The plight/joy of being a "freshman" a third time...

I just have to say that today was sort of a blast from the past, in that I am once again thrown into that position of being a new student in a new place, as I have been twice before. However, the location and my age seem to have made significant changes to the experience:

1. Unlike both my past orientation experiences, I have outgrown the sort of desperate fear of being alone in a new place. You know how when you're a freshmen you sorta cling to the first people you meet to go to all the events with? Yeah, I'm sorta over that, although I am enjoying meeting everyone here immensely. In fact, I may be having the opposite fear here, which is both bad and good, I guess.

2. Apparently in NZ, and the UK my friend informs me, orientation week means rivalries between dormitories. This morning at 6am, neighboring O'Rorke Hall came out full force, chanting up around our building and shooting off water guns, etc. We retaliated tonight by crashing their party at a downtown bar and doing our own chants right back. Kinda immature, but really alot of fun, and I could imagine it gives first years a real sense of belonging to a group here.

3. Drinking age is 18, so therefore we have RA-led nights out, which sounds lame to us, but when your entire dorm takes over a bar, its a great way to meet people and alot of fun.

4. The small talk at an international orientation is much more involved. The names are harder to remember, then there's the country, then there's the program, the year, etc. I got into a discussion about the US education system vs.  the Netherlands, English pub drinks, etc.

I am amazed I have gotten this far. I'm thinking of it like an upper-division orientation experience, like IC was the easiest, SB got harder b/c of the more diverse population and now this.

5. I still do not have a cell phone, so its been nice meeting everyone and all, but unless they live in my dorm, or there is a program for International students, I have no way of getting in contact with anyone yet. Kinda lame, but I'm sure I'll meet enough people in 4.5 months and those who are important will fall into place, I suppose.  I should really get on that though...

6. Huia, my residence, is alot like Boothroyd, my IC dorm, in that its a small, less-well-kept dorm off the beaten path from the University...and I love that about this hall. The small, underdog-feel of a place like this makes people come together more, I believe. And for me, its nice to only have to remember a small amount of names at the end of days like these.

Ummm the only other update is that I should be switching my NZ ecology class for a NZ geology class...Woohoo! I'm pretty excited about this, as this was one of the original classes I wanted to take but which wasn't initially listed til this week. And I met the guy in the office here I've been in contact with, who's taking a leave for the semester soon...might explain alot about my many problems with communications here...

Onto more orientatin'

Enjoy your own Mondays!

~Ashley

My First Weekend

Its sunday evening here, and its the first truly good weather day I've had in Auckland since I arrived...ironic for a city that claims to have 245 days on sunshine a year. I've enjoying just wandering places by myself immensely, although I did finally hang out with some other people from my dorm last night.

Anyways, I made good use of the good weather today and walked over to Mt. Eden, which I have seen off-and-on through rain, haze and fog from my bedroom window. But before we get to that, a quick recap of the weekend.

I did indeed make not one, but two shopping trips Friday...both times I thought it had stopped raining, only to get absolutely poured on en route somewhere. I spent 116 NZ$ at a drug store, because everything is expensive b/c its mostly made in Australia. This was also my first trip to the busy Queen St area, where I was surprised to find Borders, Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's, Burger King, etc. Didn't see much of it though, as I tried (and failed to outrun) the absolute downpour. Went back and dried off, but I really did need to get some food to cook, so I walked over to Newmarket, the other major shopping area here. I went to Foodtown that turned out to also be a Woolworth's and got just about everything I needed. I tried to get the cheapest things (except the Cadbury bar and Cadbury hazelnut/chocolate granola bars, which I had to get, obviously), but again, I think because just about everything is made in Australia or elsewhere it added up fast, 164 NZ$! For dinner for the next couple of nights, I bought 5 of these "Italian" chicken wraps that were on sale... NZ's version of "Italian Sauce" tastes alot like Tikka Masala sauce, ie, there's definitely curry in it. Lamb was as cheap as chicken cutlets here, but I've never cooked red meat in my life and didn't wanna buy a kitchen's worth of ingredients soooo I didn't get it. Very limited cheese selection, no soft mozarella or goat cheese that I could find, although I wanted something large and cheap anyways so I got a 500-g brick of "Tasty cheddar", which is indeed tasty. And yes Dad, I got bananas and oatmeal for breakfast. Apparently avocados are a big thing here, but I didn't end up buying any b/c I didn't wanna buy everything for guacomole. Tea was a gamble, as I'm not used to anything but whatever kind of tea Tetley and Lipton bags are; I don't know the difference between English Breakfast and Earl Grey or Ceylon, etc. Got whatever was cheapest (Choysa Classic?) in a 30 bag box, as I didn't want to commit one way or another yet. Also of note, most of the detergent here is powder, although I did find a concentrated liquid one on sale, and dryer sheets apparently do not exist and there is a large selection of fresh refrigerated dog and cat food...interesting. In general, there's a much smaller selection of things here than I'm used, and I'm still baffled as to what the NZ equivalent of Target of Kmart is, although I got most things at Foodtown/Woolworth's anyway.

Yesterday I decided to get myself down to the harbor, after again waking up absurdly early, and maybe take a ferry or harbor cruise if the weather seemed promising. Well, it didn't, but I did walk to the ferry station and Britomart, the latter being the bus/train hub of Auckland. I was impressed that all the trains, buses and ferry terminals are all across the street from each other, unlike Penn, Port Authority, Grand central, etc. Since most the quays were closed for either construction or shipping, I continued walking all the way to where the road crosses Judges' and Hobson Bays so I could see out into the harbor without masts and containers in the way. I definitely have the Norton instinct to find water or a lookout and its playing itself out here, alot. The skies were looking threatening once again, so I cut through Parnell, the most affluent section of Auckland along with Ponsonby, I believe. I've been navigating my way through the city with free maps in pamphlets btw, I should probably just invest in a less destructable map soon. Came back through the domain (where I saw a pukeko bird, it was really cool!), exhausted from literally walking around the entire city, and napped because the weather didn't seem like it was going to improve. Of course, I woke up and it was nice...oh Auckland.

My dorm had a meet-up-and-go to the Starlight Symphony concert in the Domain last night. 

Symphony was good, they played crowd favorites, Bohemian Rhapsody, the duet from "Starlight express", part of the mozart requiem, and, of course the apparently universal summer tradition fireworks/cannons to the 1812 overture. They also had one of the world's few legit trombone quartets, who played William Tell, dressed as cowboys, its was adorable. Spent the more boring songs chatting with everyone, some kids were from London, some were NZ freshmen, south african and of course, American; all boys except for two NZ freshmen girls. Lots of the kinds of convos you'd expect from international students about accents, majors etc., but they were all pretty nice; one kid from DC  was big music guy, so that was cool. Also got my first glimpse of the stars here on the other side of the world...Orion was upside down, weird. Afterwards all of us were supposed to go to some house party (alot of kids have been here longer than me) but everyone got kinda split up in the exiting crowd from the park and I ended up with a nice little group of more laid-back kids, a girl from Switzerland who backpacked for 6 weeks before coming to Huia, a 2nd bachelor's degree guy from Christchurch and an exchange student from Scotland. We decided to just find anywhere to grab a beer or two and ended up at this Belgian Beer place downtown.  They had a decent band playing such things as "Living on a Prayer", and apparently  Leslie, my cousin's cousin (ie, the only other person I know in Auckland) heard this outside and decided she needed to come in to represent Jersey right. It was so absurd to run into her, especially because we had tried some way of meeting up this weekend but without a cellphone, this was difficult. The only other American girls I met besides Leslie and her friends were just kinda...dumb.  Kinda lost them between Huia and the house party or whereever they ended up. This Belgian place sorta was expensive but I got a nice dark German beer and the band playing there was alot of fun so I danced alot with Leslie and her friends; she introduced me as her cousin, it was cute and I'm glad we ran into each other. 
Highlight of the night, besides the fact that I got to meet people, was that it made me stay up til 2am, so my sleep schedule felt a bit more normal, I woke up at 10:15am today, not 5 or 7.

Today I practically leapt outta bed to enjoy the sunny day, and walked about 20 minutes to Mt. Eden, the tallest point in Auckland. For my geology-nerd self, I was so excited to be on my first volcano, even if its been extinct for some time now. Climbed up through park-like forests and open grassy areas, the latter which I think must be used for livestock of some sort sometimes, judging by the water buckets and extensive fences. The views were absolutely gorgeous, 360 degrees in all directions; I really wish I had brought a better map or guidebook though, as I wasn't entirely sure what was what in my lines of view besides the immediate CBD (central business district, downtown) and the north shore/Rangitoto Island. I could see all the surrounding mountain ranges, including this hulking mass of a mountain to the southeast. Sitting in the grass with a nice breeze and sunshine, looking over the whole of the Auckland area...it doesn't get much better so far :-)
I am dying to travel already, although I am loving these days of wandering around the city by myself. I like planning a trip for myself, even if its just to places around here.

My wandering days may be over for awhile though, as orientations start tomorrow. 
I gotta put on my best small talk and get myself orientated!

Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday night!
See facebook for pics, or shutterfly: http://ashleysnewzealandpics.shutterfly.com/

~Ashley

I'm here!

Its pouring/windy this morning here today, so I guess I'll start this thing after all.

I really want it to stop raining soon, as I've been up since 7am due to the odd sort of jetlag I got from going 18 hours ahead in 24 hours, and I want to get some of the essentials I need, like food  to cook and shampoo, etc. They're also tearing apart the street below my window so sleeping past 8:30 will be kind of tough regardless.

Anyways, the flight here wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The only scary part was that I got to JFK at 9:30, scanned my passport and thee screen told me MY FLIGHT HAD DEPARTED. Apparently the travel agent my parents used told us it was an 11:30 flight but actually put me on the 8:30. I got onto the 11:30 no problem though.  Getting around LAX wasn't too bad, as I ran into two Australian businessmen that were making the same transfer and we navigated the parking garage-crossover between terminals together. And that was all I've ever seen of California haha.

The Auckland flight was chock-full of exchange students, mostly part of either IES or Australearn programs and they all told me how grateful they were for the program making the application/preparation process easy for them, that they'd never have known the steps and paperwork necessary without help...OH REALLY?? I know its over, and that I made it through successfully but yeah, it was one of the most frustrating processes I've gone through, worse than applying to college, both times. 

I made it through the flight with the aid of sleeping pills, a good dinner and breakfast and 6 episodes of "The Mighty Boosh". The latter was an absurd BBC production, but I kinda loved it; the first episode featured a creepy song about eels and another a trip through a character's body to defeat the Voodooo Jazz Virus. Will definitely look it up online if this rain doesn't let up soon.

Got to the airport and couldn't find my ride, as he had none of the identifying characteristics they sent me, but rather a sign that said "IES". These two off-duty taxi/bus drivers were really helpful though and wandered around to find the group while I sat with my luggage. We drove through the pretty suburbs as all the kids were walking to school in their uniforms, it was kinda cute.

When I got to the dorm, all I wanted was a shower or a nap so I quickly disappeared upstairs once I got my key. Once I got cleaned up and unpacked, I was too anxious to get outside to sleep, so I figured I'd go get some of the things I needed. The receptionists here are also supernice, btw, and around 24 hours, so I asked them where a supermarket was. Once outside though, I realized it was only around noon and I was starving, so I picked up a piece of bacon, egg and cheese pie and walked into the Auckland Domain just down the road. The gardens there are really pretty, and more tropical than I expected. It was so nice to be out in a skirt and sandals, listening to the insects, soaking up the sun and smelling flowers in February, so I just kept wandering about the park til I got to Parnell Rd, the boutique-shopping area of Auckland. Auckland is a much smaller place than I expected, actually, so I decided  to keep exploring til I got tired/found a food store. I found a NZ-mac-store equivalent, looked around a bookstore and decided to walk towards the harbor. I also found Foodtown and an Asian grocer, but decided I'd rather not walk up the hill through the University with all my food in tow. I'm hoping to walk back down there today at some point...

On the way back, I walked through the campus of the University, which has some really pretty buildings and lush greenery. Checked in with the International Office, and they do indeed have an ID card for me, I just left my visa in my room so I couldn't pick it up...but I'm definitely in the system here, yay!

Between the University and my dorm, there's alot of convenience stores and coffee shops, so thats good too for when I start going to classes in a week. The bridge I have to take across the motorway, although under construction, has nice views of the harbor and Rangitoto, an old volcano in the harbor.

I got back, cooked myself a can of soup and then got hit with the exhaustion of not sleeping on the planes very much and the fact that 8pm here = 2am  at home, so I promptly passed out at 9pm...I'm awesome.

I haven't met too many people yet, but I'm kind of enjoying just doing things on my own because I know I'll soon have to do things on a schedule and meet others once the International and Huia Residence Orientations start up on Monday. Today I've only braved the storm for coffee and a pastry at the Asian bakery across the street, which also sells cheap meat pies...I'm pretty excited for this, even if its super unhealthy.

As for the next few days, I might try to catch a ferry over to Devonport for a Food, Wine and Music festival if its nice out; the dorm is also having a meet-up to go to the symphony concert in the Domain tomorrow night. 

Hopefully I'll get my errands done later today so I can do as I please tomorrow...

And that has been your report from tomorrow in the Southern Hemisphere.

I hope you're all enjoying the wintertime :-)