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.
No comments:
Post a Comment