Sunday, October 9
This afternoon, the black floors (9 and 10) had an afternoon tea with a chocolate fountain and other yummy snacks. One of the girls on my floor baked muffins and brownies at her parents’ house and shared them, and there was also crackers with hummus and cheese, fruit, gummy lollies, and marshmallows. We had our snacks on the covered outdoor deck that’s on the same level as the dining hall. It was finally sunny outside, so it was a really nice opportunity to enjoy the weather and catch up with everyone.
In the evening, I met Rayce at St. John’s. After, we came back to Te Puni to watch the All Blacks play Argentina in the quarterfinals. We watched in the tenth floor common room, and a few other people from my floor were there, too. One of them is an emotional watcher, and it was funny listening to her running commentary. The All Blacks won 33-10, mostly on penalty kicks.
Monday, October 10 – Thursday, October 13
It was another rainy week, which I was not very happy about. I hope the sun comes to stay soon. I didn’t have any reading to do for my lectures, so my main focus has been studying for my linguistics final exam on Friday. It will be nice to get that out of the way so I don’t have to worry about it during the final exam period.
On Wednesday evening, I met Rayce and a few of his friends at Heavens Pizza for dinner. They have a number of pizzas on special for students on Wednesday nights. It was fun eating a meal outside of the hostel, the pizza was really good, and it was a very reasonable price.
Friday, October 14
This morning, I took my linguistics final. We had the entire 50-minute period to complete the test, but many finished early.
It finally stopped raining, and I walked around town for a bit after class. It was nice spending some time outside and knowing that I am completely done with lectures. I can’t believe the semester is coming to a close already. It is especially strange to think about when I know that my friends in Maine and Arizona are just about in the middle of their semesters!
Tonight I went to a “birthday party” for Rayce. Technically, it’s his “quarter birthday,” but a lot of his friends have celebrated birthdays here, and I guess he wanted to as well. It was a low-key but fun night. It was a good way to celebrate being done with lectures for the semester.
Tomorrow I am flying to Christchurch to spend a week with Bev, and I am very excited. It will probably be more than a week before my next post, but hopefully I will have lots of stories to tell and pictures for you to look at.
