Wellington

So another weekend me and Whitney went down to wellington to visit our friends from Orientation in Rotorua. We stayed with my friend Caroline from Texas and she lives down the road from where my cousin lives in southlake, texas! We took the train down and the first night we were there we went out on the town and onto Cuba Street basically the ped mall in Iowa city plus state street in Madison, Crazyness!!! All of us girls def got some international guys that night, they were from Scotland, Asia, Germany and England!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday; we climbed Mt. Victoria, in my flip flops and this mountain is also straight up, which was absolutely wonderful as well. Then we took the cable car to the botanical gardens, the view from the mountain was much better, but i did get the postcard picture. It then started to rain and ruined all of our night plans, plus we were really tired...

Sunday; me and whitney went to Te Papa, the NZ national museum and the wharf and the farmers market, which I got a tasty corn dog. We did some shopping later and since everything closes at 5 we crashed and had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant.

Monday morning we went home on the bus to start class again...

Lake Taupo

To escape what happened the previous weekend we(about 8 of us; me, David(minnesota), Whitney and Lizzie(Virginia), Stefan(kiwi), Tess(Georgia), Mariel(Norway) and Lisa(Sweden)) rent a van for the weekend and head up to the Adventure Capital of the North Island, Taupo. So Much FUNNN

On our way up we drove through middle earth, so amazing, and got out for an photo op.

We got their about 9pm and me, david, stefan and tess decide to go to some bars.

The next day; saturday, some of the girls went skydiving and me and lizzie went to the beach and walked around, the water wasnt as cold as we expected so we went home to get our suits. We then met up with the Scandanavian girls and they came to the beach to go swimming. The water was so clear, and with snow capped mountains in the background, it was breathless.

Later, we went kayaking down the Waikato River, we then stopped in some hot pools, it was very relaxing. Later that night we decide to go to the famous Huka Falls, however we quickly learned that we took the long way to get there and it was an hour hike. When we got their, dusk was quickly approaching. Chaos errupts, there were a few well experienced kayakers stuck in the falls, so they had to get them out. The boys helped them, it was really scary he has hanging with his kayak still attached to him by a thin rope. Luckily they got him out, he had to climb out of his kayak to get out safely because there was to much bush and trees to bring a kayak up. Later that night we went out, danced with some creepy guys, which is always awesome!

Sunday; we climbed Mount Tauhara, the only Dacite Volcano in New Zealand, most of them are andesite. That was def. a climb, it was a straight up 45 degree angle the whole time and there wasnt really a path some of the time, which was also so Awesome(sarcasm, a little :-))

Front Page National News

So during our orientation for australearn and through the University of Iowa TIPS program, they told us we would be experiencing many things, probably a lot of great things(trips, new clubs and friends!) and some not so great things like homesickness and personal illness. But with all the sessions that I have been through, we werent told how to deal with death of a fellow student while abroad. But that is what happened to me and a whole bunch of my friends this past weekend.

Last week, I joined the Alpine Club with the greatest hopes to conquer fear and have fun while camping, bungee jumping, kayaking, rock climbing, caving and horse trekking. About 100 of us in the alpine club were doing a introductory course of bungee/bridge jumping. I was number 9/100, so I was very early in the day.

However, later in the day, it was another student's turn to go, and she did her jump, but instead of swinging back and forth before reaching the ground, she fell 25 metres into the rocks. The police are still investigating what and why it happened. But after she fell she was rushed to the Palmerston North Hospital, than a few hours later she died of most likely severe head injuries. All of us cant comprehend why it was then, why did we land safely and not her? The group that was there will probably never forget the sounds they heard and what they saw. For me, whenever I go to sleep, I play that image in my head which is why I wake up and cant sleep.

Before coming to New Zealand, I could tell you a million things that would happen, like going to the beach, the south island, learning the haka and meeting a bunch a great people, but a student dying that was in the same group that I was in, wasn't going to be one of them. Nothing prepares you for a freak accident. Now I'm looking forward to more bonding with the Alpine Club and my friends, because nothing will ever be the same.

Ok, sorry I'll hopefully have more happy post later, like when I go down to wellington!

Alpine Club Outing- Freshers

So, I joined the alpine club which is everything outdoors and is the longest running club on campus, also it is it's 80th birthday this year, so it's supposed to be a year to remember. The first outing we had was bridge/bungee jumping, we had harnesses on our shoulders and hips so we were sure to be strapped in. It was probably one of the scariest and most rewarding thing I did(besides alyssa in marching band draggin us onto shreika in Tampa during the bowl trip). It was so much fun, I'll post a video of it here. I did a handstand on the ledge and then got pushed off, Alastair the instructor guy said at the first initial drop we were going 80 mph!

http://www.facebook.com/video/videos.php?of=14827687#/video/video.php?v=661558274813&subj=14827687 Here is the link for my video, or you can just facebook me and search under my videos...It was a lot of fun, well until the afternoon, but I will write about that in another blog post.

My Classes/O-Week!!

I am taking 4 classes and they are:

Blockbusters and Biopics: A history at the movies, basically a movie class, where we watch and write about historical movies. We just watched Mississippi Burning about the 1964 freedom summer. Next up is the Cold war and Mcarthyism where we will watch the oscar nominee Good Night and Good Luck. Later we will doing the victorian era and finish with Saving Private Ryan.

Earth Science: I learn about rocks and minerals and mostly about the Grand Canyon.

Society, Environment and Place: a course about human geographies its for my International Studies/Human rights major.

Making New Zealand: A Survey to 1914 is a new zealand course, we mainly study the maori who landed here in 1350 and then european colonization.

BUT, there is also O-WEEK!!!
Its a crazy week at the beginning of the school year, there is a FOGA party, Comedians, Concerts, traditional Hangi maori meal, Bizarre Ball and lots of drinking which the university sponsers.

It was so much fun, but nothing like down in the south island, in the college town of dunedin, during the FOGA party there was riots, flipped cars, drugs and lots of drinking. This was probably the equivalent to Madison Halloween State Street 2002.

Some pictures from Napier

Napier-BEACH

So on Thursday and Friday the 19th and 20th a couple of friends(Tess from Georgia, Ashley from Washington State, Cameron and my fellow marching band member from Virginia Tech, Whitney) and I went to Napier in Hawkes bay, its the big u-shaped strip of land on the east coast(north island). We had a little trouble finding a room because it was art deco weekend, which meant really old cars and flapper style/1920's style clothing all over the place. The outfits were really different but interesting to see. We stayed in a Quality Inn, but this was a hopping hotel. There were old men in speedo's...HOT, I know! and old women in really bad suits(one I remember was a straight pastel purple one). The first day we got there we went to the beach and the ocean spa, because the bay was a little to cold to swim in. However I sighted our long last Titanic...or something that looked like it...

Later we got ready and went out to eat at a hole in the wall, but really good Italian restaurant. After that we went bar hopping to some Irish pubs and I saw BLARNEY stone, pretty good for not being on the same continent. My friends, Tess, Ashley and Whitney all forgot their passports so they got rejected from the bar, but we all left to go to the grocery store to get booze. We went back to out hotel and I realized that I don't really like Heineken or any beer(hard liquor!) apart from ten man and sometimes beer band. The beach was really pretty at night, no sand just small rocks, however we were unable to find the moon...

the next day we did some shopping, went to the aquarium and got rained on a lot and the wind was pretty brutal.

NZ rule #1: ALWAYS bring a raincoat if there is rain in the forecast even if you are out for a few hours...it will rain on you(and it will probably poor) like it did on my way to class a couple times this week.

Down to Palmerston North/Massey University

We split from our large group, one group went down to Christchurch to go to the University of Canterbury and Lincoln on the south island, one other went to the other Massey University in Wellington, the other group was mine that took a bus down to Palmerston North. I was wondering how boring and long it would be to get down to the city, but it was quite the opposite. It was about 5-6 hours, but the scenery was stunning, in that short amount we traveled we saw sheep...a lot of sheep, rolling hills, caves, mountains, crystal clear lakes and farms! It was beautfiul, and they said the south island is so much better to look at...I can't wait for semester break!

We got down here and had really boring international orientation sessions and then all the first year students came. Most of the incoming students were good, but some of the kiwi's it's like talking to a brick wall. The advisors told us to be prepared because americans were so much more sociable than them, she was so right. I met some really cool kiwis so far, most of them vet students, actually practically the whole student body is Vet students. One of my good friends here from the U.S. (whitney) lives in a newer dorm where I met cool people, but when you get to my dorm, its like a whole new world they are all very skiddish, except for a few(i like those few :-)) and the guys are totally cool.

The other night we went into town to a few bars; Tao and some other no namer, but we were trying to find bar mode or mode bar, and my friends took us down rape alley it almost seemed like...but that night was a lot of fun!

Also...what the hell they close everything at 5?!?!?

next: trip to napier

Caving with the eels

So we went to Waitomo near the west coast in the north island, and all of us went caving. There was three choices, you could choose a dry cave even though there was water in it, it consisted of abseiling in and ziplining in the dark through the cave. The others were a tubing one, which was a water cave and the other one was the most physically challening cave that was both wet and dry with rockclimbing and small spaces. I choose to do the tubing cave it was called Tumu Tumu Toobing, and the profile picture is the one from it.

Although it was called toobing, it consisted a total of about 5 minutes of the 3 hours of tubing. It was more like the 3rd one. We also had to do a lot of swimming in temperatures as cold as lake superior, thank god we had a wet suit and gum boots(rain boots that everyone wears around campus). But most of it was trying to dodge rocks on the surface and then falling to the floor of the water because you weren't sure where you were stepping. But then came the glow worms.

The glow worms were something to look at, we turned off our lights and they looked like stars in the sky, they were beautiful to look at then we learned the reason why the glow is because of their poop.

We then swam with the white eel, one of the instructor said they saw it.

At the End was very trying after 3-3.5 hours of climbing, trying to dodge sprained ankle alley, concussion way and the supertight wetsuits. Although those wetsuits are very complementary compared to marching band uniforms!

Day 2/Massive Cultural Experience

We had a early wake up call, breakfast at 730, which was followed by a really boring program session, but the fun stuff came later.

In the late morning we went to the World famous live sheep show at the agrodome and practically every nationality was in the crowd. Here there was cow milking, lamb feeding, sheep shearing, sheepdog demonstrations, where the dogs would bark at the sheep to move and since they couldn't they jumped all over their backs( if you look at the pics it will make sense).

In the afternoon we went zorbing, which is rolling down a long hill in a plastic ball filled with water! After that we came back to the hostel and learned the "haka" a traditional maori(natives) war dance.

At night for dinner, we went to the Tamaki Village where some maori's live. This included a "hangi" meal, which is a meal cooked underground and in the soil, which was really good. I got some pictures the guy we loved, he looked like a model. :-)

First Day/Birthday

I Made it down here, the plane ride wasn't bad at all, luckily I sat by one of the greatest guys ever! He was old and we(me and another girl in my program) played with his iphone for like hours. Definitely the best food ever on the plane and we had a library of media to listen/watch during the trip, all together Air New Zealand was great!

We got into Auckland on my 21st birthday :-) at 5:00 am, finally went through customs and met with australearn, and holy hell it was humid, but it was much better than Iowa. We took a three hour bus ride down to Rotorua, where our hostel was, which was nice when we got there, but smells nasty because of the hot springs and sulfur.

Finally for birthday night a big night of guys and some girls we went to the bar at the hostel for a couple of hours. Lots of free drinks from guys including the hot bartender! So tell me if this is a successful 21st birthday night...2 or 3 screwdriver, 1 apple and vodka, steinlager(beer), 3 shots, apple martini thing, then we went to the FOAM Party at the Lava Bar and ordered another fruity one, is that good enough?? Foam party was so much fun, we got very wet! It was a wonderful birthday day!