Canterbury Flatmates

I really like my flatmates already. I just talked to Ian who is going to look for  a surfboard and told him I wanted to learn how to kitesurf. He said he is going to rent a kite to practice with so I told him to let me know when he does that and we’ll go practice out on the fields. Apparently, Ireeni, the other girl who I met won the women’s open title for surfing, but Ian said she’s really modest about it. Maybe I will just get a surfboard and learn with them. They also invited me to go hiking on this trail that overlooks the city, but I have to go to orientation stuff in a half hour.

 I just moved into my flat and met two of the four other people living here. One is named Ian and he is a really nice Kiwi guy and the other girl’s name is Ireeni and she won the women’s open title for surfing in NZ!! Ian just went to buy a surfboard. I might do the same and have some really good teachers. I haven’t even thought about school, that I actually have to go, but I only have two classes.

 I arrived on February 10th, and it is now February 19^th. I haven’t been on my computer for 9 days because the Macbook Air has no Ethernet cord. I have gotten so used to not going on the Internet that I haven’t bothered trying to work it out, but I guess it’s essential. There are 27 people in the IES program. I know them all by name and some of them pretty well. A lot live in K block in the ILAM apartments. The apartments, or flats are really nice. I get my own room, we have a kitchen with some appliances, tv with cable, duvet/sheet set, etc. For IES orientation we went on a scavenger hunt around campus, walked around Christchurch, stayed at a hostel in Springfield called Smiley’s, rode jet boats, went to a farm show and ate Tim Tams (really good cookies/biscuits). For the international orientation we had to do another scavenger hunt around campus, but this time there was tons of free stuff with booths everywhere trying to hand you fliers. I got a free pair of sandals (jandals) and a bag amongst other stuff. I ended up joining the gym because its pretty cheap for one semeseter and it comes with heaps of different classes.

I went to Taylor’s Mistake, a beach with my flatmmates and 9 other people. We all crammed in their cars. I tried surfing, but Ireeni’s board is too small for me to learn on.

I went to Sumner beach to walk around and found all my American friends.

There are little things I learn everyday such as rounding change. They don’t have 1 or 5 cents so they either round the change up or down. I guess it will all even out eventually eh?