Beaches, friends, (school)

Pleased to report I’m feeling 99% settled in and having a blast! Boring necessities like groceries the bus are no longer a problem, although finding classes is still quite a challenge and the constant changing of rooms because of closed buildings doesn’t help. It’s a relief to have some people to hang out with that I really like – all of my Kiwi flatmates are very friendly, and not surprisingly many of the international students have banded together since we all have similar interests and want to go see lots of things while we’re here. The downside of this is that almost all my new friends are American, and of course I want to meet some locals while I’m here, but the upside is that I’m here to meet new people and enjoy seeing the country and I really like a lot of the other exchange students I’ve met. A handful of us have also joined the tramping (calm down, that’s what they call hiking) club, which does multiple trips every weekend, so hopefully that will be one way to meet some locals while still getting out of Christchurch and continuing to get to know some of my friends.

We’ve been spending a lot of time lately checking out some of the area surrounding the college – downtown, some other neighborhoods, and some small towns nearby. By far the best of all of these was a day trip out to the coast (about half an hour away) to explore some beaches and the hills nearby. My favorite part is that this trip was the first time I really felt like I was in New Zealand because it looked like what I’d imagined – rocky coastline, green hills, all around gorgeous. The college is just in the suburbs and really could just as easily be in Washington except for a few weird kinds of trees. Our beach trek was also fun because we didn’t really know where we were going and just ended up following some random trails and finding some really fun places to climb around. Pictures:

As you can see, this end of the Pacific actually looks very similar to my end, which I found quite comforting.

Commencing our wanderings up into the hills

View of Pegasus Bay

 Just like home :)

Aside from that we’ve been out to a few other neighborhoods/towns out along the coast, not nearly as scenic though. The school has also been having a ton of events since it’s the first week back so we’ve gone to things like a rugby watching party, wine tasting, comedy show, night market, and gotten loads of free food and drinks. Unfortunately most of the nightlife is no longer because all of the clubs are in the area of downtown that’s closed from the earthquakes, but there are still a few bars near campus we’ve checked out and plenty of flat parties. Here is some evidence that this aspect of studying abroad has been going well as well:

And of course, I am studying abroad – how could I forget? School has been good so far, all of my classes seem like they’ll be interesting but not too much work. They focus a lot more on essays and a lot less on tests, which at least for me is much harder, but I only have 9 hours of class a week instead of the usual 15 (plus I’m used to working 15 hours as well so I have a ton of free time on my hands). The classes I’m taking area: New Zealand History Since 1940, Ethics Politics and Justice (a philosophy class), Intro to Globalization (a sociology class), and then a special class just for this semester called Rebuilding Christchurch. I’m especially excited about that last one but we haven’t had it yet so I don’t know what exactly to expect other than that we’ll get to do some community service and learn more about all the student volunteering that went on after the earthquakes.

So all in all, things are excellent and only looking up as we’ve got a ton of fun stuff planned for this weekend. I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures!