Day 8- the Whirlwind

So, life has been nuts for the past few days. I have been neglecting this blog, but I have an excuse- Everyone moved in on Wednesday!
Shocking to me, almost everyone (unless they are an RA or int'l student) is a Freshman. I am living with about 300 of them. I was not expecting this, and as a result, there has been a ton of parties- I assume these will die down when classes start, and I am all for a good round of drinks with friends, but some of it seems a bit out of hand. Then again, thinking back to the first week of school my freshman year, it seems very similar. I didn't drink back then, though.

So, the scene is downtown. There are pubs, clubs, and bars there, some with live music. Alcohol prices aren't too bad, a few NZ bucks for a handle (which is a normal glass for most). Cut that cost in half and that is how much it costs in USD. There are few brands I recognize here, except for Becks and Corona. The local brands are pretty good- Speights, Tui, and Steinlager are all good, as is something called Export Gold (almost a carbon copy of rolling rock... mmmm...). Spirits are a different matter, though. Most of them i recognize, but they are incredibly expensive. I won't go into price comparisons, but some bottles are twice what they are back home.

All in all, I like the town of Hamilton. I already know it better than most people who are here- the public transport is nice as well. The bus is less than 3 NZ dollars one way into town (about a 30-45 min walk), with a voucher for a free ride back on the same bus within 3 hours. If you get a Busit card, which costs $5, you get a dollar off of each fare, so the cost is only $1.80. If you get a nice bus driver, you get your ticket for $0.90 :)

There are thrift shops here as well, called OppShops (Oppourtunity Shops). Their prices are good :)

Two days ago I got a cell phone! There are two cell phone companies here, Telecom and Vodafone. Calling is incredibly expensive here- the basic 30 dollars a month plan gives you 30 minutes a month to use. In addition to that you get 2000, but only to members of the same company. Texts to or from other companies cost you at least 20 cents per. The unfortunate result of this is the fact that most people have both Telecom and Vodafone. Telecom does do a deal where you can get 500 texts to both companies a month for 10 bucks a month, but you have to buy the phone from Telecom, and it costs at least $150. I decided to buy a used phone and go with Vodafone. We went a a hole in the wall phone shop, where the shopkeeper barely spoke english. It turns out he was a PhD student at the University of Waikato (where I go for you who haven't kept up) from India. I got my phone for 55 bucks- it is very basic, and I only use it for texting. A friend of mine named Kristen got one for $40, and when she turned it on she found it was full of contacts already from someone else! Whether the phone was turned in by the owner or stolen, we will never know. Anyway, with the phone, SIM card, and texting, it was only 85 NZD (about 50$ back home). It is 10$ a month to keep up the texting, a good deal. That was my adventure for the day.

Yesterady we went Oppshopping for clothing. Last night a BOCS party was held downtown- BOCS are the first letters of the 4 places to live on campus- Bryant Hall, Orchard Park, College Hall, and Student Village (where I live). You had to dress up as something that began with the first letter of your residence- my letter was S, so I dressed up as a Soviet. I didn't bring my camera, but I am in a ton of other pictures, so I will post them when I get them. This party was hosted by the university at a downtown club. My costume consisted of a black suit with a red tie and a small soviet hammer and sickle. I did an accent as well (a terrible one I might add). One guy went as a suitcase- which is to say, he cut holes in a suitcase for his legs and head, but not his arms. He was walking around armless all night- and if he had fallen over, he probably would have stayed that way.
Anyway, thrifting! Everyone bought a few random things, but the big find was a random box of hangers (for free!) and a warehouse plank. The Warehouse is the equivalent of Wal-Mart here. Everything in their store comes in big wooden crates- they are painted red with 'THE WAREHOUSE' spraypainted in black stencil on the side. I really wanted a few planks to bring home (assuming customs will let me), because they look wicked. I will post a picture of me with the plank I took from their pile of crates out back. I then walked into the store with it, and walked back out, following some friends. I got some weird looks, but not much else. I was pretty excited about it :)

Well, it is pouring here, and almost dinner time (early 5 pm dinner! Arrrgh!) so I had better go. Classes start in 2 days, and then things will REALLY kick into gear.