First Step, First Day

Once you actually arrive to the country, the first step for actually studying abroad is to go to class. Today, March 1, 2016, I took that first step.
I awoke earlier than I intended to, thanks to the outside world being lively by 10am. We don't have air conditioning, so my windows are always open, even when that means sleep is only for the hardly disturbed. But, no bother. I simply put on Pandora and I've been rockin out ever since.
Although it's my first day of classes, I only have one class on Tuesdays. I left 35 minutes early, to ensure I would make it to class a bit early. I didn't realize just how early that would be, though. I made it to class a full half an hour early. And, on my way, I totally wiped out walking down the steps and got my perfect pants all wet :(
So after waiting forever and a day for class to start, I finally entered the room with 219 other students for MGMT 223. I didn't have anyone sitting directly next to me though, and the teacher gave us lots of time for discussion with those around us, so I still made a friend! I can't remember his name for the life of me, but he's completing a conjoining degree and he travels an hour by train everyday for classes because on campus housing is so expensive.
During class, security came and took our teacher for like 5 minutes, then they came back and took out some kid because he had some girl's phone. He claimed he was just holding it for her until they met up again because she left it at their club table, but security thought he stole it. I don't know what really happened but it was interesting. So they took him out and we continued class, but we were let out 40 minutes early - great way to start the semester!
I headed over to the club fair where I signed up for a lot. I was already signed up for the Cheerleading and Underwater clubs, so I just had to go pay my dues for them. The cheerleaders seem so nice. :) Then I also had to sign up for the Meat and Dessert clubs, of course. No way is this girl gonna pass up free food. I also signed up for the Canoeing and Surfing clubs, and the International Students Network. After having my go through the clubs, I met up with Justin and we headed to Britomart so he could apply his student discount to his Hop card. I still haven't been able to get my student ID card (thanks, Kenny :( ) so I couldn't add my discount to mine, but I have to go to Britomart to get the bus to the beach tomorrow for Underwater Club anyways so hopefully it'll be ready and I can do it then.
Anyways, even though it was raining we decided to walk through the park. I'm glad we did because there were vendors giving out free stuff and a band was playing. I got a free lanyard and bag and some vitamin tablet thing that I'm probably never gonna use because ew, pills. Justin challenged me to collect five high fives before we left the park and I had the first five before we even passed the first five stalls! Then, for good measure, I got high fives from one of the singers in the band. Justin tried to record it, but the first time he didn't even hit record and the second time it wasn't even a good video (and he calls himself a film major, ha) but I'm sure he's better with his professional equipment haha.

Once we made our way through the park, we continued on to Britomart, past the Rock Bar. We're gonna go to there Friday; I'm so excited :) Then we eventually made it to Britomart, where it was like chasing geese trying to get the student discount applied. But now it's done and he can just use his card and not have to worry about it. On the way back, we stopped by the Warehouse in the mall, and of course I had to get a smoothie from the Juice Factory. I think that might've actually been my first smoothie since arriving to New Zealand. It could've used peanut butter. But it was fine. (I didn't get a picture of it because I was too busy drinking it.) 

Then we made our way back to Uni Hall Apartments and I registered my Hop card (without the discount as explained earlier), confirmed my Kayaking with Dolphins prize, and bought my ticket for the Bluesfest on Easter. Still all while jammin' to Pandora. Now I'm typing this and just chillin' until we go for meat pies later. 

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Quaint Queenstown

Okay, so before I came to Queenstown, we went to the Bay of Islands and spent some days in Auckland, but I'm currently sitting in our house in Queenstown so I feel like writing about Queenstown now and I'll fill you in on previous experiences in another post. It will be out of order, but this is my blog, not yours, so deal with it.
Now to tell my tale from the beginning of this journey...
A couple of days ago, our Loyola group had a meeting with the Office of International Students or something to collect our Auckland Uni IDs (post to follower later - warning: will contain another rant). At the meeting, Luke, our program coordinator advisor thing, said we could hop on a plane tomorrow if we wanted, so that's exactly what we did. I was walking back to the apartment dorm things with Neelam and Celeste when Neelam mentioned wanting to leave for Queenstown tomorrow. That sounded good to me; why be in Auckland when it's a five day break and you could be off exploring the country? So we gathered some friends, sat down and booked our trip to Queenstown that would leave the following morning at 5am.
To celebrate our spontenuity, we drank Scrumpy's and played water pong until we realized we should be asleep. Sure enough, the 4:45 wake-up call came too soon, leave me extremely tired and in need of coconut water. Thankfully, the flight was short and very entertaining. Trivia played on the hanging television screens and I spent the hour and fifty minutes proving my musical and geographic knowledge with questions like "What Van Halen song is named after its year?" (1984), "What band was made up of Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, ..., ..." (Motley Crue), and "What ocean contains the Ring of Fire, known for its volcanic activities?" (Pacific). I also learned more trivia about lesser known (to me) subjects, such as "Who was Brad Pitt's girl from 2000-2005?" (Jennifer Aniston). Okay, so I did know that answer too but it's 2am and I can't remember what I didn't know. Point is, it was great. I love trivia. It would probably be in my top 10 favorite things. Anyways, the plane landed and as we descended the steps to exit the plane, the view was breathtaking.

Also, I forgot to mention that security here is very lax. Like my carry on was 3.3 kilos overweight and contained a full bottle of sunscreen (and one of bug spray) and they didn't take anything or weigh me. I can't even remember if we were x-rayed. They didn't check our IDs. Like it's a good thing New Zealand is so safe or that would actually be pretty scary.

But year so after the plane and a breakfast in town we headed to our house. We rented a whole house, no big deal. Being so last minute, all the hostels were full and a house was cheaper than a hotel. And holy smokes it's amazing. We should rent houses all the time. It's three levels. The first floor contains a guest area/bedroom and bathroom. The second houses the living room, dining room, outdoor eating/living area, and garden/grass. Upstairs is the other bathroom and our rooms. Us girls, Neelam, Sarah, Emily, and I get a room with 4 bunk beds and while Justin, being the man of the house, gets the room with the view and queen bed that's right next to the bathroom.

View from the our house.

On our first day in this mountainous town, we sat down and planned out our activities for the week. Let me just take a second to talk about this group of people that I'm here with, because we've been able to divide ourselves at times and come together for other times so that we are all able to do what we want to do. I think that's a rare thing. 

 So first off, there's obviously me. If you don't know me, thanks for stopping by to check out my life for a bit. I'm an 18 year old junior at Loyola University Maryland, studying abroad at the University of Auckland for the semester. I'm a blonde cheerleader, International Business major, and I love the water, traveling, and dogs. I'm here with two others from Loyola, Neelam and Sarah, and two that I met a few days ago. I'm the youngest in our group; Neelam is the oldest. She's 24. She went to culinary school before coming to Loyola and she's also a big traveler. She;s vegetarian and likes to meditate. Sarah is the other Loyola student in our group. She's a Statistics major and although we practically just met, I can tell we're gonna be good friends. Emily goes to UCONN and she's super chill. She wasn't part of our original group but I'm so glad she came! Justin is the man of the group. He goes to Chapman University (shoutout to the Delta Gammas!). He's into film and is a great photographer. He's been on two cruises - Mediterranean and Alaska. They were Carnival and Princess, respectively. Anyway, he's cool. Naturey and such. So obviously we're all different with out own interests, yet somehow we mesh perfectly and fit together like the puzzle of friendship we didn't know we had. It's great. I've been with them for only four days and I've never felt more... like belonging I guess? Idk but it's nice. They're great for the soul, but hard for the face. I've never smiled so much; my face hurts. (Also I stole the pic of all of us from Emily)
So anyways, we all have different comfort levels and wanna do different things and it actually worked out perfectly. There was never a time when one of us was by him/herself, but we did split up into groups often. I won't tell you all of our activities now, but don't worry; I will as I get to the day.
I know I get quite rant-y but if you recall I mentioned after we had breakfast in town the first day we came back and planned/booked our activities for the week. We then walked into town to explore this new city. We found the beach, but it was too terribly cold to possibly make use of it. Earlier we had decided to eat out our first night and buy groceries for the rest of our time in Queenstown. So after exploring for a couple hours, we went to a Mexican restaurant. This is where that rant about Fat Fish is going to come into play again; if you can't recall what Fat Fish is, please revisit my Auckland Arrival post.

My Queenstown burrito

Half of my Fat Fish burrito
(I ate the first half before I could get a decent pic - it's soo good!)

Okay, so I'm not too fond of Mexican food; it tends to be a bit spicy for me. (Note: this does not mean I don't like other Latino foods. I definitely do; they use different spicinesses.) So, I was a little reluctant to join everyone, but I was starving and wanted to stay with the group. Luckily, we were just in time for the lunch specials (even though it was 5pm), so everything was cheaper. I was also pleased to see they had pulled pork burritos. At Fat Fish, one of my favorites is the Stinky Beach Burrito - pulled pork and steak asada. Of course I ordered the pulled pork burrito, expecting it to be not nearly as good as my beloved Fat Fish, but decent. Haha, nope. Boy was I wrong. It was like totally awful. Like my mouth was literally on fire. I couldn't even finish half of it. I left hungrier than I cam in. Luckily, there was a KFC on the way to the grocery store that did the trick. It was lovely! I knew I'd miss fried chicken but I didn't realize how much until I had some. After my wonderful chicken, we went to the grocery store and returned home where we gathered 'round and played cards.





The next day, Thursday, we planned on rain the whole day. The weather did not disappoint. Neelam, Justin, and Emily went back into town for more exploring and shopping. Sarah and I went tot he Kiwi Bird Conservatory where we learned all about the native animals of New Zealand. Fun Fact: only 3 mammals are native to New Zealand. We also saw a real dinosaur - the Tuatara. It looks like an iguana, kinda, (I don't think so but others do) but it isn't even a lizard. It is a reptile, but not a lizard. It's relatively small, but it survived the death of the larger dinosaurs by going into hibernation underground where it only breathed once every hour. Then of course we saw the Kiwi Bird itself, but weren't allowed ot photograph it due to the lighting situation - night and day are reversed because kiwis are nocturnal. During the day, the room is dark except for a red light that allows us visitors to see the bird. Then at night, the big lights come on so the kiwis think it's daytime and go to sleep. To be honest, if the guide wasn't in there with us, I would've sneaked a picture (without flash, of course). All in all, I'm really glad I went tot he place; it was really informative and mucho divertido for a rainy day.
After that, Emily, Justin, and I played in the rain! :)

Also, side note to my readers: this post has literally taken me so long to write, even though it's just my thoughts/recap of my activities. I've just been so busy (you know me; can't stay in one place too long) that I keep having to put this down and come back to it. This is my third time adding more to this particular post, and I don't think I'll be able to finish this time either. I'm currently on the plane back to Auckland, jammin' to some Jon Bon. But like we're gonna be landing soon and I've only gotten through the second day. So if I seem repetitive, choppy, a bit mixed, it's because this singular post has been added onto several times. The others shouldn't be like this, hopefully. And I also learned to not do whole trips in one post (except Bay of Islands because that was quick) because they're just way too long. So I'm sorry this one is so long, but it should be the only one that's nearly as long, so get over it. k thnx.
On the third day, we created the oceans (or should I say lake, considering our location and such?). Nah, I'm just kidding. We're not God, we're just American. But seriously, on the third day, we split again. Let me pause here to add each time we split, and even when we don't split, we come back together for cards and Netflix before bed. So anyways, on Friday Justin, Neelam, and Sarah went hiking (tramping) while Emily and I took a bus tour. I am SO glad we did the tour instead. I'm not a hiker. Me and mountains don't get along. Tours are good. I like tours.
We did our bus tour through the BBQ bus, but we only did the Queenstown half fay instead of the full Milford Sound expedition. There were only four of us - Emily, me, and two Korean girls. We did a lot, but we didn't get to do afternoon tea. I think it's because we ran out of time, but it's disappointing because I was really looking forward to it. I'll email them and see what they say. But we went to several "viewing points" which were probably just as nice as the hike. These spots include Hayes (Bay, maybe?), Coronet Peak, and other destinations. We also went to the indoor go-kart park, the to the world's first bungy. I was freaking out just watching them! After that, but in between view points, we went to Gibbson's Winery and Cheesery.
(Okay so it's now 11:19pm Sunday and I've decided I can reward myself with sleep if I finish this post!! It's taking way too long!)
So here in New Zealand, as in most of the world, I am old enough to consume alcoholic beverages. So old apparently that they only ID you if you're buying from the grocery store. Anyways, so I could participate in the wine tastings at the wine caves. I don't like wine, but hey it's included so might as well. I also don't like cheese very much, but they were surprisingly good, especially the pepper cheese, which is very weird because I don't like pepper either. Okay, back to the wine. So Gibbson's is the oldest winery in New Zealand (or at least the South Island) and they have over 400 barrels fermenting the wine at all times. They experiment with several wines but are most known for their Pinots. During the tastings, I learned what each wine goes best with: Riesling (the only one I actually liked) is good for white fish. Pinot Griso is good for white meat, and Pinot Nior is good for red meat. Maybe if they gave us meat I would've liked the wines more; I love meat. But it was cool to see and taste. Although I really dislike the taste of wine and cheese, I like the idea of it; it makes me seem less peasant-ish when at wine and cheese functions.

Emily playing in the stream in Arrowtown

We also checked out Arrowtown. Historically, this is where the Chinese found gold. There's a gold shop and you can even pan for gold. I didn't do this because why spend money panning for gold in New Zealand when you can just pan for pirate at Frontier Town? I wonder if they put pirate in the river in Arrowtown as well... Although we didn't pan for gold, we did visit the gold shop to see the big chunks found in the past. But, we spent the most of our time in Arrowtown playing in the stream and collecting pictures. But hey, it was fun.
After our tour, we were supposed to all meet for ice skating, but everyone was too tired to make the hike back into town to skate. Besides, Saturday was our biggest day and we needed to prepare. You might think this means sleep, but in reality it means more card games and BMS (Blue Mountain State?).

Made it to the top!

Okay. So Saturday. Our big day. Our last full day in Queenstown. The only day it was guaranteed to be sunny. Saturday is the day of jumping, zipping, and, well, more mountains.
Emily and Neelam started the day before the rest of us with other activities. Emily survived the Jet Boat and Neelam went on a bike tour. Justin, Sarah, and I walked into town and took the Skyview Gondola up to the Bob's Peak. I took a super similar cable car in Australia through the rain forest, and I was scared almost to death but not quite. This time, as soon as I saw the cable cars I knew I had to do it again, so I had been waiting for this since we arrived on Wednesday. Not sure if it was the great company, the years gained, or what, but this time I was only slightly (very slightly) scared, and that was really only when it jolted at the top. Go me.
Once we reached the top of the mountain, Emily, Justin, and Sarah went bungy jumping. Emily just jumped right off; Justin did a front flip; Sarah took a little encouragement but faced her fears and didn't die. I was the (not so good) photographer.

Emily

Justin

Sarah

After they were done threatening their lives, Justin, Sarah and I went to meet Neelam on the other side of the top of the mountain for our Zip Line session. Emily stayed over at the bungy because she had a 1:30 appointment with the swing. According to her, it was pure terror. I probably would've had a heart attack and died, but kudos to her.
I'm pretty much the biggest baby ever, and I was even a bit nervous for ziplining. Okay, like a lot. Like I had to call my mother for her to tell me to do it before I could even book it because I wasn't having it. But I'm actually so glad I listened to her. As soon as I saw the harnesses, even just laying on the platform, I was instantly calmed. It felt like I was right at home in good ol' OC, getting ready for the ropes course, and not getting ready to zip down a huge mountain. It was a lot different than Frontier Town though because it wasn't a full ropes course, it was literally just zip line after zip line. As I was zipping, I realized I had been zipping literally my entire life at Sailwinds Park in Cambridge and that it was super easy. Also the guides did all the hooking up stuff so we never even messed with our own carabiners or anything. It didn't even seem like we were going down an entire mountain, yet somehow we ended at the bottom! The views were pretty nice, too.
My daddy wants to see some of the videos I took on my GoPro, so I'll add one to the bottom of this post. They had us do challenges like going upside down, singing a song, and trust falling. It was fun.
You can't go to Queenstown and not have a Fergberger. So after ziplining, that's what we did. We only had to wait like 10 minutes which apparently is insanely short. I got the Tropical Swine burger, but you probably could've guessed that. It was really good, but I think Houston's burger was quite nice as well.
After such an eventful day, we headed back to the house to relax for a couple hours before beginning our night.

Ice Cup at the Ice Bar :P

One of the things I was looking most forward to in all of New Zealand was the Ice Bar. That Ice Bar is located in Queenstown. Emily found out about a special deal going on for free entry into the Ice Bar with the purchase of soda from a local convenience store, so we went to the Minus 5* Ice Bar while the others recooped from their adventurous day.
It was awesome! It was actually a lot smaller than I would've thought, but it was so cool! It's really -8.3*C , not -5*, but it really didn't feel very cold. Maybe that's just because I'm from Maryland where it gets colder than that at times during the winter. Either way, it was spectacular. I really wish we could've stayed longer so I could've eaten my ice cup. I attempted to, but it was too hard for my little teeth to bit it without hurting myself. We could only stay a few minutes because we then had to go meet the others for the Big Night Out Pub Crawl.

All smiles after the big win!

At first, I didn't really enjoy the pub crawl because it seemed no one wanted to dance with or talk to me. But then they fed us pizza and my night started to get better. We didn't stay the full time because our flight was the next day, but the last bar we went to was the greatest because Justin and I were selected to play in the contest game for that bar and WE WON!! It was a toilet paper roll game where Justin had to wrap me up like a mummy in toilet paper. As the competition got fiercer, I had to spin one way while Justin went around me the other way in order to cover me the fastest. But it worked! I thought the prize would be just a picture for their Facebook or something, but Jack (one of the guys in charge) let me select an envelope (I couldn't read what either of them said) and I selected a FREE Kayaking with Dolphins in Byron Bay!!! I had been planning on going to Byron Bay for Easter break, but was on the fence since I found out the two bands I wanted to see the most at the Bluesfest (the reason I wanted to go) were playing at practically the same time, just on different stages. But that was the confirmation I needed and now I'm so excited to go! I've emailed the company and they've acknowledged my winnings. It was a great way to end our Queenstown holiday!!
Now I'm back in Auckland and ready for bed. Be on the lookout for lots of catch-up posts this week!
Until next time.
xoxo,
Tasha

PS this is so not the best video, but Blogger is being picky as to what I can and cannot upload :(

Auckland Arrival

So this is totally late, but I've been busy. Anywhos, on Feb 16 mi familia y yo made the trek up to Newark, New Jersey for my flights to Houston then Auckland.
The drive up was long. We had lunch at some Portuguese diner. Then we went to the airport and I was left with Aissa and other Loyola kids to fend for myself for five months.

The ride to Houston was not smooth sailing; it was the roughest, bumpiest flight I think I've ever had and it made my ears hurt. It's probably a good thing I couldn't dive in Cayman - my ears probably wouldn't've been up for it. But after finally touching down, I had just about the BEST burger at the airport. Like it could compete with Fat Fish. It was that good.
Okay so let me pause here to explain Fat Fish to those of you whom? who? that? might not know.
So Fat Fish is like the equivalent of restaurant heaven. Right now it's in West Ocean City, but they're looking into expanding and making an uptown location for North OC. It's got this really chill vibe and super good food. It is amazing. Oh, and smoothies. I LOVE smoothies. Like yaassss. Anywhos, Joe, the owner, is opening Madi & Tay's Bagels so that'll be waiting for me upon my return, hopefully. For visual reference, please see my Houston burger below (I can't find my pictures of my Fat Fish burgers :( ).

So after our outstanding burgers, it was time to board our 14 hour flight to Auckland. Having survived a 23 hour flight before, I felt this flight honestly wouldn't be as bad/seem as long as our flight to Houston, especially considering the turbulence we had just encountered. I was wrong. But, I was the only one whose name was on their screen, so I guess its okay, and I did get to sleep on the plan a bit, so that's good. Also no blood clots, so I suppose if ya take a step back and look at the bigger important life things, it was a good flight. 

We got into Auckland around 6am Auckland time, noon OC time. Customs was a bit odd; you go through customs before you get your bags and when you get your bags there aren't even any dog sniffers. I saw one off to the side but that's it. It was a yellow lab. Strange. But then we took the cab to our Auckland accommodations where my luggage needed to be lugged up three flights of stairs. Thankfully, one of my flatmates was there to help me. My bitterness towards Kenny for messing up our housing situation was alleviated a little when I saw that we had two fridges. Not one, two!! But I can't cook anyways, so I'm not sure why I was so excited.

After collecting our bearings, we toured campus. It was a tour in which I retained absolutely nothing. I retained the same thing war is good for. Lol please excuse my random song references; they might occur more often than ya'd like. 

We then headed over to Parnell to see how the other half lives. James' balcony - bedroom balcony - view is spectacular. He gets the water, the city, the train, the green grass, literally everything. What do I get back in Uni Hall Apartments? Freshmen. My bedroom view stares directly into the rooms of first years. It's super awful, extremely disappointing, and bound to become awkward when I forget to close the curtains while changing. If they weren't so far away from campus (although they are much closer to town), I would be way too insanely jealous of the Parnell kids.

View from James' balcony

On the way back to my sad flat, I stopped by the lantern festival then returned to my bed and went to sleep. 

Til next time,
xoxo,
Tasha

And the Countdown Begins...

A little less than 2 weeks from now, I'll be on my flights to Auckland. 

The drive up to Newark is less than 13 days away now, then after our first flight to Houston (we're not from NASA, so hopefully no problems there!) we will be on our way to our new home for the next several months. 

So, you must think I'm pretty excited and all packed and ready to go, right? Lol nope. Well I mean, yes, I am excited, but I am in no way ready. As I'm typing this I'm laying on the beach in Florida watching two helicopters harass all the boats they can get their propellers on. 

So I'm here in Florida for a week, just chillin (first time I've ever actually really  done that - just hang out & relax and such - it feels kinda nice!), then on the 6th I hop on a boat (hopefully not one these helicopters keep going after) and head down to the Cayman Islands and Mexico before I head back to Maryland to get my hair cut and pack for New Zealand. 

A month of laziness had left me feeling totally awful, so now it's full speed ahead until takeoff. Time to let the water and sun work their magic while the change in latitude changes my attitude (I know, I'm so cliche). 

Xoxo,

Tasha