Yay for free stuff!

Smashproof (popular NZ music group) played a free show last night in Auckland.
Interesting night.

This is their biggest hit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfQBXbIsENw

Dancers who danced before Smashproof came on...

Smashproof!

Free stuff! Puma backpack, signed poster, can of red bull, Smashproof CD, hat, belt, yo-yo, lanyard and keychain. SWEET.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Yay for free show and giveaways!

Balanced by the fact and I missed my last bus.
...taxi ride home cost $20.

It's probably about time

for another post.

..so what's going on with me? Ummm, 1 exam down (the hardest one) and 2 to go. They're not for another week so I'm feeling alright. Although I think after I post this I will probably study some sociology..

I've been a lot of mixed emotions lately. Just under three weeks left and the goodbyes have already started. Picked up my midterm from my Professor Song who taught my Asian Diasporas class the other day and I got sad, he is a really good professor! I have to say that was the most enjoyable class I took here. Also, on a side note, I feel like I have learned SO MUCH here. Obviously on a study abroad semester, academics take the back seat to the experience as a whole, but I feel like I've really grown academically. But nevermind about that, lol, nobody really cares about that but me!


I've basically planned out how the next three weeks are gonna go, schedule-wise and financially. I set a budget and am desperately trying to keep it..so far so good! Pretty proud of that. Apart from the end of my NZ journey drawing to a close, I've been thinking lately about, well, life...life after college really. It never hit me so hard until now. I guess with the whole getting Take Five I knew I had another year to not think about it, but now I'm coming into my real senior year. Time to get serious and figure things out. Ok enough about that. Sheesh this is turning into a heavy post.

I will fix that by posting some pictures :

The "Heroes" Symbol, accompanied by a big can of V (energy drink)

(Double) Rainbow on Mt. Hobson :)

The View from Mt. Hobson


The View from Mt. Eden


Beautiful!!

It's June.

The coldest June I have ever experienced! Whine whine whine.

Still listening to that Christmas music. What a bummer that Christmas isn't actually coming up soon.

Anyway. Told Jen 3 days ago that I was gonna blog in 1 or 2 days. A little late, please forgive me, Jen!

Got home about an hour ago from a nice dinner with Gael (IES Advisor person) and the other IES kids. It was at Vivace on High Street. It's a reeeeally nice restaurant. One of the best dinners I've had since I've been here. Check it:

Main: Chicken Fillet with Mushrooms and Potato

and for dessert...Affogato (ice cream in a shot of coffee + biscotti)

Ew to the biscotti but yay for ice cream! Mmmmmm! So yeah, was a good dinner. Should've taken a picture of my appetizer, which was stuffed peppers. They were about the size of cherry tomatoes, and had cheese and something else inside them. Quick note: what we call an appetizer is known as an "entree", and what we call an entree is known as a "main" here.


Yesterday morning I walked down to St. Luke's mall (yes I have a mall within walking distance!) to find large piles of garbage on the curb outside everyone's homes. It was an interesting sight - couches, cardboard boxes, old appliances, mattresses, used toys. When I got back home, Bettina told me it was inorganic rubbish collection time. Anyone can look through it and take something if they want, you know the saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Indeed, in my walk to St. Luke's I saw men all bundled up, searching through the piles of rubbish in hopes of finding something they could use (or more likely, sell), their vans pulled up, already filled with random items. One guy had a bike in his. I saw another guy tearing the wires out of an old TV.

But apparently people are getting violent over it?? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10540627 Scary!

What happens to the trash that nobody picks up? I wonder.

After I post this entry I've got to get back to my linguistics assignment. It's actually quite interesting (ugh, I hate using overused words). I have to listen to a recording, then say whether or not that person is speaking using the pronunciation of "New Zealand English." I've learned a lot, the most telling sign is saying "fish and chips" as "fush and chups." That's the example used most often. Basically, the short-i sound almost becomes a "u." For the whole day I've been listening to people speak and trying to catch all these details. It's gotten to the point where they jump out at me. Cool stuff.

Anyway. 12:30. I'll get on that.

But I'll leave you with a picture of a rainbow I took one morning last week. Not so bad that it rains all the time here, just as long the sun is there to accompany it :)