Sorry to Keep You Waiting

Well as you probably guessed, the last couple weeks have been pretty busy. I'm trying to remember what I've been doing and it's much harder than I thought. I definitely need to consult my pictures.

So I updated you like the second day I got here I think. After that I ended up going camping on Thursday with some people I met here. We went to Queenstown for dinner, which was really beautiful, then camped on the lake out there. Unfortunately, it rained that night so we got pretty wet, and it was still raining the next day so we couldn't really do any hiking because hiking in the rain is kind of miserable. So we drove out to Wanaka and went to this place called "Puzzling World" and did a giant maze and then camped again on Lake Hawea out there. It kept raining and the next day we went back to Queenstown and Glenorchy and just decided to come home a day early because the rain was so miserable. It was really too bad that we couldn't do any hiking or anything but i got to see how beautiful it is out there and I'll definitely go back.

The next day we still had our rental car and since we paid for it we decided to take it out to the Otago Peninsula to see these cool World War II bunkers on the cliffs. I guess during WWII the Kiwis were afraid of getting attacked for some reason, but I don't know why anyone would want to attack them. The bunkers were kind of creepy, but it was really pretty there. I guess a bunch of soldiers committed suicide there or something...

After this I was just kind of hanging out in Dunedin, meeting people and exploring and stuff. I had to do course approval which is the stupidest thing ever. You have to get advisors from each department to sign off on the classes you're taking. I don't see why we can't just do it online. It was a huge hassle for me but i got all my classes signed off eventually. The O-Week stuff was pretty crazy too, I know Mom heard about the Toga parade on the news, but it's where the freshmen dress up in togas and run around the streets and everyone throws stuff at them. We filled up a trash can with water balloons and got some freshmen really good. People were trying to portray it on the news as riots, but it was nowhere near that, just a good hazing. There was also a thing where people went to this bar in town and dressed up and drank all day, but I didn't do that. It was pretty funny to see all the drunk people in costumes though. There were concerts and stuff too, but I didn't really want to pay to go, so I mostly just hung out at our flats and met people here and went to this international student party. It was really fun being able to just hang out with people and sleep in and stuff for a week. I also signed up for some clubs and stuff, but don't worry I didn't do any crazy O-Week shenanigans. 

Most of the last couple weeks I was hanging out with these girls that live at other university flats and this one guy that lived next door to me and we got to see a lot of cool stuff around the area. I kind of think my pictures will do it better justice than my description here. We went to the beach to collect cockles to make dinner, went to another beach just to hang out, went to tunnel beach, where a tunnel was carved into the rock and there's also really cool rock formations, went surfing at this other beach called Aramoana. Yes, I DID get in the water here! Good thing we took that surfing lesson, Tricia :). And yesterday I went to the beach again and hung out. Basically whenever it's nice here we go to a random beach. I always took the beach for granted at home, but I don't anymore!

Last night we went to a rugby game here in Dunedin. It was the Otago Highlanders vs. the Canterbury Crusaders. It is a huge rivalry and the Crusaders are probably the best in the league, so it was kind of a big deal. All kinds of students went and dressed up in blue and gold and painted their faces and stuff. It was so much fun to see a real rugby game, and we were really close to the field in the student section. The Highlanders won, too 6-0! It was actually kind of a crappy game but at least we won! Afterward there was a concert with one of New Zealand's biggest bands and that was really fun too. It was definitely an awesome night. 

Today I went and learned how to cross rivers properly with the tramping club. This means I can go on this trip to Fiordland in the next couple weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to sign up for that. I heard it's really hard to get on trips, but I'm going to at least try. I might as well do what I can to travel as much as possible. 

Oh, I have started school, I guess that's part of the reason I'm here. I'm taking 2 Maori studies classes, sport and exercise nutrition, and marine ecology. They all sound really interesting, and I've heard that my Maori language class is the easiest class in the southern hemisphere. I even get to go on field trips for the marine ecology class, something we would never be able to do at home, so I'm excited about that. I mostly have class on Tuesday and Thursday, with only one class on Friday and Wednesday and none on Monday, which is really nice. That means I can go places on the weekends! 

I think that's pretty much all I've been up to. I have yet to see the penguins here or climb to the top of Mt. Cargill to see the view of the city, but I'll have to wait for a sunny day where I don't go to the beach to do that. This has been a little rambly, but I promise from now on I'll update you more, I was just doing a lot before school started. Pictures should be up on Picasa too, so that'll show you better what I'm doing.