Day the First

I arrived in Wellington at about 10:30am, New Zealand time, with two of my classmates who had conveniently been on the same flight as me. Since we wouldn’t be able to check into our apartments until 2:00pm, we left our baggage in a safe place and headed off to explore the city and find lunch (and wi-fi). It was the little details that stood out to me as we walked through the city: the sound the crosswalks make, the layout of the traffic lights, the words “look right” painted on the edge of the sidewalk. I thought of my dad as I studied the trees and pondered their relation, or lack thereof, to American trees. I took in the architecture. I gawked at the view of the ocean. Today my role was that of a tourist, and I played it well.

I ate my first meal in New Zealand, a chicken pie and a salad, at the café in Te Papa, which is the museum for which I will be working this term. The lemonade here is carbonated, and not very sweet. I saved the bottle. I was maybe a little too eager to go online to let everyone I left on the other side of the world know that I had arrived safely. But that done, we still had some time to kill, so we wandered into the museum to begin exploring the exhibits before returning to check in to our apartments.

Wellington is a beautiful city. But of all that it had to offer, the thing I was most excited about at that point, the thing I most looked forward to… was a shower. After about 35 hours of travel time wearing the same clothes, followed by walking through the city on a hot, sunny day, I'm not sure I've ever been so excited to be clean. Once that was out of the way, I unpacked and organized my room.

Just as I was putting away the last of my things, I was invited to join a group headed to the waterfront for a swim. If today is any indication, I’ll be doing a looot of walking in the coming weeks. There we encountered a structure of stairs over a rectangle of ocean water. It was a platform off which people could jump into the water. Half a dozen of us tried it, myself not included. The temperature was starting to drop, and I didn’t want to get wet, not so abruptly. But I made a promise to myself: I will jump off that platform before I leave New Zealand.

 The Platform:

 

From there, we moved on to a small beach. The sand was coarse, full of broken shell pieces. More or less safe to walk barefoot, but not comfortable. Here I was brave enough to stick my toes in the water, which was enough for me to conclude that I had been right not to jump in earlier; it was frigid. We ooh’d and aah’d over the moon jellies floating in the surf and debated whether or not they were actually dangerous. Some of us took the opportunity to play on the nearby playground, which had a rope jungle gym structure. I climbed it barefoot, and had a fun time of it.

I don't have a picture of the playground, but here's the beach:

 

And then came the adventure that was my first foreign grocery trip. Everything here is measured in the metric system—kilograms and liters instead of pounds and ounces. That wasn’t a problem until I tried getting some deli meat, which were sold in increments of 100g. I had no idea how much that translated to in pounds. So I improvised, and got perhaps some more sliced smoked chicken than I needed. I think the most interesting part of the grocery run, however, was the cereal aisle. They had Kellog’s brand, but the cereal names were all different: Rice Krispies were Rice Bubbles, and Frosted Flakes were simply Frosties. Who knew?

Then home (the term by which I will now be referring to the apartment, for conciseness’ sake) to eat dinner. It had already been a long, long, long day. I’ve already begun to think in a Kiwi accent; I wonder how long it will be before I begin to sound like one as well. And I wonder whether, if it does happen, it will be a good thing or a bad thing.

I miss internet, and my phone. Being without one or the other does not bother me, but being without both… I feel cut off from my world. It will take some adjusting, to be able to check my social networks with less frequency. But I think it will be good for me. Besides, I have enough books, knitting, and embroidery to keep me occupied. 

More importantly, I am beginning to build friendships with my classmates. Later in the evening, the entire class gathered in one of the apartments to play Cards Against Humanity. I didn't know any of these people before ID2050, and I still don't know if I can call any of them friends. But I feel comfortable with them, comfortable enough to laugh and listen and contribute. Friendship will come soon enough. It reminds me of Girl Scout Camp. I spent twelve summers of my life spending weeks at a time with groups of girls I had never met before. This is not so different, but that we are older, and there are guys as well as girls in the group. I won't be able to become friends with them all, but I will with some, and that will be enough.

And so ends my first day in New Zealand.