Day Three (July 7th)

9:30AM NZ Time

The most difficult part of being on the other side of the world is adjusting to the new sleep schedule. I’m almost there, but I keep waking up obscenely early. The fastest and easiest way to integrating oneself into the culture, I’ve discovered, is to ride the bus. If you’re riding the bus, chances are other students, national and international, will be riding it with you. In this way, I found out about ‘party buses’ and TradeMe.co.nz, which is the New Zealand Ebay. Tempted to explore for a television since there isn’t one in the flat…

I managed to find Steven, though we were communicating via email for a day. Turns out he had run up to my area, but went to the wrong hall! Got a pretty nice view of the land though (and a work out to boot). Once we were reunited, we took said bus to The Plaza—aka local mall—to find out what we could about phones. By a stroke of luck, my roommate Mandy had an extra from Singapore; all it needed was a SIM card. There are three phone companies in New Zealand: Vodafone, Telecom, and 2degrees. The locals all use Telecom, and 2degrees has some pretty good deals because they’re a fresh company, but Vodafone has the best pre-pay. After phones, we hit up the bookstore, where pieces of my soul probably still stain the walls. I will be dwelling in the recesses of the library, gleaning what bits of new fiction they have. Books are expensive.  

In other news, tomorrow is orientation! I can’t wait for papers/classes to start.
1. Biomechanics
2. New Zealand Natural History
3. Media Skills
4. Greek and Roman Religion
How’s that for a class list, eh?