't take that much time to get to either. The west coast beaches have black sand because it comes from volcanic ash. It's incredibly fine and soft and very different from any other beach I've been to. It was a beautiful spot, great for photographs. As we were walking toward the beach, a man base jumped off the side of a cliff next to us, it was awesome! We marveled at the ocean for a while and then played some touch rugby before heading back to the vans.

Next, we went for a bit of a hike. It was really pretty and mostly uphill. We ended up in front of a beautiful waterfall. On the way back to where we had parked, we stopped and were told the Maori creation story. It was extremely interesting. Writing it in here wouldn't do it justice, and I encourage you to research it or ask me about it in person/over skype. Finally, the tour guides honored us by doing the Hongi with us. The three of them lined up (imagine a receiving line). We would shake their right hand, and we placed our left on each other's shoulders. We put ourselves forehead to forehead and bridge of nose to bridge of nose. Then, we would each breathe in deeply. The idea behind this is connected to the creation story, but in essence, we are breathing in each others' life force, acknowledging that each other is alive and appreciating it. At first I was a bit nervous and uncomfortable about the idea of getting so close to women I had just met, but it turned out to be very intimate. I found myself closing my eyes and really trying to breathe the other person in. It was very meaningful to me.

Day Three

The next day we woke up super early and hit the road for Rotorua. The drive was about 3 1/2 hours, but it wasn't too bad. Right when we arrived, I went zorbing. See for yourself!

We then went to a cafe called the Fat Dog and had delicious seafood chowder and paninis. Next, we went white water rafting. It was an absolute blast. We went over a 21 foot drop of a waterfall; it's the largest drop one can do in a commercial raft. It felt like we were in boot camp; the professional with us, (he said his name was Ranna, rhyming with banana, which is funny because it only rhymes with a British/Kiwi/Aussie accent) would drill us on if we were paddling forward, backward, stopping, holding on or getting down. It was an awesome experience, but I was excited to change out of my wetsuit and into some warm clothes (remember, it's winter in NZ).


Afterward, we went out to a pub called the Pig & Whistle and devoured some nachos and beers. I was introduced to a classic British/Kiwi/Aussie drink called a shandie. It's simply beer with sprite and you can tell them if you want 1/3 beer or 1/2 beer. It's nice for people like me that don't really like beer and are not big drinkers. We hung out there for a while, then went back and changed into our swimsuits once more. We walked to the Polynesian spas, ranked as one of the top 10 spas to in the world visit. We went to the mineral baths. One was just normal minerals and the other one is called a priest bath. That's because it is supposed to heal, which was nice because I had injured my shoulder a bit earlier white water rafting (I'm doing perfectly fine now, no worries). There were seven different pools (either mineral or priest) in varying temperatures and some under coverage and some not. It was pretty chilly out of the pools, but that just made the baths seem warmer and nicer. We stayed there for maybe about two hours, relaxing and talking, enjoying life before we headed back to the hostel for a good night's rest.

Day Four
On day four, we drove back home, to The Quadrant. We had the middle part of the day to ourselves and regrouped at 4 p.m. At this time Lauren and Tommy sat down with us and had the actual orientation info session. They gave us advice about school, traveling, insurance and everything in between. It was extremely informational. Afterward, we went back and changed into nicer clothing for our dinner that we were told would be nice. Was it ever! The lights were dim with a few candles on the table. We had special lights that were brought over for when we needed to read the menu.We started off with a wonderful Italian appetizer plate with olives, cheeses, meats, chopped liver, spreads, salmon and more. I had the veal marsala for my main course. There was so much food and it was so delicious, but I couldn't finish it. I unfortunately found out after I had almost stuffed myself that dessert was also included. I had to find room for that too. Luckily, I've been trained by mother that there's no such thing as being too full for dessert so I decided to try something different and ordered the fig pudding. The "pudding" wasn't pudding as we think of it. It was essentially cake, but considered a pudding because of the extremely hot butterscotch sauce it was served with. It was absolutely incredible. When I could fit no more into me, we walked next store to a bar, where they were waiting for us with champagne. We had a cheers and schmoozed around for a bit before returning back to the hotel. That night, a group of us stayed up talking and drinking until 5 AM. It was a fun time, though I ended up throwing off my system.




Day Five
On what was technically considered the last day of orientation, everyone flew off to their respective parts of the country at which they were studying. The three girls studying at Auckland living in Parnell Student Village were allowed to move in at three. Harley and I are living in Number Fourteen, and were unable to move in until Tuesday. I spent the day doing errands and exploring the city. Harley and I went to Pita Pit (which I guess they have in the U.S. though I've never been) for dinner and Harley, Brian (the camera guy), Taryn, Michele and Meg (the girls living in Parnell) and I went to a microbrewery and enjoyed some New Zealand brews. It was a nice, relaxing end to a great orientation week. The four girls studying at Auckland Uni are pictured above, at the bar where we had champagne the night before.

Now
I must admit, it's taken me an incredibly long time to write this blog post. I'm so, so sorry and I hope to put my next one out very soon. I've moved into my new home in Number Fourteen Whitaker Place and I absolutely love it. I won't elaborate now because I want to post the blog entry about my pre-semester experiences right, and I don't feel like writing anymore tonight.Please feel free to comment with questions or feedback. I really enjoy talking about my experiences here and would love to share them with everyone who is willing to listen. Also, if you are on facebook I encourage you to look at my pictures—there's much more on there. And if you're not on facebook, but wish to see them I can send you a link where you can do that. Thanks for reading. Cheers!