Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Some Videos!
So video #1 - Riding up the glass elevator on Sky Tower (Auckland's Space Needle). It's 600m tall and I got insane vertigo at the top
Orientation So Far
Woot boost! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated this but I’ve been pretty busy with orientation and Joe has been pretty busy with... well actually he hasn’t been busy.
Orientation is great. The people I meet are all quite similar to me. They’re here to have fun, experience another culture, not take school too seriously, and score with many members of the opposite sex. I’ve found nearly everyone here is a science major back home, and they tend to look at this as a trip to relax from the tough UC schedule and as a time to really experience their subject (geology, anthropology, biology) firsthand.
I have successfully introduced everyone here to my website and they seem to be taking kindly to it! I have to ease up on the sarcasm a bit around the Americans, as they have nowhere near as dry a sense of humor as the kiwis.
So far during orientation we have sat through many lectures on the kiwi experience, made some trips about, and explored the extensive Auckland nightlife. Our head advisor, Ivan, is a retired math professor from the U of Auckland and has a very practical approach to our “party” attitudes here. He has been advising us to have fun, experience everything, but just don’t do it stupidly. And, for the most part, we have been pretty responsible, and every person in our 60-something program has been up for 8:30 breakfast daily.
I have purchased my plane ticket to head to the South Island for around 10 days starting next Wednesday, and have heard amazing things about the places I plan to see. I have not been in great communication with Joe but it sounds like he wants to come down with me as well. Still not sure what his plan is.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Separation
Today, Joe and I separate. I arrive at the University of Auckland for my UC EAP orientation, get directions to my room from a very attractive American girl, and get settled on top of the world.Joe, on the other hand, is busy planning the rest of his life. He’s spent the past few days on websites looking for potential hostels he can work at for the next month, hoping to find free housing. He’s got no leads as of yet, and will stick around in Auckland for a while until he decides what to do.
My room is a nice single here, with concrete walls (good for nighttime sound insulation) and a nice view. It’s a bit small, like the prison cell Joe will end up in if he doesn’t get his life together and is forced into the drug cartel. He wanted to stay for a few nights in the room next door, which is under construction. I was opposed to the idea.
Alas, while I explored my new home for the next few days, Joe set to giving me all of the things he won’t be needing any more, as he will need a lighter load while traveling alone without a rental car.
Between comments like...
“Do I really need three pairs of underwear? Nah two’s fine”
and
“Is it cool if I just crash whenever you guys have free food at orientation?”
...Joe packed away his life, off on a journey that will lead him on an almost certain tomultous journey. Alas, if Fate, in all of her mystery, acts kindly upon Joe, he will emerge from this wrecked nation a new and better man. However, if she looketh unkindly upon his wretched soul... we can only pray that he survive to tell the tales of his travels to Hades and back...
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