In the Mind of Mike

This past weekend brought about lots of activities. On Friday I went back to Long Bay with a couple friends since no one was able to go with me the first time. This time we walked back along the beach which made for quite a different hike. We walked along the bottom of cliffs that are home to many birds. If brought back memories of my first Animal Behavior lab where we had to record gull behavior.  I ended up going out after that even though I was a little tired and told myself I wouldn't. It ended up being a fun night. The next day a group of us went into Auckland to have lunch and see The Dark Knight Rises. We wanted sushi but didn't know where to go. The two people that have been living here the longest tried taking us Americans to their favorite spots. The first one ended up being shut down. The second one was never found. We walked around in circles for about a half hour then just decided to go to the place that we saw under the bar we went to on Wednesday. We ordered a bi...

This past week has been extremely busy. I started classes on Wednesday, had a catch up dinner with my program IFSA-Butler on Thursday and went on a couple adventures over the weekend. My classes seem good so far. The Environmental Philosophy class seems very interesting and I have a feeling that will be my favourite class. My management lecturer seems like he will give some entertaining lectures and the Identity and Culture in New Zealand class will be enlightening. One of my friends in that class went up to talk to the lecturer we ended up getting called out in class for being Americans. She made us raise our hands so that other people would be welcoming to us. Having 100 people stare at you is not a fun experience! But everyone is really nice and it is defiantly true that Kiwi's are nicer than Americans. For the catch up dinner we went to Monsoon Poon which is an Indian restaurant in downtown Auckland. All the IFSA-Butler events are free and we were treated to a banquet dinner ...

I have now been at my flat in Lucas Creek for a week and am finally all settled. The first few days consisted of me walking to the mall and back multiple times a day in order to get everything that I needed. I knew that I would need a few things but I ended up spending a little more than I thought. I was able to get all my bedding for $90 though so that was pretty awesome and I only got a couple of weird looks during the half hour walk back to my flat! Now I only have to go to the mall for the grocery store which I don't mind since I actually like food shopping. It is defiantly weird shopping though. I have never shopped where I needed to get every single ingredient. Last week I was cooking chicken and forgot to get olive oil since thats always just been in the kitchen. I also didn't have any salt or pepper. I've noticed that they have much fewer brands here which makes sense seeing as there are only 5 million people in the entire country. All in all though they have some p...

I've been in the country for a week now and I've noticed some interesting things about New Zealand. Here they are in no particular order -They love rotaries! They make it seem as though Cape Cod hates rotaries and that's saying something. -There are 5  million people but 9x as many sheep. -The public transportation around Auckland is actually pretty good but the buses usually only have a couple people on them. -They have a lot less brands to pick from in the grocery store. -Everyone is really friendly -They have weird words for lots of things such as:    -flying fox=zip line    - togs= bathing suit    - jandals= flip flops    -biscuit= cookie   -jumper= sweatshirt/jacket   -sweet as= cool. You can add as onto pretty much anything. Such as cold as or easy as. It's almost like   how Massachusetts used wicked. -Fast food menus are different here. KFC is the most different. Instead of wedges they have regular fries and...

Kia Ora or hi! I made it to New Zealand safe and sound and am getting settled into my flat. I left the US on the forth of July and thanks to the international date line arrived in New Zealand on the 6th. Then it was off to the  IFSA-Butler  orientation for until Monday. The staff did a great job of helping us get over jet lag. This mainly consisted of feeding us six or seven times a day. No lie the first day we had breakfast on the plane at about 4AM then tea and cookies before getting on the bus, more food once we got off the bus, lunch, kai (food), kai and finally dinner. It was my kind of orientation. We did a lot more than just eat though. The red building is where we stayed We stayed at the YMCA lodge in the Shakespear Regional Park. The location was great. The ocean is in one direction, fields in another and forest in another. the view from the beach Over the course of the weekend we went sea kayaking, hiking (or wandering as they called it), rock climbing, an...

This is the last week of my summer and I'm happy to say that I accomplished most of my goals. I worked out more, went to the beach and Canobie Lake, did some hiking,visited friends and made lots of money. Now its time to pack for winter (luckily winter has temperatures in the 50's there). I just had my last day of work on Saturday and am enjoying a few free days before heading off on Wednesday. It was kind of bittersweet on Saturday. I huge part of me is happy that I'm done with MArket BAsket until November, but another part of me is going to miss that place. Although the job is boring there are some great people who work there. I got a few going away gifts and my boss even wrote good luck on the schedule which I've never seen before! I didn't think I would get nervous but I'm starting to feel it a little. The fact that I'm going to be out of the country until Thanksgiving is sinking in and I will truly be living on my own. At SMC I feel like I always hav...