"Kia Ora" means Hi

So now that I've got a solid internet connection THIS IS WHAT'S UP:

New Zealand is pretty awesome and the last week has been pretty nuts but basically...

1) Group flights are a great idea. Whoever thought of that gets a gold star.

2) Last Thursday, I successfully arrived in Auckland at 4:30am (that was so unimaginably early) with all my AustraLearn people who were going to Otago. (AustraLearn is the name of my study abroad program.) We had a short and sweet Welcome-to-New-Zealand session with our program leaders and then we got to explore the city. Auckland was super cool because its right on the water and there are sailboats everywhere and its right on top of a volcanic field... whoa... so we got a nice view of volcanic craters, cones, etc. As far as cities go (it's New Zealand's largest city), Auckland is beautiful.

3) The next day we went to Rotorua (like "row-two-rue-ah") for the rest of our Culture and Adventure Program (aka Orientation) and we played touch rugby and then we spilt into groups to learn the Haka (the Maori battle ritual that the All Blacks perform before every game) AND THEN we got all dressed up in traditional Maori (... apparently you are supposed to forget the "o" and roll the "r" like “mah-rree”) dress and had a Haka battle which was basically us looking super fierce with face paint and our eyes bugging out and chanting and yelling like we were going to battle. IT WAS AWESOME.

4) I guess Kiwis are known for being adrenaline junkies and so they get pretty extreme pretty often and since I’m in NZ for the time being, it seemed like a good idea to try and fit in... which is why last Saturday, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE (because we do so much of this in the States) I rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball filled with water. I am seriously not kidding. They call it Zorbing. It was awesome/hilarious. Also went whitewater rafting in the KaitunaRiver down a 20ft waterfall. No big deal.

5) Sunday was community day. We helped run a local bike race because February was Bike Wise Month all over New Zealand. Met some Kiwis and rode with little kids so they wouldn't get lost on the mountain. It was all pretty good even though I was honestly half-asleep the whole morning. Skipped running with Paul and Mackenzie, found Gray (yes, that's his real name) for some frisbee time, and ended up playing a big game of Ultimate with a bunch of people. Basically, it was a really good time and since Tim just bought a frisbee here (my little frisbee is too small for Ultimate, shucks) hopefully we'll play again soon yay!

6) Monday was the coolest day ever. Why? Well, because I went on a CAVING ADVENTURE. And when I say ADVENTURE, I mean like two and a half hours UNDERGROUND, repelling/abseiling down four WATERFALLS, the largest of which was no less than 90 feet... yeah, No Way!! It was nuts/It was awesome. Basically, there was nine of us Otago-AustraLearn kids and our two Kiwi guides. After we made it about 200 feet underground, we were all together crawling in knee-deep water, rock climbing, army-crawling through super tight spaces, checking out the glow worms... all of this wearing wetsuits, helmets, and gumboots/galoshes (yeah, literally class 5 climbing, scaling a 20 foot wall, wearing RUBBER BOOTS). That Day = SO COOL!!! the coolest.

Random observation: I feel like Kiwis/Kiwi guides have this idea of "learn as you go" and that "everyone will be totally fine." Like for instance, for rafting in Rotorua and caving in Waitomo, there were no safety instructions, it was all just basically "Hold on" and "Wear a helmet" and that's all. I mean, we learned the basics of repelling for our caving adventure but that was it. And after that, you are pretty much expected to be able to do anything, which was cool because we did. I don't know, I guess it was just refreshing/interesting.

Also, everyone is really friendly and saying Kia Ora everywhere (like "key-or-rah"). All Kiwis say Kia Ora even though it's a Maori word... it's like the basic Hi/What up/Hey man/Yo... but I think it's more common on the North Island because more Maori live there.

ALSO, instead of saying Dude/Man/Mate... EVERYONE says "Bro" except because of their accents it sounds like "Brew" like Leo DeCap in Blood Diamond. This is extremely funny to me.

7) Tuesday, we flew to DUNEDIN!!! So yeah, that's where I am right now, in my flat on the computer because yesterday I finally figured out how to work my internet YAY!! So Tuesday, I met two of my flatmates (Danielle from Rotorua/Auckland area and Lukas from Vermont originally and who goes to UPS in Washington state)... Flatmate #3 is Muhammad (sp?) and he's been here since last fall because he is in NZ for a year and but I haven't met him yet because he's in France right now. Got some groceries and basic stuff like towels, a laundry bag, etc. Last night was really fun because we all pitched in and went to Liz's flat and helped Tim make tacos for everyone. After that we went to the park and just tossed around a rugby ball and frisbee AND THEN we went to the Fish n Chips (= a combination of fried food, hamburgers, and chinese food) across the street and got deep fried Moro bars (chocolate, caramel, and nougat... not sure what a nougat is except that is delicious) and deep fried bananas OMG SO GOOD!! And Then, Paul, Mackenzie, Tim, Liz, Jenny, two of Liz's neighbors, and I decided that it would be a great idea to hike up to Lookout Point and to look out over the peninsula. So we all got jackets and changed shoes and met up around 11:30pm and started out. We got sidetracked a bit but we eventually made it all the way to the top around 12:45ish and then we hung out up there for a while, just looking out over Otago Harbor, the peninsula and the Pacific, and also the actually city of Dunedin. It was really really cool and I'm super glad we all did it... we were talking about doing that hike sometime during the day sometime in the future so that should be neat.

So even though I got home at 2am, I did in fact manage to wake up at 7:45 this morning to register for classes and get my student ID card, Success!! So as of now, I'm taking...

- Intro to NZ Sociology: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-1:50pm

- Theories of Social Power: Wednesday & Thursday 10:00-10:50am

- Advanced Sociological Theory: Wednesday 11:00-1:50pm

Since I just added Advanced Sociological Theory today, I have to email my advisor at CU to see if that class will count as a upper-division sociology elective... which would be excellent if it did, but if not, no big deal. Supposedly Advanced Theory is going to be super hard and loads of work but all in all, I think this is a most excellent schedule.

Yesterday, when I was walking across campus back to my flat, I saw a boy riding his bicycle and a older man was SPRINTING after him yelling "Hey! No Bikes!" (because apparently you cannot ride your bike on campus??) Anyway, this boy on his bicycle is wearing headphones and he Cannot Hear Anything That This Old Guy Is Saying... so naturally, he pedals faster and faster because just thinks he's being chased by some crazy old man. Old Man keeps chasing him. He Does Not Give Up. I honestly do not know the end of this story because after a minute or so they went around a building, but I was highly amused and I'd like to think that Old Man won in the end but who knows.

I think that's about it for now... kinda long but I had to makeup for all last week. Now I have to go buy power at the post office because most flats in Dunedin have a pre-paid power system/pay-as-you-go system and we don't want the power to run out this weekend when the post office is closed...