Kia Ora!

Hey everyone! It took us almost a month to get the blog started (oops), but here it is at last.

We moved into our on-campus apartments a few weekends ago, after spending our first weekend in Christchurch (herein referred to as CHCH) at a nice hostel in the city center. Rach and I are in adjacent buildings, but—trust her to luck out like this—hers is the building with the laundry room. She actually lives right across from it, on the first floor, whereas I live on the third level again. But on the bright side, my flatmates are awesome. Their names are Moana and Sina and they’re both from Samoa. They’re great to live with—clean, considerate, and hilarious. And given my past tumultuous history with roommates, I’m pretty thrilled to have a single. Rachel’s flatmates are Japanese and Malaysian. Their names are Misi, Wa-Wa, and Na-Na. (I am not making this up.) They’re great flatmates as well.

Our flats all have kitchens, but only the really big flats have ovens; the rest of us just have stoves. So if you have any great stove-top recipes, please send them along! There are 2 kids in our Butler group with ovens, so we go over to their flats to bake sometimes. We are less than ten minutes’ walk from the grocery store (where they sell giant Toblerone bars for a dollar) and less than half an hour from the mall, which is really nice. There are also buses running all the time and everywhere. Rachel, Briana and I discovered that the other weekend, accidentally getting on the wrong bus and ending up out in the woop-woops (i.e., the boonies), where the bus proceeded to break down. It was an adventure.

We’ve been in class for a week now. Canterbury’s campus is much smaller than we expected, which is great since both of us are used to being on a campus the size of a teacup. Rach and I have two classes together, Russian history and Roman myth. Rachel is also in American lit and Kiwi history since 1940, and I’m taking Troy in ancient epic and the history of Nazi Germany. Our Roman myth professor is American. She has a Northern accent that makes us cringe, she told us she puts God on the same level as the Tooth Fairy, and she also announced that she doesn’t live in the States because she wants her taxes used for “health care and parks,” not an “imperialist war machine.” Charming. Rachel and I both feel that if we had wanted to listen to Americans complain about the US government, we would have just stayed in the States, but oh well. Surprise, though—not all Kiwis hate America, but there is still a prevailing attitude of pacifism in New Zealand. Our student advisor Kate read one of the guys in our group the riot act because he plans to join the Marines next summer. That really surprised me because in America, we tend to respect members of the armed forces, regardless of our own opinions about the current war. NZ may have a British heritage, just as America does, but we are definitely two distinct groups.

Rachel and I are trying to milk our break from Work Forest for all it’s worth. Last weekend almost everyone in our group went to see Harry Potter 6 together, and there were a couple of people at the cinema who looked exactly like the Weasleys. I mean exactly. It was awesome. And two nights ago we all went to play laser tag (or laser strike, as the Kiwis call it), and eat Japanese food, courtesy of our IFSA-Butler fees. There are more Butler events planned for the semester, including river rafting and an adventure weekend of four-wheeling, hiking, and hot springs. Rach and I both joined the Tramping Club, and we’re hiking to Hanmer Springs this weekend. We’ll take lots of pictures. The pictures up on Rachel’s Facebook are from an afternoon trip two weekends ago to a little town nearby called New Brighton. It has a library right on the beach, which is sweet as. One of the great things about this country is that you can hop on a bus and go right to the beach, or you can rent a car and drive a few hours to go skiing for the day. There are a ton of options.

Time for fun facts about Kiwis. Their accents are sweet as—“text” is pronounced “tixt,” “knackered” sounds like “naked,” and “netball” is a dead ringer for “nipple.” This is the type of fun you can have talking to Kiwis. In terms of friendliness, there really isn’t a fair generalization—some are polite and others are cold. I’ve met several really friendly Kiwis in my Nazi history class. One thing I can say about them as a group, though, is that they are terrible at sharing public spaces, whether they are walking on a sidewalk, driving in a parking lot, or wandering the grocery store aisles with a shopping trolley. Know how people in the States instinctively stay to the right when walking in public? Kiwis apparently think that keeping to one side is only for driving. It’s ridiculous. Also, the guys here wear really tight pants, so tight that we have to wonder how they get their feet in to begin with. And no self-respecting Kiwi wears sneakers with jeans, or sneans, as Kate calls them. Americans always give ourselves away by rocking the sneans. Another everyday difference between NZ and the States is the coffee. It’s like art to these people. I’ve dearly missed plastic to-go cups with plain old straightforward American coffee (that’s the first thing I’m buying at LAX when I fly home). People sit down and relax while they drink NZ coffee. It comes in a legit mug or even a tall glass, with foam in the shape of, I don’t know, a unicorn. No, seriously though, it’s usually in the shape of a leaf, and very pretty, but still. Our favorite coffee shop downtown sells a raspberry coffee called—really—a Ziggy Stardust. I like David Bowie as much as the next guy, but I think that in itself illustrates how seriously Kiwis take coffee. Starbucks, pretentious as it is, has nothing on New Zealand coffee.

Oh yeah, I though I’d mention who’s in our Butler group. There are ten guys: Pete from Wake, Kevin, Trevor, Nadav, Matt, Matt, Alex, Dale, Nick, and Andrew, and eight girls, Jasmine, Nora, Ashley, Briana, Katie, PT, Rach, and me. We’ve also picked up a few American kids who came here solo, Chris and Laura. They are all a lot of fun.

Rachel is the one with the sweet Nikon, so she’s in charge of pictures for the blog. Bug her if you think she’s slacking off. I, on the other hand, seldom remember that I even have a camera. (kidding, Mom, thanks for the camera)

We miss everyone back home tons. You should send us letters! Also Skype us! We’re 16 hours ahead of the East Coast and 19 ahead of the West.

love-

Carie and Rachel