Today has been a crazy exciting and emotionally draining day. I said bye to my parents at the airport at 10:30 pm, did the whole LAX deal and finally got to my gate. I was so happy to find almost everyone from the program, and we were all seated in two rows on the flight so I got to know the people I was sitting next to pretty well early on.
Fourteen hours later we arrived in Auckland where my tent and boots had to be taken out of my very carefully packed luggage for inspection, but thankfully some of the group waited for me. We were running late to get our luggage rechecked for the flight to Christchurch, but we made it just in time for boarding!
When we landed in Christchurch we found the CCSP staff waiting to great us with some delicious muffins. Then we loaded up the vans to head off on our drive to the convent. The country was a lot dryer than I anticipated, but the staff kept reminding us that it is their dry season and that it will look much different by the time we leave.
Seeing Kaikoura made me so excited! It is even more beautiful than I expected, the ocean surrounds the town but you still see Fyfe Mountain. They took us to South Bay (a beach on the way to the convent) were we had a picnic dinner of fish and chips, dad you would have been so jealous.
But none of this beats the campus; I never would have thought that I would live in a place so beautiful. The building was built in 1911, so each room is different and has its own unique touches. Roses, fruit trees, and local flowers surround the campus; and it smells amazing. There is a basketball hoop, volleyball net, hammocks, and a beautiful back patio that allows us to enjoy the wonderful yard and a view of the mountains.
So basically I love it here, the people so far are great, and I can’t wait to see what adventures I am going to encounter!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
First Week
This week has been crazy, we’ve been going through orientation stuff about classes, safety, and rules. But we’ve also had many opportunities to experience Kaikoura. Unfortunately the first few days were really rainy, but it gave us a chance to play games (extreme Uno and Dutch Blitz) as well as get to know each other a lot better. I’ve gotten to know the small town pretty quickly because we mainly get around on bikes it’s hard to miss anything.
On Sunday we split up to go to different churches, which was an experience but the people there were all great and they ended up praying for the group of students that went and our families. Later that day we had a huge barbe (bbq) for anyone from the community to come to. It was great to get to know some of the families; Kiwi’s are really easy to talk to! And I even met a teacher who offered for me to work in class while I’m here.
Monday we went to the recycling center/ thrift store. Kaikoura is known for its environmentally friendly practices. So it was cool to be able to see how much they recycle. After that we went on a hike around the peninsula it was absolutely beautiful, and we all got extremely sunburned. We have been learning a lot about native plants and animals and going out and being able to see some of them was very helpful. After tea (dinner) two men from the local Maori community came to the convent to talk to us about their culture.
Today, 10/25 was another gorgeous day! We went to the Top’s sheep farm in the morning. Which is this old couples farm which consists of 4,000 acres, 3,000 sheep, 8 dogs, 6 chickens, 2 cats, 1 horse, and some geese and goldfish. New Zealand is known for its abundance of sheep right now the ratio is 4:1, so this really was part of the experience. Later in the day we went to the Mari (where the Maori community resides). We got to participate in a tribal welcoming, then they taught us about their meeting house and told us some of their tribal tales; unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring cameras here but I still got some great memories. After tea we watched Whale Rider, which was really cool after experiencing the Maori culture.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to post. The internet is slow and I have to pay for it by the hour so I will be writing throughout the week and then posting them all on the same day.
