Greetings From a Southern Subcontinent

Let me be completely honest here...I would never call any week that I spend here "boring" but all of you will probably think this last week was. Our flat is literally an infirmary. Jardon and Caitlin have had the worst of it. They've been sick for about 2 weeks now, and it's been a really bad cold flu. Hopefully, they are officially on the mend. The rest of us have either had a cough, runny nose, sneezes, or all of the above. It was probably a good thing that we were all on the DL (down low) this week. On Monday, I finished all of my schoolwork for the week and hung around the house. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday consisted of the regular class, guitar lessons, and the occasional nap or two. On Thursday night, we had a social at our flat before we headed into town for the night. On Friday, Caitlin's parents came to visit and took us out for tea (supper). Jardon, Caitlin, her parents, and I headed to the Octagon to find some food. We settled on a place called The Terrace...I highly recommend it. I ordered beef and lamb with a side of salad and fries. They bring you your meal on a sizzling hot plate and you get to cook your meat yourself. Such a great idea so you could have your meat done exactly the way you want it. On Saturday morning, Karla, Caitlin, and I went with her parents to the farmer's market. I got a wonderfully delicious loaf of ciabatta bread, a crepe, and then we headed to Governor's Cafe for coffee and my very first cheese roll. A cheese roll is a slightly altered version of a rolled up grilled cheese. Very good! Karla, Caitlin, and I hung out at the flat after that which rolled into a quiet night around the complex! Today, I plan to get some schoolwork done and finish planning the Queenstown trip for Justyce and me! She'll be here in just 12 short days. Also, since I never got to it this past week (I must've been too busy) here's a list of some of the things they say differently here:

-First of all, when they say anything with a "th" in it, it turns into an "f". So "their" sounds like "fief".

-They call fries chips sometimes, but they also call regular chips, chips. Super confusing when anyone says "chips".

-Speed bumps are judder bars

-This one I absolutely cannot get over...they call "Sprite" lemonade. They just don't have actual lemon squeezed lemonade. Not ok. 

-All pop or soda (wherever you are when reading this) is called fizzy drinks

-When their phone is dead they say "my phone is flat"

-An apartment is a flat 

-They usually call cookies "biscuits"

-They've never heard of scotcheroos (but neither have any other Americans in the flat) 

-Sweet potatoes are kumura. And kumura is everywhere. They have kumura chips in fast food places and any other restaurant you walk into.

-When they say aluminum they say Al-oo-miny-um

-Everything is "sweet as". Not sweet as anything but just "sweet as"

-They laugh at me when I say flip flops...they're jandals. I got told that flip flops sounds like something a five year old would say. Haha!

-Most sweatshirts or sweaters are called a "jersey" or "jumper" 

-When talking about chugging a drink (water, of course) they say "skull it"

-Everyone is a "mate". I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say "friend".

-Hiking is tramping

-A flashlight is a torch

--All bell peppers are "capsicums"

-They say "keen" a lot. "You keen to go out tonight?" "Yeah, I'm keen."

-"That'd be mint." As in that'd be good or fun.

-All types of candies are "Lollies" even chocolate.

-Gasoline is petrol

-The grocery store is always the supermarket

-The sidewalk is pavement

-Mom is Mum

-Garbage/trash is rubbish

-Tire is tyre. Why? I have no idea

-The last letter of the alphabet, Z, is pronounced zed.

For the most part, I find a lot of things similar to proper English slang, like what I heard around Ireland. There are a lot of things that come from the Maori language as well.

I do have everyone in the flat saying "Ohhh yeah" "You betchya" "yeah Suurre" in the most North Dakotan/Minnesotan/Canadian way possible. 

Also, it snowed here this morning! It didn't stick to the ground or anything, but there were real white flakes coming down outside the window. I've heard that it is "hotter than the devil's living room" at home. Sorry, Mom, you should've come to visit sooner. :) 

Have a great week everyone! 

My meal at The Terrace

Our newly arranged furniture that is called the "Cuddle Puddle"

My apologies for the lack of pictures this week. I'm sure I will make up for it at some point.

I'm In Love Again

Imagine this: You're sitting in the backseat of a car (it's a little bit tight and cuddly since you have two kiwis sitting to the left of you) with four people you have only met in the last 3 weeks. The stereo is blasting and all five of you are belting out the lyrics to Mr. Brightside and Adele. All around you, there are mountains folding in that even the Rockies can hardly compete with. You want to talk to everyone in the car, but you can't peel your eyes away from the scenery long enough so you end up talking to the window. In this moment, you have no idea how you've only known these people for less than 3 weeks when it feels like you've known them for years. I think this is what traveling does to a person. It makes you fall in love with things that you didn't even know were out there to love. It shapes you in a way that makes you wake up every morning eager to explore somewhere new, meet someone interesting, or simply relax with the people you have met in a place that you're starting to call home. You constantly feel like time is going by too quickly, and that all of a sudden, this will all be over and you'll only be left with the memories. It's knowing that the people you're meeting and the places you're seeing, will become bittersweet goodbyes in only a couple of months. However, I always remind myself that no matter what happens, I would rather have all of those memories than not have them at all. It's adding one more location to my growing list of places where I want to put a clone of myself. I'm not saying that every day is a dream, but rather every passing day makes my dreams grow a little bit bigger. An example would be my future dreams of owning my very own botanical gardens. For whatever reason I haven't mentioned yet, but my flat is literally a two minute walk from the Dunedin Botanical Gardens. I don't have very many pictures of it right now because it's hard to capture the feeling of being in a certain place. I took a couple below average pictures when I walked through the gardens on Monday on my way to the supermarket. I decided to bring some American baking over to the Long White Cloud. First, I made my Oreo Truffles...with no food processor. I crushed the Oreos as much as I could in the bag, but I already knew that they wouldn't be the same. When I finished, I tried one and realized that the Oreos here also taste a bit differently. I wasn't impressed with myself, however, they were all gone by the next day. I also made Better Than Sex Cake (or Better Than School Cake as Lynnette told us at school). I'm pretty sure that was gone in less than 24 hours. Caitlin's cousin, Greta, also came to stay with us so she could go to the Flume concert that was in Dunedin. On Tuesday, I had class for awhile, then my first guitar lesson. It was actually a lot of fun and I hope I will keep it up. Wednesday came around with some more classes and later, a trip to town for pint night at the student bar. Thursday was a full day with classes from 11-5. Ok...it felt like it was a full day for me :) We had a group of people in the complex come over and then we went to check out a new place in town that had just opened up. We danced and danced until our legs couldn't dance anymore(and the place closed) and then went home. On Friday, I went with my friend, Rory, to Long Beach while everyone else had classes. There are a couple of caves on the end that are really cool to explore, too. I told him that I probably never would have walked into them like that at home or there would have been 3 snakes and a bear waiting for me. The weather was absolutely amazing with not even a hint of clouds. I'm not sure if it's just due to the fact that I didn't grow up with it, but I am constantly mesmerized and in love with the endless waters and beaches. I think the other thing that helped on Friday was the fact that the temperature was about 60 degrees with no wind rather than 90 degrees on a typical beach I've been to. I could have stayed there all day, but I knew the crew at home was about ready to leave to Queenstown. Greta lives in Franz Joseph and we had decided to take her back (well to at least Wanaka). We drove through probably the most windy roads I've been on in my life until we reached the amazing little place of Queenstown. I'm in love and cannot wait to go back. We didn't arrive until about 9pm so we immediately went and got the infamous Fergburgers. We decided to head out on the town and check out some of the bars and clubs. It was a lot of fun especially since Queenstown is a big tourist town so we were surrounded with a bunch of people from around the world. Saturday morning we went to a bakery, the Cookie Time factory/shop, and then headed up to Wanaka to drop off Greta. We went to see the famous Wanaka Tree that is rooted in the middle of water. Phoenix, Fin, Caitlin, and I thought about staying another night somewhere since it was only Saturday but decided against it since we have all been suffering from a cold/strep throat/tonsillitis/polio/E.coli all week. We drove back through absolutely breathtaking scenery (it was dark when we drove there on Friday) and made it back to Dunedin at about 5. BREAKING NEWS: we have a sixth flatmate! Arianna is from Connecticut and now lives across the hall from me. I think she will fit right in so that's good news. I've decided today (Sunday) is a day for getting my life together the best I can. In other words, do most of my homework that is due for the week. It's been raining all morning so I don't have many temptations to go outdoors like I will tomorrow. 3 weeks down...utterly unbelievable. I have a feeling that this next year is just going to keep going by faster and faster. I hope everyone is surviving the heat at home and is having a wonderful summer. It is quite weird to be having classes in July, but I suppose I can handle it...especially being 3 days a week and I'll be done in October :) I know I know, some of you were worried I was wasting my time here studying away in my room. Have a wonderful week, everyone! P.S. I might be posting a mid-week blog about the different sayings that they use here compared to at home. And yes, everyone is still making fun of my "Canadian accent" Uffda.

Greta, Anna, and me

Through the Botanical Gardens

You can't really tell, but this tree is ridiculously tall

On campus

Some of the campus buildings 

Caitlin

Phoenix

Greta, Anna, Caitlin

Caitlin

The whole lot of us

Excuse my face here.

Looking out from the caves

In the caves 

One of the best photobombs ever 

Fergburger 

Getting artsy on the beach 

Was a bit chilly but still fun :)

This is the best I could get, but it was one of the most vivid rainbows I have ever seen 

Giant pieces of fruit

I should've taken a lot more scenery pictures but more of the time it was rainy 

Greta, Fin, Phoenix, Caitlin and me in Queenstown

I will have to take more pictures of Queenstown when I go back. For whatever reason, the ones I have won't upload right now.

I've been behaving

Didn't I just write my last blog like yesterday? Seriously, time is flying by so fast. So Monday was when classes were due to start. Maddie doesn't have class on Mondays and Fridays though so I got to relax. In the afternoon, I went with Phoenix, Aless, Yu, and Marina to the art gallery. There's a room in the middle that is called "The Obliteration Room". When you walk in, they hand you a sheet of dot stickers and you're free to put them anywhere in the room that you want. We dotted the place and then moved on to look at actual pieces of art. Once the gallery closed, we went next door to get donuts. Now, when someone says donuts, I think of a piece of dough with a hole in the middle that tastes alright. But oh no, these were not your stereotypical police-officer donuts. These donuts were made for the gods and goddesses of the world. A beautiful, warm piece of melt-in-your-mouth dough, without a hole in it, comes on a plate with a syringe that has your filling of choice on the side. You inject the filling yourself and then enjoy! Later that night, we went to the infamous Velvet Burger to get 2 for 1 burgers. They were delicious! On Tuesday, I actually had to go to class :( The classes went well since we just had to go through the course outlines. On Wednesday I had some more classes and then at night, we had a big group of us in my flat. We hung out for awhile and then headed into the student bar. On Thursday, I had some more classes and hung out with friends around town. My first week of classes were over! I had to find a way to celebrate so I figured getting two tattoos that I've been wanting to get for about two years, would be a fun time. I woke up on Friday and went to get 2 for 1 pancakes with my friend, Molly. After having a big breakfast, we headed down the road to the tattoo parlor that I had met up with on Monday. About 2 hours went by and I was done! I want to take this time to point out the fact that I did just try to call my parents to tell them instead of them finding out through this blog, but they didn't answer...so surprise Mom and Dad! Remember when I said I was coming back with a Maori face tattoo?? Well, don't worry because during Grand Forks winters, you'll never be able to see either one ;) (I really am sorry, Dad. Please come visit me still. Also, remember when you messaged me saying "I have eyes on you dear child." Yeah I was actually getting inked at that exact moment.) Saturday came along and it was time for the big game! My flat went for a flouting (flat outing) and got Japanese for lunch and picked up some yellow and blue shirts. The rugby game was so much fun! I will always love Sioux hockey more, but it was a good second. :) After rugby, we went into town which was packed with people trying to go to the bars and clubs. We all made it back safely (I think) and are now relaxing on a rainy Sunday! Apparently we are headed to KFC for dinner tonight. Haha! I hope everyone is enjoying there summer! I definitely am enjoying the 50 degree weather down here.  Miss you all :) I love you, Mom and Dad :*

This was super small. It was hand carved from bone

The glorious donuts

Kirby and me 

My kiwi hosts, Caitlin and Karla

Seriously some of the best pancakes I've ever had 

  So here they are...filling in the continents as I go to them

  

Rugby stadium

Fin, Kirby, Aless, Marina

Aless

It was real popular to wear KFC buckets as hats like the guy above

Kirby, me, Molly

Fin joined in, too