I am so excited to learn this

Yesterday I did end up going to the Japanese Lantern Festival, and it was actually really cool. There were tons and tons of people there (seriously, like MN State Fair amount of people) and lanterns all over the park. I went by myself but I actually ended up running into two other girls from my program while I was there so I hung around with them for a while. I drank bubble tea and had some fried Chinese noodles. There were even fireworks at the end, which followed some hardcore Japanese band that some people were moshing to. Interesting, huh. I ended up walking back to PSV by myself at 11pm, which I didn't particularly like because a) I had to walk up this giant hill, b) it took forever since I took the street instead of going through the park, and c) I was super paranoid of something bad happening, even though I had my phone and the street was deserted of people.

Today, we had our first day of International Student Orientation. Apparently there is an average of 5,000 international students at UofA at any given time - bigger than the entire student population of Gustavus. Weird to think about. There was a powhiri where I saw traditional Maori dance, called Kapa Haka. The video is of the last dance that they did. Seriously, if you can see, check out their faces! There were tamer Kapa Haka dances as well, but I seriously enjoyed this and am looking forward to learning how to do it!



After the dance, we went inside and had tea and sandwiches and then got a ton of information about international resources and events. I got lunch and then headed off to the city treasure hunt. The city treasure hunt was not super fun because it was raining and we walked everywhere and my knees were hurting. In my group was another IES girl, a guy from Singapore, and two girls from Sweden and Denmark. I was really excited about the Danish girl (she was from Copenhagen) but she actually got on my nerves quite a bit during the treasure hunt. She wanted to walk EVERYWHERE and was a control freak. Oh well though. She was fairly nice? And so was everyone else. I ended up going to the campus bar afterwards and just hung out and met a bunch of people. I met a girl who lives in PSV from Norway and we eventually walked back to PSV for the barbeque. The BBQ was okay (free meal!) and then I hung out in a flat (with almost everyone that was at the BBQ it seems) since it was someone's birthday, and met about thirty people over the course of 4 hours.

I think one of my flatmates may have moved in? Stuff has been moved around at least. So I'm hoping that I meet this flatmate tomorrow or something. It is likely that if this person comes back later tonight and I'm still awake that I will have a panic attack. No really, I will panic and think someone is coming into the flat to steal from me or something. (Thanks Mom and Dad for making me so paranoid all the time.) My biggest complaint right now is the intense fear I have of the cicadas which have invited themselves in through the open windows. :( I know they're harmless, but they're also about 2 inches long and two of them are inhabiting the hallway outside my room right now; I think another 4 or so are up in the living room. Seriously. Intense fear of them flying into me or for some reason being able to bite me. :( :( :(

Anyway, tomorrow I think the only thing I'll be doing will be going to Quiz Night, which is from 5-7 . Hopefully I'll register in time, it should be fun. Other than that, probably going grocery shopping (the fun never ends) and if it's nice I might go to the beach. My nose and forehead are peeling from my sunburn, but overall it's not bad.

I know I've said this, but I'm definitely not missing the MN blizzard. No way. Hope you're all staying safe though!

Some pictures from this weekend

The view from my balcony

Outlooking from the marae

7:30am

The marae from the outside

Ocean! Omaha Beach

In the Pacific!
(my burn looks like a tan in this picture, but I promise it's actually a bright red sunburn)

Auckland City Skytower at night!/downtown

IES orientation, Aotearoa

So we had our IES orientation the last couple days. We drove about an hour and a half north of Auckland (beautiful, may I add) to a marae (a Maori meetinghouse), where we spent Friday and Saturday. The welcoming ceremony, called a powhiri, was really interesting - we walked slowly toward the meetinghouse while a Maori woman called to us. Then we went towards the back wall and paid respects to the ancestors of the house and sat down on a bench. It was kind of humorous because the women were instructed to sit on a bench against the while the guys sat on this couch in front of us. There were 2 guys on the couch and almost 20 women on the bench. The Maori man who was welcoming us into his marae talked to us is Maori, and then repeated himself in English, and then his wife(?) sang a song. In the Maori culture, there is always a song after a speaker. Then one of the guys in my program explained to the leader who we were. Then we sang the chorus of "American Pie". Yeah. The chorus of "American Pie". It was awkward. (We sang a song that everyone knew..) Then we pressed noses with the leaders as our official welcome. Now we were welcome to stay in the marae. It was actually really cool to have this cultural experience so unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

We unpacked and ate lunch and then we split up into two groups. I was in group tahi (one), so we went kayaking first! It was AWESOME. I'd actually never been kayaking before, and despite the fact that by the end I was sitting in a puddle from splashing so much, it wasn't too hard. We kayaked around this little inlet by the marae, played a game, and then went in. Then we learned this traditional Maori song/stick game thing, which I am apparently extremely uncoordinated at. But it was fun. The rest of the night was pretty chill. We did in-depth introductions and ate dinner. We were going to go to this cafe, but more people wanted to watch a movie instead. I feel asleep about ten minutes into the movie. It was an exhausting day!

Waking up to natural sunlight was so cool. It was about 7am and since all of us were sleeping in the same room in the marae, most of us got up around the same time I think. Group tahi made flax flowers and fish (not very successfully though) and then we switched and I went snorkeling in the ocean!! It was so cool. I saw some pretty fish and dove down closer to the bottom and held a sea urchin. It was absolutely fantastic. Really, this is what I was doing for orientation?! YEAH.

We said our farewells at the marae and eventually headed to the beach. We didn't stay very long, though, which is good because I got pretty sunburned when we were kayaking the day before. My feet, thighs, and face are all pretty red. Clearly liberally applying sunscreen is not an option for this Minnesotan girl. However, I love what saltwater does to my hair - it gets wavy!

We got back to our housing a little around 5. The other two IES students who live in Parnell with me (and one of their flatmates) got food on our way over to a different apartment. Unfortunately, none of my flatmates have moved in yet, so it's a little lonely. They should be moving in within the next week, though. Maybe this means that I have at least one Kiwi flatmate? I don't know. Anyway, we got Japanese food (it was pretty good), and I bought my first drink! It was hot sake, but I didn't like it very much. We hung out at the apartments and then left to go dancing, which was fun. Downtown Auckland is a hopping place at night! People everywhere, and the skytower was lit up, which was really pretty. When I was in the bathroom I was talking to someone and this Kiwi girl told me, "whoa, you have such a strong accent!" I found that funny since I obviously don't think I have an accent at all, nevermind a strong one. It was a fun night.

Right now I'm sitting in my room, going through paperwork and looking up classes. I'm signed up for a sociology of Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand..), a dance technique class, an Italian women's literature class (taught in English), and a Maori dance class. We'll see how this goes. I'm going to need to go find the buildings my classes are in at some point this week. I also really need a cell phone still, and I need to go grocery shopping. I have no food in my flat right now. It's gorgeous outside but since I'm still burned I think I'll wait until a little bit later to go outside so I can avoid the sun's intense rays. Even though I'm wearing sunscreen. Also, there's a Chinese Lantern Festival downtown later in the day, so I'll probably go to that. I heard there's going to be fireworks tonight as well?

New Zealand is so beautiful, though. Seriously. I've taken about 200 pictures so far but the pictures don't do it justice. Everywhere is so green, the ocean is so blue, it has been sunny every day since I've gotten here, the people are so nice, and I love the ocean air. This country, what I've seen of it so far, is breathtaking. It's very hilly here (it's a workout to walk from my flat to downtown) but it's amazing. I am having such a wonderful time so far and I am so excited for everything coming up. IES orientation is basically done, but tomorrow begins International Student Orientation through the university, which is so awesome because then I will meet more international students! I want to join a club (possibly the tramping club)(tramping = hiking) and I think I'll get more information on all of that this week. I'm not homesick or anything which is most excellent. I feel really good being by myself here and I know already this is going to be one of the best choices I have made.

I will throw it out there that I am sitting in my room with my balcony door and window wide open with the sun shining in, in a tank top and shorts, and am warm. WARM. I do not miss Minnesota weather :) Love you all!


ps: For anyone who wants to send me letters or anything, and no pressure whatsoever to do so I just know a couple people already told me they were going to, here is my address:

Rachel Johnson
Unit 13
8 Claybrook Broad
Parnell
Auckland 1052
New Zealand

Day one: check

So, this is going to be short because my computer doesn't have much battery and I'm stupid and didn't think to check that my plus converter would only do two-pronged plugs and not three so I have no idea what I'm going to do when my laptop dies!

The flights over were pretty good - the one from Dallas to LAX was the least pleasant, but it was also crowded and loud and a little smelly. My flight from LAX to Auckland was HEAVENLY, though. I had a window seat and no one was sitting next to me, which means I had tons of space to stretch out when I was actually (for once) able to sleep on the plane! We were served dinner and breakfast, which were pretty decent for airline food. Flying over New Zealand before we landed was amazing. I had my face pressed up against the window and kept ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Probably looked like such a tourist. I took a ton of pictures, too.

I found other people in my program pretty quick after getting off my flight after soon after we were shipped off to our living arrangements. My flat is a five-bedroom flat, but only one person has moved in so far and I haven't met him/her. I felt super gross after being in the airport/flying for 26 so I took a shower - would have been nice to have a towel.. no worries, I bought one tonight. I hung around my flat for a while until it was time for the IES students (which is three, including myself) to leave for orientation. We took this super long walk through the Auckland Domain and I was very warm by the time we got to where we were supposed to be. And the cars here drive on the left side of the road, which totally throws me off when it comes to crossing the street.

Orientation itself wasn't too interesting, but they have to go over formalities and introduce themselves and whatnot, so whatever. After the introductions, they split the group up into two to give us a brief tour of the university. Some of the academic buildings are in houses - so strange, but very endearing. After the tour, the group went to a cafe and ate dinner. It was amazing, and I ate a lot. No seriously, it was about 11pm MN time, and I hadn't eaten in 10 hours. I was hungry!

After the dinner, the other two students and I decided to walk back, this time without a tour guide and on a different route, but we decided to walk through the park and got totally lost. At one point we were in the "forest walk", and eventually ended up by some abandoned train cars. It took about an hour to get back, I think, but it was really fun. And adventure number one is complete.

Right now I'm sitting in my room, really wondering when whoever else who has moved in already will get here. This flat has three stories, with two bedrooms on the 1st and 3rd floor and one on the 2nd floor next to the bathroom. (I'm on the 2nd floor - which also means that I have a balcony.) The living room and kitchen are in between the 2nd and 3rd story, and it's a really cute building. My room is kind of small, but I don't mind because it is just me and how often am I going to be spending in here anyway?

Tomorrow we're getting picked up at 8:15am to begin orientation - tomorrow we're going to a marae and go kayaking! Then we'll be eating dinner and I believe we're staying at the marae, which also means I need to pack for that. It's about 10pm on the 17th here (despite what my Central time-thinking computer says) so I need to pack and get ready for bed soon, as my morning will be starting early. Oh, and my body thinks it's 3am still. Well, maybe not that extreme. Maybe more like 2am.

Well this wasn't short. I hope you all weren't expecting it to be :)

Tacky tourism video

8. Days.

In 8 days I will be going to the airport, saying my final goodbyes to my parents, and getting on a flight to Dallas. Which then goes to LA. Which then (finally) goes to Auckland. I will be on a plane/in the airport for about 24 hours. Clearly, I need to bring a few books and make sure my iPod is fully charged. But still, 8. days.

I think it's good that I'm having a couple weeks to just hang out and get everything together. I've been spending time with my friends and family, getting everything in order (just said that), and (in the next few days) actually starting to pack. I should also probably clean my bedroom, because it still is a mess from moving back home. There have only been a few days where there was a walking path from the side of my bed to the door.. Anyway. These couple weeks have been going between being super busy and completely boring/uneventful, and I am so ready to have new experiences every day and actually remember what it's like to wear less than three layers of clothing and let my hair air dry (because it won't freeze in New Zealand, so no need, right?) I have been getting so much email from IES lately that everyday I get something new that reminds me of what is coming soon - today was the exciting task of printing out my HTH heath insurance card. Let the party begin.

I had such an immensely fabulous J-term, though, and so I am really sad about leaving. In the study abroad handbooks they tell you that coming back from studying abroad is really hard, as friendships will change, not just me. I know it's going to be really hard to see pictures of my friends up on facebook while I'm abroad or hear about endless hours at tech week and be bummed that I won't be there to join in. I know I'm going to get really homesick, but that's what skype was made for. And maybe [super expensive] air mail? I'm preparing myself for homesickness, but hope it won't hit me for at least a few weeks. With all of my amazing orientation activities and the thrill of being all on my own in someplace new, I'm sure it won't happen right away. How could it?

But anyway, I am so, so, SO excited for this adventure. Today my mom and I went out and got me a raincoat, a lightweight fleece jacket, a few swimsuits, some hiking socks (yeah!), and put some waterproof hiking boots on hold (legitimately don't think I've owned hiking boots since my pink and purple ones I had when I was 4). All of which are items I would not normally purchase, at least in February. I have a long list of other things I need to get - actually buying the hiking boots for one, getting a Let's Go! New Zealand book, a plug transformer and converter, travel size toiletries for the first couple days, and the list goes on. I also need some closed toed semi-nice shoes for going out, as my foot shape has changed since my surgery and the ones I have don't fit anymore, as well as some good walking shoes. Yeah, I'm going to become an outdoorsy person once again. I'm pretty pumped about that.

Eight. Freaking. Days.

Finally got my housing

This is where I will be living in New Zealand.

It wasn't my first choice, but it looks cute and hopefully I will be with other IES students and not just post-grad New Zealand students. One can hope!