Christchurch, New Zealand

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for a week already!! I had a pretty lazy weekend. Just hung out around campus and tried to get things organized. Our fourth flatmate finally showed up. He’s from New Zealand and was vacationing in Australia over the break. Yesterday we had a welcome night for Ilam Village. They went over a bunch of rules and stuff and then we got to mingle for a little while and got a traditional Maori dinner. Yeah free food! And it was good!! lo! I spent most of the day yesterday trying to figure out where all my classes were, since I do not have class on Mondays! Today, I actually started class. I had all three of my classes to day starting at 10:00. Which isn’t bad. My first class is Philosophy of Art. Which seems like it should be interesting. I liked the philosophy course I took at DU so hopefully this will be good. Then I had Maori Art. Which is an art history class. Seems pretty cool, but I’m afraid it is going to be a lot of work. I’ve heard art history classes are hard, but we’ll see. My final class was Maori and Indigenous Language Revitalization. Sounds boring, but it’s actually kind of interesting. I’m not actually enrolled in this one yet, but hopefully I will get approved for it. Today was also clubs day. I signed up for the ski club and I am going to go to the tramping (hiking) club meeting tomorrow. I think that’s it for now. I only have my Philosophy class tomorrow since we don’t have our Art history tutorial during the first week. Woohoo!

So I have been here for 5 days so far and not much has happened. Just been hanging out and exploring the campus mostly. Thursday we registered for classes, which went pretty smoothly all though the process was a bit tedious. We had to walk all over campus to a bunch of different stations, it was like we were on a scavenger hunt or something. Right now I am signed up to take Philosophy of Art, Maori Art, and Pacific People and Culture. Though I am trying to drop the Pacific Cultures Class for a class about Maori language, solely for the reason that I want to have Mondays and Fridays off, instead of Mondays and Thursdays. Hooray for 5 day weekends!!

Tonight I had dinner with my flatmate Angie and some of her friends. My fourth flatmate has still failed to show up. I’m beginning to think he doesn’t really exist. I have been trying to meet as many people as possible. I have already met two people from DU that I didn’t know by total coincidence! I don’t have class on Monday so class for me starts on Tuesday! I don’t really have plans for the weekend, but hopefully I will end up doing something fun since I have so much free time. I guess that can be both a good and bad thing. I will be putting pictures up as soon as I finish this entry, so you can all see where I’ll be living for the next 5 months (http://flickr.com/britskee03). ‘Til next time….

I have been here 3 days so far and things have been going pretty well. I have been meeting a ton of new people which is great. Interestingly enough, about 70% of the study abroad students this semester are American, but I have met a couple people form other countries too. I am living in a flat with 3 other people. So far, two of them are American, a girl from Florida, and a guy from Atlanta. The fourth one appears to be a guy based on the stuff left around the flat, but he has failed to show up yet. The flat we live in is brand new, just built this year! So it is really nice! There are two bathrooms for four people!!! Which I find to be a much better than the 6 girls to one bathroom ratio we had last year! Unfortunately, unlike the older flats, we do not have laundry machines, so we have to use the ones in the building next door.

We had orientation today, which was basically 4 hours of people yapping about academic stuff, campus safety, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember. Afterwards we got a tour of Christchurch, we basically consisted of us being bused down to the City Centre and going on a scavenger hunt for an hour. That’s okay though, because yesterday I went down to get my metrocard (transportation pass) with a group of international students who have been here for a semester already and they showed us around town. The city is very cool though. Very Old English style buildings and a lot going on in Cathedral Square, which is in the very center of Christchurch. Also went to Kmart yesterday to pick up some stuff. I don’t think I’ve seen a Kmart in about 6 years, and then I find one in New Zealand! lol!

Tomorrow we officially enroll for classes, which from what I hear is a lot of waiting around in long lines. Oh joy. After that I have until Monday to just do whatever. I suppose that is all for now. I should go to bed since I have to register at 9am tomorrow. Ugh…

So I’m sitting in LA right now, an hour before I board the plane to New Zealand. I am excited, scared, happy, and nervous all at the same time. But mostly, dreading this 13.5 hour flight I am about to board. Yikes!!