"normal" life: class, a fish down my shorts, and field hockey

That's technically called a jab ---I'm in the checkerboard jersey with the yellow stick next to the red-skirted player.

Well nothing so exciting as dead sharks and lost adventures in enchanted forests has happened since last I wrote, but even so, I figure at some point I should write about the normal aspects of life…well since that’s what happens most of the time. Also, I’ve been getting some comments questioning whether or not I’m actually going to school, so I want to alleviate those fears as well.

Classes are going well thus far. The whole system here is extremely different, and not necessarily one I want to become completely adjusted to. This experience had definitely showed me how much more I appreciate the small private school education I’ve been privileged to have thus far. So many students basically makes me a number. I guess some people really enjoy being able to blend into the crowd, get by, and not worry as much about creating relationships with professors and learning from their peers as I am used to. For me this has been difficult to comprehend. I miss seeing my profs, talking to them, having them know my name, and well, the general discussions of class. I know this may be hard to believe but I don’t think I’ve said more than 10 words in class since I got here! I bet Harden especially can’t comprehend this, but it’s true I swear. Even so, the lectures are generally good and I’m learning. My friends who are students here can’t even begin to understand what kind of world I come from. Often they sound so excited when I tell them what Oberlin is like in the classroom. Some of them are planning on studying abroad so hopefully they too will have the opportunity to experience what I’ve had for so long. I know everyone has different needs, but in NZ, there really is only one option: huge school.

So other than this, grading here is so different than home. I don’t know how exactly to describe this, but I know a lot of kids in my program aren’t digging it too much right now. When they send grades back to our home schools they usually scale them up since the system here is so different. All this is going just fine for me thus far, knock on wood…

I’ve spent the past two weekends here at home in Auckland. Last weekend we had Friday off for Anzac day. This is a holiday to celebrate the soldiers of the New Zealand and Australian armies who fought in WWI. We went out Thursday night for awhile. This was mostly good fun since I hadn’t actually been out since my birthday. When we got to the club I ended up having to convince this huge Maori bouncer to let my two guy friends (alex and alex) into the club. He was being weird and racist, but after awhile he was like “okay, you’re good, they can come in.” There was actually no premise for him first turning them down, he just didn’t like their look or attitude or something. I was standing right next to them the whole time, I think he was just intimidated by their size and that they were laughing? Who knows but it was weird. The five of us (Liz, Alex, Alex, Charlie, and I) sat around all day Friday napping and watching movies together, it was great. I would like to note that I got home from field hockey practice at 10:30 pm and everyone (susie, nancy, charlie, alex, alex, liz, and jay) was waiting for me, so I had to get dressed having not showered. So I'm really gross, but I sort of pulled it off....only sort of. That's Susie in the middle and Liz on the far right in the shadows. We're in the cab on the way to the club. Faleczykowski is on the far left out of sight, and nancy's up front.


Saturday morning I went to breakfast with my friends Katya and Emma. Kat is from LA and Emma from NZ. We had this assignment for geography involving going to two cafés so we took the opportunity to have breakfast together. Afterwards I met up with my friend Linn, she’s from Sweden, for breakfast at the same place followed by some stream sampling for invertebrates. The breakfast thing was weird, but I ate when I first woke up, then only had tea while Kat and Emma ate, then got hungry again by 11 and ate with Linn. It’s understandable since I eat most all the time. But anyways, we went sampling at our stream in the domain. This is also for a class. While we were digging through the tray of our sample looking for whatever, this fish jumped out and landed in my shorts. Linn watched this all happen and screamed “oh my god there’s a fish in your shorts” it landed as she finished the statement and I got up screamed and tried to get it out. Finally it fell out and landed on my camera case. It was funny, and we plan on including this in the sampling procedure section of our report.

When I got back around 1:30, Liz and I got ready to go to Charlie’s rugby game. This turned out to be quite the adventure. I was reading Ender’s Game (fantastic book) while Charlie wasn’t in and because I couldn’t put it down, and then all of a sudden I just felt someone running at us so I grabbed Liz and pulled her backwards (we were sitting next to each other right next to the field.) The huge rugby players stepped on our feet, but they completely knocked over the old man next to us. I felt horrible because they actually injured his knee and he couldn’t get up. The other team was really hot, so that made for good viewing. Most everything else about the weekend was low key and involved homework on Sunday.

This weekend has also been pretty low key. I spent Friday evening at a small potluck dinner party for Kat’s bday. I hadn’t met most of the guests but we had a great time and ended up hanging out for a good five hours. I gave them some rice krispy treats I received in a package. They had never had them before and loved them. There were some kiwis, some French, and the Americans had already had them of course. I was thankful for the taste of home. Yesterday (Saturday) I walked forty minutes to Mt. Eden (an area of the city) to take an abseiling course. I didn’t have any cash so the bus was out of the question. It was a bit cold, rainy, and windy, but I learned a lot and had a good time all the same. Abseiling is essentially repelling (lowering yourself off a high place.) It’s beneficial because the rope stays static, reducing the wear caused
by the friction of having a belayer lower a climber. It’s what they do in heist movies.


I wish I were number 3 but alas, I got 14 and a size 16 skirt.... (it's rolled extensively so it's not down to my knees.) I think it's cause I'm American : )


My field hockey team had our first real game in the evening. We shan’t discuss the score. In short, I did wind sprints for an hour as the three girls on our team who refused to pass would take the ball up, lose it and then I would, as a left inner (forward/link) have to get all the way back on defense. You might be able to tell that I am kind of frustrated by the lack of trust, but such is life. Got a good workout all the same. It also turns out that my team is extremely unfit, but I think I already had an inkling of such. Oh, and I almost scored (the closest anyone came!!!!) The goalie dove for this save and then I chipped it over her but it hit the post ahhhh it was so good though. Anyways, that’s all there is to say about field hockey except that Liz and Charlie showed up for the end of my game. That was really sweet, and I hope they can come again to see some better action. Photos curtesy of Charlie.


Today it rained all day long. I stayed inside except for one adventure down to one of the many asian food markets to get some chocolate ice-cream. The first chocolate ice-cream I can recall having since I got here. It was perfect in every way. I think that’s all I have to say about that. Hope y’all are well.