I love college! Hey!

So. A week since I updated you all; you must be chomping at the bit.

Gosh. It just occured to me that on Saturday I'll've been here 2 weeks already - only another 50 to go! This year will go very quickly, I suspect.

Anyways, I left off mid-Orientation ('O') Week. We never made it to Sky Tower - and despite repeated suggestions that we go up, we never have. One day, one day... Instead Colleen and I met up with a friend of hers, Steve, and we went to International House (nowhere near as nice as WSA, where I am) and went to someone's birthday party in their room. A different kind of fun, and I felt like a first year again, but fun nonetheless.

The next day I went to some rather dull talks from the Arts department (free cake tho) and about living in Auckland and travelling in NZ. The talks may not have been very exciting but I met some cool people, which was kinda why I went anyway, so I suppose needs were met. These new friendships were consolidated in the evening at the internationals' pub night, where everyone came dressed as their country. There was a beaver (Canada), a dragon (Wales), a red telephone box (England), some 'beauty queens' (America), berets and striped tops (France, obv) and a lot of flags and football shirts. To show willing I got a shoe lace and stuck a tea bag, a Cadbury's wrapper, a tube map and a 50p to it and wore it as a head band. Given my lack of glue, I had to be quite inventive in my methods of attachment - safety pins, needle and thread, and a plaster. 'Here's one I made earlier...'

The next day I paid for my frivolity (Hangover #1 - felt more like H1N1) but luckily was well-stocked with bacon. I went to a super-dull careers talk (I'd like to do an internship or something whilst I'm out here) then attempted to meet Jamie and his friend Amanda for a film but couldn't find the cinema. Trying not to lose my temper, I gave up and went to the Auckland art gallery instead, which had an interesting collection of paintings, old and new, reflecting landscapes and Maori themes. After that I did meet up with Jamie and Amanda, sushi was eaten and we went to see another film, Mary and Max, which was bloody brilliant and you should all go see it - it's claymation, and about a pen-friendship between an 8 year old Australian girl and a neurotic 40-something Jewish New Yorker. Marvellous.

At the weekend I hopped the bus back to Hamilton to see surrogate Mum and Dad, Rachel and Nick, and my new best friend and the most beautiful child in the world, JJ. We had a relaxed weekend (ideal), visiting a lake and park with some birds, where JJ and I ran around, one of us like a nutter and the other trying not to annoy people eating fish and chips. On Saturday evening we watched the rather dull All Blacks game - I was informed they were not at their best and games can be much more exciting, tho we did win, hurrah hurrah - and on Sunday upon my return I met up with new friend Meagan (she does dance and architechture, possibly my favourite degree combination ever) and we saw Harry Potter and the Stupid, Incoherent Plot.

Monday, Monday. The start of classes. Suddenly the university was awash with students - universally the same, in baggy jeans and Ugg(ly) boots, sauntering along - and the previously empty union buildings (far superior to Potterow and Teviot) were alive with chatter. I had lunch with Jamie - there's about 10 food stalls in the union building, two of which sell sushi - and we signed up for Tramping Club (which means hiking, okay? The Americans find its name quite confusing). As a result I shall be going off to some hut in the middle of some mountains Friday night to 'tramp' about in the countryside for the weekend, along with about 50 other people. There didn't seem to be as many socieities as Edinburgh, unless you were Christian, in which case they have every niche covered ('Hong Kong Christian Engineers Society', anyone?) and the tramping people seemed pretty cool, and pretty enthusiastic. They own this hut in the mountains which people lovingly restore, and I got an instant flash of Bedlam and Dave Larkin. Perhaps, strangely, it'll be the closest thing.

Some actual work has been done too, in the form of attending lectures, thankfully not as much of a shock to the system as expected. Annoying that my one class on Tuesday (pragmatics) was cancelled, not that we knew 'til we got there, but I did meet a Taiwanese guy called Austin whilst waiting for the news. He was in the process of making 999 paper roses for his girlfriend (of 5 months, don't ask) who he was going to ask to marry him. The roses were pretty cool, although I wondered why he was using blue paper for them, and involved making a sort of box and then twisting the top. I asked if he was going to put the ring in one of the roses. 'Oh,' he said, 'I hadn't thought of that.'

The other classes - English language worldwide, language change and Polynesian comparative linguistics (don't try saying that when drunk) - offered a rollercoaster of lecture-type experiences. I have the same guy for the latter two, a bearded, mumbling Canadian with a sense of humour and who needs no notes, and a Kiwi lady for the other one, who fervently read from her notes for two hours. That's the other thing - some classes are one hour, some are two. Two hours! Luckily you get a ten minute break in between, where you all sit wondering why you can't just get on with it.

In the English language worldwide class we get to write a 12 page (12 PAGES??!!) report on how we speak, which I'm quite looking forward to, having never done anything like that. Polynesian comparative linugistics has probably proved the most interesting so far tho, partly because it's the only class where I haven't covered the material before, but partly also because the class only has 7 other people in it, so I've actually gotten to know them a bit. I was pleased to meet a cheery Canadian called Mark, who has a good sense of humour and proved fun last night.

That sounds worse that it should. Basically, I wanted to go see this film 'Dogtooth' as part of the film festival, but when Mark, Colleen and I got there it was sold out. Lame! So I suggested we grab a few beers and watch some awful Kiwi television (sadly they have no discriminatory board that prevents them importing Jeremy Kyle. Sigh.) Instead, the few beers were replaced by a bottle of vodka and a drinking game, which saw Colleen yelling defamatory things out the window and me hopping about like a squirrel. We were joined by my flatmate Kristoff, who was made to literally drink under the table, and the vodka then became a trip to the uni bar, Shadows. There we had beer and tequilla (mistake!) and jumped about to a rather good covers band playing Rage Against the Machine and Nirvana. The beers and tequilla then took us to a club, where there was a queue, so we went to the pub opposite, where more beers were had, and - oh, the shame - absinthe. (MISTAKE!) Needless to say, I lost today to Hangover #2.

Well, that pretty much brings you up to speed. Oh, I did also see MGMT, but they were a bit of a disappointment. Nice to hang out with Jamie and Amanda, Jamie's flatmate Yoki and their Irish friend tho. I'm also looking in to going to Tonga in my mid-semester break early September in order to swim with whales, and to ignore all the assignments I have to do around then. And I'm trying to find a band, and have lined up a couple of jam sessions.

So there we go. I hope you're well, and congratulations if you read this far.
A x