February 28

Right now, Jenna and I are organizing a 10 day trip to New Zealand for spring break. I’m getting more and more excited as we plan it. So far, we are spending a few days in Wellington with our friends from UT and then taking a 6 day adventure trip of the south island. I can’t wait! If you have any “must sees” to recommend, let me know! It’s kind of absurd; we have class for 3 weeks and then our spring break starts over Easter. How dumb is that?! But I’m not complaining.

I got my school schedule figured out yesterday. It’s not the best schedule because it’s kind of spread out, whereas most of my friends condensed their classes into 3 days, but it’ll do. I have Monday off which means I get a 3 day weekend, wahoo! Then I have a marketing class from 10-12 on Tuesday, followed by a class from 3-5 called Indigenous Sport, Education and Culture. Then on Wednesday, I have Sociology of Sport from 9-11 and 1-2, and Marketing from 11-12. Thursdays I only have Social Construction of Difference from 12-2. And Friday I have it again from 11-12. Unfortunately, I’m taking very particular classes that don’t have multiple times to choose from, so I’m stuck with it the way it is. But I don’t think it’s TOO bad. Yesterday was the first day of “O-week” which is what they call their orientation. And let me tell you, it’s a party!! I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s like a carnival and it goes from 9am til 1am with different events all over. I had some cotton candy which they called fairy floss, haha! And apparently, there’s no such thing as a dry campus here because they put on events that serve alcohol literally on the front lawns of school! There are pubs next to the cafeteria too. It cracks me up. They don’t take their drinking lightly here. So I went to this carnival thing, signed up for a whole bunch of activities and clubs, listened to live music, ate BBQ, and played with the animals in the petting zoo. It was a lot of fun. It goes on for the next 2 days but I’ll probably be skipping out on most of it since we had our international orientation a week ago. But classes finally start this coming week, so it’ll be nice to get started.

I hear I’m getting a roommate sometime today. They came in and made up her bed so I’m assuming she’ll be arriving soon. I have no idea what to expect so it should be interesting. (yikes!)

I had a very interesting experience the other night at a pub. My friends and I were sharing a pizza and drinks around 8pm and someone comes over the loudspeaker announcing the crab race was about to begin and to place your bets on a crab. We were utterly confused and we stayed around to check it out. So about an hour later, they come out with a big tin bowl and they set it upside down on this board game looking thing. Everyone has crowded around to root on their crab and when they take the tin off, the crabs start racing! Each crab has a number on its back and whoever gets to the end first wins. They give away t-shirts, free drinks, and more to the winners. It was quite the site to see. You never know what you’re going to come across in the Land of Oz.

Well, today I’m going to have lunch with a guy from Houston. We have a mutual friend at UT that hooked us up so I’m going to show him around the city, (as if I’m some pro). Hope you all are enjoying my journal.