New things in New Zealand!

Now that I'm all settled in and everything, it's probably time for a new entry. Not all that much has happened in the past few days, though I have been incredibly busy. I left snowy Denver on Wednesday evening of last week, and I arrived in warm, sunny Christchurch around noon on Friday local time. My flight from Denver to LA was good until the last little bit when it was incredibly turbulent, and I had a nice layover in LA where I [unintentionally] stole internet (don't ask me how, I have no idea) from Air France's VIP lounge. I am not very computer savvy, so I was really surprised when it worked for me and I didn't have to pay or give a password because everyone told me that LAX doesn't have free Wi-Fi. Let me tell you, one of the things that really frustrates me is airports that don't have free Wi-Fi. I mean, COME ON PEOPLE, I HAVE A 5 HOUR LAYOVER, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?! Luckily, Denver has free internet (one of the many wonderful attributes of Denver). While I was waiting at LAX wearing a Pi Phi sweatshirt, a man came up to me and said "My wife was a Pi Phi, and we've just finished watching this movie [(500) Days of Summer], do you want it?" He handed it to me and left-- small world, eh? It was so nice of him and I was happy to have a free movie. The flight from LA to Auckland was just fine, I watched some movies and TV and I even slept for a few hours. I had some lovely travel companions sitting next to me on the LAX-->Auckland, and on Auckland--> Christchurch, and it was very enjoyable conversing with them. On my second flight, the man I was sitting next to talked very fast and he would ask me questions that sounded something like “Soo wheeat abouuut blah blah sdnkjwebkjsbdf s, ehh?” and much of the time I had no idea what he was talking about, so I would smile and make an answer up to the mystery question. Moral of the story: I may be in an English-speaking country, but that definitely does not mean that I speak this kind of English. It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, though I plan to be able to speak with a kiwi accent by the end of this trip. 

Once I arrived, I met two of my four flatmates and they are absolutely lovely. Sarah is from England and Zoe is from California. I purchased internet, bedding, towels, and the essentials for a shower because after so much travelling I was really ready to be clean. There are a lot of things that I love about my flat; we each have our own bedroom, we have two bathrooms, there’s a fridge and a freezer, a TV, couches, and a deck. There also some things I don’t like much about our flat. We don’t have an oven, which is incredibly sad since I love baking. I’ve got a friend with an oven in her flat so will hopefully be able to do some baking there. Also, the fridge is quite small, so it’s really tough to fit the food of 5 people in it, so that will be quite interesting. Yet another disappointment is the laundry situation; I used to think that laundry was expensive at Willamette ($0.75 for wash, $0.75 for dryer), but it’s much more expensive here-- $2 for wash, $2 for dryer WHAT. So laundry will be spread out quite a bit I am sure. Another major difference between here and the US is that most college campuses have free Wi-Fi all over campus, but here we have to pay for it and we have to use an Ethernet cable, which is a bummer because I can't sit in the living room while on the Internet. I'll get used to it though.

On Saturday, I went and bought groceries, and a cell phone. I haven’t had a phone like this in so long and re-learning how to text on this simple little phone has been quite the experience. Luckily, I have Bejeweled on this phone, which has been quite entertaining. I took a trip to the beach that afternoon with Zoe, Sarah, and Sarah’s friend. It was a lovely day and it was so fun to feel the sand between my toes. I don’t get to go to the beach all that often but since it is so close by here, I hope I will be able to go see it more often! We had fish and chips for dinner that night and then spent the night doing some nice flatmate bonding. We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early since Sarah is out of town this week, so on Sunday we went out to lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant, and for dinner we went out to an Indian restaurant that had the best Indian food I have ever had. Ever. It was SO GOOD. 

Today we had International Student Orientation, which was a long day of people talking at us. On the bright side, I got a lot of free food and free stuff, and everyone likes free things, right?! I had great fun with some friends, and we are going to brainstorm all of the awesome things we want to do during our time here tonight. I have been running a lot, since I fully believe that the best way to learn how to find your way around is to get lost and find your way home. It has been awesome exploring this campus. It is huge compared to Willamette so I’m still learning my way around. I enrol in classes on Thursday morning, and I’m a little nervous for that because it sounds much more complicated than the process I am used to. I’m sure everything will turn out just fine. All in all, my first few days have been just wonderful and I am so thankful that I’ve got such great new flatmates and new friends!