When I came home after the last lecture (next week we “only” have to do a final exam and a 1500 word essay), there were still construction workers in my room. So I decided to head for friendlier shores and went to the youth hostel to finally get my Christmas break organized. Because it’s the main tourist season (I’m not the only one who has time off then), I had to make a couple of compromises (mainly I’m not going to Queenstown/Milford Sound because it was completely booked), but after a good 2 hours, David, the friendly YHA guy, and I had a 9-day-vacation on the South Island all planned out. Whee!
I’m leaving on the day after Christmas (Dec 26) and will return on January 4. In between I’ll go whale watching in Kaikoura, see NZ’s highest mountain, Mt. Cook, go skydiving in Wanaka (the alternative to Queenstown) and then head up the west coast, from Franz Joseph to Nelson (same trip I did last time I was on the South Island, but it’s a stunning stretch, so I don’t mind). It’s going to be 9 days of awesome scenery and a couple of exciting highlights!
Other than that things have been mostly quiet. On Saturday I went to the famous Chocolate Fish Café with Kathrin and Masumi. It’s a really cool place, right at the beach, but unfortunately they’re closing at the end of the month. On Sunday there was the earthquake that I posted about, and the main highlight of the week (other than the fact that I was drawn into the beginning Christmas shopping madness and ended up buying jeans, t-shirts and shoes – for myself, as all my holiday mail was sent two weeks ago) is Swiss politics: Federal councillor Christoph Blocher (who I like to call ‘our George W’) was unexpectedly not re-elected by parliament (Swissinfo). Even if nothing comes of it (or if Blocher’s party really decides to go ahead and destroy our whole political system by going into opposition), this just makes me feel so much better about the political situation back home…
Annoyance of the week: The construction that will not end. They started last week and it’ll last at least another week. Not only do they at times work in my room (the hole in my wall is gone, but the one in my ceiling is still there), there’s also power outages, loud hammering at 7am and other unpleasantness. Seriously, I think we should get a discount on our rent or something – not only is there construction, but there’s not much information. Plus, because it’s summer we don’t have access to the gym and there are no RAs (Resident Advisors), so that we have to go to reception (in a different building) for everything. But at least I met my next-door neighbour Helen, a girl from China, who got kicked out of bed this morning by the construction crew and then discovered that she didn’t have electricity to make breakfast or turn on the light in the shower. Nice, hm?