Bowling, Bars, & Some Good Mates

Finally I have added some pictures! Hopefully that will tide a few of your over while I work on getting more up here. As you can see, my house is pretty a-door-able. I also snuck a picture from Denise of the bakery that resides across the street from us. It is so cute :) and in the morning it smells amazingggg :D

Well, I think I have successfully managed to figure out how public transportation works around here. I've rode the bus a couple of times so far. Fact #2: No student bus passes in the heart of Hamilton, New Zealand. Laaaaammmmeeeeee. I never took advantage of the free busing in Duluth and now I am regretting it. A trip on the bus here - no matter how long you are on (as long as its not more than 2 hours) - is three dollars. THREE DOLLARS. gosh..my bike sure is gonna come in handy :)

It's not too tough to bike most places from where my flat is. It is about a 10 minute walk to the campus from my flat and then I can bike to "city centre" (thats where all the cafes, shops, and bars are located) in about 15-20 minutes. There are a few incredible hills that I hope to conquer no problem by the end of this summer. Denise and I encountered two yesterday and WOW...we are out of shape. Ha! There's a picture that I posted earlier of our new bikes...equipped with super sexy helmets (its a law in New Zealand that you have to wear a helmet at all times, pretty smart, eh?) and then we also needed lights for the front and back if we are riding at night. Pretty classy if I do say so myself.

Today was yet another beautiful day. The sky is blue..barely any clouds. And then, you get out of your nice warm bed and are reminded by the sudden goosebumps that it is still the middle of winter :P but I don't think you could ask for much better weather in the winter. Pretty cool.

So, I've been wondering what in the heck goes on in the space next to my flat because I always hear children outside my house early in the morning. I thought it was kind of odd. Well, today I remembered that curtains can be pushed back to see the outside world (I hadn't thought of it on the other overcast days) and opened my window to find a PRESCHOOL. How precious. :) I guess it will serve as something to push me out of bed in the mornings when I cannot get up. Just give me the sound of a kid screaming for 5 minutes and I will be up and ready to go. Haha! It's cute though, they all play at the playground next to my room during the day.

I'm definitely starting to get more used to the way things work around here. My flat is starting to feel more like home as I go along, which is nice. It's Friday here at the moment..so I'm about to enjoy my last weekend before I start school. I found out that the semester here is only 12 weeks though which is SO COOL. :) But yeah, tonight a few of the girls that I have met here, my roommate, and myself are all going to see Eclipse and then we are going to meet up with the guys that we have met to go out to the bars afterward. It should be a good night :)

Last night we all enjoyed a night of bowling which was really, really fun. I like the group of people that I have met so far and we all seem to get along great as a group so that is really exciting to see happening already. Let me introduce the current gang we have going on:

Top left: Verena (Germany, visiting NZ for a year to travel), Nora (Studying @ Waikato from the Netherlands), Denise (my roommate from Germany), Ruth (Studying from the Netherlands), Katie (Nora's roommate, local kiwi)

Bottom Left: Spencer & Keith (both from UMD studying with me) and then Harold (met at backpacker's, from Aussie and traveling NZ)

So, I think I have made a great start on my blog so far! I have more pictures from bowling and stuff but will probably wait to put them up or just add them on facebook. For now that is all I know-- Gotta go get my laundry out of the washer and hang them up (it's gonna take some getting used to) and then we are off to buy some groceries! Cheers!

-BriDownUnder