Week 2: Thinking & Drinking
- Bryce Bozadjian
- Jul 17, 2017
- 3 min read
I want to start off by apologizing for that lame title and for posting this a day late. Procrastination is still, after 21 years, my middle name.
Anyway!
Classes:
This past week was the first week of classes, re-orientation week. I'm taking three papers: Introduction to Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners, The Big Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy, and Media and Public Relations. Maori (pronounced like "moldy" but with an r) and PR meet once a a week for two hours, and philosophy meets twice a week for 50 minutes.
We also have to attend weekly tutorials, which are essentially workshops with a small group of classmates and a tutor (think teacher's aide, Americans). You choose a time from the handful of options your lecturer presents. Those start this week, and I'm looking forward to them!
Another distinction between American college and Kiwi uni – they call their professors by their first names! There isn't a hierarchy of authority here, so although our professors are much more educated than us, it's customary to call them Sophie, Dan, and Margalit (my profs' names).
Fun fact: my Israeli PR prof got one of her degrees at Boston University!
I'm hoping to join MCSA – Management Communication Students Association – which is essentially PRSSA. They're having a mixer next week and my Study Abroad Network mentor and I will be attending!
More Slang:
I think using the word/phrase in a sentence is more fun.
"I'm keen to watch Game of Thrones this week."
"Will you have a chat to your RA about the leaky faucet?" (Drives me crazy because it's incorrect grammar)
"I'm going to her room to have a yarn." (This one is confusing – basically means chat with)
"Those burger rings were so yuck but the Whittaker's chocolate is yum!"
"I can't believe he said that, that's crack up!" (Funny in an absurd kinda way)
(Also, don't say you root for the Patriots, because root has a completely different meaning here. You can look it up if you want...)
Food & Drink:
They have little balls of honeycomb called hokey pokey that they put in things like chocolate bars. So good!
L&P (lemon and paeroa) is a lemony NZ drink. I like it!
My Block:
We had a block meeting to get to know the new people (like me) and to hear about the events in town for the week. It's so interesting when your school associates itself with getting drunk and going clubbing!
I met the rest of my podmates (see cute picture below that I forced them to take) and they're all super nice and very crazy. We all (minus Isaac who was water polo-ing) went out to $2 tacos on Monday and have been pretty much hanging out all week. I'm the only international, the rest are from various places on the North Island. Apparently my NZ accent is either British or Australian so...gotta work on that!
Back Row (L to R): Blake, Me, Alex
Front Row (L to R): Isaac, Cori, Sourab
Going to Town:
So far I've only met people who abstain from drinking completely, or are going to have cirrhosis of the liver by 30. There is no in between here. The binge drinking culture is pretty insane. My block starts drinking between 6 and 7PM in someone's room; this usually involves chugging something out of a watering can because funnels aren't allowed...yeah. Then there's sometimes a flat party we walk to, and if you're still alive by 11 or later you catch the bus to town during which there will likely be a rowdy singalong of the Kiwi national anthem. I went to the club Outback each night and it was fun, except for the last night (Saturday) when it cost $20 to enter because there were more stages or something like that. The rest of the days were free entry and the bus was just $1 roundtrip. I wouldn't be lying if I said this week was a bit blurry.
Hamilton Gardens:
I explored the famous Hamilton Gardens Sunday and tried to take some nice pictures. It was a nice day and I ended up just chilling by the lake for a while after, soaking up the sun. It was pretty busy – a very touristy destination – but fun to people watch. My favorite themes were probably the Indian Char Bagh Garden and the Chinese Scholar's Garden. They're right by the Waikato River.
Fun fact: The Waikato River is NZ's longest river!
I then got food in central Hamilton and took pictures of some of the cool murals that are around. Check out the photos!
Unfortunately it seems like I can fix the quality of the photos :(
Next Up: Visiting the Agrodome in Rotorua – learning about sheep, feeding baby animals, and riding in a Clydesdale-drawn carriage! Game of Thrones! Tutorials!
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