The first week of school was eventful. I joined the Canoe Club just by surfing around online, and they had an event on the first Tuesday called “Eskimo rolling,” which basically means learning how to roll a kayak. It took place in a swimming pool not far from campus. I came out of it with a few bruises (from failing to exit the kayak properly), but also very happy.
On Wednesday the group that went to the Port Hills got together again to have the rest of our meal – on Sunday we had planned to have some Kaiserschmarrn with our pizza, but we were too full. (Kaiserschmarrn is an Austrian desert-like food, made of fluffy pancake and sugar) So we had it Wednesday instead. I’m probably learning just as much about German and Austrian culture as I am about Kiwi culture, just from hanging around with so many Europeans 😉 After that we went to the Tramping Club meeting, where we signed up as members and signed up for a tramp happening that weekend.
Thursday I went to choir! Heiko found a choir called the Erskine Singers that gets together for an hour every week, and it’s free. He asked if anyone else wanted to join him, and I said I’d try it out. So we went, and it wasn’t bad. There were only about 10 people there, two of which are my math teachers… but they’re cool 😉 I also get to sing alto this time, because they have enough tenors. 😀
Afterwards, we went to the Night Market at the uni – a special event that happens during Winterlude (the first week back at school) every year. The Night Market was mostly a bunch of stalls selling food, so I bought some pumpkin soup in a cup and watched the random going-ons, namely people in creepy costumes walking around on stilts, and a donkey named Priscilla being led around through the crowd.
On Friday I went to something called Operation Friendship. It’s organized by a bunch of Christian families who offer their homes to international students about once a month. They cook kiwi meals and organize “family time” (home away from home kinda thing) for a group of students. The point is to provide a sense of family and offer support to international students who might be missing their homes. I thought it sounded kinda cute, it looked like a good chance to meet new people, and also there was free food.
I got to talk with a few locals and learn more about the city, as well as some good places for travelling in New Zealand.
Oh yeah, and I guess I should say something about classes too.
I’m currently only taking two classes. A normal course load is 4 classes here, although you’re allowed to take a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5. Technically, I am taking a workload of 3 classes. They wouldn’t let me stay otherwise. But one of my classes has a heavier workload, so it counts as 2. And so I can take only 2 classes. My first class, the easier one, is called “Land Journey and Ethics.” It’s basically a class where we get to go tramping and get marks for it. We’ll learn a bit about the places we visit (urban and wilderness), we’ll learn how to prepare for overnight journeys and also how to use practical skills out in the bush. No, this has nothing to do with my degree… but it’ll be useful, especially with the amount of tramping I’ll probably be doing while I’m here.
My other class, the one that has the heavy courseload, is a Linguistics class. It’s a directed research paper, where I get to choose a topic and study a certain linguistic feature of New Zealand English. Basically I get to be fascinated by the Kiwi accent, and get marks for it…
Oh AND, I have lectures only on Mondays and Tuesdays. 5 day weekends? Yes, yes. It is so.
New Zealand Travel 