Fall Break!

Alas, Kiwis do love their vacations. I am currently in the middle of a three week long “fall break”, after only a little over a month of school here. I suppose I can’t complain.

To kick off the break, we head over to the Auckland Domain (essentially Central Park) to watch the Red Bull Grand Prix, an excellent show of fearless Kiwis hurling themselves down a hill in flimsy soapbox racers.

Events like this make me happy to be in Auckland, as no other city could really draw a crowd of 100,000 with such massive theatrics. The day is filled with good friends, good food, great jokes, and plenty of underemphasized injuries.

Next, after a few days of boredom, a couple friends and I decide to hit up Rainbow’s End, “New Zealand’s Premier Theme Park.”  Lord knows why anyone would decide to build a theme park here, but they attempted to, and fell quite short of magnificence. Imagine the California Mid State Fair without the charm, or funny drunk people (although a few of the ride operators looked pretty buzzed). Despite the shortcomings of the place, we make the most of it, determined to get our $47 worth.

I’m headed to Australia tomorrow to meet up with my friend Jake from Berkeley. I will be there for about two weeks, and good adventures seem imminent. We have already booked an RV for the whole time, and our only plan so far is to eventually make it from Sydney to Melbourne.

Australia is massive. Almost as big as the contiguous US. Apparently, there’s not much in between the cities either, so it should be pretty and quite interesting. I am very much so looking forward to the trip, but am terrified after looking up videos of “Dangerous Australian Animals.” Mom and Dad, for your sakes, don’t look them up.

Sports

Never in my life have I had so much free time. It’s not that I’m necessarily bored in Auckland, it’s more that school here just isn’t nearly as demanding as back home (may have something to do with my affinity for “slacker classes”). So, I’ve been testing out a few new sports.

First off is rugby. Great sport. The Kiwis love it, are amazing at it, and are extremely forgiving teachers. We had an inter-residential tourney the other day, and I can say I’ve never had so much fun getting my ass kicked. Rugby is really hard, and extremely physically exerting. The comparisons to football make no sense, as rugby is nothing like football. In football, you have time to think and strategize. Rugby requires a lot of quick thinking and “just go for it” moves. Also, non-Americans like to say American football is sissy because we wear pads -  but I disagree with such a statement, as in Rugby, without helmets and pads, the hits aren’t nearly as hard.

Next are two that I have some familiarity with - Badminton and soccer. Badminton is probably the greatest game invented, because anyone can play and be pretty good, and when you’re in a competitive match you sweat your ass off. There are two reasons why I love soccer here. First off, the Kiwis call it soccer, and I really get sick of all the Euros saying “but it’s football!” I know you don’t play football with your foot, but the word “soccer” has the pizazz appropriated for a sport featuring players as metrosexual as Ronaldo. Secondly, I am on a motley crew of a team assembled from my housing complex, and the kids on it are hilarious. We have a few Malaysians, who are nice as hell but very tricky with their feet, a zealous Danish captain who writes up player reports every week, and a Chilean who, despite the gentle nature of some of our opponents, flagrantly fouls continuously during the games.

Next we have squash. Now I know squash is pretty big in some places back home, but here it’s huge. I tested it out with my Scottish buddy and got dizzy with how tiring it was. I’d like to get into it though, as it’s way more fun than tennis and a better workout.

Then there’s Cricket. I haven’t attempted to play and refuse to. Cricket is, without a doubt, the worst game ever invented. It’s way slower than baseball, more lazy than bowling, and about as exciting as a darts match in slow motion. I have no idea why the world enjoy this sport, and am glad that it isn’t big back home. The cricket world cup just happened, India won, and I was unfortunate enough to watch a few games with the Indians downstairs. No game should take five days and not even have a clear winner at the end of those. America - lets stick with baseball.

Lastly we have the game that I am confident the Americans will dominate in - beer olympics. We have a residential-wide tourney today, my partner being the Chilean. Other than the Kiwis (this is absolutely a country of alcoholics), I am positive the Americans will hand the competition their pride on a plate. USA! USA!

Kiwi Fun

Had a great time hanging with the Kiwis again last night. I feel very fortunate to have found a group of natives that I can hang out with. I didn’t come halfway across the world to hang out with all Americans.

Pi’s parents just bought this new house, which they are planning on tearing down, so we just partied in it last night. After we had exhausted hide-and-seek (the loser in each round had to finish their vessel), we got to pretty much just destroying the house, throwing things around everywhere, doing the usual nonsense.

Next, Joe (floor eggs) recommends we get a stripper, I’m down, all the guys are down, the Kiwi girls there is down, but the American girls with me are not. Freaking prude Americans. Thats what I love about the Kiwis, they just love doing crazy things for the story, regardless of the cost.

Also, the guys showed me their sacred tattoo, which I have never heard about before. On all of their left ass cheeks, they have inked in “SWC”, which stands for “Sperm Whale Crew”. I would love to have that on my ass. I’ll see what I can do about that.

Mardi Gras

(Note: Pardon any spelling errors in this entry. My computer is sticky from heaps of beer and some green substance, so typing is quite difficult)

Yesterday, in honor of the holiday American’s do best, Mardi Gras, we show the flats a good time!

Apparently, Mardi Gras is not that big of a deal to the Europeans. The British folk tell us they do not participate in any of this drinking and bead debauchery. No, instead, they call it “Pancake Tuesday”, and eat pancakes all day. Pancakes all day long - imagine the peace it must bring to that nation.

So, we opt for the better way to consume carbs and have a rousingly American time.  The beads were thrown, classic games like King’s Cup and Flip Cup are played (in red cups - the Brits all think it’s soooo cool that we party with red cups), and we paint the town red.

And by painting the town red I mean I opt out of the bars, and head straight for McDonald’s, where I feast upon the “Mac Attack” - a value meal consisting of two Big Macs, a large Coke, and a large fry, all for $11.50, which is a great deal, especially considering the exchange rate is the best it’s been since I arrived here (Go USD!). To cap it off, I order a double cheeseburger and ice cream cone on the walk home.

It is “Fat Tuesday” after all.

Meat Club

In honor of Joe's newfound meathood, I have joined the University of Auckland Meat Club. Yes, they have a Meat Club here. Pretty much all we do is just pay a little bit at the beginning of the semester and then every once in a while we all get together to talk about meat and eat all the meat we can. It's incredible. This may also be the place where I find my Kiwi bride...

Fast Times in Auckland

So, I’ve already been kicked out of my flat.

Things are going great here, I love the campus, Auckland is starting to grow on me, and I’ve met tons of great people. Apparently too many people.

I wake up the other day, and open up my email. There is one from Clive, the director of housing for UoA. Not just the Number 14 Flats (The complex I am in), but the entire housing.

The email, in short, informs me that I have been kicked out of Flat 10, due to the “raucous taco tuesdays”.  I am a bit taken aback, but not willing to go quietly into the night. Flat 22 is willing to take me. Taco Tuesdays will live on.

Other than that, all of my classes are very interesting (probably because I didn’t take any biology classes), and I am quite glad I chose the University of Auckland. Auckland is really the only urban city in all of New Zealand, and I think I would have gotten a bit bored elsewhere.

I saw the Chemical Brothers the other day. Great concert, and and everybody over 30 reading this has no idea who they are. They do this song, as you may recall from that one Budweiser commercial

Christchurch Earthquake

After dropping Vince off at the airport last Saturday, I had planned on staying in Christchurch until the Queens of the Stone Age concert on Wednesday. So I was passing the time pretty uneventfully until then. On Tuesday the 22nd around 1PM I decided to get a falafel for lunch. I paid the falafel guy and was waiting in queueueue. Then the building started shaking, the power went out, and I ducked under a nearby table.

It was definitely the strongest earthquake I had felt, but I really didn't think it was gonna be that bad. The building I was in was fine for the most part and no one in it got hurt. To be honest, I was more annoyed by the earthquake than anything, I just wanted to get my falafel. As soon as the shaking stopped, someone yelled "everyone out" and we quickly left the building and fled towards the nearby park. It wasn't till I was outside that I started to get a sense for how damaging the earthquake really was. Many of the nearby buildings were in complete ruin. Everyone was kind of in shock. I saw some people who looked badly injured, but we were pushed towards the safety of the park.

There were a few strong aftershocks and a lot of panicked people trying to find loved ones. The city center was soon closed off and ambulances arrived. After a while, I started the long walk around the city center towards my hostel. I was able to take some pictures of the outskirts of the city but my camera ran out of batteries. Luckily for me, my hostel survived relatively unscathed. However, my board bag and clothes are stuck inside the hostel until the city center is reopened. My hostel is pretty close to Hotel Grand Chancellor, the tallest building in Christchurch, which is on the verge of collapsing. Until that building collapses (or someone makes it collapse) I probably won't be able to get my things, and I'm supposed to be here for about three more weeks.

But I'm not complaining!! I have been very lucky throughout the ordeal and have many things to be thankful for: 1) my life! 2) I happened to be wearing a backpack containing my computer, wallet, and passport and 3) a lot of people who care about me back home!

The first night after the quake I stayed with everyone who couldn't get into their hotel, hostel, or home in a giant tent. It was very nice to be sheltered as it had started to rain right after the earthquake. The next night I spent in a basketball gym. We were actually fed very well and I got to help at the Red Cross stations setting up food and makeshift beds. The scrapper in me was happy to get free food and a free place to sleep! I actually ate some meat for the first time in 4 years out of necessity and decided it was my "F-You" back to mother nature.

After two nights in desolated Christchurch, I headed south back to Dunedin to figure out some idea of what to do for the last month in NZ. One week after the quake, there is still no word on when they will allow people into the Christchurch city center, so my surf trip is on hold indefinitely. In the meantime, I might try a long hiking trip or maybe volunteer back in Christchurch. I'm jealous Vince got to see QOTSA and I didn't. I almost expected them to show up in Christchurch and play "The Sky is Falling" for all the refugees.

I won't be able to upload my earthquake photos till I can get my charger but here is a video someone shot with their iPhone of the area that I was in during the event: