Sunday, July 17
Throughout the year, the different Halls of Residence and Houses have inter-hall competitions. They had netball and soccer tournaments last trimester, and a choir competition is scheduled for late September (which I may be participating in). There was an inter-hall rugby 7s tournament this afternoon. It took place on the turf field right outside Te Puni Village (TPV – my hall of residence), so I went down to watch rugby in person for the first time. I watched the first four games, two of which TPV played in and won, but then I went inside to do reading for class. The next day, I heard that TPV won the whole tournament, and the team received a free pizza dinner. For all the scrapes the players had from the turf, I hope they thought it was worth it. TPV also won the netball and soccer tournaments (there are pictures in the cafeteria; that is the only reason I know of the other inter-hall competitions).
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| Te Puni is in the grey |
So in my last post, I apparently forgot to mention that I went to the Christian Club meeting on Saturday night. They provided dinner, one person gave a message, and a couple others gave their testimonies. There, I met another American named Rayce. He came with a group (I don’t remember what it’s called). I was surprised to see that out of the people there (30-40), more than half of them were Asian (though the “leaders” are Caucasian).
Anyway, this is a set up to say that in the evening, Rayce and I went to St. John’s Presbyterian Church for their evening worship service. Rayce had been there the week before. There were about 30 people there, mostly young adults. We sang a few hymns, listened to a message, and then ate a light meal (although we had to wait until 8 p.m. to eat it). It was fun to go to a worship service where the majority of the participants were around my age.
Monday, July 18 – Friday, July 22
My second week of classes went well. Tutorials started this week, and I think they will be interesting. It will be nice to get the chance to discuss what we read and learn about in lectures.
I joined the gym on campus to do group exercises. They offer a schedule of different classes, including yoga, pilates, zumba, pump, and step, and I can do as many as I want. I tried pilates on Monday, zumba on Wednesday, megadanz on Thursday, and yoga on Friday. I am going to try some new classes this coming week to see which ones I will do regularly.
On Wednesday, I went to the Christian Club meeting for lunch and saw Rayce there. He talked me into joining a tango dance class with him that meets on Friday afternoons. I felt a little foolish at the dance class, but it turned out to be pretty fun. I think I was able to do most of the simple steps by the end of the hour.
Friday night, I went with Rayce to his friend’s flat to watch my first All Blacks rugby game. They played Fiji and won 60-14. It was fun to watch, but there was more whistle blowing than I was expecting. After watching rugby 7s on Sunday, it seemed that there were tons of people on the field.
