My friend Mandy and I have been on a sushi bender lately (my total was 7 times in 7 days, and the count should start again this week), and we've also discovered a favorite gelato spot with interesting flavors. Combine that with immersing ourselves in the culture of fish and chips, kabobs, White Lady (= Chano's in Auckland) late at night, and the pizza place right downstairs from our flat... well, it's good Auckland is hilly and we do a lot of walking!
In between eating, we do manage to get some exercise. On Saturday a big group of us went for a day-long surf school. It was at a beautiful beach with some pretty big waves. All I really learned is that I am NOT cut out to be a surfer... but I'll be in really great shape if I keep trying! We're still sore from the day of trying to fight against the waves. It was hard and exhausting but a lot of fun.
We went on a free trip to the beach with our apartments on Sunday - Takapuna, a beach I hadn't been to yet. The water and scenery was beautiful, but the beach was full of seaweed. I was also EXTREMELY sunburned (yep, suffered my first NZ sunburn from surfing), so I hid under clothing for most of the day. It takes such a short time to get burned here... apparently there's a hole in the ozone layer over NZ. Skin cancer...my kind of country. We also went out to brunch when we got to Takapuna (we'd been talking about good breakfast food for weeks) and had probably the best meal I've had here so far. I had a smoked salmon scrambler on a croissant, and the other girls got eggs benedict, french toast, and a mediterranean breakfast...mmm...
Last week was sort of a joke of a first week of school. One of my classes (called papers, here) didn't start until this week, and my tutorial didn't meet. I only had class on Monday and Tuesday, then proceeded to have a five-day weekend. Which I could definitely get used to. We shopped some, slept a lot, and hoped school wouldn't get any harder. This week I definitely had more class, and although they're probably easier than classes in the US, I will have my work cut out for me. Most of the grading here is based on projects and a final exam, so you really have to keep up to avoid cramming at the end. All the teachers expect around 10 hours a week of studying from us outside of class - ahh!
I had my first computer science tutorial today, and to my surprise I LOVED it. The teacher is a jolly old man from Britain who is really more interested in our learning in general than the tech stuff we're supposed to know. I do already have 500 words due... but just about me and my learning style. He really engages us and likes participation, and I'm in a class full of first-years, so I think I'll be ok!
We're heading out to Coromandel Peninsula this weekend, so I will update and post pics after that! xoxo
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