then at 9:10 the ra's lead all the international kids to the orientation meeting on campus, so we straggled at the end of the line, waiting for ej, who came out as we were going. we walked down to the business school, and as we went in we got these messenger bags full of pamphlets, which was exciting. the auditorium was mostly full when we went in, but most of us found seats together, and one of the international ladies we met at ispace on thursday spoke, and went over lots of info, none of which was too exciting. i think it was more important for the regular international students, who hadn't already had ies orientation. then we had a 'tea' break, with little sandwiches and muffins outside. we met 2 girls from canada, one from mcgill (rachel) and the other from vancouver, who are living in grafton house. they seemed really nice.
then we went back in and they talked a little more and then a local primary school group of maori students came and performed. all the schools wear uniforms here, and it seemed sort of incongruous to see them doing the traditional dances and stuff all dressed up like that, rather than in the traditional maori clothing. they were super loud, filling the big auditorium with no mics, and a little scary. the girls in the front row kept like, twitching their hands the whole time. at first we thought they were nervous, but they were all doing it.
so that was cool, and after that we left, even though there was a study abroad-specific talk. instead we went to the international office to find out how to change our classes, and then went to gael's office, which is really close to ih. we told her about our plans for the weekend, and she told us about classes and copied my passport and visa and we gave her our phone numbers.
then we went back to ih and sophie and ej and i needed to reserve a rental car and book our hostels for our trip (kendall decided not to come). the hostel's were fairly simple, we picked the ones in ej's 'nz on a budget' guidebook with 0800 numbers (so we could call from the hall phone and not waste our mobile minutes). we will be staying at the steamers beach lodge in te anau tuesday night, and the glowworm cottages in franz josef wednesday and thursday.
the car rental was not so simple. everything we tried online or on the phone a)was too short notice b)had no cars for pick up in queenstown or c) did not rent to people under 25. we then started looking up busses between cities, but there were absolutely none going between te anau and franz josef so that wouldn't work. we seriously considered hitchhiking for awhile, but although nz is supposed to be the safest place in the world to do that, it's still a little sketchy, especially since we were planning on doing major traveling at night. cameron, one of the kiwi kids we hung out with last night came by for awhile, and a kid named barret from canada (who is 23, the only student i've met older than me so far).
eventually we decided to go check out the rental car companies on beach st that gael had told us about, so we walked down, and the first place we went in, budget, had no difficulties, although there is an extra charge since we're under 25, so we decided to return it the first day we get to christchurch, and just rely on public transportation/walking there (when a man heard us discussing that in there, he was like 'christchurch is flat you'll have no problem walking' which was really funny/random, i guess compared with auckland which is super hilly, flat would be easier). so we booked that, for $280, which isn't bad split 3 ways (we were prepared for $450 or more by that point, and were just really excited to have any car at all). then we went to a little cafe we had gone by on the way there, and sophie and ej got smoothies and i got a chocolate sundae, which was vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and pieces of kiwi. it was delicious.
then we walked to the warehouse, which the kiwis compare to walmart, but feels more like a giant dollar store (where things do not cost a dollar). i wanted to get pushpins, hangers, a bungy clothes line (ej got one there earlier) and travel shampoos. i ended up with a clothesline, 2 bottles of water, a birthday present for serita, and a little notebook.
by then it was getting pretty late and we needed to get sleeping bags. b had told us about a place that has used outdoor equipment for sale on k' road, which we were gradually walking toward, but probably would not make it before it closed (most everything closes at 5 or 5:30 here), so we went in one store in the mall with the warehouse, and the cheapest sleeping bag they had was $109, and it didn't pack very small (a necessity for our purposes).
so then we were walking down queen st, looking for the dollar store where they had gotten hangers and pushpins, and we went by a store called kathmandu, and decided randomly to go in, and they said they were closing in 5 min, but they had sleeping bags that packed smaller for 90 bucks, so we decided we weren't going to find any others before the stores all closed, so we each got one, and the guy happened to see ejs student id, and gave us a 25% student discount, which was really nice, so we were excited about all our good luck, and walked home.
then there was a bbq ("barbie") outside in the courtyard, so we went upstairs quickly and then came down, and ate, and met 4 girls from california. they had gone to the south island the week before and done basically everything we're doing, and they said everything we've got planned is really fun. they also told us about these ice cream bars that are really good, and we were hey lets go get some from the convenience store next door, so all 7 of us did (kendall had a hall meeting). they also told us that the chicken flavored chips were actually really good, but they didn't have those at the store. so we took our ice cream back and ate it in the basement common room where there was going to be a group movie, but sophie ej and i had to do laundry and pack and go to bed early, so we didn't stay for the movie.
there is powdered detergent in the laundry room which is apparently free for us to use so we used that and did our laundry, and cameron and barret went by outside and yelled in the window and scared us to death. then i went up and figured out our driving directions for the trip, and sophie called a cab to pick us up at 5:45 am for our 7:10 flight (the busses don't even run that early). then i put pictures on facebook and hung my laundry around my room with my handy new clothes line (because i don't want to pay another $2 to dry stuff and most of it i hang anyway). now i'm goign to bed and getting 5.5 hours of sleep. again. goodnight
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