Hey everybody. So last night was the Lantern Festival, commemorating the Chinese New year and bringing in the year of the pig. The United States is not the only country that is a melting pot, I'm beginning to realize. Auckland had a big celebration in Albert Park which is literally right next door to the University of Auckland. They had all kinds of lit up cloth and some paper mache' sculptures, and as you probably guessed, lanterns. It was quite beautiful. As it happened I forgot my camera, so no pics. Sorry. The best parts were the performances. The whole thing began with, I shit you not, a speech by Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The leader of the opposition National Party, John Key, was also there. So basically the two highest government officials were about 30 feet from me. Being a country of 4.2 million in this corner of the world apparently makes it a lot easier to get in touch with your government. As I wrote earlier, you can look up Helen Clark's address in the phone book, or you could call her up and chat with her at home about any concerns you may have. Crazy. Anyways, there were some awesome drum performances and some impressive acrobatics after that. And all that for Free-fitty. Pretty cool.
School has been interesting so far. Classes here seem very paper oriented, unlike the tests and labs I've found in most of the science courses I've taken. They also have a canoe club, climbing club, a tramping club (hiking for those who don't speak Kiwi) and a Mt. biking club. I signed up for a few of those. I did pass on the: meat club, who's goal is to provide an "inexhaustable supply of meat", the drinking club (I think you can figure that one out), and the dessert club, which sounded fine and dandy (I mean hey, I like dessert) but I'm not going to join a club for it. Thanks for all the inquiries guys, I appreciate it. Oh, and just so you realize that all the moonbats aren't in the US of A, here's this gem I found on a billboard in northtown.
The Inner Potential Centre
A black swan I saw at a park near my place. Sorry for the poor pic.
My place. The small windows below the red roof in the middle are my room.
1 comment:
What's with the Dances with Clams title? I didn't hear about any sweet ass dances with seafood at that thar festival... I thought this was the name of a bad ass climb... are you doing it justice?? (A question for the ages, my friend)
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