Happy 5th of July!

OK, so I missed the good old American 4th of July celebration. I was too busy being in my first day of class! I had all three yesterday (three! in one day! ha), so that kept me somewhat busy. I think I am going to really enjoy two of them, and the third I have my reservations about. POLS 244 (International Relations and New Zealand) is going to be interesting because it is completely new. I don't really know about about the NZ political system or how it interacts with the rest of the world. It will keep me on my toes (in a sense) because I will have to learn all about what Kiwis take for granted (knowing about the political parties, etc). I also think I will like my geology class, but we'll see how that goes as the semester goes on. I got the course outline yesterday, so I can tell you exactly which weeks I am learning about what kinds of rocks. We have a field trip this week to Te Papa as our lab. The last class, POLS 248 (Conflict Analysis) could go either way. I could really enjoy learning about diplomacy in this side of the world (as opposed to learning about American or Europe), but I could get tired of lectures and papers. We shall see. I forgot to mention that 244 has a lot of guest speakers. I wrote them down yesterday so I could tell you all about them, but of course I forgot my notebook.

Speaking of notebooks, as school has begun, I need to buy my books and supplies and pay my tuition. This is problematic because my Rotary money has not yet appeared. It was issued on June 20th apparently, but it has gotten lost along the way. Hopefully I can resolve this soon!

I spent my 4th of July celebrating in my own way - finishing knitting my belt (which I am wearing today) and watching Independence Day, the special edition. I bet that was on several American stations, so it felt good to watch it. Both of my flatmates watched it with me.

The weather has not been very good lately, and I don't think it will clear up anytime soon. I bought a newspaper yesterday, and the 5-day weather report said it would stay like this (rainy in the early morning, cloudy/overcast the rest of the day) or worsen for the next week. Boo. This is why you haven't seen many pictures. I can afford to be picky and only take them on good days.

The poor weather did not keep me inside, though. This morning I walked down to the other side of town and took a tour of the Parliament building. It is really very gorgeous. I learned about its history and how it burned down in 1907. Also, this is an interesting factoid: because the buildings (the Beehive, Parliament, and the Parliamentary Library) are about 400km from the major fault line, the buildings are basically not connected to their foundations. They rest on these things that I can't remember the name of that can slide hoizontally so the buildings don't come crashing down during an earthquake. Cool, huh? I was hungry afterwards, so I came back to eat my packed lunch (the kitchen closes for lunch, so you make a sandwich at breakfast), and now I am here. I have to buy some things at the grocery store (otherwise known as the New World Metro, for those of you who have been here before), and I want to pick up some All Blacks gear while it is all discounted. (The test between the Lions and the All Blacks was of course last weekend, so now it is all on sale.)

I hope everyone is enjoying their day, no matter which continent you are on!