Going on a Mish

Not sure how one would spell that word, but it definitely takes the bad-ass out of going on a mission.

Procrastibaking

Thursday evening I was bullied into convinced that I should make oreo cheesecake brownies. Photographic evidence is not nearly as accurately delicious as actual product, but will hopefully do some justice in displaying what may be the greatest taste combination. I have also coined stolen the term 'procrastibaking' to describe this habit.

At night I had full intention of going to a jazz night, but was largely time-distracted by this show called Embarrassing Bodies. Imagine the most repulsive medical conditions possible... and then think worse. Try anal skin flap, bladder that's falling out, bearded lady, kilos of excess skin, and you'll be getting closer. Now, imagine that not only are these conditions spoken about, but actually shown. There's seemingly no censorship with television here, and while my flatmates all ate dinner, our eyes were plagued enticed tickled with sickly genitalia and whatnot. Once I managed to peel myself off the death-trap couch, halfway through a 20/20 episode describing a BDSM sex goddess [grandma who's slept with 10,000 men], I was off to karaoke night [too lazy for the hike to jazz] for some rounds of terrible singing to be viewed.

Friday night my entire flat went to our kiwi-host's home for a great home-cooked meal. As well as we've been doing in terms of well prepared meals, it was a real treat having mom-made lasagna in a clean environment, with all plates matching and no melted cheese on the table [also, no dishes to do]. It was night time so we couldn't see the farm, but in its place we saw embarrassing adorable baby pictures.

Saturday began with the farmer's market and then progressed towards rendering our newly-acquired-keyboard useful. My ability to play the piano seems to have faded some bit, but soon enough Bohemian Rhapsody will hopefully be played with a guitar accompaniment. That afternoon I went to the Green Man brewery tour which is an organic local dunedin brewery that has delicious beers. As one of the two <20 year olds, and the only female, it became a tour of mostly 30-40 year old men. I managed to slip down a ramp whilst there due to the low-traction slippers I was wearing, but it was much more funny than painful. I also met a guy that would have been my neighbor if I lived in my flat a decade earlier. He asked if I've caught any ducks yet, to which I replied with a confused face. He then imparted knowledge on to me about how he used to catch ducks and cook them for a cheap dinner.

Bottling Machine. I think we should get one for lazy drink retrieval.

Night time was riddled with party related shenanigans and I was up until dawn mostly talking my face off.


Yesterday I saw a new sight, that being off of the cliff that was once popular for suicides. As far as last view goes, I wouldn't complain. I also tried a deep fried moro bar [caramel, nougat deliciousness].

Night time meant tennis balls thrown at our window from our neighbors, to alert us that there was something worth watching in the window. A black clothed figure with an expressionless white mask and knife lurked about uncomfortably for quite some time. After disappearing shortly, and returning with a shorter stature, murder was displayed-- in the kitchen, with a knife. Lights went dim, and it wasn't until much later that we saw this cloaked creature once again, pressed against our screen door, knife in hand. We locked the door for the first time in a while for the night.

Successful Food & Failure Dunes

Travels

On Monday I finally made it out to the Peninsula. Unfortunately, the penguins didn't [often titled, 'elusive wee fuckers']. I'd like to say that the sea lions made it out as well, but it's probably more just that they were too sloth to go anywhere else. Sand dunes here are massive, and though I'm too much of a physical failure to run down them excitedly, or jump off of them for that reason [e.g. had one 'epic' eyes-closed leap onto my ass], they were pretty awesome. The day was perfect, so the water was only slightly frigid.

Dune Jump      &        The Beach

My previous mentioning of the seaweed being weird here has been confirmed, and though it's not really edible [way too chewy/hard to bite], it's a very strange rubbery, almost man-made feeling stringy object.

After the beach we went to Lovers Leap, which is a cliff that two lovers who couldn't be together went to to kill themselves. I thought the shape of the structure had many sexual undertones, which was seconded by pen graffiti on the banister.

Sheep                   &         Lover's Leap

In preparation for World War 2 there are also a bunch of old bunkers down by this area which never got used. Walked around the pitch-black creepiness of these halls was really wild, and had a crazy feel after being decorated with graffiti of the years.

Bunkers

Soon the exploration should span beyond Dunedin, as a car purchase is impending.

Food

The other day I looked in the fridge and saw that the excessive amount of kiwis I purchased weren't going to make it much longer, and traveled the internet until finding a recipe for kiwifruit cupcakes. [made with 100% pure kiwi host extract] Welp, the cupcakes didn't rise, the melted butter made the buttercream frosting lose its necessary fluffy form, and the kiwis on top slid off the frosting weirdly-- let's just say the cupcakes were way more cookies with slimy vanilla on top than anything else. Albeit the failures were plenty, they disappeared in minutes into the bellies of my flatmates and were both adorable and delicious. Major success out of failure. 

Kiwi Cupcake Cookie Dessert

Though baking has been much of a guessing game, the burgers made last night were undoubtedly the best burgers I've had. Mince, blue cheese, havarti, garlic, mustard, steak sauce, and various other pantry randomness, burger-ified with sautéed mushrooms, mesclun, avocado, and citrus yogurt sauce on a mixed grain bun… making my mouth water thinking about it.

Another food win here has been $3 lunches. Every weekday there's $3 lunch [usually indian food mixes] with various <$3 side purchase choices in the clubs and socs building. It's definitely more sustainable than delicious, but a great cheap option. Bliss balls, a dessert that they sometimes have for 50 cents are dank. Post consumption, you must wash your plate, which is way less an annoyance than it is a damn good idea.

Food loss? no vegetable shortening. at all. I mean, I didn't really know what it was, but kept seeing it in recipes. Many forums confirmed that New Zealand straight-up doesn't get this. 

School

So far school is going alright-- already found a freshman in my chem class to latch onto, now that I've been left to fend for my self in class [cough, curse you kevin, cough].

I also have to write up the first paper I've written in years. gonna be weird.

The Sea, Bananas, and Seabananas

Friday afternoon turned into another bout of exploration with two mountains [well, one is a hill] on the list. Mount Cargill and Signal Hill, and holy shit it's beautiful here. Aside from the immense slight discomfort of my pressure-sensitive ears trekking up and down roller coaster roads, weather conditions couldn't have been better. Clouds [below us, I must mention] were resting perfectly atop rolling hills. I rested less perfectly on rocks that I swear would be the last thing I stood on before dying, but that's just what it's like hiking around with me.

Mount Cargill

Mount Cargill [I turned around I guess]

Signal Hill

At night I ventured out to a Vietnamese place [new for me. apparently eating a vietnamese sandwich doesn't really count] and had delicious pho, which apparently is pronounced 'fuh.' Then, I had to see the source of all the ice cream I've been seeing and hearing about. It may be winter, and I may be lactose intolerant, but ice cream is always an option. This place, man, it was like the small was the most massive two scoops of ice-cream love I could've dreamed of. I tried hokey pokey, which is the goto kiwi flavor, but settled with chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate mudd. My insides weren't too happy.

Friday night ended with a movie as well as a chocolate chip cookie cake, which disappeared almost as quickly as my furnace oven cooked it.

Saturday means Farmers Market. Farmers Market means I spend way too much money on way too delicious things. Purchased: Brie [from a kid who seemed to love cheese more than anything in the world. He told me all about the travesty it would be to serve brie straight out of the fridge, and by god, I will try my best to never], havarti cheese, Green Man brewery beers [the stout is like a loaf of bread], ciabatta loaf [bodes well in comparison to my flatmate's purchase of some baguette with a density similar to lead], lamb chops, lamb shanks [which came with a detailed spoken recipe from the nice meat man], 4 steaks, salmon, and pear-lemon jam. My 5 kilos of apples from last week are still going strong, so I didn't need to replace them.

Saturday afternoon was kind of lazy with errands and whatnot being run. The weather was crappy. To lighten the mood, lemon shortbread thumbprint cookies were made, with a chocolate filled thumbprint. My current cooking desire though is making challah. More to come on that I reckon, because there's no god damn challah anywhere, and ciabatta french toast is weird, especially without maple syrup. <rant> how the hell do they not have maple syrup here? I don't even eat it at home very much, but its absence is making me crave pancakes and french toast and all other things maple syrup requiring like crazy. </rant>

At night I learned a new drinking game having to do with dice, but Americans taught me it so I'm probably just slow in not having known it.

Today I went out to Tunnel beach, which was crazy gorgeous, even though the tide was coming in strong [my stupidity and fear of jumping a mere meter led to soaked pants]. I have now made it unfortunately clear to my flatmate that I'm not fun to hike with, and afraid to walk. whoop.

It's called tunnel beach because there's this creepy sweet tunnel you have to walk through to get to the beach. 

That's a seabanana. [sounds cuter in a kiwi accent]

Weird little plant thing that was squirted in my face by my wanker loving kiwi host.

I carried around a bunch of them in my pocket to get him back, but failed whilst trying.

Dinner tonight involved the aforementioned salmon, and I must say, the cooking skill set has not failed to increase. twas amazing. I must though now find something else that the citrus yogurt sauce I made can be consumed with. It was too good to part with.

I finally got tickets to the All Blacks game in September vs South Africa. Gonna be messy.

New Findings:

• They pronounce aluminum the way that my dad [who my family has all collectively made fun of him for] pronounces it. Al ooo min E um. [sorry dad]
• Traffic cones are thinner here.
• Nutella is just as good.
• but I reckon at least 4 times more addicting
• Seaweed looks weird and can be used as a whip.
• Our granola translates to their Muesli, which I can now pronounce.
• The concept of microwavable burritos is absurd.
• but meat pies are totally fair.
• Nigglie means annoying
• The spelling of Niggly isn't settled
• My second kiwi host is the mother-fucking man. 
• This was not my idea, and I can not hear him snoring from my room. 

Who's a pretty boy?

Monday afternoon I decided it was time to go exploring, a la Dora the Explorer [should click, hilarious trailer]. I walked with followed my kiwi host through the gorgeous, open, twisty, far away backyard land of the Botanic Gardens. From the 'Possum' tree [Possum is this game that people play here [apparently, never seen it] where you'll sit in a tree, in this tree in fact, and drink until you fall out of it], to plants of all national origin, there's a whole lot of beautiful to see. There was a huge green house that fogged up my lens and my glasses upon entry, and a whole aviary of crazy birds, to add to the overly friendly duck population. My favorite was this one called 'Sid.' Sid's a parrot who has two phrases: "Who's a pretty boy?" & "What's up dog?" Immediately I fell in love.

This is the Possum Tree.

This is the sign next to the Possum Tree.

Holy ducks.

Sid, as he tried to run away from my videotaping.

School so far has actually turned into school [vom, or bof, as some people say here]. I've had all the labs, which means I've now had at least one of each class. Chem Lab is the future, and the past. We were using iPads instead of lab manuals, but the most prehistoric/jenky seeming spectrometers I've ever seen. Maybe I'm just stupid though, because I did the first half of the readings upside-down. We had an exit test, and I mean, it wasn't hard, but I was NOT ready to do math so fast.

Psyc lab though was fun. We took M&Ms when we walked in, that we weren't allowed to eat. We went around the room and based on the number of them you took you had to state facts. I was worried about my fatty-took-6 facts, so didn't learn anyones names or facts. Not a very good icebreaker, but had a good aftertaste. Then we watched videos of mental patients. I don't want to say they were funny.

I think I've gotten a little better about taming the oven beast, because my greek yoghurt, oatmeal, chocolate chip, cinnamon muffins of yesterday were surprisingly good, albeit they took 7 minutes to cook when they were supposed to be in for 20.

Recently I've been watching quite a bit of television, and it's really weird to see cultural differences here. For one, commercials suck. Like, really really suck. Like, there are tons of commercials I've seen in the past that I will remember, but won't remember what their for [failure], but here the commercial will end and I still won't know what it's for. OR, I'll be offended by it. Amazing. Also, the news is pretty funny, but it's mostly been blocked by the HUGE recent news of Justin Bieber arriving in Auckland [woop-de-doo?]. Soap Operas here make American soap operas look like they contain respectable actors.

Another major advertising difference I found here, not TV related which is why I digress, is the cigarettes. For one, super expensive, and for two, while ours will be like 'oh hey, by the way, these are going to kill you,' the ones here will say. "YOU'RE GOING TO GET LUNG CANCER AND LOOK LIKE THIS: [insert incredibly graphic destroyed mouth here]"

This weekend I may be going to Queenstown, if I'm not riddled with illness by then [I swear, everyone on campus is sick. Harmonies are formed daily between the coughs, sneezes, throat-clears, and sniffles in class.] Potential bungee jump?

Lastly, some more words

Wee- meaning little. It's not a new word, just the frequency to which it is said is new. '...the electron is just a wee little part...'
Cheers- thank you.
Chur- less formal thank you. I think it's lazy.
Keen- to be 'down.' everyone's always being keen on something.

The new Batman movie premiered at midnight last night [earlier than you, Amurrrica], and no, of course I didn't see it.

OTP and Hooked-on-Kiwi-Phonics

So our fancy little wine and cheese soiree [as fancy as a $7 bottle of crap wine can get] turned into a night on the town, or rather OTP. [OTP means on the piss, and that's 'going out']

Starting at a party, I learned a new game that they play here: Maggot or Faggot. So, to get 'maggot' is to get drunk, and if you say no to getting maggot with your gang two nights in a row, you're the faggot and you're not allowed to go out with them for 3 weeks.

We then made our way down towards the octagon and went into this 70's dance club called Fever. 'Twas epic and my old-school fancies were tickled indeed. Afterwards, towards a bar with a live band. Upon arriving back home, my flatmate and I decided it would be best if we blasted early jazz and danced in the lounge. If only there was a recording, because as two people who know nothing of swing dancing, I reckon we tore it up.

Today has been a day of arts and crafts as we went to the junk yard and picked up a table to bring home and use as a sign for our house. Tons of the flat complexes here have goofy names and signs, and seeing as our backyard is the botanical gardens, it'd only be right to call it the 'brotanical mansion.' Sign is in the works [not quite finished painting it yet] but pictures will come. We also snagged a bunch of old records and wall decorated.

We just watched A Serbian Film, and holy scary movie. No wonder there was such hype about it.

More words I learned:

Mean - epic/wild, in a positive way. They seem to capitalize on irony here.
Chat - banter, but used as an adjective.
Yarn - also banter, but lengthier [but chat can be lengthy too.] [noun]
Spin a yarn - tell a story

There's no arugula here. Nor A1 sauce.
Sushi is huge. Like, the roll is filled with rice. No lacking on the fish [if it's even fish. they have rolls that have chicken in them! weird.], but way too much rice.

Kiwis are really cheap here. Going to be the food of choice.

Cheese for a Lactard

Uni has been really rather fun so far, and my Maori society teacher is a particular gem. Whilst learning about various Maori creation stories she was constantly spewing bits of hilarity, like with Tane, who was the creator of the first human, a woman. The daughter they had then became Tane's second wife, and she asked him who her father was. My professor went on to say 'uhhh and that's not a conversation that anyone wants to have, so he fesses up to his beautiful wife-daughter: I'm your dad.' Tane apparently also had a name for his penis which, 'doesn't surprise me. it seems to be a regular trend,' but didn't know where to put it in his wife to create the daughter, which is why we have various orifices like our nose filled with mucus, and ears with earwax, but 'for some people that's just a good night.'

Everything has really been going quite well here, and I really love it. If the chance is ever had to study abroad, please take it.

Thursday night I made mac and cheese, though it'd be more appropriate to call it cheese and mac based on the ridiculous proportions of the two. [holla at 1108 radian last year's various mac&cheese moves].

Friday the 13th was filled with sillies in class as well, even though I only had chem. Post finishing a banana [which for some reason took me like 40 minutes to do] I thought it would be a good idea to write 'bo nah nah' on it. Let's just say after receiving a neighborly 'wtf' face from Kevin, I was dying laughing for the remainder of the class. Proper shaking-crying type of laughing.

Last night was also a comedy show put on for re orientation week. It was quite good though I definitely needed some sort of subtitles to figure out what the hell they were saying. It was weird to see that school events sell beer, but I suppose that's the nature of such a low drinking age and such fun-seeking students.

Today I went into a car with my American flatmate who was driving for his first time in NZ.

Welcome to the wrong side

 It was funny. At 5mph we were still on the wrong side of the road half the time. He was a champ though, I would've definitely been terrified. We went to a farmers market which was absolutely amazing. Got a 5kilo bag of apples for $5, a ton of amazingly good cheese, a huge roll of bread, lamb kebab, and a bacon buttie [deliciously delicious sandwich. a+ would eat again].

Bacon Buttie Wrapper:

Cheeeeeeze

Now movie time methinks.

Fancy wine and cheese night later perhaps!

"Just try not to step on my Goon" & a tablespoon of coffee

Post pancake and sugary mess, I went to chem. My teacher was talking about Dalton and a picture was on the screen, to which he said "That's Dalton, the scary little man right there." After that, I was hysterical for a few minutes because the similarity in appearance between my prof and Dalton was just too much.

Then I went to the club's fair, which was kinda random and seemed like you have to pay for everything. I joined the ski and snowboarding club and am going to try out capoeira on Saturday.

When I got home, plan make-epic-chocolate-cake-for-Liam began. A friend came over, and we got to work with the plan being a 2 layer coffee/chocolate base, followed by a raspberry jam filling, and a richer chocolate cake on top, all frosted by homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. I will post pictures later, but man it was delicious. To continue my kitchen stupidity, I'll let you in on this episodes stupid moment. Recipe assed for 1tbsp of coffee in half a cup of boiling water. We made coffee to do this, and the idea confused me, since instant coffee isn't as prevalent in the states, as per my knowledge, so I oh-so-cleverly took a spoonful of the just made coffee and put it into an additional cup of boiling water. My cake making comrade was hysterical, and was hysterical again whilst explaining this to the company.

Cake!:

When you turn 21 in New Zealand you have two options: 21 shots or a yardie. My flatmate chose the yardie, which is this massive glass that holds 7 beers. Messiest thing I've ever seen.

That night we dined deliciously again with a mince meat sauce on penne and a brussels sprout, mushroom, and apple salad. The cake was great as well.

We went to a lock-in on hyde street. Hyde street is, like most of the other streets here, a party street but it takes the cake for the most shenanigans. [ie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdIVziQva6o&feature=related ] Lock-ins, another concept new to me, are when you get locked in a room [usually about 4 are open, and all have themes] and have to drink some amount of drink before you get let out, and the party starts. I was in the white and bright room, neoned all stupid and whatnot.

Twas fun, but the real funny was when about 5 guys ran out of the house, holding a giant TV, and ran up a two story building across the street [dunno how they managed it] and then dropped it. It was inches away from a car, but apparently you have to expect stuff like that if you park on hyde street.

Soon after, a cop car rolled by and asked how the puking guy near by us was doing. They were laughing at his state, and someone responded with 'he must have a stomach bug or something!' which brought them into hysterics. They then proceeded to laugh and shrugged at the destroyed TV across the street. Cops are chill here. After, a block party, and then home!

Pancakes Take 2: The Successful Version

It's been a few days since my last post, but I'll try to grab all the important information.

On Sunday I came down to a seemingly post-apocolypictic living room, with couches moved, table flipped, and what looked like a game of 52 pick up never finished, but probably just the result of another Circle of Death. I decided to clean the fridge, finally. I went through everything in it and man, I've never interacted with so much mould in my life. Package said brie; contents were blue and fuzzy.

This turned into a major cleaning binge, and for the next few hours it stayed as clean as I got it. With this clean coming, so came my second kiwi host. Now as a full 'family,' 519e is full and thriving.

To make up for the aforementioned failure pancakes, Monday night dinner was a feast. I had been craving lamb since arriving [a building desire growing with each sighting of a sheep [which aren't scattered about the streets like squirrels, which I had imagined]], and went with lamb chops for dinner. Lamb chops, mashed potatoes, a grilled portabello mushroom + apple salad, and garlic bread, all homemade. I upped the class of the dining experience by drinking some wine out of my goon.

goon : boxed wine plastic bag. fancy.

Following dinner was going to be a BYG [bring your goon] which turned into more company and some crappy television watching. note: don't watch the show Grimm.

Tuesday was the first day of school, since I've decided against taking class on Mondays. I woke up bright and early to make my 9am Chem lab which was conveniently cancelled for this first week.
Then, I went to the wrong time of my Maori society lecture, since 12pm seems more reasonable than 4pm, and man, it was really cool. She's pretty funny and I'll write a bit amore about it as the class goes on. Chem was a slap in the face, but the lecturer seems quite clever, and Abnormal Psyc should be fun I hope!

After I went to the gym, which holy god is far away. Like, really fricken far away. Like, I shouldn't complain because I'm going to the gym and the walk to it is just like adding to the workout, but I was lost as hell when I was leaving, stuck in a dark, lonely, cold campus. I decided to sign up to take classes there since my level of self-motivation requires someone screaming at me, and took a step class as well as a martial class. Not as good as body combat at home, but it'll do. Step is funny. I'm humorously bad.

That night I was woken up from my nap on the couch by my very drunk flatmate, post red card. Red cards: I'll get into that later, when it's more relevant. We made cheese toasties. Toasties are grilled cheeses here, and they're amazing. It was the first time I every properly made a grilled cheese.

Come morning, there was much ruckus in the flat and I wasn't sure why since I had gone to bed relatively early, but apparently there was a major garbage fire outside the flat complex [fires seem really popular here in Dunedin, with couch fires a plenty as well as garbage fires. might be because it's so goddamn cold... though it's actually been really beautiful out recently. totally sweater weather]. The outside debauchery also led to a bottle getting thrown through a window of an empty room in our flat. sick. UniFlats though cleaned it up promptly the next day.

Wednesday was my kiwi host's birthday so I made him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.
Pancakes: the successful version.
We actually had the ingredients that you need for pancakes this time, and they were dank. Unfortunately, I'm an idiot and when I was disgusted with Golden Syrup I went out to buy maple syrup, which doesn't seem to exist, but saw molasses, and recognized that I knew the name, so decided that I should get that instead. Ew. That is a fowl ingredient. I looked online for a way to make pancake syrup out of molasses, and while I was boiling it, paying close attention, it [literally in an instant] exploded and got sticky sugary mass all over my stove. Smells funny now.
Thankfully, the pancakes were yum enough that syrup was unnecessary!

Weirdest Pancakes Ever

Disclaimer: the weirdness of the aforementioned pancakes has nothing to do with New Zealand differences.

We went to the supermarket and decided it would be good to make pancakes from scratch since the ingredients were worth investing in anyhow, but didn't purchase what we should've. As in, no baking powder, and no milk.

Thankfully, we had chocolate milk.
Chocolate milk, flour, sugar, bananas, salt, butter

Then, the pan that went from burns-everything to won't-cook-anything really helped increase the quality of the experience. Whilst cooking, it also became rapidly clear that the butter was never broken up or mixed in [probably because there were no dishes to prepare the batter in, so we had to resort to a cereal container] since one pancake started screaming and oozing with butter. there was the butter.

No maple syrup. some other weird replacement. goopy as all hell.

I don't suggest anyone create these.

Circle of Death

Another major difference I remembered.

Kings is called Circle of Death.

Rules:

• Ace: Ace in the face [lick a card, and stick to the forehead]
• 2: nominate two people to drink/one person to have two drinks
• 3: nominate three
• 4: thumbs [the thumb master will put his/her thumb somewhere and everyone has to follow. last person, drink]
• 5: joke. better be funny
• 6: snake eyes [if you hold this card, if you make eye contact with anyone, they drink]
• 7: ship to harbor [categories]
• 8: toilet card [can only go to toilet if you have it]
• 9: bust-a-rhyme
• 10: rule card
• J: never have i ever
• Q: question master
• K: Kings card [first is what, then where, then how, and then they do it]

This list changes about, but that was a good version. Kings ended up being a giant pan, in the middle of the road, on one knee.

Everyone's on the Wrong Side of the Road

It's been a few days since last posting, since I've been overly busy with bureaucratic garbage and trashed-getting. The night after the fourth I accidentally threw a party... as in, casually enjoying a few beers in my flat post-dinner when, very 'funny games' like, two people waltzed in. Wonderful company, for sure, but word spread and before I knew it, party. Twas great fun. The atmosphere here is really great. There's a mix of fratty-type activity, just because there's such a strong american presence right now as the Kiwis are still flocking back from their winter holiday, and great solid hanging out. 

This is my house. I don't know everyone in the complex yet, but it's sick. 

Friday morning was a train trip for all the international students, and though it was a bit boring, I got quite a few great pictures out of it. After the trip there was a dank barbecue. like, I'm drooling right now thinking about it again. It was obscenely good, though my main regret is not taking the vegetarian options as well.

 Dunedin! ain't it perty?


So, Friday night my flat decided to play scrumpy hands, which is like edward 40 hands [you tape each hand to a 40 of beer and can't take them off your hands until you finish drinking the contained liquid] except with this cider, scrumpy. Scrumpy is 1.25 liters of an 8.4% alc. drink, which means each scrumpy contains 8 standard drinks, which means it's the most dangerous game ever, but with so much hype about it, we had to do it. Whilst heading back to our flat, scrumpies in hand, out Kiwi host arrived [finally, but was immediately in for playing]. Ended up being another massive get-together of quite the motley crew [many decided to play along, and others had mixes of wines/champagnes/scrumpies taped on], and ended up being the best flatmate bonding experience ever [and by best, I mean most ridiculous [and by most ridiculous, I mean the 4 of us all puked post scrumpy completion [and by puked, I mean, I'm relatively certain I puked. I couldn't tell you for sure since my memory is slightly foggy to the event [and by slightly foggy, I mean non-existant]]]]. Irregardless, twas a fantastic evening, met by a painful morning.

Yesterday, I went to the cadbury chocolate festival, which was the saddest excuse for a chocolate festival I've ever seen, but got a few chocolates and wandered the mall. There's a jeffas race I might look into for the end of the week, where kids roll jeffas, which seem to be candy coated chocolate balls, down Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street. My Kiwi host drove me up it today, but I didn't have my camera. It's really sick.

Driving. It's so crazy to sit in a car that's on the wrong side of the road. I'm blown by the idea, but everyone gets cars here, because it's kind of necessary to get any traveling done.

Also, pedestrians don't really get the right of way here, so it's always a hilariously scary event crossing the street.


Tomorrow my classes start, but not really because I don't have any class on Mondays. woop.

This post has been very stupidly written and not thought out. I'm sorry, but not really.

I think it would be worth listing the words and differences I've been finding in New Zealand

• Everyone's on the wrong side of the road
• This even extends to escalators. I've almost embarrassed that one.
• Similarly, when walking in normal situations [ie. crossing the street] I've been looked at weirdly for bearing right, instead of left.
• Liquor is very expensive here
• People are welcoming of the extremely stupid questions I've been asking, like 'how do you mail a letter?'
• There are heaps of funny slang words
• like using the term 'heaps' to describe large quantities
• or being 'keen' is pretty popular
• which makes all these terms 'sweet as'
• sweet as what? no clue.
• sidewalks are pathways
• to hire is to rent

That's all for now. I'm sure an equally sporadic post will follow shortly when I remember all the things I've forgotten.

An American Holiday

Yesterday (or today for some of you late-in-world-spinning mortals) was July 4th. Upon noticing that I would arrive in New Zealand too early to do this holiday proper in the states, I was crushed. Luckily, my fears were not well founded.

In the morning there was an information session which was dotted by my notetaking picture drawing about all the people who were speaking. I will post a shot of my sketchbook page later, but for now I am stuck in the library since my flat is without internet [deep breaths, no stressing].

it's later:

Then, the day was a huge chicken run, racing around campus to figure out all the annoying, unclear things like 18+ cards, housing agreements, justice of the peace representatives, mentor programs, you get the gist. When all was done, I hit up the supermarket yet again.

Supermarkets. They're a really wondrous thing in other countries. I was there, wide-eyed, for way too long, looking at way too many weird things. Nuts. do you like nuts? if you like nuts, then you'd die because there are candy style [fill your bag up to however much you want] containers with nuts on nuts on nuts. Ketchup? called tomato sauce. Tomato sauce? called tomato sauce. It's scary.

NUTZ. like half of the display.

Also, LOL soda. cool

Everything's pretty fricken expensive though, so if you ever get out here, dear god bring your own facewash, mascara, and stick deoderant [I only saw one type of stick deoderant!].

Then, ready to cook up something, I returned to my flat to see my flatmates eating dinner, with much left over, hoping to share it. epic success.

Starting early the drinking began to prepare for the night with my legally purchased speights [which is suprisingly good, albeit the facts/questions under the bottle caps are annoying since they're so oceanically specific], and then was welcomed by people literally WALKING IN to my flat. A kiwi boy and a UK girl waltzed in to say hello and sat with us for a while, which ended up being great.

After, we went to a kegger, with nasty beer which we were drinking out of an empty wine bottle since we had no cups, and SO MANY people. Also, I hear they have kegs here that are filled with mixed drinks... like a vodka+mixer keg. weird. Various American songs were chanted, and everyone was thrilled, bumping to the music. Met many people, including a guy from Belgium [yay! connections] and had a great time.

Today my course approval was completed, and now off for more chicken running and dealing with paperwork.


Ta ta.

Message From the Future

'Ello!

IT'S TOMORROW HERE. [*cue crappy twilight zone rip-off music*]

First full, mostly awake day here. If I haven't said it already, it's pretty damn cold here-- magic actually, since the flats seem much colder than the actual air outside. Potential cause for this problem may have been found. Apparently, I don't know how to use space heaters. surprise surprise. When asked if it fell over, I shrugged, because who knew that they had to stand up to work well. Not I. Also, going back to the stone age tonight with my brand-spanking-new hot water bottle. Didn't know they still existed.

Store wandering started my day with getting lunch at a cute cafe in a mall which was filled with old people. A confusingly large amount of old people. I also made my way to the Op Shop [thrift stores here] and bought the ever unnecessary.

Food is kind of expensive here, and when I did my supermarket run yesterday I was more than confused. Eggs are not refrigerated. Interesting. Mayo may not be refrigerated either... or that one might just be that my flatmates think it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Tis a note-to-self for my next grocery store run.

Fish and chips are popular [some sort of left over from British reign perhaps], and as popular as they are, so is the combination of fish and chips + chinese food restaurants. Luckily due to an over purchasing of said f&cs, I was able to finish many that were otherwise going to go to waste. I haven't felt this greasy in a while.

Early afternoon I went for a campus tour, which due to the enthusiasm of the group for meeting people coupled with the  French tour guide's quiet-talking and her only being in New Zealand for a few weeks, led to me learning zero about campus. Oh well. I met a ton of the other international students.

Also I ended up spending some time speaking with the graphics professor I'll be doing my special paper with. He's epic. The whole room is epic. I'm epically pumped. Let me repeat: epic. Not quite sure what I'm going to do yet, but all in time.

I was told that I'm an emancipated woman, only needing pockets.

Anyway, I must brew but the 7th cup of tea today, to fake that this icebox of a home is any bit warmer.

People Talk a Little Funny.

Finally at my new home.

Cold as all anti-hell, my teeny space heater is chugging along depressingly to keep me warm. The bizarre thing is that it's most definitely warmer outside than it is in my flat, but nonetheless, I'm finally here!

The Flights:

JFK->LAX :

• Oldest plane I've ever been on. There was a telephone in front of my seat. Label read, out of service.
• Distant, aisle ceiling televisions with the most random assortment of crap to watch.
• Met someone who's destination was also Otago. chatted entire way.

LAX->AUK :

• Comically long plane ride.
• Gorgeous, spacious, comfy airplane.
• Chick next to me didn't mutter a word; she just slept.
• Upon waking up from my short slumber, I noticed she had climbed over me to use the bathroom. I wish more people were willing to make that risk and not wake me.
• Read 1.5 books.
• Watched Bob's Burgers [hilarious]
• Best airplane food I've ever had.
• 2 complimentary glasses of wine with my meal.

AUK->DUN :

• Had to frantically run in the airport to get my bags and recheck them. Hurt back.
• Arrived at terminal dripping sweat. Flight got delayed. 
• Realized majority of plane was Otago Amurrricans. Made Frenz
• Whilst getting off the plane, noticed snow.

Anywho, I did all the starter things, like moving in, unpacking, going to the supermarket, getting a cell phone [I have absolutely no idea what my number is] and meeting various people.

New Zealand seems pretty awesome, though I have not interacted with any Kiwi students yet, aside from one briefly on the plane.

The Departure

Greetings Humans.

Finally checked in at the airport, waiting to board the first of the three flights for this evening/day/weekend [sigh]. Arriving only about an hour before boarding became mildly stressful when I realized one bag was clocking in at 67lbs, and the other [hiking backpack] at 41lbs. Frantically, pounds were shifted to hit the 50lb mark, which they were lax about after realizing that aside from little bottles and vials, the major moves were giant platform heels that fit as easily into my hiking pack as a barbie doll would fit up someone's nose [I was going to say mine, but wasn't about to invite big-nose jokes[. 

Done, sitting at my gate, and holding the most random assortment of removed goods from my luggage, I'm waiting for the plane to board, which has been delayed momentarily due to the extreme heat outside and shotty air conditioning system of the plane.  As they put it, "It is extremely uncomfortable aboard the aircraft right now." Cool.

I was looking for a bathroom, as my final reasonably-sized bathroom until stopping at LAX, and with 'closed for cleaning' signs blocking a doorway, a woman and I briefly considered our options. She seemed uninterested in going to a family bathroom, and I exclaimed that I could pretend I'm a family, and headed towards it. Not sure if she's ever been in a family bathroom before [cue scenes of a large one-toileted room with a changing table] but she followed me into it, and after a brief moment of what-are-you-doing-here, she giggled and left.

Enough silly, I'll post again when it's relevant.