Rules of the Sidewalk

It's just under a month since I got to Auckland and I think it's safe to say I'm pretty settled. I got a good handle of the city and New Zealand in general. Just thought I'd put up a brief update about my classes.

I'm taking 4 classes that add up to 12 hours a week. All of my teachers have been very good lecturers. Here they don't really want to hear you talk in lecture so professors in general are good at filling up the whole class period with easy to understand and useful lectures. Some classes have tutorials, which are like discussion sections but for the most part you learn by listening and thinking about everything a professor says. It's kind of fun since it's not like Georgetown where professors really want to get you involved. It's helps that all of my classes interest me though since I actually want to learn about each topic.

Thursdays are my worst day in terms of class since I've got 4 of them with an hour break in between. Class start and end times are different here in that one class will end on one side of campus at 11:00 and then the next will start on another end of campus at 11:00 as well. So people get up and leave early or arrive late all the time and the lecturer in general doesn't care. But walking here kind of works different, which doesn't help. It's like driving a car between classes. Uni (as they call it) has just under 40,000 students. City campus is the main campus and is about the size of 4 large city blocks that have open courtyards or quads in the middle. There are other campuses but all of mine are on City and for the most part once class ends I rush to get my books in my bag and set out. Then you have to "merge" into an isle and look both ways because people are rushing for the next classes. The isle bottlenecks at the door where usually one of two doors is open (opening the other door is dangerous because you have to reverse to open it and you can cause a huge pileup. So once I get out of the lecture hall I have to weave in and out of traffic. To some extend people stay in their lanes but it's not unusual to find yourself or someone else walking right at you in an attempt to pass someone who apparently has time. Cross walks are pure mayhem; people walk up, down, left, right, and diagonal once the light turns green. The busy intersections are engineered so that cars go then walkers go so you don't have to wait for two lights in the 0 minutes you have to be at the next class. I should note though that often you get out of class 2-3 minutes early because the professor has to be somewhere as well. Anyways the point is walking at Uni during the day on the hours is crazy. The weirdest part is that you can go a block and only see like 5 people in the middle 30 minutes of the hour.

Not to much is happening right now. I'm getting into a regular routine which involves a lot of hanging out and making new friends. Auckland is a fun city to be a student for sure. It's also nice having some international friends who want to explore the country. This weekend I'm heading down south again to hike around Mount Edgemont or Taranaki. We wanted to climb up it but turns out we need icepciks, ropes, and a bunch of experience. I jsut bought a sleeping bag and pack so I'm trying to get out as much as I can. I'll probably spend like NZ$ 110 or just shy of US $ 55 (the exchange rate is getting even better and better) for the whole weekend so I can't complain.

Tonight I'm going back to Mount Eden and watching the city shift at a wine and cheese night sponsored by the Tramping Club...if the rain holds off (night will happen obviously regardless but I might not watch it if its wet). That's about it for now...I just realized I didn't list my classes for those who would be interested so I'll just rattle 'em off:

Differential Equations (Math requirement but it's fun to take math in a different country. Same stuff but different approach).

Pacific History (My last general education requirement...which means I'm almost done with college...)

Pop Music and Gender (A really cool ethnomusicology course. Something I could never take at home)

Advertising in Society (I've taken a few film classes so I wanted to try one out over here and this seemed different enough to keep me interested)


Thats about it for now. Next time I'll probably have some cool pictures from this weekend.