Hello! How is everyone? Well if you're not going to talk, I'll just continue with the story! After spending the night at our friend Bridget's place in Auckland, we booked an overnight bus South and spent the day wandering around the city. We went up Sky Tower, which is a somewhat obnoxious needle-like tower in the center of the Auckland skyline. They've got a revolving restaurant that rotates 360 degrees every hour, and we had lunch up there. It actually took some getting used to, and after eating we were ready to stop rotating. We walked around some neat shops and caught our bus in the evening.

The next day and night we spent in the city of Palmerston North, which a few hours from the Southern tip of the North island. There we stayed with our friend Marcus from orientation, who was studying there. The highlight of this stop was the town legend, "the naked pie guy". In NZ, a pie isn't generally a dessert dish, but a smaller pastry filled with meat or vegetables that you eat as a meal or a snack. We went into his shop, where an elderly man was operating the register just wearing a pair of shorts. Lauren asked him if he actually got naked, to which the man simply dropped his shorts. This was the source of much laughter while we ate our pies.

From Palmerston North we went to Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand, and is the closest point to the South Island on the North Island. We waited forever for a bus to the university, where our friends (from orientation) April and Julia were going to school for the semester. We passed the New Zealand Parliament building, dubbed "the beehive". It really does look something like a beehive, but I suppose thats also some sort of crack on the politicians, who everyone makes fun of here (nothing new there) . We had a relaxing evening with Julia and April, during which we watched the extended version of the Lord of The Rings III over quesadillas and wine. By the way, there is tons of Asian food here, but not much Mexican. Thai and Chinese are especially big, due to the large amount of immigration from these countries.

From Wellington, we took the three hour Ferry across Cook Straight to Picton, which is near the North tip of the South Island. The ferry was really cool. It was a giant cruise ship, and one could wander around, go outside, or even visit a movie theater. Approaching the South Island, dolphins were all around the boat. We docked, and caught a bus for the 6 hour trip to Christchurch. The first thing I noticed looking out the bus window was that the South Island seemed a lot dryer than the North. While the North was typically rolling green hills, here I saw a lot of long brown grass. There were also a lot more sheep. For those who haven't heard, there are something like 10 times as many sheep as there are humans in New Zealand.

We finally made it to Christchurch, and checked into our new home of Ilam Village flats, just off campus at the University of Canterbury. Everyone gets their own room, and six flat mates share a kitchen and bathroom. In my flat are three Americans and three Kiwis, three guys and three girls. About half of the people in Ilam Village are Americans. This makes meeting new people easy, but a lot of the Americans are hanging out together in big groups, which makes it difficult to make friends with people from New Zealand or elsewhere. There are also alot of students from Canada, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and China living here. The RA's have been hosting a bunch of events to encourage people to get to know each other. Some of them have been pretty lame (for example "speed-meeting"), but people are getting to know each other on their own anyways.

Well, I think I'm about ready to quit typing again. Next time I'll talk some more about Christchurch, as well as some of the things I've done around town and in the area. Classes start the day after tomorrow, so that should be quite interesting. Bye!