O-Week Kicks Off
Friday, March 3rd, 2006Monday was my first day of classes. While waiting in line for lunch (lunch starts at 11:30 and my first class, actually they call them “papers” here, was at noon), I found out that Alice had a class in the same building as me, also at noon so we walked over together. My first “paper” was Introduction to Maori Society and Culture and it looks like it is going to be very interesting. The professor really seemed into the topic and he is actually an expert at long distance canoe sailing in the traditional Maori style. My next paper was Introduction to Maori language and it looks like it is going to be quite challenging and time consuming but also interesting. The professor’s name is Haupai Puke and she explained how her last name means “hill.” Her first name is from “pai” which means “good” and “hau” which means “wind.” She said that a “good wind” is a wind that helps you sail through the sea or one that comes along and dries your laundry and the most important “good wind” is mist because it means that the earth is warming up and that things will begin to grow. When you learn the Maori language you must also learn a lot of culture because otherwise things won’t really make sense since a lot of it is Maori interpretation and not direct translation. For example, the Maori word for “department” like the department of Maori studies is actually “aka,” which means “vine” because a vine cannot grow up by itself, it needs to attach to something and it needs support like a department at a university that does not operate in a vacuum but relies on other departments etc…So I can see that it is going to be quite an interesting semester.
That night I met this girl Christie and her friend Rebecca who are both from Britain and they asked if I wanted to go out with them. Since it is O-Week, every night of the week is a party night. So I went to go check what Chia and friends were doing but they were not in their rooms so I said sure. Christie has been living in Hamilton for four years so she was going to show us all the good spots to go out. What’s great about the bars/clubs here is that there is no cover charge to get in so if you don’t drink (like me) then it’s a free or very cheap (cuz you need a taxi to get to and from town), night out.
Anyway, Pablo was hanging around so I asked him if he wanted to come and he said sure. So then we all went to go get ready. I was ready faster than the other girls so I went to Pablo’s room because he had the door propped opened and he was playing Spanish music and I said “Oh I know some Meringue” and I got up to show him and then he was like wow and we ended up dancing in his room for a while! He was so happy. He said that the girls here can’t dance at all and I was like well the guys can’t dance either, that I think it’s some Anglo thing where it’s uncool or something. So that was awesome.
Then when we went out to the Hilly, he was a really good dancer and we had a great time. After that, Christie called Mohammed, this Somali cab driver she knew, and he took us into town where we went to this big college club called the Outback where they were having a “Foam Party.”
The Foam Party at the Outback
There was foam spraying everywhere and everyone was wet and slippery. It was quite an interesting experience. Pablo met some people he knew so I grabbed Rebecca and we went into the foam but then when we got back out we couldn’t find Pablo or Christie. Some of the people we met there went to go to the Monkeyfeather and Rebecca had worn these pretty shoes that were really hurting her so I was like “ok you sit here, I’m going to try to go find Pablo and Christie and if I can’t find them, then we’ll just grab a taxi and go home ourselves.” So I searched around and finally found Christie who was being harassed and followed by her ex-boyfriend, plus she had had a little too much to drink and she was shaking all over and talking way to fast. So I was like I have to get them home. We stood outside the club and Christie texted Pablo to tell him where we were but to no avail so we stood around for a bit hoping he would show up.
Taylor and I
Then I saw Taylor and we were all going to split a cab back to the Uni but then a guy he was with went off with this girl to another bar and Taylor invited us to come but Rebecca wanted to go home so we got a cab. There was this guy who was alone and asked to come with us in the cab so we said sure, the more people in the cab, the cheaper it is for all of us. We went back to Uni and then he ended up paying for all of us, which was really nice of him since he was like a complete stranger as well. So I ended up back home at about 12:30 AM, which was good because after all it was a school night. My first lecture was not until noon the next day anyway.