Getting settled in Wellington...

So I have now spent over one week in Wellington, it is an incredible city! They don’t call it windy Wellington for nothing. I have definitely felt some of the gusts knock me around a little. Now I know not every one reading this has been to Halifax, but I always reckoned that Hali had some pretty steep hills in the down town area. But they are nothing compared to the hills here in Wellington. Most of the slopes are too steep for roads, and have ‘switch-backs’ and stair cases instead. I have to say, I’m getting a great work out coming home from downtown in Wellington. My hall is definitely a 20 minute walk to the top of a mountain! I’m not exaggerating at all, parts of the road definitely get to a 70 degree slope and the rest of the way up is straight stairs. It’s half the time to get downtown then it is to get home, and I’m sweating every time. Fortunately I’m not walking up that hill to class everyday, but I’ll have calves of steel by the end of my stay here! So far the weather has been great, which is definitely a blessing in disguise. There appears to be a hole in the ozone layer directly above NZ, and I’ve burned the backs of my legs and my lips (an awful experience which I highly recommend avoiding!). So I’m being very precautious about spending time in the sun. The harbor is gorgeous, and there a beautiful boardwalk by the water. Everywhere you look there is just jaw-dropping scenery, you’ve got to experience it if you can.
After spending three nights at a backpackers hostel waiting for my residence to open, I was shocked to see my brand new building. Te Puni Hall was just finished after 2 and a half years of construction, and is completely state-of-the-art (and most importantly earthquake proof!). My room is definitely adequate and comes complete with a great view of the city! While I’ll have to get back used to sleeping in a single bed, I can’t complain about my living situation at all. I have definitely settled in nicely. It was a little quite for my first few nights because the international students were able to move in 4 days before the Kiwis. The other international students are great. Surprisingly, over 50 % of the international students are American. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that. I’ve met some very nice people from Penn State as well as a great group of French students from Paris and Tunisia. It’s really neat to have met people from all over the world in just a matter of days.
One thing that I have been hoping to do at this university is play soccer. It didn’t take me long to get a tryouts; a whole 2 days. And after only one other training session, I started my first game for UVW 4 days after the first session. While I was a little rusty, and my distribution being a bit sloppy, I managed to come up with a few decent saves and the victory – a 3-2 win! I am very excited to play a home game, lots of the international students were expressing interest so I might even get a nice turnout!
As for Lenny (a friend from Camp George who is also on an exchange program to UVW – we didn’t plan it at all, it was such a pleasant surprise when I found out last year), he arrived early in the morning on the 18th. While I didn’t have a phone, I did know where he was living and met him at his hall soon after he landed. We wandered the town and campus together, catching up on life. It’s really great to have someone here who I have a close connection with. While we’ve both been meeting tons of new people, we’re also spending a ton of time together – which is great!
The orientation day was a bit more inspiring than watching paint dry, but there were a couple of bright spots. Firstly, I managed to be quick on the draw in a room of about 200 people to answer the name of Wellington’s soccer team (Phoenix – I had seen tons of signs around town) and won a pair of tickets to a Wellington Hurricane’s rugby match (which was the next night)! I also managed to meet heaps of people from ‘round the globe.
That night was my first real night out on the town. The culmination of the orientation was at a bar exclusively for international students. It was great to mingle with them, and the people running the show organized a number of mixers, which only got better as more alcohol was consumed! (I also found out that tipping in NZ is discouraged. I tried to tip one of the bartenders and she gave me back my money!) I wasn’t too into most of the games, but the last game they had was a old fashioned limbo. Lenny and I both entered to try and win some prizes. I told Lenny that he had to win something because I was taking him to rugby the next night. As the limboing went on, Lenny and I got fairly far until there was maybe only 15 people left. Lenny and I were at a huge disadvantage because we were definitely one foot taller than everyone else in the group. Lenny bailed with about 10 people left, and I was the only Canadian hope left. It got down to myself and 5 foot tall Korean, but my flexibility finally paid off for something as I managed to win, and thus another set of tickets (this time to a comedy festival in March). The rest of the night was great, drinking with total strangers is pretty fun! So while the events of the day were a bit of a drag, I came away with two pairs of tickets, and a ton of new friends!
Man, I thought the orientation was dry but the day of registration was just stupid. This was by far the most unnecessarily complicated system I will most likely ever experience. The multiple hour wait in lines wasn’t so bothersome (just another way to meet people) it was just that there were 3 separate lines that everyone had to wait in. I wasn’t freaking out or anything, but Lenny and I went through the process and at least every 15 minutes we would just look at each other and say, “This is soooo stupid and inefficient!” Neither of us were freaking out, there was no point. It was just an entire day of waiting in lines, to have different people process the same information into separate computer systems. Anyway, I don’t want to spend anymore time on this, the highlight of that day was the rugby match which I won tickets too! In a stadium of about 30,000 people we saw a great home team, come-from-behind win in the late stages of the match. I still don’t fully comprehend the sport, so not much more to say. With lots of international students there as well it made for a great experience!
I seemed to have come to Wellington at an ideal time. Yesterday was a huge festival in this city, the Cuba Street Carnival! I would have to say that it’s fairly similar to Mardi Gras, though this one is only held bi-annually. During the day, there was a plethora of shops set up, tons of food vendors, and many roads are blocked off for the insane crowds. I spend the whole day wandering with Lenny and a few other international students, just wandering and taking in all the crazy street performers (most were juggling fire, performing impressive stunts, and making fun of Australia)! But the real highlight of the carnival is the big parade at night and the partying afterwards.
Lenny and I purchased some cheap costumes and then headed back to my hall for dinner and split on a 12 pack before the parade started. This was poor planning because upon arriving at the parade, we realized that there must have been 20,000 people hoping to catch a glimpse of the floats, dancers, musicians, and fire eaters! So we got creative. We managed to secure about 5 great spots, though each time we had security as us to move. Basically, all of our creative ideas ended up with us high off the ground. We were up in trees, on fences and on roofs of trailers and buildings. But our best spot was by far our first one. We ended up in a boat which was set up on top of an information booth for the marine center of Wellington. We sat side-by-side with a manikin in this old wooden rowboat while observing the parade with an amazing view. The worst part about security asking us to leave was that it was never Lenny and I which attracted the attention. There were always people who would recognize our creative ideas, and follow with much less discretion (like our friend Sophia, who probably couldn’t have made more noise while climbing up onto one of the food trailers with people inside…).
When the parade ended, there were literally thousands of people rushing into the pubs and bars. We decided to risk the police and purchased beers from a convenience store and drink in the streets. The cops were only really after those being belligerent and flaunting their alcohol, so were flew completely under the radar. We were waiting for a band, Drop Kick Cousins, to come on hoping that they were a cover band of Drop Kick Murphy’s. Though we were sadly disappointed with the group as not only was it the opposite of Irish rock music, it just wasn’t particularly good. So we ended up at a club for the rest of the night. Overall, it was a great day!
February 22nd marked the move in day for all the first year students living in all the residences. With all of them being 17 and 18, it’s so funny to see these new students going through the same motions I went through only 4 years earlier. The whole time, the international students had been warned that Kiwis truly like their drink. After chilling with a few people, I definitely see that some of these Kiwis would give even my most alcoholic of friends a run for their money. And while I was worried about hanging out with people who were born in the 90s, I have to say that I’ve met some pretty stellar people so far. But there were moments where I actually was wondering ‘what the fuck am I doing living in a hall with these little kids’.
The next morning, I awoke to the sound of the fire alarm at 6 am. I assumed that some shit-faced Kiwi had pulled it, but I was amazed to wander into the halls to see all the RAs dressed like the village people! They had pulled the stunt in order to teach every one in Te Puni the hall chants (all to the tunes of the Village People). We moved to the field behind my hall, at 6:30 am, and there I was singing with 300 teenagers. Not exactly how I envisioned the first day, but I had to give the RAs credit, they were in great costumes and full of energy for the early morning after policing drunkards all night! There’s a hall chant off this morning in Wellington Civic Square and a number of other frosh events this week. Though I’ve done most of these types of events with my two years of living in residence before, I’ve never done them in NZ. I’ve got to know all the RAs (because they were the only other people living in the hall before yesterday) and they’re responsible for not only patrolling at night, but also planning everything for Orientation week. I’ve got to say that overall, I’m pretty impressed thus far.
We had a huge chant off that morning in Civic square where we were greeted by the mayor of Wellington. There must have been 1500 students sitting with their hall groups listening. He was noting that there were students from countries all over the world. He started naming countries as people from those places cheered. He mentioned over 15 countries but left out Canada. I happened to be wearing a straw hat and my Team Canada hockey jersey and thought to myself, ‘this just has to be done’. So I stood up and yelled, ‘you forgot about Canada!’ It was great to not only hear cheers from the maybe 10 other Canadians who stood up from around the crowds, but I was more impressed that there were a great deal of other people cheering as well. It seems to be a typical reaction to when I mention that I’m Canadian, Kiwis just really love Canada!
I’m about to take off on an excursion north of Wellington with Lenny and 7 Americans. We’ve rented two cars and leave this evening! While I’ll be missing a soccer game, I’m so excited to see some more of this amazing country. We have a slight tentative plan to head to Lake Taupo and Rotorua area to see some sights and check out the Maori culture. I’m sure I’ll have some great stories to write about upon my return...