This week has been one of few distractions or events. Sunday I had a small get together officially for my birthday- it included a meal at the only Mexican restaurant in Hamilton (which was down a dark alley- it looked like every free meal would come with a complimentary mugging). The meal was great- and though it took much longer to make and was more expensive than it would be at home, I didn’t mind. I was surrounded by friends whom I loved and cared about, and likewise cared about me. While I was basking in this social happiness, I closed my eyes, and everything felt fundamentally right. I felt as if everything had aligned, and I was simultaneously reliving my past and embarking on an exciting new adventure. In a word, I could close my eyes and feel like I was home. Home. What a concept. Is it where we live, or where we are happiest? Can home really be constrained to a physical location, or is it something more? Is it a mental state inside ourselves? Is our true home our soul? Is home a house, a family, a familiar scent or breeze of wind, or is home a table halfway around the world, full of friends sharing jokes and letting laughter seep out into the cold night air? I can’t tell you. Perhaps home is something we each need to define for ourselves, but on Sunday, I could tell you exactly what home was for me. I could close those eyes and be home. I could be whenever I wanted, any time I desired- I could be last Christmas, or a hot day in July, or the first day of school. I could be at thanksgiving dinner or mother’s day. Maybe what I shared was just that feeling of intense… correctness, the knowledge that this is one of those fragrant life moments that I can look back on for years to come and never forget. Perhaps that is what links all of those memories I have when I close my eyes. Perhaps that is home.
I’ll get off my philosophical pedestal now.
The few days to follow were filled with little of importance. I have no exams until the 24th, which means studying before the 14th would be useless- I need to keep a constant flow of information going through my head in order to be effective, and I think that 10 days for 2 exams is already more than enough time. The week has been filled with sleep ins, trip planning, and relaxation. One could say I am mentally preparing for my soon to be stressful endeavor.
One thing I did do was visit the Hamilton gardens with a really good friend of mine, Anna. The Hamilton gardens are a collection of gardens in styles from around the world. There is a Japanese garden, an English garden, a Chinese garden, an American garden (which looked like someone vomited new age pop art over a block of downtown inner city Newark that had been abandoned for 40 years), an Italian/Greco garden, and an Indian garden. There were also a few other gardens (including a Maori garden, which was literally a pile of dirt. It made the American garden look like someone committed new age pop art over a block of lush, downtown San Francisco. Anna and I walked around, and I marked each garden on overall coolness, tranquility, beauty, originality, thematic elements, etc. The winner was the Indian garden (which was a large courtyard with 4 quadrants of flowers, with the Greco and Chinese gardens tying for 2nd place (the Chinese garden had an awesome hobbit hole type thing). Anna and I then walked to the river and had a good deep conversation until I could no longer feel my hands. Few things make me as happy at the end of a day than a really deep, meaningful and rewarding conversation with a friend.
I also took an evening and walk around the campus with a friend of mine to do some urban exploration- going to areas you normally wouldn’t think of. We walked up outer staircases on one of the blocks just to see the view- something I normally would not do, but I realized how beautiful the view is at night. Half the campus can be seen just from that one spot. The entire idea is to get a new perspective on things, a new viewpoint. We walked around for a few hours, until early morning, and it was great. This is a friend I normally don’t get much time to talk to, and it sure beat the pants off of sitting down and watching a movie, being antisocial.
The week has also been filled with a game I know I have described before, called ‘Who am I?’. The rules are simple. Each person chooses a famous person, Ex. Albert Einstein. I write his name on a sheet of paper, and give it to the person on my left. They stick the paper to their forehead- now everyone can see who they are except them. You can only ask yes or know questions to figure out who you are, and the questions go to the next person when one of your questions is answered as ‘no’. Example:
Am I am man? Yes.
Am I European born? Yes.
Am I Dead? Yes.
Was I known for music? No.
(goes on to next person). First person to figure out their person wins!
This game is incredibly simple but addictive- it is exceptionally fun and can get very challenging. People get very heated when they can’t think of who they are, and we often find ourselves saying ‘just one more game’. One night we played for 5 hours.
So, as you can see, my life here the past week has been fairly low key. If the weather was better or I was better equipped, I would travel, but circumstances just weren’t great for it. I will be traveling starting the 25th, all the way until the 31st of July, when I fly out.
I can’t help but think that after everything I have been through here, I am going to go home, sit down on my bed, and look at all of this as I would a dream. An entire semester, half a year, around the world, and I have come right back where I began. I already know it will be a powerful and surreal experience- but I also know I’ll come back some day, here to these islands. A seed has been planted- I can’t stay away.
P.S. A small update on swine flu. Level 6 pandemic level has been reached. The Waikato region of NZ has been affected, but minorly. I know that New Hanover county, where UNCW (my home university) is situated, has also had cases. Apparently if the infection makes it’s way into the halls here at Uni of Waikato, the containment procedures are fairly extreme- the uni shuts down, domestic students are sent home, internationals stay and are cooked frozen meals until it blows over. This is not an official statement, but I heard it from a source I consider reliable. I imagine it will only be a matter of time before the university gets hit- whether I am here or not, who knows. Apparently estimates in the newspaper today expect 50% of the nation’s population to get the virus in the next 2 years. It is pretty incredible how quickly information travels and situations can develop. 30,000 cases, 74 countries. That’s pretty impressive.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Days 105-111: Birthday Week
So this past week was my birthday week! It wasn’t wild or crazy, but it was kind of busy. Allow me to elaborate:
The first part of the week was mainly working on assignments- My photography exhibition was on Thursday, so I spent a good deal of time scanning my physical prints in, digitizing them, and perfecting them in photoshop. I then got them printed out (A3 prints, 11 by 16 inches, in high quality full color for 60 cents each? Yes please!) and mounted. Our last class day was spent sipping champagne and listening to classical music, reminiscing about deadlines and stressing out. Liquor ban, eat your heart out. It was one of the best last days of class I have had.
Wednesday was my birthday! It was naturally preceded by Tuesday, which was not my birthday. It was on Tuesday I got my first birthday gift, from my good friend Anna. Anna is an interesting friend of mine- she is an RA, and thus is very responsible. In order to balance out her maturity, she often acts very childish, tapping people on the opposite shoulder to get them to look the wrong way and engaging in fanciful waves from great distances. Naturally, she got me a very childish gift in order to balance out my coming of age. I got a knock on my door right after midnight (my first technical minutes as a 21 year old), and had a gift shoved in my hand. Inside were two things: A set of cling- on pirate stickers (currently sticking to my windows and mirrors in my room) and a small wooden model pirate ship (ages 5+). Naturally, I was ecstatic. I played with the stickers and talked to Anna for hours (a naturally unhealthy habit that keeps me up until sunrise on some mornings) and finally went to sleep.
I woke up on my birthday to more gifts. I won’t go into them all, but they included a lot of chocolate, Guinness (YES), a small yard glass, a box of 30 ice cream cones (from a lactose-intolerant German girl, go figure) and other random bits and pieces, including some very nice cards. My Canadian friend gave me sunshine for the day- the weather could not have been nicer. I spent the day relaxing, staying in a hammock, not doing a whole heck of a lot, and loving it. That night a few friends and I went to an Irish pub we had hit up months before- it has a real pub atmosphere, and we were naturally the only students there. After a few rounds (all the good stuff, Guinness, cider, and Speight’s, a local NZ brand), we went to the bakehouse, a 24-7 bakery, and got some good eats. My birthday was low key and very enjoyable.
Thursday was a surprising day- normally it is my hardest, with class all day. Today, however, it was short with only 1 hour of class. I used this to my advantage to sleep in on my birthday. Oh yeah, it was still my birthday. One of the perk of living halfway around the world is that when you have your birthday, it starts on your time and ends at your home time. So, while I may not have had a massive thrashing party with dancing girls and beer kegs, I did have 40 hours of relaxation and enjoyment. I worked on some assignments, but otherwise didn’t have a terribly eventful day.
Friday likewise was less than… monumental. The three perks of the day were getting an assignment back (A+), hanging out on a stoop, and going to physio. At physiotherapy, to make my appointment time I had to run. Those of you who know me know that I have never been able to run a mile- my foot drops and I fall. I was astonished to not have this impending feeling of doom as I ran, that my foot was about to fall. I eventually did reach physio on time, and instantly told Jill, my physiotherapist. She told me to try and run a mile when I got back, so I did.
For the first time in my life, I ran a mile. The feeling was exhilarating. I decided that instead of doing cross training anymore, I would do running instead. The next day I ran an 8 minute mile (pretty good, considering that my last best time for a mile was in the 10th grade at 13 or 14 minutes). I decided to run 2 in a row, taking exactly 16 minutes. I have no clue where this falls on the fitness scale, but it was exciting. Have I found a passion I have thought so many others crazy for holding? Time will tell, I guess. For now though, the prescription from the physio is to keep it up, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
My third good thing about the day was me sitting on a stoop with friends for over an hour, just hanging outside for no good reason. I felt like a city kid.
Friday was the engineering boat race- engineering students have been working on boats all semester, and it took place at the pond on campus. Both costumes and large crates of beer were encouraged. What did I do? I dressed up as a pirate. Naturally. I and a friend of mine dressed up, brought large sticks, and had swordfights on the opposite side of the lake in between races. It was totally juvenile and lots of fun.
Saturday included little except a visit to an art gallery showing scale models of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous inventions, including flying machines, war machines, and more (not to mention the first bicycle). The genius of the man is astonishing. Later that night me and Bryce went out to do some light graffiti, where one takes a long exposure picture of a subject, and then by manipulating light sources, is able to create an image similar to graffiti without damaging property. We spent most of the night walking around town, but did get a few cool shots near some abandoned buildings and in a graveyard. After a ton of walking we called it a night.
The first part of the week was mainly working on assignments- My photography exhibition was on Thursday, so I spent a good deal of time scanning my physical prints in, digitizing them, and perfecting them in photoshop. I then got them printed out (A3 prints, 11 by 16 inches, in high quality full color for 60 cents each? Yes please!) and mounted. Our last class day was spent sipping champagne and listening to classical music, reminiscing about deadlines and stressing out. Liquor ban, eat your heart out. It was one of the best last days of class I have had.
Wednesday was my birthday! It was naturally preceded by Tuesday, which was not my birthday. It was on Tuesday I got my first birthday gift, from my good friend Anna. Anna is an interesting friend of mine- she is an RA, and thus is very responsible. In order to balance out her maturity, she often acts very childish, tapping people on the opposite shoulder to get them to look the wrong way and engaging in fanciful waves from great distances. Naturally, she got me a very childish gift in order to balance out my coming of age. I got a knock on my door right after midnight (my first technical minutes as a 21 year old), and had a gift shoved in my hand. Inside were two things: A set of cling- on pirate stickers (currently sticking to my windows and mirrors in my room) and a small wooden model pirate ship (ages 5+). Naturally, I was ecstatic. I played with the stickers and talked to Anna for hours (a naturally unhealthy habit that keeps me up until sunrise on some mornings) and finally went to sleep.
I woke up on my birthday to more gifts. I won’t go into them all, but they included a lot of chocolate, Guinness (YES), a small yard glass, a box of 30 ice cream cones (from a lactose-intolerant German girl, go figure) and other random bits and pieces, including some very nice cards. My Canadian friend gave me sunshine for the day- the weather could not have been nicer. I spent the day relaxing, staying in a hammock, not doing a whole heck of a lot, and loving it. That night a few friends and I went to an Irish pub we had hit up months before- it has a real pub atmosphere, and we were naturally the only students there. After a few rounds (all the good stuff, Guinness, cider, and Speight’s, a local NZ brand), we went to the bakehouse, a 24-7 bakery, and got some good eats. My birthday was low key and very enjoyable.
Thursday was a surprising day- normally it is my hardest, with class all day. Today, however, it was short with only 1 hour of class. I used this to my advantage to sleep in on my birthday. Oh yeah, it was still my birthday. One of the perk of living halfway around the world is that when you have your birthday, it starts on your time and ends at your home time. So, while I may not have had a massive thrashing party with dancing girls and beer kegs, I did have 40 hours of relaxation and enjoyment. I worked on some assignments, but otherwise didn’t have a terribly eventful day.
Friday likewise was less than… monumental. The three perks of the day were getting an assignment back (A+), hanging out on a stoop, and going to physio. At physiotherapy, to make my appointment time I had to run. Those of you who know me know that I have never been able to run a mile- my foot drops and I fall. I was astonished to not have this impending feeling of doom as I ran, that my foot was about to fall. I eventually did reach physio on time, and instantly told Jill, my physiotherapist. She told me to try and run a mile when I got back, so I did.
For the first time in my life, I ran a mile. The feeling was exhilarating. I decided that instead of doing cross training anymore, I would do running instead. The next day I ran an 8 minute mile (pretty good, considering that my last best time for a mile was in the 10th grade at 13 or 14 minutes). I decided to run 2 in a row, taking exactly 16 minutes. I have no clue where this falls on the fitness scale, but it was exciting. Have I found a passion I have thought so many others crazy for holding? Time will tell, I guess. For now though, the prescription from the physio is to keep it up, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
My third good thing about the day was me sitting on a stoop with friends for over an hour, just hanging outside for no good reason. I felt like a city kid.
Friday was the engineering boat race- engineering students have been working on boats all semester, and it took place at the pond on campus. Both costumes and large crates of beer were encouraged. What did I do? I dressed up as a pirate. Naturally. I and a friend of mine dressed up, brought large sticks, and had swordfights on the opposite side of the lake in between races. It was totally juvenile and lots of fun.
Saturday included little except a visit to an art gallery showing scale models of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous inventions, including flying machines, war machines, and more (not to mention the first bicycle). The genius of the man is astonishing. Later that night me and Bryce went out to do some light graffiti, where one takes a long exposure picture of a subject, and then by manipulating light sources, is able to create an image similar to graffiti without damaging property. We spent most of the night walking around town, but did get a few cool shots near some abandoned buildings and in a graveyard. After a ton of walking we called it a night.
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