Day 16

Today was pretty uneventful for a Monday. I had geography and marine science, but also my first ever International Relations course! I dropped physics officially in order to learn a little bit more about the world. Today we learned about globalization, and how countries are becoming more interconnected. This class has 353 students in it, including Steph, Hania, Anisha and Flora all from International House. My Monday and Tuesday afternoons are poorly set up, because I have class 12 to 1, then an hour break, then 2-3, an hour break, then 4-5. If I could have all of the classes back to back that would be much better.

I was also very productive this evening, copying down notes for my Philosophy Class as well as my Marine Ecology Class. I’m feeling so much better now that I’ve accomplished something with my evening! I love the feeling of buckling down and being able to cross things off of my very long to-do list.

Nothing too much exciting to say, except that walking around looking at the cafés on campus I noticed one store sold “American Hot Dogs,” where they take gross looking hot dogs, place them in giant buns and cover them with melted cheese and ketchup and mustard. That’s not at all what I think of when I think of a hot dog. Other things they don’t really have here are Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and they only eat hard boiled or poached eggs for breakfast. On the plus side, I found a café that sells pancakes right on campus, so one of these days we’re all going to go out for breakfast and use homemade maple syrup!! I want my Kiwi friends to try it out.

Another thing I have to do this week is head to the library because all of my classes put books on reserve at the library where you have to check them out for an hour or so, do all of the course readings and then return the book so other kids in your class can do the readings as well.

All in all, New Zealand is really expensive. I have to keep telling me that with the conversion rate, I’m only spending ¾ of the cost when I convert prices to United States currency. Everything is expensive though, down to sending letters, printing things (ten cents a page), pens, books, bus fares (the two times I ever rode a bus!), etc. Never again will I take prices in America for granted!
Also, while in my Marine Ecology lecture today, I remembered why I’m so fascinated with the ocean. My professor was giving a lecture about trash in the middle of the pacific ocean. There’s a “trash island” twice the size of Texas just floating in the middle of the pacific, due to the ocean circulation (called an ocean gyre). But then, he told us that there’s a pile of trash floating in the middle of every ocean, and there’s bits of plastic as far north as the north pole. Humans have succeeded in spreading industrialized products to every corner of the globe. To learn a little bit more about this, go here: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/blue-august-plastic-is-forever.html and watch the video.

In addition, I’m getting back into reading up on ocean sustainability, thinking about giving up seafood unless I know where it comes from and how it was caught. It might be a good idea to do this for land animals as well. The dining hall has vegetarian options at every meal, so going vegetarian is something I’m considering! At least until I get home, where I will know where at least seafood and venison come from!

(sorry no pictures today, not too much exciting going on!)