Connections

A quick post before bed.  Big things have been happening around the country recently; no doubt you have heard.   As I have been telling worried friends and family, all most people in Dunedin felt was a bit of a vibration in the ground.   I didn't feel anything, though, and proceeded to mock my flatmate Alex when he asked me if the earth was moving.  I've been wrong before.  Unfortunately I was wrong in a big way this time.  It's interesting how proximity to a situation magnifies or diminishes the realness and care it produces in a person.  I guess that seems like a pretty obvious statement but it's something that always seems to take me by surprise.   Ultimately, I guess it comes down to empathy for people.  Even though I have only been here a week and have met only a handful of people, the people they know and the people those people know all create a chain of empathy to bring us closer to the situation.  It's the difference between a public drama on the news and a very real and personal story.   This is one of the main reasons I'm finding that travel is good for a person.  How else would I have felt personally connected to the earthquake in Christchurch or the complex issues of Colombia?  At the same time, how else would I have been connected to the friends I will meet here or known the sense of family I had with the Ortegas?  The same can happen at a local level but I'm very thankful to be making worldly connections in such an exciting way.

I spent the day partially sleeping off the night of dancing on Wednesday and partially exploring the cliffs near St. Clair Beach.  Both were lovely.  Without much idea of where I was going, I just sort of jogged around until I found a street or a trail that I thought would connect to somewhere interesting.  I was not disappointed.  I sat on the edge of the cliff where I took this picture for quite some time just taking in the squawk of the seagulls, the crash of the waves, and as I found out later, the stares of a German exchange student.  Hopefully she didn't judge me too much when I nestled into the grass and closed my eyes.  Anyway, the cliffs were one of the most impressive things I have seen here so far so I hope you enjoy the picture.  This post wasn't so quick after all but...hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.  Goodnight.

Ultra Awesome.

Get me some aloe vera.  Anyone wanting to do a study on the effects of ozone depletion can start with my sunburn.  Apparently the same application procedure I'm used to using doesn't fly here.  On a cool, windy day with clouds overhead, the ultra violet rays got me when I least expected it at St. Claire Beach.  Despite my current pain, the day was a good one.  Throughout the duration of our 30 minute wait for our unfashionably late bus, what seemed initially like a lovely summer day turned cold, dreary, and amazingly windy.  Even still, the beach was much more beautiful than I had anticipated.  The wind caught the tops of the breaking waves and sprayed a cloud of mist against the sky with huge hills and dark brown cliffs in the background.   Ghostly trails of fine white sand shifted across the beach and stung our legs as we walked.  It was one of the many moments that I'm sure I will have that I wish I could keep coming back to.  Oh wait, for the next four months it is!  You can bet I will be using this Ocean to its full potential since we don't see too much in the way of oceans back in Nebraska.  The wave pool at Fun Plex is about as close as it gets.  After exploring the beach a little bit and running down it like bay watch we decided to jump into the water, which was take your breath away cold.  The only getting used to this water is when you start to lose feeling in your body.  But we went in anyway.   How many times do you get to jump into freezing cold water on a cool, windy day in New Zealand?  Exactly. Not many.  And how many times can you get hypothermia after jumping into cold water in New Zealand?? Just kidding.  It ended up being everyone's favorite part of the day I'm pretty sure also.  I should mention that we had 4 countries represented in our little gang today and 4 different states.  France, Germany, Sweden and the U.S. (NE, WI, NY, GA) all had delegation.  I love me some diversity.  And with that it's time to apply some sunscreen and go for a morning run.  Au revoir.

A Dash of Direction

I find it quite lovely that I'm starting this post at 12:34 am.  I've always loved that time.  Last year it was my favorite time of night while still in the infantile hours of whatever design project or contraption I was working on at the time.  Tonight, however, I'm feeling Omaha time more than Dunedin time so my old friend 12:34 is instead feeling more like getting hit by a train.   Anyway, since the last post I have gained much more knowledge, information, but most importantly, confidence about the semester ahead. I now have a direction.   At the supermarket, as you may recall, I felt like a chicken with its head cut off, but the tension gradually melted away as I got my bearings, made a couple successful meals, and realized that no matter what happens with food or money, I'm still in New Zealand. No matter how bad my food turns out or how little I can manage to spend, I'm not going to starve and I still have a place to live in this beautiful country.   How lucky I am.   The kiwis have all been talking about how hot it is the past couple days when highs have reached into the 70's.  This has made exploring and running errands quite enjoyable.  Today (the 18th) we headed into town to get a phone for myself and some others.  Along the way we stopped at a dairy ( the New Zealand word for a convenience store) and got some ice cream that appeared to be scooped with cereal bowls with handles; they were massive.   On the way back, we went to go find the harbor.  The walk was long, but it was nice to see and get to the water.  Hills surrounded the harbor with houses and streets nestled in amongst trees on the hills.   We also stopped at the Dunedin train station.  It was a beautiful building made with black volcanic rocks and limestone. I'll be down there tomorrow for a farmers market, also. Well  12:34 has quickly almost turned into 1 am and my body is increasing its hints for me to go to bed so I'm going to listen to it .  I hope you enjoy the looking at the picture as much as I enjoyed taking it.  It is the scene that has been appearing on every official University packet or paper I have received and I'm glad to finally have a copy of my own.  That's all for tonight.  Goodnight from Dunedin.

Can you feel it?

As the blue and yellow lights of the Los Angeles runway streaked by outside my row 66 window on take off Monday night, I started to get the most excited for New Zealand that I had been since getting my acceptance letter to the University of Otago.  I was lucky enough to sit next to an approachable and pleasant Canadian helicopter pilot, Paula, who made the 12 hour flight go by faster than expected.  The movies, complimentary lasagna, and the accents of the flight crew also helped. Sleep wasn't terrible.  It was pretty good actually for having my face pressed into a tray table all night.  And because the flight left at night and arrived at 8 AM its almost like it was all just a bad nights sleep, except for the swollen feet.  After landing, me and Paula went through customs and they cleaned her tent for foreign soil.  They were really concerned about keeping out foreign species of plants.  And animals too apparently after they found live scorpions in someone else's tent.  Walking out of the airport to the domestic flights terminal is when it really hit me where I was.  The most striking thing to me was the smell.  Hints of pine, ocean, and summer filled my nose with every deep breath of giddiness. Minutes after I arrived to my flat in Dunedin, I met my flat host Daniel Brown (another DB...we'll have to see if we can work this out)  and then took a trip to the grocery store.  If I hadn't just gone to the bathroom, I very well may have peed my pants once faced with the reality of being dependent on myself for food.  I think the low point came when I was standing in the grocery store staring at the produce with an orange, potatoes, and a head of lettuce in my basket; not exactly a solid meal.  I gave myself a pep talk and managed to buy and bring home enough to get me by for a couple days, when I can regroup and think clearly.  The feeling right now is very similar to my first couple nights at Iowa State.  Meeting all new people and trying to figure out where the heck I'm going. Except we didn't have sheep grazing on large rolling hills in Ames.  Most people living in my flat complex are Americans with the occasional Swede and Scot for good measure.  Everyone seems fun.  Welp, I better get up and moving.   The sun is shining and it's 62 degrees on the 17th of February and I feel motivated to take on the day with Michael Jackson's "Can you Feel It?" pumping through my headphones.  Yes, Michael, yes I can.