So things have been super crazy since I arrived, well actually they haven’t been that crazy, its just been crazy in my head. But I am finally getting everything sorted out. The first 3 days in Palmerston were filled with orientations and meeting people. Meeting loads of people from around the world. I mostly hung around my flatmates but was also able to find a few other groups of friends. We had a good time at orientation, although boring at times, and they even fed us a bit. It was rainy off and all the first 3 days which made for a muddy walk through the jungle stairs to my house. On Thursday I went into to town and bought a bunch of necessities. It was crazy going in the stores and not recognizing a single brand! But the supermarket was kind of fun because I was meeting my flatmates there after we all went to different stores but then I ran into a bunch of other international kids and just ended up shopping with them too it was like a little world adventure in the grocery store with people from like 8 different countries….as it turns out all college students like pasta fyi. After loading up all my bags looking like a homeless person carrying my life on my back, I met another group of kids at the cinema to see Harry Potter 7.2! I figured I had to go see it because that was like half the reason for coming here to be able to see it before Jessica and Kaitlyn in America because of the time difference ha ha jk. But it was good and I made friends with a few more kids. Afterwards our big group went to get drinks and bumped into all my flatmates! It was just a crazy day of going around the city and seeing random people and random places unexpectedly.
Friday was a bit more exciting on the orientation end. They loaded us all into bus and took us to the dairy farm and the sheep farm! It smelt awful. But it was interesting to learn about the cows and milking them. All the asian exchange students acted like they had never seen a cow before…and honestly I don’t really know if they would have or not. But the sheep farm was even better because it didn’t smell so bad and they did demonstrations of sheep shearing and the sheep dogs herding the sheep. I even got some fresh wool to make my own mini wool pen cozy or something else very small. But the sheep dogs were incredible, I posted pictures in an earlier blog of all that. We finished the day with a bus tour of the city, there isn’t a lot to it, just one big square and everything important is around the square. Afterwards some Americans went bike shopping but I didn’t get a bike yet. That evening we a nice sit down dinner at the world renowned Massey University dining hall. But we did have some authentic new Zealand dessert, Pavlova, it was very sweet, just basically whipped egg whites with sugar. Dinner was followed by a traditional Maori dance performance by a bunch of local primary school kids. They were super intense and legit. During like this one war song I feared for my life a little because their facial expression were super intimidating. Oh then we had the best part of the night! So the day before we had to take this quiz and whoever finished it and got 100% was entered into a drawing for a bunch of different stuff and so we had the drawing and guess who won first pick? That’s right! …..not me, but it was some kid who wasn’t there…so guess who won second but really first pick? ME! So I pick this very cozy Massey Hoodie that was just the right size. And actually I went to the alumni shop today and it basically retails at NZ$80 so I got an awesome prize and a lot of people were jealous. It was even better because at dinner I was freezing the entire time even with a jacket so when I won I was SO happy and quickly grabbed the jacket. That night we had a good chat with all of our flatmates, it was so cool just to talk about the different places everyone was from.
Saturday started out pretty boring with orientations so we decided to leave about halfway through and we had some reasonable rationalizations in doing so. But then my flatmates and I all walked into to town, it took about 45 minutes but there weren’t a lot of buses on saturday. But we hit a few different shops and spent a lot of money getting groceries and things for the flat. I finally got a duvey! No more sleeping with a my towels and winter coat as a blanket whoot whoot! We had to take a taxi back to our flat because the lack of buses. Then the evening go t started with about 6 or 7 peeps showing up at our place then we all headed over to a little get together with all the other international kids. It was when the all preceded to the pub that I realized I’ll probably need to make some adjustments if I don’t want to drink and still do stuff on the weekends, so that is a work in progress.
Sunday was a beautiful day and I got up early to go to church and got a ride with Warren and yuko, the RAs of my village. I met a bunch of people at church, unfortuntately I can’t remember most of them because 1) there was a lot, 2) many were Polynesian or Maori and I had a hard time pronouncing their names let alone remembering them. But it was fun and a way nice ysa, Nadia Allen, invited me to her house for dinner. So at 4:30 Nadia picked me up and we had dinner at her house with her two brother, her mom, a friend, and the elders. It was so tasty! We had islander food which consisted of chicken with a vegetable I didn’t recognize, taro (a root) with coconut milk, sweet potatoes, and rice. Her mom is a great cook and there was so much food. She even made pumpkin pie for dessert with ice cream. It tasted almost just like home. But it was a lot of fun talking with them, their family is from Papa New Guinea and joined the church about 13 years ago. After dinner we played scrabble and I got my butt kicked. Their family was really smart and I think I might have left some of my brain on the plane. But it was a fun night! I really enjoyed spending Sunday with them. They said there are a bunch of ysa activities throughout the semester and hopefully I can go to some of those. Afterwards I came home and all my flatmates were worried I had died because I didn’t really tell anyone where I was going because I left in a rush, but when I told them they were all a bit jealous, and I don’t blame them, it was a great dinner.
Sorry for the boring day by day events, right now this is mostly just me trying to remember everything that has happened. Monday started out with a class I got way excited about, Training Principle and Practice. Unfortunately I am dropping it to take another class that is the same time and will transfer back to the U. But the first lecture was interesting. I was sort of the unlucky kid that got called out to help with a demonstration that basically demonstrated that I might have a slow reaction time and can’t catch a marker…..3 times. It was embarrassing. Afterwards I spent the day trying to meet with advisors and add and drop classes. The people here and seriously so friendly, like all the advisors and support staff all go above and beyond my expectations from the U. Even the ones from America and super helpful. I have been emailing advisors at the U for the past few days with no response. I got more done in 10 minutes with one professor here then I did in months at the U. Even if they can’t help you they will call people until they find someone that can. Even during this week, which is always the craziest week of a school year, they are so patient, I love it! As a result I now have at least 1 class that will count at the U, which is really a victory, maybe tomorrow I can find another! After running around all day all of our flatmates were just hanging out and decided to play cards. Another kid and I taught everyone to play spoons and it was probably the funniest game of spoons I have every played! It was crazy! At one point we were all laughing so hard we couldn’t stop for 5 minutes and we all started crying we were laughing so hard. The RA had so like come tell us so quiet down because she could hear us from a few houses away. The guys this morning even said their abs were sore! It was lots of fun.
Today was another low key day, with one disappointment, I got rejected from taking an upper division writing class I was hoping to get into but the people were still very nice when rejecting me J. So then I didn’t have class until 3 so I did my laundry and even go t my phone unlocked for free! So now I can use it and not have to buy one, just a new sim card! yeah that’s $40 saving and I get to keep my favorite little smart phone! So my one class today was on Maori customs and it will be super cool but for now I can’t understand or read any of the maori words the teacher uses, but I hope I’ll get there soon. Afterwards I went into town to set up my phone but I forgot my passport so that didn’t work so well. But I did some excellent grocery shopping. I almost cried when I found a whole section of shelves with Mexican food I was so happy! I’ve spent way too much on groceries but I finally feel like I have food to eat for awhile. I have blown through all the money I brought but I should be getting my meal stipend money on friday so then I will be ok, but everything is just so expensive here and getting settled costs a lot! But no matter how annoying things can be so far everything has been ok because you know what? I am in an awesome country! Actually last night I had a dream I came back to CWH and I was so mad. I wanted to stay in NZ! I wasn’t ready to be home and I am really enjoying everything here! I really was super upset in my dream it was funny. But don’t worry I still love CWH. Props to anyone who is still reading this by now, because this might be the longest blog post ever. Most of the corresponding pictures are below in the ragitoto post.
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