Last week of February
All the first years are moving in and it is getting a lot louder in the once was quiet dorm. They are from all over the North Island and all are around 18 years old. They are all very much excited to be at the University for their first year. When I got back on the bus I realized that orientation was just about to start. Lots of name games and attempting to take away the awkwardness of meeting a lot of new people all at once. We are divided up into blocks. So I live in Student Village, which is a dorm, but I live in block 4. I think there are 6 blocks, some of the blocks are flats (meaning 4 people live in one room). I live in pod one meaning first floor. Oh in NZ they don't start their floors on the first floor when you walk into a building you are walking into the ground floor so the 1st floor is one level up... makes so much sense. We got t-shirts that say SV (student village) on the back of them with cool designs. The shirt is black and the writing is in red. Looks pretty cool.
The next couple of days were filled with learning about rules of the dorms as well as rules of the school. The run down of the rules in the dorm goes as follows: You can drink if your 18, but only in your rooms. You can't have more than 6 people in a room, otherwise its considered a "party." Lock down starts at 10pm and they have a drinking rule of drinking only from 10am to 10pm so that you can get to your studies. You must report if you have guests and if you aren't going to be sleeping in your dorm room you need to tell your RA you will not be there. There are more, but I don't want to keep writing them. All you need to know is that I know them and have been told them many times. They are much stricter here on the rules, not saying rules are a bad thing, but they are not as lenient as we are when we set a rule in the states. When they have a rule to follow at this Uni they follow it and will write you up for anything that you are doing wrong. Everything is reported. It is interesting.
There was an introduction to the school at the University's powhiri (pronounced poferi), a traditional Maori welcome filled with singing and speeches in Maori. We walked in the traditional way with women in the front and men in the back and were greeted with a song and when we flied in the men sit in the front and the women sit behind them (apparently this is so the women are protected because they make the babies). The leader of the the other sang and gave a speech then someone from our group, a male, would also sing and give a speech. It was all very exciting, but I could not understand the words. We were outside, but could see traditional carvings, each with its own story and each representing someone's ancestor. The international orientation was after this and we loaded up on some free garb and special offers they were getting people interested in.
Friday we played top team, which is where all the dorms competed against each other in friendly games; ultimate, soccer, touch rugby, water slide, handball, swimming challenge, human knot and some other ones. A hall that I didn't know won. During the night we attended the "block party" where you were to dress up as the first letter of the dorm you are living in. I am living in Student Village, so I had to think of something that started with an 'S'. I dressed up as a smurf... it was really fun and I was happy to have another dress up with me. She is also from the states and goes to school at UNC Charlotte. She also plays rugby and I can't wait to have someone to visit when I eventually make it back to the states. There were many cool and interesting costumes. Other 's' costumes were: sheep, school girl, shower...
Saturday night I went to a flat off campus with some of the australearn people I had met earlier and we met a lot of Germans. The night eventually took us to town to get a glimpse what the club/bar scene is like in Hamilton. Well it is loud, lots of people and they play American music usually remixed with techno.
Sunday I went to the gardens and had a glimpse of a symphony. There was an art exhibit in the gardens, but because of the symphony I couldn't see much of the gardens. And started to prepare for classes on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment