Back to School

Where I will be

Where I'd rather be.

So somehow after two months, two weeks, two days, and an unknown number of hours (with the time difference that math would make my brain hurt) it is finally time to come back from winter/summer break and head to class.  Unfortunately my class schedule (or course timetable as these silly people here call it) was mucked about in by some vengeful harpies and now lacks all sense.  I've got early classes (9 or 10) every day.  I've never had a class before 9:30 or lived off campus so this should be interesting.  Then I don't have class until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, nothing on Thursdays and my Fridays I'm in class from 9 to 3 practically straight.  So you may or may not be updated on me making or not making it to class ever... should be interesting.  But it does leave large chunks of time in the middle of my day that line up perfectly for skyping all you lovely people on the other side of the world.

Before classes get us down, we are still having oodles of fun in town.  This is Cuba street where we usually end up most days either looking in little artsy shops (only a few days have gone by where we haven't gone in Madame Fantsy Pants and I'd like to keep it that way)  Or enjoying the most amazing milkshakes at Fidel's.  And yes that's Fidel's like Fidel Castro and yes it is on Cuba street and yes their thick shapes literally made my chin drop the first time I tasted one. I've had some good chocolate milkshakes in my life but I didn't have a chocolate milkshake until I had one at Fidel's. Changed my life.

We also finally made it down to the beach, though by the time we did it was getting later and cool in the wind.  The water is pretty cold and I had a splinter, but it was all worth it in the end because to look out form the beach and see city on one side, mountains on the other is a sight I'm not used to and I quite like it.  I might complain about all the hills we have to walk up but it makes beautiful views from both the top and the bottom.  The way I got the splinter though (which is now even worse and not pleased with this silly thing I call walking) is by jumping off a plank into the bay.  Sounds simple enough but remember the water is cold and there is a slight chance of jumping on stingrays.  Totally worth it though.

There's never trouble in paradise

As of today I have been away from home for 4 weeks.  And it has indeed been glorious, but I still sometimes feel like I just got here! (well, I kind of just did, one week in Wellington today!)  I guess I still feel new because I have yet to move in to my house I can still see sitting tauntingly outside my window.

Pictured: Lust

It may not look like anything fancy (it's not) but there are nice big rooms, and it will soon be my home! Apparently I get to move in tomorrow; we shall see if it actually happens. Though I'm pretty sure tomorrow someone else will need to move into my room so they'll have to put me somewhere.  But enough about such boring housing issues--i won't even get into the problems with housing and hours and internet--but I feel like a good way of desrcibing my experience thus far is a lovely list of the best (and maybe a few of the worst) parts of Wellington, and New Zealand as a whole.

Favorites: My house (I know, we just got off this topic, but bear with me) has a backyard.  Campus housing and I've got a house with a lovely little backyard right outside my door with, now this is important, ROSE BUSHES.  Now Wake has a beautiful campus, and even here I don't have nearly the view of some of my other friends, but I have something none of those do: roses.  While technically they're in my backyard right now too, it will be even better when that backyard connects to a house and not a crappy flat (I've currently been left all alone in).

People just walk around barefoot.  I'll let you guess how long it took me to pick up on this trend, but it wasn't long.  Even around the city, down town.  It's not just parks or their shoes hurt, people just walk around barefoot in the city or wherever without getting stares of shock or disgust (those are reserved for everyones freakishly defined calf muscles).

The food.  All the food here is good.  Even the cheap little instant box of Thai rice is delicious.  There are little sushi places all over the city where you can get tons of sushi for under 10 bucks, and the Vietnamese place of course was great.  The farmers market was fresh, healthy stuff for dirt cheap prices usually reserved in the US for ramen noodles and funyuns.  In general it might be a little more expensive here, but with no tipping, tax included, and the New Zealand dollar being 75-80 cents on the dollar it's not as bad as first expected.

 

The views.  Walking around the city you'll be trudging up some staircase that looks like it was designed only for the use of sherpas and mountain goats you'll come around the corner and through the trees there will be a breathtaking view of bay, city, and mountains., and a blue sky you can't find at home unless your sunglasses are properly tinted.  After barely subsiding on Salem lake (can something be called a lake if it's small enough to have a running track around it?) it feels great to be going to school somewhere with water always near by. 

The Lagoon.  Now I mentioned the lagoon in my last post, but now I know it by name, and I promised a better picture.  This is definitely my favorite spot in Wellington, the fountain in the foreground is really cool enough when the wind has died down enough to run it without soaking unsuspecting cafe patrons, said cafe also has spectacular gelato, you can people watch all the crew teams that leave from the boat houses in the afternoon, there are plenty of comfy places to lay in the sun and look for sting rays, who also come to the lagoon for sunbathing, you can jump off the bridge on the left and there is a great wine bar made out of a shipping container on the far side.  Basically it's all I need in life, not to mention little crafty shops right behind me.

The waterfront in general is one of the best places to hang out, and since classes haven't started yet our schedule basically consists of sleeping in, heading to the city/waterfront, grabbing coffee or some lunch, lounging in the sun, heading to the shopping area because someone always needs something, making dinner at someones place, and then heading out for the night, to start all over again in the morning.  We had one day of orientation, but don't worry, we quickly recovered from the lapse in our routine.

Is this real life?

Tara, Arian, and I on the water front

Afraid I don't have many pictures, or in some respects even much to say.  The last three days have involved sleeping in, exploring Wellington, and getting settled.  While all of these are noble activities, none of them are very interesting to hear the details of.  I still haven't managed to get moved into my actual house, apparently that will be Friday afternoon and tomorrow morning I actually have to get up at dawn thirty to start orientation for study abroad students.  Last night walking back to our dorm we got lost because we didn't want to go through the graveyard (the usual cut through, in the light anyway).  One of the few good things about all the hills (besides from the amazing views) is that you can frequently see a lot of what is below you, and the everton buildings are easy to spot so we just had to figure out a route down to them that didn't involve rolling through bushes.

Yesterday, we went down to walk all along the water front, and my favorite place (among many wonderful places) was this little mad made inlet within the harbor.  They have these all over, steps that lead right down to the water so you can sit and dip your feet in or take a swim.  But this is the one used by rowers to put in their boats, just out of view is a huge boat house with lines of rowing machines outside.  I'll try to get some better pictures because it's beautiful and has nice grassy spots to lie in the sun.  You can't tell from this though but the wind is very strong some days, and it can get a little chilly if you don't find a good sunny spot.

Home steep home

So, I somewhat disappeared from the world wide web for about a week, due to orientation and then trying to get internet that wouldn't make me flat broke in a week.  But alas, a solution that is at least good enough for now has been found!

Heading toward campus

As in every other post, I must mention how exhausted I am... I am very much exhausted, my feet are killing me and I'm shocked I didn't wake up one big ball of sore.  You see, everywhere in Wellington is a hill. A large hill, some might call them mountains, I live about halfway up one of these, with school at the top and the city at the bottom.  This of course means that everywhere I go I go uphill (and some down hill, but more importantly there is always up hill! many times it's uphill both ways, legitimately.)


Even with all the hills and all the walking, I love this city.  There are beautiful views of the hills and bay from everywhere just peaking out between trees and houses.  Half of my friends have views outside their windows that could be on a post card.  Unfortunately even though I'm finally in Wellington I have to keep living out of my suitcase for another week or so because Everton Hall is where the summer school students live and they are currently living in my house.  Though it's not a far move (from an apartment building to a house next door I am currently sitting 15 feet--sorry, 4 or 5 meters--from.  In the house there is a huge living room and kitchen and much bigger bedrooms, and I will have all (guy) Kiwi flatmates!

My current home

This morning we went to a farmers market and it was insanely cheap, especially since generally food is pretty expensive here.  The prices are helped by the face that tax is always included and there is no tipping.  Last night we just stumbled into a little Vietnamese place and everything I've heard about Asian food over here was confirmed, it was fantastic.  We had to run around getting things like sheets and phones, it feels so disorganized and I really can't figure out how people managed this without cell phones, especially with so much uncertainty and getting lost and being spread out all over the city.  After already walking the entire hill up and down at least 4 times in a little over 24 hours I feel like a mountain goat.  We already noticed that even the girls here have insane calves, so soon we will all have the legs of Greek gods.  Basically we have just been getting settled and trying to find our way around the city.  Hopefully I have a phone soon, but that has yet to get sorted out at the moment.

This place is fantastic and I already love it, but things are still very chaotic so I will give more details soon!

Orientating

Auckland!

After about an hour and a half of sleep, maybe two, in a creepy hotel room with an air conditioner that made funny noises and wouldn't turn off, a bathroom door that wouldn't prop open, and staff that didn't speak English I made it back to the airport to meet up with the group.  I was the first one to show up, but even with very little sleep I had a head start on the jet lagged kids just arriving.  We settled in to the YMCA lodge at Shakespeare National Park just outside Auckland, had some food and a general briefing, and headed down to the water for some kayaking.  I wish I had the pictures for this, but I won't get them til the end of the semester since my camera is not in fact water proof.  We had to do all this crazy stuff like try to keep two kayaks together and have two people standing and paddling and playing polo and such.  It was super fun but we were paddling for a solid 2 hours of more and all came back tired and sore (like we weren't already)

The view from the lodge

In the evening we went to hot springs pools which was very nice on the shoulders after all the paddling, and then went across the street to try some local brew.  Needless to say we all were very ready for bed after dinner and after a nice relaxed talk we all headed straight for bed.  The next day started with a quiz to catch us up on New Zealand and then we did something called a "rogaine" which involved running around sheep and cow fields looking for little square plaques with symbols from a map of the area.  Our team wasn't too big on the idea and made a plan that seemed easiest, so it came as a total shock to us when we won the entire thing!  Even though we were late and forgot one of the symbols.  After that we were allowed to do our own thing so I obviously headed to the beach and swam and lounged.  The food the entire time we were at the lodge was absolutely amazing, and I got too used to eating breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and multiple desserts along the way.  Should be easy to work off since my new home is a giant incline treadmill.

The next day we had briefings about academics and our schools/cities.  After we set out for the Auckland Wartime Museum that was pretty nice, part natural history, part depressing, part creepy, part volcano.  We got to go in a little house and sit in a living room and go through a simulation of what would happen if a volcano actually went off in Auckland (the entire city is built on about 60 different volcanic cones).  The floor shook and it was spectacular, but I'm still hoping for no natural disasters while I'm here (don't worry, I knocked on wood).  

The last event of the day was also the most incredible and if I have time I want to come back and describe it all in detail but we were welcomed with the traditional Maori challenge to see whether we came in peace or not.  This involved a guy in traditional dressing doing all the crazy faces and prancing around with a spear coming up to us.  Then we got to watch him and his family perform a Kapa Haka which was dance, martial arts, singing, and some demonstrations of traditional instruments.  The songs are all beautiful and we learned two to sing because after we were welcomed we had two male speakers say tank you and we stood to sing to show our agreement with what they said.  We got to spend the night, ate tons of amazing food, and got to learn about the culture from a Maori woman who was a big part of the civil rights movement for Maori in the 60s.  She was great because she was this little adorable old woman with a wicked face tattoo and kept cursing and talking about how the "paki" (people who aren't maori) are idiots and she won't let the man get her down.

After we left the Marae we went on a walk up one of the old volcanic craters for a view of the city and then went to a vineyard for a tour and wine tasting before heading to the airport.  Because most days should be started with wine before having to deal with airport security.

Kiwi-a-go-go-land!

I may be watching infomercials, but at least they're New Zealand infomercials. In case you missed it, I've made it to New Zealand! Though, unfortunately not too much has happened here yet, just got off the plane, headed through customs, stood around confused for awhile, paid too much for internet access, and finally made my way to my hotel.  I plan on passing out as soon as I've rid myself of contacts and tooth brushing, and of course after I've informed you lovely people about my latest adventures.

We left off with a day trip to Caloundra, seen below.  It was a beautiful, family-friendly beach with barbeques and playgrounds.  There were some great waves and no sharks (seen anyway) and while all the little kids paddled out on their boogie boards, all the old guys and I rode the waves bareback (body surfing that is).  No school like the old school.

I really do think the clouds are prettier down under

After a long day in the sun we went to a cafe for iced coffee (the amazing kind previously mentioned) and a nice cheese platter.  After the beach we didn't get home til it was already getting dark, and thanks to a persistent headache and car sickness I climbed right into bed and slept a solid 12+ hours.  All in a good night's work.  I can't really think of much else to say about this day but I would like to write a little more so as to fit the text next to the picture, so bare with my rambling nonsense, if only for the sake of aesthetics.


The next day was also meant to be a beach day, so we got up and headed down to the Gold Coast.  Unfortunately, the day was somewhat grey and very very windy (decidedly not golden I'm afraid).  But for once it wasn't hot and unless you were walking on the beach--and therefore being pelted incessantly with sand blasts in the aread south of your knees--it wasn't bad weather at all.  We ventured out to the spit where there was a small light house

The "Gold" Coast

 The weather managed to just look menacing and not actually rain or thunderstorm on us at all, and actually cleared up some later, though the wind kept up.  After a fantastic lunch, more iced coffee, and walking around the shops (I've become obsessed with the store/brand cotton on, cheap, cute, soft, high quality stuff? I think yes--good thing I'm a stalker and already checked that they have a store in Wellington) we headed back home a little early after a late departure the day before.

I spent this morning packing and doing a few last minute Australian skype calls, and arranging and rearranging my belonging to get all my bags under weight.  i somehow left off with over 10 extra pounds of storage and now i have less than 2 kilos. ah, oh well, i've just been stuffing my carry-on to the brim and it's all worked out.  Tomorrow I meet the group and head off for adventures I'm sure so I should get some sleep so I won't be just as bad as all the jet lagged ones coming in from LAX.

Live, Laugh Love? Try swim, shop, wander.

Oh, the art of shopping... That is what I spent Friday perfecting (let's be honest, I've had that skill down pat for years now, but practice never hurts).  Basically it was more wandering around the city on my own and doing a bit of shopping here and there along the way.  The morning was supposed to be spent in the arts center on the South Bank, but it was all closed up after the flooding and had yet to reopen, so after baking in the oppressive heat and trying to scamper from shaded area to shaded area, I finally worked up the courage to cross the bridge.  By doing so I knew I would subject myself to a solid 4 or 5 minutes under the relentless midmorning sun and could hope only for a breeze coming down the river.  There was a breeze, there was also dehydration after all the fluids I lost to sweat and I would have been happy to have an IV waiting for me on the other side to refill, instead I had the Australian equivalent to Forever 21 with blasting AC (or air con as it is called here).

The view from my slow death in the kiln, i mean bridge
The river is still yucky from the floods

I wandered my way to a fossil! It felt crazy, but it was fun talking to the employees; they were jealous of my 50% discount off of America's already much lower prices.  Note the really tall guy inside the store who seems to be a solid head taller than the woman beside him? Yea, he was really tall.

So the day wasn't all too exciting, though I had a fabulous time and bought some stuff I now have to figure out how to get to New Zealand without being over weight... hmmm... ah I'm sure I'll figure something out, I'm a Rasch after all. Ah! So I have discovered something glorious here, first off Australians are really picky about their coffee, but unlike the French or the Germans they brew it in a way I really like, not too strong, not bitter, vair good.  Well I discovered somthing even better, here when you order an "Iced Coffee" you do not in fact get a coffee with ice in it, you get something much better: cold coffee with globs of ice cream and cinnamon on top!  It's basically a coffee float, and with the weather we've bee having I have basically lived off their deliciousness.

So fast forward to today, low on sleep but very excited we headed out early to catch the ferry to North Stradbroke Island.  After driving to the far side of the island we came to a bit of a road block (see picture below) but decided to walk through to the beach, which was beautiful and empty (see picture below below).

Not exactly car friendly

From this picture you might guess there was an impending thunder storm and we are about to get rained on, and you would be right, but it was just a little sprinkle and since we're always wet on the inside it can't hurt to get a little wet on the outside occasionally.


After our foray onto the beach and some wading in the Pacific we headed for Blue lake which involved a 3 and a half mile hike round trip but promised a wonderful swimming spot when you made it there.  So we brought towels and water and the walk ended up being a little longer than expected, but the water was cool and clear and filled with adorable little minnows you could scoop up in your hands.  Funny that the minnows in a lake on an island off the coast of Australia seemed to like me as much as the ones in the Tennessee River and I soon made friends with a whole school of them as they wouldn't let me move three feet without congregating around me again.

After the walk back to the car we went for lunch then headed to the main beach on the island.  There was a great little sandy inlet with rocky sides to sit on in the shade, but while we were there a helicopter came by and a siren went off, most likely because of sharks so everyone went to shore for awhile.  I of course sat in the waves making dribble castles on my knees, because to ask me to get entirely out of the water is just absurd.  It was a long but glorious day in the sun, and tomorrow will be another, so it is time for bed, and by bed I mean kicking my computer onto the floor, rolling over, and passing out in the next five minutes. And with that I bid you goodnight!

Oh what's in a name. or title.

So I am prying my eyelids open to do a blog post before I pass out for the night, bare with me and hopefully this is worth reading.  Sorry I have not blogged recently, I have been off having adventures and am too tired each night to sit down and inform you of them.

So first, there was a glorious trip to the Australia Zoo. This is Steve Irwin's home turf and there are picture and videos of him and his family everywhere. You are literally greeted as soon as you come through the gate by a life size statue of the Irwins holding a crocodile. We even got to see the show he used to do, and sadly I must say I'm sure it was better with him.  It was pretty cool to see the giant croc that once actually managed to bite Steve, and the parrots were all beautiful (this has been a very birdy trip).  The koalas were all adorable and I am still determined to cuddle one at some point, but the best part of the zoo was the kangaroo petting! (and feeding)

Turns out kangaroos are actually really, really soft. Like softer than most dogs soft, like would make a delightful throw soft.  The ones in the zoo were super sweet too, if you held the food up a little high they would grab your hand with their paws to pull it down to an easy snacking height which was completely adorable. I would completely take one home if it didn't involve somehow keeping it in a dorm room for the next few months. Oh and getting it past New Zealand customs....

Pictured: Soft. (and actually a wallaby)

When we went through the second kangaroo enclosure (in surch of a koala I would be allowed to shnug) we found a kanga with a roo! It was pretty adorable because at first all you could see was a tail and a back leg sticking out of a very large pouch, but after hearing us and a few belly tickles little baby joey stuck his head out to say hello.  At first I was nervous that maybe mama kangaroo wouldn't want people that close but she didn't mind in the least if we made friends with her pocket friend. So we did.

Classic kangaroo face

fave.

We did find some koalas, and while we could pet them I did not get a chance to shnug, so it will be on my to-do list until... well until it gets to-done. We learned lots of interesting koala facts, like they get koala HIV, eat eucalyptus even though it's toxic and about as nutritious as packing peanuts because it was the only thing around when Australia was like "see ya" to Asia and headed out to go hang with the Pacific.  They have a 2 inch thick bone plate in their bum so they can sit and nap in trees all day and they have speckled buts to blend in when predators look from below. Basically they were designed to nap all day. Forget kangaroos, I definitely have more in common with my new favorite Australian animal.

Today was a glorious day in that it was a beach day!  well it ended in a beach day, the morning was a mountain and rain forest day.  So basically it was "from down the block right to Bangkok" kind of day.  In the morning we went to the Mary Cairns rain foresty thing that had a splendid view of the glass house mountains and then went for a somewhat muddy walk through the rain forest and saw 3 pademelons (marsupials like tiny tiny kangaroos)! Two of which had babies in their pouches, one of which we just saw kicking around inside and one had it's cute little head out semi foraging for shnacks.


Said beach was Noosa Beach and was actually not too far from where I went camping earlier this week.  The sand was super fine, the water was perfect, and the sun was hot, so doused in sunscreen I spent the afternoon enjoying the Australian summer in all it's glory.  AND I swam in the Pacific for the first time! It's not too shabby.  Tomorrow will be a city day, hopefully it won't be too long between posts, and I will try to keep you kids posted on all things interesting in the land down under, only 4 days left in Australia!