Category: New Zealand

I opened the first door on my little Christmas calendar this morning. I also plan on switching on the lights I hung in my window this evening – Wellington still doesn’t feel very Christmassy, but I’m trying my best. Tomorrow Kathrin, Silva, Masumi and I will be baking cookies, and I sent off the last of my Christmas mail today.

The fact that I had ice cream at the harbour today probably doesn’t help the mood, but I’m enjoying it all in a ‘wow, that’s different!’ kind of way. I’m supposed to write my second assignment (and I will, just as soon as I finish this post here), but I couldn’t resist the sunshine (also, I had cards to post) and went to the bay, where there’s a political thingie/concert going on. Loads of hippies, punks and other alternative types as well as families with kids, all enjoying the sunshine and the music – was fun, and I sat there for a while, reading and drinking a fruit slushie. However, my conscience is too well-developed, and so, after queuing for gelati from kaffeeeis, I’m back here in the shade of my room (as much as I like it, I don’t really get any sun in here, only wind).

While I’ve been feeling crappy most of the day, I had two very nice surprises:

a) In between my recipes, I found the two collages I made of all my friends, which I thought I’d forgotten at home. The wall over my desk is now much less white, with so many friendly faces smiling down at me.

b) My first real mail, a Christmas calendar from my mom. This is a little tradition we have – she always picks a pretty postcard-sized calendar on the Petersplatz market in Basel, so I can open a little door every day from December 1 to Christmas Eve.

And now I’m treating myself to a danish and a muffin for dinner, accompanied by a peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks – my tastebuds are pretty numb from my cold, so sweet is good. Later I have a Skype date with the family.

Edit: A third nice surprise just came in the form of my Tagesanzeiger newsletter – apparently Ueli Maurer from the rightwing populist party SVP was beaten by green liberal Verena Diener in the election for a seat in the Zurich Senate. This is a bit of a comfort after the SVP’s win at the national elections last month. (Some information in English.)

Met up with Kathrin for a nice leisurely breakfast on Saturday, accompanied by some serious shopping for Christmas, sports clothes (a complete set, as mine were falling apart and were therefore left behind, but wow, expensive!*) and even a book (Arty Bees is a very nice used bookstore here). Then I went home to write my assignment – not very happy with it, as the one-page limit didn’t allow me to answer the five questions in any detail, but I got it done.

On Sunday I went to the harbour to read in the sun, but the wind was so strong I soon went back to finish my holiday shopping and then went home to start writing cards – all overseas mail has to be sent by December 1. It’s kind of strange to do Christmassy things, not just because of the weather, but I’m missing all those little signs that normally tell me my favorite time of the year has begun. To rectify this, when Kathrin, Silva, Masumi and I (the foursome that went to Rotorua last week) came to my room for the first of our weekly dinners, we decided to bake cookies next Sunday, to get us in the mood. It was fun hanging out with them again (plus they liked my cooking *g*), and I’m looking forward to more Sundays with the girls!

Today I need to get a ton of reading done for tomorrow, as it’s not just lecture but also tutorial homework that needs doing. If only my head wasn’t feeling so heavy from my cold – I got meds from Kathrin and bought sage tea, but it’s still not fun. Oh well, it’ll pass…

* Apparently my feet are small for New Zealand standards – they had exactly two pairs of gym shoes in my size (an American 6 1/2, but the shoes seem to only start with 7). Interesting, I never had any problems before… In this case it turned out to be kind of expensive, as the ones I really wanted but that didn’t fit me were $40 less than the ones I ended up buying… but at least they match my new gym pants/t-shirt/hoodie. 🙂

After the first shock at the workload I decided to just take it one day at a time. Get up, go to uni, go home (doing any necessary shopping on the way), read homework for next day, make dinner/do housework, go to bed, repeat. In between I have Starbucks (short peppermint hot chocolate, no whipped cream), do my email, call home (Monday and Thursday, 21.00) and watch DVDs.

Mainly for my parents, this is my uni schedule:
Monday, 9am: assignments are due
Tuesday-Thursday, 10.30-13.20 – lecture (which isn’t really a lecture as there’s no lecturing and a lot of active participation)
Tuesday and Friday, 13.40-14.30 – tutorial (where we discuss case examples using what we learned in class)

Now it’s weekend and I started on my first assignment, due Monday morning. So far so good. The paper (as they call courses here) is demanding but also interesting – and my previous study experience is coming in handy: I’m probably about 5 years older than most of the other students, I’m used to talking in front of an audience, and when something needs to be done I go ahead and do it. All of which made the rest of my tutorial group (with whom we also do tasks in the lectures) select me as leader, together with a girl from Iceland – I wanted her to be leader, because she has previous experience, but she asked to be my deputy instead. Europeans rule! 😛

Also, the fact that we are pretty much always in our smallish tutorial groups (mine consists of 12 or 13 people, I think) means I have the chance to actually get to know some of the other students a bit better, which is cool. Five weeks to make some local friends… Wish me luck! 🙂

Tomorrow, other than write my assignment, I’m meeting Kathrin for a late breakfast, either in town or in the Chocolate Fish Café, depending on the weather. And I need to buy some sports clothes, so I can check out the gym in the residence hall up the street that I can use for free and maybe find a uni sport group I like – at the moment the walking I’m doing is enough (20 minutes one way to uni, and that’s steady walking, not just strolling, and doesn’t include any detours/trips to the shops/to the harbour to enjoy the sun/etc.), but once I adjust to my rhythm here, I think I’d like to become a bit more active again.

But right now it’s almost 22.30 and I’m pretty tired – here I wake up at 7am, like clockwork, after a garbage truck makes an awful ruckus around 5.30, plus I have a bit of a cold, probably caught from Kathrin during our trip last week. Therefore I wish all of you a good night and a good weekend!

Edit: Btw, I’m still having some internet issues, hence the lack of photos. But they’re coming, I promise!

The HRIR (Human Resources and Industrial Relations) 201 class is going to be a killer! 9 hours a week, 2 hours tutorial, both of which have long lists of required reading, a 1-page essay every week, plus an exam at the end of the six week course… And the same in green will happen with Management 202 after Christmas. In addition to this I’m having credit card issues and am trying to get out of the internet-based class I only signed up for to get over 48 points (a requirement for my visa, or so I thought, but apparently the 44 points of my regular classes are enough after all). Just picture me knocking my head against a wall, okay?

Still, it seems to be quite interesting, lots of practical examples, and I already chatted to some of the Kiwi students. If I survive this it should be good! 🙂

Now I really should eat some lunch, it’s already 3.30pm after all, and then I have to read the texts for tomorrow. Oh, and give my credit card company another call. Oh joy…

Tomorrow my first class starts. I’m a bit nervous, as I expect it to be quite different from what I’m used to – quite hard work, too, because this summer course is only one month long and will have fewer students. Wish me luck! 🙂

Other than that I’m pretty ready for my time here. I had to buy some more stuff for my studio, but now I think I’ve got all I need. I also got a wireless internet connection with flatrate installed this morning, which gives me much more freedom than the ‘pay-as-you-go’ set up my accomodation offers. But I’ve also found time to play: Denise and three of her kids (Jack, Ben and Maddie) are visiting her mom near Wellington for a long weekend, and I’ve been to the zoo (yesterday, with Denise’s younger sister Ari and her partner) and to the Botanical Gardens (this afternoon, without Ben) with them. It’s really nice to be able to spend time with Denise – we’ve stayed in touch since meeting in California in 1999, which is a pretty long time for a travel friendship, at least for me.

Now I’ve got to head back out for a moment – I forgot to buy cereal for breakfast tomorrow. Luckily I’ve got a little convenience store right across the street.

The four of us (Kathrin, Silva, Masumi and I) had an awesome time together. New Zealand is simply too beautiful – we saw so many breathtaking landscapes on our way north to Rotorua, it’s hard to believe. I’ll get Wireless installed on Monday, so hopefully I’ll be able to share my photos once I don’t have to pay by usage anymore…

But here’s a quick run-down of what we did the past three days:
– Wednesday: Picked up car, failed to meet the fifth girl who wanted to come along (she’d given us a wrong mobile number), then headed 6 1/2 hours north. Kathrin and Silva are luckily both very experienced drivers, and everyone was kind enough to let me ride in front the whole time, making my motion sickness a non-issue (I only drove for about half an hour on the third day). Among other things we drove passed the Tongariro National Park, which is dominated by breathtaking snow-capped mountains. Then we finally reached Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in NZ and simply gorgeous, especially in the lovely weather that contrasted very agreably with the cold, wind and rain in Wellington… In the evening we reached Rotorua, where we stayed at a backpackers’ hostel. We rounded off the day with a trip to the nearby Polynesian spa, where we enjoyed the hot springs that give the air in Rotorua its sulphuric taste.

– Thursday: Spent the morning in Te Whakarewarewa, the functioning village of a local Maori hapu (sub-tribe), where we had the chance to see a cultural show and take a guided tour through the village with its many thermal attractions (and about 60 remaining inhabitants, from 6 months to 97 years of age). These ranged from boiling pits over natural steam cookers, communal baths and healthy mud holes to two impressive geysirs. Our guide, Rangi, is the third female generation to lead tourists through the village, and she was very proud of what the hapu had accomplished after the government-run Te Puia “Maori culture and geothermal visitor experience” tried to monopolize the area. I also used the opportunity to buy some locally made Christmas gifts… 🙂
The afternoon we drove around the area for a bit, with the idea of visiting another one of the many geothermal attractions. But the insane prices (they’d almost doubled since my last visit only four years ago) made us reconsider, so instead we spent some time at the lake front in town. Me and Masumi ended the day in the hot tub at the hostel, together with a German girl we’d met. Lovely!

– Friday: Our first stop was Kerosene Creek, a bit off the beaten path. It’s a lovely river running with hot water – and although it was raining, we were tempted to go in. In the end we didn’t, though, because it would have meant driving on wet and dirty. Still, will definitely keep this spot in mind!
After that we drove further south towards Taupo, to the Aratiatia Rapids. These are behind a big dam and can only be admired 3 or 4 times a day, when they open the floodgates for half an hour. We were right on time and enjoyed the spectacle of the almost-dry gorge turning into wild rapids enormously.
We then proceeded further along the Waikato river and to the Huka Falls, where we went for a hike along the riverside, through lovely forest, bringing us to another creek filled with hot water. Here we took off our shoes and enjoyed a little rest before heading back to the falls. We hadn’t planned on this excursion, having gone off the wrong way in search of the Falls at first, but it was totally worth the two hours walking!
However, the day wasn’t over yet! Kathrin had seen a postcard of Maori rock carvings on Lake Taupo, so we took a 2-hour boat trip once we reached Taupo. It was awesome – the water was calm, the sun came out, and we could hardly believe our luck! Afterwards we drove along the lake to Turangi, where we spent the night.

– Saturday: This morning we left at 8am and drove back through the beautiful landscapes to Wellington. We made such good time that we even managed to help Kathrin move into her new dorm room (her first one had been so freezing she’d caught an awful cold) before we had to return the car. Now I’m back, checked my email and am trying to decide whether to cook something or just get a sandwich or something.
Unfortunately a lot of stores already close at 2pm on Saturdays, so I can’t run the errands I should. But luckily I don’t have uni on Monday, so I should be able to get everything done by the time my first class starts. I’m quite nervous about that, btw, but I’m hoping for the best.

Edit: Went out, had a sandwich and peppermint hot chocolate (Subway and Starbucks should be giving me mass discounts!) at the harbour, where I sat for almost 2 hours enjoying the sunshine and a good book. The weather here changes so quickly, one has to make the most of it whenever possible.

Back home I heard a TV going next door, so I knocked and introduced myself to my neighbour, a girl from Malaysia (there are a lot of Malaysian students here, as well as Chinese and Japanese). Unfortunately she’s living in a week, so we won’t have much opportunity to get to know each other.

With half a week to go before uni starts, five of us international students will hire a car and head up to Rotorua for three days. I’m quite exhausted, but it’d be a pity not to make the most of this opportunity. I’ll be back Saturday, until then you can reach me via my NZ mobile if you need to. Hot springs, here I come! 🙂