they built this city on rock and roll

Sorry to get your hopes up...this post is not about rocking or rolling. It has been so long since I have heard or seen either.

Well...I finally have a home. At least a home until I move in 5 weeks for my first practicum. I moved in Saturday and used the weekend to get cleaned and settled. I now have a bed and a desk and a make-shift book shelf. I think I have also acquired all the kitchen stuff that I need. It is nice to have a home, let me tell you. Backpacking and sleeping in hostels (with the loudest snoorers ever to grace New Zealand) makes you appreciate what you have. My address is:

67 Brockworth Place
Apt. 3
Riccarton
Christchurch
8004
New Zealand
Ph. No.: 064 03 348 8411

I expect all of you to mail me stuff, even if it is just anthrax.

Today was the first day of school. I didn't have that dream that I usually have either...you know the one where you get lost and then get to class late. I guess it really isn't much of a nightmare. There was a Mihi Whakatau today for the new students also. It is a Maori welcoming ceremony but different than the kind that you would be welcomed to a marae (Maori meeting hall.) I met some cool kids and some not so cool kids. It is funny...but I think I can tell the students in my Chemistry class that will be the type of teachers that students hate and therefore makes students hate Chemistry. I hope I don't turn out to be one of those. I 've only had 2 classes so far and they seem alright. They could get really boring, really quick I'm afraid but we'll hope for the best. I met a few more people today...actual Kiwi's. I have met a ri-cock-ulous number of Canadians here. I'm in school for 5 weeks (until March 9) and then I head out on a practicum somewhere.

I really need to get used to the New Zealand way that all the New Zealanders talk about. For example, the school didn't have the classrooms posted for the first class until 15 minutes before the first class. Oh and in my Chemistry class there were 23 people. Which is about 12 more than the prof had materials for. But everyone says...that is how it is. Sometime I think the New Zealand laid-back-attitude borders on incompetence but that is just coming from a self-proclaimed laid back Canadian.

There is a rumbling in my stomach region. Dinner time.

P.S. Here a the shout-out I promised Mr. Andrew Gall. For being so damn goodlooking he sure asks for a lot. Just kidding Gall.