The First Semester Comes to a Close

The month of June has FLOWN by, which means that the semester is over and I am having a hard time believing it. This past week or so has been too full of good byes, as most people who go abroad only do so for one semester. I didn't realize that I would be such anomaly in staying in New Zealand for 2 semesters! It has been very sad to say farewell to all the friends that I made these past 4 months, but I am looking forward to meeting a whole new bunch of people next semester.

In other, less depressing news, I went on a lovely trip to the Otago Peninsula last week. It's about a 40 minute drive out to the peninsula from my flat and it is absolutely beautiful. I wish I had known sooner that I live right by such natural beauty! There are all kinds of beaches and wildlife to check out on the peninsula. My friends and I went to Sandfly Bay, where we saw sea lions and even a yellow eyed penguin! It was so cool to see these animals in their natural habitat. The sea lions are pretty tame animals, so we were told it was ok to be a few meters away from them and take pictures with them, but as my friend and I approached one of them it suddenly snapped it's head and BARKED at us! It scared the bejeezus out of us, and luckily my other friend was able to capture the ridiculous moment of terror:



After Sandfly Bay we went to check out the albatross center, but it was too late so it was closed. However, a lady who worked there who was just heading out for the evening told us to stick around until dark and to watch the blue penguins come in to their nests for the night. Well that sounded pretty awesome so we headed down to the water and after waiting for what felt like ages the little penguins came in! It was dark so it was difficult to see them, plus they are the smallest type of penguin in the world, but we heard them coming in and it was SO COOL. I wanted to sneak up on one and take it home with me, but I figured it wouldn't like that too much so I refrained. Now, you may think that I live in the arctic tundra seeing as I live right next to penguins, but no worries it has yet to even snow here.

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the blue penguins, as the flash would terrify them, but here are other pictures from my afternoon out on the Otago Peninsula:











Now I am just hanging out and anxiously waiting for my family to arrive!!! Then I'm off on a 2 week New Zealand traveling adventure with them!

Hangin out in Dunedin

Due to looming finals I have not gone on any great traveling adventures lately, but there has been plenty going on right here in Dunedin.

A little while ago my friends and I had the great idea to make cookie monster cupcakes...which are as awesome as they sound. First we made chocolate chip cookies, then we made the cupcakes, and then came the tricky part of constructing the cookie monster. We made blue icing for cookie monster himself, and used white chocolate chip buttons stuck to dark chocolate chips to make the eyes. We cut a little hole in the frosted cupcake, stuck in a cookie, plopped on the chocolate chip eyes, and voila! A cookie monster cupcake! Our artsy friend took a picture of the final product:



This past week my flat decided to host a giant slumber party! We pulled all of our queen size mattresses together on our common room floor, invited over our neighbors, and had a grand ol' time. We made some delicious homemade poptarts (although they took SO much work!), watched a movie, and told some stories. It was just like those big slumber parties we used to have back in the day, although we are not the care-free kids we used to be. I woke up at 10:30 the next morning surrounded by empty mattresses, as everyone had gotten up early to get on with their busy days.

Here are some candids from the night:






Classes are done and finals are starting this Wednesday, and I can't believe my first semester here is already come to a close. In the next couple of weeks many of my American friends here are heading back to the States, as most people are just studying abroad here for the semester. I'm glad to be staying for the full school year, as there is still so much I want to see!

Flat Hiking Trip To Silver Peaks

My most recent trip was a hiking excursion with my four flatmates. We did an overnight hike to Silver Peaks, which is only about a 20 minute drive from our flat to the start of the trail.

We woke up early Saturday morning (Early meaning 8 am) and started our trek. It took us about 3 ½ hours to hike to Jubilee hut, a tiny hut in the mountains where we were sleeping for the night. We dropped off our packs, grabbed a quick lunch and then went on an off-track hike to find a cave. We had a general idea where it was, but it took us about 2 hours of wading through waist high grass to find it. The cave was really neat, it was right on the mountainside and it had a platform, bench, and shelf built in to it for campers to use. There were a few hunters (they were hunting wild pig, there’s really not much to hunt here in New Zealand) staying in it for the weekend, so we chatted with them for a bit and then made our way back to the hut. Then we made the best dinner EVER, although everything tastes ten times better after a full day of hiking. We had a pasta, ground beef, vegetable stew, and it was so delicious. For dessert we had Tim Tam slams, my new favorite cookie and way to eat it. You take a Tim Tam, which is just a chocolate wafer covered in chocolate, bite off the ends, stick it in warm water and try to suck up the water through the Tim Tam, so it’s like the cookie is your straw. The hot water goes in to the cookie and makes it melt in to gooey chocolatey goodness, which you then pop in your mouth and enjoy. Voila! That is the Tim Tam slam.

The next day we had to make our way back, but the only way back to the car was via the Devil’s Staircase, which was just as brutal as it sounds. It was an incredibly steep trek that went straight up and up and up. My kiwi host Werner, who had never been on a hike as big as this, was less than thrilled to go up the Devil’s staircase, and halfway up he turned to me and said “The next time someone suggests we go hiking remind me to say NO”. But by the end of it I know he was happy to have conquered the Devil’s Staircase.

Overall it was a really fun weekend and all 5 of us made it through in one piece. It was a great flat bonding experience and it made me realize how much I’m going to miss Heather, Sammy and Erin next semester, as I am the only one in the flat who is staying for 2 semesters.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip: a group picture at Jubilee hut, where we spent the night, a scenic picture of what we were surrounded by as we hiked, and a picture of the hut from a distance, if you look closely you can see it, it's the tiny little house in the midst of the mountains.

The Tunnel of Love

I successfully finished the peanut butter challenge! And I did so in a mere 30 hours, leaving 18 hours to spare. Yes, i ate 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of peanut butter in 30 hours...and it was awful. My stomach was so mad at me, and I have barely had any peanut butter since. However I did make 5 dollars, although in retrospect I am not entirely sure it was worth it...

As for my other various activities, everything is going pretty well. I had to drop field hockey because it conflicted with swing dancing class, and I couldn't leave my partner hangin! Swing dance started yesterday and I learned how to do the Charleston. By the end of the course my goal is to go to a jazz concert and wow the audience with my swing dancing skills. We'll see what happens.

For this post, I thought I would do a profile of my flat. Over these past couple of months I have gotten to know my 4 other flatmates quite well, and since they are such a part of my life here I thought it only appropriate to write about them. We (and by we I mean pretty much just me) call our flat the 'Tunnel of Love' after the Bruce Springsteen song. To do this profile I wrote a series of questions and handed them out to my flatmates to answer. Here are the questions:

1. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 3 possessions what would they be?
2. Would you rather have a mullet or a rat tail? (background info: these 2 hairstyles are unfortunately very popular here in New Zealand)
3. If you could have one super power what would it be?
4. Tell an embarrassing story that happened to you.
5. What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
6. What skill/talent are you contributing to this flat?
7. Anything else you feel like sharing?

Flattie 1: Erin (Erin is a boy, I guess in Canada boys spell their name this way) from British Columbia, Canada answered:
1. one of those restaurant umbrellas, a machete, and a pirate hat.
2. Rat tail for sure. waaaaaay cooler. Basically just sweet as. (background info: in New Zealand they add the word 'as' to the end of words for emphasis. It's like they are making an extreme comparison but just can't be bothered to finish it. For example if something is really scary they might say it's 'creepy as' instead of just finishing the sentence and saying that it's 'creepy as a (insert creepy thing here)' so in this answer Erin was making fun of this New Zealand popular phrase)
3. The jumping (and soaring) ability of a fly
4. So this one time I was playing catch phrase, and my word was 'Anne Frank' For a clue I said "She's deaf and blind!"
5. Organize and play in the world's first hockey game on Pluto
6. It's hard to pick just one...but I would have to say my fashion sense
7. No I don't know Joe from Canada, and anything less than 5.5% is not really beer.

Flattie 2: Sammy from South Carolina answered:

1. guitar, self-replenishing food chest, desalination device
2. mullet
3. ability to stop time
4. I crashed off my bike and face-planted in to a rock (background info: This happened while in New Zealand, Sammy ended up getting stitches on his face, poor guy!)
5. Fly
6. music or extreme mountain biking
7. I got the blues

Flattie 3: Heather from Washington (state, not the capital) answered:
1. company, food (bread specifically), and exercise shorts
2. rat tail
3. animorph
4. One time I slow-motion fell off my bike in to a bush in front of an old folks home
5. Any gymnastic activity
6. comic relief and a knack for shenanigan creating
7. I don't like showering or sleeping

Flattie 4: Werner, my Kiwi host for the flat, (New Zealanders call themselves kiwis, and international students are housed with a New Zealand host and a mix of other international students) who is actually a native of South Africa (he moved here when he was 11)
1. pikachu, laptop, coke factory
2. rat tail
3. teleportation
4. signed up as a kiwi host
5. use the force
6. organization skills
7. I need coke!

And finally, my answers to these questions:
1. an alpaca, cookies, and a snuggie
2. a combo of both hairstyles
3. power to move things with my mind (like Matilda)
4. One time this past summer (as in the year 2009) I asked someone what Bob Marley was up to these days...they replied that he's been gone for quite some time now.
5. try to swim from New Zealand to Antarctica
6. my vast knowledge of computers and other technologies
7. I am aware that my name rhymes with the word "geeze"

There you have it. Now you know the Tunnel of Love! Here is a picture of me and my dear flatmates:

The peanut butter challenge and other recent happenings

So lots has been going on in the past week or so, and I thought it was about time I updated:

I am currently in the middle of a peanut butter challenge, which sounds ridiculous because it is. Last night while eating some peanut butter straight from the jar, as I do quite frequently, my friend bet me 5 dollars that I couldn't eat a whole jar in one day. I accepted the challenge, and after some negotiation we agreed that the challenge would be that I attempt to consume 1 kilogram (that's 2.2 pounds) of peanut butter in 48 hours. I am about 12 hours in to the challenge and am just about half way...and I feel absolutely terrible. BUT I am going to finish this challenge successfully, I am determined!

In other, non-food related news, I have recently joined many different things, as I am trying to get more involved in my new community!

First, I joined the Collegiate Orchestra, a community orchestra comprised of students and adults from the community. It is extremely relaxed (rehearsals are optional) but it is great to be playing the cello again. We are working on Beethoven's 5th Symphony (everyone knows it, it's the piece that goes duh duh duh duhhhhhhhh, google it!).
I have also recently volunteered with the special olympics, and I will be coaching soccer once a week. It starts next Monday and I am very excited about it.
Tomorrow I have my first...field hockey practice! I signed up with a "social" (aka not competitive) team that was looking for players. It has been awhile since my JV field hockey days in high school, but I am optimistic that it's just like riding a bike, and that my skills will come right back in no time.
Last but not least, I have signed up for a swing-dance for beginners class, with my next door neighbor for my partner. We are both definitely not dancers, so this should be very interesting...

I haven't done any traveling since my big Australia trip, but I did go on a day trip to Tunnel Beach, an absolutely beautiful spot that's only about a 20 minute drive from my house. Here are a couple of scenic pictures from the trip:

Spring Break in Australia

I have just returned from a great break in Australia! It was quite the adventure, so I'll start from the beginning.

I kind of forgot that Australia is actually a foreign country, as in Australia is not just an extension of New Zealand or vice versa, so I forgot that I had to go through customs. And I also didn't think about the fact that I had a carrot in my bag for a little traveling snack... So basically I was held up at customs at the Melbourne airport because of one carrot I had stowed away in my bag. I think the customs official thought I was trying to smuggle lots of produce in to her country because she started drilling me about fruits and veggies, making sure I didn't have anything else. Then she gave me a long lecture about what I can and can not bring in to Australia. It was a great way to start my trip, I felt like a fugitive before I had even really arrived.

But everything from then on was just lovely! I was visiting my Aussie cousins who live just outside of Melbourne in a nice little spot in the country. They had an awesome place, complete with a garden, chickens, ducks, a guinea fowl, a pool, and even a skate ramp! Pretty sweet.

On Sunday I went to a surf competition at Bells Beach, which was just a short bike ride from their house. It was an international surf competition, so even Kelly Slater was there! (A famous American surfer who has won a million things). My favorite competitor was Marco Polo from Brazil, purely because of his name. Watching real surfers was pretty cool, they can do all kinds of tricks and of course they make it look super easy.

The next day was a beach day, so I tried surfing once again...and once again I was not the greatest, but it was still fun!

Here's a picture of the Point Adis Beach where I surfed, taken from my walk to the beach:




On Tuesday I went in to Melbourne with Ivy, Feemy, and Rory (cousins). Now, I have zero sense of direction, and I was in charge of getting us around, so it was a slightly comical situation that the foreigner with 0 sense of direction was in charge...but after asking a few nice Aussies for train schedule advice we made it in to the city! We went to the Queen Victoria Market which was basically a farmers market times 100. It was HUGE. And there were other stalls as well, that sold everything from clothes to candy to statues of sheep and other odd knick-knacks. I bought some Aussie-rules football gear as a souvenir, because they are crazy about their Aussie-rules football in Australia. It's an interesting sport that seems to combine football, rugby, and a little soccer and volleyball too.

Here's some pictures from our train-ride home from Melbourne. The top one is of Rory, Ivy and Feemy, with Feemy's new sheep that she purchased at the Market. And the bottom is just Ivy and me in my new Aussie-football team scarf (I chose the Eagles because they are blue and gold, just like Michigan!)





On my last day we went on a drive along the coast. It was reminiscent of driving along the California coast, except it was a bit more rocky. Our final destination was a lovely walk through the rainforest! It was this really cool suspended walk that went about 50 meters above the forest floor, so that we wouldn't damage the wildlife. Unfortunately I discovered my camera battery was dead and so I don't have any pictures from that day :(

It was really interesting to see Australia and just how different it is from New Zealand. The landscape, the people, the accent, some of the food, and just the culture in general were all different. In Australia there seemed that every animal has the ability to hurt you...even the ants! Australia is home to the top 3 deadliest snakes in the world. And while I was there I heard that a man was attacked by a wombat. A wombat?! New Zealand on the other hand has absolutely nothing that can hurt you. There aren't any deadly animals here. Although Australia was a very cool place, I think I made the right choice of country to come study abroad in!

Sporting in New Zealand

Lately I have been doing a variety of sporting activities, and it's about time I updated my blog so here goes:

Last Saturday I had a surf lesson through Arcadia. They provided us with surfboards, wetsuits, and a kiwi surf boy for an instructor. Now, the conditions last Saturday were ridiculous. It was overcast and superbly windy, so surfing in the Ocean was WILD. I have spent 99% of my aquatic life in the Great Lakes, and that did not prepare me for this! The waves were so big, it was a struggle just to be in the water, let alone try to surf in it as a beginner. However, despite the giant waves surfing was so much fun. Since the weather was chilly our instructor had us do a warm up lap and with all of us jogging up the beach in our wetsuits it looked like a scene straight out of Baywatch. Then we did some on-land surfing technique exercises. Apparently I have a less than awesome sense of balance, because Isaac the surfing instructor was definitely laughing at me as I tried to practice hopping up on the board. I couldn't really do it that well...so I never quite got up in the water either, but I did get the hang of catching waves and cruising on my knees! I will be a pro surfer soon enough.

On Saturday night I went to a rugby game! It was so cool to be surrounded by people who actually understand the sport of rugby! It was the Highlanders, the local New Zealand team, versus the Sharks, a South African rugby team. Unfortunately the Highlanders lost, but it was a close match and fun to watch overall. One of the weirdest things about rugby over here is that mullets and rat-tails seem to be a very popular hairstyle for the players. Both are very terrible, so I really don't understand why they are so popular. Oh well, I just hope it never hits the States.

And finally, my last sporting event of this past week was...netball! I went to play with a couple friends who started a team, it was kinda like playing with an intramural team. The game of netball is probably New Zealand's most popular women's sport. It is a cross between basketball, handball, and ultimate Frisbee. There are 7 players per side at a time, and the goal is to shoot a basketball sized ball through a net, which just looks like a basketball net minus the backboard. There are designated positions, and each position can only go in certain parts of the court. For example, the Goalkeeper can only go in the first third of the court, and their job is to defend the Goalscorer, who can also only go in that part of the court. Once you have the ball you can't move, and defenders must be 3 feet away at all times. It was weird to get used to at first, but after a couple fouls for too closely defending I got the hang of it.

Now, this weekend I am off to either the Fiordlands or Wanaka, whichever one has less rain!