It’s been a little bit
longer since my last post than usual, but I have been pretty busy lately. I don’t think last week was too
exciting. Tuesday, after class, I hung
out with Werner for a while at my flat and then went to get ice cream with my
mentor! That night I watched the
original Footloose with Rachel and her flatmates. Most of you know that this is one of my
favorite movies, but usually when I show it to people they think it’s a little
weird. But, Rachel loved it, which of
course made me super happy! We also
booked a flight that night for after exams!
Wednesday was a
typical day. I had one class because my
tutorial and my other lecture were canceled for the day! I then had $3 lunch at clubs and societies on
campus. That night I watched the second
Lord of the Rings with scenes filmed at the locations we visited last
week! It was cool to see the lake and
where the buildings were in real life and compare it to the film.
Thursday I skyped
Kelsey!!! Yay! It was so great to see
her and catch up. I also had my last God
and Ethics lecture because my professor canceled class for the last week. I think I have had more classes canceled here
in the past two weeks than I ever had at UNC!
But I am a little sad that class is over because it was super
interesting, the professor was amazing, and I learned so much! That evening we went over to Anna’s flat and
hung out for a while and then went to town.
Friday was was a pretty lazy day because we went
to bed super late the night before. In the afternoon, I visited a Maori marae through an organizied afternoon trip for international students . It is a communal and sacred meeting place for the Maori. Once there we had to be invited onto the land, take off our shoes before we entered, and introduce ourselves by touching noses. The women sat in the back, behind the males. Guests also must designate one male Maori speaker (somebody who is in the language class now spoke for us) who introduces the group and then sings a song that pertains to our culture. After this introduction, they provided afternoon tea and explained the history of their ancestors and the marae. It was very interesting and a great cultural experiemce!
Saturday we went to
the Farmer’s Market, like we do any Saturday we are in town. I love it so much and I think I am going to
have to find some people to go to the one in Carrboro with when I get
back! After the market, it was a little
rainy and very windy outside so we went to the gym and then just shopped around
on George Street for a while. That
night, Erin, Rachel, and I made lamb stew.
We figured we should actually try some lamb since it is the main
industry in New Zealand, so we found a super easy recipe for stew. The last time I had lamb was probably about
ten years ago and I remember not liking it, but I absolutely loved it this
time. It was an Irish stew with lamb,
potatoes, carrots, and beer (terrible picture below). When I
first arrived here, I was nervous about cooking for myself and other people,
but I have actually really come to like cooking and experimenting! And everybody seems to like what I cook J The
stew that night was very filling and afterwards I had some friends over to hang
out. We were being so goofy and I
laughed so hard. And eventually we went
to town for a little while!
Sunday we woke up to a
bright blue sky and decided to take advantage of it. So we ran over to Wynton’s to borrow his
(American) football and then caught a bus headed to St. Clair Beach. I was wearing jeans, but it was so nice and
warm! We took a nice walk along the
beach, breathed in the warm air, buried our toes in the sand, and laughed and
shared stories. We found a nice warm
sand dune to lounge around on and then we passed around the football for a
while. It was a perfect day J After
the sun began to set and the temperature started dropping, we walked back to
the beachfront shops, sipped on a cup of coffee, and then grabbed the bus back
to the university. Once we got back,
Erin and I returned a jacket that some random guy had given her on the street
the night before. She looked cold
apparently, so he insisted she take his jacket to town. Afterwards, we went over to Wynton’s to
return his football and hang out for a while.
And he even gave us some of the shrimp he had made. 
Monday, I mailed in my
absentee ballot, which was super exciting.
It’s my first time voting in a presidential election!
This week, we also
celebrated LWOC! At UNC, the last day of
classes (LDOC) is always a crazy day filled with silliness and hanging out with
friends before everybody buckles down before exams. So we decided it would be a great idea to
have LWOC (last week of classes) and make the whole week a big
celebration. We also know that once
people start exams and begin to travel/go home, we will never be together like
we have been over the semester, so we wanted as much fun packed into one week
that we could get! Monday night I went
to Indian Spice for a BYO with Rachel, Erin, Scott, Katie, Anna, Emma, and
Nicole. The curry was great, but the
friendship and laughter was even better.
After dinner, we went to The Bog for trivia night and met up with
Marvin, Wynton, and Chris there too.
This had been something we had wanted to do all semester, but it just
never happened, so we finally made ourselves go! Our team name: Quiz in my pants. And we did not lose! But we may have come in second to last. In our defense, however, a lot of the
questions were related to random NZ facts that we would have had no way of
knowing! I mean, they were asking us to
identify NZ chocolate bars and all of their Olympic athlete flag bearers. But we made up some pretty funny answers for
the questions we didn’t know. And I
think the team that came in last was a group of internationals, so at least we
have learned more than them in our time here!
That night, Wynton and Erin came back to my flat and we hung out for a
while.
Tuesday, I had my last
Urban Geography class. It was kind of
boring because we just went over exam preparation, but helpful too. After class, I had coffee with Werner at the Otago Museum. Our coffee dates are always so great! That night I made chicken pie and potatoes
for my flat and then we went to The Bog again for Open Mic Night. This time it was only Marvin, Erin, Anna, and
Liz.
And finally
yesterday. I did not have any classes,
because, like I said, professors really like to cancel classes during the last
week. They say they do it to give us
more time to study for exams, which is a really ironic concept to me
anyway. I am used to having five exams
within a week, with more than one in a day even. It’s a week where I don’t leave the library,
live off of coffee, stay up to unheard of hours, and am not ashamed of wearing
sweatpants every day. Well, here it’s
the exact opposite. The exam period
lasts a whole month. Meaning I have only
three finals in a month. What in the
world? I don’t even know what to do with
myself. My first final is not even until
Oct 24! Kiwis seem to be stressing over
them (more understandable since I am just on pass/fail credit), but luckily I
am still relaxed! I won’t even be in
Dunedin for the next seven days! I won’t
tell you what I am doing now, but it should be a very unique and exciting
experience! Anyway, so yesterday I went
to the final mentor get-together, where we were fed pizza and honored all of
the mentors. Mine has been so great! After dinner, we went over to Anna’s flat and
hung out and then we all came back to my flat and hung out with Sophie, Bob,
and some of their friends. We also went
to the last Pint Night of the semester at the campus bar called Refuel and then
met up with Wynton and Marvin at The Cook for a little silly dancing!
And this morning, we
walked up the George Street for brunch because Erin and I had a 2 for 1
coupon. Yay for saving money! And now I am just about to head to my last
class at Otago. I am not sure I am
entirely okay with that! Okay, enough
nostalgic moments. Hope everybody in Boone
is not having too much trouble with the water!
Miss everybody J Cheers!
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