Day 6

Today was great! Honestly, I’m having such a wonderful time in New Zealand! I got up rather late today, had lunch, and went to see about a few textbooks. I ended up getting a book for each of my classes. My marine ecology class printed a textbook for us free of charge, so I also had to go pick that up today. Seeing as Auckland is ALL hills, I sure am getting my exercise! Together, the three books I purchased were about $230 altogether. I really don’t like spending money, but they are very necessary. Also, I don’t feel that bad about buying textbooks because my friend Cameron spent $500 on his for a semester of biomed courses.

Then, we had formal dinner this evening. Delicious seafood with tomato sauce over rice, and roast beef, along with other vegetables and salads. It was bring your own bottle of wine, so we sampled quite a few types of wine as well. I sat with Matthew, Jo, and Cameron, and had a blast. We also finished the champagne from the champagne breakfast the other day. I also got to try pavlova for the first time, which is like meringue (egg whites and sugar whipped and then baked) which you eat with fruit and whipped cream. It was SO GOOD! I love kiwi foods. I also learned that the Australians regularly fight the Kiwi’s over who created pavlova.
Then, we went to a “Kids of 88” concert at the university, which is a pretty popular local band. IT was neat to listen to a local band.

Talking points:

I spoke to a boy that wants to join the Australian army (it pays more than the New Zealand army) and a girl that wants to join the New Zealand army. The New Zealand army doesn’t really fight though, so they have more of a peacekeeping role in the world.

Tomorrow I’ll post more about Kiwi style, but just know that ANYTHING goes. Like, bring any clothes to wear and they will be very widely accepted. I LOVE that Kiwi’s don’t care what you look like, as long as you like the way you look.

The posts have been getting shorter because I’m getting more settled in, as well as not doing as cool of things. I’m trying to plan out my schedule for the semester, however, and will hopefully have some awesome weekend trips coming up.