I sat next to these two girls from the University of Denver who were also studying abroad, but in Auckland. We chatted some throughout the night, between TV shows and movies. One really cool thing is that the Air New Zealand 747-400 we flew on was equipped with personal entertainment centers, 8-inch screens in the back of the seat in front of us, controlled with the remote/phone attached. So I watched an episode of Arrested Development, CSI Miami, and some movies. They brought us out dinner (mmm airline food...) and to my suprise, they had an open bar aboard the airplane. Yes, thats right, free alcoholic drinks. So the two girls and I had a glass of wine with dinner. I watched another movie before I fell asleep. They also had a section that showed stats about the flight, like where we were on a google earth-like thing, groundspeed, current time, ETA, outside temp (it got as cold as like -50 C at 37,000 ft). I woke up at what to me i guess was about 7 am, but in NZ time thats about 2 AM. So I had still several hours before we were to land in Auckland at 5:15 AM local time. Had breakfast, I started watching Letters from Iwo Jima, but I only got like halfway through before we started to descend and they turned the entertainment system off.
We were late getting into Auckland, and I was worried cause I thought that to catch my flight to Christchuch in less than an hour, I had to go through the terminal, get my bags, go through customs, get to the domestic terminal, go through security and then get on the plane, but they had a nice setup where the flight to Christchurch left from the International terminal. For some reason, we had to go through security again, although we just got off the plane...oh well. Had a nice short hop to Christchurch, got to see some awesome views of the mountains in the southern island as we flew over.
Day 1 - Sunday
Landed in Christchurch, met some of the IES students waiting for the taxi. The first day, we couldn't go to our university housing yet, so we stayed in a motel right across the street from the engineering dept. Of course, the first task of the day was to get some FOOD!! It was only about 10 AM, but most of us hadn't eaten since breakfast on the plane at 3 AM local time. Our IES coordinator, Eunice, took three of us guys to the grocery store. The whole time we were driving there I couldn't help but think, as we made turns "Ahhh!! there's someone in our lane coming right at us!!" I'm getting a little better about getting used to driving on the left side, but it was definitely weird the first day. Then after we ate, everyone who had showed up so far went on a little touring walk of the university campus.
I was surprised to see how close together it was compared to what I initially thought. The entire academic campus is probably covering an area approximately the same as the 5Cs, but most of the academic buildings are 5+ stories, so a lot more can fit. I was worried initially, before I came, that my flat would be kinda far from class, but its actually like a 5-10 minute walk to anywhere on campus. Granted, its nowhere as close as everything was at Mudd, but closer than I expected. So we walked around a little bit around campus, and then went up the road toward the supermarket we got food at earlier to find lunch. We found a small place that had an interesting combination of asian food, fish and chips, and burgers, and had lunch.
Random NZ observations: a lot of houses have a 6-7 ft "privacy fence" around it. Ketchup is known as tomato sauce. Eggs in the supermarket are not in a refrigerated section. Identical products, from the same manufacturer, can have different names: Rice Krispies -> Rice Bubbles. No stop signs, just traffic lights and "Give way". Really cold!! First couple nights there was frost on car windows. British words and spelling: elevator -> lift, center -> centre, z ("zee") -> "zed".
We hung out for a little bit back at the motel before dinner that night, and then hung out some more that night. I was surprised that with 18 people total in the IES group, I got to know the majority of them that night, and had their names down cold the next day. One weird thing I noticed was that since it was in the middle of winter, and we're so far south, the sun never comes up more than about 45 deg above the horizon, so all day, it seemed to me like it was about 5 pm from what I was used to. Because of the flight, the time change, and the being in a new place, that first day was one of the longest days I can remember.
Day 2 - Monday
Woke up and got all our stuff together. We took most of the stuff except for what we needed for orientation to our flats, and then got back on the bus. For the IES orientation, we went up to the foothills of the southern alps. It took a couple hours to get there, and we stopped for lunch in the city where we'd spend the night, Springfield. That afternoon, we went up into the mountains, and hiked around for about 2 hrs at Castle Hill, which was a series of hills with a collection of enormous boulders all along the hillside. But because it had been snowy and in general very wet, the hillside was pretty muddy and difficult to climb. Once I got to the top however, I got some amazing views and pictures of the mountains and the valley below us. Once back in the bus, we continued on a little bit to this place where the final battle scene of Narnia was filmed. We couldn't go down there, but we got to see the entrance to a cave/tunnel that traveled all the way through the bedrock that was the parking lot (or car park) to the area.
We then headed back down the mountain, back to Springfield and the hostel where we'd spend the night. Had a good dinner there, and then went down the street to hang out at the pub for a while. They had a nice fire going, which felt great. We were there for a while, but they wanted us back at the hostel by 11 (where they also had a nice fire going. See a pattern? It was way cold). We stayed up for a while and hung out. It was actually one of the girls' birthdays the next day, so we sang happy birthday at midnight. I went to bed not much later.
Day 3 - Tuesday
We had breakfast at the hostel before heading out that morning on a pair of 4WD tour buses (aptly nicknamed The Popemobile by our bus driver/4X4 driver/tour guide Jeff). Jeff was quite a character. He was always making us laugh with his little comments about everything. Like when we were getting on the "Popemobile" for that mornings tour, two people were going to get in the cab with him, a guy and a girl. When the guy got in first to sit in the middle, he objected, saying that the outer person was going to have to be able to jump out and open farm fences, and he said he didn't trust the blond girl to do it right, when we all knew it was just because he wanted to sit next to the cute girl.
We went out on the 4X4s through a farm in Springfield. I was surprised to see that one part of the farm, at least, the section that held all the sheep included a very large section of mountainy hillside that the sheep could roam through. We learned a little bit about how the sheep were taken care of, like that only the female sheep born on the farm were kept for breeding purposes. Males were grown to a certain age and then shipped off for meat. To prevent inbreeding, the farm gets its breeding males from a breeding company. The males are let into the female pen for 6 weeks during the winter for breeding. Then, when the baby sheep are born, they're separated and taken to have their tails removed with a hot iron. If they're not removed, they gather dirt and poop and flies, which hurt the sheep and damage its meat and wool. After going through the farm, we went to a farm house of a working (example) farm on the bank of the Waimakariri river. We got to go on a jetboat ride on the river, which was a lot of fun, but so cold!! I was wearing jeans, tshirt, sweatshirt, heavy jacket, splash jacket, life jacket, gloves, and beanie, but my face got so cold on the ride it felt numb as i got off. After the jetboat ride we had a great barbecue lunch, complete with birthday cake for both Maggie, whose birthday was that day, and Mark, whose birthday was Thursday.
After lunch, we went outside to see some of the animals at the farm, and then got to see Tess the sheepdog do her thing. There are two types of sheepdogs, those that go out behind the sheep and bring them to the farmer, and those that drive the sheep toward where the farmer wants. The 2nd one gets it done by barking at the sheep to scare them along, but whats cool about the first is that it gets the sheep to move just by staring them down. The whole time we were there, Tess didn't make a sound, her eyes would just stare at each of the sheep, intimidating them. Then came the really fun part, we went inside to see how they sheared a sheep. Normally, they use what's basically a large pair of hair clippers, driven by a large, mounted motor. After he took most of the wool off with the clippers, he brought out the shears, so each of us got to try cutting off some of the wool with the shears. I have the sample of wool I cut, along with a sample of very soft Merino wool. After this we got back on the bus to head back to Christchurch
That night, to celebrate the birthdays, we took out first visit into town to a Mexican restaurant (Mexican in New Zealand?? I was suspicious too) We had about 25 people total (flatmates joined), so it was a good thing it was Tuesday night, there was enough room for all of us. The food turned out to be pretty good for being so far from Mexico, but where I was really disappointed were the drinks. The food was already expensive enough, but me and 2 other people got a pitcher (3 servings ish) of margaritas for $20. The pitcher was smaller than the pitcher that we got water in. There was enough for 3 tiny, tiny cups. Rather disappointing.
Riding the buses was pretty exciting though. I now have the reputation of knowing where we are and where to go and what bus to take. More than once I've kept us from taking the right bus in the wrong direction out of the main bus exchange in the city centre. The buses are organized so that 90% of them go radially in and out of the city centre, and one, the Orbiter, goes in a continuous loop a couple miles out of downtown. You can get just about everywhere by either riding into the city center and then transferring, or taking the orbiter around if its on the same side of the city so you don't backtrack. Its sort of expensive (i think at least, but I haven't rode the buses anywhere else) at $2.50 a ride, with one transfer within 2 hrs. But you can also get a metrocard so that its $1.90 a ride, free transfers within 2 hrs, and the max you pay a day is $3.80.
Day 4 - Wednesday
There was a University international student orientation for a couple hrs wed morning, which was sorta boring, because it covered a lot of stuff like tips on renting a flat or a house, when everybody already had university housing. OOO and they gave us a couple of very interesting and somewhat disturbing facts about Christchurch: 1) There is a type of spider here, the white tail spider, whose bite is painful but nonfatal. Doesn't sound too bad, right? "Nonfatal" means though, it wont kill you, but it will start eating away at your flesh so that you'll need to get the entire area surrounding the bite excised. Fun! and 2) Christchurch has the nickname "wart valley" due to the absurdly high rate of STDs. Maybe this is exaggerated, but they said 1 in 3 people have had an STD. But they gave us free muffins, so I was happy.
Then I went and ate lunch with several of the girls in the IES group at a place on campus. After lunch, there was a short library tour. The library is pretty massive, at 11 stories, but the top 5 stories have a pretty small footprint, and don't hold many books. I'm pretty sure the Honnold-Mudd library in Claremont is bigger. And you know what is lame? There are fees here for internet use based on usage. Its like 4c per Mb of data transfer. And they charge for printing and stuff, but thats a little more normal. I miss the internet at mudd... ah, the T3 (or is it T1? either way, superfast ethernet), unlimited internet usage, free printing, and all the free stuff you want on the network....
Later that night we had dinner at Maggie's flat. The girls made stir fry vegetables, I ate it. I have to say, its quite a good system. I had been kind of worried about having to make all my own food, cause I know I cant either cook or make up my mind on what to have. So I've gotten to be good friends with a bunch of the girls from IES. They like to have dinner together, and they invite me along, so I get a great meal and good company. Of course I always help them however they need. I always tell them, I can't cook very well, but tell me exactly what to do and I can do that very well.
Day 5 - Thursday
Thursday was enrolment day. Theoretically it should have been nice and simple, since I already selected all my classes and everything in pre-enrolment online. There was one minor hitch, though. We needed to get each class approved by the department. Some of the approvements were already done, but I still had one class, Fluid Mechanics, that had to be approved. I figured it would be a simple task to go over to the mechanical engineering dept, find the guy, and get him to sign off. It would have been pretty simple, had the guy actually been there. I went back to my flat to get some lunch (pb&j!), and then after that I headed back out to see if the guy had gotten back to his office. No such luck. I asked someone in reception where he was, and apparently he was on holiday that day, and this other guy was supposed to sign things off in his place. Only second guy wasn't in his office either. So I couldn't finish enrolment on Thursday. That night Doug had all the IES people over in his flat, along with some other people we knew, for dinner. He made this great breaded chicken, plus baked potatoes and salad. Funny thing was, there weren't nearly enough plates and forks, so we resorted to using whatever we could. I found myself a small frying pan and a spoon. It worked!
Day 6 - Friday
I got up and went back over to the Mech Eng dept to see if either of the two profs were back yet to sign off on my enrolment. Neither were there. I went back down to the main engineering office and asked the receptionist there for help. She took my form back, and in about 10 minutes, it was all set! I didn't even have to go back to enrolment to print out a revised sheet. It turned out that that entire department was on some sort of retreat during this time. What a time to not be in the office!!! In the middle of registration!! So then I was all set with enroling, and i went and got my canterbury card. All set for school!! Scary, it starts monday....
Class Schedule:
Roman Mythologies M Tu Th 2-3
New Zealand History: Since 1940 M W 4-5
Heat and Mass Transfer W F 11-12
Fluid Mechanics M 11-12 Tu 9-10 Th 11-12 F 11-12
Apparently there's a conflict on friday with Heat and mass transfer and Fluid mech....although the syllabus lists a different time for the fluid mech on friday...I guess I'll see later this week.
So later on that afternoon I met up with a bunch of the girls who had had lunch in the city. We saw Harry Potter!! I have to admit, my primary reason for going to see it was because I thought it got out earlier down here than at home, and I was really looking forward to bragging about it to my sister, who is one of those crazed Potter fans. Turns out she saw it a day or 2 ago...oh well, it was still fun. The theater was really interesting too... there was so much room!! At theaters back home, theres not much room between your seat and the one in front, just enough for your legs. At the theater here, i slouched down as much as i could (like, only my upper back still on the seat) and my feet still didnt reach the seat in front of me. It gave me plenty of room to slide off my seat as i groaned in frustration at the Bratz movie. Don't ANYONE ever go see that movie. Its like a really, really bad variation of Mean Girls. At least Mean Girls was pretty decent. We stopped at the supermarket on the way back and got some food for dinner. Tonight's dinner was pasta...... I at first ate it cause I was being polite, but then.....you know.....it wasnt too bad...hmm
Day 7 - Saturday
Saturday I just hung out most of the day, nothing all too exciting, that is until....
RUGBY MATCH!!!! ALL BLACKS VS SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!!
With the Rugby world cup coming up soon in France, it was pretty likely that the match this saturday was going to be one of the only ones the All Blacks would play in NZ while we were here. We got tickets the night we got back to school from the orientation trip. Such a great NZ cultural experience, we couldn't afford not to go. Rugby is to New Zealand as...well... I'm having trouble making an apt comparison. Maybe South American countries and soccer. Rugby, and more specifically, the NZ national team, the All Blacks, are embedded in the spirit and character of New Zealand. Its kind of like how baseball is that "great American pasttime". Kiwis just love rugby and the All Blacks. There are stores downtown (that I'll totally be going to) that have all All Blacks gear.
Rugby is pretty similar to American football, exept without all those stupid rules, silly breaks between each play, and pansy helmet and pads. The gameplay is nonstop, except for when the ball goes out of play, there is a penalty, or points are scored. It is set up similar to football in that you must carry the ball across a rectangular playing field to cross the endline on the opposite side. You can run the ball up, throw it to a teammate to the side or in back of you (no forward throws), or kick the ball forward. As you run the ball up the field, if you get tackled, there is basically a dogpile of players as each team tries to get the ball out and back to their players, and then they continue to move the ball up the field. Unlike football, however, there are no "downs" or anything silly like that, the play just continues. There are two ways to score. You can either kick it through the uprights (3 pts), or run it pass the endline (5 pts, and have a chance to kick for extra 2 pts). It can get vicious, and I'm really suprised no one got injured at all the entire match (although it looked like one guy pulled a muscle or something minor). If you ever get a chance to watch rugby on fox sports world or something, definitely watch a little of it. I think its one of the most thrilling sports ive ever watched. Baseball is just boring, nothing more. Basketball is too repetitive, back and forth across the court. Football is ok, just so many damn stops in the play. Soccer is a lot of fun to play, but watching it (especially the professionals who are so good, that ironically there is very little of the fun one-on-one action) is kind of boring. Who couldnt love watching rugby? two dozen of the beefiest guys youve seen beating the crap out of one another? But undoubtedly, being in Jade Stadium in Christchurch definitely added to the experience of watching rugby. I've never seen so much spirit in an entire stadium before. The people just love it. And I have to say, I loved it as well. If you ever get the chance to watch a rugby match in New Zealand, do whatever you have to do to get there. I think that's going to be one of the best experiences I'll have here.
Damn it Glennis, why didn't you go to France this semester. The Rugby World Cup is going on all september and october all throughout France. Final Match 20/10/07 in St Denis
And I don't really know if the Wave is a common occurence at rugby matches in New Zealand, but we totally got a couple Waves going that made it all the way around the stadium. That felt pretty amazing as well.
After the match, some people were going to go into the city and hang out at some bars, but i was getting pretty tired, so me and a couple other people went back. I went over and watched an episode of The Office with Erin, and fell asleep right in the middle of it.
So thats been just my first week here, and its been the busiest, most fun ive had in a long time. Where else can you study, go to a farm, ride a jetboat, shear a sheep, fall in mud, visit downtown, see the All Blacks play, all in one week?
Of course, feel free to contact me anytime
Room phone +64 3 341 1500 X52049
Mailing address:
Flat 9 Room 4
Ilam Village
PO Box 6362
Christchurch
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