Valentine's Day update

My scholarship year is winding down, which means that everything is moving twice as fast as normal.  I keep alternating between feeling overwhelmed with all that I have to do and want to do and being sad about leaving Wellington.  I suppose it is a good thing that I am so busy because I don’t have much time to think about actually having to leave New Zealand.

I hit the ground running after RYLA.  I took summer papers at Victoria University, but I only took the intensive papers that met pretty much all day for a short period of time.  RYLA was over on Sunday, and on Monday I started my last paper in New Zealand.  It was PASI 101: The Pacific Heritage and it met for twelve days straight from 9-3 each day (with an hour for lunch).  We even met on weekends because we had cultural field trips.  We would have lecture and videos in the morning, a wrap-up in the afternoon, and student seminars in the last hour. We went on four field trips:

• A walking tour of Victoria University to check out some of the Pacific cultural stuff


• A trip to the Mana Pasifika and Culture Moves exhibits at Te Papa


• A visit to a Cook Islands church on White Sunday


• A visit to the Papua New Guinea High Commission to meet the High Commissioner

It was a good class overall.  I was incredibly busy because I was in class so often, and sometimes I really wanted to be out enjoying my last days in Wellington, but I did like the format of the class.  It was all internally assessed, which means that I don’t have to worry about a final exam.  I did have a 2,000 word paper to write that I managed to churn out yesterday (start to finish, including research).  I have an exam for my other summer paper tomorrow, and as soon as I finish writing this post I will begin my studying for that.

I have had a pretty busy time with Rotary lately as well.  Meredith spoke to the Rotary Club of Hutt City last Wednesday, and she was invited to attend their ‘Long Lunch’ on Sunday.  We tend to invite the other one along on our Rotary events, so I got invited as well.  ‘Long Lunch’ is an annual event organised by some of the Rotarians.  This year, about 80 people attended (Rotarians and their families, mainly).  We got on a train at 9.30am to head up to Featherston.  Meredith and I, along with the organiser’s children and a few other people, were acting as servers on the train, so we got all of the champagne and morning tea together.  It was nice meeting all of the Rotarians on the train and explaining who I was and why I was there.  When we reached Featherston, the Rotarians headed off to a museum while the servers drove on to the winery to get lunch together.  We had a huge spread of salads, breads, meats, and seafood, as well as wine from the winery.  It had been overcast early in the morning, left over from a big storm the night before, but it cleared up in mid-morning and turned into a brilliant day.  Lunch lasted about two or two-and-a-half hours, and then it was into Martinborough for some shopping and ice cream.  A little while later, we were back on the train with the leftover drinks and food.  All in all, it was a long but fun day, and I got to meet a lot of enjoyable Rotarians.

Last night I had another Rotary event.  President Ben of the Pencarrow Rotary Club (my host club) wanted to have a going-away dinner for me before I left, and as he is going to be in China when I actually do leave, we decided to do it last night.  Mark, Anna, Ben, and Meredith, along with a couple more Rotarians, made it to Cobar in Eastbourne.  I was informed that Prince William ate here while he was in New Zealand, so that was quite exciting.  This restaurant was really nice and had a great view of the harbour back towards the Central Business District.  We had good food, good conversation, and good company.  Mark and Anna picked Meredith and me up at home around 6 and we didn’t get home until about 9.30!  It was a very nice going-away dinner, and I am very appreciative of the Rotarians making my stay in New Zealand so pleasant.  

I think it’s about time for me to get some studying done.  I have the exam tomorrow (Wednesday), I am moving out of my flat on Thursday morning, and then I leave for Australia at 6am on Friday morning.  I won’t return until March 9th, late at night, and I will probably be disconnected from everything while I am travelling.  I don’t intend to waste a lot of beach time in an internet café!