Judy's Kiwi Adventure: February 2007

One day while walking around campus I ran into a fellow Biolan--Rebekeh Pearce. She and I were acquaintances through my friend Emily. Rebekah is here for the semester, and she also has a lot of family in NZ, so she's living with a relative for the semester. I haven't felt lonely here, even though I am often alone and don't know anybody, but it was still nice to know someone from home is here too. I ran into Rebekah one other time this week, and we'll probably spend some time together while we're both here. I'm looking forward to it.

My good friend Kim gave me a Sufjan Stevens t-shirt before I left, and I was wearing it around on Tuesday. (If you don't know Sufjan, you should stop reading this and look him up right now--he's amazing!) Anyway, I was stepping to the elevator at my apartment, and the boy stepping out noticed my shirt and shouted, "Sufjan Stevens!" right in my face. He was very excited to find a fellow fan, and we chatted about music for a few minutes right there. He was wearing an Alfred Hitchcock t-shirt, proving he is my geek-equal. Excellent. (This is picture of Sufjan, by the way, not the kid from the elevator.)

Some more about music out here, for those who care. Our tv has a channel that shows music videos, and they're pretty much the sume as in the States. I've seen Radiohead, KT Tunstall, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Coldplay, Muse, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and even, The Format (how did they get over here?) I'm on the lookout for cool NZ bands to share with you, but so far no standouts.

On Wednesday, I attended a financial aid workshop! It was hilarious. I had to attend with about 8 other Americans who have US Federal loans, and I didn't tell anyone I had been working in financial aid for over a year. I just sat back and enjoyed a lesson I could have given myself. I felt very smug. You should have been there, FinAid buddies! "What is the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized?" Don't make me laugh!

Ok, so the highlight of the week was this:
For orientation they had this bbq (more sausages!) planned for a place called Long Bay Regional Park. Earlier in the week, I was not planning on going--the events can get tedious with all the undergrads. But my flatmates were going, so I decided it might be a good idea to go, get out of the city, and see some NZ sites. You can look at all the pics below, but it was beautiful! We went to a picnic area just off the sand. The beach dead ended into cliffs and rocks and some friends and I spend the whole day scrambling and hiking on the cliffs and rocks.
Here is my hiking team:
Fiona (from Scotland) and Nathan (wearing sunglasses, is from Canada) are our neighbors. That's Jesper in yellow and Michael in blue.

The bbq picnic area was next to this stream...

and here is the beach...

I'm not sure how far we hiked, but was a very long way. We had to pass over slippery rocks...

under rocky cliffs....

and sometimes we had to walk right in the water...

We went a very long way that day.

After each turn in the shore we had a conference to decide if we should keep going or turn back. We always chose to keep going... We kept going until finally we came upon an amazing discovery:
a nude beach.

That's when we decided to turn back.
We took the landlocked route this time...

(Sadly, no sheep or hobbit holes could be found.)
I took pictures the whole day, but these are the best ones... I had my camera on so much, I filled my memory card just as the battery died.

That night, there was a free concert in a nearby park, so we all went to that together as well. The Prime Minster of NZ was there and one of the winners of New Zealand Idol performe as well. The concert concluded with fireworks and a laser show set to The 1812 Overture with the army on hand to shoot off cannons. It was quite inspiring (although I had very vivid flashes of V for Vendetta in my head...)

And that pretty much concludes my first week in NZ. Up next, classes!

Welcome to my blog, friends and family! I wanted to get this up sooner, but I've been busy setting up my new life in Auckland...Hopefully, I can keep this pretty up to date with stories, pictures, and other ramblings as time goes on.

Here's what's been happening so far (I forgot a lot of it already, but luckily, I was documenting everything in my diary):

My plane took off from Los Angeles on Friday night and landed in Auckland at

about 6am on Sunday morning. I was in the air for about 12 hours, I think...very confusing...(By the way, the host from The Amazing Race was on the plane with me..)

After landing, and customs, I was shuttled to a hostel about 15 minutes from campus since my housing wouldn't be ready until the next day. I basically had a day to kill. Mostly, I wanted to go to sleep, but it was only noon, and I wanted to get on NZ time as quickly as possible. I decided to try and find the campus since it was (allegedly) quite close and easy to find. If you know me at all, you know I was born without a sense of direction. So I walked around for a few hours and saw many things, but never found the campus (frustrating!). I probably should have been worried about getting horribly lost, and I did at a few points, but mostly I was just tired. I forced myself to stay up to 9pm before gladly going to bed. The last thing I did was write in my diary, "I can not believe I am in New Zealand."

Here is the view Auckland from my window at the hostel:

The next day, I was determined to get into my apartment. I had decided that a hostel could be very fun if backpacking with a friend, but it's not very fun all alone with a lot of luggage.

The building I am living in is very international, and mostly undergrads. It is really close to campus which is great because I have to walk everywhere. My apartment has 5 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and living room. When I got there, two of my flatmates Michael (Russian, attending Georgetown U) and Tsetska (from Holland) were already moved in. Later, we were joined by Jesper from Sweden, and the fifth room is still unoccupied. A word about Michael: Within the first 5 minutes of talking to him he commented that I did not curse, and that led him to ask me what my "vices" are. (I thought that was kind of funny since I have decided to live vice free--no drinking, smoking, drugs--even as medicine, caffeine. At Biola, it was the caffeine that brought me notice, but here, I am a freak of nature!) But it was good, because it led to a discussion about my being a Christian and Michael being a non-practicing, mostly non-believing Jew. We'll see what discussions and events transpire as the semester goes on. One last thing about roommates, for now: they are all here for one semester, so I'll have the apartment to myself in July til the new batch of roommates come for second semester. Hmm...sounds like the perfect time to visit, eh?

Here's pics of my small room in the midst of unpacking (can you spot Clawdette, or Curious George?):

The next few days were consumed by the business of getting set up in my apartment, getting my schedule settled, finding my way around, attending orientation events, and reading. I had a lot of free time, so I would often take a book, walk to various parts of the campus, and then find a shady spot to the read. Also, a lot of the orientation was aimed at undergrads so I skipped whenever I felt like it, which was often.

The University of Auckland is right in the center of the city which is pretty much like any major city in the world. I have seen Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, Burger Kings, Borders Books, and several Starbucks. It's a far cry from the rural scenes promised in Lord of the Rings. Auckland reminds of Seattle or San Francisco with all of its hills and proximity to the ocean (look it up on a map if you don't know where it is--I am learning that Americans are an embarrassment when it comes to geography). The architecture is a mix between classic and modern buildings all jumbled together...The campus is the same way, and there are a few really pretty spots for reading or relaxing.
These are pics of Arthur Park--it's right in the middle of campus and I have been going there to read almost every day. It' still summer here, so the days are long and the weather is very nice. I was reading A Severe Mercy (by Sheldon VanAucken), and then Mansfield Park (by Jane Austen) and I loved them both.

This is the Student Commons Building--it's huge! There are a few restaurants, a doctor's office, a pharmacy, offices, computer lab, bookstore, and who knows what else. It's always a busy place in the middle of the day, and this picture is useless to convey the busy tempo that presides...

Other nice parts of campus:
I went in search of the chapel and found this quiet little corner that I liked...

When I did find the chapel, I noticed they have books on loan, and one was Blue Like Jazz (by Donald Miller) which I have been wanting to read for a while. Sadly, when I went to read it, I discovered that there was a horrible printing error and 20 pages were missing and another 50 were repeated out of order. Oh well..I think I pretty much got the gist of it anyway...

Random Sites in Auckland: