A whole lot of stuff / I need to update more often

Each day things happen to me that cause me to think, "I should definitely blog about that". For one reason or another however, it has recently become a trend for me to fail to do so. It saddens me to realize as I sit here now that I can't remember even half of these noteworthy events. Alright, enough of that... On to the things I do remember.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I had classes.

The Maori class looks like it will be very easy but really interesting. I'm at least as excited to see how my peers handle learning a totally foreign language as much as I'm excited to do so myself. On the first day for example, some of my classmates were getting a bit hysterical as they were led through the pronunciation chart. I suppose they found it queer to be making sounds they had never made before. 20% of my grade in the class will be based on two 20 word vocabulary quizzes. I'm having trouble figuring a way that the course could be any more simpler to ace.

The jazz course should be somewhat of a breeze too. The first two classes we simply watched Jazz on a Summer's Day and chatted about the featured players and styles. Part of my grade in the class will be based on my ability to identify types of jazz by hearing sound clips of them. Though it should be easy, I think the course will be very interesting as I don't know much about the earliest of jazz music.

So the girl who used to live in Katie's room came through with her boyfriend. They set up camp in our common room and stayed for two days. They were just passing through on their way up to Auckland to adventure on the North Island. The two of them will be spending the next three months traveling New Zealand and Thailand before going home to Germany. Here's their gear all packed up just before they left to catch their flight north.


I made some pancakes the same morning that they were leaving. The pancakes were made of four ingredients. I had no baking powder you see so I decided to find the simplest recipe. I made far too many and left a plate of them on the table to eat later. To my surprise, the Germans had made off with a few of my pancakes leaving a note that said they were amazing. I must admit I didn't think they were all that great. Here they are.


Here's a picture of the breakfast I eat a few days of the week. Note the orange juice in the measuring cup. That measuring cup is the largest of the cups in my flat so I have started using it as a drinking cup. Also note the pot of "Home Brand" jam. I buy lots of this store brand stuff and have so far been 100% satisfied with it.


Thursday night there was a rail jam at the on campus pub called The Foundry. Just about every member of my study abroad program showed up to cheer on one of our own kind, Kevin. He quickly became known as "Kevin from the States". Go figure. Here's Kevin (pronounced "Keeeevin" in Kiwispeak).

And a video of one of his runs that I took:



After the rail jam that night I went with some of my starving friends to get some super cheap fish and chips. This stuff costs 4 New Zealand dollars for more food than I was able to eat despite having not eaten for ten hours and played two hours of intense ultimate frisbee. I thought it was going to be crappy but it tasted excellent. I only wish I'd snapped a shot of the mass of food wrapped in thick gray paper. Sorry. Next time.

After that I meant to go to sleep but instead ended up hanging out with my flatmates until about two or three. This was a really odd choice for me to make considering I'd booked an appointment with the doctor at 9:30 the next morning. You see, I'd been sick for about ten days when I went to the doctor that morning, and having scored some ulcers on the top of my mouth over the two preceding days, I wanted to be in decent shape for the doctor. I ended up going to the doctor a bit queasy from the past evening's procedings but I was fully functional. The doctor told me that it seemed I had a bit of a throat infection and perscribed me some Doxycycline, an antibiotic, to help me get better. The pharmacist told me that I should not fall asleep for an hour after taking the medication as if it had somehow managed to get stuck in my throat and I didn't realize it, the drug could cause serious damage to my esophagus. So I sat up in my room with a bit of a hangover from 10 to 11. When the clock struck eleven I treated myself to what ought to have been part of a good night's sleep. I napped from 11 to 4. I took it easy for the rest of the day but come nightfall I'll admit I was silly enough to stay up until two A.M. again.

Not only did I go to sleep too late that first night that I was on antibiotics, but I awoke far earlier than would be advised. I was up at 7:00 AM to pack my backpack for my first proper tramp in New Zealand. The tramp ended up being a bit over 15 miles with a nearly 4,000 foot vertical gain. I've decided to make a separate post about the hike so expect that soon.

The night of the tramp the entirety of our study abroad crew gathered at one flat to watch the rugby game. The game was the All Blacks (New Zealand) vs. the Wallabies (Australia) and the All Blacks came out on top. We're all quite certain that the reason the All Blacks won was because of their awesome haka. I managed to get to sleep by about midnight as I was totally exhausted.

I know, I know. "You're supposed to take it easy when you're sick and on antibiotics", right? Well, despite my neglect for my body over the last couple of days, I feel the best that I have in two weeks. It seems that I'm finally getting better.

Today I went for a bike ride over to Hagley Park and into Christchurch to shop a bit. I watched the frisbee players for a while at Hagley but didn't play at all because my joints were still tired from yesterday's hike. In town I shopped for a bike pump but ended up just getting an adapter for the french tube in my front tire on my bike. The pumps in town at the bike shops were super expensive at about 50 to 60 dollars. I saw one at K-mart for 15 bucks. I also tried to find a capo for the guitar I bought but the stores in Christchurch close really early on Sundays. Oh yeah, I bought a guitar. It set me back 68 NZD and two hours of walking to get it from the Trade Me vendor. The neck on the guitar is warped in such a way that the open strings are more than a half step away from the first fret. I found that dropping a capo on the first fret made it possible to play open chords in tune.


Yeah I know, TL;DR. Sorry for the long post. I'll try to blog more regularly so that I can communicate things in a more orderly and readable way. Look for a post about the tramp up Mt. Herbert in the next couple days... hopefully tomorrow.