Back to School

I'm feeling more settled in now that classes have been going on for nearly a week. It's still really cold here (one degree Celsius when I left for class at 8 this morning, and dark!), but we got a few days of warm sunshine which was wonderful. I dropped physics and switched it with an education class titled human development. It should lighten my course load a bit and sounds pretty interesting too.

I'm getting to know my three flatmates better and have been hanging out with them quite a bit. We're working out the whole living situation and have been cooking dinner together every night (the boys can pretty much only cook pasta, so I've been giving them lessons). Tonight we had a quiche that Ben made and garlic mashed potatoes, delicious! In terms of groceries, they have most things here that they have in the US, even peanut butter. Meat is really expensive her though, especially chicken which is upwards of six or eight dollars for a thigh.

Earlier this week I was feeling a bit trapped in the city. I really want to get out and see New Zealand but that's a bit difficult without a car. I was thinking of purchasing one with my flatmates, but wasn't really interested in spending the money and going through the hassle of finding a car, etc. On Wednesday they held Club and Socs day where all the clubs on campus set up booths and I stopped by the Tramping Club and signed up. They're a huge club on campus and are super active, with at least one or two overnight trips each weekend. I'm hoping to go on a trip next weekend. There'll be snow on the ground, and it'll definitely be cold, but I'm eager to get out there and see some of the New Zealand wilderness! Also, my mom is coming to visit in November during exams and then we'll travel around for a few weeks after school. I think we're going to try to get up to Abel Tasman National Park which is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.

This week is Re-O (Orientation) week so there's lots of partying going on around campus and in the city. All the bars have events every night like karaoke, pub quizzes, mechanical bulls, all day drinking festivals, free drinks, to lure in college students. There are definitely a fair number of people who have been drunk the entire week. Lots of kiwis have been wandering around campus in costumes, which I assume also has something to do with re-O week but haven't quite figured it out. We went to a couple bar quizzes this week, but most of the questions were all about New Zealand so our scores were pathetic. If I do that again in New Zealand I definitely need to get in with a Kiwi team. On Saturday there's a big rugby game in Dunedin, the Allblacks versus South Africa. They played each other last week and the All Black's won, so it should be a fun game to watch. I'll probably watch from a bar like I did last week, should be fun. If I can figure out a way to get out to go see the penguins on the Otago Peninsula, I'm going to try to do that too!