Kia Ora! After such a fun week in Australia, I got to come back to Wellington where it rained for most of the second week of break. I was really hoping to do some more traveling over the second week, but with the shitty weather there wasn't much of a point as it seemed to be bad weather all over NZ. Plus, I'm trying to save some money for traveling in June. Speaking of which, I booked our accommodation in Tonga. It looks so cool. We're staying in a Tongan fale, which is sort of like a hut, and I'm pretty sure it is right on the beach. I can't wait to go. Amazingly enough I'll have been there and be back in NZ in a month from now. I only have four weeks of class left. That is absolutely crazy to me. I feel like I just got here. Time has certainly flown by. It is crazy to think I'll be back in the States in less than two months. And a bunch of my friends are graduating right around this time. That is really weird to think about. Congratulations to all of you!
So the second week of break I did a whole lot of nothing, and it was fantastic. After all the flatmates got back, we all shared stories of our adventures. That week gave me a lot of time to hang out with my flatmates, which was really great. Mary came back on Thursday so she came over Friday to fill Nicole and I in on all the things she had done with her parents, and we were eager to share our stories with her.
For those of you who like to ask me about earthquakes all the time, there are usually a couple per day somewhere around NZ, but they're generally too small to feel. However, the other day I did feel one and the couch shook a bit. I looked it up, and it was a 5.0 down in Nelson, which is on the south island. However, nobody else seemed to notice it, although maybe their furniture wasn't moving.
This past week I had to get back into the swing of things with school. In studio we started the second part of the project. I had to pair up with an architect, and we have to choose a section of the site from the last project to develop further. I then have to design a series of parks and streets while he designs a few buildings. This is definitely more up my alley than the last one. This week in Colour, Pattern, & Light we were supposed to find a trendy place in town and compare it to a more outdated place. I originally thought I had to do interiors because it is an interior class, but she let us do it by discipline. In class on Tuesday, she told us she would only talk to those who had already done research, and for those of us who didn't, we could leave but we had to go do research. So I got to spend a beautiful day walking around the city finding designed spaces.
Thursday brought Cinco de Mayo, so Mary, Jess, and I headed downtown for margaritas. Unfortunately they're way too expensive so we moved on to find some cheaper drinks. We made a pit stop at the Tasting Room to snack on some amazingly delicious cheese fondue and chips. We then headed to Alice because on Thursdays their pitchers of certain drinks are half price. We have taken a liking to the Pink Gin Lemonade.
The last two weekends we finally made it to some rugby games. It has been so long since I've been to a sporting event, it felt good to be back in a stadium. Unlike American sporting events there aren't hotdogs and hamburgers around every corner, although we did find some "American hotdogs" at the last game, chicken and chips is the food of choice for games here. It was fun to watch a new sport, but a bit weird to cheer on a team you don't know much about.
Sunday I was supposed to go on a field trip for Peopling of Polynesia. We were supposed to head out to Palliser Bay, which is to the east of Wellington. We were going to visit some archaeological sites and map them out. While it wasn't going to be the most exciting field trip as it was an all day event I was still excited to see some new scenery. And we were going to see some seals, which I haven't seen yet. But Sunday morning came around, and I guess it was raining over there so the trip got cancelled. Now instead of doing the mapping assignment I have to write a stupid essay. So not cool. And I don't get to see the seals. Bummer. Peter, my professor, did tell us though that in the past one kid liked the place so much he went camping their the next weekend. All was good until his campfire went out of control and he burnt down around 2000 acres of bush. He got a pretty hefty fine and was almost thrown in jail. Another guy took his dog out there afterwards to see the seals, and the seals got a hold of his dog and took it down to the sea and drowned it. Apparently they're not very nice animals.
With nothing to do, Mary and I spent some time in town just bummin around. We made a game up of going into stores and picking out a ridiculous outfit for the other to try on. We then stand in the dressing room laughing at each other. Mary started this game in the eighties store, which is by far the best store to do this in. I sure had quite the outfit on.
Kia Ora,
Laura
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