It's Been A While...

It's Thursday, 30 July, I have been here for 3 weeks already, and today has been a good day. It was sunny and warm today which is a nice change from the cold weather we've been having down here. I had class today and was done at 1 (which is 8 p.m. back in the midwest), since then I've been chatting with people and doing some homework. It was nice to catch up with people back home, especially since I haven't talked to some of them since I got here. There's not much planned for tonight, more homework and possibly the stoplight party at the Foundry. That should be a lot of fun. A bunch of us are probably going to go. Today, I realized how much I really can't stand my one art lecturer. She's awful. She can't get through one power point presentation that she made in 50 mins, she always runs out of time. She should time them so that she has to change topics when the slides do haha. But next week should be good cause it's the other lecturer, he's funny. He spent 5 mins yesterday saying um and pacing trying to find the right word ha!

Let's see yesterday, I went to the Tramping club meeting, which I am now apart of. They're doing a bunch of tramps this weekend, some easy ones and some more difficult ones. But I'm not going on any of those. Rachel, myself, and some of her friends are going to do a day tramp out at Sumner, which takes us into New Brighton. I'm excited because I haven't been to New Brighton yet. I also saw Rebecca and Fabian last night and that was fun. We hadn't hung out in a couple days and it's just more fun with them around. =D. I was studious and went to the library, I started reading the articles that I printed off for my essay due next Friday. It should be an interesting essay, it's going to be on the whistles of the bottle nose dolphin. I've already learned something from it, which is what I'm supposed to do right, I am in college. But each dolphin, especially wild dolphins, have a signature whistle which is distinctly different from everyone else. How cool is that!!! So I have to finish that. Also I was definitely manhandled last night. Literally. Fabian flipped me over his shoulder and threw me onto Rebecca's bed to then body flop onto me. Rebecca then decided to join and flop on top of Fabian, so I guess it was more of a Kait dogpile. Later that night Chris decided it would be a good idea to flip me over and carry me into Mary's bathroom to threaten me with a swirly but that didn't happen he put me down unharmed.

Tuesday was a good day too. So far everyday has been a good day, minus Sunday but I'll come back to that later. Tuesday I had class all day, along with a lab. I went to lab thinking I was going to dissect a pigeon (poor George =( haha), but found out I was going to be looking at amphibians and reptiles. I got to see a salamander that is completely aquatic (completely lives underwater) with some funky looking gills, two frogs that are also completely aquatic and then compare those with a terrestrial frog. It was really funny watching the aquatic frog try to jump across the floor, because their legs aren't positioned for that. It kind of just belly flopped and made a mess, haha. It was one of those you had to be there moments I guess. Tuesday nights at the Foundry (the campus bar) is quiz night so I once again went and participated. It was fun, but the questions seem to get harder and harder each week. I mean the animal category should be relatively easy right? Wrong! The questions were ones like: what is a baby eel called? what is the national bird of India? what animal does cashmere from? I mean come on how many people can answer those questions without looking them up.

Monday was kind of foggy, was still in my cold fog. I'm not completely over my cold but it's getting there. I had 2 classes and my exercise & health lab. That was interesting we did body fat composition and skinfold tests. I had to poke and prode this poor guy (I found out his name is Richard) that is my classmate. First I had to mark him with a pink marker, couldn't find a more manly color but it worked. I realized about half way through the lab that I will have to do this in my line of work after grad school, so I better get used to it. I know I've prolly said this before but I'm really enjoying my Exercise & Health class. Moday night I went over to Gem and Mary's where Gem made pasta bake. It was delicious!! Then Sarah came over, made brownies and gave me a backrub!! It was nice. Chris then came over with chocolate, gave all four of us girls a piece, and according to Gem "satisified 4 girls at once"! Hahaha that one will live on! Golden Tom (he's from Golden, CO) came over, I went home got Tom (my flatmate) and went back over to watch Slumdog Millionaire! (I heart that movie!!! =D). We then searched for a bunch of YouTube videos, and after that I came home and went to bed.

Sunday was a not so good day. I woke up with a really bad cold. I went to the computer lab to work on my lab report, came back and slept for 2 hours. I finished my lab report and started to talk to Ben, who offered to make me dinner. I definitely took him up on the offer cause I was not in the mood to cook. So he made me fish and chips in his toaster oven. We then proceeded to watch Family Guy and some other shows like that. I then watched my first episode of Curb Your Enthusiam, which was alright, it's not my favorite show but I'll watch it if it's on. All of this was fuzzy cause I was drowsy from the Nyquil I had taken and just being sick in general.

On Saturday I went to Hanmer Springs with Gem. We went and sat in the Hot Springs all day, which was amazing. It was so relaxing!!! We had lunch at Saints Cafe, where I had a really good pizza, and the good part was that I had leftovers for at least 2 more meals! Saturday night was a quiet one. Heather and Cameron had made dinner and offered me some. It was a good curry pasta dish. After dinner we watched Hot Fuzz, it was funny and I hadn't seen it before. I didn't realize that the guy that's the main cop was the guy in Shaun of the Dead. After that we watched Fight Club, which is a really good movie. "The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club, the second rule of Fight Club is you do NOT talk about Fight Club!" It reminded me of Secret Window with Johnny Depp (he's hott!).

Friday, I went to class and came back and slept for an hour. Then I went shopping to get ready for Ben Reidie's Birthday Bash we were having that night. That was a fun shopping trip! Dollar stores are the best places to get the most random and funny crap! Friday night was Thai and wine night. I made the mistake of wearing my new black stillettos to walk to the restaurant. Let's just say after we got the restaurant the shoes came off and stayed off. Dinner was fun, because Heather, Ben, and Ben ordered all their curry dishes extra extra HOT! And boy, did they get what they asked for! After dinner, we came back and partied, some drama went down but that's all behind us now. I have moved on and don't care anymore. Otherwise Friday was a good day and everyone had fun!

Quick overview of last week, let see. Last Tuesday (the 21st) was club day and that's where I joined the tramping club. I didn't get a chance to see all the clubs Uni offers because I had class. But that's ok, I think I might join the Climbing Club, which is a rock climbing club. I think I've decided to join the Rec Center here, they have a lot to offer and it's cheaper if I join. Quiz Night was tough, The Misfits only gained 29 points over 5 rounds! We really sucked last week. Fabian and Tom climbed the library on Thursday, it was really cool. The library here is 11 floors and huge. They started on the 6th floor and climbed up to the roof. It's not an easy climb there's literally nothing to grip or push off of. But they did it and were successful! Thursday I can't really remember, was pretty uneventful. I did go to the Foundry and shoot some pool. Anna and I lost two games, then Heather and I won but it wasn't exactly a real win (thanks Anita! hahaha). Anita wanted to shoot and so she did but she pocketed the 8 ball so we lost but continued the game anyways cause it was Ben's birthday. Tea Time on Thursday was fun and Rebecca turned Rachel and I onto Best of Bootie Remixes. Some are really good but some are not so good.

Plans for this weekend: Rumors of ice skating at the Art Fest on Friday Night, Southshore Walk to New Brighton on Saturday, Coraline Saturday night?, Boogie Nights/Town late Saturday Night?, Sunday TBA.

Oh and Fiji is definitely on! I think I've conviced Rebecca to go to Australia for a week over break.

Tom climbing the library last Thursday (the 24th):


Fabian Climbing the Library last Thursday (the 24th):





Random tree on campus:
Photos from the drive to Hanmer Springs:

Weekend Number 2

Friday night (the 17th) I went to Operation Friendship which was a good time. The program is for international students who are looking for a home-away-from-home experience. It is made up of families from churches in the area who are looking to help students feel more at home and give them a more authentic Kiwi experience. I was in a group with a bunch of students I knew which was nice but I did make a few other friends. The families were really nice and all of them pretty much offered us to come over and hang out with them whenever we felt like it. We had a home made Kiwi dinner which was delicious. It consisted of lemon chicken, mince pie, home made bread, regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnip, roasted pumpkin, salad, lamb, and chowder. I really enjoyed the roasted pumpkin and the lamb. Then we had hokey pokey ice cream, which has honeycomb in ice cream and a traditional New Zealand desert called Pavlova, which is basically meringue and marshmallow. All the Kiwis there made sure we knew that it was a New Zealand dessert and not a Austrailian dessert. It was pretty funny. After that we had tea and coffee, and just talked. It was a really relaxing evening. I have been invited to dinner this Friday by one of the families. After that I came home to a party and had a good night.

Saturday morning Tom, Sarah, Mary, and I went to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve for a day of New Zealand animals and Maori cultural lesson. It was a lot of fun to see the traditional Maori songs and greetings. Tom became our faithful chief that accepted the peace offering, which was a piece of greenery. Once he accepted that we were allowed into the village and greeted. Kia Ora means welcome, thank you, and many other things. Ka pai means excellent, awesome, we like what we see, all that type of thing. After that we got to explore the "zoo" area where all the animals were. I made friends with a wallaby and it licked my hand for like 2 minutes but I don't know why I didn't have anything in it. Haha. But it was cute and I really wanted to take it home with me. I also saw 3 Kiwi birds! They are nocturnal so most people don't get to see them, but they have an exhibit for the Kiwis. You have be really quiet because they startle real easy and become stressed out. They are odd looking birds that are rolly polly. One fell down and just kind of rolled down the hill they had. They had a lot of birds there, and some American animals. The pigs there were pretty ugly, they were faces only a mother could love. Haha. I was also attacked by two Kea birds. They look vicious but are just curious little birds. They tried to eat Mary's purse, and we learned that they will eat the rubber off your car! So don't park anywhere near and area with Kea birds.







Saturday night was fun cause we went to the Holy Grail sports bar to watch the All Blacks take on the Wallabies and then went club hopping so I got to see what they were like. The game was really good, the All Blacks won like they were supposed to. Rugby is a brutal sport and makes American football players look like pansies with all the padding and helmets. There isn't any of that in rugby and they guys are really rough, that actually doesn't describe the intensity of what goes on. Anyways after the game we went to Fat Eddies, then the Base, then the Concrete Club and finally ended up at Boogie Nights. They played 80's and early 90's music there. It was a lot of fun and then we were off again. 4 of the guys I was with and me ended up at Treehouse, where Chris took on the mechanical bull. He was pretty good but complained about how the rope was all wrong. It was a good time though. We headed back to Fat Eddie's where we saw two fire trucks and a place get evacuated.

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. I went shopping and got some more pairs of jeans, some workout clothes, and some necessities. After that I met up with Tom and Rachel and we went to the Art Gallery. That was an adventure. A couple of the exhibits were distrubing. One of them was a video of this guy throwing himself against a wall with a flashing green light and a strobe light in the exhibit room. I was like I could do the same thing but add a few more colored lights and then I'll become a famous artist. Once we got into the historical art section it was a lot better. Then I made dinner with Heather and Ben. It was so good that I even had it for lunch today it was crazy that there was enough for leftovers. After that we hung around the flat, watched tv and had milk and cookies. Then we went and joined the rest of the group for a night of charades, which I didn't part take in because I'm not a big fan but it was still fun to watch everyone act. There were some really hard words.



Today (the 20th) I had my first exercise and health lab, but that was no big deal they handed me a pedometer (that doesn't work now) and told me to record my steps and my food intake for two days and do a write up. Not so bad. All the other classes were class but I'm starting to really like my Principles of Animal behavior class. It's amazing how much we know about why animals do what they do and how they do it. Tomorrow (tuesday) I get to dissect a toad in my Vertebrate lab, which should be exciting but boring too. I've done a couple of frog dissections before I'm sure it'll be similar.

This coming weekend there is trip planned to go see Springfield, New Zealand. They have a beautiful place to tramp. I was also told that they have a replica of the giant doughnut from the Simpsons movie. So that will be photographed and sent out. Then on Sunday we're going to go Hanmer where there are hot mineral springs that you can sit in. I'm going to have find a bathing suit, dang. I should have brought one with me. It should be a good time.

That's all I have for now. More words to know later.

And class begins...

Monday was the kick off for classes. They aren't too bad lots and lots of biology but that's what I'm here for. I found out that I will be exercising in one of my labs in order to get hands on experience for the class and to understand everything better. So that means I have to go buy a bunch of workout clothes... ew. Haha I got my bank card on Monday also so that was good for me because I now have money, so on Tuesday I went and bought my first batch of groceries. It was very exciting because I now have my own food!!!

Tuesday was a pretty easy day, classes again but I also had a lab in Vertebrate Biology so I got to dissect a giant Barracouta. It is not the same as a Barracuda, which is found in tropical waters. The Barracouta is the New Zealand species. It was huge and ugly and scary looking, not to mention fresh - frozen so it reeked in the lab. The class size was about 20 - 24 people so just imagine the pleasant smell of 24 thawing barracoutas. Tuesday night was fun it was Quiz Night at the Foundry, which is the bar on campus. My team, the Misfits, came in fourth behind Heather's team who beat us by a half point, all because she got Meg Ryan as the actress in French Kiss. We also celebrated Cameron's birthday Tuesday night into Wednesday morning by playing a bunch of games that were very frustrating until the rules were explained to everyone. But it was a good time.

I only had one class on Wednesday so it was a pretty relaxing day. I had to get my book for my Art class. It was kind of nice cause the book is a collection of readings that the professors put together in one book along with the course outline and qualifications. So you don't have a bunch of books or papers everywhere, they're all in this book that you buy that's called the Reader. Then I had to go to orientation again. That sucked cause it was a repeat of the part I was at, but whatever. I also got my phone back on Wednesday I was super excited cause I can actually get in contact with people now. I have been told that I got the wrong company by a bunch of people but it was cheaper, so I don't care.

Yesterday I had class for most of the day, and Rebecca and I have started a new tradition of tea in between our 10 and noon classes since we have like an hour break in between. It's going to be a fun tradition to keep. After class I took a nice two hour nap that was much needed. I then put my bargain hunting skills to work and bought all my biology books for the price of one them. It's amazing how much the Universities gouge you for books and supplies. Last night we had a party, which was a good time. It started out slow but picked up and then kept moving from flat to flat. It eventually got broken up by the RA's cause people kept calling about noise level. The flat's a mess again but then again I do live with 3 guys, so I'll probably end up cleaning this weekend. One thing I did realize last night was that I keep meeting all these people that are first years and they all act way older than that. Normally, whereever I go I meet people who are older than me, but coming here it's been nothing but younger people it's completely throwing me off.

Today, Friday the 18th, I had one class this morning although it doesn't feel like I did. I went to class and then came back and slept for like 3 hours which was nice. Tonight I'm going to operation friendship. It's a program for International students to get to know Kiwi families and other students, and my friends. It should be a good time then maybe Harry Potter with Heather and some others. Tomorrow, Tom and I are going to the Williowbank Wildlife Reserve for a fun day learning about the Maroi. Then tomorrow night might be a night of clubbing, which will be a lot of fun. Not sure what's going on on Sunday yet but it might just be a relaxing day.

Tom and I are trying to get a group together to go to Wellington in September to see an All - Blacks game (Rugby). It should be a good time especially if we make a weekend out of it. Other adventures have to be deteremined still but shall be soon. I think I might join the tramping club and maybe some other club but I'm gonna need to get boots or have them sent to me.

I posted all my pictures on photobucket so you can go check those out.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e111/ramgrl07/Kia%20Ora%20New%20Zealand/

Some more words to know:

Jandals - flip flops
Togs - beach wear
Skulling - Chugging
Tramping - hiking
Gone off - expire
Jug - pitcher
Pint - glass of beer
Mug - glass of beer


Oh I posted the wrong address on my email to those who got the email. The correct one is

This one is for letters:

Kaitlin Paker
Flat H66, Room 5
Ilam Apartments
P.O. Box 6362
Christchurch 8442
New Zealand

This one is for packages:

Kaitlin Paker
Flat H66, Room 5
Ilam Apartments
Homestead Lane
Christchurch 8442
New Zealand

Don't ask me why there are two I have no idea I'm sure if you use the first one it won't be a problem.

That's all for now I'll let you know how the weekend goes.

Crazy Days

So Friday was a good day. Tom, one of my flatmates, and I went into Christchurch and pretty much just lost ourselves down there. There was a really small but cute flea market going on. They had some of the usual stuff that we have at a flea market like jewelry but their is made out of bone. Each symbol has a different meaning and I think I'm going to get one the next time I go into town. Their deals were pretty good too, it's all cheaper than buying at the souvenir shops. Tom spent something like $60 NZD (like $40 USD) there and he got a free t-shirt it was funny, his reasoning on it was now he doesn't have to go Christmas shopping. Haha.

We walked around Cathedral Square and went into the church, which was gorgeous. We even climbed the tower, which consisted of 134 stairs most of them were a very small spiral staircase that was kind of scary. But we made it to the top and the last probably 20 steps were these pretty steep stairs that should have just been a couple of ladders. The view from the top was pretty you could see all of downtown. After that we went to Victoria Square where we saw a group punting down the river (it's called a gondola in Italy). It was funny cause one guy had no problem pushing the boat down the river and then there was this other guy who couldn't control the boat at all. We felt bad figured he was probably a new guy.

After that we went in search of the art museum and botanical gardens. We went the wrong way and ended up heading back to the bus depot instead of the gardens. But that was the point of our trip to get lost and see what we find. Well we ended up at the Gardens because we asked a couple of locals which way it was and they were very helpful and pointed us in the right direction. Once we got there we saw some amazing plants. I wish my camera hadn't died because some of these trees are so strange. We actually were inside of a tree! I believe it was a Cyprus tree but, the branches grew to the ground and completely encircled the trunk so it was like a hideaway inside. No one could see you inside it; it was really cool. We then went and searched for the rock garden but didn't end up finding it, but we did find the rose garden but nothing was in bloom since it's winter here, so I'll have to go back in November when it's spring and see if it's prettier then.

When we got back we met up with Heather, Fabian, Clinton, Rebecca, Erica, John, and some others that live in our block. They're amazing people and I've already have some friends. We partied and had a sing-a-long, which was really fun cause we were asking each other questions in song and then you had to answer back in song. The group then got split up cause some of us didn't know where the others went so Heather, Callum and I ended up at a house just across the road from our flats. We met some locals there but they were high schoolers. So not very much fun. I think I got in at like 3 that night. It was a good time.

Yesterday, (Saturday), I got up at 9 and went tramping! It was the first time and it was so difficult cause everything's almost vertical or extremely steep. It was worth it though the views were epic and they looked like they were painted at some points. The higher we got the more breath taking the views became. I still can't believe that I'm here it's incredible. After we finished climbing the mountain, we walked down to Sumner beach, which was probably a good hour, hour-and - half walk from the trail. But along the way we got to see parasailers. It made me want to go, and I think a bunch of us are going to.

Our group of people started out with 6 - 8 people and by the end of the day we had 12 and were calling ourselves the Bearcat tribe. Each one of us has a nickname and I'm black bear due to the fact that I have dark hair. I was skeptical at first but everyone says that Black bears are very cute, so I guess I'll stick with it.

After we got back part of the tribe made West African soup, which was good but really spicy not something I'm a huge fan of. We then began partying again and the group was bigger at the flat but then shrank when we headed for town. Heather, Fabian, Clinton, John, Cameron, Rebecca, and I went to Treehouse were they had karaoke and a mechanical bull. I do have to say watching drunk people try to ride a mechanical bull is pretty damn hilarious. Then we went to Fat Eddie's my favorite bar thus far. I could have stayed there all night if I hadn't been so exhausted from tramping and the night before that.

Today has been pretty chill, not much going on. I went to the mall to pick up my phone but it wasn't ready, which sucks cause I have no clock and no alarm clock and no way to contact anyone. But hopefully it'll be done tomorrow like they said. I think some of us are gonna go to see Bruno tonight, but we'll see how that pans out. Classes start tomorrow and it's exciting but then it's school. I have 3 classes tomorrow and they're all biology classes but that's what a majority of my classes are. So far I have met so many geologists and engineers. Both of the Brits that I hang out with are geologist and two of my flatmates are engineers. I have yet to meet another biologist but I guess that will have to wait til tomorrow.

That's all I have for this weekend.

First couple days.

So I arrived yesterday, July 8th at like 8:30 a.m. in Christchurch. It took about half hour to get through customs and then I waited for about 15 mins for the taxi to pick me up. The plane rides were tough but I slept through the long one (12 hours), so that help but I was still exhausted. I missed half of orientation yesterday but made the second half, which was ok but I have to go to the whole thing all over again next wednesday. I met 3 out of 4 of my flatmates and we hit it off right away which was nice. I live with 3 guys and 1 girl, the guys are from India, Swizterland, and New York and the girl is from New Zealand. So I get to live with at least one Kiwi! We had a party last night and I got to meet a bunch of people from all over, which was awesome. There were some Brits, a couple from Eastern Europe and other places.

The weather here feels more like fall into winter weather than complete winter weather. It's was sunny today but it was weird cause the sun always look like it was setting. Even in the morning it looks like it's setting instead of rising. I have the sunniest room in the flat which is nice cause it'll always be warm during the day.

I have a single room to myself which is nice. I have a closet with a bunch of shelves, a desk, a bed, and two bulletin boards, which hopefully will be full of pictures soon. The flat I live in has two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room.

Today I enrolled and it went smoothly I got all my classes so I have that to look forward to on Monday. I went and got a metro card (a bus card), a sim card for a New Zealand number, but it's not activated yet. I also went shopping and sort of figured out the bus system down here. It was a productive day for the most part. I'm still super tired even though I took an hour nap. I don't know if I'll go out tonight I might just call it an early night and get a good night's sleep. Who knows. Let's see what else can I tell you. I have become a pro at blowing fuses down here. The first time was yesterday when I tired to plug in my powerstrips. Bad idea! The whole flat lost power. Oops! And then this morning I plugged my blow dryer in and blew that up too. So I had to go buy a new one.

I'm pretty much set on going to Fiji for at least a week over Spring Break, even though it's just called break. I have two weeks off and I'm debating what to do with the other week, could go to Austraila, could go visit the soon to be newlyweds in Japan, who knows. Found out that the family's coming down the later part of November. That will be fun, and I should be knowledgable by then of the Islands and where to go.

That's all I have for now.

Some words to know

chilly bin - cooler
sweet as - no way?

Here's some pictures of my room.