New Zealand Study Abroad: Classes Begin

Monday, March 1, 2010

First day of school, but I have Mondays off. Went up to campus with Josni, then headed over to the Hunter building to get my Victoria school ID. Stood in one line for a half hour to confirm enrollment and paid fees, then back to another line for another half hour to get the actual ID card. Got online for a little while and ran into Heather while I was there. Campus exploded today with thousands of students, but it is amazing how often all the AustraLearn students are still running into each other. Went back to Nexus to get some dinner and rearrange my room.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

First class! The Pacific Heritage at 9 am. Went out with Josni to hunt for a printer afterwards. On the way to the second store we were stopped by someone making chalk political polls on the ground who wanted our votes for each question. A News One guy with a great Sony camera was filming us, we’re not sure what ever happened to the footage. Continued up to the Warehouse Stationary. Spiral notebooks here are very hard to find and each one is between $5 and $15. They use other colored folded note books here labeled “B5” and other specific workbook numbers. The pens are also very expensive. Went to National Cinema class at 3 pm, Collin and Tessa are also film majors in that class. We’re starting the course with Korean Cinema, and watched “The Host,” Korea’s highest grossing movie of all time, and ¼ of the population has seen it.

News One guy with the awesome camera

No spiral notebooks?!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Went around the block a few times before I found the Te Aro campus, which consists of just one building for the school of Architecture and Design. Had to find the professors room and wait awhile for him after lecture, since I wasn’t sure why he kept referring to class yesterday and Friday when it was only a 1 hour class Wednesday mornings on my timetable. He was really nice and said I needed a studio time for Tuesday and Fridays, which added another 4 hours to my schedule. Went to Earth Sciences class and met up with Raizel there. The class has 350 people so it’s a little hard to find each other. Watched “Sopyonje” in Film class.

Flatmates dressing up for a party

Thursday, March 4, 2010

When I got up a few people were searching for their drunk friend that disappeared. We searched the building for him and Te Puni said he wasn’t there but would call the police to look for him. Shortly after that they found him in someone’s room. Went to uni to drop the Pacific Heritage class and buy books. Now I’m only taking 3 classes, which is still 18 hours of being in class a week, and back home 5 classes with 15 credit hours was 12 - 13 hours of being in class per week. On the way back from class there was a passed out drunk guy at the first landing of Hell’s Stairs behind Nexus, with a small crowd around him. I saw an ambulance pull up under my window and a few people go up the stairs. A while later another ambulance and a police car showed up. 7 people piled into my room to look out the window when they finally came back with him in handcuffs and put him in the ambulance, he was yelling quite a bit. Finally, we got internet. Very slow internet. For two hours. Then it was gone. Went to get ice cream with a few people, and when we got back 10 minutes later everyone was out front and there were 3 fire trucks on the street. Another kitchen set off the fire alarm. Everyone stayed up late to play Scrabble and other board games.

Everyone watching out my window

Internet!

Fire truck

Friday, March 5, 2010

Slept in until 9 then went to Design Studio. Met someone in there also from Nexus, and walked back with her to get lunch. Went to the Warehouse with Raizel for more hangers and a few other things after class. Had budget noodles for dinner, and a Mr. Whippy ice cream truck stopped outside of Nexus for free ice cream (tasted like cheap whipped cream) while a christen group talked to us. We went out later to see Avatar in 3D, but it was sold out (even though it has been out 2.5 months), so we saw Alice in Wonderland (which wasn’t 3D, but has only been out 1 day).

View of the city from Raizel's room

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Got internet in the building again, but it wouldn’t work on my comp. Called Eric on Skype using Josni’s computer and her webcam to work on mine. Gave up after 4 hours, and the net died again shortly after anyway. We should have it up again sometime next week. Heather came over and the three of us went to walk around the waterfront. Stopped at Subway, then to Heather’s place for a bit. Played Scrabble and Cluedo back at Nexus. Cluedo is just a confusing version of clue, but it has cooler weapons like the poison, trophy, axe, and dumbbell.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Left just after 10 with Josni, Heather, and Nicole to go to the farmer’s market. We went to the smaller one up Willis, then to the larger (and slightly cheaper) one by the waterfront, and a stop at New World. For dinner we made pizza with a base from the bread stand at the farmers market, garlic and onion pasta sauce, feta, cheddar, a packaged cheese blend, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, and onion.

Heather and Nicole at the smaller farmers market