Catching Up

Life in New Zealand is going by pretty quickly and it seems like I've been here for a long time, but I still have two and a half months left. Crazy!

A big thing for Otago students in general and my flat in particular is "Red Cards" which basically means that every person in my flat gets to "pull a Red Card" that everybody else in the flat has to participate in. This usually entails doing ridiculous competitions around the neighborhood. I decided to pull my Red Card last week, and it was The Amazing Race themed. Everyone had to bring a partner to compete with them, and then they were required to compete in various challenges. The first was a scavenger hunt, where they had to find items such as potato and a straw before advancing to the next challenge. The next was an eating competition, where one team member had to choose an item to eat from under a bucket. The options were Spam, sardines, and a spicy pepper. The third challenge was an obstacle course at a local field, which everyone ended up cheating at anyway. The final was a round of trivia. It was a silly night to say the least, but good fun. I already have plans to bring Red Cards back to Whitman next year!

 Mid-semester break begins on Friday, and my flatmate Sam and I are going to be renting a car and driving all over the South Island. We've mapped it out, and she and I have both made several CDs to keep us occupied in the car. We're going to be doing several day hikes, including one near Mt. Cook, as well as a half-day glacier walk on the Franz Josef Glacier. Sam initially wanted to do the full-day walk, but when I read that it involved "squeezing through tight blue crevasses," "sliding through ice caves" and "shuffling down near vertical walls of ice" I decided that I'd rather not spend the day crying on a glacier and convinced her that the half-day walk will be equally thrilling.

Other than that, life in New Zealand is cruising right along. I was thrilled when I had two missed calls and messages from Karen and Josh, and it was worth every cent of the $7.00 I paid to talk to Karen for 12 minutes. Looking forward to break!