Depression Days

It's winter. It's dark and rainy, especially at night. You can't go out without a rainjacket or an umbrella because days are always going to contain rain at some point in time. Well, that's how it was the week before I left for New Zealand and that's exactly how it is right now. I don't know how to deal with this constant depressive weather. There is no snow; the city will never be covered in a blanket of white. Sometimes, I even like rain, but this kind of rain comes with brutal winds. The last week of school contained harsh winds and left many broken umbrellas lying around in the streets and in rubbish bins. The ones in the streets were probably disposed of well and swept away by the winds. My umbrella is pretty good for a compact one and already a couple of the structural members gave way. It's terrible.

The depressive nature of the weather, though, seems to fit with the mood and comes at a good time. It's time for finals, which means lots of studying and less going out. It's depressing weather that makes you want to sleep in, and never go outside. The former may not be optimal conditions for studying, but the latter certainly helps. The temperature is not near freezing, but walking in the rain and wind, and getting your pants cold and wet is an uncomfortable feeling that's dreaded a lot of the time.

I had my first final exam today. I was pretty worried about it, not having prepared for it as much as I would have liked to, but in the end, it went alright. I think I passed, and that's what matters. I still have 3 more final exams left to study for, and even though I am really not looking forward to studying, this weather is a lot better than sunny rays that make you want to go out and play :)

Unfortunately finals also mean that the term is coming to an end. The realization that our friends are going back to their home countries hit first two weeks ago at the last day of classes. I had just had my last class at UNSW, ever. With Joelle constantly playing Nelly Furtado's "Why do all good things come to an end?" or it just plainly being stuck in my head all the time, the thought of this 'good' experience coming to an end is more depressing than anything else: more depressing than the weather, and more depressing than finals. In the last couple of months, I've gained a new group of friends. Harry (UVA), Mike (Purdue), Mike (Cornell), Courtney (Georgia Tech), Ania (UNSW), Dom (...Germany), Kris (...Denmark), Sarah (UNSW), etc. We used to get together so often and then almost daily during the last 2 weeks of class. Most of our activities were at the beach or having a bbq or at someones place or at the spot and the only alcohol ever involved was wine with dinner. I love spending time with these people and I'm really going to miss them when we all take our seperate ways. I get to keep in touch with Joelle since she is a McGill student, but the USA guys will be hard to see again. I'm sure skype will help but it's such a sad thought to think about. Time has gone by so quickly and it running out even quicker. Already some of my friends have left. You never know when it will be the last time you see them.

(picture on the above-right: Kris, Harry, Mike, Khalid and I)

(picture: Joelle, Courtney and I)

Tonight I spent the evening with that group and it was, as always, great fun. Joelle and I made cookies. Then Joelle, Mike (purdue), Ania, Courtney, Dom and I went over to Harry's, whose twin brothers Steve and Blair are in town, for dinner. It was a delicious meal. Chicken Fettuccine alfredo with cool salad (avocados, dried berries, lettuce, cherry tomatoes) and homemade strawberry pie and coconut cream pies for dessert. yum. I brought Traminer Riesling (see image on right), a kind of really good sweet white wine. Haha, courtney really enjoyed that! So that was fun. I thought a bit about how much I'll miss them next semester, and found it really hard to leave, even though I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. But I managed to leave. And yes, it was pouring rain and very windy and cold. My whole front of my pants were soaked by the time I got home (25 minutes walk), as well as my shoes. And the rest of me was moist. If only I had known, maybe I wouldnt have taken a shower 7 hours before because I certainly got one on the way home ;)

I'm pretty sure that I'll end up going to the barbie at the beach tomorrow, and out into the city with them on friday. I'm just like that, always putting priority on friends. Especially friends I may never see again :(

Steve, Blair and Harry-----------------Joelle and I ---------------------Courtney and I

*sigh* Good things always do come to an end. At least I'll have someone to visit when I end up in indiana or wherever Purdue is, haha!

Picture: Ania and Dominik

New Zealand

Hey I just got back from New Zealand on saturday, which was the 16th of June. It was only five days, but it was really awesome. It was me, Bryant (UTexas, USA) and Ryan (Queens, Canada); we rented a station wagon and zoom-zoomed (it was a Mazda) around the south end of the south island.

(picture: Milford Sound)

Lara (Spain) and I met up at the train station to go to the airport on the 10th, because she and I were supposed to go then, while Bryant and Ryan were supposed to arrive in NZ on the 11th since they went to Fraser Island first. Since I've already said we were only three, you know that Lara didn't come. In fact, at check-in, as they checked our visas, there was a problem with Lara's. She's been having problems with it since she got here, and according to the Immigration office now, her visa expired in May (3 months) . This would mean it was a visitor visa, which is impossible since you had to prove you had a student visa in order to be allowed to study at UNSW. And even then, she has to at least be able to finish her semester with a student visa. A student visa is automatically 6 months for one semester. Something obviously went wrong and Lara was punished by the lack of communication that happened. She was told her visa lasted until july, but received no confirmation of it. So, having 5 minutes until check-in was over, I decided to go. At that point, after Lara had been 30 minutes on the phone with the Immigration office, it was decided she was not allowed to leave the country.

Going to New Zealand alone, I wasn't happy for Lara, but I could deal since I knew Bryant and Ryan were heading over the next day. I had to do this also in Tasmania. I got to Launceston a day early then met up with Cyrus in Devonport the next day. At least this time, all I had to do was stay in Christchurch, only find my way to the hostel. Though having a last minute cancellation, we still had to pay the cost of Lara's bed. I got in around midnight, so I had a whole day to discover Christchurch. I rented a car, and drove to the gondola. It was the same car we were meant to rent so the price was divided by 3 instead of 4 and so our whole trip was 1/3 more expensive. The gondola was nice (see picture above) . Christchurch is surrounded by mountains. Not really big or anything, but brings a nice view of the city. I stayed there until sunset, which was really lovely as well. At night I went around the city to Cathedral square and then watched TV for a bit and showered waiting for the guys to arrive around midnight.

Left image: Cathedral Square in Christchurch

What the original plan was, was to drive across the island to the west side, to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers and then drive to Queenstown from there and drive around the east coast back to Christchurch. But then this dirty irishman warned us about the ONE road across to "franz-joz" that might be closed because of ice and also that roads are a lot windier and longer than it looks. So instead we drove to Dunedin (where there's the steepest street in the world: see image on right) then to Queenstown (wonderfully beautiful, plus we we went bungy jumping) then to Milford Sound (spectacular mountain views: see picture on left), then back to Christchurch. It was good. We didnt get to see the glacier (it's okay because I've seen one before) or Mount Cook (highest NZ mountain) but what we did see what amazing!

Picture: on the road to Milford Sound

Wherever we drove we saw sheep mostly. and some cows too. I don't know if you've heard of Ugg boots... they're made out of sheep wool and supposedly really warm. They're really fashionably in Australia, but they just look like tall slippers to me. One of the exchange students back in Sydney once said. "you'd probably need to bring back your Ugg boots for canadian winters" well, maybe it's cold, but those thiings aren't designed AT ALL for dealing with thick snow or slushy puddles, so no, I wont be bringing back Ugg boots. What kind of a word is Ugg anyways? probably native Maori?? I don't know. I saw a neat shirt at the airport that said "baa baa baa. bar bar bar. that sums it up. new zealand" very true. haha

Crazy thing is bars and restaurants. They serve water with lemons, which is alright in itself, but these lemons might have been sitting out a while, but they really make the water taste like spices!! very interesting...

(Picture: me at Milford Sound)

I guess, you're waiting to hear more about the Bungy jumping... Well the whole time, to Ryan, he had already in his mind paid for the AJ Hackett Nevis Highwire bungy jump (143m jump), so we knew we'd encounter the situation where Bryant and I needed to decide if wanted to do some bungy jumping too. Queenstown is a worldly renowned extreme sports capital so it's inconceivable not to do something crazy. I always thought I'd rather do skydiving than bungy jumping, but hey now was the chance! On the way in to Queenstown, we drove by and say the AJ Hackett sign so we decided to stop there. Ryan needed to check the times for the Highwire in any case. The guy who worked there was really convincing on how cool it would be. He was pressing for us to do it NOW. I kept repeating.. no... I can't... no... it's too scary... but I knew I was lying to myself; the truth in the back of my mind was that I wanted to go and do it. I could hear myself wonder why I was saying no. I think I was saying no because I didn't want to do it alone. But then Ryan considered doing the Thrillogy which included the bridge, the highwire and the ledge. So Bryant and I decided to do the combo: the bridge and the ledge sky swing. The bridge was NOW. we paid, got weighed and went to throw ourselves off a bridge. I admit I was scared, but excited too. Ryan was the first to jump. He requested to get dunked in the water. I wanted to at first, but then it was really cold and I didn't want to be wet. It was really scary being on the edge of the platform. I thought I was going to fall over. The guy there said, "Okay, are you ready?" to which I replied, "No..." and right away he added, "okay on one you jump. 3....2......1!" I don't know what made me jump. It was like diving into a pool... but then you realize it's not a pool and you're falling, though only free falling for about a second, until the bungy cord kicks and and then it's okay. But that one second when you're falling and accelerating a bit, and don't know how long you'll fall for is really scary. But it only lasts a second. It's really short. I wasn't scared enough to wonder very much. Then the bouncing around after that is just fun. The whole thing lasts maybe 3 minutes. Pretty expensive for 3 minutes where you fling yourself off a bridge, while being attached by 600 underwear elastics (I have a bungy cord sample as a souvenir!). Came out with my hands shaking slightly but overwise not really affected. I was really pumped after that though. So we drove into Q-town and got to the gondola, up to the top, where the views were AMAZING (see picture on left)! That's where the Ledge is. 400m above the city, with awesome views. The sun was setting. Ryan did the bungy right as the sun was going down. He screamed some curses as he ran off the ledge, very funny! He said he was a lot scarier since there was no bottom. You jump into nothingness with the city 400m below! Bryant and I did the sky swing. Instead of jumping vertically downwards, you just swing from one side to the other. For the swing, you still have to drop about 10 meters of free fall, so that part is scary too, but the views were sooooo nice. When Bryant and I went, it was night, and all the city was lit up. So nice. But it was really cold that night. After all that bungying, I was soooo exhausted and cranky that I just wanted to chill out and be relaxed. Though I still went out with the boys, but was pretty tired and only drank water (...water that tasted like peppered lemons). Good stuff. It was quite an experience. I'm glad I did them, but for the price, I don't think I'll do it again.