A View from Above

The original plan for the weekend (many of you know I like plans) was to take a weekend excursion to Rotarua- one of the worlds most concentrated and accessible geothermal areas- so perfect even on a cool winter day. However, the forecast looked rainy. So the trip got postponed (hopefully next weekend). But Saturday turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day in Auckland. I had to make the most of it so Melanie, John, Zazie and I decided to make the Rangitoto trek. We hopped on a bus to the Auckland Ferry Terminal just in time to catch the ferry to Rangitoto island.

John (kiwi), Zazie (norway), me, and Mel (virginia)

Rangitoto is Auckland's biggest and youngest volcano. It is an island that you can see from almost anywhere high in Auckland. Here we are at the beginning of the hike pointing to the summit (where there is a big crater)...

I call this post "a view from above" because at the top of Rangitoto I saw for the first time... the amazingness the surrounds Auckland. It reminded me of my hike to the tip top of Mount Crested Butte- a mountain I looked at and admired from below so many times last summer. When I got to the top, it was an awesome 360 degree view of at least 5 different mountain ranges. It was amazing and made me realize the amazingness I was surrounded by. Same feeling on Saturday. Instead of mountains though, it was islands. More islands than I've ever seen and in every direction I looked. I can't wait to see more of this country when I get chances to get away from school.

this picture hardly captures all that I could see- there were a ton of islands in the distance everywhere i looked!

Can you tell what we are?? (hint: I am the beak) :)

this is a REAL picture

On our way back, waiting to catch a bus, we saw the official countdown to the Rugby World Cup. Notice Zazie and I enacting rugby... aka she tackled me.

School is definitely kicking into gear here. I am in the middle of my third week of class (just one more week until clinical begins). It has been a good week though. Had a delicious vegetarian meal last night at my friends' Becca and Grace's flat last night (flats are houses that a group of friends live in... so i guess 318- my house in cville- would be considered a flat here) and hung out there for a while. We  started planning our trip to Taupe in 2 weeks where I am going to be running a half marathon! Not really enough time to properly train but it should be fun!
More later! Thanks for following my adventures in New Zealand. :)

Taking in the beauty

My first winter birthday!

It has been a wonderful weekend. I turned 21! crazy i know. My parents called me an adult in an email today- that is a first. Since life is a little backwards here, I experienced a winter birthday for the first time. Also I had school the next day, which is another first: I have never had a school night birthday! Lucky for me it was on a Sunday so I had the weekend to celebrate. My amazing new friends here threw me a party! Soooo sweet of them. They even made me a cake!

Isn't it pretty?? and so yummy! Thanks Sophie!!

So the nursing girls threw me a potluck style party- with lots of yummy food and wine! We chilled for a while and then after a while some of us decided to go out dancing!

Melanie, Sophie, Silvia, me, Marianne, Julie, Zazie

They also decided to go in together and get me a present... I had contemplated doing this before but just the night before had heard some horror stories so was like nahhh... but now I have to.... not sure what I am talking about? ... read my card for yourself:

I'M GOING BUNGY JUMPING!!!! haven't gone yet... but that'll definitely be a post once I do :)

The next day (my actual birthday) was a chill one but great in my book. I slept in (well I woke up for breakfast pancakes which are only served from 8-9 on Sundays), fell back asleep til lunch time. Then Melanie and I tried the bus system to get closer to the water front (like Harbours) where there is a bike/run path. We went for a longer run than planned (7 miles!) but it was a really beautiful day- perfect for running! Then Amy picked us up for church. Amy is in my nursing class here and she is super sweet. Church was great- a big, contemporary service. It was so good to worship God with so many people and thank the one who created me!  After dinner, we went out for burgers... really big burgers:

Yes this burger is nearly the size of my head! It was delicious. :) Do you notice the DOOFER?? It is the cardboard thing I am using to hold my burger- it is a great invention that keeps all the contents of the burger from falling out and my hands clean!

After dinner, Amy (love her!) treated me to cake at this really cool Circus themed cafe called Circus Circus. I got a delicious banana cake (i was sooooo full afterwards). I loooveee banana bread, but had never had banana cake- it was yummy.

Circus Circus

Amy, me and banana cake

So it was a good birthday. And I got lots of amazing emails and facebook messages/ wall posts that I realllllly appreciate! Thank you everyone for your amazing friendship!! Oh! and before I go to bed now- I need to show you pics from the sheep farm! Auckland Uni took a bunch of the international students to Ambury Farm which is a farm with lots of sheep... and other animals. We had a BBQ and hung out Saturday at the farm.

cow really ready to be milked.. pump on and everything!

Zazie in front of the Ambury Farm sign- this is an educational farm which is why they showed us how to milk a cow and...

SHEER A SHEEP!

It was a gruesome process but here is the sheep after his hair cut! I learned to twist the wool into a string of wool too!

Melanie, Zazie and I (see the sheep grazing in the background??) After all, there are more sheep than people in NZ!

I'm pretty tired from a full day of Safety and Quality in Health Care conference which I have another full day tomorrow. It is actually a really interesting conference as I compare NZ and US health care- I've enjoyed it. After the conference, I went to Zumba at the gym! haha and then we had a dorm trivia night. Carlton House won!! (so there is a tower with 8 floors and each floor was a team plus there are 2 houses that are a part of the dorm and I like in Carlton house). We won Kit kats! I ate them dipped in hot chocolate. yum. I also just found out my Medical-Surgical clinical placement for 6 weeks starting August 8th (after theory is finished):  bum bum bum... cardiology! on ward 31 at Auckland city hospital. Good night!

A Rainy Day in Auckland...

At the top of Mt. Eden

The city of Sails as you can see here... some people say the city of sales too (as in shopping haha)

do you see the RAINBOW?? my camera did a terrible job of capturing it but it was beautiful!

Our not-embarrassing-at-all tour bus :)

Just a pretty view of the island Rangitoto- you can see it from a lot of places in Auckland.

For those of you who do not know, July is the middle of winter in New Zealand.  However, this winter is nothing like a Chicago winter- or even a Virginia winter- but often very rainy! Every single day I have been here... it has rained. However weather here changes in an instant. So the rain won't last very long. Although it is currently pouring- and decided to begin just as I was walking home from class. Yep that's right, I said class. I am no longer on "holiday" but officially back into school mode. How strange because I haven't even had my birthday yet! (coming up though on the 17th). So right now it is 12 degrees... Celsius that is. so that's like in the low 50s in Fahrenheit.

So a little bit about school... they do things differently here. At home, we do nursing classes twice a week and then clinical twice a week- sticking with that schedule the whole semester. but here at Auckland Uni (they call college "uni" here) we have "theory," which is more classroom/ lab based, for the first 4 weeks, followed by a 6 week clinical placement. Then I'll have a 3 week spring break to travel the south island (i can't wait!!) followed by 2 weeks of theory and another 4 week clinical placement. Then exams of course. So I am in my first week of theory and the people here are super friendly and welcoming! I guess that is one of the great things about nursing school: it is pretty small class so they all notice I am new and are quick to introduce themselves and invite me to do things. Last night, one of my new nursing friends Rebecca picked me up and we went to her friend's house to hang out/ watch a movie. Turns out her friends were a group of three small groups based out of her church here. What an answer to prayers for me. I have been praying for community and a church to try. So that was a lot of fun last night. Also some other students told me to save Saturday night since they want to celebrate my birthday, how sweet! Some other nursing students were telling me about a half marathon they are going to be doing and invited me to join them... I've been wanting to do a half marathon... though not feeling in the best running shape so i have to decide soon if I want to sign up.  So I have LOTS of new names to learn, but I'm feeling very welcome which I'm grateful for!

Even though we have class this whole week, they let us exchange students go to the international orientation on Tuesday (the first of 4 days for international students), which was great so we could get a little more oriented with the city and what the uni has to offer international students. It's funny to me to be called the exchange student or the international one. Growing up with so many international students (my family often hosts students in our home), it is interesting to be on the other side. 

So courses (which they call "papers" here) have started for nursing, medical and pharmacy students, but the rest of the Uni is still on holiday. So my dorm has been doing a two day marathon of disney movies... they began this morning at 9am and will continue through tomorrow midnight or whenever they finish their list of twenty-some Disney movies so I think I'm going to go join them for Hercules! But first, here are some photos from the orientation for international students day, which included a free tour of the city (which is what the pics at the top of this post are from too)...

Locals performing the Maori haka for the international student orientation.

More haka

A girl doing a base jump off the sky tower (the tallest structure in Auckland as you can see in many pictures)

Here she is again... on our tour we played a HEADS or TAILS game and the winner got to jump off. Jealous. She fell at something like 84 km/h. This they consider the "baby step to bungy jumping." yikes.

The next stop on our tour: Mt Eden. AKA: an old volcano. The tallest non man made point in Auckland. Beautiful views of the city from here- but it was REALLY windy!

You can actually see the crater of Mt Eden in the above pic. This sign explains how they consider caters here sacred and therefore we are not allowed in. Only for Maori ceremonies do people enter the crater.

 

 

 

 

 

Kia Ora

a sign from the Auckland museum

 Today was day 1 of Maori Health week. Maori are the native people of New Zealand.  There are major health disparities between Maori and non Maori people here which is why Maori Health week is mandatory for all second year nursing, medicine, and pharmacy students.  First this morning we (the nursing exchange students) met with the head of nursing here, Heather Baker, and she gave us our "time tables," or schedules. There are 5 nursing exchange students here: Melanie and I from the States (both UVA) and 3 Norwegian girls. Heather is very sweet, she showed us around the hospital and then walked us the Maori health week event. She hooked us up with some nursing students to be with all day. Maria and Lucy were my buddies today.  

 

Lucy on the left and Maria on the right

It was an interesting day! We mostly had lectures but we also got to go to a powhiri which was a ceremony of respect. We had to take our shoes off and leave all bags outside to come in to the building (you can see the outside of it below). But the inside was really gorgeous with detailed decorations on the wall.

So classes have begun. Summer break is officially over for me. However, I won't be finishing Maori Health week because tomorrow is International Student Orientation day, which includes a tour of the city. And the rest of the week I have clinical simulation where I get to do fun stuff like drug calcs, IV infusion pumps, tracheostomy care, chest drains, etc. Well it's about time for dinner now (my dorm eats together three meals a day), but first I want to show you a few pictures from yesterday when Melanie, Zazie and I explored Queen Street and went down to the Harbor.

At the Viaduct Harbor. Auckland is the "city of sails"

Zazie (from Norway), me, Melanie (UVA)

Dad's company leases buildings here too! Jones Lang LaSalle represent! Dad, can't you come visit and call it a business trip?? I have seen lots of these signs around.

Bought a local pop here called L&P to try and stay awake! I get so tired so early. Need to get over this jet lag!

Winter Garden, at the Auckland Domain

I hope all is well back at home and I miss you all! Please keep me posted on what's going on in your lives (see my address and email address in the right hand column at the top of the page). More later!

Where did Friday go?

Somewhere between San Francisco and Auckland, I lost Friday. After realizing my first flight from Chicago to San Francisco was delayed over 3 hours, I flew standby on another flight to San Francisco so I would have time to make my connection to Auckland. Of course flying standby means you do not get your choice of seat. So I ended up in the third to last row in a middle seat. Thankfully, I had great neighbors and we got along great. My biggest fear was my bags weren't going to make the connection since they were still on the first flight.  Saying a prayer and goodbye to my family on the phone, I boarded Air New Zealand flight #7 to Auckland. It was a 12.5 hour flight and I was not sure how I would do for that long. I read for a bit until dinner was served, watched a movie, fell asleep until I was awoken for breakfast 2.5 hours before we landed, watched another movie and we were on the ground in Auckland. It was 9:45pm on Thursday in San Francisco when I left and it was 5:40 am on Saturday in Auckland when I landed. aka NO FRIDAY. oh well, I'm here and I couldn't be more excited.

New Zealand- Auckland is on the North Island at the skinny part

Unfortunately it was still dark when I landed so I couldn't see much of the beauty I expected to see flying in, but one thing I did see was headlights driving on the left side of the road. Yep, no longer in the States. It was kind of scary being on the roads just because I am not used to it. I just hope I get used to it soon cuz I need to look to the right more than the left when crossing the streets these days to avoid being hit.

Today I got a chance to walk around Auckland a bit with Melanie, my roommate here and the other nursing student from UVA here. We explored The Domain (a big park nearby) which hosts the Auckland Museum. It was a really cool, huge museum- very interactive and interesting- where I learned a lot about he Mauri people. I learned there are three types of kiwis: the fruit, the bird, and the people here. The fruit was actually named after the bird. Do you see the resemblance??

The Kiwi- only found in New Zealand

Well it is 10pm now and I have worked hard to stay awake all day (literally since 5am) and now its time to sleep. Did I mention it is winter here and the sun set way too early (like by 6pm during dinner)? Well, I was bummed about the sun setting early but it's actually not to cold. Today it was about 60 degrees F, or should I say 17 degress C. One more day before classes begin.