My First Week in New Zealand

This week has been a whirlwind of meeting and getting to know the people in my program, getting over the jet lag, and finding our way around the university. But it's been a wonderful week! The girls in my apartment, Chelsea, Ali and Tara, are really great. As an apartment we went shopping for kitchen supplies as well as groceries, so we have already started cooking this past week. The grocery store, called Countdown, has almost everything we would ever need, and some unique items only from NZ. We also live nearby an Asian supermarket where we buy cheaper produce and other random ingredients.

Besides that, we started our classes this past week. The group class, which is History, Society and Politics of New Zealand, is a class specially designed for the program with various lecturers from the nearby universities that specialize in various topics. So far, the class is incredibly informative and I've learned so much in only 2 days about New Zealand. We have this class 4 nights a week for a month, as sort of an introductory class to the country. We also have 2 field trips throughout the semester. As for my other classes, I had my first lecture of Gastronomy yesterday. It seems like it will be a great class! My professor, Ray Mcvinnie, is a well-known New Zealand chef, as well as a culinary writer and judge for the NZ Master Chef TV show. So I'm sure I will learn a lot from him. Topics for the class include evolution of cuisine, foods that changed the world, the role of restaurants, gastronomic tourism, gastronomy in the media and globalization of cuisine. I can't wait! Also, this afternoon I had my first class of Intro to Maori Society. The class is not held in a classroom, but instead in a marae, or a traditional Maori meetinghouse. The class is mostly Maori students who are earning their degrees in Maori Development so it was really cool to meet and talk with some of them. Today we learned about the Maori story of creation and the basis of their religion. It was so interesting!

Yesterday I had a chance to walk around campus and learn my way around the buildings. AUT is a fairly small campus compared to BU, but now I finally know where I'm going. I also spent some time exploring the city. Auckland is a strangely hilly city. I was definitely not expecting that. All of the sudden, streets will rise almost vertically, and walking around can be pretty strenuous. So I've been getting used to that, as Boston is pretty flat. Here's a photo of a small park I ran into.




The second two photos are from Queen Street, a main area of the city. You can see the IMAX theater in both as well as the Sky Tower. Another thing, this week is free gym week at the AUT fitness center, so I went this morning (at 7am!) to a kickboxing class with Laura, one of the girls from the program also studying at AUT. It was a great class and a good way to meet some local Kiwi's! I'll update more very soon and I hope to hear from everyone!

Love, Dafna