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
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