NZ Update!

HOW has it been over a week and a half since I left Asia?? CRAZY. Let me tell you it took me a while longer to wean myself off of Thai and Indian food.... the availability here is insane. Every 2 out of 3 restaurants is Asian of some sort. I DO have my own computer now, as Hannah so awesomely trucked it down for me, along with over half of my belongings I now have in New Zealand. I have just completed my second day of classes here at University of Canterbury, and things are looking pretty familiar!! The lectures and one lab I have had so far are looking pretty similar to classes back home, which I guess is good - I won't be missing out on things! My first few days here were spent trying to get organized: buying necessary things such as towels, sheets, cutting boards etc. and catching up on my sleep pattern because I was an awkward like, 3 hours off... and on the night of Thursday the 16th, Hannah arrived from Picton! Yay!! Friday consisted of us walking around a 'market' they had on campus, essentially like the start of every school year where booths about different services are set up. I also attended a short orientation while Hannah chilled on the lawn.... what a great sport. In the afternoon, we ended up heading downtown and checking out an area close to the Red Zone (closed off still from the earthquake) called Re:START. It is basically a community of retailers and shops all set up in the carpark of a now closed-off mall. BUT they are all set up in storage containers! Very cool - and gets business going even when buildings are unsafe and closed off. Got that part of downtown up and running again. We decided to grab some italian pizza for dinner, and discovered a grocery store and bank SO close to campus - awesome. Saturday, we attempted to attend a farmer's market that is held about a 20 minute walk from campus, in what is called Riccarton Bush, but discovered at 1pm, we had JUST missed it. BUT something intriguiing was being set up... so we walked around an old protected area of the park with he oldest standing type of tree in New Zealand (Hannah will know: www.hannahquin.tumblr.com). Exiting the park, we discovered that the area had been set up for the Belgian Beer and Mussel festival. Belgian meant chocolate and waffles as well, so OF COURSE we stuck around. Sampled some local beers, tried a 70% melted chocolate brownie, and shared some mussels. A DELECTABLE afternoon and evening was spent enjoying the free music that was also going on! Sunday we had planned to go to Akaroa (where Hannah now is) for a few days, but the timetabling here is bizarre and that morning I woke up to discover I suddenly had classes on Mondays. No can do, so we rented some bikes for the day ($35 including drop-off and pick-up = a steal) and checked out the city. We decided to bike around the Red Zone, the essentially main part of the downtown core that is closed off, and has been closed for a year now. It was pretty creepy... it seriously looks like it could've happened a week ago, and it has been a YEAR. Things left abandoned in closed off buildings, piles of rubble next to perfectly fine buildings... Tomorrow is the anniversary so they are holding some ceremonies around town too. After checking that out, we biked back to check out the Sunday market. It was baby! I was expecting something a little bigger but I guess that's reserved for the Saturday one :) Regardless, we picked up some homemade fudge and had a snack in the park before continuing on our ride. In the afternoon we tackled a pretty serious hill (haven't seen a hill like that in a WHILE) up to a lookout point over the city at the Sign of the Takahe - a fort located on the Port Hills South of the city. Once we reached the top, we had a view of the whole city, East to the ocean, West and South to the Canterbury plains. Christchurch is FLAT. Except for these hills I guess :) but they're not technically IN the city. Halfway down the hill we stopped at a cafe for lunch - involving pumpkin YUM always delicious!! We are lucky we found a good place because everything closes soo early here and nearly everything is closed on Sundays!! Can't be remembering things last minute because stores will probably be closed! After lunch we had planned to take the scenic route back to campus but honestly, our butts were SO sore from bike seats that we cut it short and had to go back. I'm sorry for the details, but it was hilarious. Arriving back on campus around 4, we left the bikes to be picked up and grabbed some ingredients for dinner. In the evening we made ourselves a nice cheap salad at home, I got ready for my first day of school, and Hannah worked on planning her next little bit. First day was alright, not too bad, mostly intro stuff but HOMEWORK was assigned. Unimpressed. First textbook = $25. Amazing! Let's hope that trend continues.... after class I went to meet Hannah at the mall and we ended up seeing a movie in the evening - we were assigned seats! Which was hilarious because the theatre was MASSIVE and there were maybe 30 people in it. Since we saw the Iron Lady, we were also the youngest by... a while :D Great monday night activity, tucked in early as I had early class this morning and Hannah left early on the bus to Akaroa!! She'll be back later this week though, Christchurch is much easier to travel from as it is a big(ish) city. This evening: my 2nd guest arrives!!! I am NEVER ALONE!! It's awesome! Sarah gets in at 9pm tonight and will be staying here until Hannah returns (or however long she so desires!) and they may end up traveling together!!! Coming soon - MY first trip out of the city to see some more of this country!!! AND sorry about the extreme detail in this post... I'll work on it :)