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Published: July 22nd 2008
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the Clocktower building
at the center of campus So, classes have started by now. I’m taking Marine Biology, Victorian Literature, “The Anglo-Saxons: An Interdisciplinary Approach,” and a history course. They also offer mini courses through our Clubs and Societies organization, and they are awesome. They have everything from bone carving to conversational Spanish to Polynesian dance. Anyway, I’m taking “Delectable Deserts” and “Beginners Squash,” both of which should be loads of fun.
All of my flatmates have arrived by now. There are four in all: Gretchen (my kiwi host), Rob from Montana, and Thomas/Tom from South Carolina (oh the accent). Rob’s basically never there because his girlfriend came through the same program, and he’s allllways at her flat. The girlfriend is cool, though: her name is Emily and she cooked for us once. Thomas is OBSESSED with fly fishing (his favorite movie is “A River Runs Through It”), and he, Gretchen, and I have had some amusing discussions of the differences between Kiwi and American culture.
Cooking has definitely been an experiment here. I made cookies the first week I got here, and I used an American recipe - except it didn’t click in my head that everything here is in Celsius, so I set the oven
the Quad
all of the original buildings (otago was the first university in new zealand)..i have a few classes here to 275 degrees (because the recipe called for 375) and nearly burned the chocolate chip ones. Other later cookie endeavors have been significantly more successful. I’ve also learned not to leave any baked goods I want to save in plain view because Thomas eats everything (it’s pretty amusing). A few of us decided to make a pavlova, a traditional kiwi desert made from egg whites and sugar with fruit on top, last Friday though, and it actually turned out okay. I’ve got the basics down though, like soup, pasta, oatmeal (porridge here), etc. And I found the ice cream section of the grocery store, and have now become obsessed with hokey pokey ice cream (mmm sooo good).
A few of us climbed Mt. Cargill, the big hill/mountain above Dunedin, last weekend, and it turned out to be a bit more strenuous than we anticipated (it was labeled easy/moderate in the guidebook, so perhaps kiwis are just in better shape than us international students). The view from the top was definitely worth it though. You could see all along the coast and all the way inland to the Southern Alps. On the way there (it took forever to get to
Uni Rugby Club Field
it was actually not freezing out for once and we played frisbee...and i actually wasn't the worst one yay the trailhead), we passed Baldwin Street the steepest street in the world. It was pretty nuts, and I was glad I didn’t live in a flat up there. During the chocolate festival, they roll huge jaffa balls (orange candy with chocolate in the center) down the hill…crazy.
Dunedin was flooded with people last weekend, due to the rugby game. The All Blacks, the national team, was in town to play the South African national squad (ranked no. 1 in the world to the dismay of many Kiwis - the All Blacks are ranked no. 2) in an off season test match. Tickets were sold out before we even got to NZ, so a bunch of us watched the game at a local place. I hate to say it, but rugby is a lot more interesting to watch than American “gridiron” (as they call it here) because it’s so fast paced. After watching for a bit, you can kind of get a hang of the rules. If all else fails there are normally big groups of kiwis watching, and you can take cues from their boisterous cheering (“Smash him!! Smash him!!” was quite popular at the venue where we watched
Dunedin Train Station
This is where they have the farmers market every saturday. Also, random fact: its the second most photographed building in the southern hemisphere (the sydney opera house is the first). the game). Unfortunately, the All Blacks lost (28-30) which was a huge let-down given the hype surrounding them here and the fact that they have NEVER lost a match in Dunedin.
Another thing I discovered last weekend was the Dunedin farmers market, which has amazing breakfast. They have booths set up with crepes, waffles, and hot dogs (yeah weird I know) for really cheap, and everything tastes sooooo good. They also have really good fruit, which is nice because a lot of fruit is really expensive here (ex. Cherries are 21 NZD a kilo here…ridiculous I know).
This past week we toured the Cadbury Factory, which was not quite what it was hyped up to be. Apparently, it used to be really cool, but now they have all of these health regulations and stuff (they make you wear a goofy hair net and you’re not allowed to take your camera in?!). But, they do have a chocolate waterfall, which was kind of cool, and they have lots of discounted chocolate at the end (I couldn’t resist).
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