First 2 days of school

So Monday I went to what I thought was my first class, trying for 20 minutes to find the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies for my Treaty of Waitangi tutorial class. Then it turns out that tutorials don't meet in the first week. Boy did I feel stupid. So I used my hour or so of now free time to pick up my course books.

When 11:00 finally rolled around, I went to my first class: my Treaty of Waitangi class. It looks to be fun and interesting. The Prof is the head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies, a big Maori guy. He told us that he doesn't like communicating by email or phone, and prefers we come and talk to him face-to-face, because it's easier to tell if we're lying face-to-face. I also think I might be the only non-kiwi in the class. He had us take a little mini-test on the Treaty, and I surprised myself with actually getting some of the answers right,

After class I ended up hanging out with some fellow IESers who were in the area while I had lunch. They all seem to be having cool classes too. I was surprised and pleased to learn that quite a few IESers were in my next class, NZ history from 1350 to 1940. I'm not so sure about the professor in this one, but as its team taught perhaps the other professor will be more dynamic. The one I had on Monday seemed kinda nervous and was a bit shrill. Apparently, whenever the class involves white people, she'll lecture, and whenever the class involves the Maori, the other professor will lecture. Hopefully it'll all be interesting.

My final class of the day was NZ Lit 1, which looks to be a quite fun class. When the prof was passing out the syllabi, he stole my hat and wore it around the room before returning it to me, saying that he felt like a "real man" whilst wearing it. He then spent most of the class drawing a time line on the board with important dates in NZ history. Interestingly, he didn't pick the more classic ones, like 1840 (when the Treaty was signed) instead opting for 900 (when it's possible the first Polynesians reached NZ), and 1522 ( when Magellan circumnavigated the Earth). He also talked about what makes NZ lit, and NZ culture so special: because it's essentially English lit nad culture grown in very foreign soil. This should prove interesting.

Tuesday I had only one class, Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners. Before that, though, I went to the Club fair underneath the library. There were all kinds of clubs-religious, political, sporting, etc. I was surprised to learn that one had to pay to join several of them. I ended up joining the roleplaying, scifi, gay straght alliance, French, Medieval Reenactment, and ninja clubs. Yeah, I know, I'm a super nerd. Sadly, although there were like 5 Christian clubs, one Muslim club, one Buddhist club, and one club that seemed to be all about generic hippie new ageism, there was no Jewish club. I'll check at the club fair today to see if there are any new clubs or anything.

Anyways, Conversational Maori looks to be interesting. The prof is actually a student at UC, which surprised me a bit. We practiced how to say hello and goodbye, as well as practicing the hongi, the Maori touching of noses as a greeting. The prof gave me a kitkat bar because I touched so many noses, which was pretty cool. I hope this won';t be too difficult a language to learn.

So last night I went to the Ilam Village Welcome Night. There, we were told by the RAs what we can and can't do and the procedures of what to do in emergencies, etc. After that was the houngi, the traditional Maori feast they had promised to us to get us to go to it. It was alright, but everything had this weird sour taste to it that I didn't like too much.

So anyways, that's all to report now. I'll tell y'all what happens next when it happens

David