Doing our part...

Alright ladies and gents, this is a special edition blog post!  I'll try and bring you up to speed on what's been going on with my Kiwi-life...but I would also like to take a moment to ask for your support and generosity...read on to find out what for :)

The last time we spoke, I was saying farewell to some friends that had come to visit.  Caresse and Kyle both told me that they had a great time in Dunedin...so I am going to rest on my hosting laurels a little bit.  What they don't know is that it was definitely just as much fun for me as I think it was for them...so...shhh.  But since their departure I've really had to crack down on my school studies.  Actually, it just occurred to me that some of you may not have a clue as to what I am studying down here...let me take a crack at spreadin' some info.

One of the major parts of the Rotary scholarship  is that you have to be enrolled full-time at a university.  You develop an idea of what you would like to study, research schools around the world that have an appropriate program, and then present all that to the interview board.  At the end of the day, they've hopefully decided that you're a competent human being with a penchant for service and scholarly endeavors.  I'd found a few programs in New Zealand and ended up at the University of Otago studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health.  What a blessing this turned out to be.  In short, I love my program, my professors, and the academic experience that I am having.  Seeing as there were no other interested parties, I took on the role of Postgraduate Representative for our program and I've been able to make some more personal contact with my professors in this role.

Don't know if ya heard, but I go to Hogwarts!

I am currently taking two courses: Epidemiology/Biostatistics and Health Systems.  The first class is all about introducing you to the field of public health and gives you a solid background in critical analysis of research papers and research study design.  The latter class is all about how healthcare is purchased, financed, and provided and is set in a very international context.  We've compared health systems all over the world and I am more than excited to bring what I've learned back home to try and improve our own situation.  Next semester I'll be taking courses and Public Health Policy as well as Health and the Environment!

Adams Building: My scholarly pursuit continues here!

First semester is drawing to a close...and FAST!  We've got just one week of class left and the scramble is beginning already!  I've got one more assignment due for my health systems class and my final for the Epi/Stats class is on June 14th.  Crunch time!  The good new?  I am leaving for an Aussie adventure almost immediately after taking my final :)  Feel free to send me some well wishes, lol.

So that's where I stand!  I am finishing up some work and trying to keep my head afloat in a sea of academic rigor.  I must say, Centre definitely prepared me well for life after Danville...many thanks to all of the folks back home who supported me along the way...which brings me to my next topic...asking for more support!

Told ya...straight Hogwarts

As part of our scholarship, we are encouraged to develop a service project in our host country.  As you may remember from reading my previous posts, all the NZ scholars were able to meet up in Wellington for a conference of sorts.  During this conference we decided that we wanted to try and ride bikes for the whole length of New Zealand with the idea of raising money along the way.  For a variety of reasons...this just isn't going to work.  HOWEVER...we've come to a great alternative.  We are partnering with an organization that sponsors medical research for childre: Cure Kids.  What a fantastic organization.  In short, they raise money in a variety of ways and have lots of community sponsors and partners and have been able to make some really great contributions to leukemia, birth malformations, cystic fibrosis, "hole in hearts" children.  Not only do their funds go towards research in New Zealand, but Cure Kids raises money for research that is going on in both the United States and Australia.  One of their events, the Accor Hotels $10 Queenstown Challenge, is a great way to raise money and is what our class of scholars has taken as our banner project.  What is this you might ask?  CONTINUE READING!!

What an awesome group of scholars!

Essentially, teams of two have just 3 days to get from Queenstown to Auckland on just $10 with the event taking place from Aug. 16-Aug. 19!  Think of this as a kiwi Amazing Race...and yours truly is participating!  I've formed a team with a fellow scholar, Caresse Bucchan, and we are keen to get our fundraising legs running!  We've set a goal of $8,000 NZD (about  $6,500 USD) and we are going to need some help getting there as we've got to have all the money in by August 12th!  I've listed some ways you can help...so check 'em out!

1.  You can DONATE!  We've set up a fundraising page where you can view our cute faces, read some blog posts as we post them, read about the challenge and contribute any amount of money you can spare for a wonderful, truly good cause...the health of children everywhere.  Here is the website:
Support Cure Kids: Chase and Caresse!

2.  You can SPREAD THE WORD to people or businesses that you think may be able to donate!  We recognize that times are tough, but anything "publicity" you can help us with would be much appreciated!  Maybe start a coin bank in your office?  Perhaps you know a business that would love to donate?  Get creative!

3.  You can send WORDS OF SUPPORT!  While we love dollars and cents, we also love encouragement.  The challenge is difficult and we're going to need some major morale boosters as we head closer and closer to August!  Feel free to e-mail me at cmwarner88@gmail.com with your support!

Well, that is about it folks.  Thank for reading and I hope that you all are well.  Remember, no amount is too small to donate and we'd love to reach our goal...and perhaps go beyond!  A new post to come soon regarding the end of my first semester, heading to Oz, and shout outs to people from home!

Cheers!
Chase

Mates and Remembrance: A Blog Mixed Bag

First things first, I have a confession to make…the two subjects of this blog, hinted at in the title, are seemingly discordant and potentially have absolutely nothing to do with each other, in even the most creative of ways.  However, perhaps some form of literary trickery can deceive whatever audience is out there reading this full-of-grammatical-errors, infrequently-updated blog.  Enjoy J

Easter has come quickly and since it’s the fall over here, it was about time for a nice break from school!  My plans were pretty simple but I enjoyed them and that is what counts!  Claire and Barry were awesome and invited me to come stay with them for a little while so that I could get away from the city for a bit.  Needless to say, I was pumped.  Not only did I get to help them with heaps of stuff outside, but I got to be in on helping with Barry’s surprise birthday party!  Claire is extraordinary…somehow she was able to get three of Barry’s five sons to show up at the house without Barry noticing…while he was there!  The whole thing was a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting to talk about some Greek mythology with one of Barry’s grandson.  The kid is wicked smart!

Barry's surprise!

Before the birthday, however, I was able to do some really special things in honor of the soldiers who fought in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).  Barry and I woke up early and headed out the door at 6AM to catch the dawn service in the city.  There were hundreds of people and the cool part was that everyone was just…silent.  Everyone watched in awe as the choirs sang, as the speakers gave their words, and as the soldiers stood at attention.  Cannons fire ensued, rifles pelted the air with sound…it was all really cool.  After this dawn service, Barry dropped me off at a cemetery.  Sounds a little strange, but keep in mind that it was ANZAC day!  I was actually there to help Claire and some people from Rotaract with a project.  We were in charge of setting out the flowers that would be used at a second memorial service.  The work was easy and we were able to catch a quick coffee at a really cool café by St. Clair beach.  The second service was also really spectacular and I felt really good about being there.  Just felt like there was no other place to be at that moment.  Anyways, I took heaps of photos…go on to my Facebook and check them out if you’d like!

Some ANZAC soldiers

More ANZAC day!

One of the most popular requests that I’ve been getting from all you peeps back in the states is for me to talk about my flat a little bit more.  I am living just two blocks down from the heart of the city, so I am right in the middle of downtown…which is really cool!  I live with three Kiwi guys, each one from a different part of the North Island.  I met James and Gerard when I came to look at the flat.  James comes from up around Tauranga and is a medical student here at Otago.  He is one of the funniest guys that I’ve met and it’s really good to have him as a flatmate.  Gerard is from Wellington and is studying Plant Biotechnology (read: impressive).  He was actually the flatmate who introduced me to a little bit of some Kiwi stylings, skinny jeans and v-necks, and he is a pretty suave lad.  Josh is from Whangarei and is also a medical student but is doing an honors year before he heads to Wellington to complete his studies next year.  He is one of the easiest guys to get along with and watching him and James go for the occasional wrestle…crack up.  All in all, things are great here on Dowling Street.  I get along really well with each of the flat mates separately, but we also have a pretty cool scene when we are all together as well.  Know that they are most likely reading this and “lol-ing”…I would expect nothing less!

Also, just wanted to let you guys in on the awesome past few days I’ve just had.  When I was up in Wellington for the Rotary Conference, I met this really cool scholar named Caresse.  Caresse is a scholar from Dallas, but she is originally from Trinidad and Tobago and moved to the States when she was 15.  To make a long story short, she and her friend Kyle (a scholar from Texas as well) decided to do a quick tour of Dunedin over Easter break and I was more than happy to play the role of host and entertainer.  Claire graciously offered to pick them up from the airport and they arrived this past Tuesday.  Our first night was pretty relaxed, though we did opt to see a fair bit of the Dunedin “night scene” later on in the evening.  Ellen came as well!  The night was a success and the tour of Dunedin started off right!  The next day was our “Peninsula Day”.  What an amazing day!  The cool thing about having guests here is that I had an excuse to do all the “touristy” Dunedin things that I’d yet to find time for!  We headed out to the albatross colony…these birds are HUGE!  After having a coffee and a quick snack…we headed for the main event…Penguin Place!  Dunedin is home to a pretty rare penguin, the yellow-eyed penguin, and we were determined to see the little waddlers.  We paid for the tour and set out on our journey.  AMAZING.  The little guys were just coming in from a long day of fishing and we were less than 50 feet from them.  Of course, we were in little “dugouts” or “hides” so that we wouldn’t be too intimidating to the penguins.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we saw SEA LIONS and SEALS as well!  At the same place with the penguins!  2 for 1 deal…bargain shopper like my mama I guess?  The sun was setting and our tour drew to a close…but it was such an awesome experience…of which there are plenty of photos to see on my FB page.  We ended the night having dinner with Claire and Barry out in Macandrew Bay…great way to catch up and share some laughs!  Our next day, Thursday, was actually pretty chill…and was much needed.  We just kind of poked around the university, took some pictures, and laid around on the grass by the Clocktower.  Opting for another relaxed night, we headed out to the Northeast Valley to do some cooking with Ellen and to hang out with her flat a bit as well.  Grabbed dinner at an Indian restaurant, had some tea at Ellen’s, and headed back to Dowling St. for the night.  Their final day came much the same way as their first…with a little bit of “spirit”.  Of course this means that we did an awesome brewery tour at the Speight’s Brewery where we could sample any of the available beers for 30 minutes.  Have to say that I’ve become a fan of the Pilsener.  Just before they left, we had an early dinner at the Speight’s Ale House.  My treat to anyone who decides to visit…dinner at Speight’s Ale House…it was DELICIOUS.  Sent Caresse and Kyle off to the airport in the shuttle, headed to the Blues v. Highlanders game, and rounded out the evening with a  little Royal Wedding watching with the Dowling St. crew (+Tristan, Andrew, and Marty).  What a good week!

Some cool Rotary Scholars!

My amazing host counselor, Claire :)

Dramatic chipmunk?  Dramatic penguin!  Boom!

That about covers it since my last post, really sorry that I’ve not been better about keeping up with the blog.  Classes are going well but having to write lots of papers makes me less likely to write a blog when I have deadlines looming.  I do, however, really enjoy updating and keeping track of what’s been going on…hopefully you guys get a kick out of me being slightly awkward and goofy in Kiwi-land!  Look more for to come…after I turn in my papers, of course J

Jay's visit, thrill-seekin, and new beginnings

Well, folks, I've just had my first visitor and I have to say that it's definitely my best time in New Zealand as of late.

One of my best friends from Centre, Jay Russell, decided to make a "pit-stop" down under in Kiwi-land on his way back to the states.  He'd been in China, teaching English, since July and decided that the land of the long white cloud wouldn't make such a bad place to take a breather as he re-inserted himself to a life with English-speakers.  To be honest, I felt a little bad about the first week of his visit.  We had planned all these crazy things, the least of which would include a 5-day glacier hike on the Franz Josef or Fox glacier.  However, an unforeseen paper deadline kept me in the library for the better part of 4 days while Jay was here.  I am a lame friend, let's get past that though.  Jay really got along well with my flatmates and was understanding about my academic trials, which is why he is my best friend.  We did, however, get to hang out in a more social scene at some of the clubs around Dunedin and I think he had a pretty decent time.

Mr. Russell and myself

Once I had made some headway with my assignments, Jay and I sat down to plan out exactly what our next adventure would be...this entailed getting out of Dunedin for a bit to do a little bit of exploring.  We decided that the glacier hike may not be the best thing to try and plan last minute, so we opted for a two day bike ride, ending with some thrill-seeking in Queenstown.  The bike trail we followed, the Otago Central Rail Trail, is a popular destination for people looking to get out of the cities and we certainly met this criterion.  The whole ride is about 160 km (100 miles) and would usually take about four days at a non-grueling pace.  Since Jay had to leave for the States in four days, we decided that a two day ride would be enough...didn't want to overdo it, ya know.  Channeling our best memories of Nate Crimmins, our friend who biked across the United States in one summer, we rented some bikes, mounted our steeds, and set out for the great expanse that is Central Otago.  Our journey started in Ranfurly and would end in Clyde, from which we would catch a bus to Queenstown.  We did about 50 km on our first day, stopping in off in Lauder to bunker down at a friend's B&B (Muddy Creek Cutting).  After a serious case of "biker butt", we were ready to get some rest.  This place was amazing.  The whole operation is impeccably managed by two guys, Kevin and Ross, and we had a great time.  Let's not forget the gourmet meal of roasted duck stew and mashed potatoes with a roasted and raw vegetable salad.  Yea, that happened...did I mention that the duck we ate was raised on the farm we were at...quack.  For dessert, we had locally grown apricots and fresh-made cream.  Jealously is expected, don't worry.

Hard.

After a restful night's sleep, we set out from Lauder to finish the rest of our trail.  The first day of riding was pretty winding, causing plenty of choice words to be leveled against the nor'easter threatening some serious man-pride.  In contrast, the second day was pretty much all downhill and without our cheeky foe (read: wind).  We stopped off in Alexandra for a bit, the town where my host dad Barry grew up, and did some pretty cool stuff!  We stopped off for a little education at the local visitor center, learning a lot about Central Otago's gold-mining past.  We also hiked up to a clock set up in the hills of Alex.  Check on facebook for some pictures of this adventure.  We set out from Alex around 5:30pm and got to Clyde around 6:00pm, after following an amazing trail along the Clutha River.  This last leg of the trail was definitely the best part and it was filled with plenty of hills and dips, enough to quench Jay's cycle-thrillseeking and more than adequate for my own more lesiurely, sight-seeing pace.  We caught out bus and headed to Queenstown!

A view from the trail: Invasion of the Clouds!

After our first night in Queenstown, restless as it was, we spent our only full day seeking some more adventure.  We accomplished various feats of man and ended up quite pleased with ourselves.  Queenstown was its typical, welcoming self and we met up with some people we had met earlier on in the day...our Danish friends.  We had a great night, filled with really fattening desserts, and headed home the next day...or so we thought...We boarded our bus bound for Dunedin around 9am on Sunday, April 3rd.  Having spent most of our energy on biking and other adventures, we immediately passed out.  We woke up about 2 hours later to our bus driver asking if we had accommodation for the evening.  Thinking nothing of it, I responded "Of course, we live in Dunedin!". The bus driver's response?  "Dunedin...we are in Wanaka!  This bus isn't going to Dunedin!".  Oops.  Turns out we were supposed to have deboarded our bus in Cromwell to get on the bus that would head for Dunedin.  Ha, we're idiots.  A little depressed, we stepped off the bus and headed straight for the Wanaka visitor center to see if we could find another bus.  Success!  Another bus would leave from Wanaka in 5 hours and we got the last two seats.  Must have been fate because Wanaka was gorgeous and definitely inspired me to make it back during my future journeys in NZ.  Check Wanaka out on Google, not a bad place to end up, eh?

440ft? That's a long way down...

We made it back to Dunedin and watched the UK-UCONN game that we had one of my flatmates record.  The game ended poorly for two UK fans, but the night was not without its high points.  The friend I mentioned earlier, Nate, had also put me in contact with one of his friends who also happened to be studying at Otago, Ellen.  Ellen has quickly become a good friend and she only climbed higher in my books this night.  She was coming over to say good-bye to Jay and watch the game with us (she went to Butler)...or was she?  When I went to let her in the apartment, she was standing there with two of her flatmates and a birthday cake, brightly lit with candles and looking remarkably chocolatey.  The cake was amazing, the company was better, and the night was a net positive.  I love New Zealand.

Lovin' New Zealand, folks

To bring this edition to a close, I dropped Jay off at the airport the next morning and this also happened to be my first experience driving in New Zealand.  My flatmate courageously let me borrow his car and I made it to the airport and back with no damage to either myself or the car.  Yea, appreciate my skills of driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car :)  It was sad to see Jay go, but I was just grateful that he had come in the first place.  To those of you who are thinking about coming...please do!  I really enjoy showing this place off and sharing it with my friends and family.

Well, that's about it for this issue.  Check my facebook for pictures of Jay's Visit!

Windy Wellington and Rotary Connections!

So, keeping up with a blog is a hard thing to do...especially when getting internet in your apartment is more of a saga than a simple housekeeping item.  More on that to come, potentially.

The last time we talked, I had just settled into my flat with some great flatmates.  The same remains true today.  It's been about a month since I moved in and things have only gotten better.  The guys are hilarious and they are definitely making this experience an even better one...not that it could have been bad to begin with.  Since my last post, there have been some cool things happening!  I'm well under way with my assignments for both of my classes and I am sure that some of you reading this are probably tired of me asking you to review my paper!  They definitely don't coddle you in graduate level courses...no Centre-style paper conferences, that's for sure.  I am adapting to it, however, and I -think- that this first paper will be a decent one.  Maybe not A+ material...but I can live with a little less...a -little- less.

I've now been to Wellington!  All of the Rotary Scholars in New Zealand met for a weekend of training and goal-setting in Wellington a few weeks ago and it was a great time!  We got to meet other Rotarians, socialize with fellow scholars, and had a wonderful time in sunny Wellington weather.  Wellington is a great, albeit windy, place to be and I would highly recommend it to anyone coming to New Zealand.  Part of what we did at this conference, aside from some great socializing, was set the goal for our group project.  Let me break it down for you: we are biking the entire length of New Zealand to raise money for childhood disease research and are involving youth in various cities all along the way.  HOW COOL!?  More to come on this, we are still working out all the details!


On another note, I've started giving my speeches for the Rotary Clubs in and around Dunedin.  Try talking about yourself for 20 minutes to a room full of people...it's actually kind of hard.  Nevertheless, got to share some stories about my family and friends and made a few personal plugs with "things I like to do"...you know...just in case some Rotarians want to give me some good direction on how to go about it...or when they might be going skiing, or ATVing, etc. :)  I've made two presentations thus far, one to Dunedin South (my host club) and the other to the St. Kilda Sunrise Club.  Sunrise...yes.  For Dunedin South the meeting was around lunchtime and things were all good.  For the "Sunrise" club, however, I had to be at the venue at 7am...which called for a 6am wake up call on my part...EXHAUSTING.  However, both clubs were full of great people and I am thankful that they are willing to let me come and talk about myself for quite a long time...proof that Rotarians are, indeed, the nicest people on the face of the planet.

Some other cools things have happened and they are veterinary related, which is a plus!  I met with Dr. John Schofield, a Rotarian, this past Friday and the Animal Welfare Office.  He is the Director of the department and assists in protocols for ethical treatment of animals, assists in developing research models, and a whole host of other things.  Well, I was only expecting a "chat" as that is what we agreed to in our e-mail correspondence.  Oops.  I showed up in jeans and flip-flops, which are chat appropriate in New Zealand.  Upon getting there, however, I was informed that "$h1T had hit the fan!".  Instead of asking me to reschedule, however, John let me follow around and assist!  We first set off to conduct a rat necropsy.  To make a long story short, the rat had died in the course of an experiment and John was trying to find out why.  It was pretty cool to see him go through all the physiology of the rat to try and determine a cause of death.  I've seen some cat and dog necropsies at Heartland, but this was a new animal for the count!  The next stage of our journey, however, was a little more intense.  John was helping a researcher with a certain "technique" and he invited me to come along.  This "technique" involved using a saw to open up the skull of both a sheep and a red deer (the researcher needed the brains).  Yea...intense.  I was the guy opening the deer skull...hard work for sure.

Just to wrap up some veterinary experience, Dr. Colin Mackintosh, another Rotarian, invited me to come out to a research farm where he works.  The research facility is located near Dunedin and is called Invermay.  What an interesting field of work!  He is involved with looking at why certain deer lineages are more/less susceptible to paratuberculosis than others.  This guy is one smart cookie, he has developed like 3 vaccines...and is asked to speak all over the world.  In addition to hearing about his research, I got to watch how they artificially inseminate deer.  Let's just say that some deer were happier than others...

All in all, I cannot begin to describe the generosity I am feeling down here from the Rotarians.  They are a fantastic network of people and I am really grateful that I ended up in the Ambassadorial Scholar program.  I am convinced that there is no other program in the world that can provide the network, the support, and the resources that Rotary is able to provide.  Service above self is their motto and I am certainly able to see that in action.

Flat-finding, mate-meeting, and culture-creeping…

I want to start off with a quick back-story for those of you in NZ who may be a little unfamiliar with my home base.  I went to a very small college in a small town in the relatively small state of Kentucky, population 4,314,113 (as of July 2009).  Centre College is a school of about 1,200 undergrads in Danville, a town of about 14,000.  For those of you back home who may not know too much about NZ, I currently go to the University of Otago.  Otago is a university of about 19,000 undergrads in Dunedin, a city of about 120,000.  New Zealand itself has a population of about 3,000,000.  So…I am currently in a country with a population that is about 10% of America’s population, about 25% smaller than my home state, in a city whose population is about half of my hometown (Lexington, KY), and at a university that is about 16 times the size of my undergrad institution.  Did I mention that a lot of what I am studying in public health is related to populations and statistics? J

I mention these numbers only to give a frame of reference for my mindset at the beginning of trying to find a flat with great flatmates (aka an apartment with good roommates).  At Centre, I would say that about 95% of students live on-campus in college-owned/operated housing.  Additionally, most of the students on campus eat in one central dining facility.  At Otago, however, the residence halls that we are familiar with back in the States are usually only filled with freshers (aka first-years, aka freshmen).  The facilities are called “colleges”.  Some of my friends here in Dunedin tell me that there is essentially no difference between these colleges and that they do have inter-college competitions…so just like Harry Potter in my mind, right?  Eh, not quite…but closer that what we’ve got back home!  After spending your first year in one of the colleges, you will usually go out on your own and look for your own flat/flatmates!  Seeing as I was an older student, and a postgrad no less, I was determined to find my own flat…part of the true Dunedin experience.

The Thursday after my arrival in NZ, February 17th, I went in to town with Claire to spend a day at Uni.  The goal was to get myself sorted with the International office and to check in on some flats.  After doing a little bit of hunting for flats that were listed with the University’s Accommodation Office, I decided to head over to a “Speed Flatting” event.  The idea?  Get to know the person across from you in appx. 2 minutes and decide whether or not you think you could live with them.  You could then either offer to join up in finding a place with them or, if they already had a place, beg them to let you join their flat.  Cool idea!  I met some people that I would have been fine to live with as well as some people that I don’t think should live with anyone else…at all…in any setting.  Anyways, met this cool Kiwi dude who had a place of his own up on Maori Hill and after the session he drove me up to look at the place.  What a sight!  It was in a great neighborhood and the place was amazing!  It even had an awesome backyard!  I told him that I’d love to live with him and that I was just starting my search but that it’d be great if he could keep me informed of the status of the flat.  He seemed keen, so we drove back into town and he dropped me off at Uni.  I spent a little more time around Uni, just finding my way around before Claire and I headed home.  To make a long story short, I eventually found out from the guy that two women had told him they were wanting to flat at the place and that he said they could take the place.  I can’t blame him, he had two rooms for rent and he had 2 women in front of him saying they’d take it on the spot.  Good on him!  Can’t lie though, I was a little bummed…the place was really great.

Fast forward a few days, past the Relay for Life, and I was back in the hunt!  Having had a little bit of “neighborhood background” provided by my fantastic host family, Claire and Barry, I set out on my own for a day filled with random encounters with strangers to see if they would let me move in and spend a year with ‘em.  The whole thing sounded pretty strange to me, but like I said…I was determined!  My first “appointment” was in the Northeast Valley at 9AM on Pentland St.  I arrived quite early, so naturally I waited around outside and out-of-view like a true awkward, international student.  When I felt it was no longer “too early” to arrive, around 8:55AM, I knocked on my door with my cool sunglasses on and both hands on my backpack in case I needed to use it as a weapon.  A rather nice young guy answered the door and ushered me in to have a look at the place!  To make a long story short, it was pretty decent and was definitely a good way to start out the day!  The only real drawbacks were that it would probably be about a 25 minute walk to the University every day and that one of the roommates wasn’t there for me to do a quick “creeper eval”.  I left, politely, and told the guy that I would get back to him by the end of the day and that I had a few more places left to check out for the day.

My next viewing was at 1PM in Opoho.  Opoho is pretty close to the Northeast Valley, but I decided to go back to Uni for a bit to check out and see if there were some more flats around town that I hadn’t seen on “trademe.co.nz” (aka Kiwi e-Bay and/or Craigslist).  I found two places that I wanted to check out and I e-mailed each of the contacts for the two flats, expressing my interest as a “fit, 22 year old, blue-eyed, American with nice calf muscles and a rather cute smile”.  Kidding!  I did e-mail them though, hoping to hear back as to whether their flat was still available or not.  Running out of time until my next appointment, I set off back uptown to see what the next place had in store.  To make a long story short, after walking up a long, steep hill…I got to the flat and was just really let down.  You know that feeling when you know that you won’t get along with someone on a pretty fundamental level?  Yea, well, that was the feeling that I got when I met the guys in this flat.  They weren’t bad people or anything, just not people that I could enjoy living with for the next few years.  I had neglected to see that they listed “video game skills” as a “ideal flatmate trait”.  Oops.  I gave them the same spiel that I gave the first guy and told them that I had a few more places to look at and that I would get back to them at the end of the day.  Only, this time, it was a half-lie.  I didn’t really have any more scheduled appointments, but I did plan on e-mailing them! 

At this point, I was a feeling a little defeated.  I had just looked at two flats and just wasn’t getting a feeling that either of them could work.  The first one was definitely a possibility, but I just wasn’t sure about the walk every day.  Also, I am looking to really get involved with Kiwi culture and the mood up in the Valley is pretty subdued.  Nevertheless, I set off back to Uni to check my e-mail in hopes of getting a response from the people I had contacted earlier in the day.  On the way there, however, I saw that people were going in and out of a flat and that they didn’t appear to live there.  I decided, “What the heck?  I’ll just pretend like I was someone who got in touch with them earlier to see if I could check out the flat and we’ll be all good!”  I did just that!  The flat was right on George St., the main road in Dunedin, and was in a block of good-looking townhomes.  The walk was right, the outward look was right, now…how about the inside and how about the people?  Well, the guy I talked to was dressed up to show the flat…weird vibe #1.  Weird vibe #2?  The place smelled like a dead cat had been resurrected and was walking around, stretching out the rigor.  Add a “not so nice” interior to my two, potentially misguided, weird vibes…and this place just wasn’t going to work, either.  ::Sigh::  I continued my voyage back to Uni, praying for e-mail responses for the duration of my journey.

When I finally found an available computer unit in the library, I raced to my inbox.  What a lovely sight: Inbox (1)!  OK, so I obviously didn’t get a response from both…but one good flat with a few good flatmates is all it would take!  I clicked on the e-mail and got that feeling when you’ve just opened up bad news, but you keep searching the e-mail for good news in hopes that your eyes are just playing tricks on you.  No such luck, all I got was a “soz mate, flat az jus been takn. Cheerz.”  How impersonal!? Couldn’t this person tell that I was a really suave, easy-going guy who is just looking for some good people?  Didn’t they know that they were leaving me with approximately ZERO options?  What a depressing moment that was!

Right when I was just about to feel overly sorry for myself, I received one more e-mail!  The flat was still available and I could come have at 6PM!   Details: “In the CBD (Central Business District), 10 min. walk to Uni, 3 reliable and mature guys”.  Sounded fine to me!  I had told Claire that I would meet her back at her office around 5PM and it was about 4:45PM at present, so I headed over to the Commerce building to see if she could take me to the flat on our way back to Macandrew.  Being as awesome as she is, she said it would be “no problem!”   We arrived at the flat around 6PM and the flat mates were at the bottom of the apartment complex, waiting to take me up and show me around.  In short, I am pretty sure that I came across pretty weird in our first meeting because I was just so happy to find a place where they guys were people I could see myself being friends with in a place that wasn’t a haven for previously dead animals.  While that is all fine and dandy, I may have come across a bit “goofy”.  All the same, the place was at the top of the apartment complex and was a 2-story apartment with a really good “student vibe”.  It was spacious, well-lit, got good sun during the daytime (important for the winter months as Central Heating/Air is a luxury scarce to be seen here in Dunedin), and, again, the people seemed really great.  Having learned my lesson with the Maori Hill place, I told them that I would take it and could start paying rent immediately.  They said they’d already shown the place to some other people and told them that they’d have first choice.  I told them I’d have no problem getting in a bidding war and they said they would definitely be “in touch”.  I thought for sure I had done myself in and that I had just come across as a VIP member “nerd herd” member.  I said thanks and headed back down the stairs and Claire and I set off back for Macandrew, fully expecting another let-down. 

Well, I must have done something right because the guys told the other people the place was taken and then informed me that the place was mine if I wanted it.  They weren’t even going to take advantage of my eagerness and ask me to pay more than the asking price!  RELIEF!  After a long-day of flathunting and some awkward situations, because I am, at times, an awkward individual,  I had found a flat!  What’s more is that I’d found a flat with GREAT people.  Seriously, I’ve been with the guys for a little over a week now and I like each of them individually and I like the group as a whole.  They are hilarious, remind me of friends back home, and are all Kiwis.  Not only will I have some mates that can fill me in on the culture, but I’ll get to spend some time with people who I genuinely respect and get along with.  At the end of it all, I am really glad that I found my own flat and got it on my own merit.  More to come on living with 3 Kiwi guys, starting classes, and eating deep-friend chocolate in blogs entries yet to come…I promise!

So much to talk about...

So right, I’ve been a slacker.  I never intended to write a full post every day, but I did intend to update after the major happenings.  Well, there have been about 35 “major happenings” and I am feeling overwhelmed as I sit down to right this post.  I’ll break it down into some headings and I’ll go from there…sound good?

Queenstown

My amazing host counselor, Claire, is one of the top dogs at the Business school and, as such, she has lots of meetings.  It turns out that she had a meeting in Queenstown the morning after I arrived.  Barring any jet lag, she said that she would be more than happy to bring me along!  Naturally, even if I had been jet lagged the next morning, I wouldn’t have ever turned down the offer.  We took the most amazing drive through Central Otago and saw some pretty amazing landscapes and lots of gold rush towns.  Let’s satisfy some history and geography buffs for just a second.  Geography people…Otago is a region in New Zealand and it’s essentially like saying “New England” or “Pacific Northwest” in the States.  It refers to a large area that contains lots of towns and cities and some breathtaking panoramas.  We drove across Central Otago towards the west coast on our way to Queenstown.  History people…there was a big gold rush and lots of little towns sprung up as a result of the influx of wealth and business endeavors.  Alright, back to the trip.  Once we arrived in Queenstown, Claire went to her meeting and I got to wonder around the town for a few hours!  Imagine the most pristine landscape you can imagine, complete with blue lakes and towering mountains.  Now, integrated into that landscape, picture a modern town with cool shops, bars, and cafes.  Oh yeah, add a beach area to your thoughts as well.  In a nutshell, you’ve got Queenstown.  I was blown away, again.  Everywhere I looked there was a mountain commanding my respect or another breathtaking view.  As it is New Zealand, there was a fair share of extreme sports as well, including sky swinging!  It’s worth saying that I was completely clueless about the giant hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand.  A byproduct of this is that you burn a lot quicker than you do in the states.  Hard lesson learned.  Despite my end-of-day rosy complexion, I had an excellent time in Queenstown and you all should check out some of the photos on my Facebook if you’d like to put some truth to your mental pictures (which are all splendid in their own rite, I am sure). 

We headed home after Claire’s second meeting of the day and ended up going through a town called “Arrowtown”.  Claire showed me around the town and explained some important Maori customs and symbology.  For those of you who are wondering, the Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and are still present today.  We stopped off in a jewelry store so that Claire could show me some “Pounamu”.  Pounamu is this brilliant green stone, aka jade, and holds a lot of spiritual power for the Maori people.  It’s important to note, however, that it is considered bad luck if you buy pounamu for yourself and it should only be purchased as a gift for someone else.  Claire also showed me some of the various Maori symbols, including the ‘koru’.  The ‘koru’ looks like a spiral and is meant to resemble an unfolding fern.  The koru symbolizes ‘new beginnings’…Mom…a tattoo may be on the horizon… J

The road we took home was different from the one we took that morning and I got to see some more amazing little towns.  We drove through a place called Middlemarch and it was awesome!  There are these giant rock formations that just jut up out of the ground and they are all over the place.  It was like a moonscape with grass…only much more beautiful.  I should note that this drive also took us up over 4000ft in the air…they still only call these hills though.  Ha.  In short, Queenstown was amazing and everyone should go there at least once in their life.

Relay for Life

My first weekend here was pretty fierce; I got to help out with the local Relay for Life.  Claire, of course, was one of the organizers and was gracious enough to let a jet-lagged, wide-eyed American join the volunteer team.  For those of you who haven’t heard of the Relay for Life, it is a 24-hour walk that takes place over the course of one day and supports cancer research.  Dunedin really turned out for this one with over 102 teams participating in the walk!  It was really neat to see so many different groups come with food, drinks, sleeping bags, etc…preparing for the long road ahead!  Some teams had a gimmick and others were there in plain clothes, just getting’ it done.  I had a few different jobs ranging from parking lot attendant to “vendor gate” operator…but I was mainly just glad to help in any possible way for such a major event.  Things got started with a “haka” from one of the local boy’s school…it was the first haka I’ve seen live since being in New Zealand and they didn’t disappoint!  Check out the link if you would like to see a haka!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y&feature=related

Following the haka, the day went off without a hitch and the weather was kept its distance.  We had some rain but nothing like the previous year, or so I was told.  Apparently they had to call the walk off 12 hours early last year due to unsafe conditions due to such heavy rains!  No such bad luck this year! 

One of my favorite parts of the walk, aside from just getting to see how happy people were to be together in supporting cancer research, was the ceremony that was held later that night.  Parts of the ceremony were recited in the Maori language and it was just amazing to see everyone together, some emotional and others just silent.  Following the ceremony, everyone took a lap together following a bag piper…very cool.  Something else that I forgot to mention is that earlier that day people purchased white bags and wrote the names of people they knew who had lost the fight to cancer, were surviving cancer, or for those we knew coping with cancer-ridden loved ones.  Inside the bags, LED candles were placed and illuminated.  So, imagine hundreds of bags lining the walking path of the Relay…that was the setting for the group lap.  Just seeing all the names on those bags was enough to make anyone emotional and I really started to love Dunedin at that moment.  So many people had come together to make the event a success and it was a great way to spend some of my first week in New Zealand.

Conclusion

I am in love with New Zealand.  Absolutely head over heels in the love with the people, culture, environment…just everything.  One part of it has to do with how awesome my host parents have been and the other part has to do with how my real parents raised me to appreciate the life I’ve been given and how my experiences with those in my life along the way have shaped me into who I am today.  Be on the lookout for a post about my experience looking for an apartment, aka flat, and moving out of Claire and Barry’s house.  Some good experiences to share with those!

The Tragedy of Christchurch

I'll start by first saying that everything down here in Dunedin is fine, thank you all for your thoughts.  I'll go on by asking you to please pray and/or send your thoughts to those people in Christchurch and their family and friends who are still waiting to know if their loved ones are alive.

This is so surreal.  I've spent the past week just marveling at the beauty of New Zealand's landscape and today one of it's largest towns gets rocked by an earthquake....only a matter of months after their last one.  There is a huge difference; no lives were lost in the September quake.  Prime Minister John Key has confirmed that at least 65 people have died and that over 200 are injured.  These numbers will go up.  The PM has also described this as one of New Zealand's "darkest days".  I've been so enamored with this place's beauty that I've neglected to even consider that tragedy can strike here just as well as it can anywhere else.  This is a truly sad day for New Zealand.

I was in a meeting at the bank trying to get my new account all set up when the quake hit.  I didn't feel a thing and didn't even know about the disaster until about 2:30PM.  I remember when I first saw the news of it, I didn't understand the magnitude of the damage and devastation.  I found out later that some people in Dunedin did feel the effects of the quake.  People in office buildings said they could feel their offices shaking and that they sought cover in the doorways.  Disaster was striking and I was completely oblivious, helpless, and wholly unaware of the wreckage.  Then I started getting texts, Facebook messages, and e-mails trying to make sure that I was OK.  How sobering.  I am miles away from Dunedin and still the fear of the quake caused my loved ones moments of panic and strife.  I can't even begin to imagine what the people who have yet to here from their loved ones at ground zero must feel like.  A total lack of stability?  Complete and utter terror?  I have no way of knowing, I have never been through anything like this.  Even when the attack on Sept. 11th happened, I had no connection to those in NYC.  This quake and the emotions pouring out of and into New Zealand take me back to those weeks of news reports and sadness.  Claire picked me up from the library to take me home to Macandrew Bay and she was listening to the reports over the radio.  She had already been trying to get in touch with her friends and family members in ChCh, I wonder how much relief she felt when she found out that her niece was OK and without injury.  It puts so much in perspective when I see those around me trying to make sure their contacts in ChCh are alive.  Imagine what it would be like to call a friend, only to get their voicemail because they were buried under a pile of rubble.  I hope that this is not the case for my friends here in Dunedin, but the sad reality is that I am sure this is true for someone today.

I am currently sitting in the lounge in Macandrew Bay watching live reports of what is going on in Christchurch.  People are being interviewed, from survivors to the PM...reports are bleak.  My only hope is that those in ChCh will see relief soon and that they know the world is looking to them with love and empathy in it's heart.

Again, if prayer is a part of your lifestyle...please pray for those in Christchurch and the families and friends of those people in Christchurch.  If prayer is not a part of your life, please give your deepest thoughts.  My heart goes out to Christchurch tonight, I hope tomorrow will bring even a little reprieve from such a great sorrow.