Day 17

Today I learned how to eat a kiwifruit like a Kiwi. You’re supposed to cut them in half and eat them with a spoon, rather than peel them and cut them up like I’m used to doing in the U.S. It’s kind of sad though, that New Zealand buys their fruit from Italy, since new Zealand is so famous for Kiwis. I guess they only import Italian fruit during the New Zealand kiwifruit off-season.

In talking to my Kiwi friends today I found out that they don’t have hot pretzels at the malls. They do have quite the variety of asian snacks though, a lot of which I don’t have the guts to try. They always sell bags of what look like dried fruits but the writing is Asian so I’m not sure what they actually are. I usually don’t try anything unless I know either how you’re supposed to eat it or what it exactly is. The dining hall had beans on toast again this morning, but I still don’t have the heart to try it.

Today was another day where I had a lot of time between classes but not enough time to walk back to International House. I read a few chapters today but lately I’ve been so tired during the day from staying up and doing homework (and still recovering from climbing Rangitoto!) that it takes a lot of energy to stay awake during the day. I’m going to try to get a lot of sleep tonight so that I can be well rested for tomorrow. I also need to catch up on reading assignments for my courses.

The days are starting to blend together now, and I really feel like a university student again. It took a while to sink back into though, because I’ve had 3+ months off. I also watched the documentary “Food Inc” tonight, to teach myself a little bit about where industrial agriculture comes from. I’ve decided that I would LOVE to live on a farm, where I grow most of my own vegetables and collect eggs and either raise animals just to have as pets, or learn to appreciate them and eat them. I don’t think that I could ever kill one of my own animals though, so I might turn into a vegetarian if I raised my own. I’m not sure how a farm would fit into a future as a marine science professor though! Also, I tried to be a vegetarian but I forgot and had chicken lo-mein style pasta for dinner! Oops!

Another interesting thing is that in public restrooms they have a cloth towel on a roll (like a roll of paper towels) and you use either that or a heated hand dryer to dry your hands. New Zealand is huge on not wasting natural resources, such as paper. Also, I found out that there is a country called “Zealand” and I guess it’s in Europe near Iceland and that is what New Zealand was named after.
No pictures again today, not too much exciting is going on!