'O' Week Extravaganzas

DIZZY?
'O' Week at the University of Otago is not what you would expect from most college orientation weeks. It is a school-sponsored excuse to play hard, or as our bus driver today said, "A time to put your face to the floor and your ass in the air." I am still trying to figure that one out, but it seems to make sense on some level...Local pubs (which are plentiful) compete for 'O' Week specials, including: 4pm-10pm Happy Hours, ubiquitous free t-shirts, $6 jugs of the local ale, and many karaoke nights. I have found that an effort to escape the American popular music industry is useless, hearing recently such "favorites" as I did it all for the Nookie, Sweet Home Alabama, Pour some Sugar on me, and yes, even Summer Nights from Grease. Though I would have to say that hearing a kiwi sing Springsteen's Born in the USA definitely takes the cake.

SONIC REDEMPTION
However, this is not to say that the local music scene is not hopping - a few nights ago we went to The Arc, a vegetarian cafe and bar in the CBD that has live music in their cozy backroom venue. There we were rocked and swayed by the Retrophonic Funk Machine, who, with their sextet of sax, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums and synth, squeezed out a chilled back mix of bossa-nova and more modern jazz. Let's just say they lived up to their name - which is actually a good synthesis of what might be their genre (if they fit into one). I am excited to hear more local and New Zealand acts, and will keep searching them out...


















PENINSULA OF SPLENDOR
One exciting part of 'O' Week for the international students included an adventurous outing to the Otago Peninsula today. (Above: The scenic peninsula from various vantages) We stopped at a few different choice locations, seeing an albatross (with nearly a ten foot wingspan!), a fur seal from only four feet away, and a baby penguin! There were of course many sheep and cattle, and even flocks of black swans. We also visited an extremely breezy beach. Being relentlessly pelted by 40mph sand made it hard to keep my eyes open - picturesque as it was. Even breathing was difficult. (Above: Not relaxing, I recline under a hovel on the windswept beach). Four hours later, as I type this post, sand is still falling out of my ears and gritting between my teeth. I feel a little violated, but have once again brought a little of the beach home. This probably means that some of it will make it home with me to Minnesota in four months, however I don't plan on telling that to New Zealand customs...

GRUB
The peninsula trip ended as any good day trip should - with free food. There was a lovely cookout where we were reminded once more that New Zealand knows how to treat its vegetarians (and rightly so: nearly a third of the international students are veggies!). (Above: Awwww. A cuddly-seeming fur seal naps after eating two international students for lunch). We had the choice of lasagna, pumpkin and spinach patties (yum!), or lentil and rice patties. At one point, the fiery woman dishing out the vegetarian cuisine told a non-veggie that she couldn't have any because she could eat any of the other items and it would be rude to take food away from the vegetarians. Not sure about that move, but she definitely made her point. The fixins were perfect. I had three helpings and am rightly stuffed; got to show off the belly a little, right? Don't worry though, my digestion continues as per usual, and I have stared The Dan Thiede Exercise Program 2006, so I won't have to be rolled home.

Damn windy:

Jessie feels for the trees,

and gives a little lean

Sandstone and Crashing Surf

After paging through my Lonely Planet guide, we J-Flatties and Mariah decided to tramp on over to Tunnel Beach, not sure what we would find there, but knowing only that it was 75 degrees and sunny, and we desparately needed a trip to the beach. After just a short bus ride and a 2k walk through farm country, this is what we found:

To get to the private beach, which is otherwise cut off by sandstone cliffs, you must walk down a set of steep stairs through a tunnel in the rock until you reach the bottom 100 feet below. Hence, Tunnel Beach. It was built around 1870 by entrepreneur and politician John Cargill (also has a mountain nearby named after him), who wanted a private beach for his daughter, so that they would not be preyed upon by men...or so the bus driver told us. Rumor also has it that this was a birthday present to her. Lucky. The sand was incredibly soft and fine, and the Southern Pacific was frigidly cold. At their highest, we were jumping through wave crests 5ft tall, some large enough to carry us all the way back to shore. There were huge rocks to climb, caves to explore, and even a waterfall that we could relax beneath coming out of a sandstone aquifer above our heads.

Especially interesting was the species of seaweed that attached itself deep into the sand and used its natural adhesive to stick to rocks. With the constant tug and push of the surf, the seaweed needs to be well connected and very strong. It was like leather whips - thick, and a foot wide in some spots.

The climb back to the top after our stay at the beach was all the workout we needed in a day, and after visiting a few sheep and horses, we made our way back to the bus stop and headed back home, taking some of the beach home with us in all our nooks and crannies...

From take-off through week one

TOUCH DOWN!
I have arrived! and more importantly, I have slept. After 25 hours of travelling, I ended up staying awake for an entire day here, finally crashing into bed at midnight - 38 hours is plenty of wakefullness for me. Also, for those of you wondering how my Monday the 13th of February was, it lasted four hours. That ol' international dateline took care of it for me. If you are in the midwest and you want to know what time it is here, just subtract five hours and add one day - I am 19 hours ahead of you. (A self-portrait in front of the Clocktower Building, built in 1878)

SETTLING IN...
I am all moved in to my flat here and have three great flatmates - Anjali from Philadelphia and India, Matt from Tennessee, and Jessie from Virginia and Philadelphia. Jessie grew up in Philly and Anjali goes to school there. Anjali goes to Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia, and is a biology major. Matt attends Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and is a biology/ecology/neuroscience major. Jessie, I believe, is majoring in business management at Richmond in Virginia. We all arrived in the last couple days and have been getting to know one-another and all of the other international students living around us. We were lucky enough to get flat in Cumberland Court - a collection of 26 flats with four people each that comprise about a square block of the city. Our flat is the upper level of an older home, with 15ft ceilings and a gorgeous yard. We each get our own room, fully furnished, so there was little left for us to do but unpack! (From left to right: Anjali, Matt, Jessie, and on the bottom, yours truly)

OUT ON THE TOWN
On my first night here I met a girl named Mariah from the Seattle area, and she and I and Anjali went to a Turkish restaurant in town where we gorged ourselves on falafel, hummus, pita and veggies. Much of my time thus far has been spent tooling around the city, expanding my mental map of the campus and the city - it is quite the place! Nestled at the innermost bend of Otago harbour, Dunedin City fills the lowland and is surrounded by great hills. One of Dunedin's claims to fame is Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world! Not one for biking up or rollerblading down...We also hit up a local bar, the Ra Bar a couple nights ago, and I got to sample some of the local brew. Speight's Brewery is in town, and they are touted in NZ as the "Pride of the South." The Old Dark variety was tasty. (The picture here is a common sight in Dunedin. Many people also likely take pride in their ability to build their homes and yards straight up the sides of these hills.)

COOKIE ADVENTURES
There is a type of NZ and Aussie cookie called a Tim Tam. The Tim Tam is a cookie with two chocolate wafers as its core, which are separated by a layer of chocolate, all of which are covered in another layer of chocolate. A favorite pastime of New Zealanders is to bite off each end of their Tim Tam and use it as a straw (akin to sucking soda through a piece of licorice). When the Tim Tam straw is used to suck up hot cocoa, the cookie gets warm and the chocolate begins to melt, just as the porous wafers quickly disintegrate, and you have to shove the whole chocolatey mess in to your mouth before the cookie falls into the drink! This is appropriately called a Tim Tam Slam, and I had my fair share. (Nobody could slam a Tim Tam and look as good as the woman in this picture. She is a fake. The Tim Tam Slam will only make you sexy by first making you sloppy.)

Well, I leave you with that! Until my next post...

Cheers,
Danno

January Lutsen Cross-Country Getaway

Vested, goggled and ready for shooshing,
looking over Mystery Mountain: 01.28.06

Making a Move

Here I am with my paint gear, just after finishing Jennifer and my room with a non-purple and non-poopy color. We moved in to a new apartment on Grand Avenue last week and have been having a great time getting settled and making it home.