I am a Scarfie

2/18/08 (I typed up a bunch of updates from the past week or so, they're here in chronological order, but in separate posts)

So as of today, I am officially a Scarfie, a Scarfie being an Otago student because they all wear scarves because it’s so cold at all times. I registered for classes, which was quite complicated and involved queuing up in a bunch of queues (note the use of NZ vernacular…it’s coming along) and getting a bunch of professors to sign off on classes. I ended up with almot nothing that I originally requested, but that’s okay. I’m taking a world music class, a film class on New Zealand film, and two education classes, one on NZ education policy and one on the psychology of education and child development. None of these are anything near what I could take at Oxy, and I’m jazzed to get in these classes. I’m going to a local elementary school tomorrow to check out how I can volunteer and get in a classroom too. The best part? No Friday classes! I figure I’ll want to be traveling the island, and three-day weekends make it so I can do all the tramping I want.

I took care of some boring errands like buying a phone, applying for an 18+ card so that I don’t have to carry my passport everywhere, signing my lease, and got all the signatures I needed for classes and then cooked dinner with a bunch of friends at my flat, which I recently learned is noted as the second best university flat in the town…sweet! We made terrible macaroni and cheese because their cheese sauce is gross, but we’ll figure it out. We also made some salad to redeem it and had our first NZ hummus experience, and it lives up to my absurdly high expectations. Loving it. My flatmates are great, I can tell we’re going to get along handsomely. They even have good music taste! We took family photos on our spiral staircase, and if I ever have time to upload photos, I’ll send on some pics. One of my kiwis came in late tonight, and she seems really cool. She has tons of stuff like kitchen supplies, towels, etc. which is great since I was going to go out and buy some of that stuff, so she had perfect timing! Tomorrow Janey comes in, so we’ll have a family meeting and figure out stuff like food, wireless internet, chores, etc. and make sure we all agree on stuff. It’s quite cute, we feel like a fun family already. Pictures to come soon, I promise--it takes forever to load though, and I keep feeling like there's better, more useful things I can do with my time! I'll put some up when I get the chance.

Love to all--