I've arrived in Middle Earth!

Well everything has gone smoothly so far, finding internet that I can use currently has been a bit of an obstacle, since I have to wait a few days for my ID to come in so I can get into the lab building after hours, which means that over the weekend (which is right when I got in basically), no internet! Though I found a McDonalds with free Wi-Fi, I used up the data allotment in about 10 minutes :( but the McCafe at that McDonalds had legit baked goods! They wouldn't let me take a picture though, so again, sad-face at McDonalds!

Anyways, my adventure so far ....

The flight over here was LONG, but I was asleep for most of it, which was good since I arrived in the morning, so I wasn't extremely jet-lagged, just tired for the first few days from traveling in general and getting used to new settings.

Also learned that barf-bags really DO work... and don't leak .... yeyyy lot's of turbulence! (and it was right as we were landing too haha!)

When I was at the San Francisco airport, I saw artwork made of reused items ... which was cool and all, until I saw a tire bucket, which as it sounds, is a bucket, made of used tires ... which would be nice as art, if they weren't sold EVERYWHERE in the Middle East as a really cheap bucket and we used to haul dirt in Jordan last summer! And someone is getting credit to display that as art? That's like taking a toy sand pale, and displaying it as art, without doing anything to it. Come on!

Then at the airport in Auckland, to get to the domestic transfer terminal, I had to run outside in the rain (really HEAVY rain) for 10 minutes since I didn't have enough time to wait for their shuttles, and made my flight JUST in time - though what they didn't tell me, was that NZ domestic flights, you only get one carry on, so I had to check a bag for $75! and my cards weren't working! So I had to go exchange my cash, so thank goodness I listened to Cathy and brought lots of cash with me! I have found out since that none of my cards seem to work here even though I told my banks I was going abroad, but they DO work at ATMs, just not anywhere else, so cash it is!

The Accommodations

So now you have heard all about my few hiccups! Onto the good stuff! The hostel I'm staying at, the Kiwis Nest Hostel, is awesome! Not only are the people great, which I could have told you before I got here since they responded to me through my emails (and quickly) and offered me a good deal, but the location is PERFECT! I'm about a 1 min 30 second walk from the University, about a 6 min walk from my lab and the hospital, and the walk there is straight through the main shopping strip in town! It looks like I will only have to pay for transportation if I go on a weekend trip outside the city to see other parts of the country, never when I'm in town! Since I've gotten here, I've looked into some places that I didn't see in my research at home when looking for accommodations, and this place has the best price and is in the best location!

The room itself is like a small dorm room, I have a twin bed, a desk, a closet, a LARGE window, and a little bar table thingy by the door. Tiny but all I need. The hostel itself has several shared kitchens and kitchenettes and refrigerators, and equipment for cooking, a washing machine, dryer and clotheslines, several shared bathrooms (you can pay for a more expensive room with your own bathroom, but that's not mine) and a TV common room. So basically, it is like a really upscale dorm room. PLUS, I don't have to worry about cleaning any of it! Just my dishes when I'm done using them, but the staff clean the bathrooms each day and everything and will service your room whenever you ask, so I don't even have to worry about dealing with my own bed sheets or vacuuming or garbage! So, for the price of the cheapest flat around here, I get everything I need, a great location, my own room, and I don't have to clean! The only possible downside is that I can't really afford to pay for internet by the hour to have in my room, but it is an option in an emergency (since now I am more set up in the lab getting internet shouldn't be as much of a problem) and the house doesn't have central heating and it's winter here ... though it is like winter in Atlanta so blocking the wind is fine and each room has a space heater, so it hasn't been a problem at all! :D



Above is the view out away from the city from in front of the hostel.


Sheep and Ketchup

I've noticed that ketchup in foreign countries is SOOO much better than in America! In Jordan, Dolly's ketchup is super sweet and amazing, and the ketchup here has a uniquely flavored vinegar that is really yummy! I don't know why American ketchup is so lame, but my theory holds true! To make this a little less random, the first night I was here I took myself out to a nice dinner (since I will be living on rice and peanut butter most of the time now that I've settled in) and tried venison for the first time, something I've always wanted to try. The meat itself is ok, though I do think I prefer beef and lamb over it, but the meal overall was awesome! And it had fries, hence the ketchup. I also made friends with my waitress, Claire, there, and she is a 4th year student here at the University and lives with 3 American international students and a Canadian, so I got her contact info and one of her flatmates who is also going to be doing research here when the semester ends contacted me :D so yeyy, friends!

Also, the sheep I saw on my way to the hostel from the airport were so much cuter than the sheep in Jordan! I guess they are different species, but the sheep in Jordan made me not like sheep as they were really creepy looking with creepy eyes, though the sheep here are soo cute!


The City

Dunedin is a small college town, and it is DEFINITELY just that! The population here seems to be almost all students, or people associated with the University (aside from the people who run the businesses in town, though a lot of the workers there are students as well!) and the demographic looks surprisingly a lot like Emory ...

It turns out winter break is soon for the students here though, so from June 24th to July 10th, the town is going to be pretty dead, and exams are in about a week, so it will be pretty quiet.

Food so far

The ice cream here is amazing! Super creamy and NZ's Hokey Pokey ice cream is very very vanillay and creamy and with chunks of toffee in it, it's incredible! The cakes here are also pretty good and the restaurants and cafes all are great so far. Only thing is aside from some of the baked goods, and there being more lamb and seafood on the menu than in America, I can't really figure out what is uniquely New Zealand food. There are a TON of sushi, Korean, Thai, and Indian restaurants here, as in the majority of places to eat fall into one of these categories. Guess it's a good thing I love those types of food, though I wish I could figure out more what would be considered local, guess I'll have to work on that. I have managed to find locally brewed beers though (don't worry, I'm legal here as well as at home, yey being 22!) and the main student pub is about as far away of a walk from where I'm staying as a walk from Eagle Row to the DUC, so less than 5 minutes. The beers I have tried are pretty good, especially since I am not a fan of beer usually, but the guide book I picked up before my trip raves about a few of their brews, so I figured I have to at least try them while I'm in town!



Yummy peppermint slice and AMAZING homemade fizzy lemonade with mint!
The Work

This week I'm mostly doing background reading from textbooks my advisor has and then getting started on the data collection, so it's a nice way to ease in to the new setting. Also the department here is very much like the anthro department at Emory, so it's very comfortable for me and I am pretty much on my own to work at my own pace, with other people around doing their own thing too. I got to go to the department weekly meeting today and listen to a presentation update on the work one of the professors here is doing, which was interesting to hear as it seemed like a way to discuss obstacles and see what others have to say about them. Also I went to a basketball game on Saturday with my advisor, as her husband's company is one of the team sponsors, with my advisor and one of the PhD students here which was a lot of fun and cool to see the differences between professional basketball here and at home, where the last NBA game I went to was of the Bulls back when Michael Jordan was playing ... so VASTLY different! There were maybe only 1500 people in the stadium total, but then again, I was told that the Otago Nuggets won their first game in three years last week .... and that streak didn't last.




Basketball game ... and a competition at half time to win a bar tab ... with some girl competing in a (Lilo and) Stitch onesey ...


And that's it for now! Sorry this post was a bit long, but it's encompassing a very busy week :D

Cheers!
Julie