the beginning

so last night we had an ies group meeting, and we met out in front of IH where the schedule said a shuttle bus would meet us, and i went a little early and a girl who introduced herself as jen was there, and we talked and then sophie, who i met at ur before, and ej, who goes to ithaca, and kendall, who lives in wisconsin came, and jen was like yeah i'm walking you over, and it turns out she did ies last year and ended up transferring here.

at the meeting, gael, our "mother while we're here" talked to us, and 3 ies alumni who have come back for various reasons talked to us, and everyone got their id cards, only we were supposed to bring our passports and i didn't so i did not get mine. the alumni told us all kinds of stuff, for example they described biking in the city as "an extreme sport" and there is a "bikes and busses" lane in the street. and one of them had a trainer kite surfing kite with her and i was really excited. and they said in nz culture, it's bad to be a "tall poppy" which means people don't talk about their accomplishments as much, and self deprecation is seen as better. and there is this tour company through the school that has all kinds of fun stuff like whitewater rafting and sailing and other stuff. and they said the best way to go on trips is rent a car, although driving is scary because it's either insane traffic in auckland, or tiny windy roads out in the country. and it takes 8 or 9 hours to drive to wellington, and then you have to take the ferry to get to the south island. so it might be better to fly, i don't know. a lot of people were already planning trips.

then we went on a tour of the campus, and i talked to a bunch of people, and we had dinner and i talked to more people. two of the kids have been here for a month, biking around the north island and camping. and there is a girl who lives on a farm in saratoga springs. and one of the girls from ithaca knows jennifer. and the kid who friended everyone on facebook, chris, was next to me at dinner and he says he does not like any outdoor activities, and we were all like, then why did you come. and sean just did not show up to anything all afternoon, i don't know where he is.

at the end of dinner one of the guys invited everyone back to parnell (where the boys live, a 30+ minute walk thru the auckland domain) but the four of us in IH were tired so we just walked back, and stopped at the gym to find out about joining, which costs $160. i think i am going to, so i can do the group fitness classes, and get a discount on the kiteboarding lesson program, which does not start till march 3.

then we came back to IH, and went around to see each other's rooms, which are all basically the same, although i like mine bc it has a sky light because i'm on the top floor. kendall showed us the "gym" which consists of a bike, some free weights, 2 medicine balls, and a deflated exercise ball, and one of the laundry rooms. i still do not have a good grasp of the layout of this building. then we hung out in ej's room for awhile just talking, and the three of them traded cell phone numbers, but i did not have one yet.

then we went into the common room and watched survivor (which was the first thing we saw when we turned the tv on), and i was falling asleep so i just came up and went to bed at like 9.

then today i set my alarm on my computer for 7, because my bags were supposed to get here early, and gael was taking people to the 20th anniversary of the uni marae, which we had to be at by 8:50, so the IH girls decided to meet at 8:30 to go. so i got up early to be ready in time.

however, when i went down to the office, it was closed, so i wandered and was bored for awhile, and i got an apple from the cafeteria, there were 2 other kids in there who i did not talk to ha ha. and i called the airline, who said my bag was in customs (after waiting on hold foreverrr). and the office was open by like 8:30, so i gave them my home cell phone number, as well as the airline just so i could be in touch (i've been calling from the landline out in the hall though don't worry). they said my bags were in customs and should arrive sometime in the morning.

and i decided not to waste all day waiting, so i went to campus and got my id card, and while in the international students office i saw the japanese girl i had met briefly yesterday afternoon, and another girl who was with her who saw my rochester hoodie and said she was from saratoga. and i wanted to talk to them more, but they were doing something that was taking awhile and i had nothing left to do in that office, so i went to the it place, and got my netid registered (so now i have an auckland email address), and then i went down to queen street again to got o the vodafone store and get a phone.

sophie said she got one for 90 bucks, with a prepaid sim card. so the first store i went in said they were out of the cheap phones, and the next one was $179, so they sent me to another store further down queen street. so i got the $89 phone, plus a $35 prepaid sim card, that has $5 on it now, and when i register online i get another $10. everyone here texts apparently, because phone calls are expensive, so i haven't decided if i should get 2000 txts a month for $10. i can add that anytime though. and the phone guy saw my rochester hoodie and asked where rochester is, and i told him upstate ny, and he was like "oh that's what i thought, i worked at a camp in scranton, pa last summer and went through buffalo and syracuse"

so i took my phone home, plugged it in, and tried to follow the directions to activate the sim card (which is just a piece of cardboard with a chip in it), which did not work, and i called customer service, and they said to go back to the store.

so my bags were still not here, and it was like 11:30, so i went to the cafeteria for food, where i met one of the ras (i think) and i forgot his name - i am really not doing very well with names. but anyway he said they don't serve lunch until sunday, and he was just using the toaster, and i told him about my bags and phone issues and he was really nice. so then i came up and ate some peanutbutter and bread (i don't have a knife so it wasn't so much a sandwich). and called the airline again, and they said my bag should be here within an hour.

so then i went all the way back to the vodafone store, and after waiting in line the guy did some computer stuff and fixed it, he said it was because they recycle phone numbers and there was some sort of hold on it from the last user. also, while he was on the phone with customer service he said, and i quote "no p no p, sweet as, thanks, bye" which roughly translates into "no problem, awesome, thanks, bye".

so then i came back, expecting my bags to be here because it had been more than an hour, but nope! (i feel bad i have bothered the guys in the office at least 6 times today) so i came up and called the airline, and waited on hold for ages again, and the lady said she didn't have my reference number in the computer, and was gone for a long time, and then came back and said she was going to call the airport people, and took my cell number and said they should call me within half an hour or so. it's been an hour. i think i'll go call again.