The Making of a Patu

Valentines Day flowers

Hello again! Please forgive my neglectful blogging tendencies as of late. The upside to this though is that because I havent posted in such a long time, I have tons to update you on! My days during the last week have been entirely lazy, I've been reading lots of pop fiction, completing both "The Hunger Games" and "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" series, as well as finishing up a few books that I had started but not yet finished. The productivity of these activities is debatable, but I enjoyed myself and I am ready for the new semester that starts next Monday! I had my exam for my summer Maths paper last Wednesday (the results of which I ended up being very happy with). After the exam, a friend from class and I went out for celabratory pitas and a movie.
Yesterday I picked up all of my materials for my new classes from the University. I came home with quite the haul of textbooks, notebooks, lab manuals and course packs. I also bought (drum roll please)... my first lab coat! A moment of geeky excitement ensued upon purchase ; ) I'm enrolled in a physic, maths and chemistry. I'm very much looking foward to a challenging semester and I'm certain that I'll learn a lot, especially in chemistry. With the three papers, I'll have class every weekday. I've filled up the remainder of my Monday through Friday schedule with time at the Liggins institute. I've spent some time there this week as well and have been given some new assignments that will carry me into the new semester.
I've also been finishing up a gift for my father in the last few days. (It was intended for Christmas. I know, eek!) Per his request, its a traditional Maori Patu. Its made from Vitex and has been shaped and carved by hand. Originally it was just a weathered, foot long peice of 2x4. Heres a preview...

I had the opportunity to go to a really fun music festival featuring tons of Kiwi groups. The festival had six stages, divided by genre. I spent most of my time at the rock stage, seeing bands such as The Feelers, Shihad , Blacklist, Six60 and several others. One of my favorite performers of the day was someone I hadnt heard of, by the name of Tiki. It was an accoustic set and ended up being a bit of a sing-along, but the music was great and the atmosphere was extremely fun.

The harbor, along which the music festival stages were set

A (foggy) performance by The Feelers. They were awesome : )

I also went to Te Papa, which is "the New Zealand Museum." Its an enormous place (six levels!), with so much to see. Unfortunately I didnt get to spend much time there, but the exhibits I did have the chance to see were very interesting, interactive and well designed.

A wooden Maori sculpture

A corner of Te Papa... its fairly impossible to capture the entire building in one shot, its far too big!

A large portion of the museum deals with NZ natural history

Yesterday I went to the first Super Rugby League game. It was the Auckland Blues vs. the Cantebury Cruisaders. The Cruisaders are the team to beat in the league, so the game was met with much anticipation and excitement. We sat at field level on the blues side near the "blue army", an Auckland Blues fan club who all showed up in blue wigs carrying pep band instruments. They had a trombone, a trumpet and even a tuba! The game was held in Eden Park where a lot of the World Cup games were played. I believe the stadium holds roughly 30,000, and it was fairly packed last night. Unfortunately the Blues lost, leaving a lot of Aucklanders disappointed, but it was a great game that came down to the last few seconds. The blues only lost by one point, 18-19, and the game ended just meters away from their side. I have a "true blue" membership, so I will be going to three more home games : )

TED is coming up on Monday at uni and of course, as mentioned several times, I'm going to the ballet next weekend. I'm looking forward to a busy week of class, lacrosse, liggins and dance. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that I've been doing a ballet class once a week on tuesdays... its in Mount Eden at a great, well known studio. I also met a guy from Germany in the international office this past week that told me about a tango studio in the CBD, so I'm thinking of trying that out this week as well! The Uni clubs are starting up too, so I'll have club lacrosse practice in addition to my normal league practice. The Uni tennis club also has practice starting this week, on sunday. I'm hoping to find some time this week some evening to make a kings cake for Mardi Gras. I've already found the plastic baby : ) I was thinking this would something fun to share with my new host family.  

Have a good weekend everyone!

Lots of Love,

A