Wellington

Greetings from Wellington! This post is in random order, but you'll get the gist!

Mr. Bear takes a ride courtesy of Wilson. I should expain about Mr. Bear. Annie got him from her mom a few years back when she was feeling low about being single when her sister was pregnant. Since then, Mr. Bear has seen her through good times and bad and is traveling with us here. He's become kind of a mascot and I've been reprimanded for making Mr. Bear drink too much and puke, hump Amber's leg affectionately, attempt to seduce fellow students and general naughtiness. He's just so pliable! And if you ask me, he was just waiting for an excuse.

Mr. Bear examines some of the music in the radio station.

The squid we made at the museum. Run free!

Annie and myself watching the 3-D movie about colossal squid.

Ug. Last night we had a meeting about our next WWOOFing sites. We're starting another 5 day stint outside of Nelson on the south island next week. None of the cool places (like wineries and sheep farms) are taking volunteers right now so we are stuck at farms that either collect manure, want us to weed-whack or build fences. NOT the experience I wanted to have. We'll see how that goes. I'm really being driven nuts by one of our facillitators who is so easy-going that he's not directive in these meetings so they last two hours. And I didn't get my first pick, second, third but my fourth pick out of six sites. I'm not a happy camper. (I'm going to the weed whacking place unless I can get onto another site that has animals... we'll see.)

Otherwise! My time in Wellington has been great. It's really windy here all the time. Like, building-shaking, door-slamming kind of wind. It's super hilly and rainy, too. I feel right at home. The other night the girls and I went out on the town. We went to a 60's dance night which was a bit of a bust (but we had fun) and then found a super cool bar called the Mighty Mighty. We have 4 weeks of being in the country ahead of us so we're all itching to have some nightlife time before then. Last night the old lady crew stayed in while all the young kids went club hopping. We had too much fun the night before.

Hannah, Amber and me, comparing wrist veins. Hannah's make a "H". Mine are just a mess of blue.
Liz's graceful entrance through our balcony window.

Liz works it!
Amber making me laugh so hard I hit my head on the table. She said she was super horny and the smell of bacon wafting through the bar made her even hornier. Then she said maybe she should shove some bacon in her panties so "then someone might want to eat it".

Yeah, But What Are You LEARNING?

Ok, so I'm doing all of this amazing traveling, getting to meet new people and share these awesome experiences with the (mostly) nicest group of folks I could hope to live with 24/7... but what I'm I learning, you might ask?

We have a lot of readings, guest lecturers and journals to keep of our activities. This week we met with someone from the World Wildlife Federation on the impact of tourism and climate change on the environment and creatures here, the Department of Labor about immigration and seasonal worker policies, took a tour of Parliament and learned about policy administration, met with two professors from the University about ethnographical research of the Maori and ethics in studying indigenous tribes and learned about the changing landscape of New Zealand based on farming and industrialization. How's that for a start? Our WWOOFing (which is working on organic farms in exchange for room and board, btw) experience ties into our ethnographical research, too. We keep two journals during this trip- one for our field notes (jottings about everything we see and do) and one for reflections on our readings. Everybody in this class has a different focus and interest. It makes for some great conversation...

Here's a little sample of what I wrote during part of my WWOOFing time:

"4/23:

Slept in a converted rail car last night. Awesome hippie place. The car is rusty red, set in the woods about 100 yards from the main house. It has signs in it indicating what you should and shouldn't do (turn lights off when you leave, don't leave the gas on)... they get lots of guests here. There's a giant beast of a wood stove that's hard to get going. Katie woke us in the middle of the night, dropping wood and clanging about trying to get it restarted. Slept really well, though. I love cold rooms.

First day of work today. Jo says everyone has their own circadian rhythm and to wake and work when we want to. Breakfast is in the main house. Jo has cupboards full of WWOOFer food. We can feed ourselves in between the awesome meals she makes. I have muesli and milk, instant coffee and sit outside with Hannah to eat and marvel at our surroundings. I keep having moments where I think about this experience and try to relate it to my research question or this course but it's impacting so much of how I feel about my life in general. I feel so grateful to be here. I'm so happy in this environment. I am living without fear or concern. I feel so safe here. Even in this strange hippie house. Living in Eugene for so long and being exposed to ferrets on hemp leashes, patchouli, recycled everything, beer in mason jars, dreadlocks and pot everywhere has made me weary of anything hippie. And here we are living in it. I'm out of my comfort zone yet so comfortable. I feel so at peace. I think about other WWOOFers and the NZ travel experience. How do they feel about traveling this way? You'd have to have a lot of time to do this and still see the rest of NZ. You'd have to be a several month kind of vacationer. But what an experience! Being out here, though, would make it hard to do anything but exist here. Good for hikers, campers or those who want to explore just being. Or just being in the New Plymouth area. Also, what is it about being in nature that makes me so introspective???

I think about the idea of what we NEED versus what we WANT. This place is a mish mash of other people's castaways. Trinkets dot every corner. But they make it all work. There's an old card catalog in the kitchen for odd tools or bits of things and each shelf is labeled something clever like "Wubberbands" or "Punches, Kicks and Cold Shoulders" or "Pointy Bits and Things To Sharpen 'Em Wiff". So clever! Thinking about the quality of life out here and standards. Back home this kind of place might seem trashy or "poor" but they have this million dollar view, fresh water, fresh air and it's so quiet and peaceful. Surely these elements speak to a greater quality of life. Or maybe it's a trade off for the culture you get in urban areas..."

And that was just up to breakfast that day! So, you get a little bit of what I'm doing. Kind of. All of this research and learning and exploring will result in a final project on the "New Zealand Experience". My research is geared toward this experience as a commodity in New Zealand. You can pay to do all sorts of extreme sports here. There's bungee jumping, sky diving, rolling down a hill in a giant hamster wheel... It's crazy.

Obviously I'm loving my time here. I highly recommend NZ as a travel destination. The people are so friendly. And it's gorgeous!

WWOOFing, Part 1

Thursday:

Today we got up early for a five-hour drive to our WWOOF sites. It's a sad day as the Old Lady Crew is going to be seperated. This is such a funny experience. I'm sure this is what it's like for kids at camp. Two weeks ago I didn't even know any of these people and now I'm stressed about spending 5 days away from my buddies! I'll have a few folks I'm familiar with to keep me company, though. It will allllllll be okay.

The drive was fun because Dave got lost (even though he says he didn't...) so we stopped a lot, played Boticceli (new favorite car game!) and enjoyed a new 5-hour mix on my ipod. The goodbyes were surreal. We were just plopped into this hippie house and told we'd be picked up soon. "Why don't you all go off to the pool for a spa while you wait?" Don't mind if we do! So, my first hour of WWOOFing was spent in a hot tub. Awesomeness.

Dave decided to stay behind. I think he was sad to leave us too. It meant some tight quarters in the converted rail car we slept in. Oh, yeah, did I mention the converted rail car we slept in? Surreal!

Friday:

Day one of work! After a late breakfast we head over to the work site. We're going to be fixing up this house for use as a refuge for women who have been sexually abused or need a safe place. Pretty awesome. It's such a mish-mash. I love how they use everything they can to put this thing together. I'm guessing there are no building codes to worry about. The property is tucked into the woods (sorry, I'm supposed to say "bush" here) and is super quaint. Dave stayed to work today and head-butted us (gently) when leaving. (Is that custom?)

We work with Mateus, from Germany, and Doug, from NZ. They have both been here for a week, tearing down and rebuilding this place. Jo and her partner, Ben, are hosting us. Jo keeps us well fed. (Tonight we had coconut curry!) It occured to me the other day that she walks just like the "Keep on Truckin'" cartoon. We worked about 6 hours today, banking our time so we can get a free day. I was surprisingly exhausted at the end of the day and we all pooped out early. I even LOST at Scrabble, if you can believe it. Kay (another girl in this program but at a nearby site) kicked our butts. I'm actually a little worried she's too good for me. I'm not familiar with this feeling!!! (Hold me!)

I'm enjoying time with Hannah, Wilson and Rebecca. Wilson keeps singing "C'mon rude boy boy..." and spent most of the night trying to light his farts on fire for our enjoyment. At one point I noticed dark spots all over his shorts and thought he may have burned them but it was just deck stain. Sigh. He cracks me up.

Saturday:

Late start to the day (because we can) and enjoyed some museli and instant coffee while staring out into the mist over the valley. It's so quiet here. There's no way you can't be at peace in an environment like this. Jo talked to us about the Maoris a bit. Had we asked earlier we could have spent a day on the Marae nearby chopping potatoes. Darnit! She also entertained us with stories of drug smuggling in Indonesia in her 20's to fund her year of traveling in Asia. More surreal!


Did some more sanding, scraping, painting and general wandering around looking for tasks today. Last night it rained so the neon green window Hannah worked on had bled and needed to be repainted. I found bugs all over my lovely blue door so had to recoat that too. Jo brought us jelly beans. Mateus farted a lot. (What is it with boys and their farting??) There were giant red ants and bees everywhere. Tomorrow is a day off! I really need to do my ethnography. (Shakes finger at self.)

Sunday:

Got up at 4:30 for our ride into town. It's DARK that early. It's ANZAC Day, which is like Memorial Day except here they actually remember. There was a parade at dawn with speeches about the fallen and a 5 gun salute that scared the pee out of me. Now we're just hanging out in Jo's house. It's a mish-mash of everything. Kind of like if you lived in a thrift store. My hippie theory was confirmed when I found a copy of "How To Keep A Ferret" in the bathroom.

For now we're watching THE WORST MOVIE EVER ("Molly": She's magically cured of autism when her brother teaches her how to tie her shoes!) and enjoying some free, unlimited wifi. I'm playing catch up with emails, photos, blogging and, oh yeah, homework. Jo has a big pit bull (Mr. Pig, Mr. P or Dog, depending on who asks) who is curled up at Hannah's feet, snoring.

We're hoping to get rides back to the site by dark but Ben's clutch gave out as we pulled in. We'll see!

Bay of Islands

Made it to the Bay of Islands. Last night we stayed in a Marae, which is a Maori community house. We were invited to stay with a group of 30 Maori (I can't remember the tribe they're from). They were so welcoming and warm. The whole thing was surrounded by ritual- They had to invite us in and sing to us then we had to sing back (we sang "My Girl"). We had to walk with a guide and speeches were made, shoes were taken off, noses were touched... It was intense. I thought it would be some cheesy manufactured experience but really it was just hanging out with this huge family. They fed us (A LOT), taught us some Maori and how to make these cool flowers out of flax and then took most of us (the Old Lady Crew stayed behind... I've unintentionally been waking up at 6 am every day and it's starting to wear me down. LAME.) to a pub where the lucky few got an impromptu dance. I'm going to try to snag the video to share. Of course, the one time I stay in everybody has an AMAZING experience and made great friends with locals and got the Haka, which is the traditional Maori greeting/war dance/all purpose entertainment. It's the one with the shouting and tongue wagging.

There are so many little stories I'd love to share but I just don't even know where to start. Every day I laugh so hard with this group. Every day I see the most amazing scenery. Every day I feel so blessed to be here. I'll try to do some tidbits from each day...

Yesterday: We got up early to pack up our gear to leave Northland. Went to the Treaty of Waitangi grounds and had the worst tour guide (in my opinion). She kept doing this: "This is a tree used to build the boat behind us. Ok? Cool. Moving on. This is blah blah blah. Ok? Cool. Moving on.") Then she told us that there was no segregation between the Maoris and the Whites because she never got picked on in school for being white. Just for being rich. The whole group was swapping stares and we had a lot to talk about after. This is what we do. See some awesome site and then disect it for all the cultural nuances we can find. Everyone has a different interest in what we see. My research is going to be on the affordibility of the authentic "New Zealand Experience". My collection of brochures grows daily. Good thing I'm a hoarder anyway.

We drove from Paihia back to Auckland. The group is split into two vans and ours is the Estrogen Van. We have Annie driving, Carissa always in the front seat and then a rotating seat gang of me, Amber, Akina, Katie, Liz, Stacey and Rebecca. I'm DJ and stress every day about what to play that every body will like. I don't know why but I have this feeling of: If I play a song they hate then they're going to hate ME. (Of all the things to stress about!) Annie requested some Snoop, which is totally not what you'd expect from her. We giggle a lot in that car. We made a cookie stop and it was like a bake sale for about 20 minutes with cookies being passed up and down each row. Then we all crashed. I'm amazed at the cooperation and care in this group. If someone says they have a headache or a bug bite or are thirsty it's inevitible that a half a second will pass before at least three people offer their tylenol, hydrocortizone or water bottle. I've never experienced anything like it. My oblivious tendencies are seriously being challenged here. I'm trying really hard to keep up with the generosity. (This bunch is so sweet it's not too hard.)

I decided to pony up the $6 for laundry service at our hostel. You have no idea how much of a luxury it is to smell clean clothes. I nearly made out with the pile. It smelled SO GOOD. It's the little things, you know?

I think I'm about to lose my internet connection so will pick up with more in a bit. I need to find somewhere with more bandwidth so I can upload more pics, too.

Stay tuned!

Auckland

OH MY! New Zealand has been awesome so far. I can't believe it's only been a week. It's been super intense. I'm so glad I came with next to no expectations. I really hadn't spent much time thinking about what this trip would be like other than imagining the landscape. I've seen so much but then I've also only seen a tiny chunk of what we will see by the end of the trip. Because we're together 24/7, I've made some great connections. There's a few of us that form what we call The Old Lady Crew (in jest). It was Amber's birthday on Saturday and we all (the whole group of 18) decided to make dinner and hit the town.

(Amber, doing The Carlton)

We found a cute little bar in Auckland with a drag show. This wasn't like lame old Neighbors... it was like something out of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Costume changes and choreography. Amazing! Some of us went out dancing afterwards. First night on the town! I discovered Amber is a dorky dancer too and she kept breaking out the Carlton (from Fresh Prince of Bel Air (???)) and I kept dropping it like it was hot. (Guess you'd have to see that move to understand...)

(Most of the group before our big meal)

Today we have to pack up all of our stuff and move on. We're heading to Northland, which is the rural northern tip of the island. Here we get to see the oldest Kauri tree (2000 years!). When Kauri's reach about 50 meters in height, they start to grow out instead of up. I can't wait to see how fat this thing is. We also get to see the Bay of Islands, where there are 200 little islands sprinkled out in the bay. We also go to some treaty sites and have lots of readings and observations to do (in case you started thinking there's no work going on here). Friday we had a class where we analized Marx's use-value structure. And wherever we go Dave is always asking us not-so-subtle questions about our experiences and relating them to our readings. We just learned what WWOOFing sites we'll be on next week. I'm going to a farm with Wilson, Hannah and Rebecca to do some end-of-season cleaning. The work in itself might not be exciting but the owners are surfers and offer the chance to learn in our off-time. I'm psyched about that.



More later! Off to "work"...

New Zealand!

I have so much to share (from my last bit of Spain and all through London) but the internet here is charged by megabytes, instead of time, so picture-loading takes a lot of money. I know you are all curious about New Zealand and what's been going on so far, so I thought I'd start here and then work my way back when I can find unlimited internet. Ok? Ok!

First of all- What am I doing here? This is an intensive class through the Comparative History of Ideas program (CHID) exploring the marketing of tourism in New Zealand along with geographical and ethnographic gobbeldygook. We each have to narrow down a focus and create a final project based on that. Mine (I think) is going to be on the accessibility of "experience" based on class (or funds). There are 16 of us, plus our two facilitators, Dave and Annie. We're living and traveling as back-packers do... in hostels, homestays, WWOOF sites and the kindness of strangers. We'll be moving every 5 days or so, making our way down to the south island and everywhere in between.

Yesterday we got our first tour of Auckland. It's a lot like Washington but with more volcanoes and more sunshine. Although, NZ is famous for "four seasons in a day", so the sunshine is intermittent. Auckland is one of the two biggest cities in NZ, although you'd never know it. Maybe it's because we arrived over a holiday weekend, but it's been pretty quiet. I'm excited to get out into the country, actually.

We were guided around town by an instructor from the University, Joe, and his busses of doom. I guess Kiwis (the people) drive like maniacs. I have never been so tossed around! There were seriously a couple of times I though our van was going to roll. Everyone started pulling out their motion-sickness wristbands. I'm so glad that THIS was the one day I had a hangover. (I got a little silly with the girls in the hostel the night before. Bonding, you know. Amber reminded me about the friendly argument I got into about Paris's layout with the guy from Paris. Oh, dear!)

We visited black sandy beaches (volcanic sand) and forests that inspired Avatar's backdrop (the animators are from this area, or so I heard) and then hiked some dunes. The dune part was a highlight... While most of us got down them this way:

One girl, Carissa, decided to roll down, resulting in the most horrible/hilarious roll-smack sounds. There was a collective fear that she'd lose a limb, since her posessions were flying off at record speeds and then the final thud when she landed was painful for us all. She was ok though. We all got a good laugh about that for hours afterwards. She's a bit of a stoner, so everything is suuuuuuupppppeeeeeerrrrr chill for her and she's pretty unfased. Perhaps her body's response to pain isn't as fine-tuned as the rest of us.

(Carissa, the aftermath.)

(Classmates and Joe on our way to lunch)

(A big crater and a little Auckland.)

(Here you can see Dave and Annie (facing us but looking at Joe, our guide). You can also see Liz's hair, which is the best hair in the world.)

I really like everybody. Right now we're all in the honeymoon phase. Everybody loves everybody and is sooooo nice and there's lots of sharing and helpfulness. I'll check back in a month when our periods are all synched and we're at each other's throats. I can't wait. Actually, I should say that I am super excited about our group. There's one other girl who is in her 30's (thank GOD!) and I've connected with a couple of people. There is only one guy in our group, Wilson, and he's already been designated as our resident spider-killer and personal garbage disposal. Lots of great personalities so far. I really do think it's going to be great. I'm still in awe that I get to do this. I'm so glad I came!

We have class today at the University. The neighborhood we're in is a lot like Ballard. I'm chilling at a coffee shop, trying to wake up. This time difference is still getting to me. Most everybody else came from Seattle, so it's a 20-hour time difference for them. Coming from Europe, I'm somewhere in between. My body still wants to be asleep.

Anyway. I better be off! I'll post again soon.

An Ounce of Prevention...

What's that saying? Someone needs a refresher.





Greetings from my Hong Kong layover! So... I've been traveling since Christmas now and am on my 9th country to drop in on. I thought I knew the drill about customs and getting in, getting out, whatnot, since I've done it so much. Can you see where this is going? (No, this story doesn't end with me in a Chinese labor camp.)





I got to the airport last night nice and early and checked in for my 25 hour flight (or so) to Auckland. The lovely lady behind the counter asked me about my flight information OUT of New Zealand. I hadn't booked it yet because I a) didn't know where exactly I was flying back to and b) was waiting on my financial aid before purchasing the $1,200 one-way ticket back. She said I couldn't get into the country unless I had proof I was going to leave and said the only way I could fly is if I bought a ticket now.





Here's what happened next: Krista goes to the ticket counter and the guy says the cheapest flight he can get me is (you guessed it) $1,200. I say try the card even though I know I don't have quite that much in my checking. It doesn't work. I ask if I can fly out of NZ to another city, like Hong Kong, and he says because of customs I have to show I'm flying back to the states. I said that doesn't make sense... does NZ require that all of its visitors fly back home before traveling anywhere else??? All they should care about is that I leave, right? He says he doesn't make the rules and anyway a one-way to Hong Kong costs just as much as a flight home. He suggests pushing my flight out a week until my aid comes through. This means missing a week of class and trying to locate and meet up with my group that will be on the road somewhere in NZ. I start to cry. I see my next week disolve into a haze of lost money and lost class-time and headache.





I ask to talk to a manager or someone and he points me to another fellow. I go to him and say I don't understand why I can't just buy a one way to another city. He says I can, but I can't go to Australia because of customs issues equal to NZ and anywhere else is just as expensive as a flight home. I cry more. The nice lady who (almost) checked me in comes over. I feel like a fool but I'm tired and feel stupid that I didn't know this regulation. I looked into visa regulations and didn't see anything about this.





Anyway, long story short, and after about 15 minutes of back and forth with other departments and Krista trying to put herself back together, the very nice fellow said he'd issue me an Australian visa, even though he doesn't like to do that sort of thing, and I was able to buy a one-way to Sydney for $118. PHEW. My crisis solved by some very lovely folks at Air New Zealand. (Not as bad as my Kiel, Germany, breakdown. I think I'm getting better at this!)





And now I guess I'm going to Sydney after New Zealand. Anyone want to join me??? A lovely winter vacation in June? Anyone? It'll be raining in Seattle anyway, you know...