Day 3

So, earthquake in Christchurch… I think there’s 9 people here at International House with family in Christchurch, so it’s kind of concerning the dorm. Here in Auckland, we didn’t feel anything. In fact, we were running around all afternoon in Auckland trying to complete a scavenger hunt while Christchurch was being shaken up. I feel bad, but I’m not sure there’s any way I can help.

I started out the day having my first normal breakfast in the dining hall, which was just cereal and fancy cappuchino from an amazing machine in the dining hall. It has options like “coffee with milk” or “espresso” or “cappuccino” and it will steam milk and put in the right amount of coffee, etc. I also learned that spaghetti on toast is a very common thing to eat for breakfast. And when I say spaghetti think like spaghetti-o’s but long and thin. Apparently that as well as beans on toast are very popular.

Then, I found the international student office and picked up my ID card, found the outgoing mailbox, and met another girl from Maryland. I also stopped by a convenience store and took a look at a lot of the food, which I’ve included some pictures of.

The scavenger hunt was A TON of fun. My group ended up being Rene, Matthew, Cameron, Anna (all from NZ) and me. We had to do things such as “swim a lap in the Albert Park fountain” and “give a homeless person a hamburger” and “take a 20 second video of someone eating a tablespoon of wasabi.” We also got a lot of points if someone wore women’s underwear over their pants, so I ended up doing that. We were running around taking pictures in intersections, at banks, proposing to strangers, riding the bus, etc. Honestly, SO MUCH FUN! I learned my way around Auckland even more as well as had a few laughs along the way.

We also ended up not being able to find a homeless person after we bought the cheeseburger, so four of us split it. If you’d like to see some of the pictures or the video of the poor kid eating the wasabi, let me know!

Then we had dinner and did a quiz round, which consisted of 50 questions from all sorts of topics. My group didn’t win, but again we had a blast and I tried a bunch of NZ candy. Cadbury makes most of the chocolate here, and according to Kiwi’s, American chocolate is not good at all.