The First 1.5 Weeks

So I have now been in Christchurch for about a week and half and what better time to update all my loyal followers on what is happening in my life? We arrived initially in Christchurch at the airport to find that our scheduled taxi pick-up was nowhere to be found, but a phone call and a little while later we were exiting the airport on the chilly grey day into a cab heading to the university. The cab driver was quite jolly and gave us a little crash course of the city as we drove (I'm not sure if it's okay to use the term crash course in a sentence about driving, but I'm going to do it anyway). One interesting fact he told us was that Christchurch is called the garden city because of it's expanse of parks and public and private gardens and apparently they get really pretty foliage here so that will be something to look forward to being the loyal New Englander that I am.

The university was only about a 5-10 minute drive from the airport and when we arrived we checked into our rooms and received a welcome bag and shirt. Then, at long last, I got to unpack. There's something very fulfilling about making your new bed and hanging up/putting away all your clothes that is very appeasing. Three of my roommates (or should I say flatmates) had already arrived when I checked in, two girls (Chelsey and Kate) who go to school (Rowan) and are from New Jersey and one guy (Zack) who is from Taronga on the North Island. The fourth, and final, flatmate Scott arrived a few days later and is from Hamilton, which is also on the north island. We all get along great and it's really nice to have a balance of the familiarity of people who are from the states as well people who have lived in New Zealand their whole life. Also Zack and Scott have friends who also go to University (or Uni as everyone here calls it) so it definitely increases my social circle by having friends from here.

The flat is really nice. There's two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, small balcony/deck area, and five single bedrooms (with double beds!!!). It's relatively similar to what I lived in back in Boston and, as always, it's great to have a single bedroom (no matter how much I enjoy my flatmates). We've put a few chairs out on our little balcony area (we're on the fourth floor) so it's nice to go out there and relax anytime of the day/night. Looking out over the city, the first thing you'd notice is the lack of tall buildings. The city feels a lot like a large town in that way. There are no skyscrapers that we associate with so many U.S. cities and, while there are many retailers all around, it is hardly the consumerist culture that so many americans are used to. It was appalling to find they only had a portion of an isle allocated to cereal and only one or two brands of peanut butter (honestly, how do they live!?!). All kidding aside it is a bit liberating to not have to choose between ten brands of mundane items. Another liberating thing is not having a phone (which I will inevitably have to get, but have been avoiding for the time being). You don't realize how compulsively you rely on technological items until you go cold turkey and abandon them. It's been great to use skype to keep in touch with people, but being able to go out and not worry about someone texting you or ringing you is a very free feeling.

The dynamic of the student population is a bit different here in that there are only a handful of major universities in New Zealand. So if you come from a medium or large high school you likely will know a lot of people from your high school at university. Also college is not so much a brand here like it is in the states. Not to say they don't have sweatshirts and t-shirts, but they don't push it to the extent that american schools do because honestly who needs collegiate brand keychains, shot glasses, stickers, pins lanyards, sweatpants, hoodies, hats... you get the idea. I took some time to walk around the campus in the first few days I was here before the hordes of other students arrived. Unfortunately I don't have pictures to post yet, but hopefully I'll get around to taking some soon. The campus is nice, the architecture incorporates a lot of cement, which isn't always a recipe for aesthetic appeal, but it incorporates green areas and plants nicely. There are a few big athletic fields nearby (one of which was flooded with cricket players all dressed in white, it was quite heavenly really).

All the international students attended an orientation in the first few days we were here. It was informative, but a bit long. Aside from that and enrolling for classes (which required working your way through a maze of an academic building stopping about 15 times on the way) there wasn't a whole lot related to academics in the first week. So, like any good college student, we went out frequently and slept in late. The flatmates and I went into town one night, but realizing that cabs are quite a bit more expensive out here (and buses oftentimes don't run very late) we've elected to stay closer to campus recently. There's an on campus bar with pool tables and a good outside lounge area. It's odd to see so many things here sponsored by beer and alcohol companies. The drinking culture is definitely much more embraced and relaxed than in america. I can't imaging the 18 year old drinking age doesn't hurt this either. It's been fun to go out and meet a lot New Zealanders in a relaxed setting. It's always a good time to shoot back questions about New Zealand life vs American life over a beer. I also experienced my first toga party this past week, which obviously no college experience should be without. Oh, and in case you were wondering the answer is yes, I do look dashing wrapped up in a bed sheet.

I started classes today, but I shall save that for my next entry. Although it was fun to go out most nights and sleep in til the early afternoon I'm glad to start being on a somewhat more normal schedule. I haven't really been a full time student in about 9 months, so hopefully I'll be able to easily get back in the swing of things. I'll have more on my adjustment of learning to learn again next time. Again, my apologies for the lack of pictures, I realize my words aren't nearly as interesting as pictures of kangaroos and koalas.

The Flight & Sydney

Well it's been a bit over a week since I left the country so I figured now is as good a time as any for an update. The flight was... how should I phrase it... long. Aside from the 20+ hours of actually being in the air there was the approximate two hour delay in Boston in which we waited in the terminal because they had to switch out aircrafts because the one we had planned to depart on was not suitable to fly (I'm thankful they found that out before we actually took off, but the delay was a pain nonetheless). This delay caused us to miss our flight in L.A., but we only ended up having to wait an additional hour for the next flight. However, L.A. was not to be outdone by Boston and their petty two hour terminal delays. No, the plane we boarded in L.A. would be delayed about two hours as well, however, this delay was be spent, in its entirety, on the plane. Needless to say the whole journey was a very long ordeal and hopefully the trip back won't have as many hiccups (if any at all).


Upon finally arriving in Sydney, jet-lagged and exhausted, we waited about an hour for the shuttle to pick us up and drop us off at Macquarie University where we stayed for the next eight days. The University was about 20-30 minutes outside of Sydney, but there was plenty of buses running frequently to and from the city. The campus has a large green expanse with a pond in its center, which was really nice to just walk down and sit by. The flat we stayed at had five single bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms, which was very nice. However, the lack of air conditioning in the mid-80 degree heat got a little tiresome. I don't know if it was because my body wasn't ready for summer yet or if it was unbearably hot or a combination of the two, but the heat really threw me for a loop, so much so that I wore shorts, and for those of you who know me well, I don't think I've worn shorts in 3 years. I also noticed, upon waking up the first morning there, that we had a lizard living with us. I later figured out that there was a pretty large gap at the bottom of our back door where creatures were pretty free to come and leave so I decided to not worry about it and enjoy the company of reptiles. I figured lizards are like the mice of Australia (although Australia has mice too so my logic might be flawed).


Aside from being jet-lagged and the hot weather the trip to Sydney was a fun time. We went to visit the Opera House which is really a phenomenal building to see in real life. It's a bit odd to actually see something that you've viewed so many times in photographs right in front of you. We also visited the Royal Botanic Garden which is located right next to the Opera House. It's a rather large garden/park with a lot of cool looking trees and birds. Oh and I cannot forget about the bats, there were hundreds and hundreds of large fruit bats hanging from almost every large tree in the garden. Aside from the terrifying bats, the garden itself was beautiful and a good way to kill a few hours in the city.


Sydney itself seemed to be a pretty laid back and friendly city. I can't say I had legitimate time to really see the ins and outs of it, but I enjoyed the parts that I saw. Aside from the Opera House and garden we had a chance to visit the Art Gallery of New South Whales, which was free and air conditioned (two big plusses) and the Sydney Zoo. The gallery has a pretty impressive array of artwork from all time periods. A lot of paintings, some photography, and some sculptures. I still get a bit stunned when I see paintings that takes up almost an entire wall and the amount of detail the painter has been able to incorporate into them. I just don't think I'd ever have the patience to spend that much time on a single project, especially a painting. The zoo was fun as well, although I did feel bad for all the animals holed up in there. I got to see kangaroo, wallabies, koalas, giraffes, elephants, penguins, lions, gorillas, orangoutangs, zebras, and a whole slew of other animals. Unfortunately, the platypus were off display because their habitat was under construction, but aside from that I'm pretty sure I saw all the animals you would normally associate with Australia.


The Australian cuisine I enjoyed was quite exquisite. Due to the near proximity of a large shopping center to campus and the pure laziness of not wanting to have to deal with groceries for an eight day trip, my diet consisted of a lot of food served very quickly. McDonalds, Subway, Hungry Jack's (a.k.a. Australian Burger King), etc. It was truly a delightful gourmet eating experience through and through. However, I did learn that Coca-Cola made with sugar is definitely better than when it's made with high fructose corn syrup. I had been told this before, but now I can confirm that it is indeed fact.


Another accomplishment that I made during my stay at Sydney was to learn the basic rules of cricket, although I can't take full credit for this. There was a series of matches on tv over the course of my stay and I started to watch and pick up the basic rules bit by bit. However, when a games score board has both decimals and fractions it's very easy to get lost. Determined to get to the bottom of what this game was really about, I turned to the source of all wisdom (wikipedia) for answers. However, the sheer size of the wikipedia article and my lack of willingness to read that much about cricket quickly deterred me from that solution. Luckily on the last two days of our trip another flatmate moved in (we had previously had the entire apartment to ourselves) and she brought a friend who was a cricket fan. After spending a night watching the end of a cricket match and asking him a lot of questions I can now confidently say I know the basic rules, and man oh man am I proud of that.


Although I enjoyed the trip it did get a bit tiresome to be living out of a suitcase for eight days and not being able to really settle into any routine. Thus, I was eager to leave campus and depart for New Zealand at six this morning. I am currently finishing up my first day at the University of Canterbury, but I shall save that portion of my journey for the next entry seeing as how I have already wrote a fair amount and any more will likely cause readers to wander off (assuming they've stayed with me up to this point). Pictures of my flat and the campus to come in a week or so.