Advice:
1) Don’t get a parking ticket. Even if it doesn’t seem like an actual road but rather more like an alley/parking area remember to park facing the right way.
2) Don’t lose your parking ticket. It’s a small bit of paper but pretty important.
3) Don’t forget to change your address on the registration for your car if you move flats. Reminders about parking tickets will be sent there.
4) If you have forgotten, remember to check before you sell your car – it’s an awkward time to find out.
5) Ask someone to keep an eye out for documents arriving at your old flat concerning the sale of your car and when they tell you there is a letter from the Ministry of Justice rather than Land Transport try not to have accrued massive fines for ignoring the reminders which you didn't know were coming.
6) Pay the new fees before you lose the letter and ticket again.
Well at least I managed to do two of those....
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Oozing over with reflectiveness
I didn’t have a lot of expectations coming to New Zealand. My last semester at Morris was challenging. Trying to create and complete my interdisciplinary honors project and carry on despite its consistent deviation away from what I wanted to be the focus (the topic itself wasn’t what I would have preferred to do because professors had left and instead grew more and more into an argument about a tiny historiographical detail that didn’t really ultimately matter for the field of geology or philosophy) When I finally got it done and defended, I had to immediately turn around and start a huge mess of philosophy assignments while trying to attend to other senior sem projects, tidy up the affairs of clubs with which I was affiliated, and generally do every characteristic Morrisian activity I could before I left for good. That said, I didn’t have a ton of time to imagine what New Zealand would be like. When I did think about it though, my ideas about NZ were framed around academic aims, potential cultural experiences, and excitement about different natural phenomena I might observe. But when I think about defining moments in my experiences in Otago, many of them are just life lessons about dealing with people, not Kiwis specifically. Buying and selling a car, trying to navigate through flat disputes, cooking, etc. Living abroad forced me to make a lot of tough decisions on my own because those who I usually count on to give in advice were not necessarily around (due to 17 hour time gap) or able to be contacted (due to sketchy internet service) when I needed them.
If you had told me when I was a freshman that during university I would go abroad at all much less live in another country for a full year, I would have laughed until my sides hurt too much to stand. I had been ill for too long to even have the desire to be well enough to travel – I couldn’t remember what it would be like not to be nauseous all the time or imagine reaching a point where I wouldn’t be concerned about the possiblity of throwing up in public places. I distinctly remember going to a scholarship information meeting at the beginning of sophomore year and deciding that none of them were applicable to me because they were either extremely specific or involved some abroad component. To have last minute decided to enter the honors program, to have heard about the abroad trip to Scotland while on the way back from the annual Gutherie trip (and thus got up the nerve to go far before it was an official program), to have gone to Scotland and been extremely sorry I had not tried to attend a uni abroad for a whole semester, and to have gotten a chance after all of those lovely coincidences...there aren’t enough synonyms for “lucky”.
If you had told me when I was a freshman that during university I would go abroad at all much less live in another country for a full year, I would have laughed until my sides hurt too much to stand. I had been ill for too long to even have the desire to be well enough to travel – I couldn’t remember what it would be like not to be nauseous all the time or imagine reaching a point where I wouldn’t be concerned about the possiblity of throwing up in public places. I distinctly remember going to a scholarship information meeting at the beginning of sophomore year and deciding that none of them were applicable to me because they were either extremely specific or involved some abroad component. To have last minute decided to enter the honors program, to have heard about the abroad trip to Scotland while on the way back from the annual Gutherie trip (and thus got up the nerve to go far before it was an official program), to have gone to Scotland and been extremely sorry I had not tried to attend a uni abroad for a whole semester, and to have gotten a chance after all of those lovely coincidences...there aren’t enough synonyms for “lucky”.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I think I can, I thought I could, I thought you could
I think I can get all of my stuff packed, my final essay exam finished, and figure out a way to get to the airport; I thought I could survive downhill skiing (and fortunately was correct!); Thomas (my car), I knew you could make it up every hill and down every crazy steep narrow ford-filled gravel road without any mechanical breakdowns!
One week remains of the great New Zealand adventure!
I went downhill skiing for the first time in ten years! It was a very spontaneous trip with four other awesome exchange students and about 3 hours between being first told about it and leaving. We were extremely lucky in every respect: 1) even though technically we went after rental hours, the guy at the unipol (fitness centre) “snow shed” hadn’t left yet and fitted us with gear anyway 2) we got the last room in the backpackers and found it without looking up its location or asking for directions 3) the weather was brilliant. Two of the girls had been in Tonga the week before so we listened to a CD they had purchased there as we drove up the steep snowy road to Coronet Peak. I spent most of the day on the “easy” slope trying to learn how to slow up by skiing side to side. I went on a few intermediate hills including skiing down from the highest chairlift! The Remarkables were indeed remarkable with their fresh glistening snow, though I spent most of the day staring at my skis. ^_^ Spent a lot of time sprawled in the snow but it was good fun with good people.
Remind me to never buy or sell a car ever again. I sold dear Thomas, my trusty automobile yesterday. He was the best anthropomorphised 1993 Honda Civic to ever roam NZ roads. It was pretty weird watching someone else (much less an unlicensed moody and absent-minded polytech student) get in and drive away, knowing that I wouldn’t ever see him again. The trade also involved dealing with an extremely annoying father whose every phrase was a constant barrage of intimidation attempts. It was sort of fun at first since I picked up quick on what he was doing. I had so many people interested in viewing the car that I never managed to contact them all and, thus, any attempt he made at telling me I would get a bad price if I took it to auction (my last resort if I couldn’t sell it quick enough) resulted in me trying not to laugh while I repeatedly explained that I was confident I would find a private buyer. It became less fun when he finally made a reasonable offer and I ended up having to deal with him for another half day. I did get to make faces at some giggling babies during the 20 minutes it took to sort out the fact that the actual owner of the car had brought no forms of identification with her.
Thomas, the little car that could:
One week remains of the great New Zealand adventure!
I went downhill skiing for the first time in ten years! It was a very spontaneous trip with four other awesome exchange students and about 3 hours between being first told about it and leaving. We were extremely lucky in every respect: 1) even though technically we went after rental hours, the guy at the unipol (fitness centre) “snow shed” hadn’t left yet and fitted us with gear anyway 2) we got the last room in the backpackers and found it without looking up its location or asking for directions 3) the weather was brilliant. Two of the girls had been in Tonga the week before so we listened to a CD they had purchased there as we drove up the steep snowy road to Coronet Peak. I spent most of the day on the “easy” slope trying to learn how to slow up by skiing side to side. I went on a few intermediate hills including skiing down from the highest chairlift! The Remarkables were indeed remarkable with their fresh glistening snow, though I spent most of the day staring at my skis. ^_^ Spent a lot of time sprawled in the snow but it was good fun with good people.
Remind me to never buy or sell a car ever again. I sold dear Thomas, my trusty automobile yesterday. He was the best anthropomorphised 1993 Honda Civic to ever roam NZ roads. It was pretty weird watching someone else (much less an unlicensed moody and absent-minded polytech student) get in and drive away, knowing that I wouldn’t ever see him again. The trade also involved dealing with an extremely annoying father whose every phrase was a constant barrage of intimidation attempts. It was sort of fun at first since I picked up quick on what he was doing. I had so many people interested in viewing the car that I never managed to contact them all and, thus, any attempt he made at telling me I would get a bad price if I took it to auction (my last resort if I couldn’t sell it quick enough) resulted in me trying not to laugh while I repeatedly explained that I was confident I would find a private buyer. It became less fun when he finally made a reasonable offer and I ended up having to deal with him for another half day. I did get to make faces at some giggling babies during the 20 minutes it took to sort out the fact that the actual owner of the car had brought no forms of identification with her.
Thomas, the little car that could:
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Missitude
Less than two weeks to go! So in a last ditch effort to make use of this space I am going to try to post something every day for my remaining time in NZ ! Feel free to mock me endlessly when I don’t!
Things I miss: family/friends, snow, insulation/double paned windows, being warm when its winter, thunderstorms, squirrels, loons, frogs, MN vegetation in general (maple, oak, pine), piano!!!, people with which to sing, reliable internet, being treated like I’m a long term member of the community
Things I don’t miss: “first past the post” induced party politics and American mainstream media, flatness, humid heat, uncritical use of the concept of patriotism, requiring a car to do day to day activities, ticks
Things I will miss: the hills of Dunedin especially as viewed from the top of the hill in the Botanic Garden and knowing that I could literally walk out of town and be on top of a huge ridge with views of the mountains and oceans simultaneously, walking to the Octagon, tree ferns, the southern cross and galaxies, cricket as a legitimate sport, young, dynamic, and easily accessible geologic outcrops, having a detailed knowledge of the environmental framework of the country I’m living in (going to have to work on fixing that), NZ currency (it might look like play money but its sooo pretty), recognition and incorporation of Maori vocabulary/concepts at a national level, clocktower and Leith, the ocean (surf, jellyfish, crazy seaweed, vastness), tussock, accidentally scaring up kerukeru (NZ wood pigeon), funny sounding tui, rata trees in bloom,
Things I won’t miss: possums, people going barefoot (or even with crappy jandels) in glass strewn streets, no turn on left
Things I miss: family/friends, snow, insulation/double paned windows, being warm when its winter, thunderstorms, squirrels, loons, frogs, MN vegetation in general (maple, oak, pine), piano!!!, people with which to sing, reliable internet, being treated like I’m a long term member of the community
Things I don’t miss: “first past the post” induced party politics and American mainstream media, flatness, humid heat, uncritical use of the concept of patriotism, requiring a car to do day to day activities, ticks
Things I will miss: the hills of Dunedin especially as viewed from the top of the hill in the Botanic Garden and knowing that I could literally walk out of town and be on top of a huge ridge with views of the mountains and oceans simultaneously, walking to the Octagon, tree ferns, the southern cross and galaxies, cricket as a legitimate sport, young, dynamic, and easily accessible geologic outcrops, having a detailed knowledge of the environmental framework of the country I’m living in (going to have to work on fixing that), NZ currency (it might look like play money but its sooo pretty), recognition and incorporation of Maori vocabulary/concepts at a national level, clocktower and Leith, the ocean (surf, jellyfish, crazy seaweed, vastness), tussock, accidentally scaring up kerukeru (NZ wood pigeon), funny sounding tui, rata trees in bloom,
Things I won’t miss: possums, people going barefoot (or even with crappy jandels) in glass strewn streets, no turn on left
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