Hot Springs, Roommates, Climbing and Kiwis

Even though this is a mandatory assignment and I have a completely free schedule, I still have managed to put off writing a new post! Probably not a good sign in some ways, but the fact that I'm not writing them all the day before they're due in July actually makes me feel a lot better. Because that is something I would do. Aw who am I kidding, I still have five months to mess this up!

But that's beside the point. The point is that I've actually had a pretty busy week and I just haven't had a large chunk of time to record it all. Well, in a way.

The best thing to happen this week are all the new arrivals to campus. Tons of people have come starting on Monday and it's like freshman year all over again. Everyone is really keen on meeting as many people as possible. The only downside is that you feel like you have a ton of friends the first couple of weeks, but in reality you probably won't talk to 80% of them ever again. Believe me, this is the third time I've done this, haha.

Ok, so now onto the events of this week.

Tuesday was actually pretty uneventful. I went grocery shopping, again, and that's about it. I went to a store that's a little bit farther away called Pak 'n' Save. It's totally worth it as it's really cheap AND on Tuesdays they have all of their specials. I had no idea about this when I went in, and I wish I had. Don't get me wrong, the specials are great, but it's a mad house in there. It's literally like trying to drive in Boston. No joke. People have no problem cutting you off or running into you with their cart or stopping without warning. And it's packed. Next time I go on a Tuesday I'm waking up early and getting there when it opens to (hopefully) avoid the rush.

On Wednesday we went into Lyttleton. It's a port town about twenty minutes from Christchurch. As they say, "Christchurch is actually a suburb of Lyttleton, not the other way around as they'd have you to believe!" In other words, Lyttleton was founded first, but due to its hard to inhabit area the mountains were soon crossed and Christchurch and other cities were built. Blah blah blah boring stuff aside, I thought that Lyttleton was one of the most beautiful towns I've ever been to. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I hope to be back for the Summer Street Fair next week.

Looking back over the past week or so, I realize I really did have a lot of time on my hands, haha. Because on Thursday I just wandered around campus again. This time I checked out all the buildings my classes are in so that I won't be late on the first day.

I'm such a nerd.

These are some shots of campus. Pretty right?

I ate lunch on campus at an Indian shop called Spice Traders. It was delicious. You really can't go wrong with Indian food. My friend Mervin (whose from Malaysia but is Indian) hates that I go out to eat Indian food so much. He keeps saying, "Kelly! I'll cook Indian food for you! Why, WHY?? do you eat out???" So one day soon a bunch of us are going to get the ingredients and Mervin is going to teach us how to make real Indian food. Not just curry and cauliflower either. The real thing! Mmmmm I can't wait.

Since people were starting to arrive on campus, I had decided to spend some time by myself (aka without Paul and Katie) to see if I couldn't branch out a bit. It didn't work so well. Haha. However I knew that if I didn't I was going to snap soon. My mom calls it a White thing. I don't know. Sometimes I just need a different scene.

Friday we went up north to Hamner Springs. Basically they are natural hot springs, marketed. That is to say we had to pay to get in, there were tons of tourists (even three other people from Utah!) and all the pool structures were fake. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to sit in a hot tub on a rainy day, but I don't think I'll do that again. I can take a hot bath at home...for free. Haha. However we drove with a Mexican kid named Diego and we got to see a lot of the countryside. Again, think Lord of the Rings. Oh, and most of these were taken out of a van window, so don't mind the random raindrops.
Diego, Katie and Paul demonstrating the coldness. New Zealand is known for having four seasons in a day.

OH! And I learned some funny things while we were on our adventure:
-Pickup trucks are called Utes here. That really surprised me because it's such a localized term back home.
-Deer are not native to New Zealand, so they farm them. Ahahaha that one I actually laughed out loud about.

There was a BBQ on the lawn that evening and I finally met a TON of people. Mostly Americans, but other nationalities too.

Later that night we all went to a funk/jazz/blues bar called Fat Eddie's in town. We got there around 10:30, thinking, oh we'll get a drink before the band starts at 11, get a good seat, etc etc. Little did we know that even though the band started at 11, people don't actually start going out until about 12:30 or 1. Which is ridiculous in my personal opinion. So the bar was full of old(er) people until about that time and that's when our friends and other people our age started showing up. We ended up staying until about 3. Which is perfectly normal. In fact, bars don't close until the last person leaves. Most won't let you in after 3, but they don't kick you out either. I'm not too sure I'm ok with this staying out all night business. I was pretty beat the next day.

I went to the farmer's market again on Saturday and bought a lot of fresh produce and homemade hummus and pesto.
This picture is actually from last week, but you get the idea.

I kept trying to take a nap on Saturday but people kept coming by my door to hang out. Believe me, I'm not complaining though. The best knock on my door was my new flatmate, Brandy. I was so happy to finally have someone to chill with. So far, we get along really well, she's a climber and vegetarian so we're able to split groceries which is SO NICE. Groceries are expensive, and I've been eating out a lot.

I didn't go out on Saturday because of the night before, but I did watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with my friend Brad. I promised not to tell, but I figured he won't find out if I just post it on the internet, haha.

I really didn't do much on Sunday either. Gosh, I didn't really realize that I could have done this ages ago. I just keep getting distracted. For example, I started writing this particular entry on Monday night, and it's Wednesday evening, and I'm still writing. Hopefully I'll finish during this sitting.

International Student Orientation was on Monday. It was so boring. I guess New Zealand law requires them to do it though. We sat in a lecture hall from 9am until 1pm. However, we did get free lunch. After orientation a bunch of us went to a climbing gym in town called The Roxx. It is way cool and super cheap. All of the walls are carved out of wood so it really emulates the real thing. Other climbing walls are usually flat and hard to use for climbing (the wall part, the holds are perfectly fine). We climbed for about 5 hours and then went into town for dinner. It was the best climbing I've done in a while. On top of that, I met a lot of really neat people at the gym and we've already started to plan climbing trips around the country. Even though summer is ending here, apparently the best climbing is in the winter. It doesn't snow much, it's not crowded and you don't get hot!

I went to the beach with a whole heap of people on Tuesday and got worked by the sun. I keep forgetting there's less ozone here.
YIKES! I just read on the beach the entire time, the ocean got cold after about fifteen minutes, so all there was to due was lay out. Darn. Haha.

Brandy and I had a party in our flat that night, which was really cool. And by party I mean about 10 or 12 people were over having a good time. We hula-hooped:
And today (finally! I'm on today! I think I'll finish now!) was enrolment (yes with one l) in person. I was really scared because everyone who went yesterday said it takes hours upon hours. Even when I was standing in line to first go in the building around noon, my friend came out and told me she had been there since 8:15! Luckily I was given a fast track card and everything checked out. It was pretty ridiculous though. It was an entire maze set up throughout the building with barriers and everything shuffling you from one station to the next. And you wouldn't be allowed into the next area without a stamp from the last one. I had to prove I had a visa, show I was approved for all of my classes, submit an emergency contact form, submit an address form, prove I was on a program, get everything previous entered into a computer, prove I went to orientation, get insurance, get a list of my fees, and then pay my fees. All in all I think it went as smoothly as it could have for me: 45 minutes. I kept holding my breath though, waiting to be stopped, to be sent to a different line, or told to start over. It was like being in a war zone. Of the ten people I walked in with (they only allow ten to go in at a time), I was the first to walk out. Different people were getting picked off along the way.

When I got back to my flat, the rest of my flatmates had arrived. Laura, Grady and Darryl. They're all from New Zealand, in their first year (aka 18 years old) and not that interested in hanging out. We'll see though. Maybe they're just scared of me and Brandy. As long as they don't make a mess they're fine by me.

Well, that's all I'm willing to write for now. It's 8:30 pm here and I think we're going to go check out the campus bar, The Foundry.

I love and miss everyone back home, but I can't say I'm jealous of your weather!!! Mwah!