Something In the Water

This post ... is dedicated to Kempy (Presley) Reweti and Terewai Rikihana.
They're the co-presidents of the Māori club (Manawatahi) and they are fabulous.

Kemp has such energy and passion for everything he does, which is incredibly infectious. While some are afraid to curse in front of his "wholesome" self, I feel more inclined to spew profanities and insults his way. He does so much for manawatahi, and even so much for all his friends. He gets excited about winning online bowling games and making front row for kapahaka. As accepting as he is, if he catches you with beer in his spa (watching his Sky tv) he'll kick you out. Kemp is one of a kind and I am so glad to know him!!

As for Terewai, she is easily one of funniest, easy to get along with people I know. She'll just find ways to make people laugh, and always finds a way to get me, especially when I'm in the zone studying. She has a long way to go in terms of looking like a gangster, but she's getting there. There's also the fact that she inspires me to pūkana and finish my assignments on time, which isn't something many people care enough to do. She has also done so much for manawatahi. Anyone who doesn't know tere should get to know her asap, because she is great.

These two are great friends that I've got and I would never have expected to meet such wonderful people. Since it's the end of the year, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the people that have affected my journey, and Tere and Kemp have both directly and indirectly affected my life so much that I can't help but make an entire post to their awesomeness.

Kemp getting excited about online bowling... or possibly anything, really.

Terewai inspiring me to pūkana

co-prezzies at atawhai (studying hard? ha)

FAMILY PORTRAIT hahaha

Kemp & Tere,

Thank you thank you thank you for being wonderful co-presidents to manawatahi, and for being two of the greatest friends I've had in New Zealand (or even the world)!! This is to the long nights spent at atawhai, ngā hui, spontaneous dances, games of tahi-rua-toru..., always having a mean feed for manawatahi, and just for everything you do and are!

arohanui,

Hera

Cool Me Down

I keep starting posts

and then they get accidentally deleted..!

First, I want to dedicate this post to Manawatahi.

Much of what has been going on in my life lately has been a direct result of Manawatahi, and I could not be more happy about that.

The Māori student association at Massey has literally made my experience here in New Zealand a thousand times better than it could have been otherwise.

I've really been able to be immersed in Māori culture, I've made the most amazing friends (and boyfriend) that are practically family now, and I've been allowed to partake in things that I could only dream of being involved with.

I owe so much to Manawatahi!

I learned a whole kapahaka bracket (Māori song & dance.. and haka) and not only performed it, but performed it at a competition.. and we got 2nd place! I had to learn the poi for it, and I pushed myself to know it well enough to perform, and that was in a matter of 2-ish months. The poi is deceivingly hard.

I also went to an event called Te Huinga Tauira (basically a Māori student get together) where 7 or so universities attended. It was a wonderful experience where I got to stay on a marae, practice my Māori language, and meet more awesome Māoris.

I also visited a place called Castle point, and stayed at a beach house just south of it which was pure new zealand. It was at the bottom of some big hills, right on the beach full of big rocks to climb and wild waves. Basically just a street of about 10 houses lined this beach, and that's how I've found many beach areas around Aotearoa exist. Which is, in my opinion, the perfect type of place to be.

Also witnessed my first legal lesbian wedding, which was also in a marae. That was fun. I love that New Zealand has legal homosexual weddings. It's interesting though that it was only in 1993 that a Human Rights Act was passed that made discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation illegal. From there NZ has come quite a way in a matter of years.

Not sure what else to mention... but at least here's an update.

Amari Szi Amari

Finals coming up!

Apparently "finals" is an American term. I forget this too often when I say things to friends like 'Oh, I have to study for finals' and they respond with things like, '...oh. Exams.' and I don't even think about it until much later.

Also, I realized that those of us from So Cal almost never forego fashion for functionality. Our weather is never harsh enough for us to think 'Hmm I'll wear the jacket that actually keeps me dry and warm.' We will mostly always go 'Well, this jacket is cute and will keep me dry if I keep out of the rain as much as possible, and it really won't rain for more than an hour, so yeah...' and because of this, we never really purchase functional clothing. Hence, it is extremely difficult to find functional clothing, and that is why I have come to New Zealand unprepared for this wet, cold lifestyle. It was pouring rain today and what did I go to school in? My snow jacket. Because I had nothing else that would successfully keep me dry and warm. Also, I lost my umbrella... I wore my polka-dotted rain boots, which got quite a few remarks about how 'cute' they were. Again, fashion before functionality. I can't say for sure yet, but it seems like the general rain boots worn here are gumboots- normal black boots.

I've been really happy with my friends and experiences. I still find myself in interesting situations and am always happy to be there, no matter what. Tonight was a night all on its own. It started with Nick, Jess's, Emma and my friend John doing chatroulette, which (in case you don't know) is the dirtiest random video chat website ever. You get randomly hooked up with someone else who has a webcam and the intention is to chat and get to know random people. However, the outcome is many, MANY men masturbating and demanding 'tits.' This proved hilarious for my group because we simply made them feel as uncomfortable as possible by calling them names, showing horribly lewd images, and Nick making funny faces at them. It was awesome. After that, I went for a swim at the lido center with John and nothing feels better than getting a good exercise.

Following this was the social Volleyball semi-finals which Manawatahi took part in. I'm not nearly good enough at volleyball to have put myself into the game, but I sat and cheered on the Māori club that has so graciously accepted me into their whanau.

Manawatahi on kiwiana day (I'm in there behind the girl in the Leopard shirt) performing 'Te Ahu A Turanga'

Though they lost, we had a grand old time. We played an informal game between ourselves and then played a good game of basketball. I partook in both of those and genuinely made a fool of myself, but played hard nonetheless. Worked up another sweat, and was running on no dinner. After that, John, Ariki, Iwi, Joey and Kendra were keen on going to a local pub to watch a rugby (league?) game between New South Wales and Queensland. I was taken along and had an entertaining time until I was too bloody exhausted and had the loungies pick me up.

Turn it Round

It's getting particularly frustrating when the languages I know are constantly being jumbled in my head.

Spanish and Māori are often trouble areas as words sound so similar, I'll start writing my Māori homework in Spanish. As well, I go to a Māori tutorial Monday nights where our tutor encourages us to learn Māori words through association with hand movements, or as she calls it, sign language. This proves problematic as well because I start to throw in my ASL hand movements with Māori words, which becomes even more bizarre.

It's entirely frustrating when I actually try to recall the Māori word for something and all that is ramming me inside of my head is the word in Spanish.

The other thing I noticed is American humor is entirely and utterly different from Kiwi humor. I find shows like Community and movies like Step Brothers as hilarious, but many others find it mundane and slapstick. I would never consider Community slapstick! Witty, clever, random- Yes. I recently remembered the beauty that is the Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercials and thought I'd share some with my Kiwi friends, but I thought against it because I figured it wasn't their type of humor. Tragic, I know, because the Real Men of Genius commercials are actually genius. There should be a commercial about Mr. Real Men of Genius Commercial Writer.

So, every week that I actually do my anthropology readings, I am constantly surprised. This week's reading discussed how Marriage Sex Manuals from the 1920s-1960s used cooking to maintain women's roles as household objects. One particular excerpt from a book called Technique of Marriage written by Mary Borden (1933) compares women leaving the kitchen to impending communistic doom. Should women leave their homes, it says, and work in "Quick-lunch counters," then home cooking will soon be lost forever and families will go to the local "communal dining hall" and be fed the same food all the time. Amazing. I love blatant, outrageous propaganda.

I'm currently in the process of making a short film about the meeting between a Mexican student and a Māori one. Each character regards the other as being of the same culture and awkwardness ensues when a hongi(touching of noses) is attempted. I'm not sure how successful it'll be (as I'm trying to avoid dialogue) and whether it'll even be interesting... But it's all I got for now so there it is.

Speaking of Māori culture, I recently went to Māori graduation, which was easily the best graduation I've ever been to. For each graduate that had family sitting in the audience, or even just a friend who cared enough, there was a song and/or haka done for their success. It was particularly exciting to hear the different hakas, waiatas (songs), and people coming together to express congratulations. Usually after the name was spoken, the family would begin singing or someone would start the haka and to some it may seem like this would take forever to get through a graduation, it made it 1002984029x more bearable. Instead of the typical name, name, name, name process, it was name, explosion, name, song, name, explosion, etc. Excitement the whole way through. I want to actually be Māori now to have a haka at my graduation, and to even have a graduation as light-hearted and involving as theirs was. I even did a haka with my fellow art students, which was exciting for me because I was actually doing what I'd been watching videos of for months before my arrival into this wonderful country. One thing I found exceptionally interesting was the fact that 10 years ago, Sir Mason Durie (a very influential and important Māori educator) claimed that by 2010 they were hoping to have 25 Māori doctorate graduates... and this year, they made it to 55. That made me really happy.

I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure that's a sufficient post for now.