Week 12 at Uni

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Monday - Friday, May 24 - 28, 2010

Went to the international farewell event on Tuesday to claim my prize for the photo contest. There was free food and endless free wine, and just for going we got either a free t-shirt or jade pendant. They also had prizes for answering questions on sticky notes about the best food we’ve had here, most embarrassing moment, advice we would give other students, one thing we’ve notice about kiwis, etc. After that we went to Frank’s birthday dinner at the General Practitioner, a restaurant across from Nexus.
On Friday went to see Robin Hood with Heather and Raizel.

International Student Farewell

General Practitioner

Saturday, May 29, 2010

International student tramping trip got canceled because of rain. Met Heather and Raizel at 3 to go to the Frank Kitts art market, which is on every Saturday in a parking garage near the waterfront. There was a jewelry booth, lotion, jade carvings, cupcakes, etc. Apparently less vendors than last week, but there weren't many people there shopping either because of the rain.

Art Market

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Went to the farmers market with Nicole and Heather, then to New World. Made mashed potatoes with corn and garlic for lunch. Its raining and cold here most days, but next weekend it might clear up some. This is the last week of classes coming up. After that we have a one week study break, then the finals are all between June 11th and 30th.

Tim Tams!

Week 11 at Uni

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Monday - Friday, May 17 - 21, 2010

Weekly fire alarms: Monday at 6 pm, Tuesday 7:30 pm, and Friday at 10 pm. Friday’s was from someone using spray paint, the others were probably from cooking.
The building has still been having a lot of internet problems.
On Friday I got an email that said I won the ‘University Life’ category for the International student photo contest. The categories were Uni Life, NZ Landscapes, and Portraits. For Uni Life I submitted a photo from the Esci 111 field trip of students measuring the growth rate of Paraparaumu Beach.
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/international/competition/competition-finalists.html

Science Field Trip

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Slept in and made afghan biscuits since I had a lot of leftover corn flakes sitting around.
In the evening I met Heather and Raizel at the base of the Cable Car and we went up to Carter Observatory. Walked through the exhibits and looked through NZ’s largest refracting telescope, the 9 ¾ inch Cook refractor telescope from 1867. The planetarium show was about astronauts and Southern skies tour afterward.

Afghan Biscuits

Telescope at Carter Observatory

Sunday, May 23, 2010

I joined Laura and Matt on the trip to Red Rocks in the afternoon. We took the bus out to Island Bay and walked along the beach gathering lots of sea glass. Eventually we got to the Te Kopahua Reserve and continued on the trail along the water. Found all the red rocks at one bend and later all the seals at Devil’s Gate right before it got dark. We turned around there and got back to Nexus around 7 pm.

Island Bay

The Red Rocks

Fur Seal at Devils Gate

Week 10 at Uni

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Monday - Friday, May 10 - 14, 2010

Weekly fire alarm was at 9:30 am on Monday.
On Thursday I got up early to register for classes for next semester, my scheduled time was at 4:45 am with the time zone change.

Friday was the annual quiz night for Geology Society, there were about 100 people in 13 teams. Our team, Beiber Brigade, came in 4th. There were questions about geology, sports, general knowledge, etc. One was placing a few GeolSoc committee members in chronostratigraphic order, another was spelling Eyjafjallajokull (the volcano in Iceland). There were also a few screen shots from Google Earth where we had to guess the city.

Geology Society Quiz Night

After the quiz, Raizel and I met Heather in town to go to the Tom Wigglesworth comedy show for the NZ International Comedy Festival. We barely got the last tickets for his show. Among his stand up comedy about how he is finding NZ different from the UK, his show was about how he helped change a law on train ticket prices because of one event. Its called Lena’s law and makes it so trains can’t charge the “any train” price once you’re already on the train.
http://www.lenaslaw.co.uk/

Tom Wrigglesworth comedy show at San Fransisco Bath House

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Went to Raizel’s rugby game to take pictures since she was in the starting lineup. They played really well, but just barely lost 17 to 20 against Wainuiomata. Went bowling at 8 with Heather, Laura, Nicole, and Raizel. The internet has been in and out a lot all weekend.

Raizel's Game (she's #3)

Bowling

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Met Josni at the Westpac stadium for the Wellington Food Show. There were amazing samples of food everywhere: lots of wine, olive and avocado oils, cheese, meat, yogurt, juices, chocolate, and frozen foods.

Samples at the Food Show

Week 9 at Uni

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Monday - Friday, May 3 - 7, 2010

On Monday I worked on homework while Jesse hiked Mt. Victoria and explored Wellington, he left early Tuesday morning. The weekly fire alarm was Tuesday morning at 9 am, from someone making toast.

On Wednesday a few of the Nexus Americans were hosting a Cinco De Mayo party in the common area and made Mexican food, then everyone went out later.

Cinco de Mayo at Nexus

On Friday, Raizel came over around 6:30 and we left for the Hurricanes vs. Reds (Wellington vs. Queensland) rugby game. We got fish n’ chips for the kiwi experience, and watched the Reds score several easy points the first half. In the second half, the Hurricanes pulled way ahead and won 44-21.

Fish n Chips at the Rugby game

Hurricanes vs. Reds

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Left with Nicole and Heather just before 2 pm to go to the Toi Whakaari NZ drama school for the WIFT (Women in Film and Television) Art and Design panel. It was a small presentation and discussion about the current state of Film and TV design with Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong art department manager Chris Hennah, costume designer Lesley Burkes-Harding, set decorator Ra Vincent, and make-up artist Michal Biggar.
We planned to go to the observatory for a 7 pm Saturday night viewing, but decided it was too cloudy. Nicole had a lot of apples to get rid of so we made pie and cobbler the rest of the night.


Sunday, May 9, 2010

Slept in and went with Nicole to the waterfront farmers market. There was a fresh fish boat there we hadn’t seen before. We had planned to go to Red Rocks, but Heather was busy.

Fish boat at the farmers market

Week 8 at Uni

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Monday - Friday, April 26 - 30, 2010

Not much happened this week. On Monday there were some cops and drug dogs in the area, but no one is entirely sure rather they were chasing someone or doing a drug bust. Nicole and I were going to go to a presentation on post production in Miramar on Tuesday, but she had too much homework. After science class on Thursday, Raizel’s dorm was having a door decorating competition so we went to Warehouse Stationary and got supplies. We covered it in stickynotes, which took 30 minutes with the two of us, and put paper flowers and her name on the door.

Raizels door, covered in stickynotes

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Edited a lot of photos from break to post on my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b_mccarley/

Worked for awhile on my design model and other homework. Most people around here spent all day getting ready for the Nexus Masquerade Ball, which I didn’t go to since it cost $45 and I didn’t have anything to wear anyway. Not long after it started, a few people at a time started filtering back who had all had way too much to drink already.

Design model in progress

Jesse, an old friend of my brothers / someone I knew from high school, has been traveling around New Zealand for the past few months and stopped in Wellington for a few days.


Sunday, May 2, 2010

Heather, Nicole, Jesse, and I took the Wellington Cable Car to the top of the Botanic Gardens, and met Raizel there. We all walked around the gardens for awhile. Heather and Nicole left, and the rest of us later went to see the New Zealand film, Boy. Made pizza for dinner.

Wellington Cable Car

Playground in the Botanic Gardens

Rose Garden

Pizza

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