How to beat a bad case of the Mondays

It's been a while since anything exciting happened. Last week, I received two packages and some letters. The first package was from my amazing friend Andrea, of whom I am so proud. For those who don't know her, she's pretty much a rock star and I am so lucky to have her in my life. She totally brightened up my day (which was grey and rainy, a la Oregon; I was not amused) with her gift of silly things, chocolate, baked goods, Toy Story stickers, and much more. The other package was from my beautiful Pi Phi sisters, who sent me some magazines, American candy, Easy Mac (which came in very handy this weekend), and most importantly, tons of kind letters that made me feel so loved and missed that I nearly cried. I miss them all so much and it was such a nice reminder that sisterhood knows no limits. I am so thankful for the awesome people in my life, and I don't know where I'd be without them.

All the things one needs to cheer them up :)

My sisters have really nice things to say and really nice handwriting :)

On Friday night, Marijke decided to heat things up in the flat and have a giant game of Lava Floor. From 5-8 pm, we lit lots of candles, turned all the heaters up, had red and orange balloons flying around all over the place, and very strict rules about where we could and couldn't step. We played loud music and danced all over the place, and had a blast reliving our childhood in a much more grown-up manner.

After last week's fun, this week was seeming pretty dismal. I didn't get much sleep Saturday night, and this week is crazy busy with midterm tests and papers. Monday rolled around and I was just not feeling good. We were supposed to get Indian food on Sunday for lunch but the three places we went were closed, so we settled for some mediocre Thai food instead. On Monday I asked Sarah if she wanted to go get Indian for lunch and she said yes, as did Marijke and Aman. We ended up having a great spontaneous flat outing. We got Indian food for lunch, then walked to the mall where we went to a fun little chocolate shop, where Aman and Sarah split the chocolate fondue and I got a warmed brownie with molten chocolate on it. Mmmmm. So tasty. As we were leaving the mall, we decided to stop by and see what movies were playing and it turned out that we were just in time for "21 Jump Street." I have to admit, I was quite skeptical at first but it ended up being extremely funny and I think we all had a great time. So, moral of the story: when life gets you down, go have spontaneous adventures to cheer you up.

And now off to my first midterm... wish me luck... 

Wild Weekend at Wildfoods

I've been getting sort of antsy staying in Christchurch when I know that there are so many adventures to have in Kiwi-land. I am pleased to say, though, that I've now had my first adventure, and man, what an experience it was. We went to Hokitika on the west coast to go to the Wildfoods Festival, an annual event that draws crowds of people from all over. Each year people dress up in costumes, and there are prizes for the best ones. It's like Halloween, but not in October and a little bit more fun. Our group dressed up at Batman & Robin and the villains. I was Harley Quinn, Sarah was Catwoman, and Shevelle was Poison Ivy, and our heroes were Zoe as Robin and Glyn as Batman; I'd say we looked pretty great.

 I had my first experience driving here, in a manual transmission car, on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car. It didn't take me too long to get the hang of it, though my left hand is not so great at shifting. I hit the curb once, but once I learned to align myself with the center line rather than what I'm used to, I alleviated that problem. The other difficult part of the drive was all the one lane bridges. I've never seen or heard of a one way bridge, but again, I got the hang of those pretty quickly after lots of coaching from Glyn. The drive there was beautiful. Since Christchurch is on the east coast, and Hokitika is on the west coast, we got to drive through the mountains which was a gorgeous experience. We drove through Arthur's Pass which I would love to go back to, and saw many other breathtaking sights. We had a great time on the drive listening to music, talking, and drinking (not me-- I was driving). We left early Saturday morning, stopped along the way for some pictures, and arrived in Hokitika around 12:30, just in time for the festival, stayed overnight at a friend's house, and came back on Sunday afternoon.


Once we arrived in Hokitika, we got some food and water, and made our way to the festival where they had all sorts of crazy foods. It was fun to see everyone's costumes, people got pretty creative.

The first things we tried were crocodile (a little too chewy for my taste) and kangaroo (absolutely delicious).

Our next item was not quite so tasty; for $1 we could have a live huhu grub. They searched for them in their pile of wood, so at least we know they were fresh live huhu grubs. They were pretty small, but Sarah and I took different approaches of eating them; I swallowed mine whole (and now it's probably breeding in my stomach... ew) and Sarah bit the head off of hers and chewed it well. Judging by her face, it wasn't too good. On the bright side, now I can cross that one off my bucket list. The last crazy thing we tried was the Stallion Shot. If you really want to know what's in it, I'll gladly tell you, but you'll have to ask about it.

 We finished off the day dancing to live music, and then we went to get fish and chips. We didn't do much the rest of the night, though a lot of people went to the bars or to the after-party of the festival. Later that night, Sarah and I decided to cross another thing off the bucket list: skinny dipping in the sea. We could hear the ocean from where we were staying, so we decided to go find it and take a little swim. All in all, we had a wonderfully wild weekend full of great life experiences. 

On deep fried Moro bars, cooking, and classes

On Saturday night, I had a deep fried Moro bar. For those who don't know what a Moro bar is, it is the New Zealand version of a Mars bar. Deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. My first weekend here we went to the beach, and then stopped to get fish and chips, where I had my first encounter with a deep fried Moro bar. My friend had ordered one and I tried a bite of it and was blown away. About a week ago, I began ruminating over a deep fried Moro bar. I don't even like deep fried things; I don't really even like candy bars. But, man, I just really, really, really wanted one. On Thursday night, I went to Bingo Night put on by the Gentleman's Club, a student social organization that hosts various events throughout the year. After Bingo, we went over to someone's house and hung out there for a while, and on our way home we stopped at Big Gary's Fish and Chips, the location at which I first experienced deep fried Moro bars. I resisted the urge, but I knew that we would be at the same house last night, so I decided that on our way home, I would treat myself to one of the delicious, sugary, artery-clogging, chocolatey goodness. It was so worth it. I really believe that deep fried Moro bars could solve all the world's problems; you really can't be unhappy while eating one.

I've been enjoying cooking a lot, although sometimes it just seems to take so much effort and I just want something fast and easy. I take after my father in his grocery shopping habits; I tend to buy an absurd amount of fresh produce. What can I say? I just really like fruit and veggies. Last I made the most delicious dinner. I sauteed some orange and green bell peppers (here they are called capsicums), mushrooms, and tomatoes and served it on top of spaghetti. It was really tasty, and quite simple. Last week I bought some Indian butter chicken and chicken tikka masala simmer sauces that you just cook with chicken and veggies. I tried the butter chicken one first and I was incredibly disappointed in it's overpowering spiciness and lack of flavour. I added a bunch of stuff to make it better but it just didn't work. The next day, I had the brilliant idea to add some mango yoghurt to see if that would take care of my disappointing meal and it did. All in all, cooking is going well. I just really wish we had an oven; I just want to make some blueberry muffins. Oh well, for now I'll settle with deep fried Moro bars.

My classes are going well, though I feel like I don't have as much class time here as I do back at WU. I'm not really used to having free time; at school, if I'm not in class I am most likely at work. I have almost no free time to sit around and watch tv, or do my homework before 9 pm, and here I have so much time to spare. I have no problem filling it up, but I fill it up by hanging out with people or going to Thursday night bingo. It's a nice break though, I suppose, and I am going to enjoy this semester while I can. It's nice having time to exercise regularly, although I haven't been able to run much. My calves have been hurting and I've got shin splints, which is super disappointing. I've been working out with a few friends regularly, though, and that's been a lot of fun. I'm starting to miss home a little, but I skyped with one of my friends back home yesterday and she carried me all around Pi Phi so I could say hi to some of my other friends. It was so wonderful to see all of their lovely faces. A few friends have sent me the most wonderful letters and as soon as I buy stamps they will be getting letters in return. All in all, things here are going well, though I haven't adventured much yet. Don't worry, that will change, as I've got my first adventure coming up this weekend. More on that next time!

Transition to a New University

So I have been here for almost two weeks now. After so many weeks of relaxing, I’ve finally started lectures. I feel like such a freshmen all over again-- I don’t know my way around campus, I don’t really know where my lecture halls are, and I don’t know very many people. It’s all good though because this first week has gone quite well so far. I have a fairly easy schedule because this week we only have lectures, no labs or tutorials. It’s been a while since I have felt so insecure about attending lectures, since Willamette is so small and it is guaranteed that I will know at least one person in all my classes. On that same note, my class on Monday had about 60 people in it, which may not sound like a lot but that is 3 times as many people as any class I’ve ever been in. I suspect 60 people will be the smallest class I have, especially because my lecture yesterday had at least 80, possibly more. It makes me appreciate Willamette so much, though this will be a nice contrast to what I am used to. One thing that I have noticed about University of Canterbury that differs from Willamette is how many things we have to pay for that I normally take for granted. I already mentioned the Internet situation (though the actual campus itself does have free wi-fi), but we also have to pay for a gym membership. The gym here is a lot bigger and has more classes offered than ours, but it just reminded me that one of the reasons our tuition is so high is that things such as internet, gym, printing, etc. are all included in our tuition. It's an interesting adjustment.

Last Thursday we went to the Botanic Gardens, which were absolutely gorgeous. I fell in love with the Central Rose Garden, which had the most beautiful array of roses. The variety of plants here in Christchurch is just amazing. When I go running, I see so many different types of trees that I've never seen before and it seems like every tree is a different kind. The cicadas here are out of control here... They are so loud!! On Friday, there was an orientation fair with loads of free stuff, and free food. The eco-house on campus had people over to the community garden for pizza making and beer, so it was a fun way to get to know more about the campus and different opportunities here. On Saturday, there was a carnival where different clubs on campus had booths and there was a jump castle obstacle course (Zoe and I have the burns on our elbows to prove we raced-- she won), sumo wrestling, free food and lots more. That night we went to a beer festival, complete with live music. It was a cute venue, though the beer tastings weren't free. 

Zoe and I racing

Beer Festival

Rustic Pizza Day, University of Canterbury style

Today we didn’t have lectures because it is the one year anniversary of the earthquakes that caused so much destruction to Christchurch, so the university canceled lectures so we could attend the memorial service. It was a lovely service, with beautifully selected prayers, readings, and music. They read the names of all those who died, and released 185 Monarch butterflies at the end for each of those people. They showed a video with clips of various people talking about what a wonderful community Christchurch is, how much they have overcome in the past year, and hopes for the future. At the end of the video, there were two children that sang a song about the devastation and how someday Christchurch will be like new. Even though, I haven't been here long, I've gotten to see a little bit of the damage. Driving to the beach, we were able to see houses falling off cliffs, and many of the shops and businesses around the city centre are closed. The service today reminded me so much of the importance of staying strong as a community to overcome a major tragedy, and it helped me remember and feel thankful for my wonderful network of family and friends. I miss my community at Willamette, but I feel that I have already made some truly wonderful friends. 

New Zealand Address

For those of you who want to write me letters and whatnot, here is my address here. Make sure to write my name on it because they sort it at the apartment offices :)

For letters:
Ilam Apartments
Homestead Lane
PO Box 6362
Upper Riccarton
Christchurch, New Zealand 8443

For packages:
Ilam Apartments
Homestead Lane
Christchurch, New Zealand 8442

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!

Let the countdown begin!

So I leave in 3 days; let the countdown begin! I haven't started packing yet, but this blog post is my last distraction until I really have to start packing. Almost everything is all ready to go-- I went to the doctor last week, got my hair cut yesterday, a dentist appointment tomorrow. We've been enjoying spending time in Breckenridge for the past 3 weeks, except on weekends. Such a beautiful and relaxing place to be, with weather quite opposite of that where I will be in just a few days. While I will miss the snowy wonderland of Breck, I'm excited to head to summer! We've had several days of great skiing, though the best day of the whole season was about a week ago right after a big snow, 10" of fresh powder. That was an awesome day; my dad lost his ski twice and had to dig it out of the snow, we accidentally skied over a six foot cliff we couldn't see until we were in the air, and we got fresh tracks in all sorts of powder. We were absolutely exhausted after that day since we skied so hard. We went to another bottling party at the Distillery, but this time we bottled vodka. I've skied 23 days this season, so I'm pretty content with this winter break!

The International Snow Sculpture Championships were in Breckenridge last week, so we went to see the snow sculptures twice, one time during daylight while the artists were still working and another time at night, where they were all lit with fun colors. It is so impressive to see what people are able to do with a big block of snow, and the detail that many of the artists put into their work is absolutely incredible. Each team spends months planning their work, and it was very fun to see the progress of their designs. The rules for this competition seem to be pretty strict; they aren't allowed to use any power tools and the hours during which they are allowed to work are limited until the night before the competition. It was awesome to see!

The size of the block of snow that each artist is given.

This was the winning sculpture.

My personal favorite.

Last night we had some dear family friends over for a little dinner party where we showcased some fancy wines. For the appetizer, we made a salmon cheesecake served with bread, grapes, and strawberries. We drank two delicious Oregon Pinot Noirs that we bought over Thanksgiving break on our tour of some Oregon wineries. The main course was steak (rib-eyes and filet mignon), with steamed broccoli, sauteed butternut squash, and mushrooms in a sherry sauce. We served four Bordeaux wines with it that were just divine. For dessert we had poached pears, simple but delicious, paired with a Sauternes. A very successful and enjoyable event!

Grilling steaks with 2 feet of snow in the backyard...

Today my friend Phoebe and I went to get pedicures together, and then we went to Child's Pastry shop where we were given free cupcakes! I have no clue why the guy gave them to us for free, but it was a wonderful little surprise and they were very tasty. And now it's time to pack... the next few days will be busy, but we hopefully will be skiing on Tuesday, and I head out on Wednesday! Can't wait!