Parp Trotter

Time Travel is Confusing

2009-06-21T15:11:00.002+12:00

So I'm just confused...I'm sitting in LAX on Saturday June 20th at 8:21 pm...however I keep on thinking its Sunday!

Fun story though, I landed in LA at the very same time I left my flat in Wellington: 2:30pm. Does that mean I was in two places at once? Or was it just instant time travel? It didn't really feel that instant lol

The flight was pretty low key though. I am so used to traveling in the US and needing to get to the terminal way before my flight I left a little early. My flight was at 5:30 so I booked a airport shuttle for 2:30 thinking that the shuttle would pick up other people on the way and I would need a little extra time. WELL I was the only one in the shuttle and there was NO traffic in the city, so I was at the airport a little before 3. I was checking in for an international flight and had two extra bags, so I thought I would need the extra time. The Air New Zealand lady was very nice and checked my bags all the way through to Boston so I wouldn't have to deal with them in Auckland. But it turns out that NZ doesn't really worry too much about terrorist attacks and security never takes very long, so I just waited around the airport for about 2 hours. Not too bad though, I did write that last blog post and did some reading. Since I was only flying up to Auckland the first leg of my journey was considered domestic; in which case you do not need to take out your liquid containers, which the security lady condacendly told me that I don't need t take out my liquids for a domestic flight (how was I supposed to know???). The short hop up to Auckland was not bad at all-- only an hour up and down not too tough on the ears and no screaming babies. I landed at 6:30 and had another 3 hours to kill in the airport. So I called the flat one last time to use up the credit I had left on my cell. Then at 7:30 the All Blacks vs. France Rugby game started up and I watched that until I was called for boarding. As the plane was boarding, the flight attendants were giving us updates on the All Blacks game, which I thought was funny...the All Blacks did end up winning (very exciting!!) and the whole plane clapped lol. We took off on time and all in all the flight was not bad. It was 12 hours flat, and I was able to get heaps of sleep, which was nice. I watched two movies and read some of my book. The only down side was that my feet swelled up to be about 4 times their normal size. Of course I didn't notice it as it was happening, though I did notice that my feet were feeling hotter than normal. As I stood up they felt kinda tight, but I didn't think too much of it. I was wearing pants so I didn't see the swelling until I lifted up my pants at one point and saw my huge cankles that had developed. I'm working at keeping them elevated and they are pretty much gone, hopefully the last leg of the trip doesn't affect them any.

Once in LAX life wasn't took exciting. Though it did take me forever to get through customs and then get my boarding pass. My bags of course were the last off the plane, so I was waiting around forever stressing that my bags didn't make it all the way and were stuck in Auckland. I had checked 2 extra bags, a duffel and a brown box with all my books in it. I waited at the carousel until all the bags were taken off it and it stopped...my box never came off the plane!! So I found someone who looked official and asked what I should do and he asked if it was a brown box. I said why yes, do you know where it is? and he pointed to a random space on the floor on the opposite side of the carousel from where I was and said that boxes NEVER go on the carousel! (again how was I supposed to know!?) well then I got through customs in about 2 minutes..I at least thought they were going to xray my bags or something, but no I just walked up to the man handed him my piece of paper he stamped it and said go on through. SO really I was just a worker for the airlines moving my bags....why couldn't they have done that?? They were marked all the way to Boston!?!?!?! I would have understood if they wanted to xray them to come into the country like they do in NZ but no...so really POINTLESS

So then I found my way to the United airlines (sadly the international terminal has NO directory of the airport, so I had NO idea where to go. But thankfully I discovered the inter-terminal bus and the nice bus driver took me to where I needed to go. Here began my two hour endeavor to get my boarding pass (it was probably only an hour...but it felt like two!!) I first walked in looking for a human because I didn't believe my itnerary information had the right stuff to do an e-check in because I didn't do an online check in since I was in the air. I managed to find the area with the humans and tried to walk into line to talk to one of them....my first mistake. The human guarding the entrance to the que told me that I WOULD be able to check in at the kiosks becuase I had printed out information (but he wouldn't look at what I had printed, he just told me to go there). So I stood in line for a kiosk for about 45 minutes got up to the kiosk where it balked at my refrence number (like I thought it would). So back I go to the que guarder....where he asked why I was back again and I said that it didn't like my info. He then directed me to the ticketing counter where I waited in another 45 minute line. Once I got up to the woman, she proceeded to tell me that I was at the wrong counter. Now being very frustrated I told her my story and she had said she had noticed me wandering and that she wanted to be able to help me but that the system at the computer she was sitting at only did ticketing, she couldn't check anyone in (which again made no sense to me...) but she did walked me back up to the talking head and yelled at him for being so annoying to me and pointed me to the correct line where I had to wait for another 45 minutes!! I was however in the right place (third times the charm) and got my boarding pass. Then I hung out in Bradley for a while where I got some food and washed up in the bathroom and chilled on the internet. Then it was over to security at 8 and now I'm writing this post waiting in the terminal.

So for now I am just chilling in the terminal...I'm pretty much done with traveling, I just want to be home!

Bitter Sweet Endings

2009-06-21T13:15:00.000+12:00

I have come to the end [full stop]

Truly I didn’t think I would ever get here. When I wrote my first post back in February waiting to leave, I never really expected this day to come. I had expected that time would go on and that I would at one point return to Massachusetts en route to Marion, but it felt so far away…a distant memory that I would never have. But here I am sitting in the Wellington Airport waiting to go through security and board my flight up to Auckland to leave the land of the long white cloud.

It’s a hard thing to leave—Aotearoa. Once you come to this isolated island in the end of the world you never really leave it, you just become displaced from it. Like many real New Zealanders before me, I leave knowing that New Zealand has truly affected me and that I never will really leave it, because to leave it would be to lose it’s affect and influence, and I don’t think I ever will. New Zealand, the experiences, and the people I have met here, and the memories will always be with me…no matter how far away I am.

It’s a funny thing to think that this experience I have been thinking so much about for the past three years is over, that college is almost over! (Well not really…but still the end is way closer that I am comfortable with) But it’s also funny to think that my decision to come here almost felt nonchalant and yet it has had just a huge affect on me. When I was deciding on where to study abroad, nothing else really came to mind. It was like NZ was calling to me. There was no really decision to make, I was going to study in NZ it was just finding the right program. I don’t really even remember when I first thought about studying on the other side of the world, I just always was.

There is so much that I have learned about and fallen in love with in this country, it’s hard to think that I won’t just be coming back and returning to 32 U Clifton Tce. That mice and drafts are a thing of the past. If you had asked me a month ago if I would find leaving this hard I don’t think I would have believed you. I have become attached and I don’t really want to leave. Though, don’t get me wrong, sleeping in my water bed 48 hours from now will be very nice (mice and draft free…even heated!), but it seems strange that Sophie and Brendan won’t be home waiting for me with a pot of coffee steeping in the press.

I have become connected. I have started to make a life for myself here. Studying abroad is a cruel trick—just as you feel settled and comfortable in your new surroundings, its time to leave and you have to pack up and walk away from the life that you have become so comfortable in. Just last week a tourist asked me for directions and it was the first time that I felt comfortable enough to give them directions and not just say “sorry I’m a tourist too!”

I have met people here who I consider true friends and who I will miss desperately. It’s strange, it feels like I am at camp all over again, saying good bye to my international friends who I had become so close with over the past few weeks and who I felt I would never see again…except multiply a few weeks by a few months and that is how hard I am finding it to leave. Although I do know I will see my NZ friends at some other point in my life…it might not be back on this enchanting island, but it will be somewhere. As I sit here in the airport terminal almost two hours after I left my flat for the last time, AND I AM STILL CRYING!!! Good god I am such a girl sometimes….lets hope the Advil I just took will shake this stress headache that I am getting before we take off.

More to come from either Auckland or LAX…

Study Break

2009-06-16T22:30:00.003+12:00

So I have my last final at 9am on Thursday and then I will come back and tell you all about my extremely fast week and how I am spending my last days in New Zealand....but thought I would leave you with this YouTube link of a comerical I am studying for my MarComms class.

Enjoy!

~Marjorie

Wairarapa Roadie

2009-06-14T22:50:00.011+12:00

Back from wine country...Will talk more about it when i have a little more time (maybe my tuesday night...) but for now here are some pictures...

Typical NZ Wine Country: Vines and COWS!!

Best Flatmates EVER!!

Some of our wine...I ended up taking home two...So did Brendan and Soph got 1

Pretty NZ Wine....Perfect Weather!!!

YUMM!! and other things

2009-06-04T20:18:00.005+12:00

So tonight I decided to step out of my cooking comfort zone and try a meat that I normally don't have, but that is SUPER cheep over here on the other side of the world--sheep! I mean lamb lol

My flatmate first gave me the idea about cooking the new meat. I usually stay away because it's not my favorite back home, but then again I don't really eat it heaps so I am actually finding a taste for it over here since it is so plentiful...and also super cheep. What I bought..only $7 bucks worth of meat, and I still have enough for another meal tomorrow!

I found a good recipe on Epicurious (where else? lol) which was Lamb, rosemary, and artichokes. It ended up being super easy and cooked fast so I will definitely have to remember that one! Ended up being DELICIOUS and somehow my first time cooking it was PERFECT...it ended up being a perfect medium rare :-) I was proud.

So proud I took some pictures to show you guys! :-)

White Plate...I'm turning into my father....

Perfect if I do say so Myself :-)

I do have to say the only bad part about this meal was the red wine. The wine is DELICIOUS! however my whole house only gets to be about 10C at its warmest at night, so the wine WAS TOO COLD! :-(

In other news, I took a tour of Parlament yesterday and watched some of the proceedings after class, since we were already down there. It was all super interesting. I found it funny how informal it all seemed to me. There would be a question posed by a PM (parlament member) to the speaker; but then the person who was going to answer it would stand up immediatly, normally the speaker wouldn't even be able to introduce the person. Also any other PM can pose a supplement question to the initial question (which seem like they can be fairly far off topic but still vaguely connected). Really the questions just turned into lots of yelling at each other, it seemed like a playground argument at some points...but then again how mature are politicians really? I also went on a tour of the government buildings, which left much to be wanted...the tour guide was not amazing. But it was still nice to see inside the buildings. They are all really different, but really amazing architecture. The oldest building is the parliament library, which is the last of the original government building, the original parliament building burnt down in 1905 (I think). Then there is the parliament building, which is a gorgeous georgian building, but half way through the building project the government ran out of money, so never finished the building by leaving off its left wing. So now the left wing of the government buildings is the building known as the beehive (but no bees thank god lol). It is mostly offices and function spaces.

I am also in the process of planning a weekend winery tour with the flatmates, at least one...I am going to try and coerce the other one lol. So that will be saturday. I think we won't do an organized tour, but tomorrow I was going to go down to a wine store down the street and ask what local wineries they would recommend (since the 2nd primary location for wineries is about 30 minutes outside the city). I am also looking into a 1/2 day adventure north to see some of the world outside of Wellington. so tonight is the study night..better get to it then!

Pictures of parliament here.

Cheers!

~Marjorie

Questions in the End

2009-06-01T22:36:00.004+12:00

Only 19 more days in this intriguing country on the other side of the world... and I don't know how I really feel about it. I can't really say I won't be sad to go...I will, I have started to finally settle in and now I have to go. It's strange to think that I have been here for 4 months, if someone asked I might say I have only been here a few short weeks, because that is all I feel like has passed. Though I do remember the pains of getting here and settling in and getting used to my lectures and the funny ways people talk and write here. And just as I am seeming to get used to everything, I need to leave again. There is still so much I haven't seen and done here...I never did go Zorbing or see any of the North Island. I didn't get to surf off of 90 mile beach, or take the costal railway, or take a tour of wine country. Things that I came here hoping to do, things I couldn't wait to get to when I was on the planes over here.

And now my time is finally gone...there is no more. I haven't even seen Wellington Zoo! (though I hope to go and see it next weekend...or maybe even on thursday morning...who knows! lol) All I really have time for is finishing up classes and actually studying for finals so that I can get the credits I need back home..so this trip wasn't a total waste lol.

I came to New Zealand hoping to find a new side of me...to figure out things that perplexed me when I was home. To start a new "life" for a few short months being a "different" person, trying new things and being EVEN more outgoing than I already was, to not question but just to do. And I did, for a little while at least. I explored the South Island on a whim and talked to people I would have never started a conversation with in the states. But then I got comfortable...I slowed down and realized that I was still in school and focused. Not a bad thing, but back to my normal self. I stopped thinking of things I wanted to see and do, and slept in! These things are not bad, but it means I didn't see and do as much as I had hoped, and that saddens me. I wished I had stuck to my original plan of doing something every weekend. But things got away, and classes actually assigned work, and I actually had responsibilities and people didn't want to do the things I had planned on, and I didn't try and do them myself.

And now with only 19 more days in this wonderful country I wish I had. Though I realize that I probably wouldn't be passing my classes lol which is probably the reason why I settled back into my normal self..and I think its a pretty good one. Of course there were other reasons why I wasn't able to do and see the places I would have like to seen...things got in the way, people were busy or unenthusiastic. So I changed my mind, I did other things, I relaxed...and I think that was helpful too. And necessary. I always get so wrapped up in the stress at school. I thrive on it, I push through because of it...but am I really enjoying myself? I think so, just not in the same way. I have talked about how I have developed the "no worries" attitude of the kiwis. And I think that has changed me for the better as well. I hope that I can hang onto it in the fast paced world of the states and Vermont (yes even VT is a faster pace than Wellington NZ!).

My final newsletter from Butler came the other day, and in it were some ways to start thinking about the experience and how to start to make the transition home again. One of the suggestions they give is to figure out now what your answer to the "how was NZ" question. To reflect on the experience and see what it has really meant to you. Has it changed an outlook, or inspired something new?

I don't really have an answer to that question yet. Maybe in the coming days I will figure something out. The experience was rewarding, I realized that I am very happy to be going to school in the states for one lol. And I am still glad that I came, but has it changed an outlook or inspired something new? I'm not sure yet. Has it even been the time of my life? I wrote in my journal today that I'm not quite sure if it has or not. Everyone back home has said that it must be or that it obviously has been...but has this been the time of my life? Is the time of my life regretting things that I have not done? I sure hope not. I have made some great friends who I hope to stay in touch with, and have some new memories....but will I look back on this time and say, "yes, that was the time of my life." I'm just not sure. And I sort of feel guilty about this. Should I have worked harder to make it the time of my life? Should I have made sure I did all the things I came here wanting to do? Or was it the right thing to have no worries and just see where the tide takes me?

All questions to think about in the end....

~Marjorie

What's going on in my life?

2009-05-31T23:27:00.002+12:00

Not a whole lot...

This week weather wise has been up and down. It was coldish in the beginning of the week, getting increasingly nicer as the week went on. On Thursday the rain finally let up (after 3 straight weeks of it) and Friday was beautiful! I didn't even need a jumper! I had the last of my work due on Thursday, it was an oral presentation in my Social Marketing class. It went pretty well, the class only had about 70 kids in it, I thought there were more! It's actually really hard to know how many kids are in lectures since no one really ever goes to class here. Both of my marketing lecturers came up to me within the last two weeks and thanked me for showing up!! They both said that they noticed that I had come to every lecture and thanked me for it...if only that is how it was in the states! Lecturers "understand" that college kids have lives and can't always come to class (really can some of my professors at UVM have that kind of attitude? lol). Most kids don't come because the whole lecture is posted online and, since anyone today can become a teacher by inappropriately using powerpoint, it is very easy to publish your lecture to the internet. I still feel that coming to class gives you a leg up in the class, though many of my kiwi classmates would tend to disagree with me. They too think its strange that I show up to class and FEEL BAD about skipping. The kiwi way of life.

I have realised I haven't said much about my classes either. Well for the most part they have screwed up my spelling even more! I am a HORRIBLE speller, that is a fact...but for some reason I have picked up the English spelling rules VERY quickly and find myself having to remember what the American spelling is!! I am going to be totally confused when I have to write a paper back in the states....can someone just remind me to switch word's language from New Zealand english back to American english?? or my business professors will hate me lol. I have learned that I do not like the New Zealand education system. I am a liberal arts girl all the way!! No one over here has any diversity, they all take the classes they need to graduate (which is almost entirely classes within their major) and don't really explore any other options. I was talking to one of my group members in my social marketing class about her major. She is a double journalism/ marketing major. I said that was an interesting mix and asked what she was thinking to do with it (since she will be "graduating" in November). She said that she hates marketing, and was just taking it as something to fall back on since journalism is a very hard job market to break into. That just totally surprised me. I mean if you have come this far in your schooling, you should at least find something you like! I mean I know there are heaps of kids back home in majors that they also don't like and are just doing it for the money they can make after school...but they confuse me too! I could never even think of doing something in school that you didn't like! why do it? you're paying enough money to go, well not as much here, but still, you're paying, why not actually enjoy it? I have a hard enough time going to my math classes (it's not maths...no matter how much my flatmates try to convince me otherwise!) So yeah, kiwis are too focused! The system needs to put some fun back into education, let kids take the stupid classes and find something they enjoy, especially if its not their major!

I also HATE how english is taught here and I feel horrible; this is the first ever english class that I hate despised. I have enjoyed most of the books we have read, I have even enjoyed some of the lecturers...but I cannot stand the tutorials and the majority of the lectures. They assume everyone is a mind reader and that you should pick up on certain aspects of the book to analysis, even if they have never mentioned it before! Also, for tutorials, class participation means NOTHING...all they count is attendance...so OF COURSE no one talks, or even prepares. It's painful sitting in on EVERY one of my tutorials becuase it's like pulling teeth, I fee bad for the tutors, well really only my comms mark. tutor, he was the only competent one. The other two either didn't care at all about the tutorial and just allowed us to work on our projects (social mark) or wasn't ever prepared himself and never had any topics ready to discuss and just hoped we would come up with something on our own (English) its painful.

So when I do come back it will not be to study...maybe as a Butler employee...but that is another story . . .

Cheers!

~Marjorie

Three Things I Miss Most about Winter at Home

2009-05-25T12:39:00.003+12:00

Double Paned Windows
Central Heating
INSULATION!!!

It is amazing to me that a country, which still gets fairly cold (and WINDY) in the winter, has sufficed without these three things that most of the world takes for granite...

I came here thinking that winter wouldn't be too bad...that I would be totally able to survive if the average winter temperatures were only in the low to mid 40's. Yes, wind would be a factor...but I still didn't expect gale force winds on a daily basis (there have been warning the past 2 weeks of wind gusts of up over 100 kmh!!). But none the less, I am used to a VT winter and NZ winter could come no where close to what we deal with in Feb and March in VT!!

This is still mostly true.....

Now I have not been so cold I am shivering always...most of the school building ACTUALLY have central heating, but since no one knows how to use this modern wonder, it is always too hot and I end up ALMOST falling asleep in most of my classes...I don't know how the lecturers deal with it! But anyways, NOT ONE flat in Everton Hall (the uni houseing I live in) has a.) INSULATION!! b.) central heating or c.) double paned windows!!

So when living in a drafty old house with mice, 40 degrees is mighty cold...especially when it is colder inside the house than it is outside, which can happen most days it get sunny out, but that hasn't happened in a week or so now. I mean at least it keeps the rain and wind (kinda) out. I have taken to sleeping with my sleeping bag unzipped as my third blanket, which has been working out quite well. It also works wonderful as a nice blanket to snuggle under while watching tv.

Now you are probably wondering HOW we heat our houses if these things are not present in our houses...right? Well, we use wonderful and efficient (not at all) modern wonders of electric heaters! BUT only when we absolutely MUST because our electricity bill skyrocketed (word of my flatmates, not mine) this month to NZ$150 higher than the month previous. (DUH!!) So I have taken to wearing at least three layers of clothing around my house ALWAYS, which I still feel should not be necessary INSIDE your house.

To prove my point even more, I offer an example of a commercial trying to convince New Zealand residence about the necessity of insulation (why do they need to be convinced in the first place?!!?!?!?)

So while all of you reading this blog are in the comforts of your own home, probably with the A/C or even Central air going, think of me FREEZING MY BUTT OFF on the other side of the world! :-)

Cheers,

~Marjorie

Time to Destress...

2009-05-24T12:46:00.003+12:00

Well at least for a little while....

Every one of my papers had an essay due last week, either Thursday or Friday so obviously I was SWAMPED with work....because do I plan ahead and get the easy paper out of the way first so that I can spend my time working on the other two bigger and huger paper?!?!? Nope, I decide that since it's an easy paper then it can be written the night before it's due!! I'm blaming it on the New Zealand attitude...I normally am not this bad with procrastinating my work in vermont, normally I am FREEKEN out because I am such a perfectionist.....but here I find myself saying "no worries it will get done" and it did, so i guess there were no worries everything was in on time...AND i still got to yoga on Friday :-) lol

There isn't really a lot to talk about....I only have two more weeks of classes though....when did that happen?!?!? I feel like I am finally just starting to settle in lol. The last two weeks have been pretty low key, but next Friday is Butler's fairwell dinner :-( I can't believe I have been here four months!!! Where did all the time go??? there is still so much I haven't seen!!

But I find myself very torn, I want to stay and experience more of this wonderful country....but I am also still in classes and in the gross winter weather of welly, while all of my friends back home are done with classes for the year and are enjoying summer and it would be nice to be back home getting ready for tabor with some time to kill....not planning on how to get over jet lag in a day so that I can get to camp only a few days late.....ugg

but I have my plane ticket and am starting to figure out what I can send home early so that I don't have to worry about trying to fit all this new stuff in my suitcase lol I've decided its not that I am excited to leave NZ, but that I am excited for the next thing to happen, and that just happens to be back home.

So now i have a few weeks down time to relax a little, do some early studying, and get ready for finals which are all less than a month away!! (AAAHHHH)

Hobbits, Rain, and being totally let down

2009-05-12T22:50:00.002+12:00

SO, since it is now Tuesday night for me and I feel bad about not keeping my word, (but still Monday for you all so I guess I am) I thought I would keep my word and tell all about my trip to Wellywood. We caught the movie tours bus at 10am and were off to an area about 45 minutes outside of Wellington. On the ride there we were briefed with all the movies that Weta productions has helped out with, and surprisingly Contact was one of them in the early days. I guess some of the film was shot in location in NZ so Weta helped out, they didn't say how, probably something to do with props. We went around to a bunch of sites where the Lord of the Rings was shot. Now this tour might have been more fun if I was a fan of the movies (or if I had even seen the movies before). But I'm not and I haven't so the tour was kind of a let down. That, and since it was POURING in upper and lower Hutt valley (where we were north of the city), so standing in location in the rain (which for many of the scenes was the conditions they were shot in) was not as much fun as it could have been. Also, when shooting on location in NZ its the law that you must return the location to EXACTLY how it was before shooting the scene. So not only were we standing in the rain in the location the scene was shot, at the location there was NO evidence that there was ever a movie shot there. To the tour's credit, the guide did bring his lap top around with him, so that when we were standing in the location we watched the scene that was shot there, and the guide pointed out the trees and bushes that had cameos in the movie. But we all made the most of it and were all happy to actually be doing something on our Sunday instead of sitting at home doing our work and whatnot. And when we got into Wellington to see the parts on Mt. Victoria where they shot, it wasn't raining (the city didn't get ANY rain the entire day), so that made the last leg of the tour more enjoyable.

Another fun aspect of the tour wasn't the tour guides doing at all, it was one of our group members. One of the kids in the program has broken her leg, and so has been told to stay in a wheelchair until the cast is off. So throughout this whole tour (and on Mt. Vic) we were negotiating the paths with a wheel chair, there were some fun moments on Mt. Vic where we almost lost her due to a slippery hill, or root. Thank God we had some strong boys who could help her out and push her up the steep hills and carry the chair over roots and whatnot.

Most of the group was let down though, because we were told that it was a tour of Weta productions and Wellywood. If it had been explained that it was a Rings tour, then I think we would have all had lower expectations. But the majority of the group believed that we would be getting a tour of the studios and places where actual work happened. A more behind the scenes tour. For obvious reasons this probably is not a tour that exists, especially since Peter Jackson doesn't want the locals to know where he is (security purposes), so all the studios and what not are located in unmarked warehouses. So Sunday was not as much fun as I had initially thought, oh well guess i will just have to look forward to another production studio tour (maybe?). The name of the tour was really misleading anyways. Ok well I should get back to my work! all three of my papers have essays due next week, so I am trying to get those all done. it will be nice to have a little break after may 22nd, but then it will be off to studying for finals. One last big push until classes are over I guess. Not too much more time to travel (sadly), but we will see what I can come up with.

Cheers for now!

~Marjorie

and the winner is....

2009-05-08T18:45:00.005+12:00

Me! Remember a few posts back I put up a picture I submitted to the photo contest?? Well it won. I was actually surprised that that specific picture won, because I also submitted the picture that is my banner for this blog (the picture of the lake) and thought for sure that one was better and more of an "iconic kiwi image," but the judges decided on the pictures of the Remarkables. I also SHOULD have won in another category, which was just "iconic pictures," because my sail picture

received one more vote than the winner, but since I had already won one section, they "wanted to share the winnings around." Go here to see all the pictures submitted in the 3 categories.

Other than that not a lot has been going on this week. Lots of work and rain. It has been absolutely POURING here all week. I have been very glad that I asked Mum to send my gum boots because they have been getting heaps of use this week. Totally have paid for their cost to ship them to me :-) lol Today in Yoga it was raining so hard the instructor had to yell over it so we could hear him!! However I did go out and brave the weather for a few hours with one of my flatmates. I have had my eye on a pair of shoes since March, and today Sophie totally peer preasured me into buying them. They were just put on sale so OF COURSE it was a good deal....and with the exchage rate it was even better! lol So I got them....they are amazing....I love them......and I don't know how I ever lived without them. Ok I'm done obsessing, even though I have been wearing them all over the flat since I got back to break them in...duh! My other flatmates (boys) think I'm nuts, but how can you NOT love these shoes?

Gorgeous right?????

Well, on Sunday, my program is taking me on a tour of Weta works, which is Peter Jackson's production company here in Wellington. It is affectionately known as Wellywood to the locals. I am super excited and can't wait to tell all yous guys (sorry is the Bostonian in me) about it!! I have decided that it's the next best thing to getting a private tour of Skywalker Ranch....but since THAT hasn't happened yet, I guess I can settle for this lol. And who knows, I might even get lost in the wardrobe.......

More to come on Sunday/Monday

~Marjorie

Pictures! and the swine flu

2009-05-04T23:58:00.003+12:00

yay for procrastinating work and posting pictures instead!!

Link to more Autumn break pictures from the South Island

Link to more pictures from around the house and the Wellington Area

Ok I thought I would leave you with one last take on the wonderful swine flu that has got this tiny little country in an uproar. But I mean when you have only half the population of New York City as your entire country, a few people getting sick and potentially dying from a flu gets you a little worried. Now I might have stole this from a well known blogger whom I love and read religously....however, I would like to point out that this was shown to me by another blogger friend BEFORE it appeared in said well known bloggers blog. Enjoy!!

Power struggles, where I live, and what you all have been asking for

2009-05-04T19:48:00.007+12:00

So I realized that I have taken the pictures but never posted of where I live. How silly of me! Here are a few shots, more to come on Picasa.

My Room:

In other news, I have yet to get a total grasp on NZ power. I still believe that when I plug something into the wall it should automatically turn on. And yet that is not always the case! Unlike the wonderful AC power in the states, NZ power is a little stronger and therefore need more safety precautions around it. Each outlet has a switch that turns the outlet on or off. This little fact confused the HELL out of me when I first moved in, becuase NOTHING would turn on. Well my roommates just laughed at me and mumbled stupid American, before explaining to me how to work the power. Well, you would think that I would understand this concept after four months of living with it. But NO I have not learned. Yesterday I was baffled for at least five minutes as to why my hairdryer wouldn't turn on. I was almost going to go out and buy a new one because it MUST HAVE died on me. Didn't I feel silly when I realized the outlet had just been accidentally switch off. Also, do you know how many times I have tried to boil water for 20 minutes, cursing the stove, only to realize that someone turned the outlet to the stove off. Same with the toaster. At least in the states we UNPLUG the toaster...nope here it's SOOOO much easier, just flip a switch! Well this weekend I cooked some coffee cake, and wondered for thrity minutes why the oven wasn't coming up to temperature. Then I realized it wasn't plugged in. Oh won't I be glad to come home where power is so much simpler. Just plug in and go!

But life upside down is going pretty well. I am learning that I should be very grateful I am doing the majority of my studies in the states. I don't think I could survive with this learning style much longer than a semester. It is all lecture no discussion. Which I assumed when I was coming here. HOWEVER they do TRY to have discussions in the tutorials that every paper I am taking scheduled. But no one here understands how to lead a discussion group, so really the tutorials are pretty useless. And for someone who is use to completely discussion based classes (thank you beaver) it is VERY painful to sit through. I will be looking forward to coming home for next semester...but not for leaving NZ. If I could stay here and just not go to school it would be AMAZING!!! Alas, I am too much of a perfectionist and therefore cannot just blow off all of my studies. Too bad! lol

And finally what you have been asking for: the link to my first installment of my pictures from break. These are the Australia pictures. South Island will hopefully be coming soon. But give me a break, uploading 100+ pictures takes a LONG time! lol

Autumn Break...week 2

2009-05-03T11:31:00.004+12:00

So I have been a horrible blogger and have been avoiding my duties to update everyone on my second week of break, as well as putting up pictures. I apologies, hopefully it will never happen again. First I want to congratulate all my readers who deserve a congratulations (which is really all of you since you are awesome and have been reading my blog! lol). But I have been getting heaps of news from back home about people graduating and finally getting recognition for awesome work and so on.......so YAY to all of you!!!! I am soooooo happy for you!

ok so anywho...back to my life upside-down. So I only had a one night lay over at my flat, and by 8am on Sunday I was already gone again. When I got to the ferry, the terminal was COMPLETELY empty and the workers behind the counter were all like, are you trying to make the 8:25 ferry? and almost in a panic. It was 8:15 and I said, yes I was. Well, they all were like FREEKEN out because the last moment to check you bags (for a ferry....I still don't understand that) was 8:15. But the group I was meeting was NO WHERE to be seen, so I had no idea about how I was going to find my boarding pass. Well, the man who was checking my luggage asked my name so he could look up my boarding pass and as I said my name another woman walked over and handed me a boarding pass. Thank God my friends knew enough to leave my boarding pass with someone behind the counter. Well, I wasn't too worried about making the ferry when I left the flat at 8, but when I got there I basically sprinted up the gang way, and at the top the man told me I was the last person to board the ferry. So I made it and found my friends so all was all right, but wow did the people at the ferry terminal freak me out. My friends asked why I didn't answer my cell phone, and I realized I had turned it off because I had left my charger somewhere in Australia and was trying to conserve the battery. It was funny when I turned it back on though, I have never heard a cell phone beep so much lol!

When we got to Picton, it was about 12pm. We picked up the car from the terminal, and were on our way by 1:30pm. I took the first shift (which turned out to be the only shift) since I was the only person who had driven on the other side of the road before. We drove down the west coast to Frans Joseph, which is the location for one of the three tropical glaciers in the world. It was a nine hour drive down the coast on very windy roads. We did stop at a few spots, but no one seemed anxious to take over the wheel, so I just kept on driving. It didn't matter much to me, my co-pilot was awesome and I got to choose the music, so I was set. We stopped at a very nice beach at sunset and also got over to the pancake rocks at Punakaiki by dusk, but it got dark fast, so we didn't get any good pictures of them. But they were still cool to see. After dark, I was very glad I was the one driving, becuase we hit a few places where there were heaps of traffic cones and reflectors and whatnot, we drove through them fine, but there was one section of the road where it was one lane around a few curves in the mountain. I beeped my horn a few times to let any cars that there might be on the other side that I was already driving through, because there was no way that I was going to start backing up the road if any cars started coming at me! At one point down this stretch of road I looked over to see why the other lane was not drivable and saw that there was no lane, only a few parts of the white line were visible. It looked like something out of Jurassic park or something, since the other side of the road was completely gone!!! I just kept on driving and was happy everyone in the back was asleep. The next day during our hike, our guide asked if anyone had driven down from the north and I said yes at night! The rest of the group was surprised to find out that the road had been washed out by a big storm they had had a few weeks ago. But we got into Frans Joseph safely at about 9:45pm, but realized when we got there no one had written down the name of the hotel!!!!!! So we pulled into a hotel that sounded like the right name and asked if they had our reservation. They didn't, but the man felt bad for us, so let us use their internet to find the name of the hotel we were really staying at. It wasn't too hard to find the confirmation e-mail, so by 10:30pm we had found the hotel and were settling into our new digs.

The next day was the big day in Frans Joseph. We had signed up for an all day hike on the glacier, so we were up and ready by 8:15 and managed to be on the bus by 9 to the glacier. The hike was amazing. It took about an hour and a half to get to the ice face, but once we were there we had 6 hours of ice time! Our guide was really nice, but it was hard to take pictures since we were moving most of the time, and I only had my big camera. So I only took a few pictures. But it was an amazing experience. The glacier was sooooo cool, but not really temperature wise. As soon as you stopped moving you realized how cold it was, but as you were walking it wasn't cold at all. At lunch, I filled my water bottle up with some glacial water (which stayed cold for the rest of the day....by 10pm it was still refreshing!) and throughout the trip ate glacial ice....which it totally fine since the glacier is completely fresh water. But we saw HUGE cracks and crevasses. Initially, I had wished my parents had been there because it was just so amazing, but after a few views of some big cracks I was glad they weren't with me because I don't think mom would have been able to deal with the height lol. After lunch our guide got really excited because they had found a newly formed cave, so during lunch he was off putting in ice screws and ropes so that we could go down and see it. I thought I would be dying by the end of the hike, but living in Wellington had prepared me for the all day hike, and I ended up not even being sore! I was surprised. Totally worth it, and I would definitely recommend doing a glacial walk if anyone ever makes it to the West coast of the south island in NZ. Both Frans Joseph and Fox are two of the three tropical glaciers, which means that the ice is surrounded by a temperate rainforest. The only other place you can find this type of glacier is in Chile (I think).

So that night, we took it easy and went into town for some dinner. After dark, we took a walk down to some forest trails to see glow worms. They were pretty cool, and all over the trees, when I first looked up I thought they were stars, but then I realized they were the glow worms lol.

The next day was our last full day on the west coast so we drove to Fox glacier, where we met up with a few other friends from our program. We had breakfast with them, and then went off to do some of our own hiking. We walked around Fox glacier for a while but didn't go up on it. Most of those path ways had also been washed out by the storm, so we only hung around for an hour or so. Though we did find a cool suspension bridge, and took some pictures on it too! We also walked around Lake Mathasen, a short drive away, and I think I discovered where the creators of Myst got inspiration for the Channelwood age. (Ok I am showing my dorkyness now lol) Check out the pictures....I couldn't believe how similar they looked. There was one point, where we walked out to a small island in the lake and I thought I was actually in Channelwood (well not really....but it looked an awful lot like it!). Afterwards, we went back and grabbed some lunch and just relaxed for a few hours. At sunset, we took a walk up to a cave to see more glow worms, but didn't get very far in because the cave had a creek flowing through it and no one wanted to get their shoes wet. We had an early evening since we needed to get up early so that we could take the scenic route to Christchurch the next day.

We had decided that we didn't just want to retrace our steps and drive north to get to Christchurch, so we left at 7:15am and drove south down to Wanka to see the lake, and then back up to see Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo before getting to Christchurch by 6pm. It was a really nice all day drive and even though I had already seen most of it from my last trip, it was really beautiful to see again. Especially since it was the area where most of the New Zealand wineries are and the vineyards were GORGEOUS and all the leaves were turning since it is autumn here. It was a really pretty drive. Thankfully, I did not drive the whole time, I just took the last leg, since I was the only one confident enough to drive in the "city." We checked in to our hostel, and then met up with one of our kiwi friends who lives in Christchurch. He took us all out to dinner (and felt really cool showing 5 girls around the city). The one guy in our group was also happy to finally have another guy around....I think he was getting a little tired of all of us. lol After dinner we were all pretty tired after a long day of driving and by 10:30pm we were all out!

It was awesome to have more time in Christchurch. The city is really cool. The next day we walked around the botanical gardens and the old college in the northern part of the city. I also got to go punting down the Avon...thankfully the water is VERY shallow, so the pole never got stuck lol. We even scraped bottom at one point. But it was a nice time around the city. That night three of us went up to Ko Tane, which is a touristy Maori marae in Christchurch. One of the girls that was with us wasn't part of our program, and so hadn't seen anything about traditional Maori powhiris and such. So a few of us went up there to see that. Ko Tane is also part of a wildlife sanctuary, so after the Powhiri we went over to the wildlife part of the area and saw kiwis up close and personal. Unlike the last time I saw kiwis in Christchurch, these were not behind glass. They were behind a fence, but the fence wasn't even as high as my knees. You don't have to worry about them getting out though, since they are a flightless bird lol. At one point, one of the kiwis poked my foot through the chicken wire when it was looking for worms by the fence. It is illegal to touch a kiwi, but not if they touch you, so I felt very lucky. You can't take pictures of them though, because not only will the flash scare them, it is also bad for their eyes since they are nocturnal. In the sanctuary we also got to see other indigenous birds and animals to NZ. I was really happy I went. Afterwards, we met up with the rest of our friends and had an awesome time painting the town red.

The next day, the group had found this ropes corse about a half hour out of the city, so we went and spent most of our day there. It was a lot of fun, but after the 4th course (they were rated 1-6 in difficulty and height) I was getting tired, and the ropes were getting just a little to high for me. A few members got finished with 5 but then decided that it was also getting to much for them, so we all decided to leave after that. Back in Christchurch, we went to the best Mexican restaurant I have found so far in NZ, however it wasn't as good as On the Border, so you can tell the calibre of mexican food I have found up until then! The chips weren't even bottomless.....I was still disappointed. But the food was actually good, so it wasn't all bad. I have just decided that NZ is too far away from Mexico to actually get good mexican food....so I will just have to wait to get back stateside for good mexican food. Oh how I miss Moes and/or New World!! (strange note...New World is the name for the super markets here, if only I could get a decent flat wrap there lol) I had a lazy evening, since after dinner the group went on a haunted house tour. Thankfully, another girl in the group doesn't like them either. So we hung out together around the room.

Our last day on the South Island was mostly driving again. We were able to sleep in a little, and were on the road by 9am for our 5 hour drive to Picton again. I did the whole drive, which wasn't too bad. The only problem now is that since I did so much driving this week, I am now TOTALLY used to driving on the left side of the road. When I went to go see Wolverine this week (which parts were shot in NZ just FYI) and they drove on the right side, IT LOOKED WRONG TO ME!!!! OH NO so it will be interesting when I get home. Hopefully, its like riding a bike and I won't try and jump in the passenger's side when I want to drive the jeep lol. We stoped in Kikura for about an hour for lunch and such. It was a little cloudy though so after lunch we all got back in the car and got up to Picton around 4. Our ferry was at 6 and we didn't need to give the car in until 5, so we walked around Picton for a while, a few of us even got in a game of mini golf. By 5:30 we had given the car in and were on the ferry back home. We got in at about 9:30 and I was home by 10pm. And then at 3 or 4am I was woken up by the mouse eating my Tam tams that I had forgotten were in my room from when I got back from Australia. But that is another story.

It was an awesome trip and I am glad I went, I am just sad that I won't be able to see ANY of the North Island. Oh well! I guess I will just have to come back at some point to see the rest of it! lol

Cheers!

~Marjorie

Tales in a Sunburnt Country

2009-04-28T17:27:00.004+12:00

Ok so I kinda stole the title of this post from a Bill Bryson book, but it is totally true! My week in Australia was absolutely amazing!! I went by myself, but when I was in Melbourne I stayed with a friend of my dad's. I decided I wanted to grab an early flight so as to have as much time as possible in Melbourne; however what I forgot to think about was that going to Australia is an International flight EVEN from New Zealand. I have no idea why I didn't realize it was an international flight, I guess I just figured it was one of the only places close so it wasn't that bad of a flight. So when I booked the 6:00am flight I did not figure in that I needed to arrive at the airport 2 hours early, which meant that I needed to be at the airport at 4:00am (ewwwww). So when my alarm went off at 2:45am I was NOT happy....but I got to the airport a few minutes before 4. However, the desks opened up 90 minutes before their first flight, so I still had to stand around to wait. I took out a book and stood in front of one of the counters to wait. But two pages later when I looked up, ANOTHER line had formed a few places down, so I had to move to the end of THAT line....only a little annoying!!! But then the desks opened and it was off to the races...or that is what I thought. When I got up to the desk, the girl took my passport and scanned it, and then scanned it again, and then again, typed something into her computer looked up at me, looked at the computer again, and then I asked what was wrong. She said that it didn't seem like I had a visa to travel. I just said I was going on holiday for a week and was coming back to NZ to finish my studies. She explained that I still needed a visa, and right then I thought my trip was over before it even began! But then she explained, all I needed to do was go over to customer service and buy one. It was easy enough, just some dosh and then I could be issued my boarding pass. But that was not the only thing the airport needed my dosh for...there is also a travel tax in New Zealand if you plan to return. so $80 bucks later and the NZ government decided that it was OK for me to leave the country!

The flight was fine, a quick 4 hour flight. Nothing too eventful and I landed ahead of time at 7:45am local time. It took me what seemed like forever to get through customs, but once the Australian government decided that it was fine to let me into their country, it was out the door and looking for Nora. It was easy enough to find her with her awesome sign welcoming me to Melbourne with my name in BIG letters....embarrassing but effective! lol We grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin for me since the breakfast on the plane was not great. Then we were on our way to Daylesford which was a little less then a two hour drive away from the airport. Daylesford is a quaint little town, farther inland in Victoria than Melbourne which is known for its bath houses and curing water. We explored the town center and walked around the small lake before going back to the straw batch (yes I stayed in a straw house, but it didn't blow down!) for lunch. After lunch, Nora surprised me with a appointment at a local bath house for a massage!! It was AMAZING!! THe bath house was really cool, in that area of Victoria there is natural mineral water spring, which is why there are so many bath houses in the area. In the eary 20th c. many people traveled to the area to "take the water" because people thought it had medicinal qualities. After that it was a lazy evening around the house and by 10pm jet lag hit me and I was off to bed.

The next morning we had another lazy morning before we got in the car and drove up to Melbourne. Nora took me around the city for the day and it felt like there was no more city to be seen by the time we were done at 4pm. Nora first took me by the river Yarra (which I couldn't decided why it was called a Riverara since we were no where close to a spanish speaking country...I then realized that I misheard the name), which reminded me SOOO much of the Charles. After a nice walk by the water we went up to the arts center of Melbourne, Federation Square. We wandered around the museum and saw some famous painting by local artists as well as some really interesting furniture. We had lunch in the very trendy lane ways. They were really cool, and I recommend to go and walk around them if you ever find yourself in Melbourne. They are all smaller lanes found behind the larger major city. What they were originally built for was sewage reasons--when bathrooms still needed to be emptied, the lane ways were there for the trucks to come down behind the stores and to empty the toilets. Now, with the wonderful invention of sewer systems, they are returaunts trendy smaller streets with millions of resturaunts and small shops. The city also made graffiti legal in these lane ways, now dubbed street art, so the walls are very interesting and you can always find something new because people are always painting over something else.

After lunch, I squeezed some shopping in....but it was only window shopping...I somehow managed to buy NOTHING!!! I was so proud of myself :-D Then we saw a few more sites...parliament and the greens, where all of the trees have possum guards. Then we went back down by the river and grabbed a little snack and sat by the river before getting back into the car up to Nora's house in the patch, a suburb of Melbourne about an hour outside the city up in the hills. It was a gorgeous spot. It's called the patch because that area of the hills had a large population of mountain ash trees. These trees are known to grow very tall with very few branches, so they were great for boat masts. So the area of the patch is the patch of mountain where most of the mountain ash trees were felled. When we got back to her house, I met Tony Nora's husband, who was making dinner. Another lazy night before I hit the sack around 11.

The next day was fun, Nora took me out to breakfast a little further up in the hills before taking me into the city to meet up with one of her son's friends. Talk about Australian hospitality! Nora had originally thought that Tony would be able to take me around Melbourne on Wednesday before I needed to grab my flight at 8:30pm. Well Tony had to go on a last minute business trip to Canberra and Sydney. So they called up on of her son's friends and asked if he could take me around the city on Wednesday. He was a very gracious host, and I got to see another part of the city I didn't get to see the day before. We walked around the Uni and saw the student area of Melbourne. Then we went to one of his favorite bars for some late lunch and some down time for a couple of hours before I needed to grab my flight to Sydney.

Melbourne was an awesome time and I can't thank my hosts enough for their wonderful hospitality. That is one of the things I will miss when I go back to the states. Everyone here is so laid back and SUPER nice and always willing to help...all very rare back in the states.

My plane to Sydney was delayed 45 minutes, and I landed in Sydney closer to 10:30. When I arrived at my hotel, I had to ring the doorbell to get let in. Then as I was walking in the girl behind the desk said, "good evening Marjorie" which kinda creaped me out, but she quickly explained that I was the last guest to check in for the evening, so that is how she knew it was me. I did splurge a little on my hotel and I was soooo glad I did. The hotel was pretty central in the city, and the room was really nice, though I didn't spend much time in it! However, when I finally got to sleep at 12:30 (there was a little bit of stress with my UVM course registration....my parents forgot to do it, but it all worked out in the end so no worries!) it seemed like no time at all when my alarm was going off again...or what I thought was my alarm. However, when I finally realized what was happening I realized that it was not my alarm but the hotel's fire alarm. It was 4:45am!! Well I got up and put on some cloths and evacuated the building like the nice man over the intercom asked me to do. By 5:15am we were let back into our rooms where I proceeded to turn off my alarm and go back to sleep. I woke up at 10am, grabbed some breakfast from the hotel and it was off to exploring Sydney. I spent most of my day in Days bay at the Wildlife conservation park and the aquarium. I got my picture taken with a koala and got to pet and feed a kangaroo at the wildlife park, and saw lots of other indigenous animals to Aussie (pronounced Osiee as I was taught).....but not platypus :-( Then I went over to the Aquaium...which was SOO crowded since it was Easter holiday and all the primary and secondary schools were out. After I had enough exploration of Days bay, I jumped on the monorail, since I was getting tired of walking, over to China town. Walked around the shops over there (again I didn't buy a thing!) I did end up finding a jewelry shop later in the day, which gave me an AMAZING deal on an opal, I got it down from $200 to AUS$120 which was only US$90....my first try at bartering...so I was proud of myself lol. But one of the places Nora told me I MUST see was the Chinese Gardens. I did and they were so nice. It was really interesting for me since I just took an Asian art history course last year and learned all about the symbolism behind different aspects of a Chinese garden, so I ended up wandering around and taking pictures there for about two hours. After that Tony gave me a call since he was in Sydney for business and we met up back at Days Bay. Initially, I thought we were just going to grab a drink since he had said that he had a client he was going to take out for dinner, but an hour or so after meeting him he told me that his dinner thing had fallen through and that he wanted to take me out to dinner. We went to this great thaicloser to our hotel (he was staying in the same place I was) where we ended up eating 1000 year old eggs!! They were very spicy and kind of blue, but I thought they were restaurant good. Tony thought they were a little spicy....which they were my lips were burning by the end of it. But hey! how many people can say they have had 1000 year old eggs. Dinner was awesome and it was so nice of Tony to meet up with me!

Friday was my last day in Sydney, and in the morning was the high light of my trip. I had a backstage tour of the Sydney opera house, which was absolutely amazing. We had to be there by 6:45am, so it was another early morning for me, but TOTALLY worth it. There were only 5 people on my tour (of which I was the youngest by at least 40 years) and our guide was super nice. I ended up asking enough technical questions, he ended up guessing that I must work in the theatre, to which I said that I was minoring in theatre back at school and that I did lights and stage management and so he ended up tailoring the tour for me so that I could see other parts of the theaters that people would not normally see! We got to see all of the booths and he explained all about the stage manager's booth (which was back stage in the wings...how nice!). We also got to stand on EVERY stage in the opera house, but I couldn't take many pictures inside because they had a ton of show up at the moment and the sets were copy written, so no pictures allowed. The tour lasted about an hour and a half and afterwards they gave us breakfast in the green room. All in all a great time, I was so happy that I did it...it was SOOO COOL! lol

I was done by about 10:00 and so hoped a ferry over to Manly beach...another must see on Nora's list of sights in Sydney. I spent most of the day over there, just walking around the town and exploring the beaches. I walked all the way down to shelly beach and out to the point where I took a few pictures of some surfers...I was so sad I didn't bring a bathing suit because it was wonderful weather the whole time I was in Australia, but sadly I could only dip my feet in. At 3:30 I hopped the ferry back to Sydney and took the long way back to my hotel. I walked down from the opera house through the Botanical gardens at dusk which was BEAUTIFUL until I got lost in the palm grove. You see it was about 5:00 and I needed to find the toilets....which happened to be in the palm grove. I thought nothing of the walk through the nice gardens until, for what ever reason, I decided to look up, when I realized that I was walking under about a bazillion fruit bats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After that discovery I proceeded to SPRINT to the lou and then SPRINT back out again. However the sprinting back out did not go as well as I had hoped and I got lost since I was so freaked out about the bats. I, thank god, was not the only one afraid of bats, and bonded with another lady trying to find her way out as well. Thankfully the bats only reside in that area of the gardens, something about the trees I guess. So once I was out the rest of my walk was very relaxing. I did take a few pictures of these bats in the trees, once I was a safe distance away...but it is hard to see the sheer number of bats that there actually were. So you are just going to have to trust me....there were A LOT!!! The other fun fact....is that since it was dusk....THEY WERE WAKING UP!!!! Non were flying yet, thank god!!!, but they were stretching and starting to squeak, and OHMYGOD are they HUGE!! But once I was out I walked down past St. Mary's cathedral (the patron saint of Sydney) and then back through Hyde park. Once I got back down to the city center I wandered around the Queen Victoria building for a little while and then decided that I was hungry and tired for a long day's walk, so I went back to the hotel and had some dinner there.

The next day was a travel day, flew out of Sydney at 10am (so I was at the airport by 8am...not as bad as the flight there lol) where I flew to Auckland where I had a 4 hour layover before getti deja ng into Welly again at 8:30. It was weird going through customs again in Auckland, I had major vou from when I first arrived in NZ back in Feb. However it was nice that this time I was only getting off a 5 hr flight, not a 13 hr flight! lol The layover was fine, but I did have to transfer my bags from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, which I didn't realize was a hike to get to. 2o minutes later I got to the domestic terminal where all I wanted to do was get rid of this heavy bag that I had just lugged the whole way over, but again the desks were closed until 6:15. So I grabbed some food and read my book.

I got back into Wellington without any problems and grabbed a cab back to my flat! Then I had a night layover here where I unpacked and repacked and ate some dinner before going to bed to grab my 8:30 ferry down to the south island!

'phew that took a while.....when you don't keep up with your travel blog daily I guess the posts get kinda long.....LIKE USUAL! If you have gotten to this point....thank you! I would have understood if you just blew it off half way through. But I am so glad I went and experienced more of life down under the whole trip was heaps and heaps of fun!! Photos and tales of the South Island trip to come later!

Cheers,

~Marjorie

Kia Ora after 2 weeks!

2009-04-26T17:19:00.003+12:00

Yay! I am still alive...though I might need a vacation from my vacation lol. My break was amazing...I went to Australia for the 1st week and the south island again for the 2nd and it was all heaps and heaps of fun!! More to come on the last 2 week some time this week...but first things first...I need to catch up on some school work. Just thought I would check in and say Hi after a 2 week absence......and also say that I was woken up last night after a long day of driving and traveling by the mouse IN MY ROOM!!!! so I guess not a lot has changed around the flat since I have been gone.....guess I will have to sneak a normal non-humane trap past my vegetarian roommate.....her trap has been FAILING for the last 3 weeks!!!! so yeah fun stuff to come back to!! pictures and more to come soon!!

Cheers,

~Marjorie

Easter Sunday in Aotearoa

2009-04-12T13:25:00.004+12:00

What kind of christian would I be if didn't go to church on Easter? For my first Easter away from home, I found it a little strange going to church on my own, but I was very happy I went and now I can say I have used the New Zealand prayer book lol. I found a very small church that is about 15 minute walk up the hill from my house, St. Michael's. The congregation is very small, but they are the only church in Wellington that caters to University students, with an extra 7pm service on normal Sundays.

But it was a very nice Easter morning and for the autumn weather we have been having, it actually felt quite spring like...it was probably warmer than it normally is back home! I still found it weird celebrating Easter in autumn, but thats what you get for living on the other side of the world.

The service was a very nice mix of high and low church. There were bells and smells (smells just for Easter), but everything followed the kiwi way and was very informal and relaxed. Throughout the service the Rev. was speaking into the mic, asking the ushers to bring up things throughout the service (I found this very strange lol). He said things like "Can we get some more flowers up here at the front" (we flowered the cross during the peace...it was very nice, everyone was given a flower when they first arrived, and during the peace you went up to the alter and put the flower in some where on a cross covered in chicken wire), he also asked for more wine during communion, no crazy hand gestures or skirts necessary!

The service itself was very familiar to me; it seemed like a normal Episcopalian service, just with the order scrambled. Glory and the creeds followed by the peace, and then the readings with the sermon, followed by the offertory and communion, then the announcements were given from behind the alter, the closing prayer and dismissal. Most of what was said throughout the service was also the same, but with a few words changed here and there. The only other thing that I found very strange was that the hymnal had NO music...so it was very hard to follow along, you had to pay closer attention to the choir. The hymnal really just looked like a book of poems with each verse as its own stanza. But once you got the tune from the first verse not having the music wasn't too bad...I just missed it.

I really enjoyed the sermon. It was given by a member of the congregation, who seemed to give sermons on a regular basis from his introduction. He made some very interesting connections between the reasons for the gospels' detailed account of Easter morn, and why the authors might not have gone into much discussion about what it all meant. The details support the actual occurrence of the resurrection...showing it actually did happen, allowing us to figure out the importance of it all for ourselves. He also talked about why Mary believes Jesus is the gardener at first. That the tomb and surrounding area has become the new garden of eden and Jesus is it's gardener. All very interesting.

I stayed at coffee hour for a little while. The people were all very welcoming and nice. Compared to what I have become accustomed to, it was a VERY small congregation, with record attendance of 90 people. But I did meet a few interesting kids my age and they told me about the 7pm service. So depending what I am doing after break I might just have to go and see what it is all about when I get back from Autumn Break.

At coffee hour, a little girl asked me a very interesting question. She must have been all of six, and I had noticed she had been watching me while we were all in the narthex having tea (but they still call it coffee hour...I don't understand, ANYWAY). So finally the little girl came up to me and said, "are you a movie star?" Of course I, along with the few people I was talking to laughed a little and I asked why she thought this. And she told me that I looked so nice and sounded exactly like all the other movie stars so I must be in movies! (In her ADORABLE New Zealand accent of course) Well I understood her logic: since Hollywood movies are very popular and most actors in these movies have American accents, all Americans are thereby movie stars....it makes perfect sense! I of course enjoyed the complement and told her I was not a movie star, but was very flattered that she thought I could be.

Ok well enough about church, I need to go and pack for my trip for Austrlia. I have to be ready to catch a cab tomorrow at 3:45 AM.......YUCK! I will be going to bed early tonight!

More to come on the trip later,

Cheers!

~Marjorie

Travel Plans

2009-04-08T20:00:00.002+12:00

SO.... I thought I would fill all of you in on my globe trotting plans for my whirlwind two week tour of the Antipodes. But before I get into all of that....I have realized I have not taken the time to tell all yous guys about last weekend:

It was a fun adventure weekend....but a little more stressful than I expected. Why was it so stressful you ask? Well after we caught the 6pm ferry over to Picton, Rebecca briefed the group about the plan for the next 2 days. She explained to us that since there was only 1 of her and 2 groups, my group needed a team leader to make sure everyone is where they need to be on time....well since my nickname is Mom (really I dont know how I got that one...) everyone looked directly at me, so I was dubbed Team leader. The first day it wasn't too bad....we were the first group to go "swimming" with the dolphins. It was really nice actually, we got up early and were to the peer by 9 and on the boat by 9:30. We got a really nice tour of Marlborough Sound....but sadly in the 4 hours we were on the boat found no dolphins that we could get in the water with. We did find a good size pods of Hector Dolphins though! That was really cool because they are the smallest species of dolphin and are only found in NZ. But they are VERY endangered, there are only about 7,000 still found in the wild....so it is really rare to find a pod....so it was sweet as to see 'em But we couldn't go in the water to swim with them because they are so endangered. We did get in the water tho....we went swimming with seals-- really cool! but not as cool as dolphins :-(

Then we got dropped off at the Resort via boat at Portage. We got HEAPS of free time with "adventure" stuff to do....I went hiking with a few friends for 3 hours....really nice views, but sadly no pictures because my battery died :-( stupid for not packing the charger...i totally thought i had too.....whatever. The next day was when it got stressful. So we didn't have to go anywhere until 10:20, and bfast was at 8...so we got a little extra "adventure time" at the resort. PS we were staying in the backbackers lodge attached to the resort...so don't get too jealous lol So I had to make sure that everyone got their stuff at the right place at the right time...which was very hard...kinda like herding cats. I also was responsible for cleaning up the kitchen, and by the time I knew that I was responsible, there was no one around to help....but I got it done. It actually wasn't too bad, but once we got back to Picton I had to pick up the food and pay for it and such and make sure ppl didnt' eat too much, and we didn't have enough, so I had to go back and get more......it was just a little bit more responsibility then I was expecting to have and hadn't really prepared for it, but it wasn't anything different from camp......the kids were just older and I had a little less authority...but all in all it wasn't a bad trip. Got to know a few of the kids from Massey....they are all really cool and one girl goes to UVM and we know bunches of the same ppl, so that was cool. I got ZERO work done on the ferry ride back, but I did get a tour of the bridge which was sweet as (NZ slang for all you people who are getting confused lol) But i got all the work done so don't worry lol

AS OF TODAY!! I am officially going on autumn break. Bought all of the plane tickets today for Australia and everything for week two has already been purchased as well!! yay, since on Friday I wasn't so sure I was going on break at all lol I had no one to go with and no plans figured out since I was soooooo busy the week before. So heres a little Iternerary for the next 2 weeks!

Monday April 13th: Depart for Melbourne at 6am (yes feel my pain lol) but I land by 8am, so its nice I get the whole day.... I am staying in Melbourne with one of Dad's work friends who has been very gracious and offered to put me up and tour me around the city and the surrounding area....SUPER NICE and I am REALLY excited to meet everybody and see the city from a local's perspective lol I'm sure we will still hit up all the touristy places too!

Tuesday: paint the town red and have heaps and heaps of fun in Melbourne

Wednesday 15th: Depart for Sydney at 8pm...also nice that I get most of the day on Wednesday to see a little bit more of melbourne before I have to jet over to Sydney

Thursday: Paint Sydney red and have heaps of fun, adventures TBA

Friday: 7am backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House!!!!!!!!! I am SUPER excited about this....Dad found it and I bought the tickets immediately. They will feed me breakfast in the green room and then we get a behind the scenes tour of all the workings of the opera house...CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

Saturday 18th: 10am flight back to Wellington, with a short stop over in Auckland, arrive in Wellington by 10pm...what can I say....it was cheep lol sleep in Wellington for the night and repack lol

Sunday 19th: ferry over to the South Island. Dive down to Hans Josef Glacier via West Coast. I get first shift since I am the only experienced left side driver....

Sunday: Hans Joseph Glacier

Monday: Fox Glacier and Mt. Cook

Tuesday: Tramping around

Wednesday: drive up to Christchurch and explore more!!

Thursday: more exploration of Christchurch

Friday: Christchurch con't.

Saturday 25th: Drive back up to Picton via East coast...stopping in Kaikoura for lunch and see beach a little before getting to Picton by 6 to board the ferry and come back to Wellington!!

So I am SUPER excited....it should be heaps and heaps of fun!!! Lots of pictures to come!

Because Blogging is so much more fun...

2009-04-02T00:21:00.004+13:00

It's 12:22am and I can't go to sleep. I have been working on a paper for 301 since I got back to my flat at 4pm....I have just finished. I should be working on the paper for 316 that is due Friday....but blogging is just so much more fun!

Life....well school work caught up with me in a major way this week. I have been having a lovely time in NZ so far: seeing the sights, experiencing the culture, and procrastinating all of my work like a professional. I tricked myself into thinking that I was keeping up with my work by reading some of the assigned chapters, and doing "research" for my two papers....but really, I was procrastinating like a fiend. Well, the realization hit on Sunday, when it was obvious that I was going to have to get my act together to finish a two papers by the end of the week. Another exciting twist is thrown into my life: I also have two papers due on Monday...an english take home exam (shouldn't be too difficult *she says confidently* it's only a close reading of a poem with a max of 1500 words) and a proposal for my second assignment in 301 (which I just realized I had to do today *YAY!!* and haven't really done much thinking on). But the fun twist...I am going on a Bulter event this weekend, and I can't miss it. I have been looking forward to the adventure weekend since I found out about the Butler program last fall, so I can't really back out now that would be awful!!! I will be taking my laptop with me (we are staying at a resort...so it will be fine), and I will make sure I work on my assignments for at least the three and a half hour ferry ride to and from the South Island....I also am convincing myself now that I will do some work at night.....but lets see if that really happens! lol

some other fun news.....we have mice. Yes, I will say/type it again...... we. have. mice.....IN OUR FLAT!!!! *insert lots of girly screaming and ewww-ing here* They were discovered in a pizza box, which was waiting to be recycled last night/this morning (1:30am). Since it was slightly past midnight, and the date was now 4/1, and my flattie who told me seems like he would be one for practicle jokes, I was a little hesitant to believe him at first. But dropping have been discovered, so in my horror, it was not an April Fools joke....(btw Happy Birthday Phil!) I have never really found a liking for mice...unlike one of my other flatties who wants to find a humane mouse trap. Better than the other trap option that was posed: fly paper that the mouse gets stuck on and then death by drowning...boys....

I don't care how we trap them....I just want them either dead so they can't torment me anymore......or so far away that they will never find this flat ever again (Australia would be preferable). I think it is all the years at the cottage, which created this fear of mice. Every year when we would open the cottage for the summer, I was petrified that one of the dead mice found would come back to life as soon as I got close to it, or that as I was moving things around in the attic (aka the 2nd floor and our bedrooms) that a whole fleet of mice (pack?.....whatever A LOT of mice) would come running out from behind something. Really, I just blame my over-active imagination for my hatred of mice. Just as another note, I have come to hate bats even more than mice, since I have realized that they are really just flying rodents....and what could be worse?!?!?! Thank God I haven't discovered any bats flying around the hills of Kelburn, Wellington.....do bats live in cities?

Don't worry too much about me being stressed, I have found plenty of time to give myself a little down time away from work (aka procrastinate like a champ). Yesterday, one of my roommates, one of her friends, and I went to a Salsa class. It was the 2nd class in the 3 class crash course for beginners series, but I wasnt too far behind since I have take a class or two before. It was HEAPS and heaps of fun and I am soooooooooo glad I went. I am totally going back next week, and then I want to ' see if I can take more classes when I get back from break. The teacher was really good, which is always important. She had asked a few guys who are intermediate students at the school to come to the class and help out, since I guess the guy to girl ratio the first week wasn't very good. Like most partner dance classes, we rotated partners every couple of sequences, and at the end I ended up with a really good intermediate guy. He was really nice, and actually was heaps of help in explaining how to follow....funny I know. But, in any dance class I have taken, I knew the most about dance and could pick it up faster, and so I ended up leading at times, but my biggest problem is actually anticipation of the steps. In a class, the teacher creates a short piece of choreography to follow so that you can understand the steps and motions....so, I anticipated.....BAD!!! with "real" dancing (as I have found out once or twice) I can't anticipate any steps, so I normally muck up my footwork and end up looking like a fool lol but now I know!! (I'm sure you all really care about this.....) Next week, the salsa program is renting out a local club for two nights and inviting the whole program to come and dance....so I am going to try and go, if only to just see some awesome dancing!

Even with all my work, I am really excited for this weekend. We are going down to the South Island for the weekend, where we will swim with dolphins, and explore the surrounding towns and bush. We leave Friday, at 5:15pm, arriving at our lodging by 9:25pm, at 10 we have a breifing (I KNOW!!! I have zero idea about what it will be on....hopefully it won't be too long, the schedule says that it is only a half hour long....so I hope its not too boring lol). The next day we have a full day of exploring the town of Portage and dolphin swimming. Sunday morning we are giving a little more time to explore Portage before its back on the ferry by 2:00, arriving back in Wellington by 5pm. See plenty of time to do my work! lol

ok it's now 1am and I am finally tired!! g'nite!

uggg I am my mother's daughter

2009-03-25T22:51:00.003+13:00

So my flattie (roommate) totally called me out this morning. I was in the middle of my morning routine, making breakfast before class, minding my own business. I have cearal in the morning, and I was taking ever thing to the table...put the bowl of ceral down, poured the milk in it, and walked the milk carton BACK TO THE FRIDGE!!!!!! I didn't even notice what I was doing, when all of the sudden my roommate was like "what ARE you doing????? why don't you just eat?" I didn't even have a response....all I said was that my mother doesn't allow milk cartons on the table. WELL....roommate starts laughing hysterically saying she has never ever heard of that and told me next time to just leave it on the table, and I just stand next to the fridge not believing what I actually had done. OH DEAR!

Will I too become a pitcher person????

Now you see it...

2009-03-24T16:10:00.007+13:00

So Butler is having a photography contest....so naturally I decided to enter a few pictures. We could choose the subject, but it had so somehow be "New Zealand-esque." Here is an example of one of the pictures I entered that I doctored in Photoshop:

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

I thought it came out really well, you can't even tell the lamp post was once there. I dropped the photos off today to enter, and Cara (the judge) seemed to like them....so fingers crossed :-)

Cheers!

Well now that you know

2009-03-23T11:25:00.002+13:00

everything that has been going on in my life in NZ thus far, it's time for some normal posts (in length....topics probably slightly less than normal lol). The past few days it has been offically "cold" in New Zealand. I will agree, that the past few days have not been shorts and T-shirt weather, but in no way is it truly COLD (or even FREEZING, which is what my flatmate from Australia keeps on telling me it is).

To me its just like any other rainy summer's day. It's probably low 60's or mid 50's (It's 15 in C. I can never really remember the Celcius conversion and have given up on trying to do it in my head...most of you know my math skills and lack of them lol). People back up in Vermont would be wearing shorts and flip flops (or jandals as they are called here...short for Japaneese Sandles non PC culture here lol). I will admit, I did put on a sweater and long pants today, but it is still strange to see people walking around in Parkers (parkas...I can never remember which is right....down jackets lol) and wool pea coats. Last night my flatmate was wearing gloves... AROUND THE HOUSE!! I thought that was a little extreme. If this is as cold as it gets here I will be happy, however, I believe we have a little bit more cooling off before "winter" comes.

One thing about living in a temperate climate like NZ, they don't really understand the concept of insulation. The houses here are very drafty. It's like living in the ol' wooden tent-- its always colder inside the house than it is outside. There have been a few times that I have walked outside wearing pants and gone right back in to put shorts on because it was so much warmer outside than in! So I am not looking forward

Another concept that New Zealanders haven't quite grasped yet is window screens. When I first got here and noticed that none of the windows had screens in them, I thought yes! no bugs. Boy was I ever wrong! They have plenty of bugs, mosquitoes being one of them!! And yet, not one window has a screen on it to keep the bugs OUT! I have mentioned this one or twice to my Kiwi friends, and they don't even have a clue as to what I am talking about. Why would we need those? Isn't that a funny idea, wire mesh in windows so bugs don't fly in...

All in all, life in NZ is a lot slower than back home. Everyone here is much more relaxed. Even in classes; In English, I asked one of the lecturers how we were to know what was compulsory to read for each lecture since it was not clearly outlined in the syllabus and she looked at me like I had two heads! "Oh, just read over a few of the poems in the class reader that look like they go with the lecture topic for the day", she said to me.

I thought I would be ready for this...I believe I am pretty laid back person; most of the time I go with the flow, unless I am managing the flow, then I tend to stress out a little if the flow is not going right, but MOST of the time I am pretty relaxed.I mean I go to school in Burlington, VT, that has to give me some points right? And yet, I do stress over the fact that to get a coffee in the morning (before class) I have to wait at least 10 minutes when I'm the first in line!!

Now I know from experience (well not actual making experience, just more waiting in line at Starbucks experience) that it does not take a whole 10 minutes to make a vanilla mocha, but of course the barista (Josh, he actually is a really nice guy) needs to find out how my weekend was and what class I'm on my way to, and he also needs to tell me about the goings on in his life. So the time from when I put in my order to the point where he actually hands over the cup is a decent amount of time-- time that I might not have planned for on the first day of class and arrive a minute or two late for my first lecture (whoops). The coffee is really good over here though.

So I am adapting: I do the reading for English after the lecture, and I leave a few minutes earlier if I want a coffee before class, and I try to drag my heals when I walk because people are always commenting on how fast I walk. I don't mind it really though, it is actually quite nice to have to force myself to slow down. Who knows, maybe I will learn to care less about the little things that always get me going...wouldn't that be nice!

First week of classes!!

2009-03-21T19:26:00.004+13:00

Wow, we are almost up to current events! Yay me!!

Well the first week of classes went really well. I really like my class schedule and all my subsequent free time. But first and foremost, a New Zealand vocabulary lesson:

Paper: what American’s would term a class. It’s a specific series of lectures,held by a lecturer (or multiple, depending on the paper), which fulfills requirements for a course.

Course: A field of study. What American’s would term a major.

Lecture: A weekly meeting of a paper.

Class Schedule: An outline of the paper for the semester. What the US would call a class syllabus.

Class Timetable: The schedule of the papers one have throughout the week.

Tutorial: It’s a smaller section of the class held once a week by a tutor, or in some cases the lecturer. This is the same…just thought I would throw it in there to say that all my classes have these.

Lecturer: Not to be confused with a lecture— a lecturer is the person who teaches the paper. Also, one should never refer to a lecturer as “Professor” unless that title has been awarded to such person.

Professor: A very prestigious title only given to those who have worked in the department for an extended period of time and have millions of things published. It seems to me, in the US we would think of it as a teacher who has received tenure.

Now for someone new, who does not know this jargon and is taking an English class, on the first day of class, when the lecturer is explaining the essays we need to write for the paper, and that we should check on our class schedule for the tutorial times so we can choose a time that fit into our class timetable…it all becomes quite confusing! But I talked to my Kiwi friends, and got it all straightened out later that day. lol

I am taking 3 papers over here (which translates into full credits back at UVM…I’m stoked!): New Zealand Lit, Marketing Communications, and Social Marketing.

New Zealand Lit: This paper seems like it is going to be a good class. We have 5 different lecturers, so it will be nice to constantly have a different view of the material being presented. However, it seems like it might be a little bit more work in the beginning for someone who is not familiar with the culture. The first class we talked about the National Anthem (God Save NZ) and its significant and importance; however, no one ever handed out the words, so after the class I looked up the lyrics so I would have a better understanding of what my notes meant!! It meets three times a week (Mon, Tues, and Wed. which is nice), at 10^am, which gives me a reason to get up—also nice. It also has a tutorial that meets once a week. The tutor is actually the head lecturer, so the discussions seem like they will be very helpful throughout the class.

Marketing Communications (301): It started out rough on the first day: our first class being 2 hours long! But it is getting more interesting as we progress through the material. The teacher was nice and only kept us for an hour and a half for the first class. She started out very tough as she “laid down the rules of the class” and was pretty dull, but as the lecture went on she started to warm up a little. Since our first class was actually on Tuesday (my other two classes meet on Monday), I was a little worried at the beginning of the lecture that I wouldn’t like this class as much as my Social marketing paper. The lecturer for that class is very energetic and excited to teach her lecture, whereas this lecturer seemed to not be enthused to be teaching Mark 301. But after a while she warmed up and in the end the paper seems like it will be a very interesting paper. I’m more interested in this class, since it’s all about Marketing and advertising, but I don’t think I will like my social marketing paper any less (if anything I will probably end up liking it more because of the lecturer). 301 only meets two times a week (1 two hour class, and 1 one hr class), but it also has a one-hour tutorial once a week.

Social Marketing (316): Last but not least. I really am looking forward to this paper. The teacher is really nice, and is VERY excited about what she is teaching. She started off really energetic, and didn’t lose any momentum as the class went on. I think I would be a lot like her when/if I am a teacher (so that gives you a better sense of the speed and energy she brings to lectures lol). The topic is fairly interesting to me. I really chose it because it fit into my timetable and didn’t meet on Friday’s lol. It’s all about public service announcements/ campaigns and how they market an idea/ behavior. Basically, the class is about all the public service announcements and campaigns that the government and other agencies put out; like the stop smoking adds and breast cancer awareness, and all those wonderful commercials. It also meets two times a week (one long class one short class) with a tutorial.

I do have to say, it is really nice to have so much free time and get Friday’s off. Especially at the beginning of the semester, when I am still trying to get settled in my flat and have to walk everywhere because I don’t have a car and also I don’t have enough energy to sit down and figure out the bus schedule. It’s also so nice out I don’t really mind walking up and down all these hills. Like I am sure I have already told all of you—Wellington is like San Francisco on steroids! No one could have prepared me for the 45º hills, or the gale force winds that really can blow a person over if your not expecting it (seriously, when I was crossing the motor way the other day, I had to hold on to the guard rail to stay on the sidewalk. No Joke!). But I do enjoy being out side in this lovely weather, so for now I will not complain so much.

It was also a fun week: Monday classes started, and we had just gotten back from the South Island so we all kept to ourselves and got to know our flatmates better. Tuesday the group got back together for our first pub quiz down at the local Irish pub. That was heaps of fun!! We had a huge group (probably 10+ of us). Mostly American’s with a few Kiwi friends to help us with the NZ trivia. Overall we got 5^th place, out of 15 teams, so, for the obnoxious Americans in the bar, we thought we did very well. However, if we had chosen better for our bonus rounds (there are 10 rounds and you know all of their titles before hand, so as a team you pick two that you think you will excel in and your score for those rounds are doubled), we would have tied for 2^nd and won bar tabs. Too bad, next time we will know better lol. Wednesday was student night downtown, so we started off bowling (they call it dice night—you are given two dice, and what ever you role you pay for one string. I ended up rolling a three for the first string and snake eyes for the second…I was lucky, which never happens). Later on, we went out dancing since none of us had classes before noon on Thursday. Thursday night was another quiet evening. We all took a break from going out and caught up on our sleep. Friday a few of us went to an all day international cricket game. It started at 2:00 and normally would go until 9:00. But the weather wasn’t great and they kept on delaying the game due to some drizzle, so by 5 I decided I wanted to go home and change and do some work before going out with the group that night for some Chinese food. We were all very disappointed to find out that General Tso’s Chicken does not exist in this country. L How these people every survive I have NO idea. We all decided that “hot chili chicken” (which was my best guess for closest to General Tso’s on the menu—nothing like it) is tasteless, and that Orange Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken (my personal favorite from the evening) are really the way to go. But I digress. After dinner we all went back to our perspective flats for the evening.

Saturday was our first Butler organized event, and we had to meet Rebecca at the train station by 8:30^am so it was nice we called it an early night on Friday. The trip was up north (about a 2 hour bus ride) for some outdoor activities followed by some New Zealand culture. In the morning, the group was split in half (based on what we had filled out on our trip form privously): those of us who wanted to go quad biking on ATVs (that’s what I did) and those who wanted to go horse back riding. Quad Biking was a lot of fun, but only 2 hours, so we didn’t get to go too far. The trail was very pretty, through some bush, over some hills, and through some rivers—a very picturesque ride. Sadly, I was driving so was not able to get very many shots of the actual views. And Oh were my arms sore after! It took a little getting used to control it (the accelerator was very jerky and it was really heavy to steer!), but once you got the hang of it, it was a very easy ride.

After our 2 hour ride, we met up with the horse back riders at a farm where lunch was served. After kai, there were some dog trials and we got a tour of the farm’s wool shed. The dog trials were really fun to watch. Basically, the farmer was showing off what his sheep dog could do. The dog (with a few commands from the farmer) gathered the sheep into a mob, and then directed the mob down 3 fields and through 2 gates to get them into their proper pen. It was awesome to watch. The dog was really funny to because before he was working, he was the most social dog who wanted attention from EVERYONE. But as soon as he saw the sheep it was down to work, and boy did he looked mean! Lol The wool shed was also cool. I kind of expected everything that the farmer showed us from my Drumlen Farm days (sp?). But it was still interesting to see him sheer a sheep and explain the NZ wool market and why it has been such a cornerstone to their economy.

After the farm we went to the Golden Sheers competition in Masterton. That was absolutely amazing to watch. It’s an international competition between the best sheep sheeres in the world (really what else do Kiwis have to do when the sheep population equals 12 sheep to every person??). Those guys could sheer a sheep in under 45 seconds! The judging is also really interesting. They start at 0 and are given points for every mistake. A mistake would be a second swipe at the sheep because they missed a spot or that the coat coming off the sheep is not one continuous blanket of wool. Then once the sheep is sheered, the sheerer pushs it down a shoot where another judge inspects it and judges the sheerer on the tidiness of the sheep. So if they nicked the sheep and the judge upstairs missed it, someone downstairs will see it. The competition is not just for the sheers either; it is also for the people who take care of the wool after its off the sheep (I forget their actual title). They are judged on how well they throw the wool blanket on to the cleaning table, and how much bad stuff they take out of the wool and so on. I didn’t really understand that as well, but they were judged down to the time it took them to sweep up the floor after all the sheep were sheered.

After the semi-final competitions ended (which was around 4:30), it was back on the bus to Wellington. It was a really fun day and a very interesting introduction to another aspect of the NZ culture. I was very happy I decided to go. We got back around 7pm where we all grabbed some dinner and hung out for the night!

For pictures go here.

Sunday was very uneventful; I think I did laundry lol. I still have yet to get up and go to a church service on Sunday, but I know of two churches I can go to: the Wellington Cathedral or a smaller church a little further downtown (St. Peters I think).

so again this post became longer than I thought it would, but now I am pretty much caught up, so shorter posts from now on. lol

cheers for now!

~Marjorie

Road Trip! South Island style

2009-03-18T11:36:00.001+13:00

So I would just like everyone to know that I worked VERY hard to keep this short-ish. This is the last of the VERY long posts anyways...and soon we will be up to current events (yay!) so then of course I won't have as much to write anyways! So off to the South Island!

Originally, the plan had been to go wine tasting around the North Island for the few days; but when the boys realized that it was our last free full week before mid-trimester break, they convinced all of us that a week long tour of the South Island would be a better idea. Mind you, this discussion happened on Saturday night and Sunday morning, so there was VERY little time to plan. All we had really planned was buying the ferry tickets on Sunday, and that didn’t even work out in the end because the boys had to leave on an earlier ferry than we did. We were all using one computer to buy the tickets on (since we were all together) and the boys went first and found a ferry ride at 1pm, which was perfect since two of the girls still needed to register for classes in the early morning (they had decided not to wait in the really long and pointless line that I waited in on Friday). But once the two boys bought their tickets THE FERRY SOLD OUT!!! None of us could believe it. So us girls ended up taking a different ferry that left an hour later. So after that we just decided that we would make decisions as we went and would find places to stay when we needed them…who needs hotel reservations?!?!? They are too expensive anyways!!

The ride over for us was not to eventful…the boat didn’t sink or anything exciting like that. It was a lovely day, bright and sunny, and like all weather in New Zealand…temperate. The ferry ride was only about three hours and, since it was such a nice day, we decided to sit up on the top deck of the ship and get some wind in our hair. It was really quite an enjoyable ride, and the three of us managed to take a nap (in shifts of course….someone was always watching the bags because I am now PARANOIED! thanks to some wonderful pieces of advice before I left lol).

Everything seemed to be going according to plan (well …really just going smoothly since there was not plan). We had decided, since the boys were leaving on a ferry an hour before us, they would be the ones to secure our rental car for the week. The girls were quite happy about this and were excited to come into port with a car ready and waiting, so of course no complaining from us lol. Well, some ferries are faster than others and the earlier ferry seemed to take about four hours instead of three. So the boys were a little worried that they were not going to get into port in time and so started calling rental companies from the ferry. However, since it was the week before Universities around New Zealand were starting, and the last full week in February (the last of the summer months down here), all of the major rental companies were all booked and did not have a car to give us. So once the boys landed (also at a different port that was down the street from the major terminal, so first they had to find there way over there), they ran around to multiple car rental companies trying to find the best deal. Being turned away a few times they became very worried, but just as we walked out of the terminal they found a place that would rent us a “people mover” van for NZ$375 for the whole week! It was awesome, and fit all five of us comfortably. If we had wanted to we could have folded down another row of seats in the back so everyone had more room, but we never ended up doing that, leaving plenty of room in the back for our stuff.

We got into Christchurch around quarter-to eleven and still needed to find a place to stay for the night. One of the boys had brought traveling cheaply in NZ and so we tried to find a place in there to stay. All of the lodging were hostels, and by 10:45, they were all pretty full if not entirely, or not taking any more people for the night. After being turned away from the 3^rd hostel we thought we might have to sleep in the car for the night, but I mentioned going back out of town a little bit and seeing how expensive a motel for the night would be. It was also 11:15 by that point and I was getting tired. We ended up staying at the first motel we stopped at. For NZ$160, we ended up getting a full suiete, with a kitchen and everything, and we all got a bed to sleep in! We also got a deal for the next night, $140 for night two, so it ended up being a pretty good deal.

Christchurch was nice, we stopped a diner for breakfast and made our way into Cathedral square. What we didn’t realize ( and I soon remembered) was that we were traveling around Christchurch on February 24^th which happened to be a Tuesday. It was Shrove Tuesday!! It was fun to be there then because there was pancake races and other fun Marti Gras events. So we wandered around the cathedral for an hour or two and then walked over to the Kiwi exhibit across the street to see a kiwi up close and in person. Once we had seen that, we drove across town to the gondola, which takes you up to the highest point in the city and had wonderful views of Christchurch. Soon after, majority decided to drive back to our motel for a little while, since we were all pretty tired from the drive down the day before, and were going out that night to meet a friend who was studying in Christchurch.

Overall I wasn’t too thrilled with Christchurch. The center of town is quite nice, all walking district in and around Cathedral Square and that is really where all the “quaint” things (the English style gardens and bridges and such) are. Once you leave the city center, it is really just like any other city with not too much character. I would have liked to go punting on the Avon or walked around the botanical gardens, but it wasn’t a great day, overcast with the threat of rain, so I didn’t make a big deal of not doing those things (really I just wanted to go punting and not fall in haha). I’m hoping I’ll be able to go back at some point during my time here, and that will be a nicer day when I do.

The next day was another traveling day. We got up and were on the road by 8am (I know I was very surprised myself!). It was quite a long drive to Queenstown, all together about 7 hours, but we stopped along the way a bunch so it was not bad. It was on this leg of the journey that I got to try my hand at driving on the wrong side of the road in a big minivan. The car was very old (a 1987…old for a car, not a person) and had a few of its own characteristics—like the fact that it pulled to the left quite a lot (later on we discovered it was probably because one of our back tires were flat, but by that point it was too late to fix the problem). But after a while I got used to it and in the end it wasn’t too bad at all.

On my leg of the trip, we passed a lot of pretty landscape (of course when I was driving so I missed some of it L). Up until then, we were driving through a lot of cow and sheep country, which was very mountainous but there wasn’t much to look at. But once out of the Remarkables (the Mountain range that spans the South Island), we passed a few glacial lakes and such. We stopped at both glacial lakes that were on our way to Queenstown (Lake Tekapo and Pukaki for anyone who cares).

Well after our few pit stops and four and a half hours of driving, I was relieved from duty and it was onward to Queenstown. The drive was fine, though the one thing about the “highways” in NZ. THEY ARE NOT HIGHWAYS!!!! I don’t want to know what would happen if anyone from NZ went driving on real highways in the US! No all of these roads are mountain trails! The only thing that makes it different from driving around Appalachia is that these are pretty well paved….but they are AWFUL! I have never been on windy-er roads, and they take then SOOOOO fast. But oh well we got there, it just took a lot longer than it looks like it should on a map. I do have to say, the estimated times on the map between cities was right on. So at least they warn you that it is going to take longer than it looks lol.

We got to Christchurch around 3:30, and after getting our bearings of the city a little bit, we decided that we would find a place to stay then, and not 11 o’clock that night (at least we learned a little….but still no reservations in advance…it’s a road trip!) Well, one of the boys had brought a 2 person tent, so the boys wanted to see if it would be cheaper to stay at a camp site with a tent and a car rather than at a hostel. So we looked into it…it was going to be more expensive per person than the numbers we had for the local hostels…so it was off to find a hostel. Well, it being the most popular travel time of the season, all of the reputable hostels didn’t have any vacancies. Well, after that we felt a little rejected and pulled ourselves over to the most expensive looking motel to just see how expensive it was going to be. WELL were we ever WRONG! It was the best deal out of anything. Per person the REALLY NICE motel was cheaper than staying at the cheapest hostel. And here we were sleeping on real beds…not bunks! There were 2 balconies (a front and a back of course), also had a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, 2 HD satellite TV (we got our fix of the discovery channel and other cable tv stations that we don’t get back at our flats), and beds for all (well not all, the boy who brought the tent decided that he wanted to “rough it” and sleep on his camping pad on the ground because there were only 2 king size beds lol). So it was so great we stayed there all 3 nights.

That night they all actually planed ahead and reserved their spot for the Nevis Bungee Jump (The tallest in NZ). I ended up not going, I was going to go and watch, but it was going to be VERY expensive to go with them, so I ended up sailing on the New Zealand NZL14 Team New Zealand America’s Cup sailboat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so needless to say I was not too bummed that I didn’t jump off a cliff lol. I was absolutely stoked!! It was an AMAZING morning the next day, it was beautiful and sunny and we had really nice winds, when I was sailing (yes I got to take the helm for at least 20 minutes of 2 hr sail, anyone else who took the helm only got like 5 or 10 J ) I also had the boat sailing the fastest…10 knots, ok well now I’m just bragging lol. The rest of the group didn’t get back until about 5pm so I had most of the day to myself, which was actually very nice. I went shopping a little bit and picked up a few gifts and tourist-y things.

On our last full day in Queenstown we decided to take a bus tour around Milford Sound in the Fiordlands. It was a gorgeous day once again (we really lucked out with the weather every day of our week trip, it was all beautiful!). We saw a lot of natural bush and went around a few walking trails before finally taking a cruse around Mitre’s Peak (the largest sea cliff in the world. A sea cliff is a cliff that rises directly out of the water.) It was an all day excursion, so we didn’t get back until about 7pm. On our last night we found a GREAT place to have dinner—ferg burger. The largest burgers you have ever eaten in your life!! If anyone ever makes it down the Queenstown, you have to go, just to experience it!! Lol

The next morning we were on the road by 8am (again I was very impressed lol) for an all day road trip back up to Picton. We didn’t stop much on our 12-hour car ride—only for food once (we went shopping in Queenstown and got some munchies for the car so we wouldn’t have to stop a lot). It was the only day that it rained constantly all the way up the coast for our wonderful ride back. But we got back to Picton by 9pm, got the car in on time and were one of the first groups on the ferry back to Wellington. By 1am I was very tired and was happy there were many cabs that I could take back to my own bed in Wellington. It was a great trip, I am so happy that we ended up doing it, even without planning much for it!

Link to pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/parp4lyfe/sets/72157615280515271/

Installment 3: Welcome to Welly

2009-03-16T17:46:00.000+13:00

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 45º 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 2^nd 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

The wonderful world of Telecom and flickr

2009-03-16T10:55:00.001+13:00

Hi Guys,

So as you probably have notcied, the posts have not been coming as regurlarly as I had once said they would. That is because the internet (and phone) provider down here, Telecom, is the WORST!!! We have been waiting for over a week for the people at Telecom to switch on our dial tone, and they have yet to get back to us about when our modem is being delivered. My final roommate did move in last Wednesday, and brought with him another provider's modem and turned it on. Hence how I was able to upload fun posts for a while. However, Woosh (the other internet provider) told Boris (my flatmate) that since it had been over 6 months with their service he needed to change his password and reboot the system with the comptuer specified on the contract as the "partent" computer. Well, his comptuer has shut him out, telling him he has "forgot" his password and therefore will not even let him log in! So woe is me and I must wait for a little while longer for home internet access. Back up to the library for me.

Also...flickr sucks. I do not feel like paying for it and so it gives me limited storage space. Well of course, I (like my parents) always take the highest quality pictures, so when I export my pictures from my computer they are pretty large. I tried to upload the first of FIVE albums I have ready in iPhoto waiting to be shared with the world, and it told me that I had already gone over my monthly allowance. So I have uploaded smaller versions of one album worth of pictures to my Flickr account. In the future I will be uploading larger versions of the pictures to my Picasa account (since I have no limit on the storage space there). But for now, here are the pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/parp4lyfe/sets/72157615167918220/
if that doesn't work then flickr is not my friend.

~Marjorie

Installment 2: Orientation continued…

2009-03-13T15:40:00.000+13:00

When we last left our hero…

Day 2 in New Zealand.

Everyone was very jealous of me/ wanted to kill me, due to the fact that my 7 hr nap on the plane in conjunction with my wonderful 12 hours of sleep that night allowed me to be the morning person I can be when I want to wake up early! [also the reason for why my campers end up hating me every morning I wake them up at TASP….but I digress.]. Kai was served at the wonderful hour of 8^am followed by a fun “pub-less quiz” at 9^am.

Fun fact: many pubs in NZ do pub quizzes on a weekly basis. It’s a fun time, where groups of friends create teams and go down to the local pub for some brews and a good time answering trivia. There is normally a draw for a prize at the end, and the winning team receives a set amount in bar tabs. Since all Butler events are alcohol free, their way of briefing us on NZ and its culture was through a fun pub-less quiz, where apple juice was served and they offered us a little of NZ culinary at it’s best: Chicken flavored crisps (otherwise known as potato chips). [I kid you not— they are REALLY chicken flavored.]

Part of the pub-less quiz, was a nice afternoon ROGANE. What is a ROGANE, you ask? It is basically an outdoor scavenger hunt encompassing a large area of land. It is a fun acronym starting with Rugged Outdoor, but I can’t remember the rest.

Any who, we ran around the grounds of the park for about an hour finding little targets and writing down their symbols on an answer sheet. The team that won (not my team…we came in 2^nd to last) received fun prizes, none of which I can remember, so they must have not been that good. It was fun, and it was wonderful weather, so it was nice to be outside in the sun. But DON’T forget to put on sunscreen! Due to the hole in the atmosphere that is wonderfully located DIRECTLY over NZ, the burn time here is 5-8 MINUTES!! So, I diligently put on my sunscreen every morning, 15 minutes before I went out in the sun, just as my mother taught me, and I never once got burned (the scar on my nose did get a little scorched…but no serious, fall-asleep-on-the-beach-in-FL-in-March-and-have-Nancy-take-care-of-you-for-the-next-two-days burns lol). We ended up coming in 3^rd overall in the pub-less quiz, but no prizes.

After the quiz more Kai and then some afternoon fun[I would just like to take this moment to say that all of the food the four days we were there was AMAZING! For them to be able to serve 40 of us in a timely fashion and have it be REALLY good is awesome. I would have to say it rivals Tabor food…yeah I know!...so props to the cooks at YMCA Shakespeare National Park.]

Afternoon fun included activities such as mountain boarding, rock climbing, tramping, sailing on a catermaran, kayacking, TTYS (time to yourself), and CYEFH (check your eyelids for holes). Wonder what I did? I of course went sailing with 10 other people on a good size cat, pictures on the flicker page [here]. Though I did laugh at the CYEFH. Mike, the head counselor at the Y camp, explained the last one to us like this: since the sun here in NZ is very bright, something that can happen after being in the sun for extended periods of time is that the sun can burn holes in your eyelids. The way to check for this is to go far away from everyone else, find a nice shady spot, close your eyes, and scan the insides of your eyelids for holes. It normally takes about 30 to 60 minutes to complete this task, but is necessary.”

So I’m not sure how that will transfer to all of you who were not there and did not hear him say it…but it was funny at the time and I thought I would share. [For all of you who didn’t get it, he was sneekly talking about taking a nap.]

The sail was great—definitely check out the pictures, I have some fun ones of everyone on the boat. Getting out was interesting; the counselor somehow got the jib halyard stuck at the top of the forestay and had to dry capsize the boat to get it un-stuck. I noticed this as he was towing the boat to the water, but it took him about 10 minutes to understand the problem and fix it, no help from me…the stupid Butler Orientation kid. OH WELL. We got out in the end.

After the first session of fun outdoor time, there was another session, where I decided to lay out on the beach and start on my base tan. After that there was a Maori briefing (pronounced Mow-ree) where we learned about the Powhiri we would be participating in the next day. A Powhiri (pronounced po-fir-ee) is a welcome ceremony between a Maori tribe and visitors on the tribe’s Marae (pronounced Ma-rye). There is a whole choreography to how the visitors enter the sacred grounds of the Marae and what is said, and so on, so we learned about this at the briefing the night before. Before the briefing, we learned two traditional Maori songs and also had to pick our two representatives to speak for the group during the ceremony at the Marae.

Traditionally, the Maori culture has held men and women as equals, however with some rules. During a Powhiri, the only women permitted to speak is an elder woman who speaks on behalf of the group (normally someone who is part of the Maori tribe, inviting the visitors in). The representatives who speak directly for the group must be men—women can only sing. However, the way the Maori culture keep things equal is that the women of the group/tribe vote on the two male representatives. So in true Maori fashion, the women of our Orientation group picked two male representatives. At the briefing following their election, they found out that they had two fairly long speeches in Maori to memorize by the next evening. Needless to say, both men were a little nervous, and not so grateful to have been nominated. But they both survived.

After the briefing, more kai, and some free time before bed. A few of us decided that we wanted to help out the kitchen, so we took the food scrapings out to the pigs that night. We watched them mow the food for a while, took a few pictures, and then decided that they smelled bad and that we had seen enough. I then went down to the beach and watched the sunset and took some nice ahtsy pictures of the beach and rocks and such.

Day 3 in New Zealand

Our third day in NZ was filled with most of the business stuff they had been neglecting to tell us. In the morning we had just one (2 hour) briefing, where we met with our Student Rep. from our perspective university. Rebecca (the rep for both Victoria and Massey students) told us all about the fun stuff we could do in Wellington and what to expect and where the great coffee was, and so on. She also told us our housing at that point and went over what our schedule would be like once we got to Wellington and left the nurturing hands of the Butler staff.

More kai and then it was packing and off to the Marae. We left with some time to spare, so Mike (remember him, the head YMCA guy) took us on “Mike’s magical mystery tour” of Auckland. Our only stop on the tour was to the tallest point in Auckland. It’s a dormant volcano with BEATIFUL views of the city. Again, check out the pictures. After that short stop, we had another quick stop at a gas station/ souvenir shop (however no one had made dosh easily accessable…thanks Mike) (dosh = money), before a short tour of downtown Auckland, and then it was off to the Marae.

The powhiri was so moving. During our entrance on to the Marae, as part of the ceremony the whole group stoped midway to take time to remember those family members who have died or were unable to be present with us. Maori culture believes that when you travel somewhere you take with you all of your relatives and friends both dead and alive, and that they are as important to meet as those people who stand before them, so a moment of reverence is given to allow visitors to “bring” those people with them onto the Marae. It was such a special and moving moment for me, and it really caught me off guard. I did not expect it to affect me as much as it did, but I was very happy I had that moment of memory and memorial for myself— especially since I was not able to make it out to Nevada to visit my family before I left.

We stayed on the Marae that night; they cooked a traditional Hangi for dinner. Basically they dug a pit, filled it with coals and food, covered it back up and let it sit there under the dirt for a few hours and then dug it back up for us…I forgot to bring my camera, but I am in the process of trying to get some pictures from it off of fb. After dinner, a group of traditional Maori dancers came and performed for ys. Of course, participation occured and there is a great picture (that I will be getting at some point) of my participation. It’s floating around facebook somewhere for those of you who can find it. But the boys were also asked to participate in a traditional Haka (pronounced Ha-ka) or war dance. The dance was traditionally performed by warriors before a battle to intimidate the other side. So they bang their chests and slap their legs and bulge out their eyes and stick out their tongues to look as grotesque and scary as possible to psyche out the other side. Today, the All Blacks (NZ’s Rugby Team) perform a Haka before each game (for any of you who have seen that or want to YouTube it). It was really funny to watch the boys try and perform a Haka. They did pretty well, considering the amount of direction they got before hand. After some much needed embarrassment, the group preformed an actual Haka for us. The entire evening was a wonderful introduction to the indigenous people and culture of this land. After the festivities, we got ready for bed and listened to our elder tell us the history of the Maori people; from ancient religion to the colonial settlers arriving to the issues of today’s society. However, she had a very soothing voice, and some of us were still jet lagged, so most people fell asleep. But it was a really interesting lesson. We slept in the marae, which is a sacred building with carvings on the outside, and inside is a memorial to all who have passed on in the tribe. Pictures and portraits hung on the walls, but since it was sacred grounds we couldn’t take pictures inside, just of the outside carvings.

Day 4 in NZ

We had breakfast at the marae (not as good as dinner) and then we were off on another installment of Mike’s Magical Mystery tour before being dropped off at the airport. It was another “beautiful day in paradise” (as someone I know would say), so we stopped at a lovely beach called Sunset Beach on the West coast of the North Island for about 2 hours. Sadly, that was the only stop on Mike’s Magical Mystery tour, so by noon we had to say goodbye to our Orientation friends who were staying to study at the University of Auckland, and then we grabbed a plane to Wellington!

The plane to Wellington was actually a lot larger than I had expected. I thought we would be taking some small puddle jumper type plane, but it was actually normal size (3 seats on either side of the plane)—a nice surprise. Once we arrived in Wellington and got our baggage, we were divided up by housing and shuttled off to our perspective homes. At Everton, I was placed in temporary housing (which really annoyed me….no unpacking for Marjorie…EVER), but met some really nice Kiwis (New Zealand people…not birds and/or fruit). Once I was settled (a little) I met back up with Butler people and we went on an adventure in Wellington to find a little Italian bistro where Rebecca was collecting the group for one more meal on Butler, and a guided trip to the Wall-Mart of New Zealand (The Warehouse). Dinner was good, the warehouse was a necessary stop— I bought a blanket, sheets, and a pillow so I didn’t have to spend another night in the sleeping bag (using a mummy bag that is good to -30 degrees Fahrenheit gets a little sticky in muggy, fairly summery climates). Then the group went out to a local pub for our first night in Wellington. Yes for those of you who have been keeping track of the days ….it was a Tuesday night. But that is pub quiz night anyway, so plenty of people were out with us! It was a great first night in Wellington, but it was sad to leave our other Orientation friends behind in Auckland. The Wellington group was larger; the majority of the kids at orientation did go to Victoria (about 25 of the 40 of us at orientation).

Here ends the rest of my orientation story.

No witty comments for tonight; funny though, that this post is just as long as my previous post about my arrival to New Zealand. Oh well! I talk a lot…you should know that by now!!

Next time we will hear about the fun adventures exploring Wellington and then it’s off to the south island for a wonderful weeklong road trip.

~Marjorie

So lets try to catch you guys up….

2009-03-12T20:41:00.001+13:00

Installment 1

WELL…Internet has taken longer than expected to reach 32 Clifton Tce…. but it has arrived…FINALLY!!! No lie I have been going INSANE without it…the 10 minute walk to the library has taken its toll…. my legs are sore, (its up hill both ways…. for real not fake!) and I am glad I can tap into civilization from the comforts of my own home.

But don’t you worry; I have been diligently writing down my adventures…all docs waiting patiently to be revealed to the world!! So for a while the posts will be all about what I have been up to these pasts few weeks, and hopefully within a few days you all will be caught up and the posts will become real time J

So, my last post was the cliff notes version of my trip thus far…so now for the sans-sparknotes what-your-teacher-ACTUALY-assigned-to-read version of my first day in NZ.

After a too early wake up alarm (3:15^am to be precise), I arrived at the airport only to find a VERY long line at the check in desk. One might think that leaving the house by 4^am would have gotten me to the airport in time for a comfortable, no stress, arrival and plane boarding, but you would be WRONG! It was 4:30 in the morning, why there were so many people at Logan Airport International is beyond me….but the boarding pass line was at least 45 minutes long, and then it was another 30 minutes through security. The flight out of Boston left at 6:30. After being stopped for a routine security check of my person and personal belongings (no Logan Airport….I am not a terrorist) I was allowed to SPRINT to my gate (at the VERY end of the terminal of course) and boarded my plane with 10 minutes to spare. Thank god for the nice woman behind me in security, she told the stewardess that I was coming and they held the door for me.

The flight to LAX was very normal…not a lot of turbulence, a nice ride actually. Until about 11am EST when one of the flight attendants came on board and said, “if there is a doctor on board could you please come to the back of the plane.” We didn’t make any emergency landing or anything, which was nice, but when we landed in LAX a young girl was carted off the plane in the skinny stretcher made specifically for airplane aisles. I couldn’t tell what was wrong from the quick glimpse I had from the window seat. I just hope she was on her way home and not going on vacation.

The people sitting next to me were very nice. They were going to LA for a short vacation in Santa Monica before heading to a family vacation with their 2 daughters and newborn grandson. I told them they MUST stop at the Lobster for dinner, I wonder if they ever did. They of course asked why I was going to LA and I said it was a “short” stopover on my way to New Zealand. As I told them my study abroad plans, the kid across the aisle leaned over and said, “Through Butler?” I said yes and, instead of talking over the nice people next to me, mentioned to wait for me when we landed and we could grab lunch.

By the time we had landed in LAX, a small group of four study abroad students had emerged. Since we had a wonderful 10 hour layover to enjoy, we decided to wander around the terminals for a while. We ate lunch in the international terminal (surprisingly enough NOT the terminal we were leaving from), sunned ourselves in the parking lot for a while, and had a drink at the sky bar in the middle of the airport [side note: ever since I was little I’ve wanted to go up in the building that’s in the middle of the parking lots. We always drove past it whenever we went to LA, so needless to say I was very excited to go up…and it didn’t disappoint either…if you are ever at LAX with some time to kill and have yet to grab a drink there…do it, its definitely an experience lol].

With 3 hours left to wait, we decided it was probably time to mosey on into the terminal and see if we could find any other lost Butler soles. We succeeded. Loud mouth me got the attention of anyone we saw with a sleeping bag for carry on (yes we had to bring a sleeping bag with us for orientation... everyone agreed that it was stupid and they should just give us bedding at orientation. But after the fact, the sleeping bag has come in VERY handy throughout the trip and has been used multiple times, so good job Butler).

So after a while, (and me shouting, “Hey [insert anything unique on their person here]! Butler?”) we had about 20 Butler kids in the back end of the terminal getting to know each other and being very loud obnoxious 20 something’s (I of course was not one of the loud and obnoxious ones….that was mostly the boys).

So the time came to board the plane, and sitting next to me was a Yankee fan from Jersey-- also a Butler student. The only good thing about the seating arrangement was that the middle seat was empty ( I only tease…the Yankee fan isn’t too bad and we are now friends, we just never talk about sports lol). HOWEVER, about 45 minutes into the flight, one of the attendants came over and asked said Yankee fan if he wouldn’t mind switching seats with a couple a few rows back, because ONE of the two TV screens (there was one in every seat) was not working and the couple wanted to stay together. Well, he had to be the hero…so good-bye empty middle seat. It would have been nice if the seat next to me had been empty for the entirety of the THIRTEEN-HOUR flight. But it was fine, I didn’t really end up caring too much because I fell asleep sometime around 10:30 PST (is that the right abbreviation for whatever time it would be if I had still been on the ground in California? Whatever, moving on…).

The couple next to me was also nice, and after I woke up (7 hours later. I would just like to say to all of you who told me ‘get sleep where I can’, and ‘don’t try to stay up all day just so you can sleep on the plane to NZ’, I’m glad I didn’t listen and ended up staying up all day because I was the only one at orientation who was not completely exhausted by the end of the first day…so HA! Moving on…) we had a very nice chat. The couple was American and on their way to Australia and thought it was wonderful that I was taking such an amazing opportunity blah blah blah. I also learned the life stories of their 2 daughters (one who is just my age…). What is it with me and strangers? I always have people talking to me and they end up telling me their life stories, I must look like an approachable person…oh well for another time, can’t get too far off topic this post is becoming much longer than I originally expected.

Oh just a note on the couple who HAD to move seats because of a broken TV screen. The wife who was next to me occupying the once empty middle seat NEVER ONCE turned on her TV. Just the husband watched TV. So in fact, what they could have done is switched seats when they were a few rows back, both been happy, AND completely avoided disturbing the stewardess and me and my empty middle seat!!!!!!!! People…go figure.

So I slept for 7 hours on the plane and woke up with only a 6 hr flight left. That was a nice surprise since I am VERY used to a 6 hr plane ride, and it actually went by rather quickly. When we landed (2 days after I had left…I got to skip Friday the 13^th!! I have decided it was lucky), I was able to call home from the customs line ( I was amazed I was able to figure out the phone…thank god for one of Dad’s co-workers programming in Dad’s cell phone number previously so I was able to find out the country code….its 001 for anyone who cares….).

There were some very nice people from Butler waiting for us outside of customs. They collected our stuff, shoved us onto a bus, and proceeded to not let us sleep at all on the hour long bus ride from the Auckland airport to our accommodations atShakespeare National Park YMCA camp. They were also sneaky about not letting us sleep too, because it was only ever so often that they would come over the loud speaker and give us some fun fact about NZ or whatever we happened to be passing. It was never a constant stream of talking, oh no, that we would have been able to tune out. No they were evil. They would wait just until the whole bus was about to conk out and BOOM—“AND IF YOU LOOK OUT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BUS YOU WILL SEE…” as the whole bus groaned.

We arrived at the park by 7:30 in a torrential down pour where there was an introductory briefing for about 30 minutes, a little time to grab our bags off the truck, put them in our room, and change for the morning tramp. They then served us some Kai( otherwise known as food) and then it was off to the mountain by 9^am! It was actually a very nice hike in the rain (we were all drenched). I was able to bring my camera (since it is waterproof) and take a few pictures.

The rain did subside by the time we got to the summit and it was a nice afternoon when we got back. More kai was in our future, and we were able to get out of some of our wet clothes and headed down to the rugby field where the “counselors” (I have no other word for them than that…they were not really our counselors, they did not care whether we participated or not…but they did work at the Y camp that had finished a week before we arrived…so thus for lack of a better word I call them counselors) proceeded to teach us the wonderful sport of touch rugby. They were a little more into it than the rest of the group was (maybe it was because they had not been up for 24s the day before). During the game, one of the counselors asked me why I could not understand the idea that I needed to be behind the ball to receive. I just laughed at him and said, “because in all other sports you rush the ball!!” He did not make a friend out of me with that comment.

After all the sports and tramping of the day, they gave us some free time before our trip into the little town of Manly (the signs to “Little Manly Beach” and “Manly Pub” made the whole bus laugh) to the natural hot springs. By this time it was 5^pm NZ time and all of us had decided that we must have been in NZ for at least a week. The hot springs were pretty commercialized (there were water rides and everything), but it was nice to relax in the sulfury hot waters and sooth our sore muscles from the plane and the day’s adventures. After about an hour at the springs, we then went across the street to the local pub and grabbed a casual drink before it was back to the lodge for more kai, free time, and some much-needed rest. By 9:30^pm the entire lodge was silent, not even a mouse dared to make noise.

Here ends my first day.

In the next installment, we will see what other adventures our heroine encounters at Orientation!

Sorry this became so long….I don’t know what got into me. I hope you actually get to this part and didn’t get so bored you peaced out somewhere in my description of my adventures at LAX and so are not even reading this. I will stop now.

~Marjorie

PS. I know I will have some wise ass comment later on about my grammar and the lack of it and the fact that I am a writing tutor and should know better blah blah blah. Just to nip that in the bud now –I have intentionally made these errors. They are for literary effect. I do, in fact, read over every one of my posts at least once before posting them. I want this blog to be more of a conversation with the reader (all 3 of you), not an academic essay, therefore errors in proper grammar will abound. Deal with it.

So Hello from NZ!!

2009-03-12T20:05:00.000+13:00

Internet at the flat......FINALLY!!!! for those of you who might have heard my issues with the phone company....still not figured out yet, but my final flatmate moved in yesterday, and he brought internet with him...so I'm borrowing it for a while.

Well since I have not been very good at my hope to update this blog weekly (it's not really my fault) I have a little bit of catching up to do. So for the next few days I will post about what I have been doing in NZ thus far. Hopefully by next week I will be up to current events :-)

Kia Ora from NZ

2009-03-03T11:19:00.001+13:00

HEY from the other side of the world!

Sorry that this post has taken for ever to come, but I have been without internet for the past 2 weeks. Believe me, it has been killing me more that it has you lol. But I am alive and I did arrive safely for everyone who has been worrying.

I got here almost 2 weeks ago (it seems like more than that). Details on everything as well as pictures will be coming as soon as I get internet at my flat (right now I am writing this at the school library and I can only be on the computer for 15 minutes since there is a wait...).

My life in NZ so far in breif:
Left on Thrusday Feb 12th, landed on Saturday Feb 14 [what happened to Feb 13th no one will ever know...]
Had orientation about an hr north of Aukland at Shakespear National Park for 4 days...it was georgeous and amazing with lots of kai [ explanation to come later].
Landed in Wellington in the late afternoon of Tuesday Feb. 17th and wasn't really able to settle in becuase I was put into temporary houseing. But i did have fun exploring Wellington and attended the largest street carnival in NZ (which wasn't THAT big lol). Oh and I also registered for classes.
Saturday Feb. 21st I was able to move into my house (its awesome!) and on Sunday I got 2 flatmates (also known as roommates in the states lol)
Monday Feb 23rd I was off for a week to explore the South Island (New Zealanders are very creative with their names...) with four of my friends. Took LOTS of pictures all which will be coming soon....I hope.

Well the libraray attendents are giving me bad looks, and the que for the computers is getting longers, so I should go. But AS SOON AS I get internet at my flat I will be posting all of the details of the trip thus far and posting the long over due pictures of this beautiful land that I am calling home for the next 5 months!

Hope all is good stateside!! Cheers ~Marjorie

T Minus 11 Days and counting

2009-02-03T15:51:00.000+13:00

I never thought I would feel like this....I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. I spent weeks last spring and this fall researching places to study and Universities to attend, spending so much time and energy to pick the right place. Yet, for some reason, as the departure date gets closer, this knot in my stomach keeps growing and I don't really know why.

I don't know, I guess I'm just getting some pre-departure cold feet, and I'm sure it's natural... I just need to get through these last few days. And I know that when the day comes my parents will practically push me on to the plane no matter if I'm bawling or jumping for joy (yes, that's right...jumping for joy). In less than two weeks time I will be in New Zealand, and that scares the hell out of me.

The Countdown Has Begun

2008-12-28T16:21:00.001+13:00

Yes it has! I am finally home from a LONG semester at school and able to relax a little bit. It's after christmas and now really time to start figuring out this study abroad thing and finalize everything aaahhh. Just a little stressed, feels like there is still lots to do-- but I don't think there is too much anymore. I'm waiting for my Student Visa to be finalized and then it will REALLY feel official. I will be buying my

So I've started this blog to keep everyone who want to be up to date with what I'm doing in New Zealand. I hope to update the blog at least once a week, with fun pictures and tales of my newest adventure, if classes don't get in the way (like they will....lol).