measuring cups, play a new game

i stayed in for the first time last night, a desperately needed break. watched garden state and listened to music - finally organized my things (well tried to) and read and wrote in my journal. it was a great way to spend my friday night, and i really needed the chance to be by myself.

i've finished international students orientation, which really wasn't very orienting - a welcome talk and then something about academics that i didn't go to because i've already been to about three talks re:academia since being in new zealand. wednesday night, they rented out a pub for all the internationals, which was actually pretty fun. the good thing about the drinking age being 18 is that you have no problem getting people to go to things. in the states, i imagine trying to get 400 students together would be rather difficult, but here, you just promise alcohol and drink specials and everyone shows up. it really is quite funny.

i finally figured out why everyone i meet seems to be american: there are 400 international students and about 1/3 of them are from the states and most of the others are from asia (and tend to be fairly non-social unless you are also asian). so i've met a lot of nice americans and some germans courtesy of karen. she seems to have latched onto a group of germans which is good and bad ... when she's with other people from germany they tend to speak in german, which i think is kind of rude since i'm there and obviously can't speak german.

things are still going well with her, though. she's nice and easy to talk to, so i think that will work out just fine.

it has also finally (finally) warmed up. apparently we had a bit of a cold front the past few days coming from the south.

and you know what's south of here?

antarctica.

no wonder it was so freaking cold - windy and really rainy and freezing!

i bought flannel sheets for my bed at a second hand shop the other day and i'm so so glad ... they'll help keep me warm and i think i might buy a hot water bottle too (by recommendation). this no central heating thing is strange and my flat doesn't have very good insulation, so any warmth disappears rather quickly. i might just have to start sleeping in multiple layers in as much clothing as possible

thursday, the internationals all went out on the otago peninsula which was really really incredible although the weather was awful (windy and rainy and freezing - my mom's gortex (which she so kindly let me take with me) is saving my life). we went to a few different spots, but didn't spend a lot of time at any of them, so it was very tour like ... drive for 30 minutes to get off the bus for 20 and then drive around again. we did see some albatross and a sea lion, so that was exciting. no penguins, but i now know a good spot to see them, so hopefully when brad is here we'll get out there.

seeing the albatross flying around was really incredible. they are huge and soar so easily on the wind. Albatross spend the majority of their lives at sea, so it's great to get the opportunity to see them here (they're currently nesting ... the chicks just hatched although you can't actually see them).

i cannot wait to see the yellow eyed penguins although i did see a few blue ones up on the north island. it's so fun to have penguins around! life south of the equator isn't so bad.

i guess there's a bus that runs out on the peninsula, but i got the impression that you really need a car ... so i think he and i are going to rent one. which could be interesting, since its cheaper if he gets it since he's 21, he's never driven a manual before and its likely cheaper for us to get one of those (or maybe our only choice) and he'll be driving on the other side of the road.

i think it will be hilarious to witness, to say the very least.

we'll see of course. but i know we'll get one the second weekend he's here because we're going to go out to fiordland and will need a car.

thursday night, a few butler kids and i went to a bar here that has live jazz every thursday night - its a group of four old men (60s or 70s i'd say) who come every week. no cost to get in and it's really nice, very relaxing and fun. a huge variety of people come: from college, to 30 somethings, to middle aged, to retired. it felt really nice to do something other than go to a college pub and be crammed in there and have to shout to be heard.

i really can only do the pub thing for so long.

friday we had preliminary lectures, which are a bit of a joke. in some classes they handed out a syllabus, but most did not. i hear that no kiwis actually even bother going - only first years and us internationals. still, it was nice to get at least a vague idea of what was going on. my two ecology classes have a lot of field trips (!!), which is going to be awesome. i'm really excited to actually get the chance to get out and do something in a lab rather than sitting there and having someone talk at you or watch bacteria cook for a few hours.

plant ecology could be way over my head, so i'm going to have a chat (oh god, new zealand lingo already) with the lecturer the first day to see how lost i'm going to be.

i also joined the tramping club (i.e. hiking) and our first hike is tomorrow up a nearby mountain, so that should be fantastic. i'm so excited to actually go hiking and see the area around here.

i've figured out that i can get my laptop hooked up to the internet here in the library which means i will post pictures soon soon.

it must be said that being able to buy a bottle of wine is a wonderful thing.