Well, all this talk about the end of my Australia trip brings me to another melancholy point. My entire New Zealand trip is almost at an end. Tomorrow my family is slated to arrive and together, we’ll be touring the North and South Island before we leave on December 31st. Once I depart the country, I probably will not return to this blog as this blog’s purpose was to detail the experiences of a student who is new to New Zealand. While I am certain I still have a lot to learn about this country (even today, after 6 months of living in this magnificent country, I am still giving Ebony confused looks when I hear new kiwi slang), I feel that I am no longer new here. Perhaps by following my blog, you too have become more acquainted with New Zealand. Thank you so much for persevering with me through my dry spells and my long rants on trivial things like food. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the other side of the world and I am positive that throughout my life, there will be moments where I will find myself deeply missing and craving the kiwi lifestyle that briefly was my own. To all those that helped me get here and enriched my experience, I say Ta!
This truly has been a sweet as life experience!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Who Knew I That I was Going to Update This Blog Again and Inform Everyoe About My Recent Activities?
Gidday! Can you guess where I’ve been? Don’t worry, I’ll fill you in soon enough! As usual, I apologize for the lack of updates. However, now I can share the good news with you: the semester is over and has been for about a month. I finished my exam marathon November 3rd after a series of back-to-back all-nighters. My first exam was in this room I had been in before for course registration and it sort of reminded me of this scene in Harry Potter where the Great Hall was replaced with long rows of tiny desks. It was interesting to have all these proctors walking by, scrutinizing my photo idea, and looking out for any signs of cheating. Most of my exams were OK enough although my New Zealand Plant Ecology and Animal Biology exams were on the tricky side (I was only prepared to comment on the impact of fire on Australia and NZ, not South America and the animal biology one went on forever, asking all of these ridiculous knit picky questions which included an entire unexpected page on Maori conservation practices). Nonetheless, I am satisfied with my grades (2 A+’s, an A, and an A-…you can probably figure out the source of the A-) and am really grateful for my awesome semester at University of Otago.
Before I get on to the exciting stuff, I feel that in addition to my lack of posts, I have really neglected to update you on my day-to-day happenings. So to rectify that and put myself in the more-or-less here and now, I wanted to briefly tell you about my wonderful Saturday. After a week of lounging around the almost empty flat and doing nothing productive, I awoke early Saturday and headed over to Dunedin’s weekly Farmer’s Market which I have recently fallen in love with. While I set out to grab the usual Bacon Buddy (a popular market delicacy), I stumbled upon this Polish couple (well I think they were Polish) and purchased one of their scrumptious mashed potato turnovers. After buying some picnic supplies, I went to Countdown (a supermarket) to meet Ebony and a few of her French colleagues, Marie and Mathieu. Ebony drove us out to Taieri for a delightful picnic. We lounged on the “beach” and conversed in French and English (well, I was conversing in English and trying to decipher their French conversations to the best of my ability). On the way back, we stopped at this little fruit stand and purchased this inventive fresh fruit ice cream that was delicious. I still can’t get used to eating ice cream outside in December! Although, let’s be serious here, a warm sunny day in Dunedin is rare, even in the summer. Later on that evening, I rushed over to The Bog in order to quickly wish Natasha (one of Ebony’s friends I met while in Riverton a few weeks ago) congratulations on graduating. As I was walking away, Tash came up to me and generously invited me to her graduation dinner. The million course dinner took place and a nice Italian restaurant and was really enjoyable. Her invite really made my night. Personally, I think it’s random, unexpected invitations and events like this that make life worth living. If I wasn’t completely avoiding internship applications and MCAT studying, my here and now would sound pretty nice, eh?
So, I was going to continue on with details on my recent Oz/Raro trip however, as I began writing about my trip, I realized I have way to much to say. In order to not strain your eyes with my vacation tales, I have decided to dedicate an entire, upcoming post to my trip. Don't worry, I will actually post details about my trip unlike last time!
Oh, I guess I should let you know that I did something crazy today, with the help of one Ebony Hinds. Yep, I got my nose pierced. It's been something I've wanted to do for a while now and I figured if I didn't do it now, I probably never would. My mom came home from her study abroad trip with purple hair so I guess there is something to that saying "like mother like daughter."
You'll be hearing from me shortly!
Before I get on to the exciting stuff, I feel that in addition to my lack of posts, I have really neglected to update you on my day-to-day happenings. So to rectify that and put myself in the more-or-less here and now, I wanted to briefly tell you about my wonderful Saturday. After a week of lounging around the almost empty flat and doing nothing productive, I awoke early Saturday and headed over to Dunedin’s weekly Farmer’s Market which I have recently fallen in love with. While I set out to grab the usual Bacon Buddy (a popular market delicacy), I stumbled upon this Polish couple (well I think they were Polish) and purchased one of their scrumptious mashed potato turnovers. After buying some picnic supplies, I went to Countdown (a supermarket) to meet Ebony and a few of her French colleagues, Marie and Mathieu. Ebony drove us out to Taieri for a delightful picnic. We lounged on the “beach” and conversed in French and English (well, I was conversing in English and trying to decipher their French conversations to the best of my ability). On the way back, we stopped at this little fruit stand and purchased this inventive fresh fruit ice cream that was delicious. I still can’t get used to eating ice cream outside in December! Although, let’s be serious here, a warm sunny day in Dunedin is rare, even in the summer. Later on that evening, I rushed over to The Bog in order to quickly wish Natasha (one of Ebony’s friends I met while in Riverton a few weeks ago) congratulations on graduating. As I was walking away, Tash came up to me and generously invited me to her graduation dinner. The million course dinner took place and a nice Italian restaurant and was really enjoyable. Her invite really made my night. Personally, I think it’s random, unexpected invitations and events like this that make life worth living. If I wasn’t completely avoiding internship applications and MCAT studying, my here and now would sound pretty nice, eh?
So, I was going to continue on with details on my recent Oz/Raro trip however, as I began writing about my trip, I realized I have way to much to say. In order to not strain your eyes with my vacation tales, I have decided to dedicate an entire, upcoming post to my trip. Don't worry, I will actually post details about my trip unlike last time!
Oh, I guess I should let you know that I did something crazy today, with the help of one Ebony Hinds. Yep, I got my nose pierced. It's been something I've wanted to do for a while now and I figured if I didn't do it now, I probably never would. My mom came home from her study abroad trip with purple hair so I guess there is something to that saying "like mother like daughter."
You'll be hearing from me shortly!
Who Knew 17 Days Could Go By So Fast?
Hello again. Sick of me yet? No? Don’t worry, you soon will be!
Alright, now on to the main event: my trip! A week ago, I returned from my 17 day adventure in Australia and the Cook Islands and I thought I would tell you a little about it. Here it goes…
But first, pictures to get you in the mindset:
Saying goodbye to Chloe under the Christmas tree, besides our favorite spot in the Auckland Airport, the endless blue line that takes you from the international terminal to the domestic one. I miss her like crazy and better see her next spring in Philadelphia!
The sunset you've dreamed about.
One of the picturesque beaches at Raro.
I just had to throw in another photo of the opera house.
Fresh of the plane, showcasing my lei in Raro.
The best dumplings ever.
What it's like to be lounging at Bondi Beach.
The remains of my Kangaroo burger!
On the ferry to Manly Beach!
The Sydney Opera House (as if you didn't know already)!
What it's Christmas time and I am in shorts? This picture goes out to all the people who were rubbing it in my face that they were wearing shorts in July while I was bundled up in a winter jacket.
Touring the Great Barrier Reef
Hanging out with the Kangaroos at Dreamworld!
Baxter the koala, simply adorable, no? I am in love! For all of you who wrote me and told me to hug a koala, notice that I obliged your requests but I had to go to Australia to do so!
Walking across a bridge in Brisbane.
Brisbane (November 10th-12th)
Arriving not so fashionably late, we made our flight to Brisbane just in time on Tuesday afternoon. Chloe and I have decided that arriving late for a flight is actually quite advantageous as it virtually cuts out all line waiting in check in and baggage claim. Having spent almost an entire semester in winter-like conditions, we were delighted to be welcomed by Brisbane’s warm evening air. A shuttle dropped us off at our funky, yet slightly run down hostel that looked as if it belonged in a pre-Katrina New Orleans. We dropped off our stuff and proceeded to explore what seemed like the sketchy part of town. Jet lag then set in and we quickly returned back to the hostel. Still suffering from jet lag, we woke at some ridiculously early hour and completed what felt like an entire day all before 11AM. While waiting for a bank/money exchange counter to open up, Chloe and I walked around Brisbane, trying to get our bearings. Once we exchanged money, we crossed one of the city’s many bridges in search of markets and other sites. One think that really appealed to me about Brisbane was the amount of effort and money the city has put into it’s public spaces. Since Brisbane lacked a beach, they imported sand and built this lovely massive public pool. After checking out the city’s botanic gardens, we chanced upon a market that is only held on Tuesdays. What luck! After grabbing lunch and a few other snacks there, we headed back to the hostel and watched TV before once again falling asleep early by Australia’s standards. We departed Brisbane early the next morning via train for the Gold Coast.
Surfer’s Paradise (November 12th-15th)
We made it to our quaint apartment style hotel by midday on November 12th and spent time walking around Pacific Fare mall, food shopping, and walking along the lovely beach. Still suffering from jet lag, we retired early and fell asleep while watching TV. It was around this point in the trip where we concluded that we love Australian News. It’s actually pretty entertaining and humorous, albeit repetitive and definitely beats American News as well as that of New Zealand. The next morning we headed off to Dreamworld, one of Surfer’s much talked about amusement parks. While the actual amusement park was fun enough, Dreamworld didn’t quite measure up to all the hype all my New Zealand friends attributed to it. Then I realized that New Zealand doesn’t really have theme parks, so for them, this is as close to Disney World as they can get. For me, it was sort of like Dorney Park or some other more local amusement park. However, this park did have something that amusement parks back home lack: a wildlife area complete with kangaroos and koalas. One of the highlights of my whole trip was hanging out with the kangaroos and holding Baxter, the koala for 20 seconds while they snapped my picture (see above for the cuteness). Honestly, I think holding koalas is my new anti-drug, it’s pure bliss. We also got to check out other Australian animals such as the dingo, the wombat, and pelicans. All in all, it was an awesome day. After spending an excessive amount of time trying to find a replacement activity Australian zorbing that was $100 (! It was only $90NZD in Rotorua for 3 runs—I guess I’ll just have to do it again when I’m back there again), we gave up and decided to go to Harbor Town which was home to an outdoor outlet mall. We walked around a while in search of Chloe’s desired floppy sun hat and big sunglasses. I came out with a discounted Canterbury shirt, something I had been meaning to purchase while in New Zealand. We then traveled over to Surfer’s Paradise, another outdoor mall, stocked up on Boost Juice (our favorite Australian chain) and resumed our shopping search. Admitting shopping defeat for the day, we returned home and tried to stay awake for a TV movie. The next day, we walked around and grabbed lunch in town before frantically running half way across town, gelato in hand, to catch our bus to the airport. As I was going through Security here, I was “stopped” and subjected to a random check which took all of one minute. Hey, if you’re going to get stopped and checked in an airport, it mine as well be one in Australia!
Cairns (November 15th-18th)
Seeing as we arrived in Cairns late Sunday night, we assumed that there wouldn’t be that much to do. Boy were we wrong. Cairns certainly has a nightlife aspect. We strolled around the esplanade, purchased some gelato and sat by the lagoon, licking our dessert while spotting pelicans and bats. We awoke bright and early the next morning and headed to the reef dock, where we boarded our full day reef tour boat. Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef was fantastic! I instantly understood why this is one of the worlds biggest attractions! We stopped at two spots, and in my opinion, the second one was a better snorkeling stop. Everywhere I looked, there were millions of colorful and unique fish! It was truly a spectacular day and definitely one of the trip’s highlights. Afterwards, we walked around central Cairns and I tried to get in contact with my fake cousin who had been studying in Cairns for the semester. As I was telling Chloe about Max, my fake cousin, I suddenly stopped in my tracks and stared at a person outside the Mcdonalds. That person was Max! It was one of those crazy coincidences that rarely happens in my life. We conversed for a while before we departed in search for more gelato. If you haven’t caught on, gelato sort of became a food group for our trip and was it’s own meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and gelato). Luckily for us, Cairns was abundant in gelato shops! I also finally tried Natural New Zealand ice cream (even though I was in Australia). After purchasing Chloe’s birthday gelato, we traveled around in search for an activity for the next day. We managed to find a fabulous full-day activity at Fitzroy for the ideal price however, as our travel agent friend soon informed us, the package was of course not offered the day we wanted to go. Fitzroy Island is still a sore subject for Chloe and I. Instead, we spent the next day walking around Cairns, hanging out with Nat (our travel agent friend from the night before), and going to the movies. Luckily for us, it was cheap as Tuesday so we got discounted movie tickets to see Mao’s Last Dancer. At one point, we again unexpectedly ran into Max, who grabbed my attention by pelting a tennis ball at my back. Gotta love Cairns! I should also note that this day was thankfully the only day we saw the rowdy schoolies, as they passed by on a double decker bus. Schoolie week (Australia’s senior week on crack) was forecasted for the entire time we were in Australia, however we fortunately managed to avoid the bulk of it. The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport and were off.
Sydney (November 18th-22nd)
Let me just preface this section by saying that I am completely in love with Sydney and determined to make it back because 4 days is just not enough. We arrived in Sydney just in time to go snag some expensive, yet delicious, dinner in Sydney’s Chinatown. Once we realized that our map was deceiving and most locations were within walking distance from our chic hotel, we decided to explore the city of Sydney at night. After a few hours of walking, we briefly chilled by our hotel’s rooftop pool and then hit the sauna before bed. The next day we made our way to The Rocks, the funky area next to the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, for the morning Harbor Bridge Climb. I really feel like the bridge climb is iconic and something you should do while in Sydney. Afterwards, we made our way towards the opera house and harbor bridge! It was sort of surreal for me to see the opera house in front of me. Although I have always wanted to go to New Zealand, Australia was the first country I remember actually yearning to visit and for me (and probably the rest of the world), the Sydney Opera House is just so emblematic of Australia. Being there, seeing the opera house before me really made me realize that I have technically lived out one of my childhood dreams. The Sydney Opera House is definitely my new favorite building (not that I really had an original favorite building). Consequently, I have enough pictures of the opera house to plaster the walls of a mansion. Once I manage to tear myself from the steps of the opera house, Chloe and I took the ferry to Manly Beach. Manly was nice but, I think we got there at the wrong time. As we arrived in the late afternoon, it was too chilly to hang out on the beach so we just walked around. While in Manly, we also satisfied our kangaroo craving by grabbing kangaroo burgers. Don’t tell the kangaroos this, but they are really delicious! For dessert, we went for Ben and Jerry’s which I think was what initially attracted Chloe to Manly in the first place. The next day we headed over to Bondi Beach exemplified the key points I have always imagined to be associated with the Australian beach. The orange-white sand beach was strewn with surfers and other beach goers and the water was this gorgeous blue color. It was at brunch when Chloe checked her itouch calendar and we both realized that somehow, we had managed to add an extra day to our Sydney trip and in all of this blunder, we missed our lunch reservation. I actually had to verbally ask the waiter what day it was as I was in complete disbelief. Taking the actual date in consideration, we rushed back to the city in order to check out Paddy’s Market. We then lined up early in order to get a table at what the New York Times considers one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. Their dumplings actually came with instructions and let me say that they are by far the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten. I was so in love with their dumplings that I grabbed take out from there the next night. We began our final day in Sydney by going to the Sydney Fish Market where I snacked on lobster. Afterwards, we walked around and eventually found ourselves in The Rocks at an awesome outdoor market. Once we picked up a few things, we walked across the Harbor Bridge and briefly checked out Luna Park and the North Olympic Pool. While we were walking around, we noticed at least six wedding processions. Apparently Saturdays in Sydney are extremely popular wedding days. The next morning, we left to catch our flight to Auckland.
Rarotonga (November 22nd-27th)
Unfortunately, our plane from Auckland to Raro was delayed from 5:30PM to 11:30PM. Since we arrived from Sydney at 2:30PM, we spent quite a while in the international transfer area of the airport (not the most entertaining place in the world). However, we did manage to get some sightseeing done while there as we visited the Auckland Airport Chapel (score!) and we got $30 from the airport which we spent on a million croissants and sandwiches (the money was designated specifically for food and we didn’t want to waste free money). Finally we took off in airNewZealand style, with personal entertainment systems and a nice warm meal (Chloe and I get very excited over airplane food, you should have seen us on our Quantas flight to and from Sydney when we got a warm meal AND a popsicle). Even though it was 4 in the morning, we were greeted at the tiny airport by a man singing while strumming his ukulele and by women placing real leis over our heads. As soon as we made it to the hotel, we crashed until we had to pull ourselves out of bed for the hotel’s continental breakfast. We then decided to walk around the island to a snorkeling beach (we tried to hire scooters but as it turns out, you need to be 21). The beaches were synonymous with what you imagine a tropical beach to look like: white sand laden with palm trees, and crystal clear blue water spotted with islands and filled with tropical fish. Although the walk there only felt like it took no more than 45 minutes, it turned out that we had been walking a great deal longer than that. I believe the beach was actually an hour and a half away from our hotel. As I was walking back by myself, locals whizzing by on scooters kept giving me strange looks and I started to wonder if walking was taboo on the island. A car full of young guys stopped to ask me if I wanted a ride and taking into consideration the age old lesson “don’t get in cars with strangers,” especially young boys, I turned them down. About an hour later, after I had begun wondering if I was lost, an old man on a motorcycle pulled up beside me and told me he had seen me twice so far as he was driving that night and insisted that I hop on. Once I realized he wasn’t going to leave until I appeased him, I said what the hell and hopped on. I had never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before so it was pretty thrilling. It turned out the hotel was still a 15 minute motorcycle ride from where I was. That man’s generosity and motorcycle really made my night. Chloe and I concluded our first day by splurging on poolside drinks. We pretty much spent the rest of our time in Raro crashing other resorts, lounging on the beach, reading, and snorkeling. It took as a while to get used to this laid back vacation centered upon doing nothing but relaxing, however I think we came around. Another highlight of our Raro stay was the Miss South Pacific Contest (like Miss America only so much better). We made sure we were home in time every evening to watch this contest along with the other five local commercials which repeated themselves to the point that we could painfully recite them word for word. In the end, our favorite contestant, Miss Fiji, thankfully won.
You may be wondering how my Thanksgiving went. Well, to be honest, it didn’t. As we were crossing the international dateline, our Thanksgiving only lasted for 3 hours in the early morning. While everyone else was celebrating Thanksgiving at home, Chloe and I were both stuck in the Auckland Airport for 12 hours. No worries though, we managed to have an enjoyable time in the airport before we had to say our goodbyes, and we had a lovely pre-Thanksgiving beach side dinner the night before.
Then I took a short plane ride back to Dunedin where it was 9 degrees Celsius outside and traveled back to my almost vacant flat. And that ends my fantastic trip!
As I finish up writing about one of my many vacations abroad this year, I hope everyone back home is readying themselves for their own winter vacation!
Alright, now on to the main event: my trip! A week ago, I returned from my 17 day adventure in Australia and the Cook Islands and I thought I would tell you a little about it. Here it goes…
But first, pictures to get you in the mindset:
Saying goodbye to Chloe under the Christmas tree, besides our favorite spot in the Auckland Airport, the endless blue line that takes you from the international terminal to the domestic one. I miss her like crazy and better see her next spring in Philadelphia!
The sunset you've dreamed about.
One of the picturesque beaches at Raro.
I just had to throw in another photo of the opera house.
Fresh of the plane, showcasing my lei in Raro.
The best dumplings ever.
What it's like to be lounging at Bondi Beach.
The remains of my Kangaroo burger!
On the ferry to Manly Beach!
The Sydney Opera House (as if you didn't know already)!
What it's Christmas time and I am in shorts? This picture goes out to all the people who were rubbing it in my face that they were wearing shorts in July while I was bundled up in a winter jacket.
Touring the Great Barrier Reef
Hanging out with the Kangaroos at Dreamworld!
Baxter the koala, simply adorable, no? I am in love! For all of you who wrote me and told me to hug a koala, notice that I obliged your requests but I had to go to Australia to do so!
Walking across a bridge in Brisbane.
Brisbane (November 10th-12th)
Arriving not so fashionably late, we made our flight to Brisbane just in time on Tuesday afternoon. Chloe and I have decided that arriving late for a flight is actually quite advantageous as it virtually cuts out all line waiting in check in and baggage claim. Having spent almost an entire semester in winter-like conditions, we were delighted to be welcomed by Brisbane’s warm evening air. A shuttle dropped us off at our funky, yet slightly run down hostel that looked as if it belonged in a pre-Katrina New Orleans. We dropped off our stuff and proceeded to explore what seemed like the sketchy part of town. Jet lag then set in and we quickly returned back to the hostel. Still suffering from jet lag, we woke at some ridiculously early hour and completed what felt like an entire day all before 11AM. While waiting for a bank/money exchange counter to open up, Chloe and I walked around Brisbane, trying to get our bearings. Once we exchanged money, we crossed one of the city’s many bridges in search of markets and other sites. One think that really appealed to me about Brisbane was the amount of effort and money the city has put into it’s public spaces. Since Brisbane lacked a beach, they imported sand and built this lovely massive public pool. After checking out the city’s botanic gardens, we chanced upon a market that is only held on Tuesdays. What luck! After grabbing lunch and a few other snacks there, we headed back to the hostel and watched TV before once again falling asleep early by Australia’s standards. We departed Brisbane early the next morning via train for the Gold Coast.
Surfer’s Paradise (November 12th-15th)
We made it to our quaint apartment style hotel by midday on November 12th and spent time walking around Pacific Fare mall, food shopping, and walking along the lovely beach. Still suffering from jet lag, we retired early and fell asleep while watching TV. It was around this point in the trip where we concluded that we love Australian News. It’s actually pretty entertaining and humorous, albeit repetitive and definitely beats American News as well as that of New Zealand. The next morning we headed off to Dreamworld, one of Surfer’s much talked about amusement parks. While the actual amusement park was fun enough, Dreamworld didn’t quite measure up to all the hype all my New Zealand friends attributed to it. Then I realized that New Zealand doesn’t really have theme parks, so for them, this is as close to Disney World as they can get. For me, it was sort of like Dorney Park or some other more local amusement park. However, this park did have something that amusement parks back home lack: a wildlife area complete with kangaroos and koalas. One of the highlights of my whole trip was hanging out with the kangaroos and holding Baxter, the koala for 20 seconds while they snapped my picture (see above for the cuteness). Honestly, I think holding koalas is my new anti-drug, it’s pure bliss. We also got to check out other Australian animals such as the dingo, the wombat, and pelicans. All in all, it was an awesome day. After spending an excessive amount of time trying to find a replacement activity Australian zorbing that was $100 (! It was only $90NZD in Rotorua for 3 runs—I guess I’ll just have to do it again when I’m back there again), we gave up and decided to go to Harbor Town which was home to an outdoor outlet mall. We walked around a while in search of Chloe’s desired floppy sun hat and big sunglasses. I came out with a discounted Canterbury shirt, something I had been meaning to purchase while in New Zealand. We then traveled over to Surfer’s Paradise, another outdoor mall, stocked up on Boost Juice (our favorite Australian chain) and resumed our shopping search. Admitting shopping defeat for the day, we returned home and tried to stay awake for a TV movie. The next day, we walked around and grabbed lunch in town before frantically running half way across town, gelato in hand, to catch our bus to the airport. As I was going through Security here, I was “stopped” and subjected to a random check which took all of one minute. Hey, if you’re going to get stopped and checked in an airport, it mine as well be one in Australia!
Cairns (November 15th-18th)
Seeing as we arrived in Cairns late Sunday night, we assumed that there wouldn’t be that much to do. Boy were we wrong. Cairns certainly has a nightlife aspect. We strolled around the esplanade, purchased some gelato and sat by the lagoon, licking our dessert while spotting pelicans and bats. We awoke bright and early the next morning and headed to the reef dock, where we boarded our full day reef tour boat. Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef was fantastic! I instantly understood why this is one of the worlds biggest attractions! We stopped at two spots, and in my opinion, the second one was a better snorkeling stop. Everywhere I looked, there were millions of colorful and unique fish! It was truly a spectacular day and definitely one of the trip’s highlights. Afterwards, we walked around central Cairns and I tried to get in contact with my fake cousin who had been studying in Cairns for the semester. As I was telling Chloe about Max, my fake cousin, I suddenly stopped in my tracks and stared at a person outside the Mcdonalds. That person was Max! It was one of those crazy coincidences that rarely happens in my life. We conversed for a while before we departed in search for more gelato. If you haven’t caught on, gelato sort of became a food group for our trip and was it’s own meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and gelato). Luckily for us, Cairns was abundant in gelato shops! I also finally tried Natural New Zealand ice cream (even though I was in Australia). After purchasing Chloe’s birthday gelato, we traveled around in search for an activity for the next day. We managed to find a fabulous full-day activity at Fitzroy for the ideal price however, as our travel agent friend soon informed us, the package was of course not offered the day we wanted to go. Fitzroy Island is still a sore subject for Chloe and I. Instead, we spent the next day walking around Cairns, hanging out with Nat (our travel agent friend from the night before), and going to the movies. Luckily for us, it was cheap as Tuesday so we got discounted movie tickets to see Mao’s Last Dancer. At one point, we again unexpectedly ran into Max, who grabbed my attention by pelting a tennis ball at my back. Gotta love Cairns! I should also note that this day was thankfully the only day we saw the rowdy schoolies, as they passed by on a double decker bus. Schoolie week (Australia’s senior week on crack) was forecasted for the entire time we were in Australia, however we fortunately managed to avoid the bulk of it. The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport and were off.
Sydney (November 18th-22nd)
Let me just preface this section by saying that I am completely in love with Sydney and determined to make it back because 4 days is just not enough. We arrived in Sydney just in time to go snag some expensive, yet delicious, dinner in Sydney’s Chinatown. Once we realized that our map was deceiving and most locations were within walking distance from our chic hotel, we decided to explore the city of Sydney at night. After a few hours of walking, we briefly chilled by our hotel’s rooftop pool and then hit the sauna before bed. The next day we made our way to The Rocks, the funky area next to the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, for the morning Harbor Bridge Climb. I really feel like the bridge climb is iconic and something you should do while in Sydney. Afterwards, we made our way towards the opera house and harbor bridge! It was sort of surreal for me to see the opera house in front of me. Although I have always wanted to go to New Zealand, Australia was the first country I remember actually yearning to visit and for me (and probably the rest of the world), the Sydney Opera House is just so emblematic of Australia. Being there, seeing the opera house before me really made me realize that I have technically lived out one of my childhood dreams. The Sydney Opera House is definitely my new favorite building (not that I really had an original favorite building). Consequently, I have enough pictures of the opera house to plaster the walls of a mansion. Once I manage to tear myself from the steps of the opera house, Chloe and I took the ferry to Manly Beach. Manly was nice but, I think we got there at the wrong time. As we arrived in the late afternoon, it was too chilly to hang out on the beach so we just walked around. While in Manly, we also satisfied our kangaroo craving by grabbing kangaroo burgers. Don’t tell the kangaroos this, but they are really delicious! For dessert, we went for Ben and Jerry’s which I think was what initially attracted Chloe to Manly in the first place. The next day we headed over to Bondi Beach exemplified the key points I have always imagined to be associated with the Australian beach. The orange-white sand beach was strewn with surfers and other beach goers and the water was this gorgeous blue color. It was at brunch when Chloe checked her itouch calendar and we both realized that somehow, we had managed to add an extra day to our Sydney trip and in all of this blunder, we missed our lunch reservation. I actually had to verbally ask the waiter what day it was as I was in complete disbelief. Taking the actual date in consideration, we rushed back to the city in order to check out Paddy’s Market. We then lined up early in order to get a table at what the New York Times considers one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. Their dumplings actually came with instructions and let me say that they are by far the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten. I was so in love with their dumplings that I grabbed take out from there the next night. We began our final day in Sydney by going to the Sydney Fish Market where I snacked on lobster. Afterwards, we walked around and eventually found ourselves in The Rocks at an awesome outdoor market. Once we picked up a few things, we walked across the Harbor Bridge and briefly checked out Luna Park and the North Olympic Pool. While we were walking around, we noticed at least six wedding processions. Apparently Saturdays in Sydney are extremely popular wedding days. The next morning, we left to catch our flight to Auckland.
Rarotonga (November 22nd-27th)
Unfortunately, our plane from Auckland to Raro was delayed from 5:30PM to 11:30PM. Since we arrived from Sydney at 2:30PM, we spent quite a while in the international transfer area of the airport (not the most entertaining place in the world). However, we did manage to get some sightseeing done while there as we visited the Auckland Airport Chapel (score!) and we got $30 from the airport which we spent on a million croissants and sandwiches (the money was designated specifically for food and we didn’t want to waste free money). Finally we took off in airNewZealand style, with personal entertainment systems and a nice warm meal (Chloe and I get very excited over airplane food, you should have seen us on our Quantas flight to and from Sydney when we got a warm meal AND a popsicle). Even though it was 4 in the morning, we were greeted at the tiny airport by a man singing while strumming his ukulele and by women placing real leis over our heads. As soon as we made it to the hotel, we crashed until we had to pull ourselves out of bed for the hotel’s continental breakfast. We then decided to walk around the island to a snorkeling beach (we tried to hire scooters but as it turns out, you need to be 21). The beaches were synonymous with what you imagine a tropical beach to look like: white sand laden with palm trees, and crystal clear blue water spotted with islands and filled with tropical fish. Although the walk there only felt like it took no more than 45 minutes, it turned out that we had been walking a great deal longer than that. I believe the beach was actually an hour and a half away from our hotel. As I was walking back by myself, locals whizzing by on scooters kept giving me strange looks and I started to wonder if walking was taboo on the island. A car full of young guys stopped to ask me if I wanted a ride and taking into consideration the age old lesson “don’t get in cars with strangers,” especially young boys, I turned them down. About an hour later, after I had begun wondering if I was lost, an old man on a motorcycle pulled up beside me and told me he had seen me twice so far as he was driving that night and insisted that I hop on. Once I realized he wasn’t going to leave until I appeased him, I said what the hell and hopped on. I had never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before so it was pretty thrilling. It turned out the hotel was still a 15 minute motorcycle ride from where I was. That man’s generosity and motorcycle really made my night. Chloe and I concluded our first day by splurging on poolside drinks. We pretty much spent the rest of our time in Raro crashing other resorts, lounging on the beach, reading, and snorkeling. It took as a while to get used to this laid back vacation centered upon doing nothing but relaxing, however I think we came around. Another highlight of our Raro stay was the Miss South Pacific Contest (like Miss America only so much better). We made sure we were home in time every evening to watch this contest along with the other five local commercials which repeated themselves to the point that we could painfully recite them word for word. In the end, our favorite contestant, Miss Fiji, thankfully won.
You may be wondering how my Thanksgiving went. Well, to be honest, it didn’t. As we were crossing the international dateline, our Thanksgiving only lasted for 3 hours in the early morning. While everyone else was celebrating Thanksgiving at home, Chloe and I were both stuck in the Auckland Airport for 12 hours. No worries though, we managed to have an enjoyable time in the airport before we had to say our goodbyes, and we had a lovely pre-Thanksgiving beach side dinner the night before.
Then I took a short plane ride back to Dunedin where it was 9 degrees Celsius outside and traveled back to my almost vacant flat. And that ends my fantastic trip!
As I finish up writing about one of my many vacations abroad this year, I hope everyone back home is readying themselves for their own winter vacation!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Who Knew I Could Have So Much Fun in and around Christchurch?
Hello all. Yes, I realize that it has been a while. By now, it is well established that I fail at this whole blogging business. Although, to my credit, I do have a disclaimer in my profile and I warned you about the mess that was September. Last month was indeed a rough month with multiple major assignments due every week. Nevertheless, I persevered and am here again. I have been thinking as to how best to approach connecting the dots from where I abandoned you to where I currently am (we have a lot of ground to cover) and have concluded that at the moment, I'll just fill you in about the happenings of my past weekend. Don't worry, I will provide a special edition blog detailing my North Island midsemester break at a later date. For now though, let us begin with this weekend and see where that takes us, shall we?
I suppose I must begin by joyously reporting that I had my last day of classes last week and have turned in all of my internal assignments. At the moment, I am still waiting on a few grades to come back but, for the most part I have surprisingly been doing alright. Somehow I managed to pull of a 97.5% on the insane plant collection project I was working on and on top of that, I found out that the crazy plant lab professor (who reminds me of Mad-eye Moody) knew my name! Success. However, none of my internal marks really matter seeing as the final exam counts for a whopping 60% in most of my classes. So those of you Mawrters reading this, don't be too jealous, I still have finals to tackle.
What does this have to do with my weekend? Well, in light of my lack of assignments, last Wednesday I began contemplating a last minute trip to Christchurch to partake in the last day of the ski season at Mt. Hutt. After polling those around me and considering the costs/benefits, I found myself furiously booking my Christchurch trip. Ah, spontaneity (OK, so maybe not so much, but it's pretty spontaneous for me)! On Friday afternoon, I took a six hour bus ride to Christchurch.
I have always planned on going to Christchurch during my stay in NZed. Most people made the city sound pretty dull yet, they still advised me to go simply because well, it is Christchurch. Bearing that in mind, I was not expecting too much from the city itself and went under the pretense that I was visiting this place out of tourism obligation. However, Christchurch managed to defy my expectations and shatter any ill conceived assumptions based on the stories of other travelers. In fact, I think Christchurch is one of my favorite places that I have been to so far, second to Rotorua and Wellington (info to come). To be honest, I am not sure if I derived such pleasure entirely from the place itself or from the traveling alone aspect. While I am counting down the days until my Australia trip with Chloe, traveling by myself was immensely enjoyable and freeing. As I was not limited by the tastes of others, I had an opportunity for some self-reflection and was able to create an itinerary that catered purely to my whims. Also, while I enjoyed the actual activities I participated in throughout my trip, I think the highlight of the entire weekend was conversing with all of the awesome people I met along the way.
A friendly companion sitting across the aisle on the bus to Christchurch was the first to be inducted into my list of fantastic people met on said trip. There I was, just sitting, listening to my ipod, and all of a sudden, from the corner of my eyes, I see this girl flailing her hands, apparently trying to get my attention. While I thought she was just going to inform me that I had a bug on my shoulder or something, she nonchalantly inquired what I was studying. I replied, thinking that she might be in my class which would explain her sudden desire to converse with me. Turns out she was a first year dental hygienist student who had taken a few years off to pursue a professional athletic career in some sort of track/field event. We ended up talking for about four of the six hours spent on the bus. One of my favorite parts about my encounter with her was when there was a lull in the conversation and I resumed listening to music, assuming that our brief chat was over. A few minutes later, she sticks her hand in-between the two head rests in my row of seats, offering me some chocolate covered raspberry jelly bean treat. That gesture inspired me to offer her one of my Tim Tams (for those who don't know, I have an addiction to these delicious biscuits and don't give them away lightly) and initiated a new chain of conversation.
At around 8PM Friday night, I arrived in Christchurch and wandered around until I found my all women hostel. This hostel is certainly one of the best hostels out there and I would recommend it to any female that happens to be in Christchurch. I am grateful to my cousin and my guidebook for recommending it to me. I arrived and immediately Sandra, who runs the hostel, gave me a tour of all the facilities. There was this lovely outdoor courtyard space with couches, hammocks, and space heaters where guests could lounge. Other cool features include the free herb garden, funky staircase and the cafe style dining area complete with lit candles. My room was a 6 person dorm (although I only had at most one roommate, and I even had the room to myself the second night) with a bay window and a window seat. It was a great place and I regret not actually spending more time just lounging around there, enjoying all that the hostel had to offer.
After briefly surveying the hostel, I left to explore Cathedral Square, appropriately named due the the presence of Christchurch Cathedral. The entire time, I was giddy with excitement as I perused the gorgeous square, admiring sculptures and interestingly lit fountains. Knowing that I had an early day the next morning, I returned to the hostel where I ran in to Hannah from Scotland who was cooking in the kitchen. Although I only intended to quickly pass through the kitchen, I ended up talking to Hannah well into the night. She came to NZ for a bit of soul searching (I don't think there exists a better place to find your soul) and has been at the hostel for 5 weeks. She let me try some of the delicious corned beef/mushroom concoction she was inventing and even gave me the recipe. In addition to the recipe, Hannah also offered me her brother's hand in marriage. It's good to have a backup I suppose! Unwillingly, I departed the kitchen in order to rest up for what was supposed to be a day of skiing.
That morning I awoke at 6:15 and rushed to Cathedral Square where I was supposed to meet the bus that would take me to Mt. Hutt. Before leaving, I stopped to chat with my roommate from Tennessee, whom I thought I had woken up. After telling her I was from the suburbs of Philly, she informed me that she knew some people from this tiny school, Bryn Mawr College. It's a small world after all! I then proceeded to tell about my major and classical studies minor to which she responded something along the lines of "You're a Bryn Mawr women, of course you would be doing something with classics. Oh you Mawrters, always going above and beyond!" It would have been lovely to continue my conversation with her but, skiing called. Unfortunately, I found out that not enough people were going skiing that day so they canceled their trip. I rushed into a nearby hostel, frantically inquiring about alternative transportation services. After unsuccessfully phoning a few companies, the guy at the desk suggested that I go skiing on Sunday instead and luckily, I was able to switch my Hanmer Springs day trip around.
With a slight change in plans, I went back to the hostel to slip out of my ski gear. As I made some tea, I met a backbacker from Israel who was delighted to have found a NZ guidebook in Hebrew. I then left to treat myself to breakfast at an amazing cafe because my guidebook recommended their hot chocolate (c'mon, if the hot chocolate is rumoured to be good, you know I'll be stopping by). The hot chocolate, which was multi-layered and served in a large glass jar, was scrumptious, as was the heaping pile of french toast topped with baked bananas and homemade whipped cream. From there I rushed off to meet the HanmerConnections bus which was slated to transport me to Hanmer Springs, about 1.5 hours away from Christchurch. Upon arriving in Hanmer, a quaint, adorable town, I immediately got lost. Once I found my way out, I took a lovely hike up Conical Hill which gave me a lovely view of the surrounding area (see pictures below). I think I should mention here that New Zealanders truly are some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. As I walked up that mountain, every kiwi I ran into smiled and said hello as I passed by. While I know this occasionally happens at home, it's just not the same. To cool down, or rather warm up, from my trek, I scurried over to the hot springs, which attracted me to Hanmer from the getgo. The hottest spring here was 41 degrees Celsius, not as hot as the Polynesian Spa (I'll fill you in later), but still warm enough. While I preferred Rotorua's springs, these were still sufficiently relaxing. I also met this nice person from Sweden who just completed her law degree and escaped to NZ/Australia to fill in the gap between the end of school and start of her job. While waiting for the bus, I perused the small main strip of town. I entered in one shop and as I nonchalantly looked around, I came across the store owner, who strangely reminded me of my 10th grade health teacher, mopping up the floor. The conversation began with her asking me if I needed any help and ended 20 minutes later with me rushing to catch my bus after we had compared and contrasted NZ skiing vs that in Colorado.
After I made my way back to Christchurch around 6PM that night, I decided to explore Christchurch. Christchurch is really quite gorgeous. I kept coming across these wonderful pathways along a stream, surrounded by flowers and bridges (see pictures below). I am a sucker for such scenery so I aimlessly walked around for four hours before going back to the hostel for some sleep.
Again, I awoke early to catch my bus to Mt. Hutt. Along the way, I learned something extremely valuable: never walk along the fast food district at 6:40 on a Sunday morning as you will get hit on by at least ten guys still drunk from the previous evening's activities...even if you are wearing snow pants. As I was grabbing my ski gear, I met this surgeon from India who mistook me for a doctor. It was really cute, when I was catching the lift later that day, I heard someone shouting but assuming that it wasn't directed towards me as I was alone. I turned around and there he was yelling, jumping up and down, trying to get my attention. The ski conditions you ask, some of the worst in my life! Let me just say that, while I don't know if the blind go skiing, I now have an idea of what it would be like to be a blind skier. The mountain was encased in a white fog. Also, it was snowing which is good in theory but not so great in reality. The snow was of the icy variety so you could feel it like pins and needles on your face while making it down the run. As I was going down the mountain, I would have to frequently stop to wipe off my sunglasses (not that it really helped all that much). By the time I made it to the bottom, I had to wipe off my soaking wet face. Normally I only get wet skiing when I fall, however I think I was the wettest I've ever been in my life while wearing clothes. Oh and my hair! I had it in a ponytail and after only being out for a few runs, it became encased in ice. I had to pull ice chunks out of my hair in attempt to desolidify it! It was sort of entertaining to watch experienced skiers randomly fall without warning as they could just not see what was in front of them. This ski session was more a game of where's waldo (or where's the next orange marker delineating the trail) and a test of endurance. While I was waiting in the lodge, wringing out my soaked jacket, I had the pleasure to chat with someone from Galway, Ireland who was a beginning skier that kept coming back for more. For all of about ten minutes, the weather cleared up and the mountain opened another life. If only I had the opportunity to ski the whole mountain the entire day, it would have been awesome. Their upper trails were fantastic and covered with the freshest powder I've ever skied on! Despite the crazy conditions, I was determined to enjoy myself and I think I succeeded!
Once I dropped my ski gear off at the hostel, I resumed my exploration of Christchurch, walking all over the place. Right before sunset, I made it to the botanic gardens, which are absolutely gorgeous. I could wander there for hours! Exiting the gardens, I managed to get lost in Hyde Park. Eventually I found my way around and headed to a place my guide book recommended for dessert. The dessert was extremely pricey and I am on a backpacker's budget so, me being me, I justified the purchase by skipping dinner in favor of dessert. One of the best decisions of the whole trip! I indulged in the Devil's Dream (a three layered mousse/raspberry cake; see picture below) and met this fantastic waiter. While he was seating me, he was inquiring about my line of study. When he found out about my interest in medicine, he immediately became excited and told me about his medical studies in New Mexico and rushed off to get a pamphlet on what he does. Apparently he just left New Mexico a few months ago so he could come here and set up a biomagnetism practice (I'm surprised I haven't experienced this yet considering my mom's love of these holistic/herbal remedies) to help spread the word about this form of healing. He gave me his contact info and told me he would be delighted to help me in any way he could as I pursued medicine. What a cool guy!
I then returned to the hostel and once again ran into Hannah in the kitchen with Nadaya, a long term hostel guest from Malaysia. It was Nadaya's 27th birthday the next day so they were baking birthday cakes and invited me to lick the bowl (perfect timing). Again I ended up talking to Hannah until midnight when we concluded that we would have to meet again. It looks like she will be in Christchurch when I visit again in December so hopefully our paths will cross. Upon returning to my room, I met my roommate for the night. Juin was from Thailand and just finished a intermediate English course in New Zealand. It started out as a simple conversation between two acquaintances and continued on for a few hours. She showed me pictures of all the places she had been, gave me her map and pointed out all of the places that corresponded with her pictures. She was so sweet, I told her what I was studying and she responded by saying that I must be intelligent which I of course denied. Later on when I was writing down my contact info, she told me that I definitely am intelligent as I am left handed. I've heard of that saying before but it was cool to be told about it from someone who deeply believes in it. Hopefully she makes it to Dunedin so we can meet again!
The next morning I hopped on a 8AM bus and journeyed back to Dunedin. Honestly the only downside of my whole trip was the minor sunburn I sustained skiing and losing my sunglasses somewhere in the course of the trip. Overall, I had a fantastic time and am overwhelmingly glad that I went. I cannot wait to go back to Cchurch with Ebony in December! Unfortunately, I must get through my finals first. Bummer. If only I could find my motivation and stop procrastinating. Well, I hope you enjoyed my insanely long post. Be on the look out for an upcoming post going through my midsemester break!
Before I forget, here are some lovely pictures from my trip posted just for your eyes!
Look what I found! I sort of have a thing for red telephone booths. An awesome taxi driver spotted me attempting to take a picture of myself inside the booth, took pity on me, and offered to help.
The Devil's Dream. So worth it.
Christchurch Botanical Gardens
On the way back from Mt. Hutt
I frantically snapped this picture during the five seconds that the weather cleared up. I don't know if you can tell, but look at my hair, you can start seeing the formation of ice chunks.
My lovely hostel room
A cool fountain outside of Cathedral Square
My hot chocolate in a jar with a chocolate fish!
One of the many walkways paralleling a stream in Christchurch.
One of the views from the top of Conical Hill in Hanmer Springs
View from my Hanmer Springs hike
Christchurch Cathedral
Walking back to my hostel at night
While I impatiently wait for the spring weather here, I encourage you to fall into fall back home!
I suppose I must begin by joyously reporting that I had my last day of classes last week and have turned in all of my internal assignments. At the moment, I am still waiting on a few grades to come back but, for the most part I have surprisingly been doing alright. Somehow I managed to pull of a 97.5% on the insane plant collection project I was working on and on top of that, I found out that the crazy plant lab professor (who reminds me of Mad-eye Moody) knew my name! Success. However, none of my internal marks really matter seeing as the final exam counts for a whopping 60% in most of my classes. So those of you Mawrters reading this, don't be too jealous, I still have finals to tackle.
What does this have to do with my weekend? Well, in light of my lack of assignments, last Wednesday I began contemplating a last minute trip to Christchurch to partake in the last day of the ski season at Mt. Hutt. After polling those around me and considering the costs/benefits, I found myself furiously booking my Christchurch trip. Ah, spontaneity (OK, so maybe not so much, but it's pretty spontaneous for me)! On Friday afternoon, I took a six hour bus ride to Christchurch.
I have always planned on going to Christchurch during my stay in NZed. Most people made the city sound pretty dull yet, they still advised me to go simply because well, it is Christchurch. Bearing that in mind, I was not expecting too much from the city itself and went under the pretense that I was visiting this place out of tourism obligation. However, Christchurch managed to defy my expectations and shatter any ill conceived assumptions based on the stories of other travelers. In fact, I think Christchurch is one of my favorite places that I have been to so far, second to Rotorua and Wellington (info to come). To be honest, I am not sure if I derived such pleasure entirely from the place itself or from the traveling alone aspect. While I am counting down the days until my Australia trip with Chloe, traveling by myself was immensely enjoyable and freeing. As I was not limited by the tastes of others, I had an opportunity for some self-reflection and was able to create an itinerary that catered purely to my whims. Also, while I enjoyed the actual activities I participated in throughout my trip, I think the highlight of the entire weekend was conversing with all of the awesome people I met along the way.
A friendly companion sitting across the aisle on the bus to Christchurch was the first to be inducted into my list of fantastic people met on said trip. There I was, just sitting, listening to my ipod, and all of a sudden, from the corner of my eyes, I see this girl flailing her hands, apparently trying to get my attention. While I thought she was just going to inform me that I had a bug on my shoulder or something, she nonchalantly inquired what I was studying. I replied, thinking that she might be in my class which would explain her sudden desire to converse with me. Turns out she was a first year dental hygienist student who had taken a few years off to pursue a professional athletic career in some sort of track/field event. We ended up talking for about four of the six hours spent on the bus. One of my favorite parts about my encounter with her was when there was a lull in the conversation and I resumed listening to music, assuming that our brief chat was over. A few minutes later, she sticks her hand in-between the two head rests in my row of seats, offering me some chocolate covered raspberry jelly bean treat. That gesture inspired me to offer her one of my Tim Tams (for those who don't know, I have an addiction to these delicious biscuits and don't give them away lightly) and initiated a new chain of conversation.
At around 8PM Friday night, I arrived in Christchurch and wandered around until I found my all women hostel. This hostel is certainly one of the best hostels out there and I would recommend it to any female that happens to be in Christchurch. I am grateful to my cousin and my guidebook for recommending it to me. I arrived and immediately Sandra, who runs the hostel, gave me a tour of all the facilities. There was this lovely outdoor courtyard space with couches, hammocks, and space heaters where guests could lounge. Other cool features include the free herb garden, funky staircase and the cafe style dining area complete with lit candles. My room was a 6 person dorm (although I only had at most one roommate, and I even had the room to myself the second night) with a bay window and a window seat. It was a great place and I regret not actually spending more time just lounging around there, enjoying all that the hostel had to offer.
After briefly surveying the hostel, I left to explore Cathedral Square, appropriately named due the the presence of Christchurch Cathedral. The entire time, I was giddy with excitement as I perused the gorgeous square, admiring sculptures and interestingly lit fountains. Knowing that I had an early day the next morning, I returned to the hostel where I ran in to Hannah from Scotland who was cooking in the kitchen. Although I only intended to quickly pass through the kitchen, I ended up talking to Hannah well into the night. She came to NZ for a bit of soul searching (I don't think there exists a better place to find your soul) and has been at the hostel for 5 weeks. She let me try some of the delicious corned beef/mushroom concoction she was inventing and even gave me the recipe. In addition to the recipe, Hannah also offered me her brother's hand in marriage. It's good to have a backup I suppose! Unwillingly, I departed the kitchen in order to rest up for what was supposed to be a day of skiing.
That morning I awoke at 6:15 and rushed to Cathedral Square where I was supposed to meet the bus that would take me to Mt. Hutt. Before leaving, I stopped to chat with my roommate from Tennessee, whom I thought I had woken up. After telling her I was from the suburbs of Philly, she informed me that she knew some people from this tiny school, Bryn Mawr College. It's a small world after all! I then proceeded to tell about my major and classical studies minor to which she responded something along the lines of "You're a Bryn Mawr women, of course you would be doing something with classics. Oh you Mawrters, always going above and beyond!" It would have been lovely to continue my conversation with her but, skiing called. Unfortunately, I found out that not enough people were going skiing that day so they canceled their trip. I rushed into a nearby hostel, frantically inquiring about alternative transportation services. After unsuccessfully phoning a few companies, the guy at the desk suggested that I go skiing on Sunday instead and luckily, I was able to switch my Hanmer Springs day trip around.
With a slight change in plans, I went back to the hostel to slip out of my ski gear. As I made some tea, I met a backbacker from Israel who was delighted to have found a NZ guidebook in Hebrew. I then left to treat myself to breakfast at an amazing cafe because my guidebook recommended their hot chocolate (c'mon, if the hot chocolate is rumoured to be good, you know I'll be stopping by). The hot chocolate, which was multi-layered and served in a large glass jar, was scrumptious, as was the heaping pile of french toast topped with baked bananas and homemade whipped cream. From there I rushed off to meet the HanmerConnections bus which was slated to transport me to Hanmer Springs, about 1.5 hours away from Christchurch. Upon arriving in Hanmer, a quaint, adorable town, I immediately got lost. Once I found my way out, I took a lovely hike up Conical Hill which gave me a lovely view of the surrounding area (see pictures below). I think I should mention here that New Zealanders truly are some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. As I walked up that mountain, every kiwi I ran into smiled and said hello as I passed by. While I know this occasionally happens at home, it's just not the same. To cool down, or rather warm up, from my trek, I scurried over to the hot springs, which attracted me to Hanmer from the getgo. The hottest spring here was 41 degrees Celsius, not as hot as the Polynesian Spa (I'll fill you in later), but still warm enough. While I preferred Rotorua's springs, these were still sufficiently relaxing. I also met this nice person from Sweden who just completed her law degree and escaped to NZ/Australia to fill in the gap between the end of school and start of her job. While waiting for the bus, I perused the small main strip of town. I entered in one shop and as I nonchalantly looked around, I came across the store owner, who strangely reminded me of my 10th grade health teacher, mopping up the floor. The conversation began with her asking me if I needed any help and ended 20 minutes later with me rushing to catch my bus after we had compared and contrasted NZ skiing vs that in Colorado.
After I made my way back to Christchurch around 6PM that night, I decided to explore Christchurch. Christchurch is really quite gorgeous. I kept coming across these wonderful pathways along a stream, surrounded by flowers and bridges (see pictures below). I am a sucker for such scenery so I aimlessly walked around for four hours before going back to the hostel for some sleep.
Again, I awoke early to catch my bus to Mt. Hutt. Along the way, I learned something extremely valuable: never walk along the fast food district at 6:40 on a Sunday morning as you will get hit on by at least ten guys still drunk from the previous evening's activities...even if you are wearing snow pants. As I was grabbing my ski gear, I met this surgeon from India who mistook me for a doctor. It was really cute, when I was catching the lift later that day, I heard someone shouting but assuming that it wasn't directed towards me as I was alone. I turned around and there he was yelling, jumping up and down, trying to get my attention. The ski conditions you ask, some of the worst in my life! Let me just say that, while I don't know if the blind go skiing, I now have an idea of what it would be like to be a blind skier. The mountain was encased in a white fog. Also, it was snowing which is good in theory but not so great in reality. The snow was of the icy variety so you could feel it like pins and needles on your face while making it down the run. As I was going down the mountain, I would have to frequently stop to wipe off my sunglasses (not that it really helped all that much). By the time I made it to the bottom, I had to wipe off my soaking wet face. Normally I only get wet skiing when I fall, however I think I was the wettest I've ever been in my life while wearing clothes. Oh and my hair! I had it in a ponytail and after only being out for a few runs, it became encased in ice. I had to pull ice chunks out of my hair in attempt to desolidify it! It was sort of entertaining to watch experienced skiers randomly fall without warning as they could just not see what was in front of them. This ski session was more a game of where's waldo (or where's the next orange marker delineating the trail) and a test of endurance. While I was waiting in the lodge, wringing out my soaked jacket, I had the pleasure to chat with someone from Galway, Ireland who was a beginning skier that kept coming back for more. For all of about ten minutes, the weather cleared up and the mountain opened another life. If only I had the opportunity to ski the whole mountain the entire day, it would have been awesome. Their upper trails were fantastic and covered with the freshest powder I've ever skied on! Despite the crazy conditions, I was determined to enjoy myself and I think I succeeded!
Once I dropped my ski gear off at the hostel, I resumed my exploration of Christchurch, walking all over the place. Right before sunset, I made it to the botanic gardens, which are absolutely gorgeous. I could wander there for hours! Exiting the gardens, I managed to get lost in Hyde Park. Eventually I found my way around and headed to a place my guide book recommended for dessert. The dessert was extremely pricey and I am on a backpacker's budget so, me being me, I justified the purchase by skipping dinner in favor of dessert. One of the best decisions of the whole trip! I indulged in the Devil's Dream (a three layered mousse/raspberry cake; see picture below) and met this fantastic waiter. While he was seating me, he was inquiring about my line of study. When he found out about my interest in medicine, he immediately became excited and told me about his medical studies in New Mexico and rushed off to get a pamphlet on what he does. Apparently he just left New Mexico a few months ago so he could come here and set up a biomagnetism practice (I'm surprised I haven't experienced this yet considering my mom's love of these holistic/herbal remedies) to help spread the word about this form of healing. He gave me his contact info and told me he would be delighted to help me in any way he could as I pursued medicine. What a cool guy!
I then returned to the hostel and once again ran into Hannah in the kitchen with Nadaya, a long term hostel guest from Malaysia. It was Nadaya's 27th birthday the next day so they were baking birthday cakes and invited me to lick the bowl (perfect timing). Again I ended up talking to Hannah until midnight when we concluded that we would have to meet again. It looks like she will be in Christchurch when I visit again in December so hopefully our paths will cross. Upon returning to my room, I met my roommate for the night. Juin was from Thailand and just finished a intermediate English course in New Zealand. It started out as a simple conversation between two acquaintances and continued on for a few hours. She showed me pictures of all the places she had been, gave me her map and pointed out all of the places that corresponded with her pictures. She was so sweet, I told her what I was studying and she responded by saying that I must be intelligent which I of course denied. Later on when I was writing down my contact info, she told me that I definitely am intelligent as I am left handed. I've heard of that saying before but it was cool to be told about it from someone who deeply believes in it. Hopefully she makes it to Dunedin so we can meet again!
The next morning I hopped on a 8AM bus and journeyed back to Dunedin. Honestly the only downside of my whole trip was the minor sunburn I sustained skiing and losing my sunglasses somewhere in the course of the trip. Overall, I had a fantastic time and am overwhelmingly glad that I went. I cannot wait to go back to Cchurch with Ebony in December! Unfortunately, I must get through my finals first. Bummer. If only I could find my motivation and stop procrastinating. Well, I hope you enjoyed my insanely long post. Be on the look out for an upcoming post going through my midsemester break!
Before I forget, here are some lovely pictures from my trip posted just for your eyes!
Look what I found! I sort of have a thing for red telephone booths. An awesome taxi driver spotted me attempting to take a picture of myself inside the booth, took pity on me, and offered to help.
The Devil's Dream. So worth it.
Christchurch Botanical Gardens
On the way back from Mt. Hutt
I frantically snapped this picture during the five seconds that the weather cleared up. I don't know if you can tell, but look at my hair, you can start seeing the formation of ice chunks.
My lovely hostel room
A cool fountain outside of Cathedral Square
My hot chocolate in a jar with a chocolate fish!
One of the many walkways paralleling a stream in Christchurch.
One of the views from the top of Conical Hill in Hanmer Springs
View from my Hanmer Springs hike
Christchurch Cathedral
Walking back to my hostel at night
While I impatiently wait for the spring weather here, I encourage you to fall into fall back home!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Who Knew Sheep Weren't the Only Ones on New Zealand's Mountains? Hopefully you do now!
Hello out there. Boy, do I have a treat for all of you! As you may remember from my last post, I went on a trip this past weekend to Queenstown for skiing and I am delighted to share a little bit about my fabulous time. I think I need to share pictures first to help get you in the mindset so, here you go (you should know that it was a challenge to select only a few of my 223 pictures dedicated to this trip and that I almost saw my life, and my Queenstown trip, pass before my eyes when my laptop froze midway through the first uploading attempt):
First things first, here is some insight into my miserable Plant Ecology class. This is what I had to come back to after a weekend away. Could you identify this if the name wasn't right there? Eventually, I'm going to have to. After looking at my dismal stick figure plant drawings, I've decided to shadily try and take pictures of the plants to help me better study for the wretched lab final eventually.
This is the adorable kitten that greeted me when I was walking home from a group meeting a few nights back. He was extremely friendly and triggered fond memories of Caesar. I'm hoping we will cross paths again.
Our room at Nomad's Hostel. My bed was the top, front bunk on the right. The mess on the floor is mostly mine.
Starbucks found its way to Queenstown and I found my way to it! Oh Starbucks, how I've missed you.
Me readying myself to ski down one of Coronet Peak's slopes. Simply amazing.
On top of one of the Coronet Peak slopes. Toto, we're not in the Pocono's anymore.
View from the shuttle ride up to Coronet Peak.
Taken during the bus ride to Queenstown. Notice the picturesque reflecting water.
Sun setting on the mountains during the bus ride to Queenstown.
Dunedin sheeples! Yes, yes, there are A LOT of sheep in NZ but, NZ has so much more to offer as I hope this post demonstrates.
Nice right? Just imagine skiing among this gorgeous mountain backdrop. OK, I suppose I should back up to the one minor glitch to my weekend before I get carried away with my love of Queenstown. So, me being me, I booked a bus ticket for the day before I was actually supposed to be leaving for Queenstown, a fact which I regrettably found out after lugging my travel bags to the train station Friday morning. However, I was determined to make it to Queenstown at any cost so I shelled out another $36 NZD to purchase a last minute Friday afternoon bus ticket. Not the best start to the weekend but, it very quickly became a thing in the past once we left Dunedin's sheep infested hills.
The scenery on the way up was gorgeous, and although I was bummed that I foolishly missed the morning bus, I took advantage of the mountain sunset with my camera by my side the entire ride. Once I arrived four hours later, I quickly met up with Chloe and Liz who escorted me to Nomad's Hostel. This was my first hostel experience and overall, it was a positive one. The hostel was relatively new and complete with a sauna, welcome desk that doubled as a concierge (well, we used it like a concierge and we named the guy who checked us in and fielded a million of our questions "Frank"), and morning tea and toast. We stayed in a 6 bed room located on an all-female hall although the room was only occupied by five travelers for the three nights we were there. I could not have asked for a better first-time hostel roommate. Steph, the stranger who served as our temporary roommate for three nights, is originally from San Francisco but has been traveling the world for the last few years in between getting her doctorate. We instantly hit it off with her, chatting as if we were friends at a sleepover rather than complete strangers, and we even ended up skiing/snowboarding with her on Sunday. The room itself was tidy and nice enough, although very loud at all hours of the night (what can you expect though?). You can find a picture of the room above. We had a balcony and our own bathroom which was split into an individual toilette room and shower room. Minus the sound level, it's starting to sound more like a hotel then a hostel as I describe it here.
Once I settled in, we set off in search of a dinner location, finally deciding on Winnie's, a popular pizza parlor with a personality. As we waited for a table, the ceiling momentarily mechanically opened up, revealing the clear night sky. After we consumed our expensive pizzas, we left to explore the darling town of Queenstown, briefly stopping in a few shops that had not yet flipped their open sign. We spent the rest of the night conversing with Steph. The next morning we awoke early so to go rent our equipment and grab breakfast. It took about 40 minutes for the shuttle to reach Coronet Peak, the mountain we had selected for our first day of skiing.
As I hadn't skied in a few months and am not generally accustomed to skiing in August, I accompanied Liz and Chloe on a green beginner's trail for my first run. My muscles quickly remembered the skiing sensation and I zoomed down the trail. Until that point, I was not exactly sure of the skiing skill level of my flatmate companions but I quickly discovered after waiting at the bottom several minutes that my skiing experience far exceeded theirs. While I have skiing experience and consider myself a decent skier, I generally ski with avid skiers so I was thrilled to be the best skier in the lot for once. As I lingered at the bottom scouring the mountain for my flatmates, I sympathized with my father who often waits for my Aunt Carol during our ski trips. Not keen to waste most of my time at the bottom of the mountain, I took off on my own, heading over to the blue squares. Normally the intermediate squares do not pose much of a problem however, here, they definitely presented a little more of a challenge. Nevertheless, they were absolutely fantastic runs. The chairlift ride was short and the runs were long and not in the when will this ever end sense. I have never been on trails as long as these before. I frequently had to stop on my way down to catch my breath (and to capture the mountain scenery with my camera). One of my favorite parts of skiing is when you can ski up on the side of the mountain. On these trails, you could ski the entire way down on the side of the mountain if you so desired. It was not until midday that I realized the one major difference about the mountains here and the ones back in the States: the trails were not thickly lined with trees. In the absence of trees, you could just cross over to other trails and completely customize your route to the bottom. There would be some moments where I would end up somewhere, wondering if I had made a wrong turn as there was no longer a set trail to follow. Creativity at its finest! The entire mountain was yours for the taking. Also, trees did not inhibit your view of the stunning snowy mountain scenery (see above for pictures) which caused internal conflict as I frequently had to suppress the urge to pull over and waste the day away snapping pictures.
While my flatmates gave in to their fatigue and returned to the hostel at 4PM, I stayed around for night skiing. Night skiing is fabulous anywhere but, particularly in New Zealand. I love the quietness, concentration, and determination associated with night skiing. For a bit, I went over to the easy section to work on my technique before heading back to the few blue squares still open. Although I completed the same blue run countless times, I could not predict the next part of the trail which was interesting and different from the runs back home. At 8PM, I dragged myself from the slope, unknowing that I was about to embark on a rather bismal bus ride home. I boarded a cramped bus that could not have been built later than the 80's and patiently waited to take off. While the bus was supposed to leave at 8:30PM, the driver stayed another half an hour until every seat on the bus was filled with drunken college skiers. He then proceeded to drive at a speed that made the elderly seem like speed demons.
The following day, we tested out Cardrona, another mountain. While the conditions were ideal the previous day before despite the rainy forecast, during our stay at Cardrona, the mountain remained heavily encased in fog, obstructing our vision beyond a few meters. I have never skied in complete fog before so it was a little eerie yet, thrilling at times as you felt like you were the only one on the mountain. The slopes here were slightly less challenging and more reminiscent of those at Colorado. Unlike Coronet Peak, the blues had that usual fun and windy feel to them while the greens were unbearably slow. There were some truly wonderful blue runs that entertained me for most of the day however, I did attempt several black diamonds as well. At Coronet, I did cross over to a few diamonds, I do not think I completed one in its entirety (The walled off sign by the diamond slopes designed to filter out the posers from the true experts deterred me). Cardrona's blacks were much more inviting, although not without their challenges. As I was traveling down my first black, I found myself thinking how easy it was. Then I got to a point that just dropped straight down. Initially, I thought I made a wrong turn so I peered through the haze, looking for someone whose lead I could follow. Eventually I concluded that this drop was the trail and I just dove right in, hoping for the best. It ended up being one of my favorite runs. Several trails, including the previous trail, met at this narrow, flat, and windy path that led to the lift. This bit of the path was literally on the edge of the mountain and judging from the ski tracks, even the most experienced riders took caution during this patch so to avoid spiraling off the mountain. Throughout the entire day, I only fell once albeit it was a pretty epic fall. I was exploring this black diamond only to find this insanely steep section of the trail interspersed with rocks and moguls. I was fairly certain I wouldn't make it down in one piece but I had not choice, so I slowly carved my skis along the mountain's snowy crevices. As expected, I hit a snag and tumbled down a good portion of the trail although I managed to keep my skis and poles with me. Once I realized that I was in no immediate danger, I sort of just let my body glide down the slope, smiling all the way down, until I could regain control. Besides that minor mishap, my skiing was pretty decent. I worked on jumping and at one point, I even jumped off a rock (it was incredible...sort of like one of those things you see on a ski brochure or in an action movie...only toned down slightly). This was by far some of the best skiing I have ever done in my life and I am lamenting the fact that I do not think I can get back to Queenstown before the end of the ski season.
When we returned from the slopes, Chloe and I did some souvenir shopping. You will be delighted to hear that in the course of this shopping spree, I purchased my first postcards and on the bus ride home, I filled them in with lovely stories of my trip. I will not reveal who the lucky few are but, four unsuspecting members of the Postcard Club will shortly be able to collect their prize (once I buy postage that is). Of course, I also purchased a few things for myself. Chloe and I walked into a shop and noticed that their tall UGG-like boots were on sale. It wasn't until I arrived in NZ that I realized I should look into buying these boots here, after all UGGS are Australian. So, I convinced myself that the sale was a sign and I splurged on the boots I have been secretly wanting since high school. They are not UGGS but, they are ten times better as they're made from official Canterbury NZ sheep skin. While this has certainly not been one of my long term goals (believe me, I am aspiring slightly higher), it was definitely fulfilling to finally make this purchase that was years in the making. I also bought a $6 NZD tote bag with pastel colored kiwis on the front. After shopping and dinner at a tapas restaurant, Chloe and I briefly returned to the hostel where I took a quick sauna break. We then treated ourselves to gelatto which we had been looking forward to all weekend long. Chloe and I decided to indulge our taste buds one last time that weekend as we both purchased a cocktail at Skybar, simply because we could. While I see how cocktails can become addictive, I am not sure how particular Sex and the City characters managed to pay rent on top of all the cocktails they consumed.
We departed Queenstown on a 7:45AM bus on Monday and arrived home just in time for me to make it to my Plant Ecology lab (joy).
Back to reality. I found out my hellish exam timetable this week. We have an entire month for exams and yet this is my schedule: Maori October 29th, Classics Nov. 2nd morning, Plant Ecology Nov. 2nd afternoon, and Animal Biology Nov. 3rd. Is that not rotten luck? I am going to fail for sure. Let's just say I am missing self scheduled exams right about now. Alright, I should not be thinking about finals when I have midterms next week (yes, that's right, I said midterms for all of you guys just about to start your semester back home). As this seems to be the bad news paragraph, our washing machine broke this week, a fact I did not realize until after I stuffed all of my clothes and liquid detergent into the machine. However, we now have a temporary washer which means I now have clean clothes temporarily I suppose.
To get away from the gloomy news, let me add something super exciting. Chloe and I officially booked our summer break trip. On November 10th, we leave for our 17 day trip to Australia and the Rarotonga! I'll fill you in on the details once we get in the vicinity of November (if I start telling you now, I'll get all depressed that I still have a few more months of school left between then and now). Oh, I also got a wonderful letter from my cousin the other day which cheered me up immensely (look, I am sort of equating snail mail to a Australia/Pacific Islands vacation which means you should all write me).
Alright then. I hope you are enjoying your own mountain scenery! If not, get yourself to New Zealand or just keep reading my blog!
First things first, here is some insight into my miserable Plant Ecology class. This is what I had to come back to after a weekend away. Could you identify this if the name wasn't right there? Eventually, I'm going to have to. After looking at my dismal stick figure plant drawings, I've decided to shadily try and take pictures of the plants to help me better study for the wretched lab final eventually.
This is the adorable kitten that greeted me when I was walking home from a group meeting a few nights back. He was extremely friendly and triggered fond memories of Caesar. I'm hoping we will cross paths again.
Our room at Nomad's Hostel. My bed was the top, front bunk on the right. The mess on the floor is mostly mine.
Starbucks found its way to Queenstown and I found my way to it! Oh Starbucks, how I've missed you.
Me readying myself to ski down one of Coronet Peak's slopes. Simply amazing.
On top of one of the Coronet Peak slopes. Toto, we're not in the Pocono's anymore.
View from the shuttle ride up to Coronet Peak.
Taken during the bus ride to Queenstown. Notice the picturesque reflecting water.
Sun setting on the mountains during the bus ride to Queenstown.
Dunedin sheeples! Yes, yes, there are A LOT of sheep in NZ but, NZ has so much more to offer as I hope this post demonstrates.
Nice right? Just imagine skiing among this gorgeous mountain backdrop. OK, I suppose I should back up to the one minor glitch to my weekend before I get carried away with my love of Queenstown. So, me being me, I booked a bus ticket for the day before I was actually supposed to be leaving for Queenstown, a fact which I regrettably found out after lugging my travel bags to the train station Friday morning. However, I was determined to make it to Queenstown at any cost so I shelled out another $36 NZD to purchase a last minute Friday afternoon bus ticket. Not the best start to the weekend but, it very quickly became a thing in the past once we left Dunedin's sheep infested hills.
The scenery on the way up was gorgeous, and although I was bummed that I foolishly missed the morning bus, I took advantage of the mountain sunset with my camera by my side the entire ride. Once I arrived four hours later, I quickly met up with Chloe and Liz who escorted me to Nomad's Hostel. This was my first hostel experience and overall, it was a positive one. The hostel was relatively new and complete with a sauna, welcome desk that doubled as a concierge (well, we used it like a concierge and we named the guy who checked us in and fielded a million of our questions "Frank"), and morning tea and toast. We stayed in a 6 bed room located on an all-female hall although the room was only occupied by five travelers for the three nights we were there. I could not have asked for a better first-time hostel roommate. Steph, the stranger who served as our temporary roommate for three nights, is originally from San Francisco but has been traveling the world for the last few years in between getting her doctorate. We instantly hit it off with her, chatting as if we were friends at a sleepover rather than complete strangers, and we even ended up skiing/snowboarding with her on Sunday. The room itself was tidy and nice enough, although very loud at all hours of the night (what can you expect though?). You can find a picture of the room above. We had a balcony and our own bathroom which was split into an individual toilette room and shower room. Minus the sound level, it's starting to sound more like a hotel then a hostel as I describe it here.
Once I settled in, we set off in search of a dinner location, finally deciding on Winnie's, a popular pizza parlor with a personality. As we waited for a table, the ceiling momentarily mechanically opened up, revealing the clear night sky. After we consumed our expensive pizzas, we left to explore the darling town of Queenstown, briefly stopping in a few shops that had not yet flipped their open sign. We spent the rest of the night conversing with Steph. The next morning we awoke early so to go rent our equipment and grab breakfast. It took about 40 minutes for the shuttle to reach Coronet Peak, the mountain we had selected for our first day of skiing.
As I hadn't skied in a few months and am not generally accustomed to skiing in August, I accompanied Liz and Chloe on a green beginner's trail for my first run. My muscles quickly remembered the skiing sensation and I zoomed down the trail. Until that point, I was not exactly sure of the skiing skill level of my flatmate companions but I quickly discovered after waiting at the bottom several minutes that my skiing experience far exceeded theirs. While I have skiing experience and consider myself a decent skier, I generally ski with avid skiers so I was thrilled to be the best skier in the lot for once. As I lingered at the bottom scouring the mountain for my flatmates, I sympathized with my father who often waits for my Aunt Carol during our ski trips. Not keen to waste most of my time at the bottom of the mountain, I took off on my own, heading over to the blue squares. Normally the intermediate squares do not pose much of a problem however, here, they definitely presented a little more of a challenge. Nevertheless, they were absolutely fantastic runs. The chairlift ride was short and the runs were long and not in the when will this ever end sense. I have never been on trails as long as these before. I frequently had to stop on my way down to catch my breath (and to capture the mountain scenery with my camera). One of my favorite parts of skiing is when you can ski up on the side of the mountain. On these trails, you could ski the entire way down on the side of the mountain if you so desired. It was not until midday that I realized the one major difference about the mountains here and the ones back in the States: the trails were not thickly lined with trees. In the absence of trees, you could just cross over to other trails and completely customize your route to the bottom. There would be some moments where I would end up somewhere, wondering if I had made a wrong turn as there was no longer a set trail to follow. Creativity at its finest! The entire mountain was yours for the taking. Also, trees did not inhibit your view of the stunning snowy mountain scenery (see above for pictures) which caused internal conflict as I frequently had to suppress the urge to pull over and waste the day away snapping pictures.
While my flatmates gave in to their fatigue and returned to the hostel at 4PM, I stayed around for night skiing. Night skiing is fabulous anywhere but, particularly in New Zealand. I love the quietness, concentration, and determination associated with night skiing. For a bit, I went over to the easy section to work on my technique before heading back to the few blue squares still open. Although I completed the same blue run countless times, I could not predict the next part of the trail which was interesting and different from the runs back home. At 8PM, I dragged myself from the slope, unknowing that I was about to embark on a rather bismal bus ride home. I boarded a cramped bus that could not have been built later than the 80's and patiently waited to take off. While the bus was supposed to leave at 8:30PM, the driver stayed another half an hour until every seat on the bus was filled with drunken college skiers. He then proceeded to drive at a speed that made the elderly seem like speed demons.
The following day, we tested out Cardrona, another mountain. While the conditions were ideal the previous day before despite the rainy forecast, during our stay at Cardrona, the mountain remained heavily encased in fog, obstructing our vision beyond a few meters. I have never skied in complete fog before so it was a little eerie yet, thrilling at times as you felt like you were the only one on the mountain. The slopes here were slightly less challenging and more reminiscent of those at Colorado. Unlike Coronet Peak, the blues had that usual fun and windy feel to them while the greens were unbearably slow. There were some truly wonderful blue runs that entertained me for most of the day however, I did attempt several black diamonds as well. At Coronet, I did cross over to a few diamonds, I do not think I completed one in its entirety (The walled off sign by the diamond slopes designed to filter out the posers from the true experts deterred me). Cardrona's blacks were much more inviting, although not without their challenges. As I was traveling down my first black, I found myself thinking how easy it was. Then I got to a point that just dropped straight down. Initially, I thought I made a wrong turn so I peered through the haze, looking for someone whose lead I could follow. Eventually I concluded that this drop was the trail and I just dove right in, hoping for the best. It ended up being one of my favorite runs. Several trails, including the previous trail, met at this narrow, flat, and windy path that led to the lift. This bit of the path was literally on the edge of the mountain and judging from the ski tracks, even the most experienced riders took caution during this patch so to avoid spiraling off the mountain. Throughout the entire day, I only fell once albeit it was a pretty epic fall. I was exploring this black diamond only to find this insanely steep section of the trail interspersed with rocks and moguls. I was fairly certain I wouldn't make it down in one piece but I had not choice, so I slowly carved my skis along the mountain's snowy crevices. As expected, I hit a snag and tumbled down a good portion of the trail although I managed to keep my skis and poles with me. Once I realized that I was in no immediate danger, I sort of just let my body glide down the slope, smiling all the way down, until I could regain control. Besides that minor mishap, my skiing was pretty decent. I worked on jumping and at one point, I even jumped off a rock (it was incredible...sort of like one of those things you see on a ski brochure or in an action movie...only toned down slightly). This was by far some of the best skiing I have ever done in my life and I am lamenting the fact that I do not think I can get back to Queenstown before the end of the ski season.
When we returned from the slopes, Chloe and I did some souvenir shopping. You will be delighted to hear that in the course of this shopping spree, I purchased my first postcards and on the bus ride home, I filled them in with lovely stories of my trip. I will not reveal who the lucky few are but, four unsuspecting members of the Postcard Club will shortly be able to collect their prize (once I buy postage that is). Of course, I also purchased a few things for myself. Chloe and I walked into a shop and noticed that their tall UGG-like boots were on sale. It wasn't until I arrived in NZ that I realized I should look into buying these boots here, after all UGGS are Australian. So, I convinced myself that the sale was a sign and I splurged on the boots I have been secretly wanting since high school. They are not UGGS but, they are ten times better as they're made from official Canterbury NZ sheep skin. While this has certainly not been one of my long term goals (believe me, I am aspiring slightly higher), it was definitely fulfilling to finally make this purchase that was years in the making. I also bought a $6 NZD tote bag with pastel colored kiwis on the front. After shopping and dinner at a tapas restaurant, Chloe and I briefly returned to the hostel where I took a quick sauna break. We then treated ourselves to gelatto which we had been looking forward to all weekend long. Chloe and I decided to indulge our taste buds one last time that weekend as we both purchased a cocktail at Skybar, simply because we could. While I see how cocktails can become addictive, I am not sure how particular Sex and the City characters managed to pay rent on top of all the cocktails they consumed.
We departed Queenstown on a 7:45AM bus on Monday and arrived home just in time for me to make it to my Plant Ecology lab (joy).
Back to reality. I found out my hellish exam timetable this week. We have an entire month for exams and yet this is my schedule: Maori October 29th, Classics Nov. 2nd morning, Plant Ecology Nov. 2nd afternoon, and Animal Biology Nov. 3rd. Is that not rotten luck? I am going to fail for sure. Let's just say I am missing self scheduled exams right about now. Alright, I should not be thinking about finals when I have midterms next week (yes, that's right, I said midterms for all of you guys just about to start your semester back home). As this seems to be the bad news paragraph, our washing machine broke this week, a fact I did not realize until after I stuffed all of my clothes and liquid detergent into the machine. However, we now have a temporary washer which means I now have clean clothes temporarily I suppose.
To get away from the gloomy news, let me add something super exciting. Chloe and I officially booked our summer break trip. On November 10th, we leave for our 17 day trip to Australia and the Rarotonga! I'll fill you in on the details once we get in the vicinity of November (if I start telling you now, I'll get all depressed that I still have a few more months of school left between then and now). Oh, I also got a wonderful letter from my cousin the other day which cheered me up immensely (look, I am sort of equating snail mail to a Australia/Pacific Islands vacation which means you should all write me).
Alright then. I hope you are enjoying your own mountain scenery! If not, get yourself to New Zealand or just keep reading my blog!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Who Knew How to Reference Harvard Style? Unfortunately, no one from my group.
Hello friends! It has been a while, I know, although you can't say that I didn't warn you (just wait until September when I have two major assignments due every week). Academics have begun getting in the way of my blogging, an event we all knew would happen eventually. However, at this particular moment, I am attempting to avoid tackling the sum of work that is piling up via blogging. You should encourage me to procrastinate more often!
Even though it has been a while since my last post, not much has really happened. I suppose pictures will best liven up the nothingness of the past few weeks so, here you go:
Me cutting apple pie/ enthusiastically greeting you!
After the Humanities Quiz Night last Friday, we took pictures of the campus at night. Not that you can really infer this from the picture, but this is Otago's clock tower at night.
Just in case you wanted to know how far London or Sydney is from St. Clair's.
View of the Octagon (center of town)
St. Clair's Beach
St. Clair's Beach
Half way through the field trip from hell ( it's comforting to know that the view from hell is pretty spectacular).
Chloe cutting the "A" shaped, scrumptious pie we made in honor of Andrew's birthday.
Me (badly) participating in SingStar karaoke during Andrew's birthday celebration.
I might as well start with the pictures at the bottom. A few days after my last post, our flat had a small birthday celebration for one of our flatmates complete with delicious homemade apple pie (featured above), pizza, Miley Cyrus themed gifts, and singing (see picture above). It was a fun filled night all in all.
Then came the trip that spoiled the cheerful memory I once had of field trips. That Saturday, I awoke at 7AM in order to attend the first of two mandatory Plant Ecology field trips. I was dreading the event to begin with as I was expecting to suffer through instructors becoming overly excited about parallel veins and hairy stems. However, when we arrived at the venue for the trip, my negative feelings increased exponentially. As I stared up at the mountain I was apparently about to climb, I found myself thankful that, at the last minute, I switched my Birkenstocks for sneakers (which are now caked in mud). After abandoning the path, we gradually ventured up the steep mountain, breaking at six sites so that we could identify plants. As I have no interest and/or knowledge of plants, I floundered and as I failed to identify a single plant on my own, I often slowed our group down. When we reached the top, my Key to NZ Ferns bore various war wounds in the form of mud (when I almost fell) and my own blood. By the end, I merited special attention from the TA (whom I now affectionately refer to as "My TA") began hovering over my shoulder, secretly acknowledging my hopelessness in the art of plant identification. Four and a half hours later, we returned to the university. I keep trying to forget about the fact that I have to sacrifice another Saturday in September for this internal torture. They did not even inform us of the field trip's intensity and just expected that kind of physical endurance from everyone. What happened to the good old days when field trips served as a fun excuse to get out of school early?
What's worse is that I couldn't leave Plant Ecology behind once I stepped off the bus. As I walked home, I began collecting plants for this horrible, humongous plant identification project due in a few weeks. So, I awkwardly stopped along the way home, fighting with shrubs as I attempted to detach a small sample. Everywhere I walk, I am constantly stopping at plants, determining whether I possess the skills to identify them. I am fairly sure that by the end of this project, I will both be known as that weird plant girl and will have a strong desire to burn down all NZ plants.
Shortly after I returned home from my hellish trip, I accompanied Andrew, Liz, and Chloe to St. Clair's, a local beach about 15 minutes away via bus. As the weather conditions were not ideal, we did not spend too much time there (although, just enough time for me to scour the beach vegetation). See pictures above.
As an extremely academic person, I have been struggling with temporarily abandoning my ways in favor of exploration so, I have devoted the past few weeks mostly to school work (and procrastination of course). This past weekend was spent on my first Maori paper and animal biology group project which were both due this Monday. Although I reverted back to my old academic roots, I still managed to experience some unwelcome scholarly culture shock when completing the biology project. Before we began the project, I found it a little odd that the instructors kept reemphasizing the importance of referencing but, I just assumed that the university had a merciless plagiarism policy. However, it was not until I was sent the "final" version of our project that I realized what the instructors were getting at. My group was going to send in a paper that, on top of all of its many grammar mistakes and inaccurate answers, had a reference list that included only hyperlinks to websites, references to journal articles without all of the authors, and a slew of other obvious formatting errors. It looked as if these students had never done a bibliography before in their lives which, apparently was the case. After talking to my kiwi host, I learned that NZ students do not write papers and thus do not complete reference lists throughout all of their primary and secondary education. Talk about culture shock! Teachers have been forcing MLA formatting on me since middle school! It was weird and extremely challenging to work with this group of very nice and for the most part, fairly intelligent students who just did not understand what they were doing wrong. After spending the entire day Saturday editing and re-referencing the bulk of the project and sending it to the group multiple times, my group members still kept sending me the original version with an even worse reference list. At one point, a disgruntled group member sent me an e-mail with the phrase "fuck off" in every sentence (and to clarify, fuck off is not some cheerful kiwi term) although he later admitted to composing the e-mail while drunk. Still have not decided how I am going to factor that into his group evaluation. Eventually, I think I convinced one girl to use my copy although I am still not entirely sure what she handed in which is sort of unnerving. We still have the group presentation (which I made the power point for...yay!) so, we'll we how that goes.
That pretty much covers the major points. Other minor events include Team Epic winning a $50 bar tab at quiz night two times since I last blogged, our flat representing the Maori department for Otago's humanities quiz night, checking out a bit of the very cool Otago Museum yesterday for animal biology lab (that's what a field trip is supposed to be), finding out that my Classics professor did his pHD in Texas, Chloe and I discovering a tasty pizza shell brand which we have been using to make several delicious pizzas, me binging on dark chocolate Tim-Tams, and eating a Starburst devil-baby shaped candy unique to NZ. Some how, the last bit of that run-on sentence became extremely food oriented so, let me continue on that path. Since my first food shopping adventure, I have been searching for risotto as it is one of my favorite dishes and fairly easy, yet time consuming, to make. As it turns out, New Zealanders seem to refer to rice in general as risotto and until Wednesday, I believed that they had never heard of, or at least never sold risotto. Yet, during my latest food shopping venture, I came across one lone box of the real deal risotto which I cooked last night. After 45 minutes of slowly adding chicken stock and enduring taunts by Andrew who did not respect the risotto making process, I sat down for a delicious risotto dinner.
Today (or yesterday I suppose accidentally fell asleep while writing this post last night), I received a lovely package from my Aunt and Uncle and an e-mail from my friend in India. These two events coupled together acted as the motivation for my blog post as I figured, if people are going through the trouble of finding an internet source abroad and sending snail mail to contact me, I can at least update my blog. Moral of the story, you too should send me mail or e-mail to help inspire more blog posts like this one!
On Friday morning, Chloe, Liz and I are heading off to Queenstown for a three day weekend full of skiing (see, I'm living on the edge...I'm missing three classes for this trip)! Unfortunately, we found out that it's supposed to rain on all three of those days so please do an anti-rain dance for us (although, from what it sounds like back home, you probably have already been doing them). Whatever you do, do not stick out your tongue if you are a woman since in Maori culture, it represents a sex organ you do not possess (but my bedroom wall does). Anyway, as this is the only weekend trip it looks like I'll be taking until October, I am extremely stoked and hoping it will be successful despite the rain. Don't worry, I will eventually post how the trip turns out. Until then...
Massive hug and a shoulder shrug from New Zealand!
Even though it has been a while since my last post, not much has really happened. I suppose pictures will best liven up the nothingness of the past few weeks so, here you go:
Me cutting apple pie/ enthusiastically greeting you!
After the Humanities Quiz Night last Friday, we took pictures of the campus at night. Not that you can really infer this from the picture, but this is Otago's clock tower at night.
Just in case you wanted to know how far London or Sydney is from St. Clair's.
View of the Octagon (center of town)
St. Clair's Beach
St. Clair's Beach
Half way through the field trip from hell ( it's comforting to know that the view from hell is pretty spectacular).
Chloe cutting the "A" shaped, scrumptious pie we made in honor of Andrew's birthday.
Me (badly) participating in SingStar karaoke during Andrew's birthday celebration.
I might as well start with the pictures at the bottom. A few days after my last post, our flat had a small birthday celebration for one of our flatmates complete with delicious homemade apple pie (featured above), pizza, Miley Cyrus themed gifts, and singing (see picture above). It was a fun filled night all in all.
Then came the trip that spoiled the cheerful memory I once had of field trips. That Saturday, I awoke at 7AM in order to attend the first of two mandatory Plant Ecology field trips. I was dreading the event to begin with as I was expecting to suffer through instructors becoming overly excited about parallel veins and hairy stems. However, when we arrived at the venue for the trip, my negative feelings increased exponentially. As I stared up at the mountain I was apparently about to climb, I found myself thankful that, at the last minute, I switched my Birkenstocks for sneakers (which are now caked in mud). After abandoning the path, we gradually ventured up the steep mountain, breaking at six sites so that we could identify plants. As I have no interest and/or knowledge of plants, I floundered and as I failed to identify a single plant on my own, I often slowed our group down. When we reached the top, my Key to NZ Ferns bore various war wounds in the form of mud (when I almost fell) and my own blood. By the end, I merited special attention from the TA (whom I now affectionately refer to as "My TA") began hovering over my shoulder, secretly acknowledging my hopelessness in the art of plant identification. Four and a half hours later, we returned to the university. I keep trying to forget about the fact that I have to sacrifice another Saturday in September for this internal torture. They did not even inform us of the field trip's intensity and just expected that kind of physical endurance from everyone. What happened to the good old days when field trips served as a fun excuse to get out of school early?
What's worse is that I couldn't leave Plant Ecology behind once I stepped off the bus. As I walked home, I began collecting plants for this horrible, humongous plant identification project due in a few weeks. So, I awkwardly stopped along the way home, fighting with shrubs as I attempted to detach a small sample. Everywhere I walk, I am constantly stopping at plants, determining whether I possess the skills to identify them. I am fairly sure that by the end of this project, I will both be known as that weird plant girl and will have a strong desire to burn down all NZ plants.
Shortly after I returned home from my hellish trip, I accompanied Andrew, Liz, and Chloe to St. Clair's, a local beach about 15 minutes away via bus. As the weather conditions were not ideal, we did not spend too much time there (although, just enough time for me to scour the beach vegetation). See pictures above.
As an extremely academic person, I have been struggling with temporarily abandoning my ways in favor of exploration so, I have devoted the past few weeks mostly to school work (and procrastination of course). This past weekend was spent on my first Maori paper and animal biology group project which were both due this Monday. Although I reverted back to my old academic roots, I still managed to experience some unwelcome scholarly culture shock when completing the biology project. Before we began the project, I found it a little odd that the instructors kept reemphasizing the importance of referencing but, I just assumed that the university had a merciless plagiarism policy. However, it was not until I was sent the "final" version of our project that I realized what the instructors were getting at. My group was going to send in a paper that, on top of all of its many grammar mistakes and inaccurate answers, had a reference list that included only hyperlinks to websites, references to journal articles without all of the authors, and a slew of other obvious formatting errors. It looked as if these students had never done a bibliography before in their lives which, apparently was the case. After talking to my kiwi host, I learned that NZ students do not write papers and thus do not complete reference lists throughout all of their primary and secondary education. Talk about culture shock! Teachers have been forcing MLA formatting on me since middle school! It was weird and extremely challenging to work with this group of very nice and for the most part, fairly intelligent students who just did not understand what they were doing wrong. After spending the entire day Saturday editing and re-referencing the bulk of the project and sending it to the group multiple times, my group members still kept sending me the original version with an even worse reference list. At one point, a disgruntled group member sent me an e-mail with the phrase "fuck off" in every sentence (and to clarify, fuck off is not some cheerful kiwi term) although he later admitted to composing the e-mail while drunk. Still have not decided how I am going to factor that into his group evaluation. Eventually, I think I convinced one girl to use my copy although I am still not entirely sure what she handed in which is sort of unnerving. We still have the group presentation (which I made the power point for...yay!) so, we'll we how that goes.
That pretty much covers the major points. Other minor events include Team Epic winning a $50 bar tab at quiz night two times since I last blogged, our flat representing the Maori department for Otago's humanities quiz night, checking out a bit of the very cool Otago Museum yesterday for animal biology lab (that's what a field trip is supposed to be), finding out that my Classics professor did his pHD in Texas, Chloe and I discovering a tasty pizza shell brand which we have been using to make several delicious pizzas, me binging on dark chocolate Tim-Tams, and eating a Starburst devil-baby shaped candy unique to NZ. Some how, the last bit of that run-on sentence became extremely food oriented so, let me continue on that path. Since my first food shopping adventure, I have been searching for risotto as it is one of my favorite dishes and fairly easy, yet time consuming, to make. As it turns out, New Zealanders seem to refer to rice in general as risotto and until Wednesday, I believed that they had never heard of, or at least never sold risotto. Yet, during my latest food shopping venture, I came across one lone box of the real deal risotto which I cooked last night. After 45 minutes of slowly adding chicken stock and enduring taunts by Andrew who did not respect the risotto making process, I sat down for a delicious risotto dinner.
Today (or yesterday I suppose accidentally fell asleep while writing this post last night), I received a lovely package from my Aunt and Uncle and an e-mail from my friend in India. These two events coupled together acted as the motivation for my blog post as I figured, if people are going through the trouble of finding an internet source abroad and sending snail mail to contact me, I can at least update my blog. Moral of the story, you too should send me mail or e-mail to help inspire more blog posts like this one!
On Friday morning, Chloe, Liz and I are heading off to Queenstown for a three day weekend full of skiing (see, I'm living on the edge...I'm missing three classes for this trip)! Unfortunately, we found out that it's supposed to rain on all three of those days so please do an anti-rain dance for us (although, from what it sounds like back home, you probably have already been doing them). Whatever you do, do not stick out your tongue if you are a woman since in Maori culture, it represents a sex organ you do not possess (but my bedroom wall does). Anyway, as this is the only weekend trip it looks like I'll be taking until October, I am extremely stoked and hoping it will be successful despite the rain. Don't worry, I will eventually post how the trip turns out. Until then...
Massive hug and a shoulder shrug from New Zealand!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Who Knew About the Giant Male Sex Organ on My Wall?
Did my title intrigue you? You'll just have to keep reading then. It took me the entire day of feeling under the weather for the second day in a row and thus being completely unproductive to realize that I should have been updating my blog. To compensate for this, let me provide you with some pictures taken over the last week:
Chloe, Liz and I making homemade lasagna last Friday night. Tomorrow (this week's Friday), we're making mussels in garlic sauce and crinkle cookies. Somehow, I have never heard of or tasted this particular chocolate desert before so it could be interesting.
Liz, Ebony, Chloe and I at the annual Jaffa Race last Friday during the Cadbury Chocolate Festival (details below).
Some of my flatties and I out and about on Saturday night after watching the rugby match (details below)!
Andrew and I attempting to reclaim our Jackpot prize at quiz night. Unfortunately we failed miserably but, we're now on The Bog's website!
Carnival Night at Re-O week (details below)!
Me on top of the EPIC wall which proved to be a challenge for Chloe and Ebony.
On the ferris wheel at the carnival with Ebony and Chloe!
What, you couldn't guess my entire week just from those photos? Fine fine, I'll fill in on some of the gaps. As I prefaced in my previous post, last Thursday night was the carnival portion of Otago's Re-Orientation week. Although the festivities lasted for most of the day, Ebony, Chloe and I went later on in the evening where we enjoyed quite possibly the longest swing ride known to man, a freezing ferris wheel ride which gave us a nice evening view of the campus' clock tower, and a bouncy climbing wall. While I relied upon what little upper arm strength remained from my prime tennis days to pull me up the climbing mountain multiple times, my other flatmates unfortunately floundered (not that I didn't enjoy watching them make it an inch off the ground before falling right back down again). Despite acquiring a few war wounds from the wall, I had a fun time and found it interesting to be on the swings in the freezing cold while, if I was at home, I probably would have also recently gone on the same ride with my cousins under completely different weather circumstances.
The night continued as we headed off to "Velvet Burgers," a burger restaraunt that Ebony had been promising to take us to since I encountered my first NZ hamburger at the 4th/5th of July party weeks earlier. The staff was clearly overwhelmed by the large reception they were holding in a downstairs room and they managed to mess up almost all of our orders except for one. At one point, the waitress came out saying, "one chicken little with no salad" while setting down a burger that obviously was topped off with a large bed of lettuce. All in all, it was certainly no "Five Guys" although I must admit, it introduced me to alioli (a garlic mayonnaise) which I am rather fond of. To kill time before the movie began, we ordered hot chocolates at a nearby bar and watched a medley of comedic clips played on the bar's TV. Finally, we made our way over to the movie theater to watch the sixth installment of the Harry Potter movies. I don't know what this says about the actual movie, but the most exciting part of the whole movie-going trip was the theater. Our assigned seats were located near the back but, that did not matter. All of the seats were armchair like and there was so much floor space that you couldn't reach the chair in front of you even if you tried (or at least I couldn't). If you are a true Harry Potter fan, of course you have to see the movie in theaters (if you haven't already) otherwise, put it on your netflix lineup. As this is a blog about my study abroad experience at the University of Otago and not Hogwarts, I will not go into further detail.
After classes (or should I say class) on Friday, Liz, Chloe, Ebony and I attended the annual Jaffa Race on Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world (see picture above). This race is the climax of the Cadbury Chocolate Festival where people essentially roll thousands of big Jaffas (round Cadbury chocolate candies with an orange flavor coating) down Baldwin St. Unfortunately, my jaffa could not compete with the others and I did not win the year long supply of chocolate promised for the winner. Later on, we went to Pack'n'Save to prepare for our first Friday cooking night. For our first meal, we made a tasty lasagna followed by a less than tasty apple concoction. Although Chloe and I set out to make Jewish Apple Cake, we added about three times the amount of apples the recipe called for which resulted in a doey apple mess. Andrew actually seemed to enjoy it and, since I felt bad wasting all of the apples, I managed to scarf down a few slices myself. Hopefully we will have better luck with our weekly dessert this weekend.
Then came my first official weekend of the school year which is always a rewarding and much needed couple of days. Saturday night was particularly enjoyable as I spent the night out hanging with some of my flatmates. We first head over to Starters Bar located a few blocks from our flat where we ate dinner and then watched my first rugby match, the All Blacks vs. The Wallabies rugby match. I am not one for sports and usually lose interest in watching sporting games within the first two minutes, a fact which both my dad and brother can confirm. However, while I still am not quite sure what I was really watching or how the game is played, it was an exciting experience. Unlike football, rugby can only last 80 minutes and I think knowing this gave me a goal and helped me make it to the end of the match. Another factor that contributed to my extended interest in this rugby match was that the All Blacks won! Our group celebrated the All Blacks victory by traversing over to The Bog where we spent our bar tab earned from quiz night (see pictures above and on Facebook).
Let me not neglect to mention one of the more memorable moments of the week (even if I didn't blog about it, I'm sure you would find out about it anyway as it seems to be a favorite discussion topic among my flatmates). A few nights ago, I awoke in the middle of the night facing a glow-in-the-dark penis. Half asleep, I initially started freaking out and began contemplating all of the possible types of cosmic signs that a neon penis could be sending me. Once I came to my senses and realized that the previous, most likely male, occupant of my room had found it humorous to deface my bedroom wall by painting a male organ in glow-in-the-dark paint invisible to the eye except at night. How I managed to avoid noticing this until now, I do not know but, I wish my oblivious nature had continued to shield me from such a sight. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Unable to continue sleeping knowing what was displayed on the other side of me, I arose and frantically searched for something to cover up the horrific image. Single sheets of paper proved too translucent and I eventually had to settle on my campus map.
On Monday night, Team Epic unsuccessfully attempted to win another bar tab at quiz night. It was around that time that my immune system welcomed in an illness that has been plaguing the rest of the campus. Since then, I have been lying low, trying to sleep the sickness out of my system. While my symptoms continue to persist, I have not become desperate enough to use the travel sized netty pot which my mom skillfully managed to sneak in my carry on bag (for those of you who have not encountered my mother when sick and are thus unaware of the netty pot, it is a torture device used to pour hot salt water into one nostril and out the other).
I suppose I should also update you on my course selection. After much debate, I have finally drawn up a final course schedule which I am not too excited about. It looks like I will be taking a 200 level New Zealand Plant Ecology Class which seems absolutely horrible, uninteresting and extremely challenging. The other biology class I am taking, entitled Bio112 Animal Biology, now seems to be lets just say, less than interesting. At least we will get to dissect a possum and an eel and there will be guest lecturers talking about their NZ based research. Yet, I am already disappointed in the teaching fellows who failed to correctly sign my course change sheet three consecutive times. If I am ever aggravated while blogging, chances are, one of these two courses is to blame. Moving on from the uninspiring biology classes, I am taking Maori Society with a few of my flatmates and what seems like the rest of the university. Originally the class was supposed to have 200 people however, it now has 500! It is by far the largest class I have ever enrolled in. The lecture theater is massive (this is coming from someone who freaked out when she had a class with more than 40 people in it freshman year)! The class has potential although it is extremely hard to follow when the instructor throws out Maori terminology which bears no resemblance to English or any of the romance languages. Finally, my most enjoyable class is a 200 level classics course entitled Life and Death in Roman Society. Thus far, the class has been quite insightful and filled with interesting readings. Hopefully the course will carry on in this general direction.
Most days I am sprinting from one end of the campus to another in-between my back to back classes. They keep telling me that the University of Otago is fairly small but, I have concluded that they clearly have not visited Bryn Mawr College. Usually I leave approximately two minutes prior to class, walk across Merion Green and I am ready to go. Here, I have to leave my flat at least 15 minutes to reach the closest place on campus on time. Let's just say that I will try my best to no longer refer to Park Science as the "far away building." While I have already acquired blisters from trekking to class, I think it is worth it (well, I think I would trade in some of my classes in return for intact feet). Not only do I get to experience New Zealand culture but, I also have the opportunity to experience the culture associated with larger universities as well. If you ask me to reevaluate my stance in a few weeks time, my answer may change but, I think in the end, I will appreciate having a taste of the big university environment.
Now that I have finished this post, I have successfully managed to end the day without touching my books! It's OK, I only have one class tomorrow and then it's the weekend (as much as I dislike my classes, they do allow me to only have one Friday classes which is a delightful treat). I'll let you know how our Friday night dinner goes.
Chloe, Liz and I making homemade lasagna last Friday night. Tomorrow (this week's Friday), we're making mussels in garlic sauce and crinkle cookies. Somehow, I have never heard of or tasted this particular chocolate desert before so it could be interesting.
Liz, Ebony, Chloe and I at the annual Jaffa Race last Friday during the Cadbury Chocolate Festival (details below).
Some of my flatties and I out and about on Saturday night after watching the rugby match (details below)!
Andrew and I attempting to reclaim our Jackpot prize at quiz night. Unfortunately we failed miserably but, we're now on The Bog's website!
Carnival Night at Re-O week (details below)!
Me on top of the EPIC wall which proved to be a challenge for Chloe and Ebony.
On the ferris wheel at the carnival with Ebony and Chloe!
What, you couldn't guess my entire week just from those photos? Fine fine, I'll fill in on some of the gaps. As I prefaced in my previous post, last Thursday night was the carnival portion of Otago's Re-Orientation week. Although the festivities lasted for most of the day, Ebony, Chloe and I went later on in the evening where we enjoyed quite possibly the longest swing ride known to man, a freezing ferris wheel ride which gave us a nice evening view of the campus' clock tower, and a bouncy climbing wall. While I relied upon what little upper arm strength remained from my prime tennis days to pull me up the climbing mountain multiple times, my other flatmates unfortunately floundered (not that I didn't enjoy watching them make it an inch off the ground before falling right back down again). Despite acquiring a few war wounds from the wall, I had a fun time and found it interesting to be on the swings in the freezing cold while, if I was at home, I probably would have also recently gone on the same ride with my cousins under completely different weather circumstances.
The night continued as we headed off to "Velvet Burgers," a burger restaraunt that Ebony had been promising to take us to since I encountered my first NZ hamburger at the 4th/5th of July party weeks earlier. The staff was clearly overwhelmed by the large reception they were holding in a downstairs room and they managed to mess up almost all of our orders except for one. At one point, the waitress came out saying, "one chicken little with no salad" while setting down a burger that obviously was topped off with a large bed of lettuce. All in all, it was certainly no "Five Guys" although I must admit, it introduced me to alioli (a garlic mayonnaise) which I am rather fond of. To kill time before the movie began, we ordered hot chocolates at a nearby bar and watched a medley of comedic clips played on the bar's TV. Finally, we made our way over to the movie theater to watch the sixth installment of the Harry Potter movies. I don't know what this says about the actual movie, but the most exciting part of the whole movie-going trip was the theater. Our assigned seats were located near the back but, that did not matter. All of the seats were armchair like and there was so much floor space that you couldn't reach the chair in front of you even if you tried (or at least I couldn't). If you are a true Harry Potter fan, of course you have to see the movie in theaters (if you haven't already) otherwise, put it on your netflix lineup. As this is a blog about my study abroad experience at the University of Otago and not Hogwarts, I will not go into further detail.
After classes (or should I say class) on Friday, Liz, Chloe, Ebony and I attended the annual Jaffa Race on Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world (see picture above). This race is the climax of the Cadbury Chocolate Festival where people essentially roll thousands of big Jaffas (round Cadbury chocolate candies with an orange flavor coating) down Baldwin St. Unfortunately, my jaffa could not compete with the others and I did not win the year long supply of chocolate promised for the winner. Later on, we went to Pack'n'Save to prepare for our first Friday cooking night. For our first meal, we made a tasty lasagna followed by a less than tasty apple concoction. Although Chloe and I set out to make Jewish Apple Cake, we added about three times the amount of apples the recipe called for which resulted in a doey apple mess. Andrew actually seemed to enjoy it and, since I felt bad wasting all of the apples, I managed to scarf down a few slices myself. Hopefully we will have better luck with our weekly dessert this weekend.
Then came my first official weekend of the school year which is always a rewarding and much needed couple of days. Saturday night was particularly enjoyable as I spent the night out hanging with some of my flatmates. We first head over to Starters Bar located a few blocks from our flat where we ate dinner and then watched my first rugby match, the All Blacks vs. The Wallabies rugby match. I am not one for sports and usually lose interest in watching sporting games within the first two minutes, a fact which both my dad and brother can confirm. However, while I still am not quite sure what I was really watching or how the game is played, it was an exciting experience. Unlike football, rugby can only last 80 minutes and I think knowing this gave me a goal and helped me make it to the end of the match. Another factor that contributed to my extended interest in this rugby match was that the All Blacks won! Our group celebrated the All Blacks victory by traversing over to The Bog where we spent our bar tab earned from quiz night (see pictures above and on Facebook).
Let me not neglect to mention one of the more memorable moments of the week (even if I didn't blog about it, I'm sure you would find out about it anyway as it seems to be a favorite discussion topic among my flatmates). A few nights ago, I awoke in the middle of the night facing a glow-in-the-dark penis. Half asleep, I initially started freaking out and began contemplating all of the possible types of cosmic signs that a neon penis could be sending me. Once I came to my senses and realized that the previous, most likely male, occupant of my room had found it humorous to deface my bedroom wall by painting a male organ in glow-in-the-dark paint invisible to the eye except at night. How I managed to avoid noticing this until now, I do not know but, I wish my oblivious nature had continued to shield me from such a sight. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Unable to continue sleeping knowing what was displayed on the other side of me, I arose and frantically searched for something to cover up the horrific image. Single sheets of paper proved too translucent and I eventually had to settle on my campus map.
On Monday night, Team Epic unsuccessfully attempted to win another bar tab at quiz night. It was around that time that my immune system welcomed in an illness that has been plaguing the rest of the campus. Since then, I have been lying low, trying to sleep the sickness out of my system. While my symptoms continue to persist, I have not become desperate enough to use the travel sized netty pot which my mom skillfully managed to sneak in my carry on bag (for those of you who have not encountered my mother when sick and are thus unaware of the netty pot, it is a torture device used to pour hot salt water into one nostril and out the other).
I suppose I should also update you on my course selection. After much debate, I have finally drawn up a final course schedule which I am not too excited about. It looks like I will be taking a 200 level New Zealand Plant Ecology Class which seems absolutely horrible, uninteresting and extremely challenging. The other biology class I am taking, entitled Bio112 Animal Biology, now seems to be lets just say, less than interesting. At least we will get to dissect a possum and an eel and there will be guest lecturers talking about their NZ based research. Yet, I am already disappointed in the teaching fellows who failed to correctly sign my course change sheet three consecutive times. If I am ever aggravated while blogging, chances are, one of these two courses is to blame. Moving on from the uninspiring biology classes, I am taking Maori Society with a few of my flatmates and what seems like the rest of the university. Originally the class was supposed to have 200 people however, it now has 500! It is by far the largest class I have ever enrolled in. The lecture theater is massive (this is coming from someone who freaked out when she had a class with more than 40 people in it freshman year)! The class has potential although it is extremely hard to follow when the instructor throws out Maori terminology which bears no resemblance to English or any of the romance languages. Finally, my most enjoyable class is a 200 level classics course entitled Life and Death in Roman Society. Thus far, the class has been quite insightful and filled with interesting readings. Hopefully the course will carry on in this general direction.
Most days I am sprinting from one end of the campus to another in-between my back to back classes. They keep telling me that the University of Otago is fairly small but, I have concluded that they clearly have not visited Bryn Mawr College. Usually I leave approximately two minutes prior to class, walk across Merion Green and I am ready to go. Here, I have to leave my flat at least 15 minutes to reach the closest place on campus on time. Let's just say that I will try my best to no longer refer to Park Science as the "far away building." While I have already acquired blisters from trekking to class, I think it is worth it (well, I think I would trade in some of my classes in return for intact feet). Not only do I get to experience New Zealand culture but, I also have the opportunity to experience the culture associated with larger universities as well. If you ask me to reevaluate my stance in a few weeks time, my answer may change but, I think in the end, I will appreciate having a taste of the big university environment.
Now that I have finished this post, I have successfully managed to end the day without touching my books! It's OK, I only have one class tomorrow and then it's the weekend (as much as I dislike my classes, they do allow me to only have one Friday classes which is a delightful treat). I'll let you know how our Friday night dinner goes.
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