Youtubage time.

I could be writing up my lab, but have decided to share awesome Youtube videos.

First, the song "Bo" by Ivri Lider, which has been stuck in my head for a week now.



And the English version.



I can't decide which one I like better. It all depends on my mood.

I have also been watching a lot of slam poetry. I am seeing Sonya Renee tonight and this poem always makes me cry.



Bethany and I will be seeing Cirque Dreams next year and possibly Celine Dion perform. If only we were able to see Celine Dion perform in Vegas, which would be an amazing combination of the two, as described in this video.



That's enough for now.

Maybe Tuesday will be my good news day.

Me having a blog has been a failure so far. I can't seem to update it ever. It's been almost two months. Seriously?

- It's getting down to the last four weeks of class. Woo! And no exams for me, so I have six weeks of doing nothing, which I don't mind at all.

- For semester break, I went to Dunedin and attended the Division III International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships. New Zealand, Turkey, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Greece were the teams. Mongolia had visa problems and wasn't able to attend. New Zealand and Turkey qualified to move up to Division II for next year.



- Right before that, I went on my field trip for geography. We walked around a small town, measured mangroves in the mud, and ended with kinda crappy food at a local pub. Thankfully, the survey giving wasn't too bad and I met cool people as well.



- I traveled a bit on the South Island with Kendall two weekends ago. She came up to Auckland for a few days as well before heading off on more adventures. It was kinda weird that we were seeing each other for the first time in almost four years, but it didn't feel like it.



- I have been taking advantage of relaxation time recently. I've started watching all the episodes of Numb3rs and Miriam lent me Firefly, so I'm making up for my lack of a TV now.

- Forgot to mention that the sweetest thing about walking in Auckland is the horizontal crosswalks. Woo!

- Today I went to the zoo with Jasper and Alicia. And saw a kiwi for the first time. Sadly, the penguin exhibition was closed. :(



I don't want an exciting new development. I want penguins.

- I've been getting to know people in Amnesty better, which makes me happy. So many people are leaving after this semester and I'll need people to hang out with. Also, I miss going to all my meetings in Bloomington and getting to talk to people with the same interests.

- I'm re-starting a feminist group on campus and it's going ok. There is not a consistent turnout, but those who do show up are sweet.

- My birthday is in a little over a week. If my party actually occurs, it will be David Bowie-themed (dress as your favorite David Bowie) with a screening of Labyrinth. The cake will be epic, but I want it to be a surprise.

- The weekend after my birthday I am visiting Henry in Wellington. He's promising a good time, so it will be awesome.

- It's weird seeing everyone's Facebook crap saying they are done with the semester, and I still have time to go. And other people are graduating, so I won't be seeing them when I get back and that is depressing.

- The Penguins are in the Eastern Conference Finals again, but the NHL hates me and scheduled the game where half the time I miss at least one period of the game, with me missing the entire game once. And, of course, every game is scheduled during a class I can't skip. Ugh.

- And I didn't realize that I had not updated on my game-watching situation. I now can stream all games, especially since there is a reliable Sopcast stream for every game now. It makes my day every time.

- Ivri Lider is amazing. Go listen to him.

Oh, how I remember you.

I'm really bad at updating this thing. Ugh. So, I think updates will be in the form of random thoughts.

- My Maori class is a lot of fun and I am getting confident speaking. I really wanted to do a class focusing on learning a spoken language because I feel that I am too self-conscious when I try to use another language. This class is making me speak a language I barely know and is helping me a lot. I would like to eventually do some of my updates in Maori depending on what type of things we learn in class.

- Geography is eh. I only say that right now because we are doing GIS and I despise it. At least it is all basic stuff so I should get some easy grades on my first two labs. I am looking forward to our field trip, however. We are going to study mangroves southwest of Auckland. This means a lot of mud and mud fights. Sweet. And the Geography Department is paying for our dinner. Wooo!

- Best story ever told by a lecturer in a university class:
"You meet some pretty interesting people when you do your public survey aspect of your fieldwork. Last year two guys went up to a door and knocked on it. A man answered and they asked him, 'What do you think about mangroves?' He replied, 'What do I think about mangroves? I'll tell you what I think about mangroves.' And pulled down his pants and took a crap on his floor."

- History is a lot better than I thought it would be. It is "New Zealand Cultural History." The lecturer is awesome and we are talking about a lot of cultural aspects that can be seen in American history as well as a result of both countries being settler societies.

- Politics is still up in the air. I know nothing about New Zealand politics so when the lecturer cracks jokes I'm completely clueless. We shall see how this progresses.

- I was out all weekend and it was great. There are so many other options here rather than your normal pub or club. We went to see live jazz one night. Another night we went to an outdoor play. The weekend before we went to a jazz and blues festival. And tomorrow we're going to an outdoor screening of a movie.

- Watchmen midnight IMAX premiere was kind of a letdown. Not because of the movie but because the crowd was kinda eh. No one dressed up like any of the characters and people didn't seem too excited. But I was told midnight premieres are not as big here as they are in the States.

- The weather here is perfect. It's always windy and the rain feels great when it's here. Wow.

- The Pens are on a 6 game win streak! I've only been able to stream a few games because my internet does not like videos (I've been waiting for America's Next Top Model to load for the past 3 hours). Thankfully, the radio feed works. Kris has been a beast (let's ignore that mistake in the Capitals game) and that is why he has his own spot on my wall.

Tomorrow is my first 8am class and I am not excited as it is GIS. Ahhhh.

Far away, boys. Far aways, boys. Away from you now.

So, this is my attempt to recollect what went on during my two day trip to Auckland.

I left Stavanger at 6pm and had a short flight to Copenhagen. I had quite a decent layover there and then boarded my plane to Bangkok. It was full of Scandinavians going to Thailand for vacation, I guess. Hardly any English spoken throughout the entire flight. I attempted to sleep, but the combination of my inability to sleep in moving vehicles and the man next to me stretching out to take over a quarter of my seat allowed me to only get maybe 30 minutes.

I arrived in Bangkok and it was so hot. It was kinda weird because before I left Copenhagen, they had to de-ice our plane. Quite a big turnaround there. I walked around to find a restaurant and only could find one near my gate. Unfortunately, they had no chicken curry, so I had to settle for spicy chicken. It was good, but I would have enjoyed it had I not been traveling. I lose my appetite when I travel and basically had to force myself to eat it because I could not afford to not eat for two days.

I really enjoyed Thai Airways. First off, they had a better movie selection. I watched a film called "Igor" on the SAS flight. I had to make myself only watch one movie on Thai Airways, which was hard. I decided upon "City of Ember" because I had just read the book a week or so ago. I liked it, but felt that it was rushed at times. Also, a few of the changes bothered me. Both SAS and Thai Airways had music available to listen to and, for some reason, had "Never Going to Give You Up" by Rick Astley as a possible selection on the radio. I'd like to imagine that someone just really wanted to Rick Roll an entire airplane. Thai also had quite a selection that Bethany would have enjoyed: Karelian Finnish music and Celine Dion.

I managed maybe another 30 minutes or so of sleep on the flight to Auckland. Throughout both attempts at sleeping, I had weird half-awake dreams focusing on the two things on my mind the most: my future roommates and the rumors beginning to arise concerning Kris being traded. All of my dreams had at some point Kris being traded and me freaking out/crying. However, I know these rumors are ridiculous and if the Pens trade Kris, I will lose all hope in the management. He is financially manageable and has shown considerable growth the past two seasons. I don't care who they would get in return in a trade; it would still be unwise to do.

Passport control/customs wasn't too bad. There were people from all over the world in line. Tons of Asians. And, in stereotypical fashion, a bunch of them were taking pictures of the queues. Haha.

I arrived in Auckland to be met by quite an attractive fellow UoA student helping out with getting people to their accomodation. He ended up driving me and a German student to our apartments. I almost had a heart attack constantly as we drove because I am still used to weird Norwegian right-of-way laws. Speaking of Norwegian laws, I have already almost gotten hit when crossing the street without looking. Ah.

My flat is ok. I have "high speed" internet as in it works fine when I am doing anything online but watching videos. Which resulted in me having to listen to the Pens/Caps game on the radio. I initially had an ok Russian stream going, but stupidly decided to refresh it and I never was able to regain it. The flat is more run-down than I expected. But I have to remind myself that Willkie isn't exactly normal university housing.

My roommates are from Malaysia, Holland, and Alaska. We get along well. However, when the past election was brought up and I said I didn't vote, I got the same bland reaction as always. But whatev. I've stopped expecting people to show any kind of understanding concerning at least my rationale. No one has to agree with me, but saying my beliefs are basically stupid and pointless is aggravating.

Today was the welcome lecture, which was eh. After lunch, we went on a city-wide scavenger hunt which was a lot of fun. My teammates were awesome. Finished off the night with quiz night at the school pub. Before that I met a Russian that doesn't drink at all. Quite sweet. Most people drink, but, although people are surprised when I say I don't, no one has been a dick about it. I think it was funny that I had to show my ID to get in and all I bought was pizza and Coke. At the pub in Germany I went to, I didn't have to show any ID and I don't remember anyone I was with showing theirs. Haha.

I'm skipping orientation stuff tomorrow to get myself situated better. I have no groceries and need hangers and a laundry basket. All I'm missing is just a general welcome lecture for all new students and lectures about "succeeding at uni." Not missing really anything.

On a random note, I get annoyed when people I have just met tell me they think I don't eat and they push me to eat when I'm full. Umm.. some people are naturally my size. Not a lot, but some. It's completely my genes and lately I've been getting pretty pissed off with this idea that I don't eat and am not a "real woman" because I don't fit the anti-Hollywood thin ideal that everyone pushes when they complain about thin women. I agree that that body type is not common or healthy for all women. But it does exist. We should focus more on all body types being portrayed instead of being hypocrites and calling certain body types "not real" because they don't fit whatever ideal we are pushing.

I'm out.

The days go by, the lights go off and on.

A few more thoughts as the week starts:

- If the Penguins don't make the play-offs, this will be the first season in my life that I have no teams in any sport to cheer for in the postseason. The very thought of it depresses me. Thank goodness I will have class. If it was like any other summer, I might have to take up watching college softball permanently.

- I leave Friday for my epic two-day trip to New Zealand! I just hope I have internet so I can catch the Pens/Caps game at 6am the day after I get there. Hooray for really awkward times to watch games!

- For whatever reason, I am watching the NBA Skills Challenge re-run right now. I might watch the All-Star game, just to watch Danny Granger. That might make me feel better.

- For as bad as I feel about last night's game, I can't imagine how the players feel. Sid looked like he might need to be put on suicide watch along with Manny Legace. It didn't help that he has been physically on the verge of death the past few days.

- Today is relaxation day to the max. Hooray!