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Published: February 23rd 2007
Leaving NY
beautiful sunrise when we were waiting in SyracuseMy trip over went really well, minus a few cranky bus drivers at LAX. It started out with an amazing sunrise in Syracuse and all in all it was over 24 hours of straight travel, but it’s well worth it. I met a woman in Chicago that somewhat knew Barack Obama and she saw me reading his book so that sparked good conversation. She had nothing but great things to say about him. I sat next to a nice kiwi man on the LA to Auckland flight who was from Christchurch so we got talking about the country. They are very humble about their reputation as such a beautiful country and friendly people. The flight from LA to Auckland was 12 hours but it didn’t feel like it. They serve pretty decent food and the entertainment systems for each passenger have heaps of stuff to watch and listen to. On the flight from Auckland to Christchurch I sat next to a girl that is from Auckland but goes to uni (what they call college) here at Canterbury. She was really great as well and we talked for most of the hour and a half flight to the south island. Meeting them
made me feel much more comfortable with arriving here. That’s definitely been the largest difference from the US, people are just so nice. Not that I find the US to be especially unfriendly, but it’s much more widespread here for sure. One other major difference is the airport security. It was wonderful to come into a country that could be more concerned with if your hiking boots would contaminate their ecosystem than someone blowing up a national landmark. I even got to keep my shoes on at the airport. Very niiiice. (I tried to watch Borat on the flight over but was laughing so hard I was worried I would wake up the people sitting near me)
I met a few guys that are also going through Brockport when we arrived in Christchurch. One goes to Geneseo as well and the other goes to Buffalo State. I got picked up at the airport by a very friendly driver that has a sign that said Ms Waterman and I felt like I was in a movie. That fantasy was promptly ruined when he poked fun at my when I attempted to get in the wrong side of the car. I’m really
not used to the whole driving on the other side of the road thing. Not only is it driving, but it’s what way you look before you cross, and even what side of the sidewalk people walk on. It’s something that you wouldn’t think about until it’s been changed. Anyway, we unpacked for a while then took a walk down to Woolworths to do some grocery shopping. That was my first experience that really caused it to sink in that I wasn’t in the states anymore. Any brands I knew from home were about twice as much money as the kiwi brands. The store is only about an 8 minute walk from my flat and there are lots of other shops around there so it’s very convenient. We later took the metro (the public bus) to New Brighton Beach which is just outside the city. It was beautiful but later in the afternoon, so it was quite windy and the clouds had begun to roll in. Still, it was absolutely gorgeous. Not only was the water a deep and striking shade of aqua, but there are what they call hills here (they are the size of the medium sized “mountains”
in the Adirondacks)…anyway the hills come right to the edge of the Pacific and there are huge cliffs where the two meet. There is also a long pier that you can walk out onto into the sea. You can rent surfboards here and take lessons, but it was far too cold by the time we got there. After the beach we caught the bus back to Ilam (the name of the flats that I live in) and went to this program called “Speed Meeting”. It was supposed to be like speed dating, but just meeting people instead of awkwardly attempting to cram an entire date into a three minute conversation. By this time I was ready to go to bed even though it was only 8pm. I tried my best to be friendly and make sense when I spoke to people but I was so tired I felt like I was at the end of a drunken night. I came home immediately after and slept the most soundly I have in a long time. This morning I went back to the shopping center by myself in search of an international calling card and a hairdryer. 50% of my mission was
Sumner
the houses were all really cool and the beach was great accomplished and I phoned mom and dad. I walked around and met a few more new people and took another walk to the shopping center for something to do. The weather here is perfect. It’s in the mid to high 60’s during the day. It’s right at that point where you can wear shorts or a skirt, but jeans would be fine too. Clear blue sky and LOTS of sun. In fact I am a little red from walking so much, but yes mom I have been wearing sunscreen. I guess the reason the sun is so bad here is that the ozone layer is very thin. This is usually not a problem because the US and other larger countries are so polluted that it blocks some of the sunlight coming through. New Zealand is so unpolluted that it allows the sun to come through in full force and they consequently have some of the highest occurrences of skin cancer in the world. Bad choice for a fair skinned ginger kid like me. Oh well!
My flat is really nice; my room is actually larger than my one in Geneseo. The only downside is that there is a lot of
Sumner
stairs down to the beach...hills in the background construction directly outside my window. But I do like to listen to the workers talk because of the accents. I have 4 flat mates. Leah is the RA and is originally from the Buffalo area, believe or not. She’s doing her masters in film here at Canterbury. The other three are German guys, Christian, Bjorn, and Dennis. I haven’t really gotten to know them too well; so far they mostly keep to themselves, but they seem like nice guys. I have met a lot of people though, mostly from the US, but a few from Germany and a fair number of kiwis. It’s striking what a small world it is. Yesterday, I met one girl that grew up in Hamilton and now goes to U of R and another girl that goes to St. Lawrence and actually lived right next door to Timmy their freshman year.
Last night we went to a bar that is in the UCSA (the student union) on campus called The Foundry. Yes, I bought and consumed alcohol on a uni campus. And yes, it was weird. But the bar is great! It’s so different from the skeezy college bars in the US. No brown funk
climbing the cave!
I'm white but I don't even care. on the floor, enough room to walk around and actually hold conversations with people, painted walls instead of sorority scrawl, pool tables, and a large outdoor balcony. And even though they are BIG drinkers here people know how to control themselves so there wasn’t anyone that was too out of control. They played great music, everything from Zeppelin to the Dandy Warhols and even some 80’s stuff thrown in. The beer here is really good too. I have yet to venture into the white wines though…sorry Laceface.
This morning I had to get up early and attend the international student orientation session because I missed the one on the day we arrived here. That was really boring as those things usually are, but afterwards Chris and I were able to find the International Student Support Center which has free internet access for international students. There was a line, but that’s when I sent out the email that went out. After that we wandered through campus and went back to the UCSA. There were tons of people all over campus because people are enrolling and getting their Canterbury Cards (like the SUNY ID’s). The campus is just gorgeous. There are plants
and trees all over and the library is enormous with a really neat pond/river thing that runs under the steps.
It’s still very odd that I am actually here. I kept saying to myself, “I can’t believe I’m leaving” and now it’s, “I can’t believe I’m here”. I still wake up and kind of expect to see my room at home and am a little startled when I realize where I am. It doesn’t take much to entertain me here, I am content just sitting outside enjoying the sun talking to new people. Drinking their water right from the tap is a wonderful experience because it’s better than bottled water, they claim it’s the best in the world. Even just walking in the residential neighborhood is wonderful. The houses are adorable, very small but are painstakingly well kept and most of them have cute fences all around them. Christchurch is called the Garden City and you can really see why, the gardens in people’s yards are beautiful.
Wednesday afternoon I went into the city with some of the people I’ve been hanging out with. We shopped around for a bit, I got an alarm clock finally. We made it into the square and the market was really cool, lots of very nice jewelry and artwork for really cheap. We went into the cathedral and it was very beautiful inside. It was built by the English settlers that decided they were going to make it a proper place by building a church, a uni, and a boys school. Sorry girls, we weren’t good enough for the English empire. It’s really classified as an Episcopalian church, but it used by many denominations. There was a catholic ash Wednesday service going on tonight. There was a really nice older man who was a volunteer guide there and we spoke to him for a bit and he told us all about the church and then we got talking about studying in NZ. Very nice man. We walked around a bit more then caught the bus back towards the campus but stopped by Hell Pizza which was delicious. It’s all hellish and dungeony and all the pizzas have names like “Gluttony”, “Purgatory” and “Lust” (which they actually serve with a free condom). It was real greasy, but it’s not just plain pizza, it’s a bit of a step up. I got the “Limbo” which was a vegetarian option with blue vein cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Good stuff. On the way there I got to talking with a kiwi woman on the bus, she didn’t look too much older than us. We talked about plane ticket pries and got onto studying in NZ and spoke about the difference in American and foreign perspectives on 9/11. She said her aunt had lived in the states for 25 years and had just moved back to NZ when it happened and she was in a prime place to get both views and that the US was very centered on ourselves and what it meant for us, while the rest of the world was more concerned about the things that it would later lead to. In retrospect, they were obviously right to worry about the future and what it would hold. I got some pretty good pics in the square today, I’m starting to but together an album of my favorites already. Not that I’ve taken too many, but might as well start early right?
Thursday I enrolled for classes in the morning. We left to go to Sumner at noon and we spent the afternoon there. It’s a wonderful little beach town, kind of New England meets southern California. The houses were all awesome and built right on the cliffs by the sea. The water was even more striking than at New Brighton, I went in but it was colddd. There was a really awesome cave on the beach and you could walk inside of it as well as climb it on the outside. It was so amazing and the pictures I took are a terrible depiction of how amazing it was to be climbing around these giants rocks on a beach. We also stopped at many cute shops and ate a late lunch at a nice café. I had a spinach and tomato quiche and it was so good. The food here is GREAT. So much healthier and the portions are much more conducive to not being fat. All in all it was great day, I even got some color (if pink is color). Thursday night there was a toga party at the campus bar and it was so much fun. They had a live band that covered all sorts of music including Billy Joel, which made me happy. It was pretty crazy and very hard to believe it was all sponsored by the uni.
It’s Friday afternoon here, but it’s Greys time back in the states. I’ve written this whole thing intermittently over the past week so apologies if it doesn’t make sense in terms of time at certain places. I finally got my internet set up this afternoon (I called an 800 number and actually got help from a live person that knew how to re-route my connection). So I hope I can get entries in at least once a week. Hopefully they won’t be quite as long as this one! Cheers, mel.
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Mom
non-member comment
Good to see and hear details
HI Mel, not sure how the blog thing works but wanted to say I enjoyed reading about your trip and seeing the pictures. Watched Greys tonight, Meredith didn't die but her mother did...is Grey's on TV there? Enjoy love and miss you.....