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:

Kiwi Music

Joe and I made this playlist of songs, for one reason or another, we've heard a bunch in New Zealand. They LOVE American pop music here, but also seem to be into a lot of really good music that wouldn't make it in the states because it's not mainstream enough.

First Week In Auckland

Great night last night. My friend Pie, who everyone has been saying is “pretty much the Indian version of Vince from New Zealand”, takes us to his buddy’s house and I get to really experience some authentic Kiwi house partying.

One of the guys has an Aunt who works for American Honey (the WIld Turkey whiskey drink), and apparently she got ahold of a batch that somehow had gone sour (the sugar was crystallizing). Obviously, we could care less about some sugar in our whiskey, so we have a massive batch all to ourselves.

My buddy Nick put it well yesterday, “Drinking with the Kiwis is like drinking with Hobbits.”  They’re just such a cheery little bunch. We spend the night singing, playing games, singing some more, and asking trivia off of our beer bottles.

To top off the night, Joe, the guy who’s house we were at, decides to make us all food. Somehow he manages to spill an entire carton of eggs on the ground, but we are not deterred. Joe and I scoop the eggs into a frying pan, straight off the ground, and happily serve the party “floor eggs”. They were a bit chalky, crunchy from the shells, and absolutely superb.

We look straight out of “Superbad”, all drinking our malfunctioning whiskey and munching on floor eggs. Joe would have been proud.

This morning, I wake up and find this note on the kitchen counter:

If you  can't read it, it says "Message from Joe. Have gone to dispose of beer bottles & pick up some more floor eggs possibly bacon too"

Joe returns, and we all feast on hangover eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh milk, bread, and a mixture of beans and canned spaghetti that I expect Joe must be salivating over...

Other than that, things have been great here. I start school on Monday, only have class from Monday-Wednesday, have met heaps of great people here, and accumulated some blog-inappropriate stories along the way. Oh, and I saw Joe’s favorite band, The Queens of the Stone Age.

Joe was supposed to see them in Christchurch, but, as he playfully put “Christchurch concert rocked my world!! Oh wait that was an earthquake.”