4 AM

Sleepless gliding
Over the city lights
Watch us flying
Over the streets tonight

Started school, which has been way beyond my expectations.

Monday was the Maori Studio class I'm auditing since my schedule is full. A group of people had gathered and they all greeted me as if I belonged there but once they heard me speak, in unison they said 'Oh I thought you were Maori!'

Class "began" by going into the Marae (meeting place) with all levels of the studio class and introducing ourselves (Though practically everyone else already knew each other) and most everyone introduced themselves in Maori. I was frozen in fear! What if the classes progress this way? Will I learn anything? I stood up to introduce myself, 'Hi, I'm Sarah. I'm from Los Angeles and I have no idea what anyone just said,' followed by a kind chuckle from the group. Relief.

The art class itself was different than what I expected, which was a modern art approach to Maori themes, such as Whakapapa (heritage) and Whenua (land). I'm hoping i'll still learn something about the cultural art.

I had my Maori language class which was really fun because we worked on saying the vowels right, which I never realized would be such a difficult task! But, for the most part they're just like spanish. Except for the dipthongs.

Geography is a very DUH class. it really is.

and Food and Eating = best. It is easily the most anthropological class I've ever taken! True, most of the anth classes I took at home were bio classes, so can't really discuss culture and whatnot, but damn.

I have so much to say and this post has spanned a few days of writing and each day I sit down to write more, I forget or am overwhelmed by everything I want to say ... I'll start a new post.

x and y

A dream -- it's all just a dream!

I've been dreaming this whole time and I don't know if I'll ever wake up again.

My dorm had a competition yesterday to do a sort of .. treasure hunt of sorts, where we had to get a 'gnome' from a designated spot and take pictures of it with, for example, a policeman or getting a haircut, and at the movies, etc. Our 'gnome' however, was a penis pump.

This led to extremely interesting pictures to say the least. My group won best single photo! Will post this picture later on...

I've become rather good friends with Grant, Stephen (from England) and Toia. They're fuckin fantastic people. Toia cooks me food sometimes, Grant is just the best to talk to .. and, well, Stephen is just weird. (:

There's a guy named Barney at Ferg and he's the best person I've ever met in the whole world! We were playing taboo and when his team mate said 'oh this lady is famous' he yelled 'ARETHA FRANKLIN!' why? I don't know .. and when he got the word 'bladder' he said 'it's a body part! men have them! and some women, I think!' and he's a damn fantastic dancer. love him.

Been eating hot cross buns non-stop (yum yum) and working out practically every day (probably so I can maintain my hot cross bun eating habits). Still haven't really needed to cook for myself lately but I did have rice and beans with ketchup the other day. salad, too. I definitely used my pot to hard boil some eggs!

Not to mention the friends I've already become rather close with.. Monica, Kelli, and Zach.. I'm truly grateful to have them here with me (even if zach is only here for a semester!!)

I feel like I can't sleep most nights because there's just so much to think about from the day I just had and the people I've met, etc. I've become a possum, as Stephen put it, where I wake up in the night and sleep during the day. Except I don't even really sleep during the day (except for today..). Plus, how do you go to sleep in a dream?

In Bloom

again with the posts...!

I have food and a pot and I've never felt so complete!

I can cook rice, which can be made with beans and then ketchup on top, salad on the side.. a perfect meal for me.

I have hot cross buns, which I thought was a childhood song based on a mythological object.

THEY EXIST. and are delicious.

I have soup and nutella and weet-bix.

I feel set for at least 2 weeks..

I think I am going to the beach tomorrow, as well as the gym.

I feel good.

Watched Valentine's Day, which was TERRIBAD! there was one moment where zach and I started laughing hysterically and no one else was.

[ having watched a movie based in LA, it was a strange sensation. Watching a film about home in a completely foreign country.. it almost felt like I was home again and I completely forgot all the students around me were kiwi (well, most). I really missed LA for the first time. ]

I've somewhat forgotten what the sun feels like as it's been overcast for sooo long.

I miss my puppy xena and my baby sunny.

I walked barefoot across a giant grass field in the rain chasing ducks today wearing only shorts and a t-shirt.

I'm On Your Side

today was really pretty good.

woke up at 12pm to a comfortably empty block. Realized I missed the 'team building' activity for orientation but could not care less. Instead I chatted with my mom for a bit on skype, took a shower and ate a hamburger (made from a stolen meat patty, ketchup and wheat bread). It was too late to attempt to steal more free food from orientation so I tried to meet up Monica on campus for more useless lectures. As I got to the bottom of my hellish steps, I found a path that ran perpendicular to my usual path, and thought it would be a shortcut.. instead, I got lost in the bush and found some rather nice, peaceful spots. I was, however, trying to get to campus so kept moving and eventually had to walk across the river and climb up the bank to get to campus.

Finally finding campus, I made it to my lecture hall and made it in for the last minute of 'Intro to Uni' which I am VERY GRATEFUL I missed. I walk in, everyone stares, I grin widely at the lecturer and sit down. About a minute later, I realize it's about to end, and get up and leave again. It was a major success.

After this, I head to rotary court to meet up with Monica and Kelli. We chit chat a bit and decide to go to the next lecture, which is equally as useless. Afterwards, we have to finalize our schedule with the other study abroad/exchange students. In that session, we all introduced ourselves, and I found out practically everyone in the world just LOVES things to do outdoors. I was basically the only person who said something besides 'I love being outdoors,' 'I love doing things in nature,' etc. and when I say everyone in the world, I mean all Americans, because 95% of the people in study abroad/exchange are Americans.

Afterwards we attempted to have dinner in the dining hall, but Monica and I decided to just eat the food we had at home.. so we both went home.

After a salad at home and some chatting online, I finally met one of my blockmates (haha blockmates.. that doesn't make any sense!) named Grant, who seems an interesting chap, but didn't have much time to chat as I was headed down to campus for Maze Night!

Was too late to catch the same bus as everyone else, so I was all alone on a bus with a bunch of kiwis and tried talking to the girl next to me named Tessa. It wasn't an easy task and she was rather shy. Her friend was even worse... but we won't get into that.

Maze night was going to a corn maze which was horror-themed and was rather successful. I actually screamed! I went in with Monica and Kristine .. and two other kiwi girls I didn't really know. It was a nice use of time ... after, however, was terrible. We had to wait for nearly 2 hours for a bus to take us back.. the bus ride back, however, was fantastic.

zach and i really have a hoot when we're together. We met a girl with ridiculous eyebrows and it became a joke of focus for the night. She lives in the same hall as me, so we knew her and two others would be on the bus with us all the way up to Atawhai courts. The two others' names were L'il Dixon and Bookworm. Party bus.

We discussed the 'beauty' of kiwi people and found a strip club on the outskirts of palmy. Considering our perspective on nz beauty, we definitely decided to visit the strip club. We bad mouth so much. Upon arriving, we spotted a possum! but a kiwi (or ozzie, actually) possum, which is much cuter and lemur-like. We found the same party crowd we found the night before at atawhai courts (who are truly american assholes), so we went to fergie to see if we could find some lively people. What we found will never leave my memory...

We enter to a group of people playing poker, which looked like fun! Upon closer inspection, it was not poker at all. I said hello and met everyone and then asked what game they were playing. They were intensely socially awkward people and said it was a game about how well you know your friends... to which one person turned to me and said 'do you think [she] prefers blowing bubbles? or romance novels?' and i said 'umm blowing bubbles?' to which the girl said 'ARE YOU KIDDING? MY FAVORITE BOOKS EVER ARE LIKE .. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND .. AND.. ROMANCE NOVELS!' they all burst out laughing and I then realized that what was on the tv was figure skating... and that the only person watching was the weird Asian kid in the corner who had snorted like a pig the first time I saw him. It was easily the most bizarre scenario ever. Zach and I were trying to keep in our laughter and exited the room as quickly as possible and went back to his bungalo for a drink. We had a nice, long chat and thus concluded the day...

MAGNIFICENCE!

young folks

Okay, so internet magically started working on my laptop.

And here I am with another post about the long white cloud. So far, orientation has been pure crap. I slept through the whole thing today, except (unfortunately) for the last bit of 'inspirational motivation' which was a terrible performance by a man from Christchurch talking about all the problems of college and how to address them .. basically all the international students thought it was crap (since it was obviously aimed towards the freshmen).

Besides that, I've been making some friends. Surprising, I know!

I've met ... Kristine, from Norway but got her degree in Australia and is here for post-grad. Sabine, from Germany and undergrad with the rest of us. Ariel, from New York who loves sheep, which is why she came here. Jessica, from Maine, undergrad. Natya, from Germany .. don't know much hahaha. and Zach from Tennessee who is only here for a semester. Hilal, from San Diego, doing vet work. A few others here and there but these are the main group I've been kicking it with. Funny how most are American .. but I'm okay with that for now, I'm not keen to mingle with freshmen.

Tomato sauce dominates over ketchup here, which is bizarre. Obviously, being the huge ketchup fan that I am, I cannot deal well with this. I stole a bunch of ketchup packets from burger king last time I went and carry them around with me... I've still not felt like I'm really in New Zealand as I've mainly been talking to Americans and haven't been out in the kiwi lifestyle. I'm really tired right now and should be sleeping ... I hope this is a substantial post. In the past two days I've used a quarter of my allowed $25 internet... I hate NZ internet!!