I write a lot, don't I

It's weird how when I don't blog for a couple days I have to rack my brain to remember what's happened.

Thursday I had my dance class, which was really easy but whatever, and then I had Kapa Haka that night! Already I know it is going to be my favorite class. I think. We started class with the powhiri (pronounced po-firi since "wh" is pronounced with an "f" sound.. confusing, I know), the welcoming ceremony where we were welcoming into the marae, and had a Kapa Haka performance. It was really cool. This guy came out onto the lawn in front of us doing what looked like martial arts while we walked to the marae, took our shoes off and sat down for the performance. The faces they make during Kapa Haka are excellent. They're bug-eyed and stick their tongues out - I think it was their way of intimidating the enemy or something. We pressed noses with the people in the marae, which is their greatest form of welcoming, and then went into another room for introductions and tea. There were about sixty people in the class so introductions took a while but it was actually really interesting. There are so many Kiwis in my class. For the Dance Studies major in UoA, first-years have to take Kapa Haka so there's about thirty of them, plus a lot of people who said that they have Maori in their blood but never learned much about their heritage or Kapa Haka before. We learned a song at the end of class too, which was awesome. The class really felt like a community and the TAs actually care about our well-being so it was so awesome to be in that atmosphere after feeling alone yet surrounded by people in my other classes.

Friday was a loooong day. I got up for my dance class which fortunately is getting more challenging - though some people in my class are clearly less technically trained than in my dance classes at Gustavus which is a change. After class I went to iSPACE for the international student lunch of fish n chips! My first fish n chips of New Zealand. It was delicious. :)

I took a contemporary dance class in the city late Friday afternoon so I had a couple hours to kill. I walked down Queen Street, browsing through souvenir and clothing shops. I bought a shirt and a skirt which I will maybe wear tonight or next weekend? The skirt is definitely more of a going-to-town skirt, as it's more fashionable than I would wear around. The dance class was.. interesting. It was Advanced Contemporary so I was expecting it to kill me. At first, she went through the combinations really quickly but I caught on, and then we learned a combination. It was definitely a contemporary class as I think of contemporary classes - not modern, but contemporary. I was impressed with how quickly I was able to pick up the combinations as I haven't had to pick them up that quickly in a while. The class overall was okay, but I think after taking that class I am going to keep my dance class at UoA since it wasn't fabulous and Advanced is only offered Fridays at 4:30, which is unfortaunte anyway.

I walked down Queen Street (in the rain, mind you) to The Warehouse where I finally bought some [extremely generic] laundry detergent. I was going to walk down the road more and stop at the Asian market for groceries, but that didn't end up happening since it was already 6pm and I was tired, not to mention I hadn't been back to my flat since 9:15 that morning. I also decided that spending $1.80 for the bus was well worth not having to walk a half hour uphill in the rain. Also I legitimately ran out of shirts (I need to do laundry..) so I have been wearing the same dress for the last 2 days.

Last night was fun though. I made dinner and belted out the songs being sung on American Idol (one of my flatmates was watching it), and then some people came over and we had a night of drinking wine, playing games, and just hanging out. We were going to go to town but since it was raining and we were all tired we decided we're going to go tonight instead! I'm excited already. Going to town is so much fun.

I got to skype with three of my friends this morning, which was soooo wonderful. I set my alarm since I went to bed late but it was so worth it to talk to them. :) Gustavus Spring Dance Concert opens tonight (tonight meaning in a couple hours with the time difference), which is CRAZY but I cannot wait to hear about it and see it on video when I get back.

I have to go to the grocery store today (all I do is go to the grocery store, especially before/after blogging) so I'm just waiting around for my flatmate to get ready since he was in the middle of studying when I asked him if he wanted to come with. Since I got some recipes, I'm going to go buy some obscure ingredients so I can cook something besides pasta and scrambled eggs!

Seriously though, is anyone has some easyish recipes for me I would be much obliged. Thank you to those who have given me some already! I also want a really good chili recipe, the ones on the internet intimidate me since there's so many.