Still Adjusting, Still Awkward

Hello again, my faithful followers! It's a beautiful Friday night here in Auckland, and rather than going out with some of the Anthropology students to celebrate our legal-drinking status, I've chosen to chill in the dorm and post a long update. I'm just that cool.

Sidenote: I realize now that I will probably forget to include important things in my posts and may address them retroactively in later posts. So be it.

My lovely, disheveled dorm room
(note the awesome purple-blossom tree outside)

Now that our schedule has normalized somewhat and I've temporarily run out of ways to procrastinate on the Internet, I can talk about the stuff we've been up to! We didn't have class for the first few days, so we spent a lot of time getting to know one another and especially walking around the city. I quickly found out that I would not be able to walk around the streets in cheap flipflops...blisters are not fun.

Anyway, there are so many Asian and other ethnic restaurants within walking distance of campus! The first day, a few of us found "Kebabs on Queen" for lunch, and indulged our desire for lamb; the next day, big sushi rolls with lots of fish; and today we had Donburi. So far, Auckland is blowing Hanover away in variety and quality of food. And we haven't even scraped the surface of the cheap eats. I need to start making a list or something, since New Zealand apparently doesn't have Yelp. I should also start taking pictures of food for posterity, but usually I'm so hungry that the food vanishes faster than I can stop to whip out my camera.

The kebab place where we had lunch the first day

Donburi plus miso soup

More interesting walking experiences: parks! So far we've stumbled upon several of the many parks throughout Auckland, like Western Park and Victoria Park. Having grown up in and around the woods (i.e. the boondocks), I appreciate having these small havens of greenery in the (surprisingly quiet) bustle of the city. The playgrounds situated nearby the parks are a nice touch, as well. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to stroll thoughtfully through some of the gardens à la David Hume.

Western Park was like a rainforest!

In addition to walking, a few of us have been running about to explore the area a bit better. While running down a long pier, Melinda and I discovered a piano by the water! It was surprisingly in tune. The smell of the sea, and all the sailboats on the water, reminded me of summers in Cape Cod, and I'm thus still determined to find a real swimming beach nearby. During our excursions, we've also discovered that there are so many Aucklanders who run and cycle for exercise. This is quite apparent in the relative skinniness of most Kiwis we've seen, compared to the average Americans. No judgment, just an observation.

A whimsical playground near the harbor,
built partly from used ship parts

Mitchell gazing pensively at the City of Many Sails

So in spite of all this walking and chatting and sometimes hanging out with international students over breakfast/dinner (we also saw some BU students, by chance), we did have our first Colonialism class on Thursday afternoon. Luckily, we met right in the dorm's study room for a fairly informal roundtable discussion on various introductory questions of colonialism and post-colonialism that we'd covered in some articles that we'd read before. Unlike other discussion classes I've been in, this group needed little prompting or encouragement from our professor (James Igoe) to dive into the topics at hand: modernity, authenticity, the Other, cross-cultural dialogue (or lack thereof), privilege, and the complexity of identity. By the time we reached the three-hour mark without any real pause in the discussion, our professor let us go and told us he couldn't remember having a class where they used the full three hour time slot for discussion. And plenty of the subject matter has spilled over into our everyday conversations. It's gonna be a challenging but really educational class.

Then, today when we Ling students didn't have class (unlike the Anthro people), we decided to hit up the Auckland Art Museum! It cost $0.00, and we got to see a massive array of native New Zealand art, ranging from Māori to Pākehā artists, using mediums like sculpture, video, traditional painting, and collage to express their respective stories. For instance, there was as collection of feminist works from the '80s that exposed the awkwardness of traditional female roles in New Zealand society. We only made it through the first two floors before having to leave for lunch and then leaving for good, but I have a feeling we'll be back soon to check out the rest.

One of the more thought-provoking art pieces. I wish I could've sneaked more pictures.

Abby below the wonderful self-inflating/deflating flower chandelier

Over the past few days, I've also had to take care of a growing pile of little things: buying and setting up a (local-service-only) cell phone, finding an ATM that wouldn't charge me too much for withdrawing cash, and securing my ID card from the University of Auckland. I realized quickly how much I took for granted my phone, bank account, and student ID back at Dartmouth. Over the course of this trip, I hope I can become a bit more responsible and keep my wits about me as I navigate unfamiliar territory.

At this point, I thought I would still have enough energy for some real talk. But since I'm crashing and burning, I'll just end with this treasure from the archives of pop culture.

In the words of the inimitable Demi Lovato: "So far, so great."