Events in Wonderful Welly

These past two weeks have been fairly eventful, so I figured I'd give everyone an update of what life has been like in Wellington.

On May 9th I had the pleasure of seeing two of my friends I made while traveling on the Kiwi Experience bus.  Jacqueline, from Germany, and Nora, from the Netherlands, were both in town.  I actually gave Nora a place to stay while she visited Wellington for 3 days.  It was nice to have some good company!  We met up for dinner and went to a place called Heaven Pizza.  There was an $8 student special going on for a large pizza.  That's really cheap for New Zealand so we all got our own pizzas!

Nora, Jacqueline, and I enjoying our cheap pizza!

I also had my first New Zealand movie theater experience.  I figured I would go to movies a lot here since I enjoy going to them back home.  I've always looked at them as cheap entertainment.  Well, it costs $22 to see a movie here, so I was in no hurry to go.  Once I saw previews for "The Five Year Engagement" I knew I'd finally have my movie theater experience.  My friends and I went on Tuesday night because that's when tickets are half off.  $11 for a movie?  I think I can handle that.  Plus, with the exchange rate it's about the same as what it was back home.  Obviously going to the movies isn't that much different compared to in the states, but their chairs are way more comfortable.  They also have assigned seating, which was strange.  I enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone who reads this that likes romantic comedies.

My friend Suzanne and I in the comfy theater seats!

On Friday, May 18th, my friends and I decided to go to a Rugby game.  I thought that all of the home games/matches were already over for the year so I leaped at the opportunity when my friend Cameron proposed that idea of going.  The Hurricanes (based out of Wellington) played the Brumbies (an Aussie team).  I cannot even begin to explain how rugby games are played.  I tried to figure it out, but to me, it just looked like they kept throwing the ball around in hopes to score.  There didn't appear to be any strategy behind it.  A score was called a "try" and I am not even sure how many points they were worth.  I thought rugby was equivalent to soccer in Europe, but the stadium was about 40% full and the whole atmosphere of being at a rugby game was not exciting.  There was no crowd participation or fun songs played to get the crowd more into the game, like what is done at a football or baseball game.  I am glad I went because attending a rugby game was something I wanted to do prior to coming to New Zealand, and I still enjoyed the experience despite the lack of an "enthusiastic" atmosphere in the stadium.  I think I'll stick with football and baseball.  The rugby game was about as exciting as a girls basketball game.  No offense to any women I know who play/played basketball, but they are not that exciting to watch.  And I even played basketball at one point!

A shot of some rugby action!

Otherwise, things in Wellington are great.  My friends and I have made an effort to try different food cuisines because everything imaginable (except good Italian) is in Wellington.  So far we've tried Thai (which was awesome), and have plans to try Indian, Morrocan, and Malaysian...maybe even Mongolian and Lebanese, too.  School is busy at the moment.  I have three weeks left of classes and three and a half weeks of finals.  In the three weeks left of school I have two research papers due and two exams.  Time is going so fast and I cannot believe I have been here for a quarter of a year already.  It's officially winter here as well so I am having to readjust to 50 degrees again.  I hope it doesn't get much colder!

My friend Kayla and I at the rugby game.