Kia Ora! Wednesday nights have become another sort of date night with Mary, Nicole, and myself. We usually don't get to see each other on Tuesdays, so on Wednesday's we head downtown to get crepes and/or gelato. I always get the nutella crepe, but I've been eying the pickles and cheese one. Sounds disgusting I know, but I actually really like pickles and cheese together. Plus the menu says its the most recommended. So I finally ordered it, and then I see the crepe maker put some sort of nasty looking mix of pickles, goo, and some other crap onto my crepe. My heart dropped, and I am now very nervous to eat this thing. So we grabbed a bench, I dug in and almost threw up. I took one bite, asked if anyone else wanted to try it (of course everyone said no), and then promptly threw it away. I then headed to a Fix (convenience store) to grab some ice cream as I'm not so impressed with the gelato here, although Mary is obsessed. However, they have the best ice cream bars here. My favorites have vanilla ice cream covered in either caramel or this raspberry goo and then chocolate.
Thursday brought an interesting day in studio. We were told to bring any materials we had lying around and some tools. Of course I have neither. At home, I have heaps of all that stuff, but I didn't really feel like packing all that. As there are two different sites for studio, we were going to build a quick model of both sites. We did a little bit of topography, since its a huge factor on the site I'm doing, and then we built up all the buildings. Martin, my professor, wanted us to play around with the buildings and show him what what we wanted to knock down and how we wanted to build up the area with new buildings, and of course any other ideas we have. I felt pretty useless during the model building without tools. Once I got my hands on some scissors, a girl from the other group begged to use them since almost nobody had brought any tools in their group. So there I stood watching everyone else work and feeling stupid. Side note: What we call exacto knives they call scalpels. I felt like I was in the middle of doing surgery on my site. Kiwis also say the word idea with an r. It is more like idear, and well it sort of drives me crazy, but I'm getting used to it since I hear it so much.
Friday I had a mid crit for Colour, Pattern, & Light. This paper makes me feel like a semi stupid yet intelligent five-year old. I have a hard time with the abstract stuff, and what I think is right isn't always right because I just don't get it. Part of the assignment was to analyze a painting and then create two compositions from that painting with two of the same colours. I had a lot of stuff going on in mine, and the tutors told me it was too much and that I needed to simplify it. So one of them basically told me what I could do, so I went with it. I wasn't super happy with how they turned out, but it was something, and by this time I was just frustrated. So during mid crits, I realize what I now have is all wrong, and I should have stayed with my originals. I am dreading going up to present because I know she's going to hate them. I could see on the slide show that mine was next, so I get up and walk half way across the room, and then she skips me! I'm sort of annoyed yet completely relieved. Maybe she thought mine was that bad, she didn't even want the class to see it. But we never made it through all of them anyways. It hit 3:30 and I left with others following suit.
Friday night seemed to last forever. It probably didn't help that Erica, Jen, and I ordered dinner really early, so it felt like the night dragged on. But then Theresa came upstairs by us and we all just hung out for a while and had some fun before going out for the night. We had some fun at Boogie Wonderland where the 70s will never die. The best moment of the night was after we had split ways, and Mary, Nicole, and I are walking down Cuba, and this man stops on the street off to the side of Mary and starts running his hands up and down his legs while heavily breathing and staring at Mary. Probably one of those moments you had to be there for but I don't know how Nicole and I didn't pee our pants from laughing so hard.
After we got back I met up with you guessed it, Mary and Nicole, to do a bit of shopping and to see a movie. Surprisingly enough it was a New Zealand movie. Most everything here from movies, tv, and music is American because NZ doesn't have the money to support it all. We then did some grocery shopping, and had no idea what to do with ourselves for the rest of the night. Mary suggested we go back to her place and watch some Sex and the City and eat our tim tams. (Tim Tams are like NZ's most popular cookie. They are amazing.) We quickly agreed to this idea. Time flew by between watching episodes and laughing hysterically at stories. Before we knew it, it was 2:00 am, and Nicole was falling asleep.
Today, we're heading to Zealandia. I'm not exactly sure what it is. Something to do with nature and animals. I'll be back to blog about it later. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Exploding Toilets
Kia Ora! I cannot believe I forgot to blog about this. Yesterday I came home to find my flatmate Jen sitting in front of the tv with a blank face. I don't think she knew how to react. On the news, they were talking about the earthquake in Christ Church and how it messed with their sewers creating exploding toilets. Not cool. So the residents of Christ Church not only are trying to pick up their lives, but are also trying to stay safe from their exploding toilets. I have no idea if any have actually exploded, but there is a definite concern. They showed people's toilets with heavy items sitting on top to hold all the sewage in if perhaps it would explode. I'm not sure what they're doing in the mean time when they have to go. Are they going outside? Or are they taking the chance of using the toilet? All I know is that I sure as hell would not want to be sitting on that toilet when and if it did explode. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Kia Ora,
Laura
Down the Rabbit Hole
Kia Ora! Not much to report this past week. It was a pretty typical week of school. We did a precedent study for studio on Victoria Park specifically Green Square near Sydney, Australia. However, there wasn't much to study since it hasn't been built yet. So now we're starting to design since the project is due in about three weeks. Time sure flies by here. It's like there is no Tuesday or Wednesday. I have studio on Mondays and Thursdays, and it feels like Thursday immediately comes after Monday. And of course the weekends always disappear. I'm also doing this group project in Intro to Practice and Management. It is an interdisciplinary project consisting of landscape architects, architects, interior architects, and a building science major who works as our project manager. It is a really crappy project, but I'll probably learn a lot from it. It is super hard finding time for all of us to meet, and one of the girls has a baby, which creates a totally different schedule for all of us. Super annoying.
Thursday was a blast. We headed downtown for St. Patty's day. There was almost no green seen at all during the day, but the second we hit downtown, green flooded the streets. The lines outside the Irish pubs were ridiculous, so we headed to Alice, which is a small bar hidden inside Boogie Wonderland. The drinks are based around Alice in Wonderland. We got a large bottle full of fruit and all sorts of alcohol for ten dollars. The big jugs were half off that night. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but it was cheap, and way better than beer. After two jugs, we all decided to get our own drinks. I got an Off With Her Head consisting of raspberries and tequila. Jess had the best drink of the night. Curiouser and Curiouser, consisting of kiwi fruit, possibly kiwi fruit vodka, ginger beer, amaretto, and te taki or somethin another, which is an old magical Maori alcohol. It was sooooo good. Definitely getting one of those when I go back. Anyways, we had a blast there. A lot of laughing going on. Of course on the way home, it started pouring, so Nicole and I figured we should stop at a bar until it let up. Sometime before this, a random guy came up and asked if we knew where some bar was. He continued to walk with us and ended up buying us drinks. Needless to say, it was a great St. Patty's.
The weekend was pretty unexciting. We went down to Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. It was cool for a while, but after floor three or four, it just got boring, but now I can say I've been there. Sunday brought me a lovely break up, which called for crepes and alcohol. We grabbed some Cruiser wine spritzers and headed to the park to drink at the fountain. This brought on a lot more laughing and an amazing night with good friends.
Tonight was very exciting. It started with date night at the famous pizza place, where we tried a new pizza with buffalo mozzarella. Apparently it is cheese from buffalo milk. Sounds disgusting, tastes delicious. It's all of ours new favorite. Nicole and I then booked our fall break trip to Sydney, Australia!!!! We're going with Jess, who is staying with some family friends, which means a free place to stay! I also found a super cheap flight to Tonga, which is one of the South Pacific islands, for the time in June that I have off. We've been talking about it in Peopling of Polynesia, and I am super duper excited for that. We're hoping to book that one in the next few days. So many things to look forward to. I just wish time wasn't disappearing before my eyes. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Thursday was a blast. We headed downtown for St. Patty's day. There was almost no green seen at all during the day, but the second we hit downtown, green flooded the streets. The lines outside the Irish pubs were ridiculous, so we headed to Alice, which is a small bar hidden inside Boogie Wonderland. The drinks are based around Alice in Wonderland. We got a large bottle full of fruit and all sorts of alcohol for ten dollars. The big jugs were half off that night. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but it was cheap, and way better than beer. After two jugs, we all decided to get our own drinks. I got an Off With Her Head consisting of raspberries and tequila. Jess had the best drink of the night. Curiouser and Curiouser, consisting of kiwi fruit, possibly kiwi fruit vodka, ginger beer, amaretto, and te taki or somethin another, which is an old magical Maori alcohol. It was sooooo good. Definitely getting one of those when I go back. Anyways, we had a blast there. A lot of laughing going on. Of course on the way home, it started pouring, so Nicole and I figured we should stop at a bar until it let up. Sometime before this, a random guy came up and asked if we knew where some bar was. He continued to walk with us and ended up buying us drinks. Needless to say, it was a great St. Patty's.
The weekend was pretty unexciting. We went down to Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. It was cool for a while, but after floor three or four, it just got boring, but now I can say I've been there. Sunday brought me a lovely break up, which called for crepes and alcohol. We grabbed some Cruiser wine spritzers and headed to the park to drink at the fountain. This brought on a lot more laughing and an amazing night with good friends.
Tonight was very exciting. It started with date night at the famous pizza place, where we tried a new pizza with buffalo mozzarella. Apparently it is cheese from buffalo milk. Sounds disgusting, tastes delicious. It's all of ours new favorite. Nicole and I then booked our fall break trip to Sydney, Australia!!!! We're going with Jess, who is staying with some family friends, which means a free place to stay! I also found a super cheap flight to Tonga, which is one of the South Pacific islands, for the time in June that I have off. We've been talking about it in Peopling of Polynesia, and I am super duper excited for that. We're hoping to book that one in the next few days. So many things to look forward to. I just wish time wasn't disappearing before my eyes. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Tramp Champs
Kia Ora! So this weekend was quite the adventure. It started out with the rental car. I went to pick it up Friday afternoon expecting an older sort of crappy car. Not the case at all. It was a super nice Toyota Camry. The guy told me it was the furthest one, and I was like wait a sec. That can't be it, but it was. So fuel here is a bit ridiculous. The rental place had a deal that if you buy the first tank from them, you pay 20% off, and you don't have to fill up before you bring it back. So that is what I did. It was a 70 liter tank and cost me $122. Don't forget that is NZ dollars, so its cheaper in US dollars, but expensive nonetheless.
So Emmi met me at the rental place to ride back up the hill with me for moral support. Driving on the right side of the car and in the left lane is quite strange at first. Plus the drivers here are crazy. At least in Wellington. The worst part was the roads that go up the hill we live on. They twist and turn, and you can't see other cars coming, and they're typically only wide enough for one car. Not a good combination, but I made it through without a scratch. Just a few curb checks. So we packed up the car and headed up the West coast towards Tongariro National Park. I drove for the first hour until we stopped for some fish and chips, and then Emmi wanted to experience New Zealand driving, so she drove us the rest of the way there. The last two hours or so were in the dark on some really curvy roads. We knew we had to be in some kind of hills, but had no idea what our surroundings were. But the moon was bright and there were tons of stars, and occasionally we would catch the glimpse of the hill silhouettes.
We arrived at the lodge to find that the dorm we were staying in was completely full and co-ed. That was a bit strange, but everyone seemed really nice. We went to bed right away because we had to get up bright and early as the bus was leaving at 7:30 for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. As we pulled out of the parking lot, a huge volcano loomed out in front of us. We definitely did not see that the night before. The bus headed towards the volcano and dropped a load of us off and said a bus will be on the other side to pick you up at 3:30 or 4:30. So we headed out. Now this is a 17 km (10.5 mi) hike through a volcanic area. I had no idea what was in store for us.
Boy was it sunny. Sometimes I couldn't even see where I was walking because it was just so bright. We made it through the first 4km with ease. It was relatively flat land with a few rocks to climb. No sweat. And then it changes drastically.
It got hard real fast. Hills, hills, and more hills. Actually, you're pretty much climbing up the side of the volcano. I wish I could have rented the body of an athletic person for the day. Oh well, I made it, and I am damn proud of all of us. So we continued to hike up the volcano with quite a few stops to breathe. Every time I thought we were on top I would look up to see more hill towering over me. This next picture is still only about 2/3 of the way up. Maybe a bit more. To get here, we had to hike through a huge crater and up another hill. Although the hills were awful, the sights made it all worth it. Plus it gave us time to catch our breath.
So the next hill we climbed up, I thought I was going to fall off. The trailed is marked with poles, and the people we happened to be following (there were hundreds of other people doing this hike as well) went the wrong way at one point. They went to the far side of this cliff like area. It wasn't until they were almost all the way over that they realized they had gone the wrong way. I was right in the middle at this point with no one really behind me. Nicole and Mary were at the point that they could still go the correct way. I had the choice of turning around or going forward. I went forward. Bad idea. There was a point where I couldn't really move because there was nothing for me to grab onto. I really thought I was going to fall off. Somehow I made it, and no Mom I did not need to change my underwear. After that hill, we stopped for lunch with just about everyone else on the hike. There was a pretty flat area with tons of rocks to sit on, As we moved on we walked to the ridge and realized there was this other amazing view we had no idea was there.
We had to then hike up yet another hill, but this wasn't nearly as bad, and then I looked down.
This is the path I slid down.
We continued on through another crater like area for one final big hill. More of a baby hill in comparison. Here we got to see another glittering lake. Not quite as vibrant colored as the Emerald Lakes, but still beautiful. Then the hike downhill began. This required us to go around the sides of hills and then twisting and turning down the hill. All the while looking out at this view.
The only problem with this is that the trails are not even close to being smooth so you constantly have to watch where you are walking instead of looking at the view. At this point we still had about an hour and a half to two hours left. I was over it at this point. I knew there wasn't going to be anything more to look at it, and my body was finally starting to really get tired and really hurt. For some reason the rest of the way down, we had a lot of people run past us. Still can't figure out why. First of all, I can't even comprehend how anybody could physically run at that point and how did they not topple down the hill? My first thought was that maybe they were trying to catch a bus, but after realizing how much further we had to go yet, there was no way they were going to make that bus.
So this whole time there were no trees. On the way down, there were some small trees, maybe they could even be called shrubs, and then out of nowhere we were in a forest. It just popped out of nowhere. Or maybe I was so out of it, I didn't realize it. This trail went on forever and ever. This is where I compared it to The Never Ending Story, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't over yet. And every time we made it down hill some more, we had to go up another hill. Why? Of course I know why. Its the stupid topography, but why did the trail have to go through that particular spot? I don't know if we were all crabby at this point or just me, but none of us were talking anymore. I thought for sure the end was just around the bend, but it never was, at least until it really was the end. I have never been so happy to see a bus in my life. We made the 3:30 bus, and there was still room for all five of us. We did 17km up and down hills in 7.5 hours. I don't know how I am still alive, but I made it! Needless to say, we all passed out on the bus. It was an absolutely amazing adventure, and I am soooo glad I did it, but I will never do it again.
So we got back to the lodge and showered because we all stunk. On our way to find some dinner, we ran into one of Sam's flatmates, who happened to be staying at the lodge we got food at. Small world. We ran into Sam the last time we went on a trip. The rest of the night we hung out in the lounge area and rested our aching bodies. I think we all were asleep just moments after our heads hit the pillow only to wake up even more sore than the day before.
The drive back was nice. We finally got to see what we had been driving through Friday night, and boy was it beautiful. Hills, hill, and more hills, but these hills were green. We even stopped on the side of the road to see a waterfall.
Last but not least, on the way there we had seen a Burger Wisconsin. They advertise as the best burgers in the world. As Emmi and I are both from Wisconsin, we felt the need to stop there for lunch, but sadly they were not open. =(
Well guys, sorry for the long post, but I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
So Emmi met me at the rental place to ride back up the hill with me for moral support. Driving on the right side of the car and in the left lane is quite strange at first. Plus the drivers here are crazy. At least in Wellington. The worst part was the roads that go up the hill we live on. They twist and turn, and you can't see other cars coming, and they're typically only wide enough for one car. Not a good combination, but I made it through without a scratch. Just a few curb checks. So we packed up the car and headed up the West coast towards Tongariro National Park. I drove for the first hour until we stopped for some fish and chips, and then Emmi wanted to experience New Zealand driving, so she drove us the rest of the way there. The last two hours or so were in the dark on some really curvy roads. We knew we had to be in some kind of hills, but had no idea what our surroundings were. But the moon was bright and there were tons of stars, and occasionally we would catch the glimpse of the hill silhouettes.
We arrived at the lodge to find that the dorm we were staying in was completely full and co-ed. That was a bit strange, but everyone seemed really nice. We went to bed right away because we had to get up bright and early as the bus was leaving at 7:30 for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. As we pulled out of the parking lot, a huge volcano loomed out in front of us. We definitely did not see that the night before. The bus headed towards the volcano and dropped a load of us off and said a bus will be on the other side to pick you up at 3:30 or 4:30. So we headed out. Now this is a 17 km (10.5 mi) hike through a volcanic area. I had no idea what was in store for us.
Boy was it sunny. Sometimes I couldn't even see where I was walking because it was just so bright. We made it through the first 4km with ease. It was relatively flat land with a few rocks to climb. No sweat. And then it changes drastically.
So the next hill we climbed up, I thought I was going to fall off. The trailed is marked with poles, and the people we happened to be following (there were hundreds of other people doing this hike as well) went the wrong way at one point. They went to the far side of this cliff like area. It wasn't until they were almost all the way over that they realized they had gone the wrong way. I was right in the middle at this point with no one really behind me. Nicole and Mary were at the point that they could still go the correct way. I had the choice of turning around or going forward. I went forward. Bad idea. There was a point where I couldn't really move because there was nothing for me to grab onto. I really thought I was going to fall off. Somehow I made it, and no Mom I did not need to change my underwear. After that hill, we stopped for lunch with just about everyone else on the hike. There was a pretty flat area with tons of rocks to sit on, As we moved on we walked to the ridge and realized there was this other amazing view we had no idea was there.
The only problem with this is that the trails are not even close to being smooth so you constantly have to watch where you are walking instead of looking at the view. At this point we still had about an hour and a half to two hours left. I was over it at this point. I knew there wasn't going to be anything more to look at it, and my body was finally starting to really get tired and really hurt. For some reason the rest of the way down, we had a lot of people run past us. Still can't figure out why. First of all, I can't even comprehend how anybody could physically run at that point and how did they not topple down the hill? My first thought was that maybe they were trying to catch a bus, but after realizing how much further we had to go yet, there was no way they were going to make that bus.
So this whole time there were no trees. On the way down, there were some small trees, maybe they could even be called shrubs, and then out of nowhere we were in a forest. It just popped out of nowhere. Or maybe I was so out of it, I didn't realize it. This trail went on forever and ever. This is where I compared it to The Never Ending Story, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't over yet. And every time we made it down hill some more, we had to go up another hill. Why? Of course I know why. Its the stupid topography, but why did the trail have to go through that particular spot? I don't know if we were all crabby at this point or just me, but none of us were talking anymore. I thought for sure the end was just around the bend, but it never was, at least until it really was the end. I have never been so happy to see a bus in my life. We made the 3:30 bus, and there was still room for all five of us. We did 17km up and down hills in 7.5 hours. I don't know how I am still alive, but I made it! Needless to say, we all passed out on the bus. It was an absolutely amazing adventure, and I am soooo glad I did it, but I will never do it again.
So we got back to the lodge and showered because we all stunk. On our way to find some dinner, we ran into one of Sam's flatmates, who happened to be staying at the lodge we got food at. Small world. We ran into Sam the last time we went on a trip. The rest of the night we hung out in the lounge area and rested our aching bodies. I think we all were asleep just moments after our heads hit the pillow only to wake up even more sore than the day before.
The drive back was nice. We finally got to see what we had been driving through Friday night, and boy was it beautiful. Hills, hill, and more hills, but these hills were green. We even stopped on the side of the road to see a waterfall.
Kia Ora,
Laura
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Bagels, Class, and Rain
Kia Ora! So this weekend was kind of rainy and crappy, but that never keeps us from having fun. Mary and I headed down to the waterfront for a jewelry and accessories sale. Except we got there and it was kind of a bust. There was really nothing there. We didn't even look at anything. Oh well. We ended up walking quite a bit of the waterfront until we hit a residential area and decided to turn back. We wandered around some more to find lunch. We decided on Wholly Bagels. So good. And Mary has this obsession with bagels. She'll pretty much eat them anytime. I don't even have to ask her if she wants one. Anyways, had an awesome sandwich there. Jalapeno and cheddar bagel with ham and garlic and herb schmear. We continued the day with some shopping. Our plan for the night was to drink at home and then head out into the city. We were going to go to this bar called Alice. It is sort of based off Alice in Wonderland. I dropped in one time to find some of my friends with this awesome drink. No idea what it was, but it was a big bottle filled with fruit and some delicious sort of liquid. It was relatively cheap as well, which is why we really wanted to go. Although Mary was very much intrigued by the idea of drinking alcohol out of a teacup. But nonetheless it ended up pouring, so we continued to drink our Vodka Cruisers at home. Of course the night was filled with laughing anyways.
Sunday is usually our day for the market. We decided not to go because of the rain, but I woke up to a text from Nicole asking me to go anyways. So we trekked down in a bit of a drizzle, and then grabbed lunch at Wholly Bagels again. Yeah I know, twice in one weekend is a lot, but who cares. It is too good to care.
This past week has been pretty quiet. I haven't had much homework yet, which is soooo weird. I actually haven't been able to hang out with some people because they have homework, and I don't. I don't think that's ever happened to be since I started college. So for studio, I picked the Memorial Park site partly because I never made it out to Petone this past weekend, and partly because I like the site better. Mary walked around Memorial with me on Saturday, but I wasn't really sure what Memorial consists of because its not really a park, more of a neighborhood I guess. So we wandered around. Later I found out I was in fact in the right area, and its up to me to decide what the site boundaries are.
Colour, Pattern, & Light is still strange, but talking with the professor one on one, it is much easier to understand her. Although she told us she would be gone this Friday, I guess that's today, and all of next week. She then proceeded to tell us something about going to City Gallery on Tuesday. No idea what was going on, so I asked her later. I still have no idea what's going on. She said I can go to the gallery, or I could come to class. But I have to sign in at class, so I think I have to be there, at least for five minutes anyways. Who knows. She's nuts.
As for Peopling of Polynesia, I still don't have a tutorial that will work with my schedule, and he hasn't made a comment to me about what to do, because he definitely did not make an extra tutorial. It would be fantastic if I didn't have to go. Speaking of tutorials, my Intro to Practice and Management tutorial, not so great. We had to figure out how many weeks a project would take with all the tasks involved. Had I had a computer program or more time or something I could have done it, but she gave us this stupid work sheet to do it on, and there was no way any of us were figuring it out. It was way to complicated for that little work sheet. And the tutor really didn't feel like helping us out. She showed us the completed work sheet at the end. Absolutely no idea how it was done.
Some random things: The other night walking out of the grocery store, a group of young guys walked past us and said, "Hello New Zealand girls." Apparently we look Kiwi. Although they were probably foreign and assumed everyone here is a Kiwi.
The other day Mary and I were eating a crepe, and a couple came up and asked us for directions. Surprise surprise. We seem to be the direction queens, or at least people seem to think so. This time I actually knew what to tell them. Or so I thought. As we walked away a few minutes later, I realized I told them to turn the wrong way. Man I really thought I knew what I was talking about. Although the place they were looking for wasn't far down the road, so maybe they found it anyways.
I'm pretty sure every girl in this country must own at least five pairs of tights. They wear them with everything. Dresses, skirts, shorts, heels, tennies, jandals. I feel like I need to buy some. And there are a lot of girls here who dress up for class, and I mean dress up. Like going out or party dresses. Its nuts. I guess its an excuse to wear something you don't wear very often otherwise.
Toilet Issues: Ok so to flush the toilet here, most of the toilet have a button like you push. Typically, you have two options: half a flush or full flush depending on what you did. These are super easy to use, and then I came across the first stall on the second floor of Te Aro. It has this crazy handle thing that I have no idea what to do with. I have turned it every which way possible, and it only gives me about a quarter of a flush. Not helpful. None of the other toilets have this weird thing. Needless to say, I try not to use that one if at all possible.
Last note: This weekend Mary, Nicole, Devon, Emmi, and I are renting a car and heading to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is in the Tongariro National Park, and is supposed to be in the top ten day trips in the entire world. It is 17km and takes anywhere from 7-9 hours. And I don't think there are trees anywhere. Should be interesting. But we're all super excited. I'll be sure to update when I get back. If anybody wants to check it out ahead of time here's the link.
http://www.nationalpark.co.nz/tongariro-alpine-crossing/tongariro-alpine-crossing
Wish me luck, until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Sunday is usually our day for the market. We decided not to go because of the rain, but I woke up to a text from Nicole asking me to go anyways. So we trekked down in a bit of a drizzle, and then grabbed lunch at Wholly Bagels again. Yeah I know, twice in one weekend is a lot, but who cares. It is too good to care.
This past week has been pretty quiet. I haven't had much homework yet, which is soooo weird. I actually haven't been able to hang out with some people because they have homework, and I don't. I don't think that's ever happened to be since I started college. So for studio, I picked the Memorial Park site partly because I never made it out to Petone this past weekend, and partly because I like the site better. Mary walked around Memorial with me on Saturday, but I wasn't really sure what Memorial consists of because its not really a park, more of a neighborhood I guess. So we wandered around. Later I found out I was in fact in the right area, and its up to me to decide what the site boundaries are.
Colour, Pattern, & Light is still strange, but talking with the professor one on one, it is much easier to understand her. Although she told us she would be gone this Friday, I guess that's today, and all of next week. She then proceeded to tell us something about going to City Gallery on Tuesday. No idea what was going on, so I asked her later. I still have no idea what's going on. She said I can go to the gallery, or I could come to class. But I have to sign in at class, so I think I have to be there, at least for five minutes anyways. Who knows. She's nuts.
As for Peopling of Polynesia, I still don't have a tutorial that will work with my schedule, and he hasn't made a comment to me about what to do, because he definitely did not make an extra tutorial. It would be fantastic if I didn't have to go. Speaking of tutorials, my Intro to Practice and Management tutorial, not so great. We had to figure out how many weeks a project would take with all the tasks involved. Had I had a computer program or more time or something I could have done it, but she gave us this stupid work sheet to do it on, and there was no way any of us were figuring it out. It was way to complicated for that little work sheet. And the tutor really didn't feel like helping us out. She showed us the completed work sheet at the end. Absolutely no idea how it was done.
Some random things: The other night walking out of the grocery store, a group of young guys walked past us and said, "Hello New Zealand girls." Apparently we look Kiwi. Although they were probably foreign and assumed everyone here is a Kiwi.
The other day Mary and I were eating a crepe, and a couple came up and asked us for directions. Surprise surprise. We seem to be the direction queens, or at least people seem to think so. This time I actually knew what to tell them. Or so I thought. As we walked away a few minutes later, I realized I told them to turn the wrong way. Man I really thought I knew what I was talking about. Although the place they were looking for wasn't far down the road, so maybe they found it anyways.
I'm pretty sure every girl in this country must own at least five pairs of tights. They wear them with everything. Dresses, skirts, shorts, heels, tennies, jandals. I feel like I need to buy some. And there are a lot of girls here who dress up for class, and I mean dress up. Like going out or party dresses. Its nuts. I guess its an excuse to wear something you don't wear very often otherwise.
Toilet Issues: Ok so to flush the toilet here, most of the toilet have a button like you push. Typically, you have two options: half a flush or full flush depending on what you did. These are super easy to use, and then I came across the first stall on the second floor of Te Aro. It has this crazy handle thing that I have no idea what to do with. I have turned it every which way possible, and it only gives me about a quarter of a flush. Not helpful. None of the other toilets have this weird thing. Needless to say, I try not to use that one if at all possible.
Last note: This weekend Mary, Nicole, Devon, Emmi, and I are renting a car and heading to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is in the Tongariro National Park, and is supposed to be in the top ten day trips in the entire world. It is 17km and takes anywhere from 7-9 hours. And I don't think there are trees anywhere. Should be interesting. But we're all super excited. I'll be sure to update when I get back. If anybody wants to check it out ahead of time here's the link.
http://www.nationalpark.co.nz/tongariro-alpine-crossing/tongariro-alpine-crossing
Wish me luck, until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Friday, March 4, 2011
Earthquakes Galore
Kia Ora! Well the wind is still a blowin. Wellington is known as Windy Welly. Mary said I looked like I was on a roller coaster today because my hair was flying backwards and my mouth was open real wide from laughing about the wind. Apparently there were two more earthquakes today! But I didn't know about either of them. One happened last night around 2:30. It seems it woke a lot of people up, but not me of course. Supposedly another small one hit early this afternoon. Helen says this isn't normal, but Wellington is overdue for a big one. Apparently there is a fault line in Wellington. I walk over it every day, and I had no idea. It's literally about halfway down the hill from my house, but Helen reassured us that our house is very safe if there would be a big earthquake. The houses here are built to withstand an 8.0 earthquake. That's good news.
So classes for the rest of the week. Studio wasn't too bad. Everyone seems to be really nice. There's even another American. He's from Pennsylvania and goes to Penn State, but I didn't catch if he's landscape or architecture. They started out showing us a bunch of mapping they've done with their firms. For those of you who know how much I love mapping, you can imagine my joy when he told us what we would be doing. But the good thing is that it was all very familiar to me. They were very curious to know how we do some things in the States. For our project we get to pick from two different sites. However, we don't go out as a class. So I need to make my way out to both of them this weekend. One is called Petone. Its apparently in the suburbs and is part of the beach and waterfront. The other is Memorial Park. I think that one is quite close to campus. Of course everyone else is already familiar with these, and I don't have a clue.
I went to Colour, Pattern, & Light today with a positive attitude, sat down, and then she started talking. Not good. Instantly I said, "I can't do this. She's gonna drive me nuts". After a few minutes of discussion, we were supposed to head to computers to start our exercise, analyzing a painting. I walked out the door. I went to find out if there were any openings in the Digital Representation paper. There was, which was really exciting, and then I looked at the time it is offered. Of course it conflicts with my schedule. All the fun papers conflict with my schedule. Somethin about being an architecture major. So this means I have to go back to class. Bummer. So I grabbed a computer not really knowing what I'm supposed to be doing because she's so hard to understand. Well I wasn't the only one. I'm also not the only one who doesn't want to be in that paper. The IA kids have to take it and couldn't believe I was taking it for fun. They were recommending a bunch of other papers to take, but I don't think they'll work out. Oh well. I'll suffer along with them, and in the end will know a lot of worthless crap.
So that iced chocolate thing I talked about a while ago...they're not any good anywhere else. The cafe at the Botanical Gardens is the only good one I've had. I have been very unimpressed and don't really want to order another one anywhere else. And there are these biscuits called afghan biscuits. I've seen them around a lot, and finally broke down and tried one today. I'm not really sure how I feel about them. It is a chocolate cookie with some icing and a walnut on top, but there is somethin crunchy inside, and I have no idea what it is. It was okay, but I wouldn't buy one again. I just looked up the recipe. The crunchy stuff is cornflakes. Weird. Speaking of food, there are these kebab places all over town. My first thought was meat on a stick. Not so much. It is meat in a big tortilla, and then its like subway. You get to put on whatever you want. It sort of reminds me of Chipotle because kebabs are huge. So we have been trying to get to this place called Abrakebabra...I love the name...cracks me up every time...but whenever we want it we can't seem to find it. But we made note of where it was the next time we saw it. So we finally ate dinner there tonight. They're not my new favorite food, but they're pretty darn good. I got lamb with some onions, carrots, lettuce, and garlic yogurt sauce. Lexie you'd be disappointed in me. I couldn't finish it, but I wanted to save room for a crepe. There's a tiny crepe stand across the street, and I had yet to have one. It was delicious.
Before dinner, there was an international student welcome party down at the Pipitea campus, which is downtown by Parliament. Anyways, they had free food and alcohol. That advertisement will get any college kid to come. But when Mary and I got there they were out of food, had lots of drinks left but no glasses. We made a beeline for the table when we saw they had some clean glasses. So I got some wine and juice and all was good, except for the food factor, but then people started coming in with random food. First was Dominos pizza. Speaking of, they have crazy pizza. BBQ sauce seems to be pretty popular, and its damn good. Then they brought in some sushi, sandwiches, and fruit kebabs. The fruit kebabs were real kebabs. Although its all international, Americans seem to take up the majority, and most of them are from my group, AustraLearn, so we knew a lot of people there.
Side note: Some of must look like Kiwis because we have been asked for directions too many times. Last night we were in a dairy to get some ice cream, and this man is walking by on the street, turns in, comes straight to me and sort of whispers, "I'm looking for this Irish Pub". I stopped him right away to tell him that we're not from here. So we all kind of laughed and he walked away. We laughed some more after he left. Anyways, I'm off to bed. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
So classes for the rest of the week. Studio wasn't too bad. Everyone seems to be really nice. There's even another American. He's from Pennsylvania and goes to Penn State, but I didn't catch if he's landscape or architecture. They started out showing us a bunch of mapping they've done with their firms. For those of you who know how much I love mapping, you can imagine my joy when he told us what we would be doing. But the good thing is that it was all very familiar to me. They were very curious to know how we do some things in the States. For our project we get to pick from two different sites. However, we don't go out as a class. So I need to make my way out to both of them this weekend. One is called Petone. Its apparently in the suburbs and is part of the beach and waterfront. The other is Memorial Park. I think that one is quite close to campus. Of course everyone else is already familiar with these, and I don't have a clue.
I went to Colour, Pattern, & Light today with a positive attitude, sat down, and then she started talking. Not good. Instantly I said, "I can't do this. She's gonna drive me nuts". After a few minutes of discussion, we were supposed to head to computers to start our exercise, analyzing a painting. I walked out the door. I went to find out if there were any openings in the Digital Representation paper. There was, which was really exciting, and then I looked at the time it is offered. Of course it conflicts with my schedule. All the fun papers conflict with my schedule. Somethin about being an architecture major. So this means I have to go back to class. Bummer. So I grabbed a computer not really knowing what I'm supposed to be doing because she's so hard to understand. Well I wasn't the only one. I'm also not the only one who doesn't want to be in that paper. The IA kids have to take it and couldn't believe I was taking it for fun. They were recommending a bunch of other papers to take, but I don't think they'll work out. Oh well. I'll suffer along with them, and in the end will know a lot of worthless crap.
So that iced chocolate thing I talked about a while ago...they're not any good anywhere else. The cafe at the Botanical Gardens is the only good one I've had. I have been very unimpressed and don't really want to order another one anywhere else. And there are these biscuits called afghan biscuits. I've seen them around a lot, and finally broke down and tried one today. I'm not really sure how I feel about them. It is a chocolate cookie with some icing and a walnut on top, but there is somethin crunchy inside, and I have no idea what it is. It was okay, but I wouldn't buy one again. I just looked up the recipe. The crunchy stuff is cornflakes. Weird. Speaking of food, there are these kebab places all over town. My first thought was meat on a stick. Not so much. It is meat in a big tortilla, and then its like subway. You get to put on whatever you want. It sort of reminds me of Chipotle because kebabs are huge. So we have been trying to get to this place called Abrakebabra...I love the name...cracks me up every time...but whenever we want it we can't seem to find it. But we made note of where it was the next time we saw it. So we finally ate dinner there tonight. They're not my new favorite food, but they're pretty darn good. I got lamb with some onions, carrots, lettuce, and garlic yogurt sauce. Lexie you'd be disappointed in me. I couldn't finish it, but I wanted to save room for a crepe. There's a tiny crepe stand across the street, and I had yet to have one. It was delicious.
Before dinner, there was an international student welcome party down at the Pipitea campus, which is downtown by Parliament. Anyways, they had free food and alcohol. That advertisement will get any college kid to come. But when Mary and I got there they were out of food, had lots of drinks left but no glasses. We made a beeline for the table when we saw they had some clean glasses. So I got some wine and juice and all was good, except for the food factor, but then people started coming in with random food. First was Dominos pizza. Speaking of, they have crazy pizza. BBQ sauce seems to be pretty popular, and its damn good. Then they brought in some sushi, sandwiches, and fruit kebabs. The fruit kebabs were real kebabs. Although its all international, Americans seem to take up the majority, and most of them are from my group, AustraLearn, so we knew a lot of people there.
Side note: Some of must look like Kiwis because we have been asked for directions too many times. Last night we were in a dairy to get some ice cream, and this man is walking by on the street, turns in, comes straight to me and sort of whispers, "I'm looking for this Irish Pub". I stopped him right away to tell him that we're not from here. So we all kind of laughed and he walked away. We laughed some more after he left. Anyways, I'm off to bed. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
First Day of School
Kia Ora. So Monday was my first official day of school in New Zealand. It is really weird being the new kid especially since being in the school of architecture everyone already knows each other really really well. I had a meeting for studio at 9:00 am. My studio is combined with architecture students, and Monday's meeting was about the different streams offered in our studio, basically meaning what professor will be teaching which and what projects they will be doing. There are six different streams offered, however only three are offered to landscape, which of course meant I had to sit and listen to what the other three were. The three I could choose from were based on infrastructure, ecological urbanism, and some fabricating somethin or another. We had to preference all three, and I got the one I wanted. Ecological Urbanism. One of my professors is a Kiwi, and the other is from France. The French guy is an architect, and the Kiwi is landscape. A really cool thing about the professors here is that most of them work part time in a firm here in town. The bad thing about that is that they're not as readily available as some of my KSU professors.
Anyways, so classes here are called papers, and this paper is normally three hours, but with just being a meeting we got out at 10:30, which meant I had a good three hours before my next paper. So I went to go preference my studio stream only to end up in the wrong line. I accidentally got in the architecture line and didn't realize it until later. The line was very slow moving so I left and figured I could sign up later. I highly considered staying in town for three hours so I wouldn't have to walk up the dreaded hill, but I couldn't figure out what to do for three hours, so I made the trek back home. I had to be back at 1:40 for class, so I left a little early so I could sign up for my stream. I found the two professors who had been talking to us during the meeting to find out where to sign up. Its a good thing I asked because I was definitely in the wrong spot earlier, and this time there was no line. Woo hoo! I then made my way to Intro to Practice and Management. This paper is for all third year students of all architecture disciplines. I can't remember the last time I was in a class so big. The lecture theater isn't even big enough. You're probably all thinking its like 500 people. Its not. Its just a small lecture theater. She would like us all to cram in there if possible. If not, you have to sit in the lecture theater next door and watch the video of the class. Apparently the final is supposed to be crazy hard. Fantastic. I can't wait.
So in New Zealand they have this crazy annoying thing called tutorials. They come with most papers, and its an extra hour or hour and a half session that you have to go to every week. There's usually around three different times you can sign up for. So its like an extra paper you have to go to that you didn't know about before. I'm not really looking forward to any of these. Of course the one for my Intro class is on Wednesdays...the only day I didn't have to walk down the hill to the Te Aro campus (architecture school). This tutorial is specifically for landscape students.
After this paper, I headed up the hill to the Kelburn Campus for my Peopling of Polynesia paper. This one is much closer to my house. Mary is in this paper with me. I've heard from others that it is supposed to be pretty boring, and I'm not much of a history person, actually I think its dreadfully boring, but so far this paper is sort of interesting. It meets three days a week, the only paper I have that meets three days a week, and has a tutorial. Of course having papers down at Te Aro means I can't make any of the tutorial sessions. My professor is trying to work something out for me.
Of course being Monday, we headed up to the pizza place for 2 for 1 pizzas. Except this time there were eight of us instead of three, which meant ordering a lot more pizza. But that means we got to try a lot of different kinds. Lucky me, they put kalamata olives on quite a few of their pizzas, and I seem to be the only one that really likes them meaning I get everyone else's.
So Tuesday was quite the ordeal. I had Colour, Pattern, and Light at 10:30, or so my time table (schedule) says. There is only one other girl, Tessa from Germany, standing outside the room when I get there. So we wait a few minutes until a Kiwi, Emily, shows up. She's not enrolled in this paper, just looking to try it out. So we walk down to this office area to find out whats up. They don't really know anything, but tell us its in a different room. By this time we're joined by Maria, from Denmark. There is no one in this room either. So we follow Emily all around the building stopping at just about every room to find out if its ours. No such luck. So we head back to this office to find out who the professor is. We find her office, and she tells us that the time got changed to 1:40 and its in the computer lab on the second floor. Why the study abroad students weren't notified, who the hell knows, but it was super frustrating. So we wandered around for forty-five minutes for nothing. So I head back home because I have two and a half hours to do nothing. Oh and I was supposed to go shopping with Mary, but then didn't turn out so well because of the time change. And the other girls can no longer take it because of the time change. Bummer, I really liked them for the forty-five minutes I knew them. So I went back down at 1:40 to find myself in the same situation. There is no one in this room, and I seem to be the only one lost. So I wandered around again, and headed to the office. This lady had no idea, so she finally made a phone call and gave me a different room, but gave me wrong directions. So after getting lost, I found a familiar face and asked her to go. She took me to the right room. Apparently there is more than one computer lab on the second floor. I didn't look in this one because it looked like a studio. So by this time I'm twenty minutes late, and they're looking at classical art. Ugh. I hate classical art. I'm not even sure what her point was. Something about splitting it vertically and horizontally. This professor is from somewhere in Europe I'm guessing, super hard to understand, and talks really softly. Pretty sure I didn't hear half the lecture. So this isn't quite as exciting as I was hoping it would be, but maybe it will get better. I'm considering switching to a digital representation class though. However, I think for this paper, the tutorial is already part of the time allotted.
So Tuesday night was kind of crazy. I didn't think it could get much windier than Kansas. Wellington proved me very very wrong. The wind was blowing like mad last night. It is sort of hard actually really hard to walk in a straight line, and I'm pretty sure it is impossible to have a good hair day. Anyways, wind is crazy and loud, and then there's an earthquake! Except I didn't really know if it was an earthquake or not. At first I thought maybe the wind was just really that bad, but my room was shaking like crazy, but it didn't really seem out of place with the storm, but it was definitely an earthquake. Just a small one. Somethin like 4.4. But it was crazy. I've never been in an earthquake. I thought my room was going to fall off the house. Helen came to make sure everyone was okay, and told me that my room is the most dangerous and if it ever happens again for a long time I need to get out of there right away. The storms are over, but the wind is still a blowin. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
Anyways, so classes here are called papers, and this paper is normally three hours, but with just being a meeting we got out at 10:30, which meant I had a good three hours before my next paper. So I went to go preference my studio stream only to end up in the wrong line. I accidentally got in the architecture line and didn't realize it until later. The line was very slow moving so I left and figured I could sign up later. I highly considered staying in town for three hours so I wouldn't have to walk up the dreaded hill, but I couldn't figure out what to do for three hours, so I made the trek back home. I had to be back at 1:40 for class, so I left a little early so I could sign up for my stream. I found the two professors who had been talking to us during the meeting to find out where to sign up. Its a good thing I asked because I was definitely in the wrong spot earlier, and this time there was no line. Woo hoo! I then made my way to Intro to Practice and Management. This paper is for all third year students of all architecture disciplines. I can't remember the last time I was in a class so big. The lecture theater isn't even big enough. You're probably all thinking its like 500 people. Its not. Its just a small lecture theater. She would like us all to cram in there if possible. If not, you have to sit in the lecture theater next door and watch the video of the class. Apparently the final is supposed to be crazy hard. Fantastic. I can't wait.
So in New Zealand they have this crazy annoying thing called tutorials. They come with most papers, and its an extra hour or hour and a half session that you have to go to every week. There's usually around three different times you can sign up for. So its like an extra paper you have to go to that you didn't know about before. I'm not really looking forward to any of these. Of course the one for my Intro class is on Wednesdays...the only day I didn't have to walk down the hill to the Te Aro campus (architecture school). This tutorial is specifically for landscape students.
After this paper, I headed up the hill to the Kelburn Campus for my Peopling of Polynesia paper. This one is much closer to my house. Mary is in this paper with me. I've heard from others that it is supposed to be pretty boring, and I'm not much of a history person, actually I think its dreadfully boring, but so far this paper is sort of interesting. It meets three days a week, the only paper I have that meets three days a week, and has a tutorial. Of course having papers down at Te Aro means I can't make any of the tutorial sessions. My professor is trying to work something out for me.
Of course being Monday, we headed up to the pizza place for 2 for 1 pizzas. Except this time there were eight of us instead of three, which meant ordering a lot more pizza. But that means we got to try a lot of different kinds. Lucky me, they put kalamata olives on quite a few of their pizzas, and I seem to be the only one that really likes them meaning I get everyone else's.
So Tuesday was quite the ordeal. I had Colour, Pattern, and Light at 10:30, or so my time table (schedule) says. There is only one other girl, Tessa from Germany, standing outside the room when I get there. So we wait a few minutes until a Kiwi, Emily, shows up. She's not enrolled in this paper, just looking to try it out. So we walk down to this office area to find out whats up. They don't really know anything, but tell us its in a different room. By this time we're joined by Maria, from Denmark. There is no one in this room either. So we follow Emily all around the building stopping at just about every room to find out if its ours. No such luck. So we head back to this office to find out who the professor is. We find her office, and she tells us that the time got changed to 1:40 and its in the computer lab on the second floor. Why the study abroad students weren't notified, who the hell knows, but it was super frustrating. So we wandered around for forty-five minutes for nothing. So I head back home because I have two and a half hours to do nothing. Oh and I was supposed to go shopping with Mary, but then didn't turn out so well because of the time change. And the other girls can no longer take it because of the time change. Bummer, I really liked them for the forty-five minutes I knew them. So I went back down at 1:40 to find myself in the same situation. There is no one in this room, and I seem to be the only one lost. So I wandered around again, and headed to the office. This lady had no idea, so she finally made a phone call and gave me a different room, but gave me wrong directions. So after getting lost, I found a familiar face and asked her to go. She took me to the right room. Apparently there is more than one computer lab on the second floor. I didn't look in this one because it looked like a studio. So by this time I'm twenty minutes late, and they're looking at classical art. Ugh. I hate classical art. I'm not even sure what her point was. Something about splitting it vertically and horizontally. This professor is from somewhere in Europe I'm guessing, super hard to understand, and talks really softly. Pretty sure I didn't hear half the lecture. So this isn't quite as exciting as I was hoping it would be, but maybe it will get better. I'm considering switching to a digital representation class though. However, I think for this paper, the tutorial is already part of the time allotted.
So Tuesday night was kind of crazy. I didn't think it could get much windier than Kansas. Wellington proved me very very wrong. The wind was blowing like mad last night. It is sort of hard actually really hard to walk in a straight line, and I'm pretty sure it is impossible to have a good hair day. Anyways, wind is crazy and loud, and then there's an earthquake! Except I didn't really know if it was an earthquake or not. At first I thought maybe the wind was just really that bad, but my room was shaking like crazy, but it didn't really seem out of place with the storm, but it was definitely an earthquake. Just a small one. Somethin like 4.4. But it was crazy. I've never been in an earthquake. I thought my room was going to fall off the house. Helen came to make sure everyone was okay, and told me that my room is the most dangerous and if it ever happens again for a long time I need to get out of there right away. The storms are over, but the wind is still a blowin. Until next time...
Kia Ora,
Laura
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