Only a few more days of super long posts.....I hope lol Enjoy!
Welcome to Welly!
Well my first few days in Wellington were basically one big slap in the face. People had warned me that it was hilly. But I had dismissed it by saying that UVM is at the top of a hill, so I’m used to it. People warned me that it would be windy, and I once again dismissed them, saying that UVM is very windy as well so I could handle it. And people warned me that the weather was unpredictable in Wellington, and my dismissal was, I live in New England so duh I’m used to it.
Well, what they did not tell me is that I would encounter 45ยบ hills up, or that to go up to my friends’ flat, I would have to go down hill first and then up hill….TWICE!! They told me that it was “like San Francisco.” Well that is half true—there are not as many hills in San Fran as there are here!! San Fran on steroids= Wellington.
They also did not tell me that this said “strong” wind is actually strong enough to push a grown man over if he is caught off guard. Or that if I wanted to cross the motorway and there is a strong wind, I would have to hang on to the guard rail to keep out of the street!!
And New England weather is NO comparison to the weather here in Wellington. The “wait a minute, it will change” phrase I have grown up with in New England came true every once in awhile back home—but here it most definitely will come true! You never know what the weather will be like when you leave the house: moral? Always bring a rain jacket.
But, all joking aside, my first week in Wellington was very nice. The weather was GEORGOUS! Sunny, warm, and amazing, really pleasant weather to arrive with. We arrived on Tuesday night (you guys already heard about that...)
Wednesday the group went off to explore the city. We wandered around downtown and found a really good kebab restaurant for lunch. After lunch we decided to go down to the waterfront and find a beach. Someone had mentioned that Days Bay was only a short ferry ride away and was a nice beach—so it was off to Days Bay that afternoon. It was a nice tour of the harbor, we stopped by a small island in the middle of the harbor that is a nature sanctuary. We didn’t get off, but I would like to go back sometime soon. Days Bay was an OK beach…it did not, by any means, give Crescent Beach a run for its money. But a few of us decided to jump off the wharf that the ferry had come in on, which was a lot of fun. The water here is very cold though. The only way I can convince myself to go in is to sprint into the water and not stop until I can dive in and get my hair wet. Once you are in, it only takes a few moments to get used to it (aka become numb to it), and the water is actually very refreshing. Around 5 we decided to head back to a barbeque at a friend’s flat.
Thursday morning was a little more business with International student Orientation and registration stuff happening all day. We had briefings from 9 in the morning until about 4, which introduced us to student life at Vic and what we should expect from registration the next day. Most of what they told us was actually a repeat of the briefings Butler gave us on Victoria, so the morning was pretty dull.
Friday : registration day and complete Monsoon. After getting completely lost (and therefore totally drenched) on campus trying to make it up to one of my friend’s flats it was a day of waiting in lines.
The first line, which was the actual class registration looked like it was going to be the longest wait of the day, but about 10 minutes after we arrived someone who looked official walked down the line asking anyone if they were registering for Communications classes. Thank god I knew that marketing classes were part of the school of communications! So we buzzed up to the front of the line and only had to wait for another 5 minutes to talk to someone. I had a little bit of drama registering for classes because Vic had switched the trimester that some of the papers I had originally decided to take (I filled out a request form back in November) were offered. I was actually really bumbed, because the one marketing class I was pumped to take was Marketing for the Arts (how perfect right??), but due to student registration at the end of the school year in 2008 they decided to move a few of the classes around. Annoying. So, due to all this switching, there was only 1 marketing paper, which Vic had already Oked me for, that I could take. So I just chose another one that fit into my schedule. However the woman behind the desk was not so happy "I just chose" another class. So after some kind words to the registration woman and a short call down to the marketing department, it was decided that I could take Social Marketing (thank God!).
So then from that line, there was another line to check that I was insured (probably only a 30 minute wait), and then off to another line to check visas and passports and a lot of other fun stuff (another hour and a half of just waiting). AND THEN it was down to the most pointless line of all (and thus the longest). There was just one more signature on a form that I needed and by god I was going to get that signature. Many people were giving up on this line, the lady at the front was saying "its not that bad and afterwards you will be completely registered for classes!" However, I had come this far, was almost completely dry, and thought how long could it really be??? OH was I ever wrong! After standing in line for 2 hours (!!) and meeting some very nice people in line, we found out what the final step in the registration process was (aka how to get the final signature that would finalize our registration into Victoria). Well, in every line, another part of our PAPER form was filled out, and we were told to hang on to our paper and not to lose it. Well.....the final step in registering for classes…..the part that took two hours to get to….drum roll please..................................Inputing the data INTO THE COMPUTER! yes ladies and gentelmen the thing I waited 2 hours for was to sit down with someone and have them input the entire form (four pages in all) INTO THE COMPUTER!!!!! Don’t you think they could have been imputing information at each point, instead of doing it all at once??? One thing these Kiwis are not are technically savvy (or at least the Kiwis in the registration office at Victoria). We were all a little frazzled by the end of it, but in the end we all registered without a problem.
Once all of the registration process had been completed, one of our Kiwi friends took us to our first rugby game. The Wellington Hurricanes v. the Highlanders (from somewhere on the South Island). It ended up to be a really good game in the end. After the 2nd half the Hurricanes decided to play and beat the highlanders by a very small margin. The game went pretty late, so afterwards we all decided to go our separate ways.
Saturday and Sunday were both pretty uneventful. Mostly more exploring Wellington, but sometime on Saturday one of the boys thought it would be fun to go and explore the South Island for a week, since the next week would be the last free week we would have until mid-trimester break. So we did a little bit of planning…we mostly just bought our ferry tickets and looked in a few guide books to see what we wanted to do. And then Monday morning it was off to the South Island!
Tune in tomorrow for the adventures around the south island.
~Marjorie
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