Apartment Life

The Auckland study abroad students in my program are split between two buildings, Whitaker and Wellesley(I'm in Whitaker). I believe I picked the better of the two. Wellesley looks more modern and has the hotel feel to it. Whitaker is smaller and probably older, but has a better environment for meeting new people. There are four floors of flats with 5 people in each apartment. The individual apartments are co-ed, and the only roomate I have met is Sophie, a Kiwi(New Zealand) art student. She spends most of her time with her boyfriend, Martin, but they are both very nice.

I finally cooked my first real meal since moving in. I invited Ben down for the meal; he lives with three girls and the girls and friends had taken over the kitchen. I made pineapple honey chicken, and it turned out delicious. I also had some fresh green beans with it. I think Ben is going to cook tonight. It will work out well, because Sophie is a vegetarian, and I have no plans of changing. Here is the picture for proof. I was glad Sophie and Martin walked in because I couldn't get the stovetop to heat and they showed me there is a electrical switch on one of the walls that has to be on for the stove to work. Very helpful information.

The Resident Advisors in the flats have organized some great activities for meeting everyone. We had a flat BBQ, and I had THE spiciest mustard I had ever tasted. It was completely unexpected and looked like standard, harmless yellow mustard. I put way too much on my brat! It singed my nostrils and actually made my scalp tingle. I enjoy some spice on my food, but that can't be good, right? I'm sure Uncle George will disagree. I also attended a quiz night at one of the local bars and our team did alright. I was proud that I knew Caracas was the capital of Venezuela. Our flat has a large international population. Two of my favorite new aqaintences are Nigel from Malaysia and Frankie from Sweeden. Nigel is very loud, but always funny.

Today was the flat beach day, but I missed it. That's alright, because I need to meet with someone in the international office to discuss my registration. Classes start next week, and I am missing two classes right now. I'm sure I'll get it straightened out. Some of our group arranged an outing to the beach a couple days ago. It was really nice, at first you could walk out hundreds of yards and still touch easily. By the time we left, the tide had come in and a few feet into the water you had to start treading. I had some authentic fish and chips (they were even served wrapped in newspaper). They were delicious and cheap. I have noticed that many foods and consumer goods here are priced high enough that they make up for the great exchange rate. We figure this is due to the small scale of the country and the shipping costs to this remote location (hopefully Prof. Gotheil would agree). However, some of the fresh poduce and less touristy restaurants are really good deals. I think all the green beans I had for my meal last night cost around $0.45 American, and the 4 chicken breasts (around 2 pounds I think) were about $11 American. Not bad overall.

I booked my spring break flight to the south island yesterday. There is another kid from the Illinois rugby team down there right now, and I think I'll try to meet up with him. I'm already exited. Frankie and I also want to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is often billed as the best day walk in New Zealand. It travels around some active volcanoes and sounds like a great sight. Maybe we will do that in one of the upcoming weekends, before school gets too serious. I have also met a big live music fan (Joe), and we both want to go to some of the shows at the upcoming Auckland Festival. With so much in the planning, I have to convince myself its OK to have a regular day every now and then. Well, I'll be signing off now. I think I have another room mate moving in. False alarm, just workers bringing in shelving for the TV we don't have. haha.

Here are some shots of the American students, and friends I have met.

First few days

I've arrived in my apartment now after several days of sightseeing. It was nice to go without internet and cellphone use for a few days, even though I'm sure Mom was anxious to hear from me. I love the weather and landscape here. The first day the group traveled around Auckland a bit. We went to a beach, an aquarium, and had some interesting pizza.

The next day we traveled south to Rotarura, which smells like rotten eggs due to the many hot springs pumping sulfur out of the ground. The hotel we stayed at there was very nice, but was right on the lake, which seemed to be the center of the smell. I watched a sheep shearing/hearding show, and saw a kiwi bird and a tuatara, which is a very odd lizard. They can reach over 200 years in age and are born with 3 eyes to collect extra Vitamin D from the sun. The group also went on a tour of a geothermal area and watched a geyser errupt.

I know there was a car commercial that showed people rolling down a hill in a big plastic ball. It's called Zorbing, and everyone took a roll while we were in Rotorua. Unfortunately, one of the groups broke through the middle ball and got scraped up a bit.

The picture uploading is a little slow, and I have an appointment with the bank to open an account in about an hour, so I'll be signing off for now. I've met some great people so far, and am really enjoying the experience.

Henry

Intro

This spring/summer, I will be traveling to New Zealand to study at the University of Auckland. To keep my family and friends posted on my adventures, I'm trying out blogging. I think it will be easier for everyone, since I won't have to send tons of emails, and no one will have their inbox cluttered with my messages. Now I just need to start packing, since I fly out of St. Louis February 14.