International Orientation

I ended up going to the Chinese New Years festival with some IES people. We took the bus downtown, then walked up Columbo Street until we reached Victoria Square. The festival was crowded, filled with people and stalls selling cheap goods, as well as lanterns in the shape of people, animals, and other things. I took lots of pictures of the lanterns, which were especially striking once the sun went down. I also bought myself some chicken satay with peanut sauce, which was relatively cheap and quite tasty. Just before we left, a whole bunch of us found a tent where they were selling Chinese lanterns for 2 dollars, so we each bought one, in order to decorate our rooms with them. Then we met back at the statue of Victoria, and got back to the dispatch center in order to catch a bus within the 2 hour limit (if you take a bus within 2 hours of taking another bus, it's free).

So yesterday was International Orientation, which was long and boring and filled with lots of weird video clips like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8, when talking about the possibility of being misunderstood in a different culture. We also had a somewhat uncomfortable "birds and bees" section, which mostly served to warn the Asian and Middle Eastern students that American and European students might mistake their intentions. Anyways, after all that they gave us lunch, mostly consisting of sausages. I had the lamb and mint sausages, which were halal, which is probably about as close to Kosher I'm going to get in New Zealand. I first ate with some fellow Americans in a different study abroad program (Study Australia, I believe), and then, once they left, I found my group and ate with them. But never fear, those of y'all who worry that I'm not exposing myself enough to the non-American International students, for soon a young man named Jean-Luc plopped himself down next to me. He and I tried our best to understand each other, given his less-than-ideal English skills. I told him about how I lived in France when my dad went to Montpellier when I was a kid, but it;s possible that he thought I had said that I visited my dad in France while he was away. I learned that he's a mechanical engineering graduate student here to do research, that he's from the Alpine region of France, and that he;s looking forward to wintertime when he can ski in the mountains here. He seemed like a nice guy and I hope I see him around.

A few hours later, I attended a welcome ceremony put on by UCSA, the student association. This included tea and coffee, and a welcoming haka, which is a Maori dance. In the second half of the program, they asked for volunteers, and I surprised myself by volunteering. I ended up with a mishmash of Americans, Germans, Japanese, and a Malaysian guy, learning a few basic moves. Then we got up on stage and did our thing. I thought we'd be toward the back, but I was wrong: there I was, up front and center, slapping my chest and bellowing as loud as I could. It was quite an experience, and I suspect the IES girls in the front row probably snapped a few photos, so it's probably one I'll have to relive for a while now.But it was fun: if there's a haka club on campus, I might consider joining.

Yesterday evening, I spent some time in front of the TV. I ended up watching a Horatio Hornblower movie, which I used to watch when I was younger. My flatmate Damien stopped by for a while and I learned a bit more about him. He seems like a nice guy.

Unfortunately, I missed a couple of opportunities to talk to Erika and my mom yesterday, so since I have nothing to do today, I'm going to see if I can do some skyping this evening. I just came back from the gorcery store, and I'm happy to report that there are tortillas in NZ. I also bought a big bottle of Lemon & Pareoam or L&P's, which is a NZ soft drink sort of like carbonated lemonade.