I’ve almost been in New Zealand for one whole month now (the 12th will be the officially month) and I figured some of you may be wondering what my flat (apartment) is like, who I’m living with and what it’s like living here. Well to start off I am living in a building called The Cube. It is university housing and it’s nine floors, all packed with a varied of international and NZ Uni students from all around the world. It’s pretty sweet too because not all of the students that live in this building go to Massey. Actually there are some students that go to Victoria University, which is another Uni that has campuses all around Wellington. It’s such a different environment then I’m used to because I’m constantly coming into contact with new people. Also our apartment is smack dab in the middle of Wellington so coming from the small town of Selinsgrove to here has been an adventure in itself. I think I’m taking pretty well to the city though. It isn’t the typically idea of a city that I had in my mind before coming. It is so endearing and small. You can get around the streets rather easily and people seem rather friendly everywhere you go. Don’t mistake the word small for small in numbers though, even though Welly is quite small in size it makes up for it with the colorfulness of its residents and the amount of people. The style of clothing people wear to the unique attitudes of people you pass on the street reminds me of a mixing bowl of sorts. I have also yet to be walking down the street and not have someone else walking around me.
Anyway though I live in 7J4 that is the 7th floor, flat J and room 4. I share my flat with four other students. They are all from different parts of New Zealand and all of us are studying at Massey. We have a shared kitchen, toilet, living room, shower room, and then we each have our own individual bedrooms. I’ve never had a single in college before so it’s been taking some time to get used to completely having my own space to go to. It’s nice and then not so nice because when I have a roommate I’m much more inclined to keep my room clean because I’m sharing it, but with a single the motivation doesn’t seem to come as easily. The location of the Cube is also very convenient because I’m a short walk into the city and I’m only a 5-10 minute walk up a little hill to my campus. The street I live on is 242 Taranaki Street. Living on the 7th floor has the perks of an incredibly beautiful view of the city. I was one of the lucky ones because my window faces into the city (some windows face into the building). But it’s still strange for me living in a building so high up. Wellington has been living up to its nick name of Windy Welly too so the wind up here is even more intense.
Anyway though I live in 7J4 that is the 7th floor, flat J and room 4. I share my flat with four other students. They are all from different parts of New Zealand and all of us are studying at Massey. We have a shared kitchen, toilet, living room, shower room, and then we each have our own individual bedrooms. I’ve never had a single in college before so it’s been taking some time to get used to completely having my own space to go to. It’s nice and then not so nice because when I have a roommate I’m much more inclined to keep my room clean because I’m sharing it, but with a single the motivation doesn’t seem to come as easily. The location of the Cube is also very convenient because I’m a short walk into the city and I’m only a 5-10 minute walk up a little hill to my campus. The street I live on is 242 Taranaki Street. Living on the 7th floor has the perks of an incredibly beautiful view of the city. I was one of the lucky ones because my window faces into the city (some windows face into the building). But it’s still strange for me living in a building so high up. Wellington has been living up to its nick name of Windy Welly too so the wind up here is even more intense.
The Cube provides each flat with a rather nice spread of appliances, dishware, and pans. I was super excited when I arrived and they gave us a toaster! My go to easy breakfast, snack, and meal is a Peanut Butter Banana sandwich on toast. It just hits the spot no matter what time it. I was blessed in Welly with an amazing Sunday market. This market happens every Sunday and consists of more vegetables, fruits, breads, and meats than you could possibly imagine and it is so affordable. As a college student inexpensive and tasty are my two requirements when grocery shopping. Two weekends ago I got a head of lettuce, five big carrots, three bananas, a bag of apples, a rather large cucumber, and a bag of potatoes all for like $7 New Zealand dollars which converter is about $5.15. Wes if you’re reading this you’ll be happy to know the apples are spot on here. The market has been great and it has made eating healthy so much easier. Plus eating out depending on which restaurants you go to can get expensive pretty fast. It really depends on the where you go though because I’ve found some amazing food deals. A lot of restaurants have special deal days too. There is this waffle shop called The Little Waffle Shop I’m planning on trying soon and on Wednesday’s they have waffles for like $3. I promise to post a picture when I get one because I checked out their Facebook the other day and almost couldn’t control my desire for a waffle. It just looked that delicious.
I’ve been making a lot of pasta so far and I’ve been hesitant to buy any meat yet because going into the grocery store just gets so overwhelming, but the past day I sat down and wrote up a tentative meal plan so that grocery shopping wouldn’t be so overwhelming. I skyped with my friend Jake this week and he studied in Vienna last semester having to fend for himself as well when it came to food and he was adamant about as the semester goes by I’ll resort to pasta and butter as a meal and I hope to all the food gods this never happens. But I’ll be sure to check in with the process of my food making abilities. Hopefully I won’t resort to pasta and butter though. It is kind of nice too my flat-mate and I have teamed up and will cook some meals together some days of the week so all the pressure isn’t on me to cook all the time.
I’ve been making a lot of pasta so far and I’ve been hesitant to buy any meat yet because going into the grocery store just gets so overwhelming, but the past day I sat down and wrote up a tentative meal plan so that grocery shopping wouldn’t be so overwhelming. I skyped with my friend Jake this week and he studied in Vienna last semester having to fend for himself as well when it came to food and he was adamant about as the semester goes by I’ll resort to pasta and butter as a meal and I hope to all the food gods this never happens. But I’ll be sure to check in with the process of my food making abilities. Hopefully I won’t resort to pasta and butter though. It is kind of nice too my flat-mate and I have teamed up and will cook some meals together some days of the week so all the pressure isn’t on me to cook all the time.
That is a small look into my living environment and now to catch you up on some of my Kiwi adventures! This week I went to a lot of classes and finished up my second week of Uni, all pretty exciting but I think I’ll give it some more time until I dive into my class atmospheres. But this Wednesday was clubs day at Massey so I decided to sign up for the Communications, Outdoors, International and the Expressive Arts club. Not sure what will come of all the clubs but I figured I’d sign up and see what happens. I’ve had a lot of friends study abroad in the past and everyone has a different experience and no matter if you travel every weekend or you throw you’re roots down in one city the experience is yours for the choosing. I’ve decided I want to embrace all that Wellington has to offer me. So when I depart New Zealand four months from now I can feel as if Welly was my home and I’ve become a part of this beautiful community. This week in the community there was a festival called the Fringe festival. It has been nice because I’ve been too two free shows so far. This festival is unique in that it happens February 20-March 14 and it’s a wide variety of comedy, music, performing arts, and gallery showings. Friday I went with a few friends to see Svens in Concert and it was held in a beautiful church on Willis Street. It was this crazy mix of individuals all dressed in white; they were singing, and dancing. I would say their sound would fall under the orchestra pop variety, and I don’t know about you but it was a first for me listening to an orchestra pop band. It was a right sweet time though with friends and we ventured into the Friday night market to get some dinner.
This leads to Saturday which was a pretty relaxing day and it was my first look into the slightly unusual Wellington weather. Meaning it started out sunny, then is started down poring, then sunny again, then some lighting and then sunny again. I definitely lucked out though because I seemed to be perfectly synced with times I was going out and when it wasn’t raining. I went to another free Fringe event with my friend Michelle this night too. It was called Baker and Wright Live and it was a live taping of their podcast and we were a part of the live studio audience. It was a comedy show between these two men and I don’t know when they release them to the public but if you listen to it you can probably hear my laugh in the background. It was a first for me to be a part of something like this, and it was so much fun. Fringe has yet to let me down when it comes to free entertainment. My weekend felt like it flew by in the blink of an eye. When Sunday came already I was excited for the events I’m about to tell you about and sad because it means another week of this experience has come and gone. Sunday Funday as I’ll call it we were having an IFSA-Butler Catch up day and we we’re reunited with some of the students we met at the orientation and it was nice to talk about how our experiences had been going and such. We got onto these crocodile bikes and rode around oriental bay. It was a gorgeous day so it was a lot of fun and definitely one of those wonderful tourist moments. Everyone should ride around Oriental bay in one of these bikes at some point but that’s just my opinion. But after that I finally got some fish and chips!! They are a New Zealand staple and I’d been waiting to try then and oh man were they worth the wait, because they were absolutely delicious and I’m definitely going to try some more before I go. Taylor our IFSA guide to all things New Zealand said the more run down looking the shop the better chances the fish and chips are sweet as. After lunch we took a tramp up Mount Victoria and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a relatively nice walk, steep at points but once you’re at the top you feel so accomplished and it’s completely worth it. That was the end of our IFSA adventure, but it wasn’t the end of day. I meet up with some of my new international friends that had invited me to the Newtown Festival. This was the largest festival I’ve ever been too! It was massive with so much going on. It had 12 different stages with performers, 100’s of booths selling food/ goods, and actual rides all around the city of Newtown. Someone had said 1000’s of people come to Newtown for this festival and I can understand why now because it was fantastic. We ventured to find some food after the festival and decided to try Burgerfuel. It is actually a very popular burger joint with locations throughout New Zealand. It was a really whimsical burger so I can understand the hype. I decided to get an L&P as my drink and yum yummy! I love this drink. I’m not much of a soda drinker back in the states but it tastes like a slightly carbonated lemonade and I really love it. So if you ever find yourself in New Zealand definitely try some L&P. Well that’s been my week, until next time cheers mate!
This leads to Saturday which was a pretty relaxing day and it was my first look into the slightly unusual Wellington weather. Meaning it started out sunny, then is started down poring, then sunny again, then some lighting and then sunny again. I definitely lucked out though because I seemed to be perfectly synced with times I was going out and when it wasn’t raining. I went to another free Fringe event with my friend Michelle this night too. It was called Baker and Wright Live and it was a live taping of their podcast and we were a part of the live studio audience. It was a comedy show between these two men and I don’t know when they release them to the public but if you listen to it you can probably hear my laugh in the background. It was a first for me to be a part of something like this, and it was so much fun. Fringe has yet to let me down when it comes to free entertainment. My weekend felt like it flew by in the blink of an eye. When Sunday came already I was excited for the events I’m about to tell you about and sad because it means another week of this experience has come and gone. Sunday Funday as I’ll call it we were having an IFSA-Butler Catch up day and we we’re reunited with some of the students we met at the orientation and it was nice to talk about how our experiences had been going and such. We got onto these crocodile bikes and rode around oriental bay. It was a gorgeous day so it was a lot of fun and definitely one of those wonderful tourist moments. Everyone should ride around Oriental bay in one of these bikes at some point but that’s just my opinion. But after that I finally got some fish and chips!! They are a New Zealand staple and I’d been waiting to try then and oh man were they worth the wait, because they were absolutely delicious and I’m definitely going to try some more before I go. Taylor our IFSA guide to all things New Zealand said the more run down looking the shop the better chances the fish and chips are sweet as. After lunch we took a tramp up Mount Victoria and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a relatively nice walk, steep at points but once you’re at the top you feel so accomplished and it’s completely worth it. That was the end of our IFSA adventure, but it wasn’t the end of day. I meet up with some of my new international friends that had invited me to the Newtown Festival. This was the largest festival I’ve ever been too! It was massive with so much going on. It had 12 different stages with performers, 100’s of booths selling food/ goods, and actual rides all around the city of Newtown. Someone had said 1000’s of people come to Newtown for this festival and I can understand why now because it was fantastic. We ventured to find some food after the festival and decided to try Burgerfuel. It is actually a very popular burger joint with locations throughout New Zealand. It was a really whimsical burger so I can understand the hype. I decided to get an L&P as my drink and yum yummy! I love this drink. I’m not much of a soda drinker back in the states but it tastes like a slightly carbonated lemonade and I really love it. So if you ever find yourself in New Zealand definitely try some L&P. Well that’s been my week, until next time cheers mate!