internetless still

Update: still no broadband in our apartment. I am currently sitting on Malcolm's couch drinking a heineken and writing this blog post on my iPod. Isn't life great? Haha. Soon we head over to charlotte's house for a barbeque and then its off to a night on the town with kelsi, fritha, tim, and maybe katie. Fritha is an auntie! She was oh so very excited be hyperactive last night while waiting for the news. Were all very excited for her and the family too of course! Alright, I think that's all for big news. Its raining here, has been all day. Makes for a pretty crappy Saturday. Yes nick, I am writing this from the future. And now future brent has stuff to go do. Peace out cubscouts.

Such is Life

Things here have been pretty normal, just going about my everyday routine at this point. That involves going to classes, hanging with the flatmates (even though we have 2 who have yet to show up), and walking down the beach every couple of days. I’ve finished my book that I started last summer finally. No, I’m not that slow of a reader, I got about a quarter of the way through last summer then stopped. The title is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, and if you’re a psych major or just interested in the fallacies of the human mind, I recommend you pick it up. It’s an incredibly interesting and (gasp!) educational read, but still very entertaining.



Gilbert writes well and he aims to discuss why we are so bad at predicting our future and what is going to make us happy. Now it’s on to the The Life of Pi, which I also started last year but didn’t get more than 20 pages in before I forgot about it. Kelsi claims it’s a great read, so I figure I’ll give it another chance.

If you’ve never heard of The Dear Hunter, you should probably listen to them. It’s one of the most interesting bands I have ever heard, really a mix of many different types of sounds. If you like The Receiving End of Sirens (and how could you not?) then you’re bound to like The Dear Hunter because the lead singer from TREOS’s first album, the one who made the vocals as strong as they were, left the band and started working with The Dear Hunter. The second album titled The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading, is the stronger album of the two. Check out The Procession, Smiling Swine, and The Bitter Sweet 1 and 2: Meeting Ms Leading / Through the Dime for a good variety of sounds.



Kelsi and I went up to the Mountain biking park on an hour or so long hike. I'm excited to spend a lot of my time over there. It has the best mountain biking trails I've ever seen, and they're all located in one area so you don't need to go anywhere else to get all types of terrains, from easy to insane. Did I say I got a mountain bike? I did. I'm just waiting for my shoes and eggbeater pedals to get here so I can start riding.



Yes, in case you were wondering I put lots of pictures in to keep everyone from getting bored.


If the off-chance anyone has the urge to write me anything, here is my address

Brent Doscher
Apartment 7G4, The Cube
242-244 Taranaki Street
Wellington 6001
New Zealand

And if you want to call me you won’t get much luck calling my phone number you probably have for me. My new number is on facebook. Don’t ask me how to call or text it from the States, I really have no idea.

I’m going to comprise a list of some random thoughts so far from my trip regarding the US vs. NZ, NZ in general, or just random stuff. My brain, like many others’, goes in some pretty random directions.

- Noise canceling headphones are completely worth shelling out the 150 dollars for if it saves you from going insane on 20 hours of flying.
- There’s no such thing as the lemonade we Americans know. Over here it’s carbonated. Much like sprite, but better.
- Nothing is better than a warm shower after being on a plane for a day straight. Even if the hot water turns off halfway through and you have to come out of the shower stall naked to press the button in order to turn the hot water on again.
- Chickens stand less than a meter from the road where cars are driving by at 80kph, pecking at the ground, completely unfazed.
- Fanny doesn’t mean quite the same thing. In fact, it means the opposite. Just think, the other side the body…
- I finally know how disorienting it is to be a foreigner coming into our country
- NZ slang and accents are cool, but hearing people try to force it is quite annoying.
- At the Auckland airport, curb was spelled kerb. Doesn’t that make so much more sense?
- Glow worms aren’t actually worms. They’re maggots. You’re welcome for grossing you out and/or ruining your fun.
- Broadband is seriously messed up here. You have a monthly data cap on your broadband, so you pay to have the connection, but then are limited on how much you actually do.
- Being in a real photography program is a great feeling.
- Some students in NZ are just as damn idiotic as UNH students. It’s a little reminiscent of my child development classes. My roommate will understand the magnitude of that statement.
- Besides that 1 time in the airport while I was waiting for my Australearn group to show up, I have resolved to not eat McDonalds the entire time I am here. I don’t think they have the Tendercrisp here either, so if that’s the case, BK is out of the question as well.
- Apparently it can easily get as windy as 120 - 130kph in the winter in Wellington. Yes, I will be here for the winter months, if you’re wondering.
- I am tempted to kick a pigeon because of just how close they get to me. I think I could pull it off.
- Getting back at 2AM after going out on a Friday night is early.
- They really like Hawaiian pizza here. Not so much Pepperoni.
- The basic things that you would think would taste the same don’t. Mountain Dew and Coke both taste different.
- Ketchup doesn’t exist. It’s tomato sauce, and it’s not very good.
- It’s strange to see a culture that embraces the Maori, their native people, so much while Americans walk all over Native Americans.
- NZ doesn’t have security for some of its domestic flights. Very strange to experience.
- Movie theaters have comfortable armchairs.
- Massey U schedules classes only once a week. So I have 1 class every day of the week except for Wednesday, which I have off.
- Milk is really disgusting. If you drink milk a lot you may understand this. There’s one bottle of milk at home every once in a while that tastes different, and just off. I’ve never been able to really put a finger on why it tastes so weird, but normally that bottle just sits in the fridge. That bottle is what New Zealand milk tastes like.



I think that’s probably enough for everyone at this point, if you are really interested in the plenty of interesting differences, post a comment and I’ll make more lists for you. There’s heaps of things to mention.

Hmmm...Here we go!

Alright, I have been thinking of starting a blog for a little while now just to keep everyone from back home up to speed on what is going on in my life, so I figure I can give it a go now. I'll give everyone a quick rundown as to what I've been up to so far. So as most of you may know, I have been in New Zealand for about a month so far. Kelsi and I flew out of Manchester on the 29th and then when we arrived in Auckland, we rented a car and started our drive from Auckland to Wellington. Yes, that is the span of almost the entire north Island. The first night we stayed just outside of Tauranga, and went and got breakfast in town and walked along the beach next to Mt. Mounganui for a little while.



We then drove from there through Rotorua, which is pretty foul smelling. It's a giant thermal area, complete with bubbling mud and thermal lakes. Kels and I had fun walking around the lake, then went and got some lunch afterwards.



I went zorbing, which was fun and just something that I felt I had to do since I was in NZ. It's really something that you will never see in the states. Basically it's a giant ball suspended with rubber bands inside of another giant ball. You superman dive in through the opening, and then they zip it up and roll you down the hill. You can either choose to go straight down or along a curved path. I chose the curved path, and it was quite interesting. Much more fun than you would imagine just watching it.




After that we headed onwards, into Taupo, where we stayed the night in the Tiki backpackers. We got breakfast right near the water of lake Taupo, which is a giant crater. Taupo itself is a big volcano, not active of course. Then we packed up our stuff and started the long drive to Wellington. On the way there we drove through the NZ national park, where Mt. Doom is, and drove up the ski mountain.



We then drove straight through to wellington, where Malcolm and Fritha were there to welcome us.

The next week or so was pretty laid back, we just hung out, watched movies, etc. etc. Kelsi, Frith, and I went to a couple concerts, including one love for Waitangi Day, and the Rhombus concert by the waterfront.



Then on the 11th I flew back up to Auckland and just spent a night walking around the city, exploring it for all it's worth. I stayed in the International YHA (Yes, a hostel, try not to think of the movie) and headed to the airport the next morning to meet my group from Australearn. After meeting up with them, we got on a bus and began our drive down to Rotorua, where we spent the next few days with the group of students going to both Massey U Wellington, Palmerston North, and also Canterbury on the south island. We stayed at the KiwiPaka YHA in Rotorua and had our orientation. It was pretty structured and felt like we were at summer camp, but it gave all of us the opportunity to meet other people and experience things without just being thrown into it all. We had to opportunity to zorbing, street luging, and caving. Street luging was amazing, and a couple of us came close to tipping or actually tipped our cars. A shot off the event's website...



Caving was also fun, we traveled for about 2.5 hours underwater, both a combination of climbing and tubing, in our wetsuits and gumboots. There were heaps of glow worms, and lots of other cool things to see.

Then on the 15th the group went their separate ways. I had booked a flight for cheaper through grabaseat for the 16th, so I stayed another night at the KiwiPaka, then flew out the next day for Wellington again.

So that's the story of my adventure up until now. For the past week or so I have just been hangin out with my flatmates in our apartment. We still have 2 yet to arrive, though I'm not sure why, because classes have already started.


So we've been relaxing, going to the beach as much as possible, and trying to get all our utilities in our apartment sorted out. We still have yet to get internet, but we have a phone and soon will be extending our electricity contract so we won't be cut off. That's always a good thing.

I bought a mountain bike to get out riding some of the trails around here. The first day I went out on the bike I went 60km. Probably a bad idea, but it was just nice to get back on the bike I kept going. My back and shoulder felt it at the end of the day. I'm waiting for my pedals and shoes to get sent over so that I can comfortably get out and mountain bike without having to worry about shredding my shins on my platform pedals.

I had my first class yesterday, and by god, it's a real photo class! I guess coming from a school that doesn't have a whole lot for an art program gives you a greater appreciation for real photography papers (oh, that's the word for courses). It's based around a documentary, where we only have 1 project all year. Since I'm only going to be here for one semester I will be having an altered schedule for the project, but I spoke with the instructor beforehand and it's very doable. But a documentary is exactly what I need for my portfolio, so a class that focuses around it is exactly what I need. In about an hour I have my Photography History and Criticism class, so we'll see how that goes. After that I need to get groceries. All I have left is the NZ form of Ramen. No good. But since my laundry's done and I need food, I should probably get going. I most likely forgot a ton of stuff in this post, but I'll catch up on it later if I remember. Hope everyone's doing well back home, or wherever you may be reading this from.