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Published: January 12th 2008
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The first couple of days in my new house were very enjoyable! I spent a lot of time with my housemates, I went shopping with Brett and Sam to get some things for my room, I went shopping with Sayaka to get a poster for my room (die Melina vast heel mooi vindt 😉 ), but ended up buying a top as well, clothes are quite cheap here… uh-oh! We also had dinner together with the four of us every night, I cooked a New Zealand dish for my housemates, some kind of sausage oven dish, and it even tasted good! I am going to get to know a lot of Japanese food while I’m here, since it’s a kind of Japanized house haha! Sayaka is Japanese, Jayra is Korean (close enough) and Brett and Sam study Japanese and have studied there - and are going back there for a couple of months in the spring by the way 😞. I did have some New Zealand dishes already however, while eating out, and they were very nice! I had salmon with a topping of… brown sugar! Which sounds weird, but tasted really good. And we had pizza at Filadelfia (supposedly the
Dream
Japanese sign Sam gave me to put above my bed. Means something like: don't worry, just dream (free translation :P) best pizza place in Dunedin), and I had a pizza with banana on it! Also sounds weird, but tasted really good as well 😊. One lunch I had on the Octagon (centre of town) was less of a success, not because the food wasn’t good, but because I stood up to go to the bathroom when I was about half-way lunch, and the moment I stood up three huge seagulls jumped at my food and ate the rest! Ah well, the portions are big here anyway, so I had about enough already… But still I was surprised at the cheekiness of those birds! The weather here has been amazing so far, the kiwis themselves are also surprised at how good the weather is, and they say I’m lucky for coming this summer, because it is much better than normal 😊 I’m not complaining….
I also managed to lock myself out of my room already… I got up in the morning and wanted to go take a shower, so I pulled the door to my room closed behind me, then I heard a loud click and was like: hmm.. that’s strange, so I tried to open my door again, turned
out it was locked! And of course I had just closed my window the night before… great. So I went up to my housemates to ask them what to do - in my PJs I might add to make the picture more complete for you - and they told me to wait till the rental agency was open, because they have a spare key. At that moment I was not so happy with my recently started habit of waking up at 8 in the morning… I had to wait an hour to get to my stuff :S Luckily I have very sweet housemates who did not make me go there in my PJs, so Sam went and got the key for me. The funny thing was that on the same day the bathroom was locked with no-one inside (which we managed to get open with a coin) and the next evening Sayaka locked herself out of her room, so she spent the night on the couch! Stupid NZ locks, that you have to push in from the inside and then pull closed to lock, but then occasionally stay stuck in the lock-position… I assume it’s all part of the “inburgering”
here.
As most of you know, it was my 21st birthday yesterday! I celebrated it here, and it was a lot of fun! The day started off with Michelle texting me at 4 am (thanks!), after which I couldn’t really sleep anymore (so excited about my birthday haha). Then I got a lot of messages, texts, e-mails, phone calls, etc. from everyone, thanks for that (this time a sincere thanks)! Then in the late morning, while I was lying out in the sun (haha) the doorbell rung and they delivered a bunch of beautiful flowers (see picture) that my family sent me, was very cool! Then in the afternoon my housemates came into my room singing happy birthday, they had bought me a cake, a bottle of sparkling wine and a champagne glass with 21 on it, that was so sweet! We went out for dinner that night, had pasta which was very good and had a lot of fun. Later that night some friends of my housemates came over, and we ended up going out. There wasn’t much to do in town yet, since most students aren’t back yet (summer holidays), so we didn’t stay too late, but
we had fun anyway. So, all in all my birthday was very nice, even though I had already had my party in December…
Today we went to the beach, St. Clair Beach this time. I went swimming with Demi, a friend of Sayaka’s, but the others were too chicken :P The water was very very cold, but the waves were super high, so I had so much fun! I almost drowned one time when a big wave dragged me along (read: this is an exaggeration, please don’t worry parents) but it gave such an adrenaline rush! We did get called out of the water by the lifeguards two times because we went into far, which was really not that far, but apparently there were some dangerous currents that would pull you back in the sea. Anyway, I liked it very much, although St. Kilda Beach was much more beautiful, more natural.
I have a lot of fun things planned already: tomorrow I am going on the 4-hour scenic train ride to Taieri Gorge, which is supposed to be incredibly beautiful. Of course I will take many pictures, so you can see for yourself 😊. I also booked my
bus ride to Wanaka, I am going there on the 1st of February, do some sightseeing (it’s a town around a big lake), then stay in a backpacker’s hostel. The next day, 2nd of February is the Rippon festival where I’m going with a couple of girls I haven’t met yet (another girl from Maastricht University invited me to come) and I’ll stay with one of them that night. The next day I’ll do some more sightseeing and in the afternoon take the bus back to Dunedin (it’s about 4.5 hours by bus). Then the last two weeks of February my mother and brother are coming over, I booked the motel next to my house for the first two nights for them, and after that we are going to travel around the South Island. And I booked a flight to Sydney yesterday, I’m going there for 9 days in April, to visit Jimmy and see the city! So big plans, I do have to remember I am actually here to do a research internship haha! I’m starting on Monday, so I’ll tell you more about that in my next blog!
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Emma
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Heee Meis! Hehe ik heb eindelijk al je blogs gelezen en de foto's bekeken en ik kan alleen maar zeggen: wow! wat een super mooie omgeving zit je in, en de mensen om je heen zijn zo te lezen ook heel oke! Meteen birthday dinner en presents, super attent! Ik ben heel blij voor je dat je een kamer hebt gevonden trouwens, ziet er prima uit en hopelijk past alle buit van het shoppen erin, haha. Maar je gaat deze maandag al naar je werk of nog niet? Nou in elk geval veel succes, flink afbeulen die assistent daar zijn ze voor he :) Liefs!!