Pictionary vs. International Students

Last night, some of us at Abbey College wanted to reward ourselves for enduring a day of non-stop rain.  So, a game of Pictionary was organized.  Drawing is simple enough, right?

We were actually playing a New Zealand version of Pictionary.  This becomes a problem when you have three Americans, one Japanese, and one Scot.  Since some UK words are similar to common NZ words, Kate, from the United Kingdom, became our interpreter for words/phrases we were supposed to draw that the rest of us didn't know.  (Interestingly, our Japanese friend knew that a bonnet was a part of a car, just like Kate knew, but the rest of us were trying to draw something that would sit on top of our head.)

One card in particular had us all stumped...

What does "Dog Sat on the Tucker Box" mean?! And, how do you draw "tucker" so that any person from any nationality would be able to guess it?

Come to find out, it is a "well known" Aussie song.  OooooOOOooh!  That makes perfect sense; of course it is a well known Aussie song!

Needless to say, we got a few good laughs out of this game.  Some of our art skills peaked in 5th grade (but, really, could YOU draw Venus de Milo without it looking pretty darn funny?) and some of our guesses were just so off track because of the language barrier. 

Good times.

Forget Cats & Dogs, It's Raining the Whole Damn Ark!

Hurricane Irene had nothing compared to the rain I saw this morning.  It was raining so hard that it woke me up!  To get to campus for 11am "tea" with other nutrition students, I bundled up in two layers of clothes, a scarf (thanks, Rita!), a long LL Bean raincoat (thanks, Mom!), a pair of butterfly adorned rain boots, and an umbrella.  A friend said that it was "normal" to have rain like that. Oh, God...

Meeting nutrition folks for tea was great! We sat down for about an hour and just chatted about reaching "milestones."  Each month, the group meets to decide on one goal (dissertation-related) to work on for the next month.  Today, the one's who achieved that goal received a certificate that one of the girls made up.  It sounds silly, but it makes the whole process of working towards a PhD fun. 

I like fun.  I do not like paying $3 for a teacup of coffee. 

Unfortunately, the place we met at on campus has the most "affordable" coffee around.  Luckily, I bought a small jar of instant coffee from the grocery store for a little more than $7; I have a feeling I'm going to be BYOC for these gatherings.

Who is SIM and Why Should I Care?

Day two in Dunedin included meeting my co-advisors, Caroline and Andrew, and the rest of our research team (they will be FANTASTIC to work with!; Caroline brought the most delicious chocolate glazed almond tart to share, too), window shopping for a bike ($1200 for a reasonable bike? Eh, I think I'd rather have Jon ship mine to me, thankyouverymuch), and shopping for a new phone (Sprint wants to charge me $2.30 per minute for a phone call and $0.50 per text sent on top of monthly charges).

For me (and other technologically challenged Americans), shopping for electronic devices is about as fun as going on a five hour car ride, hungover, with kids in the back seat saying, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"  I just want to point to something that I want, purchase it, and have it work; no questions asked.  I'm finding it's just not that easy.

In my Welcome Packet from the International Student Office, I received a credit card-sized piece of plastic with two funky rectangle-ish shapes punched into it.  Apparently, I was supposed to act excited and appreciative when I received it, not dumbfounded.

Turns out, each funky rectangle-ish thing is a SIM card.  According to www.wisegeek.com it is a Subscriber Identity Module that functions as a memory chip for cell phones.  You know how you can take your favorite CD of, say, Kenny G's greatest hits (if you're into him, I'm not) and it will play the same songs in any CD player?  Well, take your SIM card and pop it into different cell phones and it works with your saved phone number, saved contact list, etc.  Cool, huh?

So, tonight I'm going to see if the SIM card works in my cell phone that I brought from Sprint in the States to see if it will work (more than likely not - US cell phone companies are mean like that and sell phones that are "locked") then tomorrow I'm going to go back to Vodafone to purchase a phone (they range from $60-600) and pop the SIM card in it.

My roommate says SIM cards at the store cost about an additional $30 and now that I'm starting to understand the whole acquiring-a-cell-phone-and-getting-it-to-work-process, I'm starting to feel like the excited, appreciative person that I should have been when they gave the SIM card to me.

I feel like this is probably a rather boring post to most people.  For those who plan to travel internationally for some time, this will have been helpful information.  For everyone else, I better leave you with something more...interesting.

Here it goes...

Last night, my wonderful (read: doesn't weird me out like some other people I've bumped into around here) roommate, Kate, and I went to check out a nearby grocery store.  This was no ordinary trip.  No, sir.  To get there, we had to walk through a botanic garden with a huge rose garden in bloom - oodles and oodles of yellow, pink, red roses eeeeverywhere.  How. Cool. Is that?!

A-mazing!!!!!

I am officially in Dunedin! (And, still trying to figure out if the proper pronunciation is Dun-EE-din... I referred to it as DUNE-i-din before I left, but that was just plain ol' wrong.)

I was pretty sure I wasn't even going to bother unpacking my bags after I arrived; turning right around to go back to New York seemed perfectly reasonable. That is, until we started to land and I finally caught a glimpse of Dunedin for the first time.

This place is a masterpiece.  I really can't put into words how beautiful the mountains are - tall and soft looking, yet covered with scratchy patches of evergreens, hugged by the ocean on one side.  I've been trying to figure out what this place smells like, too.  The humidity is crazy.  I think I'm just adjusting to so much moisture in the air, but I can't help but wonder... is this what the air smells like when it's... clean?  Is there that much of a lack of smog and other pollutants that is smells differently?

And guess what else?  The people here are as kind and generous as I've heard.  The tales of random acts of kindness committed by kiwis are not just a legend after all. 

You see, I passed by dozens of opportunities to exchange my U.S. Benjamins for some cold hard kiwi cash.  But, each time I passed the foreign currency exchange kiosks I reasoned that I would stop at one later.  In Auckland, I found my departing gate to Dunedin and figured there was enough time to go back to the exchange that I passed before we started boarding.  A 'no re-entry' sign to that part of the airport put the kibosh on my plan, however.  So, when I arrived in Dunedin I asked the older gentleman at the information desk where to change over my money because I needed to pay for the taxi to take me to campus.  He explained that they didn't have any currency exchange kiosks, BUT he was planning on going on "holiday" to the U.S. and would be happy to go to an ATM to take out enough New Zealand dollars to match the exchange rate for the American dollars I would give him. Sweeeeeeeeeet!

Now, I'm settled into my room, I set up a bank account and I started getting the ball rolling on some paperwork I need to get a student ID (read: a means of getting a user name and password so that I can have internet in my room).  After dinner I will be off to La La Land to make up for the serious lack of sleep I've experienced lately.  More to come!

Here are some pictures... don't know what they are, but I'll hope you admire them nonetheless...

Money Can't Buy You Love, Happiness, or Extra Luggage Privileges on a "Weight Critical" Flight

Slept. Like. Crap.  Last night.

After packing and unpacking and repacking half a dozen times, I finally said, "That's it! No more shenanigans, it's time for bed."

Unfortunately, I was so concerned about what I was putting in suitcases I forgot about important stuff.  Like a clean pair of underoos to wear on my trip to get to New Zealand.  So, at 7:54am this morning (note, I had planned on leaving the house at 8am), Jon and I waited for a hand-washed pair to finish drying in the dryer.

Betcha didn't expect to read about underoos today, did you?

After we got to the airport in Binghamton, it was time for the moment of truth.  How much was I going to pay to get all of my luggage to New Zealand?  I had heard that it'd cost about $250 to get my bike over, so I was prepared for the worst since I also had a hunch that both suitcases were over the 50 pound limit.

Jon noticed the "Weight Critical Flight" alert first.  I ignored it, thinking surely I could pay enough money to get all my belongings on the flight.

I was wrong.

The woman at the check out said that no way was I going to be able to bring that bike.  And the suitcases that were each 3-5 pounds overweight?  I'd have to figure out a way to get them under 50 pounds.

So, that's how my trip started out.  There also was a healthy dose of tears (which my mom refers to as "blubbering") and a lot of good, strong hugs.

Now, I'm in San Francisco waiting for my flight to the other hemisphere.  Wow.  There was a time or two when I was flying from Binghamton to Washington D.C. today that I seriously considered taking the next flight home.  This is absurd.  What am I doing?!  It's an awful long time until I see my family again...

I chalked it up to nerves and refocused myself on my stupid new travel pillow.  My friend Beth has flown to Brazil a lot and swears by hers.  Supposedly, wrapping an overstuffed foam horseshoe around my neck is supposed to help me sleep like a baby.  Well, I was sleeping like a baby - just like the wailing, crying, screeching thing that was about five rows behind me.

So, I decided to forget about sleep.  Who needs it anyway?  For your viewing pleasure, I present... a few photos I took just before landing in San Fran.

Last time I'll see snow for a while.

From snowy mountains to flat green land in 5 minutes flat.

Why on earth were there huuuuuge puddles of funny colored water??

That's it for my update!  The next time you hear from me I'll be in New Zealand.

I'd like to give a special shout out to my coworkers at Broome County Office for Aging... you made Friday a wicked awesome day.  I'll miss you sooo much.  To the pharmacy friends, triathlon friends, and high school friends who came to see me on Friday-thank you!  It was great to see so many friends before I left.  I wish I had more one-on-one time to spend with you all that night.  To my family... I know this time will be a rough and tough transition, but I will work my tail off to make you all proud and make this decision sooo worth it.  Last, but not least, Jon... thank you for your support.  Before you know it, I will find you a job in New Zealand and we can be together! Since we'd probably have to leave Halligan at home, I was thinking we could adopt a pink sheep?? =) xoxo