An Actual Update….With Pictures!

First and foremost, allow me to sincerely apologize for the wait. You have long anticipated hearing facts about what the hell I’ve even been doing over here, and all I’ve offered are pictures of my cats (which you’ve undoubtedly seen before, since I have been obsessed with taking pictures of them for almost a year now). Let me to begin by saying that moving to New Zealand has thus far been the best decision I’ve ever made.


First up, living in the city: loving it. I suppose it’s not technically “city living,” since I don’t live downtown. Also, there’s only about 4 million people living in NZ, and 1 million of those live in Auckland. The rest are spread out among Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin, and random rural areas. But living in Dunedin is more similar to living in a city than it is to living in Livonia or Mt. Pleasant, so from here on out I will refer to it as city living. In my defense, the downtown area is fairly close- only about a 30 minute walk from my flat. Or, if I go shopping, I can call a cab that will take me back to my flat for 8 NZD, which is only 6 USD. And there’s no tipping here, so taxis are a pretty decent option. I can also wait for the bus for even cheaper, but the cheap cab company I use comes within 10 minutes (usually less). Plus with the bus, I would still have to stagger up obscene hills with all my bags (as seen here):





Other things that are close to my flat:

• Campus (aka uni)- only about a 20-25 min walk
• Several bus stops- about a 3-4 min walk
• The grocery store, post shop, and pharmacy- a 5 min walk
• A few bars (one is possibly a gay bar, another is a townie bar similar to Marty’s)- a 5 min walk
• A delicious, albeit expensive, pizza joint called Filadelfio’s that has an American flag and several creative pizza names, such as the Lewinsky or Brooklyn- also a 5 min walk

My flat itself: also loving it. It is huge, it is super cheap, it is completely furnished- what is not to love?? There is one tiny problem. Well, maybe two tiny problems. One: It is up a giant hill. I have still not gotten used to it. I’m pretty much dying whenever I return home. The seasoned Dunediners apparently enjoy hills, or at the very least don’t really notice them. I am desperately hoping to become a seasoned Dunediner soon. I better, or I might just have to start calling a cab from the bottom of the hill. The second issue is that this house has temperatures similar to that of an igloo. Most of you are probably aware that I love cold-ish houses. It’s at least better than having a house that is way too hot. However, after now having lived here for about a month, I challenge anyone to a Whose House Is Colder Contest….yes, a WHICC. I bet you my thousands of dollars of higher-education-related debt that my house will win. We do have a heat pump:


 



…but it is basically useless. You can’t feel it unless you are in the lounge. One especially cold recent night, we shuttered ourselves in the lounge and basked in the warmth that we forgot could exist indoors. That turned out to eventually be a mistake. As we opened the lounge door to quickly race to our sub-freezing bedrooms, a blast of frigid air that made Alaska seem ideal nearly knocked us over. (Let me pause here to briefly clarify something- it IS late summer/early fall here, and outside it is generally T-shirt and shorts weather. The nights can be a tad chilly, but not too bad so far. But for some reason, it is always winter in this house. People do, however, constantly feel the need to tell us that we should’ve gotten a flat on the OTHER side of the valley. The sun actually shows it face across the street. Not a problem. Since we are basically committing theft with rent this cheap, we can totally afford electric blankets. Or just drag all our mattresses into the lounge and camp out in there.)


Other than these minor issues, I love where I’m living. My flatmates and I get along great, which seems to surprise everyone. People at work, at lab, etc keep asking me: “So how’s your flat and flatmates?” And when I say everything’s great, people are like “Oh…really?? Wow…that’s good…” Not sure what to think about this reaction. I guess everyone is just surprised that we decided to live together within an hour of meeting one another, and we don’t hate each other yet. Au contraire, we’ve been having some pretty crazy wine pong nights of late:





We’ve also been watching a truly impressive amount of Dexter:

  


It’s unlikely that I will ever stop liking these people.


Also, I couldn’t be more glad that I didn’t have the university set me up with international housing. There’s an American exchange student in my lab, and that’s what she did. Apparently like 90% of NZ exchange students are from the States, and so are all 3 of her roommates. I am so glad that’s not the case with me! I feel like that’s kind of ruining the experience of living in another country. If I lived with three other Americans, how would it really be that different than being in America? I like being around different cultures to see what they’re like. Kind of the point of coming here. I’m sure it’s not like this girl planned it that way or anything, but hearing that just made me glad I hadn’t done that.


Unfortunately that’s about all I have time for right now! I have to get to bed so I can get up early and have a semi-productive day tomorrow. But later this week, I hope to post some info about my lab, my job, and any random ponderings I may have.

**UPDATE**
See pics below!! I tried to get them in album format, but it didn't really work. I'll keep trying. At the very least I'll add some captions. Enjoy!