February 28, 2010

First off, I just want to recognize how terrible it was to hear about the earthquake in Chile. An 8.8 magnitude. The largest ever recorded was a 9.5 magnitude. It kills me to hear about things like that. I have a friend who is studying in Chile (Hixon, to all you UVMers). I found out he was ok via facebook, thank God.

I received a phone call at 3:30 in the morning from my dad yesterday morning (or I guess it was this morning), and I knew something was wrong. Tsunami warnings were in place for New Zealand, especially the east coast where Khali is from, and Hawaii as of last night, but I was glad to hear that nothing too destructive or powerful ever amounted.

But on a lighter note, the weather here has been wonderful! Pretty much every day this entire past week has been sunny. Of course the burn time around here is something like 9 minutes considering how the ozone layer is more or less a gaping hole above New Zealand.

Yesterday we organized a game of ultimate frisbee on campus. It was really casual, but a lot of fun. However, there tended to be little prickers in the grass, and we were all barefoot (as I mentioned before, everyone goes around barefoot). Somehow I tended to be drawn to them, so it was pretty uncomfortable when you stepped on them, but then you get over it pretty quick.

After frisbee a bunch of us got together at the common area around our flats and had a BBQ. We had burgers, pasta salad, chips and dip, corn, fruit salad, and ice cream. We also had Heinz Ketchup! Now this may seem a strange thing to be overly excited about, but it turns out that the Kiwis use this ketchup-like stuff that is actually tomato paste. I'm not even too sure how to describe the taste. Maybe sweeter than what we are used too? Nonetheless, it definitely does not compare to good old Heinz Ketchup!

Following the BBQ we ventured down to the Square where they had some live music. It was an outside venue set up right in the middle of town. Everyone was dancing and just having fun. I always enjoy live music. We heard some more live music later at a local bar, Murphy's Law. They played awesome music. You know those songs that you can never resist singing along to? That is what they played all night long! I loved it.

Other than yesterday the rest of my week has been pretty low key, just hanging out, staying on top of my work and what not. But this weekend I am headed to Taupo! It is supposed to be beautiful, situated right on Lake Taupo with all kinds of outdoors, adventurous, and cultural activities. I am excited to see what we end up doing!

So anyway, not too much else has been going on. I do miss the snow at home. I have always had a weak spot for winter, so that is a little disappointing, hearing about all the snow, but I of course would never dream of trading places!

peace.