Here's a picture of the sunrise out of my window this morning
to convince my parents that I actually woke up in time for my 8 am.

Not much has changed since my last post, except now classes have finally started. It doesn't exactly feel like it though, since yesterday I only had class 1-3, and today I had one at 8-9 and my next one doesn't start til 4, so I've kind of just been wasting my internet data usage on American tv shows.

Random tidbits I've noticed in the past week or so of living here:
-Kiwis love alcohol. Like they looooove alcohol. I thought the States had a drinking culture until I came here and saw how severely wrong I was.
-It's physically impossible to eat unhealthily on a consistent basis here. Believe me, I've tried.
-I have probably replaced my Dr Pepper addiction with one to coffee (specifically, lattes). Yum. This may prove to be an expensive habit, but so probably is my DP one and I still survive.. right?
-Kiwis know as much/more than I do about American culture sometimes. Except they get the randomest selection of shows on their 4 main channels. (Satellite TV exists, but is extremely extremely uncommon.) Like Lifetime/BBC/ABC shows will all show back-to-back on the same network. I can't figure out the selection process at all. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my free time without Toddlers & Tiaras and Say Yes to the Dress and all the other TLC shows that filled my winter break. #firstworldproblems amirite?
-Having to monitor my internet usage has shown me just how much time I spend unnecessarily on the computer. Eek. The problem being that without much TV to watch, I'm kind of at a loss of what to do while my friends are in class/asleep/generally unresponsive. I can only go to the gym so often.
-Chch *never* stops breezing. Even if it's 75 and sunny, I feel chilly. So not what I'm used to with summertime weather.

Try this. It's amazing.

-Wine is the cheapest thing to drink in New Zealand since it's the only domestic product pretty much, but I'm not really a huge fan of bitter things. (Un)luckily (for my wallet), I've discovered the pleasures of pink moscato and haven't looked back. $7.99/bottle? I'll take 3. ...True story, there's 3 bottles in my fridge right now.
-There's no sales tax here and their $1 & $2 denominations are in coins and there's no pennies. I don't know if I think this is silly or wonderful. Both maybe.
-Also I'm loving the exchange rate, because it's in my favor -- if I spend $65 NZD, it's less than $55 USD, which gives me a whole extra $10 USD more than I expect to have in my bank account. And if you know me, you know that I don't often get pleasant surprises on my bank statements. Mostly just shame and fees.
--This also means that the All Blacks jersey I'm lusting after is only $84 USD!! Way more affordable. ..right? (hinthint my-birthday-is-in-two-months hinthint)

Here's what it looks like, in case you forgot.
And here's where you can buy it! So convenient! I rock.
(Size medium, por favor.)

--Also also, in NZ they say Adidas "a-di-dus" (where the "a" is as in "apple"), as opposed to the American "uh-dee-duz". I can't figure out why, phonetically it doesn't make sense to me.
-Facebook is 137% more boring when you're never on at the same time as other people. And/or if you're trying to celebrate Mardi Gras when it's still Tuesday in the States. ...just an example off the top of my head....
-T9 is not a technology that needs to make a reappearance. I miss a full keyboard. And not having to delete my text inbox 4 times a day.

This is my phone. It has an FM tuner and one game called
"SpaceBall" which is like Snake but stupider. Technology!

I have yet to do any exploring of NZ, but my friends and I are (hopefully) planning a trip to Kaikora this weekend, which is about 2.5 hours north of Christchurch. I've heard it's beautiful. Yay traveling!

Kia ora faithful blog readers (and by that I mean my parents). Besos!