Orientation

I've made it safely to Dunedin and I'm finally feeling settled. My room is set up, my flat mates are here, and my things are all put away. It's so nice to stop living out of a suitcase!

Dunedin is cold. And yes, this is coming from a Minnesotan. The difference between Dunedin cold and Minnesota cold is that there is no central heating in the flats. I have a small space heater in my room, but it can only be on for about 30 minutes at a time to save on electricity. I have worn my Patagonia Puff and my Columbia fleece nonstop since arriving here.

The orientation that Arcadia University, the program through which I'm studying, was nice. We spent a day in Auckland, travelling around, mostly to keep us from going to bed and to avoid jet lag. We took a hike, saw the Uni campus there, and went up in the famous sky tower. (I heard someone say that it is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.) On Saturday, we drove a couple hours to a town called Rotorua. The town is situated on a Lake Rotorua and around many natural hot springs. The whole down smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulfur in the water. It was also pretty touristy and is known as Roto-Vegas.

While we were there, we visited an outdoor hot spring pool, experienced the famous New Zealand-created zorbing, went to a sheep show, and walked around 2 environmental parks. (The picture is taken of us inside the zorb after our roll down the hill). I had a good time but was very ready to get to Dunedin.

Since I've been here, I've had a campus tour, gone shopping, and gotten to know 2 of my 3 flat mates. Living with me in 42 St. David St. are Des, my Kiwi Host, Chesney from Colorado, and Hiroshi from Japan. He just arrived this morning and went straight to bed, so I have not had a chance to meet him. The other two are pretty nice. We watched an episode of a British TV show together tonight.

Tomorrow is more orientation for all of Otago's international students, opening a bank account, and paying for my linen pack.