Random Thoughts/tidbits of info
Roommates:
Brendan – Australia
Sophie – England/NZ
Rosie – England
Mili – Fiji
I live at Everton, a student living situation where most students live in dorm-like set-ups… except me, cause I live in a house about __?__ steps below everyone else. Even other students at Everton (my friends) don’t even know where I live, so I’ve got that goin’ for me. It a pretty old place with lots of ants (who raided my cookies 2 days ago. I was PISSED.)
Just downloaded RxBandits new album. It’s OKAY, not as good as …And the Battle Begun or The Resignation (partially because the assholes dropped their horns), but it’s got a few good aspects—currently diggin’ “Breakfast Cat” and “March of the Caterpillar”
I live in Wellington—the capitol. The “cultural capital” of NZ as well, which pretty much means there are transvestites on the Cuba Mall at 3:00am on Thursday mornings, as well as an abundance of other eclectic folks....
New Say Anything, The Roots, Matisyahu albums out later this year = me pumped.
You know, it’s really crazy with this imdb.com addiction that I have—I am constantly finding people that I previously didn’t know were kiwis are, in fact, from New Zealand. Point in case: Martin Campbell, director of Goldeneye and Casino Royal films. Also CLIFF CURTIS!!! Name ring a bell? Didn’t think so, BUT you HAVE seen him before. This guy is really able to take advantage of his dark skin. While actually being of Maori blood, he is able to take over Asian roles (Deep Rising), Hispanic roles (Pablo Escobar in Blow; one of the 3 scary Hispanics that almost blow Ethan Hawke’s character’ head off in Training Day), not to mention American roles… Plus he’s in Sunshine, one of my favorites. Not earth-shattering news, but entertaining nonetheless…
Others (outside of LOtR stuff)
· Zoe Bell (mentioned in Deathproof—obvious, yes, cool? also yes.)
· Lucy Lawless (i think i knew that...?)
· Russell Crowe (Born near where I live in Wellington—but he’s an Aussie now, so the kiwis have pretty much shunned him)
· Sam Neill (totally thought he was from England)
· Others I will bring up in later posts as I come upon them…
Inglourious Basterds opens Thursday here. I am going on Friday. Stupid assignments.
Kiwi-ism of the day:
The toilets here generally have two buttons to flush, one for less waste that flushes hard and fast for about a half-second, and one for the more hefty transport that flushes for about 3 seconds. Pretty smart conservation idea (*hint hint* America).
What I am currently listening to:
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard – “A Watchful Guardian”
**If you have any questions, ask away and I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability! ...and I might be tempted to post more often!!! Comment away!!!
Monday, August 17, 2009
One.
SO I haven’t been too overly diligent when it comes to communicating with you, my friends and family from the states, and for that I apologize. Of course, having said that, I feel even worse as it is rather cliché to mention in one’s blog “I’m sorry I haven’t written much” or “I know I haven’t written in a while,” but hell, this isn’t getting published so whatever ( psh!).
BRIEF Summary of the 1st few days:
Alright, first off, I began my travels in the new Springfield airport terminal—not too shabby of a place. It’s pretty barren at 8:00 in the morning, but it was very nice, I was quite impressed. Next it was to Dallas for a 2-hour layover—not a bad airport, unlike what I heard from most people… well, that is say in comparison to my next stop… LA-f’ingX. If you ever get a chance to NOT go to the fecal plant of the U.S., I strongly suggest it. SO after an hour and a half trying to walk and find the international terminal (and having to step out into the pristine and magical air that is L.A.) I eventually found myself in the right terminal… where I waited. And waited. AND waited. For 8+ hours. It’s okay, I’ve done it before (Denver, anyone??—though Denver was a 4-star resort compared to LAX). Around the 6-7th hour, I eventually met up with a few of my fellow Arcadia students—which is the in-between college between MU and Victoria of Wellington—and we chatted about where we were from, being nervous/excited, where we were going, why New Zealand, the basics.
And then we heard our flight called.
Now there are a few times in your life when you receive a kick in the ass, figuratively speaking. A long, hard needle to the veins shot of adrenaline. That was what it was like walking on to this Air New Zealand Boeing 747 Jet. Now it may not have been earth-shattering for my fellow students, but walking on to the plane was my first of many epiphanies of “Wow. I’m actually doing this…” It really hadn’t hit me until then. And then the plane. The fluorescent tube of the cabin acting like a fat, lazy glowworm to the dark outside. The unabashed politeness of the Air New Zealand crew. The individual movie screens with 70+ movies and the empty seat in between Cindi and myself. It was . . . unbelievable. Too cool.
The flight was absolutely nothing to worry about. Except I was going thru caffeine withdrawal… I forgot to mention that: the day before I left I gave up caffeine so the next week was a mixture of jet lag and bad headaches—which is an interesting experience… but on the plane ride I was half asleep with a mixture of anxiety (of going thru customs in 12 hours), headaches, and not-even-close to REM cycle sleep. As terrible as it sounds, I really didn’t mind it—it was a good, no, “unique” feeling, something I could appreciate, at least in retrospect it was.
We landed in Auckland a little after 6:00 NZ time. We went through customs without too much problem (with a really cute beagle sniffing luggage capable of f-ing you over in a heartbeat if its nose says so). On the arrivals side we met our program directors who I will go into detail about right now:
Jane – essentially a kiwi version of my mother: highly enthusiastic, very kind and fun to be around, caring, and a genuinely good person… loves morbid cautionary tales about “lovely students” meeting their doom… First thing she said to me was “you don’t look like your picture… Don’t worry it’s for the better!!”… later she would go on to tell me I looked like a natural kiwi. Boo-yah.
Kate – while Jane loves to tell morbid stories, Kate seems to like morbidity (“if you are in to having your eyes pop out of their sockets and crash into the rocks below go ahead and try bungee-jumping! It’s just that I wouldn’t…”). She is the more sarcastic, cynical one of the leaders (yes, I guess that means she’s more like me), quick to give you a clever, smart-ass response to our stupid American questions, but somehow manages to do so in a kind of kind manner…hmm… don’t know how, but she does!
Aislynn—Wellington’s mentor (the one who’s hand Vic students have been holding the past month). Probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met—putting her in league with Jane. Has more patience than I could ever dream to have, LOVES Wellington with a passion, great stories, do’s and don’ts, and great person to hang around. Also studies literature (she’s actually in my NZ Lit. class).
Shane—unfortunately I didn’t get much of a chance to hang with Shane, but from what I learned when I did he was a down-to-earth, chill, hilarious kiwi—one I wish I could have hung around more.
On to the orientation..
Auckland: NZ’s largest city. From what Aislynn said, its shittiest as well. We 1st checked into the hostel-ish hotel, then walked around down-town (cool, but too much of a big-city, I’ve been here before type feeling), then we shuttled over to a beach and climbed up a hill where we looked on to the … some body of water, I’m blanking on the name. Great view even though it was cloudy.
…I’m getting tired so I MIGHT talk more about orientation later. All I’ll say is that Peter Jackson landed at the Rotorua airport in his private jet while we were waiting there. Cassie was the only one who really went to go see him get off the plane (he by-passed the terminal for obvious reasons—to avoid people like Cassie, HAH!) but she saw him and I didn’t so props to her. That’s what I get to adhering to strict anti-stalker morals… okay, they’re really not that strict but I do have some control.
BRIEF Summary of the 1st few days:
Alright, first off, I began my travels in the new Springfield airport terminal—not too shabby of a place. It’s pretty barren at 8:00 in the morning, but it was very nice, I was quite impressed. Next it was to Dallas for a 2-hour layover—not a bad airport, unlike what I heard from most people… well, that is say in comparison to my next stop… LA-f’ingX. If you ever get a chance to NOT go to the fecal plant of the U.S., I strongly suggest it. SO after an hour and a half trying to walk and find the international terminal (and having to step out into the pristine and magical air that is L.A.) I eventually found myself in the right terminal… where I waited. And waited. AND waited. For 8+ hours. It’s okay, I’ve done it before (Denver, anyone??—though Denver was a 4-star resort compared to LAX). Around the 6-7th hour, I eventually met up with a few of my fellow Arcadia students—which is the in-between college between MU and Victoria of Wellington—and we chatted about where we were from, being nervous/excited, where we were going, why New Zealand, the basics.
And then we heard our flight called.
Now there are a few times in your life when you receive a kick in the ass, figuratively speaking. A long, hard needle to the veins shot of adrenaline. That was what it was like walking on to this Air New Zealand Boeing 747 Jet. Now it may not have been earth-shattering for my fellow students, but walking on to the plane was my first of many epiphanies of “Wow. I’m actually doing this…” It really hadn’t hit me until then. And then the plane. The fluorescent tube of the cabin acting like a fat, lazy glowworm to the dark outside. The unabashed politeness of the Air New Zealand crew. The individual movie screens with 70+ movies and the empty seat in between Cindi and myself. It was . . . unbelievable. Too cool.
The flight was absolutely nothing to worry about. Except I was going thru caffeine withdrawal… I forgot to mention that: the day before I left I gave up caffeine so the next week was a mixture of jet lag and bad headaches—which is an interesting experience… but on the plane ride I was half asleep with a mixture of anxiety (of going thru customs in 12 hours), headaches, and not-even-close to REM cycle sleep. As terrible as it sounds, I really didn’t mind it—it was a good, no, “unique” feeling, something I could appreciate, at least in retrospect it was.
We landed in Auckland a little after 6:00 NZ time. We went through customs without too much problem (with a really cute beagle sniffing luggage capable of f-ing you over in a heartbeat if its nose says so). On the arrivals side we met our program directors who I will go into detail about right now:
Jane – essentially a kiwi version of my mother: highly enthusiastic, very kind and fun to be around, caring, and a genuinely good person… loves morbid cautionary tales about “lovely students” meeting their doom… First thing she said to me was “you don’t look like your picture… Don’t worry it’s for the better!!”… later she would go on to tell me I looked like a natural kiwi. Boo-yah.
Kate – while Jane loves to tell morbid stories, Kate seems to like morbidity (“if you are in to having your eyes pop out of their sockets and crash into the rocks below go ahead and try bungee-jumping! It’s just that I wouldn’t…”). She is the more sarcastic, cynical one of the leaders (yes, I guess that means she’s more like me), quick to give you a clever, smart-ass response to our stupid American questions, but somehow manages to do so in a kind of kind manner…hmm… don’t know how, but she does!
Aislynn—Wellington’s mentor (the one who’s hand Vic students have been holding the past month). Probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met—putting her in league with Jane. Has more patience than I could ever dream to have, LOVES Wellington with a passion, great stories, do’s and don’ts, and great person to hang around. Also studies literature (she’s actually in my NZ Lit. class).
Shane—unfortunately I didn’t get much of a chance to hang with Shane, but from what I learned when I did he was a down-to-earth, chill, hilarious kiwi—one I wish I could have hung around more.
On to the orientation..
Auckland: NZ’s largest city. From what Aislynn said, its shittiest as well. We 1st checked into the hostel-ish hotel, then walked around down-town (cool, but too much of a big-city, I’ve been here before type feeling), then we shuttled over to a beach and climbed up a hill where we looked on to the … some body of water, I’m blanking on the name. Great view even though it was cloudy.
…I’m getting tired so I MIGHT talk more about orientation later. All I’ll say is that Peter Jackson landed at the Rotorua airport in his private jet while we were waiting there. Cassie was the only one who really went to go see him get off the plane (he by-passed the terminal for obvious reasons—to avoid people like Cassie, HAH!) but she saw him and I didn’t so props to her. That’s what I get to adhering to strict anti-stalker morals… okay, they’re really not that strict but I do have some control.
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