Last week Monday, we had an Ice Cream Party at our flat. We decided we'd be supplying all the delicious toppings - hot fudge, caramel, shell chocolate, crumbled cookies, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, and sprinkles, just to name a few - and all our guests would supply the ice cream. A lot of people showed up and there was a lot of ice cream. We had some New Zealand favorites - Goody Goody Gum Drops, Jelly Tip, and Hokey Pokey - as well as some classics - vanilla and chocolate - and then a few special ones like blueberry cheese cake and strawberry cheesecake (mmmmmm, all so delicious). It was good fun. Later we had one of our infamous flat singalongs. My flatmate Anna is very good on the piano and knows quite a few songs from Disney musicals. We sang songs from The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Aladin. Always a good time.
Tuesday a few of us headed over to Damian's house to watch a movie. It's a bit of a choir tradition. Every Tuesday for the past couple of years, whoever is keen for a movie goes over to Damian's to hang out and watch something cool. We started with Once Were Warriors, which is an excellent New Zealand film, but disturbing, depressing, and difficult to watch. We lightened the mood a bit by following it up with the wonderful American classic family film, The Goonies. I am such a fan of that movie. What can I say - I grew up on it. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I traveled the three hours from Portland all the way to Astoria JUST to see The Goonies house :].
On Friday I attended a superhero/villain party with a few of my mates from choir. Clare, one of the sopranos, celebrated her 25th birthday and wanted to have a fun party. Oh, it was very fun. I remember having some cookies precisely shaped like dinosaurs. They were wonderful. Pretty much everyone there dressed up. I saw Sailor Moon, Bomber Mouse, Cat Woman, Robin Hood, The Joker, and Indiana Jones. I dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi:
We ended up spending the night at Damian's since his kids were with his ex wife for the weekend. The next day, I went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant with a few friends for my choir mate Kimberly's 20th birthday. Later that night, we ended up going to Damian's again and singing Abba sing star (which has evolved into a favorite past time of ours) and watched a couple of movies ('The World's Fastest Indian' and 'Wedding Crashers').
That was my weekend, in a nut shell. I had lots of fun. Too much fun, apparently, as I found myself stressed on Sunday trying to catch up on some reading and doing some research for my poetry presentation on Michael Longley, which was today. It went very well, actually. I presented the poem "Wreaths" by Irish poet Michael Longley. It is a tripartite poem, consisting of three smaller poems within it. Each poem is an elegy, an offering for specific people who were killed as a result of the violence in Northern Ireland in the 70s during the Troubles. It's a good poem (Longley is a good poet). I'd recommend reading it sometime. It's on the web. Check it out.
Other than that, I was feeling a bit stressed about homework earlier this week because of all my partying this weekend, but I am back on track and feeling good about the work I've completed so far this week.
The remainder of this week should be loads of fun. The choir is having a potluck dinner after our rehearsal tomorrow, which is then followed by a night of karaoke. Then on Friday everyone's getting together for another party. I'm not really sure what the party is for, but I know it will probably involve a lot of singing. That's what happens when you put alochol and choir folk together.
I'm very happy I've joined the choir. I've made some really impressionable friendships with choir people and have been busy going out and enjoying Dunedin with them.
There are still little things I miss about being in America (like cookie dough ice cream and Reese's peanut butter cups and maybe Taco Bell, just a little) but I'm slowly finding myself getting more and more accustomed to life here. Traffic isn't a problem anymore at all. I've grown used to looking in the opposite direction when I cross the street. Distances in metric units isn't a problem anymore either. And the Celsius scale? It's as if I never even know Fahrenheit (ha ha). I also noticed I sometimes want to talk with a kiwi accent. It's a little strange. But I have been finding myself picking up some kiwi slangs. It happens.
Anyway, I have a mid-semester break coming up on the 10th, and I still haven't actually finalized my plans, although I'm wanting to go up to the North island (Wellington and Napier) then travel down from Christchurch back to Dunedin on a bus. We'll see though. I'll let you know how my plans go.
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