Testing the new feed... And, a field trip I shall go!

So, I think I may have finally gotten Facebook to recognize my blogs automatically, so this is a test of that :)

Tomorrow, before it gets too windy, we are heading up to the TMZ (Taupo Volcanic Zone). I am super excited, actually. It will be my first trip to the volcanoes in New Zealand and its quite exciting. I will definitely have my camera in tow, so be ready for some pictures of it!!

Other than that, I am getting a bit homesick and missing my friends. Its rather difficult to make friends when you are not in classes. I know the others in the department, and they are very friendly, but I feel as though I have lost my social skills for hanging out with new people! I don't really know why, but this week is a Latin Film festival, so hopefully, I can meet some people there. I have been in contact with the GLBT group in Palmy, so I am hoping to meet some like minded people there. I guess my internal don't seem desparate feeling overrides the wish to have people to hang out with. Though I did meet one person online who I went out to a club Saturday night with, while it was fun, I think I need more chill things to do at this point. I long for the random adventures of the UP!

Astonomically Misplaced

As much of a geek as this may make me sound, if you really want to feel out of place and lost, look up at the sky. When you gaze at the stars and realize you don't recognize a single constellation, you will realize how far from home you are. I never really thought of how comforting the big and little dippers were, but they oddly add a major amount of comfort when roaming at night. I guess I will just have to learn to identify the Southern Cross now and get to know the stars above.

On another note, today I am moving to the new studio apartment at the Hub. Its on the higher end of the cost spectrum as far as accomodation goes here, but everything is included for about the price of most adverstised places at the moment. My officemate, Emma, said to keep an eye out in the coming weeks as students will be leaving for their summer vacations and lots of places will open. Hopefully there will be some gems that are found. I am not opposed to roommates I guess, but I would like to get to know people before I live with them, as long as I have my own space. I am not 100% sure I want an unfurnished place since that would involve furniture and such that I would have to deal with when leaving. However, furnished places are much more costly. Once I get a car, which I still plan to do, the price for rent goes up $35 a week, which is much more of an incentive to move elsewhere.

I joined a flatmate search service today, so hopefully someone will find a match with me and can wait a month for me to move it.  As you can all tell, I am pretty comsumed by finding a place to live and a car, so hopefully it will all come together quickly. And, in addition to that, hopefully my car will sell quickly in Detroit too. No bites in a month, but I would love to unload it soon and not have to worry about the costs there too.

Otherwise, things are progressing here. I have a schedule for the next 12 months of what I have to do for my research, so I really need to get on that and get moving. I have to be self motivated with it and get my butt in gear here. Its so much more laid back than in the States that its tough for me to get myself moving. I think it will come once I know I am settled, at least for the next month.

So, here I am, in a hostel… in New Zealand

So, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then like any language, it must sometime be translated. Let’s put it this way… I am pretty tolerant of places I stay and have lived, but today when I arrived at the hostel, I bought 5 days rather than 3 weeks of a stay. I kinda want to wear socks to shower… my house where soda leaked through the floor and the floor bowed when you walked in was better than this place. There are stained carpets, chipped paint, somewhat unclean bathroom, spider webs and more. I will be looking at another place Sunday and will hopefully like it, assuming the pictures don’t need translation there as well. This just means more exploring at night, right? J Joanne – New Brunswick was nicer LOL!

The place I looked at on college had a patio door for a wall and windows, shower straight to a drain in the floor, and yeah... I hope this isn't a sign of all places in Palmy for living single.

Sunday I look at the hub for a more permanent solution!

Penis Envy

Why would I call a blog post that? Well, I just saw a commercial on broadcast TV at 8pm showing penis pumps and men talking about the need to enlarge themselves and going into detail about the subject. I suppose that despite the fact I am pretty out there and open myself about talking about sexually related things, after all I worked at an adult bookstore for 3 years, I am apparently still a little prudish somewhere in me since I think its pretty ridiculous to show a commercial for that during prime time public tv!

Moving on, I went to the Warehouse today. Think of Wal-Mart as a classy version of the Warehouse, like Target to Wal-Mart, or Meijer to Kmart. I went in and was quite surprised by the fact it looks like it is somewhere between a Home Depot style store with tall industrial shelves and a run down post Christmas Walmart. Some items are all strewn about randomly with handwritten signs, hence why they says it’s the place where everyone gets a deal. At any rate, I bought a $59 cell phone from there to go with the Sim card that I bought at the phone company, where they don’t require you to get a phone with the plan… they directed me to the Warehouse! Its so weird, I have no tax ID here and no verifiable address, yet they put me on a plan just with an email address. Incredibly trusting they are here- just like the airport, where I forgot to mention, I never went through security here before boarding my plane after leaving one terminal and going to another.

I think the laid back nature of this place is going to be a great influence on me!

My first few days here...

So, I have been in the land of Kiwi for 3 days now, and it hasn’t ben too crazy. I haven’t done too much since arriving as I wanted to settle in to the schedule. My first day here, I went on a tour of campus and met many people. I have to confess, I fear I will have some difficulty with many of the names as I was pretty out of it at the time. That evening we wnet down to the Irish pub for a couple beers to keep me up late. Friday, I watched TV and took a walk down to the city centre to have a look around. Suprisingly, Kmart is much the same as home, just with different styles and brand names… layout is very similar. Kmart was in the downtown mall, same stores but different names than home.

While taking a look around, I was cornered by one of the middle of the aisle sales kiosk employees, who was quite shocked by the accent and told me that they were both from Israel and invited me to Shabbat dinner. I am still astounded by the kindness of people here. Yesterday I walked around town a bit again and picked up a newspaper to start looking for apartments. Unfortunately, I need internet and/or a phone number to get anywhere, so when I am on campus, I will look. I may not even end up staying at the hostel – 13 days is the same as 3 weeks, due to differences in long- and short-term rates, so I may avoid it altogether if I can find a place sooner. I need to get a phone soon, so I can be in touch with people here, most likely texting mostly. I need to get an idea of who is on what network here since it still makes a difference in New Zealand- different prices to call and text different networks and landlines. Apparently, some people have a phone on each network to take advantage of all the deals and keep costs down.

I have been watching a bit of tv and reading my Culture Shock book and its pretty sad that I had to come all the way to New Zealand to get the Simpsons on TV! They have quite a bit of American TV here, though it is a bit behind… I still need to see if I can get my shows from home. I have to be careful of spoilers though, since Entertainment Tonight is on here for the current US shows that won’t be shown here for months. Like what happened in Grey’s Anatomy premiere! So, with these ramblings, I am gonna finish up with this note (written on Sunday to be cut and pasted whenever I have internet)… hope you all are well. I am gonna find a place to live and a car this week, I hope… wish me luck.

Arrival...

Welcome to my blog...

I figure this is a better method than Facebook to keep people up to date on my time in New Zealand. This should prove to be a better venue for getting long posts across. I will try to make sure I keep it well updated through my time here.

Please feel free to post comments, questions, etc.

Enjoy!!