holy hell its been a month. i find it hard to force myself to sit down and be diligent about writing when the sun in shining shining and there's so much to do.
i uploaded some shots a while ago of my trip to taranaki - it was a good time. i stayed at the taranaki environment centre and worked alongside graham and val for a week. it was really relaxing, and nice to get some last minute chill time before my classes started. oh yeah, if you've seen the pictures then you'll know what im talking about, but there was this ridiculous festival called AmeriCARna. you can only imagine what sorts of fun that was. felt like i walked down the street in inglewood, took a wrong turn, and somehow ended up in upstate new york. there were vintage cars, rural NZ cover bands playing classic american radio tunes, and plenty of 'authentic american hot dogs and hamburgers' to boot. what a deal. i tried my best to keep from laughing.
then classes started as soon as i got back to wellington. the courseload works a little differently here, so im only taking three: gender & development, maori society and culture, and an education course called 'youth and life challenges.' theyre all pretty fascinating. the maori course, which im taking to fulfill a cornell requirement, is interesting enough, but just jam-packed with too many americans. luckily, all of my professors are really dynamic and most of the students are engaged in discussions etc. we've been talking about some pretty meaty issues in both my education and gender courses, but there's not quite as much fire as you'd see back home. one thing ive found upon living here for a while now is that the political discussions are really lacking. as in, most of the time quite nonexistent. the kiwi political scheme isn't too fascinating and the government hasn't pumped billions of dollars into a war machine, so i guess there isn't that much to get all fired up about. what a drag. but no really, my friends and i try to squeeze war, politics, radical rebellion, etc. into the casual bar talk and it just doesn't work. before you know it you're back to classic film noir, catchy lines from arrested development, and recounts of the last time wren was completely pished. so it goes.
last weekend i was lucky enough to have a little getaway. my friend gabi and i rode out to wanganui, about three hours away. we camped out right next to the wanganui river for a couple days and watched as the reflections of shooting stars shot back and forth along the slow flow of the midnight water. we chilled out with some ducks, gorged on banana bread until we could no more, and sat with our backs against an enormous, receding cliff, watching the sun set on our own private beach. rutabega bay was what we decided it should probably be named. it was our bay, after all. we could look in both directions all the way to the horizon without catching sight of another wanderer.
since school started, weekend trips to rutageba bay included, all has been well. ive managed to find a great group of other crazy international students and we seem to manage to have a good time every day. we've been exploring wellington and there's just so much here. i went on a bike ride yesterday, and although the winds whipping through the strait were a little tumultuous, i got to see so much of the city that i didn't even know existed.
i also made it to the bike co-op last night. i tried to go last week but my friend graham hadn't opened up shop yet. its a lot like home - the place is run out of the back room in the anarchist collective downtown. the house reminds me so much of watermargin; sights, smells, and all. packed from head to toe with posters and flyers of rallies in days gone by, books of revolt, and other such treasures. they have a free radical library open to the public and put out delicious bread and veggies that they liberate from wasteful dumpsters for the needy grabs of passersby. are you taking notes?
in our drunken midnight rambling explorations of the rolling wellington hills, we've managed to locate a couple worthwhile, exciting sanctuaries (aka playgrounds). like, make-you-jealous-that-your-childhood-wasn't-so-divinely-priviledged-with-such-amazing-structures type playgrounds. and yes, of course, with 100 ft long ziplines included. fantastic.
hmm i cant think of what other fruitful endeavors we've had. oh, did i mention that we're going to samoa? yeah, we've got a two week long mid-semester break in two weeks. original plan was the hot, golden (and now ablazen) aussie coast. but it's so damned expensive. so instead we're flying out into the middle of the pacific. honestly, do you know where samoa is? google it, please. its roughly the size of rhode island. except its actually an island. we've rented two thatched-roof huts on the lonely beach, staying for a week. woohoo.
alas, the sun is shining shining and there are no clouds in the sky. well actually, there's this one tiny little whisp of a cloud over there. that bastard, how dare he. pollute my nice blue sky with his puffy, white, puffiness. anyway, im tired of staring at this screen. im going to go on a little trip. be back in my head tomorrow. photos will follow.
but while you're waiting, enjoy these: http://picasaweb.google.com/wrenar/ExplorationsInSunlightAndOtherThings#
