A Continuation...

I thought I'd finally elaborate a little about my last week of school and the All Blacks game in Wellington...

I had my last exam last thursday, and it went alright- did well enough to pass I'm sure... Not that I was ever bombarded with work, but it feels nice to be done and not have a nagging sense that I should be studying or reading something for school.

Most of the day on Friday was spent packing up my stuff and cleaning out my dorm room, a bittersweet experience, and then I moved into my new place with a friend on the volleyball team. It's still pretty close to campus though, so it's just a short walk to see my remaining friends. The only killer is that there's literally a hundred stairs to get to it.

Saturday morning I left for Wellington, both for another volleyball tournament and for the All Blacks game. Volleyball was business as usual, but once I left the gym, it was party time! Haha wow... I met up with Ray at the hostel she was staying at, and we walked to the game from there. It was pretty incredible: it seemed like the whole city was walking to the game, thus the streets were packed. The atmosphere was electric both inside and outside of the stadium, what an experience!

The stadium actually wasn't very big compared with what I'm used to- you could probably get a sense of the size from the video if you watched that. Also, we were in the second row, and those were the cheap seats. Obviously we didn't have the best view of the entire field, but we didn't really know what was going on anyways so it was pretty cool to be that close. And there were some French fans sitting behind us yelling in French, so I enjoyed that. It was fairly cold out, so we went all bundled up, but that didn't help much when the wind was blowing and the rain started to seep through the layers. However, sitting at the game was nothing compared to the walk back: it started pouring on us and there was like 90 mile an hour wind threatening to blow us over. BRR!

Oh goodness, here I am talking about the weather like anyone cares... so about the game... Well, the All Blacks won, but I can't remember the score. Haha, that's about all I have. I still don't understand all of the rules, but it's easy to follow and fun to watch so I guess that's all that matters. Apparently some girl ran onto the field and was hard out tackled by a security guard, but I missed that...

After the game a few of us went out on the town, which was, not surprisingly, hoppin'. It was Ray's last night in New Zealand, so needless to say, it was a late night. I had a game at 10 on Sunday morning, and let's just say I was tired to the point that I could barely keep my eyes open between points. My team enjoyed making fun of me, but I have to say that I played surprisingly well taking my state into consideration. I took a nap in between games and woke up feeling much better. Unfortunately we ended up losing to NZIS in 5, but there'll be more opportunities to play them in the future. We got back to Palmy around 5pm, and I was in asleep by 830pm and slept until 930am the next morning. 13 hours of sleep. It was greaaaat.

I decided to go on a three day raw fruit/veggie detox just for kicks, and I was actually able to do it, although I probably didn't eat as many veggies as I should have... I surprise myself sometimes. So that's pretty much the highlight of Monday-Wednesday. Oh, and immediately after a detox, it's a bad idea to have a red bull and a giant burger with fries. Just saying...

Well, I'm 22. Crazy. I'll tell of my birthday extravaganza next time :)

All Blacks vs. France

Hopefully I'll add some more text here soon, but thought i'd put up this video from the All Blacks game versus France in the meantime.

this is the order of the clips: NZ national anthem, man chasing french chicken, the haka, a short clip from the game

Finals

I have to say one of my least favorite things about NZ has been their finals system... I've made several references to finals over the past few weeks, mainly highlighting the fact that I only have 3 over a two week period, with a one week study break beforehand.  First of all, this is just a recipe for me to feel like a terrible student.  It's completely unnecessary for me to study that much for the classes I'm taking.  Just give me a couple of days and I'll be fine.  And I can defend my point because I had two finals this past week and they went quite fine- I even took quiz night study breaks. (By the way, we won quiz night one night.  HOORAH!)

In addition to feeling like I should be studying constantly for three weeks, the actual administration of the exams seems a little over the top.  It's like taking the SATs or something:  they check our IDs, allow us to only bring in pens and water, and the professor isn't actually there, instead there's about three random people walking around keeping people in check.  Some people even have exams on Saturday, yuck!  Moreover, the exam period is three hours long, and it's taken me at least two and a half for both of the ones i've taken thus far.  After writing three philosophy essays in three hours, my brain was completely fried.  Not cool.  But in spite of everything, I guess I shouldn't complain, as these are the only exams I've had to take all semester...

I have one final left, Sports History, this Thursday, and then I'm done!  CRAZY!  How long have i been here now?  5 months?  Pretty unbelievable.  It's one of those things where I feel like I just got here, but at the same time like I've been here forever... It's pretty weird too, because a lot of my new friends are going back within the next week or so, and I'll still be hanging out.  I'm going to miss them heaps, hopefully this won't be the last time I see them.

I'm starting to miss home a little more- don't get me wrong, I still love it here, but I could really go for some solid home cooked meals, or even just a real hot dog.  Mmm... hot dogs [drools].  And I definitely would like to see family and friends, and (attempt to) cuddle with my cats.  But, I'm sure these next two months will go by just as fast as the rest of my time here and before I know it, it'll be time to head home.  Hopefully I'll make the most of my time here and go on some killer adventures.  Safe adventures, of course.

My birthday is coming up, and I'm pretty excited about celebrating it in NZ just for the sake of being in another country.  But alas, as usual, it's going to be difficult to round people up for the celebration, as people are traveling/going home during the semester break.  I'm sure it'll be just fine though.  Hm... 22... interesting...

Random note:  my use of "y'all" has become a rare occurrence, and I'm wondering whether two months of living with a kiwi (with a fairly strong accent I may add) with further diminish that.  

oh i don't know

Last week our dorm played in the social leagues basketball championship- I scored a few points and grabbed a few boards, but we ended up losing by about 12 points.  There was a fight at one point, and as it's co-ed, it was kind of amusing to see the girls just walk to the side and chat while the guys battled it out.  Apparently one of the girls on their team played for the NZ national team.  It's funny how many people I've met that have been on a national sporting team.  I guess that's what happens in a country of just 4 million people...

I did a lot of lazing last week since the semester is winding down.  Hm... I'm not sure how to elaborate... The "Life on Mars" finale was terrible...

On Sunday a bunch of us went to see Angels and Demons.  I have to say that movie etiquette is much better here.  An usher actually went up to someone and told them to turn their phone off that hadn't even made any noise.  What's more, the guy actually listened!  Impressive!  The movie itself was disappointingly average, and at risk of sounding like a broken record, the book was way better.  

I have to say that I'm so glad that I'm staying longer.  I was originally supposed to leave 20 june - in 3 weeks.  I really can't imagine leaving that soon.  Although I could use some sun and sweltering heat...