"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." -J.R.R. Tolkien

We'll start with this hilarious picture John took. Down there is the LotR film site.

Coffee, classes, clubs and climbing...

Today is Saturday, and I'm done with classes for the week. I've been here for approximately two weeks, and I'm pretty thrilled with this place. It's so exciting.

This was a mocha. Those marshmallows were strange.

First of all, let's talk about caffeine. It's all pretty sweet here. I've never been huge for breakfast, but I'm pretty good for coffee all the time.

This was my friend Richard's hot chocolate. It had just as much foam as the coffees have.

Here, you can't get plain coffee. It is quite impossible to ask someone for “coffee.” You have to be specific about it. It feels like learning a whole new language. There are mochas and lattes and cappuccinos, but not plain coffee. 

We all love the latte art you get here.

So you can get a flat white, which would be closely related to our normal coffee with milk and sugar. You can also get a short black, which I think is a shot of espresso. And there's something to do with normal black coffee, but it isn't called that. I haven't ordered it, so I'm not actually sure. But everything I've had has been good.

This vat of mocha I got had chocolate covered marshmallows shaped like fish. Sweet as.

I've finally finalized my schedule. I'm taking four classes—that's the most amount of classes I'm allowed to take. But get this—they are all on Tuesday and Wednesday. Though those two days may be a little rough, I'm looking forward to grabbing weekend deals and checking out some of the surrounding area.

Wasn't sure how to drink from the vat. But twas quite yummeh.

I'm taking Media Law and Ethics, Feature Writing and Freelancing, Introduction to Cross Cultural Communication, and Public Relations Management.

Finally, legitimate bathroom people...

Media Law and Ethics should be interesting. What I think will be especially interesting is that I'll be learning about media law in New Zealand. I wonder if people in the media operate differently here than at home.

Feature Writing and Freelancing I'm surprised to not be terribly excited about. In my writing classes at home, we had to write one piece per week. Here, for this class, we're only actually going to write one piece. Supposedly it will be one good piece, but I find it difficult to wrap my brain around that I'm taking a writing class and we're going to be doing very little writing. Strange.

Massena wine?!?!?!

Introduction to Cross Cultural Communication I'm excited about. Our first lecture was really interesting, and my teacher is Irish, which thrills me. The discussions we had got a bit excessive and seemed to turn into a “I've been out of the country more than you have” disagreement, but the teacher is terribly excited, and I'm sure the discussions will be good.

People keep saying Wellington is artsy. Maybe I'm beginning to believe them a bit?

Public Relations Management I'm not sure about. I think it'll be the most difficult, because many of the concepts we'll be discussing and looking at I haven't glanced at or heard of yet. However on the whole, all of my teachers seem pretty nice.

Richard took this terribly attractive photo at the market...

The only thing I'm concerned about is the work load. At home, I typically do assignments for each class weekly. There's a ton of writing, papers, essays, and tests. Here, there are approximately four assessments per class. I'm using the term assessment flexibly—this includes tests, assignments, and papers.

Richard took this too. Now y'all know what I look like when I take pictures of my feet.

There's still reading though, and that I think will take up the bulk of my “homework.”

And this was the resulting photo. Beautiful woods, hm?

I'm also using the term clubs loosely.

John's attempting to take a picture of me, and I'm attempting to make an "A town down motion" I miss Atlanta sometimes <3

I joined every club at the club interest meeting (thing). There's a surf club, and supposedly they'll teach me to surf, or at least a little bit tell me what to do. There's a brewing club. A pub crawl is scheduled for next weekend, but I don't think I'll be going because there's a swimming event called “the plunge” going on, and I really want to go to that. But in the brewing club they teach you how to brew beer. Not really my thing, but there were so few clubs, I went ahead and put my name down. There's also a rowing club. I joined that too, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it up. I'm supposed to go tomorrow, so I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

I love this photo. John took it. 

I've also gone to a few clubs—the loud music, dubstep and techno playing ones. Those of you who know me at home know exactly how much “partying” I did there. Here, it seems pretty standard for people to go out. And you can't go out until eleven, because every place is nearly empty until then. And even at eleven, some places are still quiet, and I felt really awkward being in them and trying to dance with my friends. 

So many people have tried to decipher the map
in my book. I thought they looked so cute.
L to R: Bryndon, John, Richard

Last night, with my flatmate Jess, we saw somewhat of a local celebrity at the club we were at. His name is Jay, and he's on a radio station here. Click to read about him? Although Rebecca and I were keen to not be in the picture since we didn't know who he was, the guy he was with took the picture for us so we could be in it too. Pretty cool, no?

Jess is to Jay's left. She's fantastic. Bit it unfortunate this photo got bombed though.

And finally, after three climbs up Mount Victoria, I've finally found a Lord of the Rings site. It was so exciting I nearly wet my pants and fell over.

It's the place where they filmed the entrances to the land of the dead.

I was so happy.

This is the spot! Along with a pic from my book. Mean as.

We're all planning on going back and looking for more spots. Maybe now that we've sort of figured out the map in my book, we'll be able to find the other four or something spots on Mount Vic.

John's. He took a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me. Make sense?

Wuvshoo.