I figure the easiest way to catch up is to do little updates, so I'm jumping all the way back to the week of Halloween.

( Click here to read more. )

Well, I've made it home safely. The trip home was full of good and bad things: I got pulled aside for the random security check in Auckland and had my bags rifled through, and in San Francisco I kept setting off the metal detectors for some reason so I got pulled out of line, my luggage was searched (again) and I was metal-wanded and patted down... but on the international flight to San Fran I had the entire row to myself on an otherwise full flight so I got to lay down to sleep, and once I was in S.F. I was able to get a flight 3 hours sooner than the one I was supposed to be on, so I suppose that's good.

I really have mixed feelings about being home. It's wonderful to see my family, and I'm excited to see friends from high school once they get home in a week or two. It's fabulous to have my bed back and my down pillow (probably the luxury item I'd bring with me if I ever went on Survivor, honestly). At the same time, I had a really hard time leaving New Zealand. I started crying when I had to hug Sameera goodbye one last time, and cried all the way through the cab ride (the driver was really nice and understanding, having had to say goodbye to his own daughters who were going to London to work), sniffled through check in, and then went off to a bathroom to have a good bawl before pulling myself together enough to sit in the lobby waiting for my first flight to Auckland. I really feel like I had found an awesome group of friends, who I am going to miss more than I think they know. I just felt like I was in a really good place, not just the country itself but with the people I was spending time with, and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, leaving it all behind. When I finally got home, I was completely exhausted, not just physically but emotionally as well. It was really strange, for the first day I was back I had this weird kind of ache all over--not just my body from sleeping on a plane, but just a feeling of disconnect, not really knowing what to do now. I guess that's the biggest thing I'm trying to deal with--the question of what now? The last year or so of my life has been devoted to preparing for New Zealand, and now that it's over, I feel like I'm kind of floating without direction. I know I have things to look forward to--going back to school, seeing my friends again, and (in the more long-term) graduation in a year and a half. But I also feel like the big motivator, the thing that took a part in my everyday decisions is in my past, and it's a really weird thing to have to deal with.

Anyway. Enough deep soul-searching and introspection. I know I promised an update with photos of the past month and a half (eep!) I will get them up as soon as I can! I have some free time now, being currently unemployed, but that may change soon, so we'll see. In the meantime, hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

Finally! I am putting up the rest of my south island trip. I am a tad overwhelmed by all that I have to write about now--I spent just under 3 weeks on the road, first with Greg and Sara and then with my family. We did a ton of stuff, but I will do my best to get everything up in a timely fashion.

Seeing my family was wonderful. It was a weird transformation, going from having almost complete and total independence to do whatever I want to spending 2 weeks around my family 100% of the time, but overall it went more or less smoothly. It was really nice to see them and then have one more week with my friends before finally heading home.

Anyway, here is the rest of the South Island trip, finally.

( Click here for more )

I know I promised an update with the rest of my South Island trip photos, and I did try and do an update--I was almost done!--but I accidentally closed my internet browser. Typing everything is a lot of work and I didn't feel up to doing it all over again, so I never quite got around to it. I'm planning on catching up as soon as I'm done with my current trip, at the end of November.

But, I do want to let you all know I'm still alive. This morning I got up at 5:30 to catch a city bus to the train station and then took a beautiful 5 hour train ride north to Blenheim, all along the coast. It was really nice. Then we had a quick layover in Blenheim before a 2 hours bus ride to Nelson. I really like it here; it's a great little town and really beautiful. We're only here for one more day, most of which we'll be spending even further north in Abel Tasman National Park, which is kind of a bummer. I'll have to do more exploring when I come back through with my family.

My finals went really well. I had two exams, one for political science and one for history. Both were 3 hour essay exams, which was kind of painful but I survived it alright. I don't find out what grades I get until the first week of December, but I'm pretty confident I did well. I'm starting to get all set for next semester, too--I've registered for all my classes (Renaissance Lit, Oregon/Pacific NW writers, Ethics, 3D design, and Vertebrate biology) and have a place to live, which is a relief. I'm looking forward to starting the new semester, but I am also really sad about leaving New Zealand in just under a month. Since I'm going to be gone for so long on this trip (over 2 weeks) I had to say goodbye over the weekend to a lot of people I'm not going to see again when I get back. It was really sad and hard to say goodbye, but hopefully we'll stay in touch through Facebook and maybe even visiting some people every once in a while.

Anyway, just this quick update from me. I promise to put up photos in a few weeks! Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

I've been working on this post for a week or so now; it's gotten really long and I'm not even halfway done writing about my trip south. But, I thought I'd put up what I have so far and post the rest again later when I get the chance. Enjoy!

( Click here to read more and for photographs )

Things have been slowly winding down, and I've been putting less and less of my time into homework. No worries, I turned in my last essay today and only have a take-home test to finish and a test to study for next week, and then I'm home free until finals on November 9 & 10. I'm pretty stoked to be done with school and not having to worry about homework or class.

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun! Last Tuesday was the final dinner for my study abroad group. We met early in one of the common rooms in Ilam Village for a wrap-up meeting, and then some of the girls from my group gave out "awards" to everyone. I got the award for "Most likely to be taking a picture... right now" and sure enough I had my camera out when they handed it to me. The awards were all hilarious-- Josh (who got lost on the mountain in Rarotonga) got "Most Likely to be a consultant for Lost, Greg, who somehow always ends up hanging out with big groups of girls, got "Most Likely to have 4 wives," and Eunice, our awesome leader, got the "Best imitation of my mom" award for being such a nice foster mom for all of us. There were loads more but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

( Click here for photos and more )

Apparently there was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake this morning! I was asleep and had my alarm set to wake up at 8:30, but woke up around 8:15. I didn't think about it until this evening when someone brought it up while we were playing Monopoly and mentioned what time it had happened. I think it may have been what woke me up, but I didn't really feel it, so I don't think it counts. Some of my friends had felt it, and said they knew it was an earthquake because it went on longer than just rattling you'd get from someone slamming a door or running across the floor. Luckily there haven't been any reports of damage at all.

Last Wednesday, a few of us decided to go to Dux de Lux, a restaurant near the Arts Centre that's famous for it's beer. They also usually have a band playing, but we went and sat in the quieter bar area separate from the main restaurant. It was fun just hanging out and relaxing. After Dux closed, everyone went to a pool hall to play pool for a few hours, but I had to head back because I had an English test the next day. The test went pretty well, overall, although I wish I had had more time to write--the topic (How NZ poet Denis Glover struggled with the ideals of cultural nationalist masculinity in his work) was pretty broad and I had a lot I wanted to cover. I think I did alright, though.

( Click here for photos and to read about Hagley Park )

I haven't updated in a week, mostly because I haven't really done anything all that exciting! But I do have some photos, so I thought I would post those.

Today was an awesome mail day--I got 3 letters! One from my brother Sam, one from my friend Kristen and one from my grandparents (which, oddly, was postmarked August 6! Either they messed up on the postmark date or it just got lost along the way and finally made it here). Getting mail is really awesome; I love hearing how everyone is doing and what they're up to (hint hint... :P) plus I really like writing back. :)

Last Friday the weather was absolutely gorgeous. At lunchtime I went outside in capris and a tank top to read at a picnic table in the sun, and even got a bit tanner. We decided it was the perfect day for the beach, so David, Drew, Andrew, Andy, Hayes, Ian, and I all piled onto the bus to go to Sumner Beach. Normally it takes about a half hour to 45 minutes to get there, but since it was 3:00 on a Friday, kids were getting out of school and traffic was pretty backed up (for Christchurch; it's nothing compared to say Portland or even Boise on a bad day) so it took us an hour to get there. About half way there, the clouds started to roll in, and by the time we arrived it was overcast and pretty chilly out. We decided to stay anyhow; Ian and Hayes went off to get some food while the rest of the guys kicked a soccer ball around and I checked out the huge sea cave (the tide was pretty low, so no worries about getting stuck inside).

When Hayes and Ian got back we started a game of Ultimate Frisbee, which was a lot of fun. At the beginning my feet were completely numb--I'd gone in the water, which wasn't that cold right off the bat, but running around on the cold sand made my feet freeze. After while of running around, though, they finally warmed up. I'm a so-so Frisbee player, but I did manage to score a touchdown.

( Click here for photos and more text )

While I was packing to come to New Zealand, I had to make the decision of whether or not I wanted to bring my bulky, heavy film camera with me or not. I have sentimental feelings about this camera--although it's awkward to carry, expensive to use (film, batteries), and is decidedly not digital, I've had it for almost 4 years. It's been with me to France (twice) and Italy, went with me during my senior (and hands-down, best) year of high school, and recorded my first semester of college before being more or less replaced with a much more practical digital camera. I ultimately decided to bring it because it's just plain fun to use and still takes pretty decent pictures (particularly with black and white film).

I had it with me when I went up to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs (it's what I used when my digital camera ran out of battery while doing the waterfall hike) and also in Rarotonga, and it was loaded with a roll of black and white film. I was really happy with the results, and scanned the photos in and put them on the computer to load onto the internet.

( Click here to see black and white photos, as well as others from after spring break )

.... Holy cow.

I just got my first paper back, the one for my history class about Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. I got an A! Not only that, but the highest grade in the class, and the professor wants to use it as an example in class for a well-done essay! I'm so excited about this--I felt really good about this essay because it was actually fun to write, I enjoyed doing the research, and I felt like it was well-written. I was worried, though, about how my (US) writing would translate to the NZ grading scale. This is such an awesome, positive thing for me! :) Now I just need to get the other two essays I turned in before break back to see how I did on those.

This week's been laid back, so far. Last night Greg and I went to Hell Pizza for dinner (it was awesome, and now I really want to try their dessert pizza) and then went and saw The Bourne Ultimatum, which was awesome. Great movie. Tonight some girls are coming over for "pudding" (as in dessert, not necessarily pudding) and this weekend we're planning on heading downtown to watch The All Blacks (the NZ rugby team) play in the Rugby World Cup. Should be fun!

I just got back from Rarotonga the day before yesterday. It was seriously one of the best weeks of my life--I had so much fun. I loved the relaxed feel of the island--nobody seems to really rush to go places or do things. Everything is so chill and nice. One guy in my group, Addison, was saying that even the music is relaxed and that he'd miss it when we went back. It's a very musical island, with people constantly playing music, singing, and dancing. I really enjoyed myself, and was sad to leave after a week--it's definitely a lifestyle I could get used to and thoroughly enjoy.

( Click here to see photos and hear about the trip to Rarotonga. Be forewarned: TONS of photos. )

Well, I survived my trip to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs. I had a really great time; we saw a lot of really cool things, met awesome people from all over the globe (I don't think we ran into another American the entire trip), and had some interesting adventures. Greg makes a great travel buddy and the whole thing went really well.

( Click here for lots of reading about the trip + photos )

This has been a pretty busy week, but not really in terms of doing stuff. This is my last week before the mid-semester break, and I've been really busy finishing up schoolwork. I had 2 essays due last week, one for History comparing Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, and another for my Political Science class about patriarchy and women in the Middle East. They were both pretty interesting and I'm anxious to get them back. Now I'm working on a 3,000 word essay (~10 pages) about Katherine Mansfield's short stories. They're all interesting to read about, but just a pain to get off the ground. I'm a terrible English major in that I loathe writing essays. If I could, I would just take the class, read the material, and have a really good discussion about it, but never write an essay.

My classes are going fairly well. Antarctic studies has been really interesting--we just had a class about penguins in the Antarctic, which I really liked. I have a test for that class on Friday, in addition to turning in my English paper. History has been pretty laid back; we're learning about Maori women which is cool because I don't really know anything about them at all.

Political science has been really good, too. We're learning all about Iraq, in particular the rise of Saddam Hussein. I really like it because I'm learning a lot about the area that I never knew before. You can also really see what a hole the US has dug itself into, and why it's so complicated to sort it all out. The problems are by no means recent--some social, religious, and ethnic divides go back thousands of years, and the conflicts between all of them are so convoluted that there is definitely no simple answer. It's really interesting seeing all this from the New Zealand perspective, since they're not really involved in the war. I'm learning a lot.

A few times, I've been waiting to go into a class room or walking out when I've gotten into conversations with other Kiwi students, which has been really cool. One day I talked to a woman who was frustrated that people weren't speaking up more in class to discuss things. She said that she had notices that American students are usually willing to talk more, and thought that we had been taught to articulate our thoughts better, which I thought was interesting. I don't know if it's true or not, but I have noticed that students here don't seem as forthcoming when it comes to classroom discussions.

I also talked to a few older students the other day about classes in the US. One guy wanted to know how the work load compared, and I told him honestly that it's a lot easier here--the work load is a lot more manageable. Another woman agreed; she said that she had had a British professor who had taught in the US for a few years, and was bowled over by the amount of work he had wanted them to do. It's nice not having as much work, but it does mean you have to do really well on the few assignments you do.

So, aside from school work, this week has been pretty plain. We celebrated my flatmate David's 25th birthday yesterday, and on Monday I went out to brunch with Latoya, which was fun. It was nice to get out of the flat for a while. I've also been having these really strange and oddly realistic dreams. In one, I was in Coos Bay with all my dad's side of the family. Everyone was at my grandma and grandpa's house, but for some reason I was at my aunt and uncle Bill and Kathy's house, and they wanted me to drive their pickup truck to my grandparent's house. There were a bunch of cars in their garage, and the pickup was really huge, and I ended up backing the truck up into a Subaru parked behind it (I don't even know if they have those cars in real life). So then I was really worried, and I had to go back to my grandparents' house and tell my aunt Kathy that I was really sorry but I'd crushed the front of her Subaru, and ended up waking up in a panic about it. It's so strange how stress can manifest itself in your subconscious!

Anyway, that's all for now. On Saturday I leave for my road trip north, so I probably won't post again until I have pictures of that. And then I'm off to the Cook Islands!

( Just a few photos from David's birthday )

This past week has flown by. I only have one more week until spring break, which I'm really looking forward to. The first week, Greg from my program and I are taking a road trip up to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs, about 3 hours north of here. Kaikoura is famous for whale watching, but also has lots of other things to do. Hanmer Springs has natural hotsprings that sound like fun. Greg is also trying his hardest to convince me to go skydiving, but I am still adamantly refusing. I am absolutely petrified of heights, and jumping out of an airplane at 15,000 feet just doesn't appeal to me.

On Tuesday, Emerald, Sameera, her friend Emily who was visiting, Latoya, and I all went out to a place called Strawberry Fare. They serve food all day, but we just went for the amazing desserts. It was really nice to have a girl's night out and just relax; everyone seems to have a lot of work to do before break. I ordered the "Devil's Dream," which was a slice of chocolate cake with raspberry layers. It was really delicious, but also really rich and took a while to finish. All the desserts were presented in really artful ways, too, which was pretty cool (click on the link below to see photos).

The rest of the week was pretty laid back. I spent some time working on an essay about the conflict between women's rights and patriarchy in the Middle East, which was pretty interesting. I turned in two essays this week, and I'm really curious to get them back and see how I did. I felt pretty good about the finished product with both of them, but they're the first assignments I've turned in here, so I have no way of judging.

On Friday, Emerald, David, Andrew, and our friend Andy from another flat all drove down to Timaru (TIM-a-roo). Emerald's boyfriend, Logan, runs a sheep farm in the country there with his dad, and Emerald lives with Logan when she's not at school. The farm was actually about half an hour from Timaru, way out in the country. We went into town to get some dinner and pick up a movie before heading back to the farm. Emerald took us out to a field that was up on top of a hill, and we got to see the amazing stars. Since we were out in the country, with absolutely no lights around for miles, the stars were incredibly. I finally found the Southern Cross in the sky, but was also able to see the Milky Way. It was so cool; the moon was just a tiny little sliver that went down below the hills fairly quickly, so you could see a lot. When we turned off the flashlight (or "torch" as they call it here) and your eyes adjusted, you could actually see where the land ended and sky began pretty well. A little ways off was a really tall tree that went up towards the sky, and just below you could see the faint lights of Timaru. I was reminded of van Gogh's painting "Starry Night"--with the exception of the absent moon, it looked just like that. We could hear sheep and cows calling to one another, and when you shined the flashlight down on the fields below, the eyes of the hundreds of sheep lit up; it was really kind of creepy looking. The same thing happened when we took pictures of some of cows in the field.



We headed back after that and visited the sheepdogs. They were really sweet, nice dogs who were really excited to have some visitors. They were all border collies, too, and made me miss our dog, Star, who was some kind of border collie mix, we think. That's one of the biggest things I miss in college--having a dog around. They're so companionable and just comforting to have around. After visiting the dogs, we headed back to the house. We pulled the mattresses off the guest beds and put them down in the main room. The house is heated by a wood stove, and it was pretty chilly everywhere else, so I'm glad we all slept in there with all the doors shut. We watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Lion King before crashing to sleep.

The next morning, Emerald drove us back up to the top of the hill we went to the night before to take pictures in the daylight. We went into the pasture of another farmer to get even higher to get better views. Apparently, this farmer breeds bulls, and he also had electric fences set up. We stood around for a bit to try and figure out the best way to get past the fence. David just stepped over, Andy took a running start and jumped over. Then I decided to try and crawl under. I got under fine, but then my camera fell out of my pocket, and after I picked it up my sweatshirt brushed the fence. I didn't feel anything at all; I didn't even know I'd touched it until Emerald yelled and I turned to see the fence shaking. It was kind of scary, but I'm totally fine. We got some good photos, and then headed back down the hill (this time just stepping over the fence) to drive to Lake Tekapo (TEA-kuh-po).

The drive there was pretty uneventful, we stopped to take some pictures of the mountains and the merino sheep grazing nearby. In the town was an ice rink right next to the lake, so we went there and skated for an hour or so. It was a lot of fun--Emerald had never been before, so we taught her how to skate. Both Andy and Andrew were pretty good, I think Andy had played hockey before. David decided to sit it out, but we skated for an hour or so before heading down to the lake. As we were climbing out onto some rocks out in the lake, I managed to slip and stick my feet in both going out and coming back, so my feet were a bit soggy, but surprisingly not cold. We went to look at a historic old church and the statue of a dog put up in recognition of all the work sheepdogs do in the area. Then we got some sushi for lunch before heading back home.

This week I'm going to spend working on yet another essay before break. I'm pretty excited, it will be fun to get off campus and exploring the country a bit more. I also got an e-mail from my family saying that they are coming to visit for 2 weeks around Thanksgiving, so I am really looking forward to that. It will be fun to show them around the country.

( Click here to see photos + 1 video )

These past 3 days have been a lot of fun. I'm finally getting to do stuff! :) On Friday, we went out to a restaurant called Thai Orchid for Kaylie's birthday. They give you a free dinner on your birthday, so that was the main reason we went there, but the food was also really delicious. I ordered Pad Thai for the first time, it was pretty good. Afterwards, we went downtown to a place called Fat Eddie's. There was a live band playing music, and a lot of people were dancing. It was pretty crowded though, so we left after a little bit and went to a bar called Shooters. It was really dead around there--a lot of people here tend to go out on Thursday and Saturday nights, but stay home on Friday apparently. We went upstairs for a little while where they had these weird cowhide covered couches and pool tables and just hung out for a while before heading back home.

On Saturday, Krystina, Ella, Sara, and I got up early to rent a car to go to Akaroa, which was amazing. The road up was really windy and curvy, and I got pretty carsick, but we arrived in one piece. Krystina did a great job of driving on the left side of the road--I think it would be pretty easy to get used to when you're just driving on a highway. It's driving in town that would really freak me out. We lost the radio after a while, so we just talked about school, what we wanted to do after we graduated, music, and politics. It was really nice to have a good conversation. When we arrived, we went to the visitor's center and picked up a map for a hike up into the foothills. The hike was pretty steady uphill, but wound between a bunch of little sheep farms and then opened up into fields that gave us incredible views of the bay below. We found a tree house that I climbed up into, and came across some sheep lounging in the shade on the path. At the top were some picnic tables where we had lunch and enjoyed the amazing views.

After hiking back down, we decided to walk into town. It was definitely the off season; most of the town seemed pretty asleep. There were a bunch of sailboats in the harbor and a couple of shops for renting kayaks, canoes, and bikes, so I would assume it would be much busier in the summertime. But we had fun looking into the little shops. At one, Sara and I were waiting outside for the other girls to buy something when we saw Clare, another girl from our study abroad group, drive by with her boyfriend. We waved, and she turned around to talk to us. Clare is living with her boyfriend in an international house downtown, so we don't see her as much as everyone else. She and her boyfriend Dan bought a huge van that they're going to live out of after school is over. When we asked her how long she was planning on staying in New Zealand, she just said until they were out of money. She and Dan decided to join us as we walked through town. We wandered around for a bit, looking in shops and taking pictures at the harbor. At one point, an alarm went off in the hills. It sounded like the tsunami warning system on the Oregon coast. We looked around to see if we could figure out what it was for when we saw smoke rising up from the hills in the distance. A while later, a firetruck pulled out of a fire station across the street and drove down the road. We never saw a fire on our way back, and I haven't heard anything about it in the news, so hopefully it wasn't anything too serious.

After a while, we started to get tired and decided to head back. We text messaged Maggie, who had been planning on coming with us but wasn't feeling well that morning, so she stayed home to sleep. We decided that we would go to her flat and cook her dinner and watch a movie. After an uneventful drive home, we picked up some groceries and piled into Maggie's flat to watch The Office and make grilled cheese sandwiches that were delicious.

That night, I went back home and ended up having a long conversation with my boyfriend, David. One of the hardest things about being here is the extreme cost of communication with people back home. Phone is expensive, obviously, but with the cost of internet, so is Skype. So with the exception of e-mail, instant messaging, or snail mail, there aren't really that many options in terms of keeping in close contact for reasonable costs. This has been putting a great deal of strain on our relationship, especially since when I was home, we talked on the phone every day. It had been really hard to go from that to a sort of communication blackout. That, combined with the distance and the changes we knew we'd both go through in the 5 months we'd be apart made us come to the conclusion that the best thing to do right now would be to take a break from dating and see where we're at when I go back to school in January. It was really sad, and I'm really sorry to see it end, but I'm really glad we're still really good friends and on the best of terms.

Anyway, after a long night of dealing with that, I hit the sack. Early the next morning, I had to get up to return the rental car with Ella and Kaylie. Kaylie wasn't feeling well (sickness has just been making the rounds in our group) so she headed home on the bus, but Ella and I went to the visitor's center in Cathedral Square to meet up with Maggie, Greg, Sara, and Krystina to catch a shuttle to Orana Wildlife Park. It took about half an hour to get there by bus, but once we got there it was worth it. We saw a bunch of animals I'd never seen up close before. There were giraffes, zebras, kangaroos, lemurs, meerkats, cheetahs, tigers, lions, and a bunch of other animals. The definite highlight was the giraffes, especially since we got to hand-feed them and even touch them. You know they are tall, but it's only once you get right up close and personal that you understand just how tall they are. We also saw a tiger being fed, which was pretty cool.

After hiking on Saturday and walking around all day at the wildlife park on Sunday, I was pretty tired, so we headed back home and I spent the afternoon relaxing. Emerald had gone home for the weekend but was back, so it was nice to see her. In the evening, everyone cooked dinner (or tea, as they call it here) in the kitchen and then we settled down on the couches to watch Ice, this really cool show that's on every Sunday night after the news. It's just a half hour program about a guy who's on Scott Base in Antarctica and interviews people and describes the whole experience of living there. It's really good, I like it a lot.

Anyway, that's about it for my action-packed weekend. I of course didn't get any homework done, so I'll have to work extra hard this week to finish up my essays, but I think it was worth it.

( Click here to see photos + 2 videos from Orana Wildlife Park )

Today, I spent most of the day finishing my essay (one down, two to go) and at the grocery store. Now it's too late to do more homework but too early for bed. I thought I'd post instead.

Things are going well. I haven't done anything really exciting since my last post except for go to the movie (Rescue Dawn). It was really good, but very intense. Christian Bale was excellent as the main character, but I was most impressed with Steve Zahn, who usually acts in comedies but this time was absolutely heartbreaking in a dramatic role. Finding the movie theater was a bit of an adventure--it's kind of down this dark alley next to an overpass, kind of sketchy looking in the dark. But the theater itself was really cool, it was upstairs in this building and had a really neat lobby with old-school movie posters. I definitely want to go to more movies from the film festival, especially one called Eagle vs. Shark. It looks really similar to Napoleon Dynamite, and sounds hilarious. I've posted the trailer below.

I treated myself to a phone call to my roommate yesterday. It's atrociously expensive, but I was feeling lonely so I gave her a call. Lucky for me, my boyfriend was keeping her company since she's living alone in a rental house for the rest of the summer before everyone moves back to Portland for school, so I got to talk to him, too. It was really nice to hear about their summers so far and all the adventures they'd had. I keep feeling a weird combination of homesickness, not only for my family but also for my friends from school, and excitement about being here. I'll see pictures my friends post online and really wish I were there with them. At the same time, I get worried that I'm not taking full advantage of my time here. At the moment, I'm pretty busy with school work and have had to pass up on a lot of fun things (I had 2 opportunities to do the hike that I've really been wanting to do, but had to pass both times) among other things. I'm just waiting for spring break to come in 3 weeks so I can relax a little bit and finally take advantage of what New Zealand has to offer.

(Sorry no pictures this time! If I'd taken any photos between now and my last post it would have been of me typing at my computer. Dull.)

Today, I have officially been in New Zealand for one month. I can't believe I'm already a fifth of the way through my time here--it feels like I just arrived a week ago. At the same time, I'm becoming more and more comfortable and familiar with my surroundings and the Kiwi way of life. Yesterday, I went and saw an American movie and for a split second thought that they were driving on the wrong side of the road.

Sadly, my first month has been book-ended by two sad events. The night before I flew out, our dog Star died in her sleep, which made what was already an emotional day (having to say goodbye to my family for the next five months) even more so. Star was a really important part of our family and it was strange not having her around that day. Then a few days ago, I got an e-mail from my mom saying that her mom, my grandma, had finally passed away after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. It's been really hard to see her change so dramatically over the past few years, going from a loving matriarch to a virtual stranger and being helpless to do anything about it. In the end, though, I'm glad she finally passed on because she had lived a long, happy, and fulfilled life, and I really don't feel like there was anything left of the grandma I'd grown up with. When she was still able to communicate, she seemed confused and frightened by the disease, and I'm glad she finally has relief from those feelings as well as relief from the strain it put on her whole being. So even though I'm not able to go to the funeral, I'm still feeling a sense of closure about it.

Happily, the month in between has been more or less a good one. I'm still having a hard time getting school work done, especially on days when the sun is gloriously high in the sky and the outdoors just beckon to be taken advantage of. Today I have to work on a history essay, comparing the ruling styles of Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. I actually find the research pretty interesting, which is good.

The other night, my study abroad group went to Tamaki Heritage Village. Essentially, it's an interactive performance where you go and wander through the reconstruction of a Maori village and then a Christchurch town while actors put on a performance. It was really amazing and well-done. After the tour, we went to a hangi, or a traditional Maori dinner of food cooked underground on hot rocks. It was really delicious, and a really fun experience all around.

On Friday night, I went to the Uni Hall Ball, a dance put on for everyone living in University Hall. It was held at the Addington Raceway Events Center, this building that opens up into the bleachers of a horse racetrack. It was free to go to the dance, and they hired city buses to take us to the raceway. I went with my whole flat, as well as the flat above us and a few other people. Everyone came to our flat first to get ready to go and take pictures, and then we all piled into the buses to head to the track. They served a delicious buffet-style dinner beforehand, which was really good. After eating, we all headed out to the dance floor. They had both a live band and a DJ with a huge dance floor in front, but also plenty of couches and tables for people to sit and relax at in between songs. I had a great time, and met a bunch of new people.

Yesterday was also a really busy day. I spent the morning doing research for my paper, and then went out with a bunch of girls from my program to a thrift store we'd heard about. It's a huge warehouse with racks and racks of clothes, divided up by style and color, all of which were only $2 each. I found a nice long-sleeve shirt and a little purse to use for going out to carry money, etc. It had started raining torrentially while we were there and got really cold (the warehouse didn't have any heating, and you could see your breath in there) so we went to a coffee shop to warm up. Afterwards, we headed back into town and got some delicious Thai food for dinner and then went and saw License to Wed, which just came out here. It was alright, not the funniest movie I'd ever seen. Greg had come with us, and said that there were a lot of references to the TV show The Office, because the main star, John Krasinski, also stars in that show, so I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if I watched the show.

Anyway, that's all that's been going on for now. Tonight I'm planning on going to the New Zealand International Film Festival to see Rescue Dawn. It looks pretty good. But for now I've got to get back to my paper.

( Click here to see photos. )

In the interest of convenience, if anyone would like me to send them an e-mail when I update this journal, you can e-mail me at immissingashoe at gmail dot com and I'll set up a list. Makes things easier for people who want to keep up but don't want to check for new updates. Let me know!

When I first came here, I was all set to have a meal plan. I'm not that experienced as a cook, and I felt like having to go to the grocery store and come up with something nutritious to eat every day would be kind of a hassle, so I opted for the meal plan. After only one meal at the dining hall, as well as seeing my flatmates cook for themselves, I decided to drop the plan and venture forth into the world of cooking.

Thus far, it's gone pretty well. I have a fairly well-stocked cupboard with some basics, and have asked my parents for recipes for things like gumbo that can be made in larger quantities and then stashed in the fridge for leftovers. The gumbo turned out alright, a bit on the bland side but still pretty tasty. I've also done some baking, which I definitely have more experience with. My mom sent me my great-grandma's recipe for banana bread, which was a huge hit with my flatmates. I thought it was really cool that my great-grandma was sort of passing on a recipe not only trans-generationally but also trans-continentally. I did have to buy a bread pan, and after considering carefully, I decided to go with the cheaper, flexible, rubbery-material (silicone?) one rather than the more expensive metal one. The problem was that it was really flexible, and the dough is relatively heavy, so the sides got forced outwards, resulting in a really oddly-shaped loaf. Also, the oven is incredibly cantankerous, and took nearly an hour to get up to 350 F (175 C), and then had trouble staying there so everything needs to bake longer than it says on the recipe. But overall, things have turned out relatively well, including a nice batch of cookies I made last night.

This past weekend, I went downtown because the Christchurch Arts Festival was going on. It was pretty cool, I didn't actually see any events from the festival, but a couple of street performers were out doing shows. Afterwards, we walked all the way back to campus (nearly a 2 hour walk) by going through Hagley Park, which is an enormous city park that has a pond, golf course, rugby/soccer fields, and lots of pretty trees and (in the spring, but not now) flowers. It was a long walk, but nice to get out of the flat for a while.

( Click here to see photos from downtown, plus a kiwi. )

*Edited to add a video*

This week has gone by in a kind of daze. I hadn't been feeling well last weekend, and that quickly turned into a full-blown cough that gave way to a nasty head cold. I had been holding out on buying spendy cold medicine, but finally caved and got some today and feel a lot better. And I'll have some now if I get sick in the future, I guess.

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with my study abroad program leader, Eunice. She was meeting with everyone just to check in and see how the first week of school had gone. We had a nice talk, and then I had the rest of Wednesday off from classes. That night, my study abroad group went to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve to do a special night tour to see nocturnal animals. It was pretty cool, we saw owls, mountain parrots, some reptiles, and kiwi birds! Before we went in to see the kiwis in their enclosure, our tour guide asked us to be very quiet, as kiwis are hypersensitive to sound, and to turn the flash off on our cameras because the flash could blind the birds and they couldn't be released into the wild if they were blind. Then we all went inside a large enclosed room to see the birds. They were so cool! They're bigger than I thought they'd be, about the size of a chicken, and look hilarious as they walk around their enclosure with their really long noses, rustling around looking for bugs and drinking water. The enclosure was pretty nice--a really large room, with a pathway through the middle for visitors to walk along. On either side of the path was a low fence, so you could lean over to see the kiwi birds. There was also a little stream running through the enclosure, so the kiwis were drinking out of that. I think there were about 4 or 5 of them that I could see. We spent about 15 minutes watching them before heading off to see other animals. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't work because it was so dark and they walked too quickly--they would have gone right out of the frame of the picture before it had taken. One guy in my group, Greg, did take a really good one, so I'll post that if I can get a copy from him.

Last night, my flat and the people living in the flat above us went to a place called Lonestar for dinner. It was a lot of fun--there were a bunch of people, and we all took the bus to get there. When I stepped inside, it was like being in a steakhouse in the US--there were photos of Native Americans everywhere, Johnny Cash on the radio, and heaps of movie posters for western films. But then, there was also the NZ flag all over, pictures of kiwi birds, and rugby on the TV. It was a strange combination of decor, but the food was really good. I had a lamb plate with amazing mashed potatoes and a really good salad. We were there for nearly 2 and a half hours, and spent the entire time talking and having a good time.

( Click here for pictures )

(Those less enthusiastic about reading can scroll to the bottom for pictures.)

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday, 4 other girls and I all went to the campus bookstore at 10:30 to pick up the last book in the Harry Potter series. The book couldn't be released before 11:01 on Saturday morning, since that would be 12:01 Saturday morning in London. We were all really excited about getting the book.


Krystina, Maggie, Sara, Me, and Ella with our copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

After getting our books we all went back to Sara's flat and read the book together until 3:00, pausing only to order a pizza for lunch. I headed back to my room after that and spent some more time reading. We went out at about 7:30 to go watch a rugby game at a sports pub called the Holy Grail downtown. It's a really cool pub--there are 4 stories, all balconied on top of one another and they all open up to a big screen on the back wall. We stayed to the end of the game and then headed back home afterwards.

On Sunday I spent some more time reading, and then a bunch of us took the bus to New Brighton Beach. It's a really neat beach because they've built an enormous pier that juts out into the ocean that you can walk out on. The ocean was this really pretty shade of turquoise that I've never seen before in an ocean. We spent some time exploring around the beach, had a break to get some lunch, and then stayed to watch the sun set before heading back home. That night I finished reading Harry Potter--it's really good, I think she tied the ends up well.

Last night was a lot of fun, too. I was sitting in my room at about 7:30, not really feeling like making dinner since I've got a cough and I think a bit of a fever. Cooking just did not sound appealing at all. Then, Andres, my flatmate from Columbia, stuck his head in my room and asked if I'd eaten yet. When I said I hadn't, he invited me to come help him make dinner and he would share. I went out and met his friend Arnold, from Paris, and helped him to make potatoes au gratin and some kind of baked chicken dish. The whole thing was a bit iffy, since the cream we used on the potatoes was really thick and needed to be mixed with milk. We ran out of milk, so Andres started to add water. Then we put cheese on top, but Drew, who lives next door to me and is from Kentucky, thought the cheese might burn. So 10 minutes after we'd put the potatoes in the oven, we took them out and Sam, Andres' other friend from the west coast of France, pretended to do surgery on the potatoes, asking for a scalpel as he tried to flip them over and mix the cheese inside rather than have it on the top. Then, we realized the chicken was supposed to bake for an hour and a half, meaning we wouldn't be eating until 9:30. So, we decided to play cards and talk to take our minds off of being hungry. The rest of my flatmates turned up, and in the end we had 10 people in the flat from 4 different countries talking and enjoying ourselves. The food even turned out pretty well, for just winging it. I don't think Andres had never made potatoes au gratin before, he'd just seen his mom make it. I don't know if my brother Sam is reading this, but the Frenchman Sam looked and acted just like an older version of your friend Alec--it was really surreal!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to for now. I'm just trying to take it easy and get rid of this stupid cough. I kind of expected it, since I'm being exposed to a lot of bugs that I've never been exposed to before, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain.

( Click here to see pictures from New Brighton Beach )

School has been going pretty well so far. I like all of my classes, and think the workload will be challenging but not unmanageable. I'm taking 4 classes: New Zealand Literature, Antarctic Studies (focusing on life in the cold), Heroines in History (basically famous women throughout history), and Introduction to World Politics, focusing on the Middle East.

The literature class seems to fit me pretty well. There are just under 20 people in the class, which makes for good discussions. We're focusing on Katherine Mansfield, who was from Wellington but moved to England while she was pretty young; a group of writers who called themselves the "Cultural Nationalists" who more or less disowned Mansfield since she was an expat of New Zealand; and James K. Baxter, who wrote after the Nationalists and worked against some of the ideals they instilled in New Zealand Literature. I'd never heard of anyone except for Katherine Mansfield, who I'd studied a bit in a previous English Lit class at UP. This may work for or against me--I get to learn about new writers and read stuff I've never read before, which is exciting, but at the same time I don't have the background that I have in American or even British lit, so I may get lost in some references that the prof may take for granted that everyone knows. We'll see how that goes. The professor is really nice and I really like the style he has when examining a piece of literature. The only real drawback is that the room we are in has terrible acoustics that make everything echo slightly. So, the professor, who doesn't speak very loudly in the first place and also has an accent I'm still not used to starts talking I really have to pay close attention to understand everything. Other than that, the class is going pretty well.

Antarctic Studies is also really interesting. I'm kicking myself now because I had that class this morning, but accidentally set my alarm for 7pm rather than 7am and slept right through it! But from the introduction on the first day of class it sounds like we'll be studying pretty interesting stuff from all different standpoints. The main professor specializes in legal issues dealing with Antarctica, such as land rights, what countries are allowed to do what, what kind of natural resources should be taken from the continent and what shouldn't, etc. There are also a bunch of guest lecturers who specialize in different things. For the next few weeks, for example, a prof from the Biology department is coming to talk about plant life in the antarctic, and how plants manage to survive in such an extreme environment.

I'm a bit undecided about my history class. I think it's a really neat concept: we learn about various women throughout history and see how they fit the model of a "heroine." We're looking at all kinds of women--Joan of Arc, the Virgin Mary, several different queens, Princess Diana, some women from Maori culture, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, women from the Women's Rights Movement in NZ, and even Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, along with a bunch of other people I've never heard of. I think it's a great cross-section, but I'm not sure about the professor's teaching style. She puts some points up on a power point, but then goes through her own notes very quickly and it's difficult to get all the details down in time. We do have study groups that start next week, so hopefully that will help. I may also end up bringing my laptop to class as well, since I can type notes faster than I can write them.

My last class is Introduction to World Politics with a focus on the Middle East. I really like this class, and I think it's mainly because of the professor. He's from Scotland, and looks just like your stereotypical British professor--tall and kind of portly, with white hair, and always wearing a suit and tie to class. He even wears this plaid newsboy cap. That aside, he really, really knows his stuff--he said he'd been teaching for more than a generation, and most likely had had some of the parents of the kids in the class as students. He lays everything out very clearly, and does a nice job of raising questions for us to think about. I've always kind of wanted to take some kind of class about the middle east, because aside from what I hear on the news about the Iraq war and other big events, I'm really unclear about what exactly all the conflicts are about. I think this course will be perfect to help me figure it all out. I also wanted to take a political science class in NZ just because I knew the perspective would be different. I think not only having a Scottish professor, an Iranian woman as a study group leader, and a class full of not only New Zealanders but also other international students will be perfect to get a different perspective.

So, school's been going well so far. I've finished buying the big things that put a big dent in my savings--textbooks, for example--and am trying to work out a budget that will work. It's tricky, because not only am I unsure about what all I'm going to do travel-wise, but everything here tends to be pretty expensive since a lot of products have to be imported because NZ is so agriculturally-based. So I'm trying to work that out.

Last night the school held a toga party at the student union building on campus as a welcome back to all the students for this semester. Unfortunately, I managed to drop my camera (I'm so clumsy! argh!) and break off the lens cover that protects the camera lens when it's turned off. I was in the room where the band was playing, so it was pretty dark and I couldn't find all the pieces that broke off. The camera still works, but I'm not sure how long the lens will last without anything protecting it from getting scratched. I'm really annoyed with myself for that! Hopefully I can make it last as long as possible and then send some money to my parents to have them buy me a new one to send here.

Tomorrow the next Harry Potter book comes out, so I'll probably spend most of the day in a read-a-thon with a couple of other girls in my group, but on Sunday I think we're planning on taking the bus out to the beach to do a hike. I'll post pictures if we do.

( Click here to see some pictures from the toga party )

I now officially have internet access in my room, which is really nice and a lot easier than walking all the way over to the library.

Just a quick update this time. The other night almost our entire group went to the All Blacks rugby game, which was a lot of fun. I was really surprised that there weren't more cheers and chants--people only really got excited when a player made a sprint for the "endzone" (I'm still horribly confused about the rules in rugby, let alone the terminology). One guy did try to get a wave going around the stands, but there was only one really successful one. It was a lot of fun, though.

( Click here to see a few pictures from the rugby match as well as some videos. )

(I don’t know how long it will be before I can get steady internet access in my room, and I want to write this down now before I forget or get too busy with school so I’m just typing this up on Thursday and plan on posting it as soon as I can.)

*TONS of pictures, Dial-up users beware!*

 

Internet access has been few and far between.  I'm still working on it, but apparently it will be up to a week before I can have steady access.  Just wanted to give a brief update and let everyone know I made it alright and survived the very cold orientation trip to Springfield, Canterbury.  We went a climbed around Castle Hill, I think it was called.  Don't have time now to post a link, but people should definitely Google it.  I have loads of great pictures, I will post them when I have a longer stretch of time to upload pictures. 

(For those who don’t want to read a whole lot, just scroll to the bottom for pictures.)

It’s about 6 in the morning here, I went to be at 9 and just crashed.  It’s still dark outside—if it weren’t for all the lights they have illuminating the cathedral, I probably wouldn’t be able to see much. 

The whole trip over was fairly uneventful.  On the long flight, I was able to sleep in about 3 hour chunks.  The flight wasn’t full, either, and the seat next to me was empty, so I had some room to stretch out into, which was nice.  Most of the food was, well, airplane food-quality, except for the breakfast.  They served these pancakes that were rolled around fruit, and had butter and syrup to go with them that were actually really good. 

I had a 3 hour layover in Sydney where I tried out the international cell phone by calling home.  At first, I couldn’t remember the country code to call home, but knew it was some combination of 1 and 0, so I kept trying but failing, until I managed to find a page about calling home in my massive folder of stuff from the study abroad company.  Apparently, in Australia you have to dial 00111 and then the number, as opposed to the 001 I was thinking of, which you dial from New Zealand.  Once I figured that out I was able to call, no problems.

On my last flight to Christchurch, I sat next to a very nice couple from Ireland.  They had spent a few days in Australia, then were going to Christchurch, and later on were visiting LA and New York.  The girl was really nice, but very softspoken, and combining that with her strong accent and the roar of the jet engine made it kind of hard to have a conversation without saying “I’m sorry, what?” after everything she said.  But she was really nice, and as we were walking out of the airport wished me good luck with school.

I was picked up outside the Christchurch airport by a very nice taxi driver named Robert who apparently used to work in the Brisbane police force.  He told me some things about the city and the school I’m going to, and gave me some good tips on getting over jetlag (eat a really light meal before you go to bed, then have a big breakfast so your body has no energy at night and wants to sleep, and then has tons of energy in the morning and is ready to go).  As we drove through town, I looked around at all the buildings.  We drove sort of past my school, I could see the tips of buildings when Robert pointed them out to me.  It seems like it’s in a fairly residential area, but with some shops and other things close by.  I’m thinking I may have to invest in a bike to get around.

Downtown Christchurch, or what I’ve seen of it, has been honestly a bit disappointing.  The Cathedral is very nice, and there’s an open square in front of it, but surrounding the area is just a bunch of tourist shops.  Finding a place to have dinner last night was a real struggle—there weren’t many restaurants in the area, and a lot of the streets were starting to look sketchy at about 6:00 when it started to get dark.  So I had a pretty relaxed, laidback night rather than exploring a whole lot.  I do plan to do some walking around today.  I found a place that looks promising for breakfast just a few blocks away, so hopefully that will work out.

 

 

I have arrived safely at my hotel, but am currently paying 68 NZ cents a minute for internet, so just a quick update.  I'm not as tired as I thought I would be, which is good.  The hotel is not super nice, but it'll work.  And I think the view out my window makes up for what else is lacking:

Well, I'm sitting in the Boise Airport waiting to start my trip down to New Zealand.  It is absolutely dead around here--I'm the only one sitting in the gate for my flight, aside from a few birds that are zooming around looking for food, and most of the other gates are more or less empty.  Guess not too many people want to fly on the 4th of July.

When I checked my bag, the woman at the counter was surprised that I was only checking one bag.  She told me I should come back full to the limit--two checked bags weighing 50 pounds each.  My bag ended up being around 40 pounds, which isn't too bad, but still awkward to carry around in the duffel bag.  I had a brief scare when walking into the airport one of the straps came undone and I thought it had broken, but it just hadn't been threaded through the cinch properly.  I'm glad I checked it, though, and don't have to worry about lugging it around airports. 

I have about 26 hours of travel ahead of me, including layovers:  Click here to see the whole journey.

It's weird, because July 5 is getting lost in the Twilight Zone--I cross the international dateline and jump right to July 6.  I'm really hoping I'll be able to use my time at the hotel to reorient myself to the time difference and more or less recover from the jet lag.

I'm working on making the very final preparations to leave in 4 days.  I figured out that my cell phone is capable of making international calls, so instead of taking the cheap little cell phone the rental phone company gave me, I've gotten the code to unlock my own phone to put the international SIM card in.  I'm pretty happy about that, since I just got my own cell phone about a month ago and have only just gotten used to it; I think it would be kind of a pain to have to orient myself to a whole new phone all over again. 

I've been having some misgivings about the camera I have.  It works great for basic, fairly up-close stuff (portraits, scenes happening within 15 feet of me) but really has trouble with focusing on far-away scenes, especially in low-light conditions.  The camera itself is about a year and a half old, and so the battery isn't what it used to be, either.  I'm hoping to just pick up a new battery and a larger memory card, and cross my fingers.  If the pictures aren't what I really want them to be, I'm thinking about seeing what I can find over there.

Packing is going well--I worked on it today a bit.  I can fit all the clothes I wanted to take into my backpacking pack with room to spare, so I think I'm well off.  A few weeks ago, I went to REI with my dad and picked up a sort of duffel bag for packs--basically just a big bag designed for backpacks that you can put them in for airplane travel.  It's really nice just to get all the straps and clips out of the way, but also has room for a sleeping bag or pillow.  I managed to pack everything up and the pack only weighs 30 lbs (I think the limit without paying a fee is 50 lbs) so I still have some room to spare.


I've spent the last week saying goodbye to friends and hanging out with them as much as I can.  It's weird to think that I won't see them for so long, but at the same time I do spend most of my time away from them since we don't go to the same schools.  What will be harder is being away from my family and friends from school for such a long time.  I haven't seen most of them since school let out 2 months ago, and realistically won't see them until January.  I'm really relying on the power of the internet to help me stay connected, since phone calls tend to be so expensive.  Luckily, I've found Skype, which is basically a free telephone system over the internet.  I've found that it's actually clearer than a cell phone or even landline.  I also like that I can use a webcam pretty easily.  My cousin Angie and I tried it out while she was in Australia this past semester, and it worked flawlessly, so I am hoping it will work just as well when I am in New Zealand.

Today I got the final packet of information about my program.  I've been waiting for it to come for a while--it has all the information I need about my orientation.  When the program officially starts, we head to the Southern Alps for an overnight orientation trip.  I'm really looking forward to it, I think it will be a great trip.  We stay there for one night before heading back to the school campus.  IES, the program I'm using, gives us their own orientation of the school, the University of Canterbury, before we get the school's official international student orientation, where we register for classes.  Class officially starts on Monday the 16th, a week and a half after I arrive.

IES also takes all the students in the program on a week-long field trip to a South Pacific island during the semester.  In the e-mail I got today, I learned that we'll be going to Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands.  I am so excited about the trip--it sounds like a blast.  I'm kind of intrigued by the island, which is only 31 miles in diameter.  My program guide says we'll be learning about how an island functions from several different aspects, including impacts of first-world countries, missionaries, environmental education, etc.  I've never been to a tropical island like it--it will definitely be an awesome experience.  In all the photos, it kind of looks like the island from Lost, too...  :)  I get two weeks for spring break, the second of which I'll spend on the island, and I'm already looking forward to it.

Not much is left for me to do to get ready to go.  I have a backpack, which I fully intend to pack everything in to except for a carry-on with my compter and a change of clothes.  Originally, I hadn't planned on taking the computer, but I ultimately changed my mind  just because I think it would be more convenient to have it.  Plus, I'll have a place to store digital photos.  I've got a sleeping bag, plenty of layer-able clothes, sturdy shoes, and plenty of hats and other cold weather gear.  I have to keep reminding myself that it's going to be cold when I get there, it'll be the middle of winter!  But, I've heard that most of the rain on the southern island comes in from the west but falls on the mountains before it can reach the east coast, so at least it won't be too terribly rainy.

Hello everyone!  This is going to be my travel journal for my study abroad adventure in New Zealand.  I am planning on updating here with writing, pictures, videos, and what ever else strikes my fancy to keep in touch with everyone back in the US.  Feel free to leave comments (you can post anonymously if you don't have a Livejournal account--just let me know who you are!) or shoot me an e-mail--I'd love to hear from you!

I'm starting to get geared up to leave, and I hate to admit it but it hasn't really hit me yet that I'm leaving so soon.  Legal-wise, I'm all set to go--I have a passport, a student visa, plane tickets, etc., but I don't really have any idea about how to start packing.  Since New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are the opposite of up here in Idaho, so when I head down there on July 4th I'll be arriving in the middle of winter.  I've been checking the weather--Weather.com has a nifty feature where you can look up a rough estimate of the weather for a month in advance--and it looks like it'll be around 50 degrees in Christchurch.  Brr!  That will be a big change after basking in the 90-100 degree weather up here. 

A lot of people have asked me how I decided to go to New Zealand.  Since I am an English major, I had originally planned on going to England to study literature and explore the homeland of many of the authors I've been reading in classes at the University of Portland.  However, UP did not offer a program in England that really appealed to me.  So, I looked at the programs offered by IES, a study abroad company that UP uses for all other programs.  I was disappointed by the England program offered by IES as well--rather than going to an actual university, the students live in a hotel-type building with only other IES students, taught by IES professors.  I didn't want to do the program mainly because I felt that if I didn't go to an actual university, I wouldn't really get the kind of "immersion" experience I wanted.  I felt that if I was going to live in another country and go to school there, I want to experience school as students from that country experience it.  So, I began to look at the other programs offered by IES.  I knew I wanted to go to an English-speaking country, and so I started looking at programs in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and other countries.  The program in Christchurch caught my eye.  The school was a fairly good size--around 14,000 students, much larger than UPs 3500 but not too huge like University of Washington--and was located right on the coast.  They offered not only some really interesting English classes, but also classes that appealed to me from an Environmental Studies standpoint, since I recently added Env. Studies as my minor.  I looked more into the program, and decided that it sounded like a good fit.  So I applied when I returned to school from summer vacation last year, got in, and have been getting ready ever since.

Click here to see a map.  The green arrow points to Christchurch, the city I'll be living in while I go to the University of Canterbury.

Originally, I'd been planning on going for an entire year.  This plan presented some interesting obstacles, especially when considering the seasonal difference.  Had I stuck with my full-year plan, I would have gone down to NZ in the middle of our summer, their winter and done their spring semester (fall for us).  Then, I would have had a 3 month summer vacation from November to February during which I had intended to travel and see the country and spend an awesome Christmas in a tropical climate, before returning for the fall semester from February to June.  The plan sounded really appealing at first, but as time went on I realized what a long time that would be.  I wouldn't have had a place to live for those 3 months, and would have had to backpack or stay in hostels or hotels, which I think would have gotten old.  Also, my dad was able to get me a plane ticket using frequent flier miles from his job that required me to return to the States before March of 08, or right in the middle of my second semester.  That, amongst other reasons, convinced me that one semester plus a few weeks afterwards to travel, would surely be long enough. 

That's about all for now.  I really intend to keep up with this and make updates every once in a while, but no promises--school starts in 4 weeks!  I might be really busy--who knows how hard college is in NZ :)