Hello everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog!! Thought it might be a good idea to keep in touch and send updates about what's going on here in New Zealand for the summer - well, winter here. I'm in Wellington for 8 weeks total, doing a environmental economics research internship and hoping to see as much as possible of Wellington and other spots in this lovely country.
First of all, had a bit of a scare getting here. Sadly, this volcano called Cordon Caulle in Chile has been spewing ash all over the place (Tori, in this case, "spew" actually IS a technical term, not a Duhon-ism) which has been circling the globe and making its home in the air space above New Zealand and Australia. A couple of airlines had cancelled flights, but not mine, so I made it here! After a day of stressing out I got on the plane pretty tired and slept the whole way. Which was a good thing, since it's been non-stop fun since then!
Here's a quick rundown of things I've gotten to do so far. Over the weekend I started getting to know flatmates Thom, Katie, and Jeremy, ran through some "town belt" trails with Katie to the top of a mountain where we were greeted with great views of the city and surrounding bays, celebrated the Maori New Year called Matariki, saw Newtown Rock Steady rock'n'roll at the Matariki gig, went to Island Bay and stood by the ocean, and took advantage of the thriving coffee culture here in Wellington.
Over the week I've run along the waterfront in the early morning hours, cooked and enjoyed vege food with my flatmates, crafted cardboard map-covered curtains with Katie to keep out the cold, heard Jeremy and Thom solo in the a cappella choir first in their warehouse practice venue and then at a bar downtown, met many many more of Thom, Jeremy, and Katie's lovely friends, and I suppose nearly finished the first week of 9-to-5 internship life. Yahoo!
Signing off, more to come!
