Classes

I don't have much free time since classes have started; between shopping, cooking, lectures, reading, entertainment, cleaning and actually finding time to sleep, I've become hard pressed to find some time to update my blog. But since I have a few minutes to spare at the moment, I figured I'd do a quick recap of my classes:

New Zealand Literature
This course focuses a lot on one of New Zealand's most famous writers, Katherine Mansfield. Initially, she struck me as the typical tragic female writer figure, reminiscent of Sylvia Plath or Anne Sexton; a precocious young woman, repressed and yet brilliant, whose work was reclaimed by her husband after her young death. But because she originates from New Zealand, she offers a rather unique colonial (and sometimes anti-colonial) perspective on life in this small developing colony. She was also brave enough to make a trip to London at the age of 19 by herself, in the early 1900's, which I would think was unheard of at the time; all because she was desperate to enter a larger, more cosmopolitan literary world. Anyhow, we'll be reading other New Zealand writers as well, but our lecturer seems quite fond of Mansfield's work, so the course is heavily focused on her works, which I am slowly digesting.

New Zealand Politics and Power
This course is actually the one I was considering dropping because of the heavy workload, but have resisted doing so simply because I'm convinced I'll learn a lot. We've been going over the political structure of New Zealand, from parliament, to the head of state, to New Zealand's essentially non-existent constitution, and I have already been quite shocked by the tremendous differences between nations in their exercise of power. Unfortunately, most of the political references go right over my head in that class, while most of the students who have been studying and reading about the New Zealand government since they were children seem to follow easily. The most fascinating part of the course is our tutorial exercises; instead of attending discussion groups, we'll be watching Parliament while they are in session (see the Parliament building below) and writing up reports on our observations. I could never just waltz into Parliament (or I suppose it would be Congress) in the United States multiple times a week to write an observational report!



Maori Performance and Society
This course doesn't require a lot of reading, but should still present a decent amount of work and practice. A lot of our study focuses on the sacred traditions of the Maori, and the place of the waiata (song) in their political, domestic, and other interactions. The largest part of my grade will depend on my ability to memorize and perform two waiatas with perfect pronunciation, tone, and rhythm- committing a hapa (mistake) is considered a grave embarrassment to your community and hosts, and if you commit a whati (serious mistake) you actually cannot continue singing or start over (meaning I'd fail, I suppose). Along with the waiatas we'll be keeping a journal, learning about Maori culture and musical instruments, and staying a night on a marae.

Introduction to New Zealand History
I've decided I'll probably drop this course, although I've already learned a fair amount of interesting things about this nation's history in this weeks lectures. It would probably be an easier course than the New Zealand politics course, but I feel I will have a more interactive, modern, and hands on experience with New Zealand culture with the latter.

Today I went on a Lord of the Rings tour, so I'll post pictures from that soon. Cheers!

21!

And so my 21st birthday passes (although it remains my birthday in America... confusing). Overall, it was very nice. Although the drinking age is 18 here, 21 is still a fairly significant birthday to New Zealanders, left over from when it was the age of adulthood in Britain. I went out the night before with my friends to celebrate until midnight, and even though the bars and clubs were pretty empty, we still got a kick out of dancing to cheesy 80's and 90's songs. We also came across a celtic group at a bar called Kitty O'Sheas, and the Irish flautist let me play his wooden flute.

My actual birthday on Tuesday was slightly more subdued; I relaxed most of the day, and went out to a nice japanese restaurant with some of my girl friends. Everyone who bought me chocolate, or bought me a drink, or paid for my dinner reminded me of the great new friends I've made here, and how lucky I am to have met such awesome people. Of course, I wish my American friends and family could have celebrated this landmark birthday with me as well. Cheers!

People, Plants and Rugby

I initially dismissed how difficult internet access is here, so a few days without it has done me good. My internet was cut off for a few days due to payment complications, and I had to pay (per webpage!) to use school and/or internet cafe computers, so I figured I'd wait.

Now that I'm back, I have a few adventures and realizations to divulge.

On Tuesday I went to the Wellington Botanical Gardens with a few of my friends, although I must admit it was a little too hot for us to explore the entire hilly landscape. It's only a cable car stop away, and it's free, so we can definitely return. Here are a few picture highlights:

The view of Wellington from the gardens (plus the cable car that hauled us up there):


In the greenhouse (with cousin Nikki below)






After being too stingy to go out at night (not to mention exhausted at the end of the day from so many stairs), I finally decided to go out with my friends on a Wednesday night. The night was cut short from a small accident, and when I returned home I immediately wrote out my recap of that odd evening:

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20/2/2008
So tonight was an incredibly insightful night when it comes to the people of this country. After hanging out with some very friendly university kiwi’s in a nearby flat, I headed into Courtenay Place- the club and bar street- with some of my American girl friends. When one of my friends crossed the intersection on Terrace Drive, she got hit fairly hard by a biker who was whipping downhill. I saw my friend and the biker collide and tumble to the street, and was immediately scared for them. We moved both of them out of the street, and transfered their things to the sidewalk.

The old man seemed to have hurt his arm from the spill off his bike, and my friend had quite a few scrapes but seemed more shaken than hurt. She felt horrible for stepping in front of him, but instead of placing blame he just asked her whether she was all right.

Now, tonight also happened to be the first night on campus for most of the University freshmen, so droves of 18 year old partiers were heading past us to the bars. Most of them asked if we needed help, and a group of incredibly kind freshman kiwis stopped to help in spite of our insistence that we were alright. They put down their beers, and helped us pick things up, checked the old man’s arm and our friend’s health, and then called the biker’s wife for him. In the midst of their first night out on the town, these strangers took their time checking everyone’s health and waiting with us.

Once the biker's wife arrived to pick him up, she began asking my friend for her contact information, and my first instinct was to assume the wife was planning on suing her for crossing the street illegally. Then I remembered that people can’t sue for medical expenses in New Zealand, and realized the situation was the complete opposite of what I’d suspected when the wife said “I’ll call you tomorrow to make sure you’re alright; If you’re not, I want to drive you to the hospital.” She touched my friend’s cheek and said “’is alright, dear”.

I’d already decided that kiwis were generally friendly after socializing, chatting and asking them for directions, but it was in this situation that it struck me: it goes beyond mere affability, it’s a complete cultural difference. In America people tend to stare at accidents they are not involved in, but often avoid offering help. And if Americans are involved in an accident, we seek out any compensation we can get, through blame and endless legal procedures; it’s about war, fighting, getting whatever you can for yourself. Last night, everyone seemed concerned about the wellbeing of everyone else, including complete strangers who undoubtedly had more fun things to do with their time. In America I tend to be suspicious of the kindness of strangers, but it’s not such an anomaly in New Zealand, and at the risk of sounding horribly sentimental, I think that’s amazing.

~~~~~~~~

So there you have it. There are exceptions to every generalization, of course (not every kiwi is nice, not every American is cold), but I have found that this cultural difference tends to be true of the kiwi population in general, at least compared to Americans. And my friend is, luckily, still perfectly healthy minus her scrapes and bruises.

On Thursday night I invited a bunch of American kids over for tacos, burritos and margaritas. We bought and prepared all the meat, guacamole and other ingredients, as a makeshift homage to our popular home cuisine; Latin American food of any variety is rare and expensive in New Zealand, and we realized that we’ve taken for granted such easy access to good and inexpensive Mexican food (I have been especially guilty, coming from California). The margaritas were also a pretty special occasion, since my kiwi flatmate Will got a bottle of Jose Cuervo as a gift, and hard alcohol is anywhere from double to triple the price here in New Zealand (they're much more into local wines and beers).

Friday I went to my first Rugby game, supporting the Hurricanes, the Wellington city rugby team. It was great fun, and I concluded that even if I'm still a bit hazy on the rules, I definitely like Rugby much better than I like American football. The ball is in play for much longer period of time, which means there is a lot more action, tackling, and running going on. And I will dare to assert that rugby players are a million times tougher than American football players. Why? They tackle, run, kick, and scrum (the shifting and shoving huddle that usually ends up in a huge dogpile) with absolutely no padding, and because there are no time-outs in rugby, they need the stamina to hustle the entire game.





The Hurricanes ended up narrowly winning, which definitely led to a night of Wellington city cheer.

Today my friends and I visited Te Papa, the national New Zealand museum, but we only managed to visit one wing of one floor, because the place was absolutely huge. I'll probably post on it when I visit more sections. Until then, I'm off to the Wai Te Ata flat barbeque (already smells delicious from my window). Cheers!

More on the Wellington Arts Scene

So in only a few days, I've stumbled across various festivals and experienced a bit more of the nightlife. Luckily, there has been no entrance cost for most concerts and festivals.

On Saturday, I went downtown with my American friend Casey, and we stumbled upon three different festivals. The first was the Pacific Island Festival, where there were Polynesian dancers, Samoan food, as well as a Gravity Defying machine (not sure what it has to do with the Pacific Islands, but it was free!).




After that we stumbled upon the Greek Festival, where they were playing Greek music and also selling a lot of Greek food and goods. I stuffed down a tasty pita and continued down the coast.


I then stumbled across a Scottish music performance in front of the famous Te Papa museum, the largest New Zealand museum in the country. I never really liked bagpipes, but this performance was actually really great!


Along with the various daytime events going on, there is also, of course, the nightlife. Because 70% of the population is British-descended, pub life is very much a part of their culture. Two of the great places to go for nightlife is Cuba Street and Courtenay Place, both of which are fun and active streets. A lot of the bars have great cover bands, and everyone here is really obsessed with the 90's so they play a lot of songs from my youth. Even the radio stations here play all of the songs that were popular in America years ago, and most movies hit America months before they hit New Zealand. In fact, half of the programming on the telly is from the U.S. and a lot of their news is about current even in our country... it really reminds me how America-centric the world is. But that's perhaps a topic for another time. Suffice to say, a lot of us Americans have been enchanted by the bar scene- it helps that everyone here is so friendly and there's almost always live music. Luckily, I forgot to hit the bank and so I was broke the entire weekend; this kept me from buying more than one drink at the bar. The music and the atmosphere, however, have been phenomenal.




Above is me with the other Americans on my program going to Victoria University (I'm on the very top right)- they're all a great bunch of people, and I'm really happy to have friends to spend time with before all the kiwi students move into student housing.

City and Flat Life

Now that I'm actually in a city, I'm experiencing a much better immersion in urban New Zealand. The city I'm living in, Wellington, is the capital of the country, thus is where the Parliament building and most cultural hubs are centralized. It's often been compared to San Francisco, and now I know why. I've just scraped the surface of the art and night life here, but it is definitely very active. It's also incredibly hilly, and I swear I've lost two pounds just from walking between my flat and the city. There is also a Wellington tram, as well as buses that run on power lines above the road, as in San Francisco.

Part of that cable system has to do with the energy consciousness of this country. Every toilet (or loo) has two levels of flushing (for heavier and lighter 'loads'), people line dry more than machine dry, every plug has an on-off switch to cut off power when the plug is not in use. And this is the only city I can think of where I can see dense forests surrounding the outskirts of the city almost anywhere I turn- I like it, it reminds me that nature is close, and metropolitan doesn't have to mean cold and urban.



I've only been here three days, but it in some ways it feels like a home. There's so many hidden shops, random art pieces, and nice views. In spite of the occasional whipping wind, the somewhat erratic weather (which I assume with become worse with time), and the hills which cause my thighs to burn, everyone here is incredibly friendly, the architecture is diverse, the nightlife is lively, and the arts scene seems incredible.



Last night I went to a concert for a New Zealand Band called "The Phoenix Foundation" (see above and below); It was a free event put on by the city. I'm writing a review on their CD for my study abroad program's newsletter, and I was really excited for the chance to hear them live. They're great, they sound kind of like a mixture of Pink Floyd and The Shins. I'm hoping to look into other NZ bands while I'm here.



Of course, life isn't all sunshine and roses. I have yet to adjust to people driving on the left side of the road or to the metric system (oh my god, you're driving 100 miles and hour! oh wait, that's kilometers...), the currency is still confusing, and shopping is very expensive. Almost everything is pricey here, because it all has to be shipped overseas, and I'm not familiar with most of the brands of food. Vegetables and fruit also happen to be incredibly expensive, but I'm hoping to acquire some for a better price at the Sunday Farmers Market. And while the bars here have a great atmosphere, and often have live music for no cover charge, the drinks are often expensive- and because pub life is such a huge part of the culture here, I've been very careful about how much money I'm spending when I go out with other people. One girl in my program spent over $100 in one night alone... luckily I'm way too cheap to end up in a situation like that. And did I that I walk up mountain every day? I think I did.



My flat, the Wai Te Ata apartment (as seen above), looks a bit industrial on the outside, but is actually a nice setup on the inside. On the first floor is the living room and kitchen, on the second floor I have a single and I share a bathroom with a kiwi named Hannah, and on the third floor is Jake from University of Michigan and Will, the Wai te Ata RA (Residential Advisor). While a lot of my friends are struggling with their internet situation (since internet is charged by bandwith/downloading in New Zealand, instead of a flat rate), Will has already set up wireless that we can use for 20 bucks a month. Below is my room so far, hopefully I'll add a bit more decoration when I get the chance, but it's generally quite spacious and nice. And you can also see the view from my flat of the city... slight tree obstruction, but otherwise not too shabby.





Anyhow, I registered for classes today, and although the process was a bit tedious and confusing, there were helper students walking around to guide me. I'm officially enrolled in:

1) New Zealand Literature
2) New Zealand Politics: Power, Equality and Diversity
3) Maori Performing Arts & Society
4) Intro to New Zealand History

Because of the way that credits transfer, I might actually have to drop a course. Because courses here take a lot of time (and it seems, a lot of work), 3 courses is usually equivalent to a full course load, especially with upper level courses- 4 courses can be considered an overbooked course load. At least with three courses I won't be too stressed, and I get to pick which classes I'd like to keep. There's still a lot of things I need to do academically, like buy school supplies and books, get an ID card, etc. but we get a week to sort these things out before classes begin. So until then, cheers!

Auckland Orientation!

So I'm finally up and running fully on the internet, and there's a lot to recap. It's hard to believe I've only been here five days, it feels like I've done and experienced months worth of New Zealand madness. I feel like I haven't stopped running around.

I met up with most of the students on my group flight, and we took off together around 9pm at night. I ended up sitting next to a cool guy named Jack, which amused me since my dad had warned me not to say "Hi Jack!" on a plane in order to avoid being arrested for attempted hijacking. The sixteen hour flight ended up being even longer, since we stopped for an hour in the Cook Islands, all of us feeling very dazed and sleep deprived. Our annoyance at having our bags searched once again was alleviated by a little old man in a straw hut in the corner of the airport serenaded us with a few tropical paradise tunes on his ukileli.

The moment we landed in Auckland, New Zealand, we were greeted by our friendly IFSA Butler Abroad coordinators, who swept us directly to the YMCA Waiwera Lodge by the coast on the outskirts of the city. Waiwera grounds were part of an Auckland nature reserve, and were also used for sheep and cow farming. The camp was very beautiful, but we were even more tantalized by the beds in the cabin (sleeeep). The camp coordinators somehow convinced us that sleep was not in fact the best option, since a nap would make jet lag worse, and presented cricket as an alternative to catching some z's (see some of us playing cricket below). I found cricket quite complicated, thought similar to baseball in some ways, and I ended up managing a decent pitch and hit.



After that we headed down to the beach, and ended up strapping on some life vests and kayaking along the coast. After Nikki and I paddled until our arms fell off, we returned our boat and gear, then walked back up to camp, only to be put on another bus. We were driven to some hot springs, where mineral water flows into steaming (more like scalding) pools, and we got to relax for an hour. Across the street from the hot springs was a pub with a very Americanized name, Woody's Bar & Grill, and it was there that I tried my first legal drink with my program peers, a glass of Expert Gold beer. Suffice to say, after a day of paddling our tired behinds across the coast, playing cricket, soaking in hot springs, and sitting down for a cup of beer, the entire group was basically ready to collapse. I crawled into bed at around 8:30pm and couldn't get myself back up again.

The next day, we started off with an activity called "rogaining", which is basically an orienteering and map reading activity. We were assigned different posts to find throughout the camp, and my group, Bravo 4 came up with a sneaky idea; we decided to take pictures of the carvings with our cameras, so we could break up into four groups of two and split up the destination points on the map up. The craftiness paid off, since we ultimately ended up in first place. I got paired with Jack (the guy from the plane), and we ended up being assigned the farthest points up the mountain, which were tiring to get to, but provided a great view (the picture is me squinting as we were walking up the hill).



We then proceeded to play some rugby, which (along with cricket), is the most popular sport in the nation. We decided to play touch rugby, since tackling might have led to some injuries due to the size and strength differences in our campers. I found the rules a little easier to pick up since I wasn't comparing it to football (whose rules I've never cared to learn in full), but they were still kind of confusing.

A lot of my introduction to kiwi culture turned out to be rather confusing, in fact. I was realizing as the day progressed that although I had avoided going to a country with another language, the kiwi accent and slang combined proved to be a daunting combination of indistinguishability. It was when our camp director would say something like "Alright, we're going bush today, so you'll need togs, a jumper, trainers, and bit of dosh! Sweet as!" that I realized cultural differences provided more than enough of a language barrier to break down. Not only that, but I was noticing that many words, not just 'colour', are spelled differently here, such as 'tyre' or 'offence', and as and English major this was bound to throw me for a loop. The one word none us could forget was 'kai', the Maori word for food. We had 'kai time' over five times a day, some of our meals only consisted of fruit, tea, and crumpets, but most were full meals; none of us could complain that we weren't being well fed. I suppose eating smaller portions throughout the day is yet another non-American practice I'm get to experience.

Anyhow, after rogaining, we did some rock climbing and then archery (see pictures below), and settled down to learn about kiwi culture. We got a visit from a Maori representative, Uncle Richard, who told us about Maori culture so that we would be prepared to visit a marae the next day. A marae is basically a plot of land for Maori tribes to live and hold events with their families, and we went to sleep ready to visit the marae the next day.





Our day on the marae was fantastic. Members of the tribe welcomed us onto their pristine riverside land with a traditional ceremony, and then spent the rest of the day teaching us about their culture. Many Maori families live on or near marae with their large families, and try to uphold their tradition and language. As with America, they have a long history of conflict with the British, although theirs was not quite as bloody as ours, due to the sovereignty granted to their cheifs through the Treaty of Waitangi. In spite of British oppression, they have in some ways thrived as a culture and a population- Maori represent about fifteen percent of the New Zealand population, their families are very close knit, and most of the landmarks I've come across have original Maori names.

One of the best experiences we enjoyed was learning their native dances, the haka warrior dance for the men, and the poi balls for the women. The guys in my group all got to take off their shirts and stomp around, while we girls struggled not to hit ourselves in the face with the poi balls (see blurry pictures below, better ones to come).





Maori also cooked our dinner in a hangi, which is a warm bed of coals beneath the dirt, and we unearthed it before dinner. A lot of the food was seafood, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I suppose in a country surrounded by ocean I'll need to develop more of a taste for.

After a few games of rugby and kicking around a ball, we ended up sleeping in a whare tupuna (see me in front of it below), which is the communal house where the entire maori family often sleeps together. The house had intricate carvings on the front, and inside was covered in pictures of the tribe's ancestors. It was very personal and nice to sleep in the same area where this tribe sleeps with their family. We were told a personal story from one of the tribe elders who came in before we went to sleep. She was not only spiritual, but had a sense of humor, as she said to us: "now you know why we have such big families, we sleep closer and closer together, haha!". I slept like a baby in the same room with all of the other students on my program, who were just as overwhelmed and pleasantly surprised as I was.



The next morning I said goodbye to the marae (see me in front of the riverside below), and we headed off to Auckland airport, smelly, unshowered, but quite excited.















I'm now in Wellington, in my Wai-te-Ata flat, and have been making my way. There's a lot to say, but I'm going to wait a day or two to update on life in the city, since that will take much more narration and pictures, and my keyboard (and I'm sure your eyes) need a break. For reference, my address is:

Rochelle Bailis
3/15 Waiteata Road
Kelburn
Wellington
New Zealand


If you want to email me, I'm now available to check the net. Cheers, yanks! I love and miss you all!