Kia Ora

So you know how doors in the US have a handle on one side to pull and a bar on the other to push? New Zealand hasn't caught up with the bar technology yet, so I look like a jackass about 100 times a day trying to pull doors open that are meant to be pushed.

I write to you from a country that feels more like a bizzaro version of the United States than an island that almost grazes the tip of Antarctica. No doubt the nuanced differences will build to a point where I can pinpoint an actual culture, but as of now, it all just seems...quirky. Trash is rubbish, vans are loafed cars, and according to my flatmate, shades are called "the hundred leafed window", but I think he's full of shit.

Speaking of which, our flat consits of: Cool outdoorsman from Santa Cruz, cool outdoorswoman from Alaska, handsome New Yorker, nice Chinese dude, quiet Kiwi (that’s a New Zealander, Rose), and MIA Japanese fella. The six of us live in a totally bitchin' flat and cook for ourselves, which is Cup 'o' Noodles-tastic for me so far, but by the time I get back, Rachel’s going to in for a surprise for our big cook-off.

I had heard that the south island (where I’ll be the next 5 ½ months) is the beautiful island. This is misleading. What I think they meant to say is that the south island is not the beautiful island. We spent our orientation at a YMCA at the Shakespear regional park in the North Island, and I was constantly floored by the beauty. It looked like some fantasyland cross between Ireland the carribian and a Dr. Seuss book. I took a couple pictures. Some of them are pretty shitty, but I’m going to try to post them up on shutterfly when I finish this post. When we finished orientation and flew down to the south island, my NZ experience suddenly got a lot flatter. If the south island is beautiful, its certaintly not within an hour of my university. All of the hills I grew to love on the north island taunt me out my window from far away. Christchurch was built on a huge, cold plateau, which doesn't leave much room for natural beauty

I’m not going to sugarcoat my experience so far, nor am I going to be excessively negative (or analytical). There have been ups and downs. It hasn’t been the experience of a lifetime yet, but it also hasn’t been a week yet. The cool people who came over with butler mainly went up to Auckland (on the north island), and I got stuck with the d-bags down here. Lemons in hand, I’ll see what I can do about making that lemonade.

Chester

PS. Did you know Zach (from Nick’s math class), Elise, Cammy and Tom are all here too? Zach is the only one at Canterbury with me, but it still seemed like a big coincidence that out of a group of about 45 butler students coming to NZ, 5 would be from Conn.