Hey there! It is pre-dinner blog time at 2a Forth Street. As I mentioned in my last blog, I started classes this week. This Friday is the end of Otago's shopping week and, as usual, I have yet to decide on my final schedule. My course schedule is a bit of a sore spot of the moment but, once I finalize my schedule which, with any luck, should be happening sometime tomorrow, I'll fill you in.
Meanwhile, let me avoid doing the reading for my classics 224 class by telling you what has been going on the past few days. I awoke early on Monday to poke around the online course catalog, which had been down the day before, and then embarked on my first day of classes (I will provide you more detail on the academic aspect at a later date). As part of the lab for the New Zealand Plant Ecology class, we took a field trip to the botanical gardens. As I walked home from the gardens with a few classmates, we came upon Castle Street. Now, before I left, you may have heard me freak out over the state of the student flats at Otago. While my flat is lovely, all flats are clearly not created equally. Immediately I saw why the university flats garnered a bad rep. It was only about 4:30PM when we were walking home and already there were people participating in keg stands and smashing empty beer bottles on the ground. We weaved in and out of the many police officers patrolling the street and avoided stepping on bodies of passed out students lying on the side walk in the dead of winter. Generally I spend the first night of classes freaking about my course schedule and catching up with friends but, I guess some Otago students take a different approach to welcoming the new semester.
I too had an unconventional conclusion to my first day of classes. My flatmates and I joined some of my kiwi host's friends at "The Bog," a local bar, for their weekly quiz night session. As I mentioned above, I usually spend the first night of classes fretting about academics so it was a little odd for me to not only nonchalantly neglect my school work but to ignore academics in favor of a bar. Since the legal drinking age in New Zealand is 18, I am completely legal here. In fact, I will be legal for almost the rest of my life, except for the 24 days between when I arrive home and my 21st birthday (crazy, right?). I am still surprised by the fact that I can walk into a bar and order a drink (and judging from their reactions, so are the bartenders...I am going to be carded until I am 70). Anyway, this quiz night was quite an improvement over my previous experience with NZ quiz night (see previous blog post). Although I only managed to contribute minimally, our team, Team Epic (OK, so my obsessive use of the word 'epic' did contribute to our team name), managed to score a large plate of free food and a 100 dollar bar tab which we plan to use this weekend. The coolest part of the entire night was a question in the final round which asked, "Which 10 time Tony Award winning Broadway musical just won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Musical?" Answer: Billy Elliot the Musical! As I joyfully scribbled the answer down, I shouted out, "My uncle has one of those 10 Tony's!" What's even funnier is that I was just telling some of my flatmates about my uncle's Tony Award win earlier that night. For more on the Tony Awards, check out my facebook album.
Yesterday, I made my first souvenir purchase! Since I needed to buy a lab coat for my biology labs (why I need a lab coat for working with plants, I do not know), I opted for the lab coat/scarf deal, which actually was not a deal since the price amounted to the same cost as buying the coat and scarf separately. Nevertheless, I now have the official scarfie scarf! All the students here are known as scarfies so scarves are a big deal. Of course, I have not worn my scarf out yet as I am afraid that it will instantly mark me as an international tourist. I also now have a lab coat with the University of Otago crest. The lab coat is actually a size too big but, the xxxs coat did not have the Otago emblem on it and I felt bad spending this kind of money on a coat that couldn't double as a souvenir.
In other news, my flaties have all become obsessed with facebook/bebo/internet stalking one another. While I briefly participated in this stalking frenzy, as far as I know, I have avoided serving as the subject of one of their stalking endeavors (although Chloe did ask me why I was all dressed up in some of my facebook pictures). In light of all of the stalking going on down here, I thought I would let you in on the fun. Here is a chance to get to know a little more about my lovely flatties:
Ebony is our flat's kiwi host whom we appreciate very much since she keys us into the Dunedin happenings and especially because she does not resemble certain other insane kiwi hosts. She has completed her French major and is back for more as a part time student. If you hear me mention Shortland Street, just blame her as she's the one who got the rest of the flat hooked on this particular soap.
Liz, the toast-loving, hot chocolate imbibing, flatmate hails from Austin, Texas where she is prelaw, majoring in Philosophy and possibly double majoring/triple minoring in a series of subjects. At the moment she is pressuring me to take a 100 level biology class with her by using the persuasive tactic of poking me until I give in. Like me, she is an extremely picky eater and from the looks of it, only eats seasonable vegetables (that is a vegetable once a season). One of her favorite NZ pastimes is laughing at funny New Zealand slang.
Andrew comes from Scotland although he would rather that I describe him as being from the UK. He's traveled all over the place and as he put it tonight, "he's a citizen of NZ when they let him." Unfortunately for him, he has to take all 400 level papers at Otago since he is too ahead of the game in his law program at his home institution. However, I still am spending way more time in class than him, a fact which he never grows tired of pointing out, so I have very little sympathy. When he is not busy mocking me, he can be found yelling at Dell Computer people, checking cricket/rugby scores, obsessively watching Shortland Street, or listening to his eclectic music which consists largely of Michael Jackson and Miley Cyrus songs.
Chloe made the transition from southern California summer to Dunedin winter. She planned on studying abroad in France but at the last minute, she decided to take on a new minor just so she could study abroad in New Zealand. It's always great to be greeted by her since she has such a cheery "Helooo!" During quiz nights, we usually end up chatting while the rest of the team attempts to answer the questions. She is an excellent baker, a fact that I discovered after I helped her bake a scrumptious apple pie. Eventually we plan to travel various places together such as Sydney (which she pronounces oddly), and Wellington (where she wishes to purchase a pair of willies).
Thatcher is the sixth flatmate who traveled to NZ from somewhere on the east coast. I believe he is an Environmental Studies major studying at Saint Lawrence University. He intends to spend a lot of time in Queenstown skiing while here in NZ. Apparently we have a class together which is cool. He tends to keep to himself so we haven't seen much of him but, he seems alright.
Hopefully you now have an idea of the awesome people who make up 2a Forth St! Well I best get some sleep. Tomorrow is University of Otago Re-O week's carnival day and immediately after that, I am sitting in my assigned movie theater seat to see the sixth Harry Potter movie with my flatmates (and I unfortunately must make my final course schedule decision)! I'll get back to you on how everything turns out!
**Small addition: Tonight, the rest of my flat felt earth tremors associated with an earthquake. As I was sitting on my bed, I unfortunately did not feel said tremors. Now that I have included "the most exciting thing that has happened to us since the Jackpot win," I have concluded that my blog is still dominating.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Who Knew You Could Add a Title? Sorry, still new to this whole blogging thing.
Hello again! Today, I am going to start with something that's worth 1000 words and then proceed to add a few words of my own. Here are some of the much anticipated pictures (eventually, you will be able to find more on facebook):
The dinner meal provided by airNewZealand on my trip to Auckland
The plane I boarded that took me to Auckland, NZ. I realized that I neglected to mention the safety video played on my flight from Auckland to Dunedin. Fearing that not enough passengers paid attention to the safety information, NZ decided to take a different approach. Just a few days before my travels, airNewZealand launched its Bare Essentials Safety video where body painted crew members delivered the safety information. Judging by the number of passengers who tuned in for the video, this approach definitely seems effective. If you haven't checked out youtube's newest sensation, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Mq9HAE62Y
The Cadbury Chocolate Factory located in Dunedin (I clearly picked the right place to study abroad)
The Dunedin Train Station where the international students caught the train for the Taieri Gorge Train Trip
View from the train on the Taieri Gorge trip
Some of my flatmates at the BBQ which awaited us at the end of the train trip
A little tour of my room
One of the many quirky NZ things that myself and my flatmates cannot get over. Eggs are not stored in the refrigerator. My eggs are currently sitting in the pantry. How odd.
I hope you enjoyed the pics since they took 40 minutes to upload onto this site. Now on to the less visual stuff. Judging from the last post, I left you off at orientation. This past Wednesday was international orientation and boy was that a treat! It began early in the morning with some man chanting in Maori for at least 5 minutes and then concluding with a song in Maori. As I was to find out soon, this was the first of many musical performances yet to come. Next up was a group of middle school children who serenaded the lecture hall with a series of tribal welcome songs and dances. The mayor of Dunedin, adorned in his regal regalia, took center stage, listing all of the countries which this semester's international students belonged to (as expected, Americans filled up a good portion of the lecture hall which I might add is one of the largest lecture halls I've ever been in). After the mayor, who happens to do a little opera on the side, concluded with his song, the boring and typical orientation material commenced.
Then came the least favorite day of my travels thus far: course registration. Thursday morning, I woke up early along with the rest of my flatmates and began the time consuming process of University of Otago course registration. All started out well as we were the first in line to get our course form sheet and I began the day with a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate from an on campus cafe. At Otago, you must go in person and get course advisers from each subject area to sign off on your courses. The classics and Maori studies advisers quickly signed off on my first two courses. Then came the science room. Apparently, my transcript was never sent to the advisers so I could be approved for any of the science courses I was planning on taking and need to take in order to complete my biology major back home, a fact I did not realize until after spending 20 minutes in line waiting to speak with the rude physiology adviser. After rushing to the international office to obtain a copy of my transcript and waiting another half an hour in queue for the science adviser, I was informed that I have not really met any of the prerequisites for any of the upper level biology courses. Classes start on Monday and, as usual, I have no idea what I am taking and I am of course internally freaking out. Leave it to me to find an international schedule problem (for those of you who are not aware, scheduling problems are nothing out of the ordinary for me). At the moment, I am signed up to take some 200 level NZ Plant Ecology class which, sounds horrible as I am not really an ecology kind of person. I am still frantically searching for one additional biology class. Once I establish my course schedule, which probably will not be until after their pseudo-shopping week, I'll let you know.
In an attempt to block out all memory of the afternoon's events, I attended the oh so fun International Student Quiz Night, held at The Cook, one of the 40 bars in or near the octagon of Dunedin. I, along with my kiwi host and other flatmates, sat through 10 grueling rounds of 10 questions in topics ranging from alcoholic beverages to science and nature. Apparently I suck as an American but that's OK because I was the only one who knew what really matters: Miley Cyrus' character's fictional last name (The answer is Stewart for anyone who was feeling intrigued enough to resort to google. How that qualifies as general knowledge, I do not know.). When we were asked who was the T.V. personality Borat fell in love with, I instantly snatched our team's pen and for the first time ever, appreciated my dad's obsession with the Kazakstanian character. Unfortunately, they were looking for CJ, not Pamela Anderson. For the rest of the night, our team of four sat in the corner and lamented the fact that we had shelled out five dollars for this infernal torture. We concluded the night by finishing off the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy although I fell asleep about half way into the movie (an event that seems to be a regular occurrence for me these days).
Yesterday, most of the international students went on the Taieri Gorge Train Trip sponsored by Otago (See pictures above. More to come on Facebook). We pretty much sat on a train for a little over an hour until we got the the BBQ site where we ate lunch in the cold and then we took the train back home. The view was alright, nothing too spectacular, mostly just a lot of sheep. Afterwards, my flatmates and I took a group trip to Countdown (a supermarket) and ordered Pizza. I again managed to skillfully avoid watching Shortland Street, a horrible soap opera which my entire flat watches on a regular basis. However, I am sure that no matter how hard I resist, I will eventually end up becoming hooked. It's not a good sign when I am interested in finding out what is going to happen to "Mad Maya" who apparently went crazy, killed somebody, and is now back at her old nursing job. Not to worry though, I can find Shortland St. on demand and the show has its own wikipedia page.
Today I have just been lounging around, dreading the thought of starting classes on Monday. Didn't I just finish my second semester? As excited as I am to be in NZ, nothing can take away the sting of beginning another semester of courses, especially when I am not sure what courses are going to fill my semester. Wish me luck for my first week of classes. It looks like I'll need it!
The dinner meal provided by airNewZealand on my trip to Auckland
The plane I boarded that took me to Auckland, NZ. I realized that I neglected to mention the safety video played on my flight from Auckland to Dunedin. Fearing that not enough passengers paid attention to the safety information, NZ decided to take a different approach. Just a few days before my travels, airNewZealand launched its Bare Essentials Safety video where body painted crew members delivered the safety information. Judging by the number of passengers who tuned in for the video, this approach definitely seems effective. If you haven't checked out youtube's newest sensation, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Mq9HAE62Y
The Cadbury Chocolate Factory located in Dunedin (I clearly picked the right place to study abroad)
The Dunedin Train Station where the international students caught the train for the Taieri Gorge Train Trip
View from the train on the Taieri Gorge trip
Some of my flatmates at the BBQ which awaited us at the end of the train trip
A little tour of my room
One of the many quirky NZ things that myself and my flatmates cannot get over. Eggs are not stored in the refrigerator. My eggs are currently sitting in the pantry. How odd.
I hope you enjoyed the pics since they took 40 minutes to upload onto this site. Now on to the less visual stuff. Judging from the last post, I left you off at orientation. This past Wednesday was international orientation and boy was that a treat! It began early in the morning with some man chanting in Maori for at least 5 minutes and then concluding with a song in Maori. As I was to find out soon, this was the first of many musical performances yet to come. Next up was a group of middle school children who serenaded the lecture hall with a series of tribal welcome songs and dances. The mayor of Dunedin, adorned in his regal regalia, took center stage, listing all of the countries which this semester's international students belonged to (as expected, Americans filled up a good portion of the lecture hall which I might add is one of the largest lecture halls I've ever been in). After the mayor, who happens to do a little opera on the side, concluded with his song, the boring and typical orientation material commenced.
Then came the least favorite day of my travels thus far: course registration. Thursday morning, I woke up early along with the rest of my flatmates and began the time consuming process of University of Otago course registration. All started out well as we were the first in line to get our course form sheet and I began the day with a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate from an on campus cafe. At Otago, you must go in person and get course advisers from each subject area to sign off on your courses. The classics and Maori studies advisers quickly signed off on my first two courses. Then came the science room. Apparently, my transcript was never sent to the advisers so I could be approved for any of the science courses I was planning on taking and need to take in order to complete my biology major back home, a fact I did not realize until after spending 20 minutes in line waiting to speak with the rude physiology adviser. After rushing to the international office to obtain a copy of my transcript and waiting another half an hour in queue for the science adviser, I was informed that I have not really met any of the prerequisites for any of the upper level biology courses. Classes start on Monday and, as usual, I have no idea what I am taking and I am of course internally freaking out. Leave it to me to find an international schedule problem (for those of you who are not aware, scheduling problems are nothing out of the ordinary for me). At the moment, I am signed up to take some 200 level NZ Plant Ecology class which, sounds horrible as I am not really an ecology kind of person. I am still frantically searching for one additional biology class. Once I establish my course schedule, which probably will not be until after their pseudo-shopping week, I'll let you know.
In an attempt to block out all memory of the afternoon's events, I attended the oh so fun International Student Quiz Night, held at The Cook, one of the 40 bars in or near the octagon of Dunedin. I, along with my kiwi host and other flatmates, sat through 10 grueling rounds of 10 questions in topics ranging from alcoholic beverages to science and nature. Apparently I suck as an American but that's OK because I was the only one who knew what really matters: Miley Cyrus' character's fictional last name (The answer is Stewart for anyone who was feeling intrigued enough to resort to google. How that qualifies as general knowledge, I do not know.). When we were asked who was the T.V. personality Borat fell in love with, I instantly snatched our team's pen and for the first time ever, appreciated my dad's obsession with the Kazakstanian character. Unfortunately, they were looking for CJ, not Pamela Anderson. For the rest of the night, our team of four sat in the corner and lamented the fact that we had shelled out five dollars for this infernal torture. We concluded the night by finishing off the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy although I fell asleep about half way into the movie (an event that seems to be a regular occurrence for me these days).
Yesterday, most of the international students went on the Taieri Gorge Train Trip sponsored by Otago (See pictures above. More to come on Facebook). We pretty much sat on a train for a little over an hour until we got the the BBQ site where we ate lunch in the cold and then we took the train back home. The view was alright, nothing too spectacular, mostly just a lot of sheep. Afterwards, my flatmates and I took a group trip to Countdown (a supermarket) and ordered Pizza. I again managed to skillfully avoid watching Shortland Street, a horrible soap opera which my entire flat watches on a regular basis. However, I am sure that no matter how hard I resist, I will eventually end up becoming hooked. It's not a good sign when I am interested in finding out what is going to happen to "Mad Maya" who apparently went crazy, killed somebody, and is now back at her old nursing job. Not to worry though, I can find Shortland St. on demand and the show has its own wikipedia page.
Today I have just been lounging around, dreading the thought of starting classes on Monday. Didn't I just finish my second semester? As excited as I am to be in NZ, nothing can take away the sting of beginning another semester of courses, especially when I am not sure what courses are going to fill my semester. Wish me luck for my first week of classes. It looks like I'll need it!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Well hello there! I am delighted to see that you have found your way to my blog. Let me just preface by noting that I am one of those people who gets really into something initially but usually loses interest or time somewhere down the road and I am expecting this to impact the frequency of my blog postings. Nontheless, welcome! So what has sparked a non-blogger to alter her ways and enter this html based world? To be honest, I think that fact that I had the option of customizing my background with these nifty polks dots had a lot to do with it...that and the fact that, as the title suggests, I am New to New Zealand.
On July 2nd, at 2PM eastern time, I departed from Philadelphia on the 6 hour plane ride to San Francisco and thus initiated my 5 month study abroad experience. The trip did not start off well as a person assigned the middle seat in my row did not react well to my refusal to swap my window seat for hers. After my lengthy layover in SanFran, I, along with what seemed like every high school band member of the state of California, boarded a 12 hour airNewZealand flight to Auckland. While I feared that, with a seat number ending in K, I would end up in the middle of two rowdy high schoolers tossing a football overhead, the flight was actually quite pleasant. Somehow, I ended up in a window seat next to a nice high school band couple who managed to limit their PDA. The upside of flying with a marching band is that the there is no room for screaming children. This flight also intruduced me to the beyond friendly diposition of New Zealanders. Once I stepped on the plane, I felt the warm glow of the flight crew and noticed how they genuinely cared about your experience on board. Unlike the previous flight, we were served two meals, dinner and breakfast, both which were served in non-plastic containers along with wine and other drinks (picture is coming). Once in Auckland, I rushed through customs and thankfully spotted my bag in the baggage claim almost immediately. While going through security for the umpteenth time at around 6 in the morning NZ time, I bumped into a fellow Otago student who was traveling to the University on an earlier flight. So far, I have not run into her again, but perhaps during orientation. As I waited in the tiny terminal to board my next flight, I ended up conversing with a student from India on his way Australia, where I would be staying for only one day in order to see a wrestling match. He had a heavy accent so I'm not entirely sure if I caught everything he said but, he was extremely friendly and we exchanged e-mail addresses at his request. At 8AM NZ time, I grabbed my aisle seat on my final plane ride to Dunedin. After briefly stopping in Wellington, I finally arrived in Dunedin, my home for the next few months, at 10:45 AM NZ time on July 4th. I then met up with the taxi driver who was scheduled to transport me from the airport to my flat. I gaurantee that you would never find a NYC taxi driver as delightful and chipper as this one, who told me about his life and love of sports as he showed me around the city.
Eventually, I ended up at my flat, 2a FORTH STREET, DUNEDIN 9016 NEW ZEALAND (this is so not a shameless plug to try and encourage people to send me mail) where I was greeted by flatmates Ebony (my kiwihost), Andrew, and Liz. Coming from the palace known as Bryn Mawr, I was expecting a downgrade in my living arrangement however, much to my surprise, I actually really like my room. The room is fairly spacious, with a double bed, two large windows, and a porch. Pictures will be coming soon so you can see how my dots have crossed the international date line. On the flipside, the entire flat is absolutely freezing as it is winter down here and Dunedin is not familiar with the concept of central heating. This morning, I could see my breath as I ate my breakfast. Today, our last flatmate, Thatcher, arrived. Out of the 6 of us, 4 of us are Americans and one is from the UK. So far, I've met mostly Americans, including someone who grew up in Haverford.
I know that I have spent a while going on about logistics but, there hasn't been much going on yet sinc orientation doesn't start until tomorrow. On my first day, Ebony drove us to the Wharehouse (a discount type store reminicent of Walmart) and the Pack'n Save food store. The following day, I wondered around Dunedin with a flatmate in search of rainboots (or gumboots as they are known in NZ) and groceries. I am regretting not bringing my pastel mead notebooks with me since all office supplies here are extremely pricey (I have a bit of a fettish with office supplies, so this was a bit of a problem for me). Unwilling to shell out 20 dollars for a binder, I settled on some flimsy, unstylish notebooks. It has only been a few days but, I am already hooked on Tim Tams, a NZ chocolate cookie which, as our kiwi host demonstrated, can also serve as a straw. Since Cadbury chocolate originated in Dunedin, I have stocked up on several of their products. I did also score some American food at the 4th/5th of July party I attended. Yesterday I woke up and walked up several unnecessary steep hills until I managed to find the University Flats office where I picked up my bedding package and then struggled to drag it back to my flat. The rest of my time has been spent trying to decode NZ slang and getting over jet lag (a task which some of my flatmates are attempting to move along).
That's pretty much it so far. I'll keep you posted on how orientation goes. Here's hoping that I will overcome jet lag tonight (an improbable feat seeing as I am currently feeling under the weather)!
On July 2nd, at 2PM eastern time, I departed from Philadelphia on the 6 hour plane ride to San Francisco and thus initiated my 5 month study abroad experience. The trip did not start off well as a person assigned the middle seat in my row did not react well to my refusal to swap my window seat for hers. After my lengthy layover in SanFran, I, along with what seemed like every high school band member of the state of California, boarded a 12 hour airNewZealand flight to Auckland. While I feared that, with a seat number ending in K, I would end up in the middle of two rowdy high schoolers tossing a football overhead, the flight was actually quite pleasant. Somehow, I ended up in a window seat next to a nice high school band couple who managed to limit their PDA. The upside of flying with a marching band is that the there is no room for screaming children. This flight also intruduced me to the beyond friendly diposition of New Zealanders. Once I stepped on the plane, I felt the warm glow of the flight crew and noticed how they genuinely cared about your experience on board. Unlike the previous flight, we were served two meals, dinner and breakfast, both which were served in non-plastic containers along with wine and other drinks (picture is coming). Once in Auckland, I rushed through customs and thankfully spotted my bag in the baggage claim almost immediately. While going through security for the umpteenth time at around 6 in the morning NZ time, I bumped into a fellow Otago student who was traveling to the University on an earlier flight. So far, I have not run into her again, but perhaps during orientation. As I waited in the tiny terminal to board my next flight, I ended up conversing with a student from India on his way Australia, where I would be staying for only one day in order to see a wrestling match. He had a heavy accent so I'm not entirely sure if I caught everything he said but, he was extremely friendly and we exchanged e-mail addresses at his request. At 8AM NZ time, I grabbed my aisle seat on my final plane ride to Dunedin. After briefly stopping in Wellington, I finally arrived in Dunedin, my home for the next few months, at 10:45 AM NZ time on July 4th. I then met up with the taxi driver who was scheduled to transport me from the airport to my flat. I gaurantee that you would never find a NYC taxi driver as delightful and chipper as this one, who told me about his life and love of sports as he showed me around the city.
Eventually, I ended up at my flat, 2a FORTH STREET, DUNEDIN 9016 NEW ZEALAND (this is so not a shameless plug to try and encourage people to send me mail) where I was greeted by flatmates Ebony (my kiwihost), Andrew, and Liz. Coming from the palace known as Bryn Mawr, I was expecting a downgrade in my living arrangement however, much to my surprise, I actually really like my room. The room is fairly spacious, with a double bed, two large windows, and a porch. Pictures will be coming soon so you can see how my dots have crossed the international date line. On the flipside, the entire flat is absolutely freezing as it is winter down here and Dunedin is not familiar with the concept of central heating. This morning, I could see my breath as I ate my breakfast. Today, our last flatmate, Thatcher, arrived. Out of the 6 of us, 4 of us are Americans and one is from the UK. So far, I've met mostly Americans, including someone who grew up in Haverford.
I know that I have spent a while going on about logistics but, there hasn't been much going on yet sinc orientation doesn't start until tomorrow. On my first day, Ebony drove us to the Wharehouse (a discount type store reminicent of Walmart) and the Pack'n Save food store. The following day, I wondered around Dunedin with a flatmate in search of rainboots (or gumboots as they are known in NZ) and groceries. I am regretting not bringing my pastel mead notebooks with me since all office supplies here are extremely pricey (I have a bit of a fettish with office supplies, so this was a bit of a problem for me). Unwilling to shell out 20 dollars for a binder, I settled on some flimsy, unstylish notebooks. It has only been a few days but, I am already hooked on Tim Tams, a NZ chocolate cookie which, as our kiwi host demonstrated, can also serve as a straw. Since Cadbury chocolate originated in Dunedin, I have stocked up on several of their products. I did also score some American food at the 4th/5th of July party I attended. Yesterday I woke up and walked up several unnecessary steep hills until I managed to find the University Flats office where I picked up my bedding package and then struggled to drag it back to my flat. The rest of my time has been spent trying to decode NZ slang and getting over jet lag (a task which some of my flatmates are attempting to move along).
That's pretty much it so far. I'll keep you posted on how orientation goes. Here's hoping that I will overcome jet lag tonight (an improbable feat seeing as I am currently feeling under the weather)!
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