You all wanted an update.
I arrived in New Zealand on Valentine's Day, though being far away from the commercialization of the USA, it wasn't really noticed. It was a red-eye flight, through the dead of the night, which would be painful, if it didn't greatly help the problem with jet lag. Fly through the night, sleep for the better part of it, and you don't notice the changing time zones. You also get to ignore the laborious ticking of the LCD monitor in front of you that counts down how many hours and minutes left until the arrival. I remember the first flutter of excitement, when I was sitting on the plane from LAX to Auckland. It was the flight attendant. She came up and asked if I wanted a "cuppo tea or wine" with my dinner that night. I almost died.
Flash forward to my arrival at Palmerston North airport, via a flight that would have been terrifying, had I not been used to that 2-prop world war one-era plane ride from Houghton to the Twin Cities. I grabbed my bags from the airport, and looked around, as I had previously arranged a ride from the airport via Massey.
Flash forward again, to my arrival at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. I grabbed my key from the Residential Services Office, and walked to my res. hall, City Court. Problems one and two.five: First off, city court looks and feels a little bit like West McNair, which is unfortunate, but not nearly as funky smelling as WM. And two point five, I get like, little to no instruction from the folks at RSO. I ask them a lot of questions, and they look at me a little weirded out, and tell me to chill out until Sunday when orientation goes down.
This has been my first experience with New Zealand being suuuuuuuuuper laid back. "No worries mate," as they say. This turns out to be awesome, but as a result of my up-tight American nature, I am bothered by this easy-going-ness at first.
I settle in to my dorm, quickly. It's a single, more resemblance to West McNair with the brick walls and wooden accessories, but again that's no matter. I go exploring. Not two hours off the plane and I'm already walking around the nature trails that surround Massey. I'm completely enthralled with New Zealand. The plant life is different than what I'm used to, with ferns intermingling with pine trees in lush river valleys.
I meet a handful of American and other international friends in these first couple days, though I am initially disappointed with the number of Americans I am meeting. I'm in New Zealand, I came 6,000 miles to get AWAY from Americans. It's ok though, int. orientation is a couple days before the rest of the newbies, so it makes sense that there are international kids abound.
First folks I meet: Meg from Florida and Jason from Kentucky. Meg is a conservative religious girl who was home-schooled and gets down with history and theater-type things. Jason is a farmer guy from Kentucky who is trying to get into Massey's competitive vet-school. At this point, I haven't talked to Jason since the first couple weeks of school, he's been doing his own thing trying to get into vet school. That's fine. Meg, I spent two weeks travelling with her and I might have killed her if we hung out soon after travelling. Way too set in her ways and completely different from me in terms of education, religion, economics, government, etc. That's fine, we still get along well.
~
This country is amazing. It's such a crazy new experience, being half way around the world! The currency is pretty and has birds on the back instead of dead presidents. The people are generally more friendly, and you can talk to them on the bus without fear of getting stabbed. Some things are heaps more expensive than back home. A (hand-held) bottle of coke, for example, would cost about $2 US here, as opposed to the 89 cents you can pay for a 2L bottle at econo. Electronics and liquor are both a ton more expensive here, as they have to be imported from super far away. 30$ for a bottle of rum? I don't think so, I'll drink wine. On the other hand, some things are either easier to do or a lot less expensive. For example, here you can get a bus ticket from Wellington to Auckland, about an 8 hour drive, for maybe 6 dollars one way. Things like camping and free access to the national parks are also a great bonus. So I think it all evens out.
Classes are fairly relaxed, following with the general pattern of things around here. Though, the layout of grades is a little different. In three of my four classes, the grade is solely based on two large essays (2000 words, ish) and one final exam. The rest of the time spent on our part is just going to lectures, taking notes and doing a fair amount of reading for the class. I need more assesment on my progress! Never thought I would actually miss busy work.
A brief rundown of shit people say around here:
"good on ya" = "hey good job man"
"fizzy drinks" = "pop/soda"
"jandals" = "thong flip flops"
"togs" = "bathing suit"
"tramping" = "hiking, usually with more camping/gear than normal walks"
That's enough for now. Expect another tumbling of words tomorrow or later in the weekend.
Flash forward to my arrival at Palmerston North airport, via a flight that would have been terrifying, had I not been used to that 2-prop world war one-era plane ride from Houghton to the Twin Cities. I grabbed my bags from the airport, and looked around, as I had previously arranged a ride from the airport via Massey.
Flash forward again, to my arrival at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. I grabbed my key from the Residential Services Office, and walked to my res. hall, City Court. Problems one and two.five: First off, city court looks and feels a little bit like West McNair, which is unfortunate, but not nearly as funky smelling as WM. And two point five, I get like, little to no instruction from the folks at RSO. I ask them a lot of questions, and they look at me a little weirded out, and tell me to chill out until Sunday when orientation goes down.
This has been my first experience with New Zealand being suuuuuuuuuper laid back. "No worries mate," as they say. This turns out to be awesome, but as a result of my up-tight American nature, I am bothered by this easy-going-ness at first.
I settle in to my dorm, quickly. It's a single, more resemblance to West McNair with the brick walls and wooden accessories, but again that's no matter. I go exploring. Not two hours off the plane and I'm already walking around the nature trails that surround Massey. I'm completely enthralled with New Zealand. The plant life is different than what I'm used to, with ferns intermingling with pine trees in lush river valleys.
I meet a handful of American and other international friends in these first couple days, though I am initially disappointed with the number of Americans I am meeting. I'm in New Zealand, I came 6,000 miles to get AWAY from Americans. It's ok though, int. orientation is a couple days before the rest of the newbies, so it makes sense that there are international kids abound.
First folks I meet: Meg from Florida and Jason from Kentucky. Meg is a conservative religious girl who was home-schooled and gets down with history and theater-type things. Jason is a farmer guy from Kentucky who is trying to get into Massey's competitive vet-school. At this point, I haven't talked to Jason since the first couple weeks of school, he's been doing his own thing trying to get into vet school. That's fine. Meg, I spent two weeks travelling with her and I might have killed her if we hung out soon after travelling. Way too set in her ways and completely different from me in terms of education, religion, economics, government, etc. That's fine, we still get along well.
~
This country is amazing. It's such a crazy new experience, being half way around the world! The currency is pretty and has birds on the back instead of dead presidents. The people are generally more friendly, and you can talk to them on the bus without fear of getting stabbed. Some things are heaps more expensive than back home. A (hand-held) bottle of coke, for example, would cost about $2 US here, as opposed to the 89 cents you can pay for a 2L bottle at econo. Electronics and liquor are both a ton more expensive here, as they have to be imported from super far away. 30$ for a bottle of rum? I don't think so, I'll drink wine. On the other hand, some things are either easier to do or a lot less expensive. For example, here you can get a bus ticket from Wellington to Auckland, about an 8 hour drive, for maybe 6 dollars one way. Things like camping and free access to the national parks are also a great bonus. So I think it all evens out.
Classes are fairly relaxed, following with the general pattern of things around here. Though, the layout of grades is a little different. In three of my four classes, the grade is solely based on two large essays (2000 words, ish) and one final exam. The rest of the time spent on our part is just going to lectures, taking notes and doing a fair amount of reading for the class. I need more assesment on my progress! Never thought I would actually miss busy work.
A brief rundown of shit people say around here:
"good on ya" = "hey good job man"
"fizzy drinks" = "pop/soda"
"jandals" = "thong flip flops"
"togs" = "bathing suit"
"tramping" = "hiking, usually with more camping/gear than normal walks"
That's enough for now. Expect another tumbling of words tomorrow or later in the weekend.