Happening Right Now (Well in the future, right now)

No, that's not New Zealand, but another

capital city....

A little care package of excellence

a la Bob. Made a pizza tonight just so I

could dip it in blue cheese and franks.

Thanks Bob! And the artichokes - from Wegmans!

Q: Wegmans, do you miss me as much as I miss you?
The Wellington Fulbright girls uniting

together to take down Wellington's Mountains to Sea.

In true Wellington fashion it was pouring with gale

force winds, but in good news, we outran the oarks

Out for a little Sunday jog, taking in a

view of the South Island from the South

Coast of Wellington

Mt Taranaki, on the way to visit with

Taranaki iwi incorporations
Apparently life is sort of stacked against those

that want to go it alone. You might not be able to read

but this sign says, "Do not proceed alone". This might

be the sign that appears when you come out of the womb

as well. To which I said, I'll take that into consideration

and marched on
A little Taranaki tramping. And while I didn't get to wear

this ski jacket to actually go skiing again, it

came in handy for the cold temp of mountain

tramping
On Mt Taranaki, hiking up

to the ski field, which of course, was not open

Nary a day has gone by since I've been in New Zealand that I haven't thought - "Wait, is this really happening? Do I really live in New Zealand?" And so on from there, I could elaborate on all the ridiculous things that make me feel this way, but I'll spare you (for now).

So while I was rolling along in blissful surreal life in NZed, I received a knock on my door (in the way of an email) from Italy. Me: Oh hey Italy how are you, I've missed you, thanks for checking in. Italy: Would you mind moving to Rome for a job?, Me: Ummm.....

So when Italy calls and asks you to move there, in my humble opinion you don't say no. So I said yes. I'm moving to Rome in February. And while I've oversimplified the decision here, I did think long and hard about it while trying to see through the prosciutto induced stupor that had come over me just thinking about moving there. And while I miss you all enormously, I love cured meats more. Plain and simple. I also figured when else in my life am I going to be this unattached (I hope) where it's so easy to move to another country. I have no kids, no boyfriend, no job to quit, nothing tying me down - just a suitcase (ok four) and my dreams to pack up. It's been even more surreal since deciding....But now that I have - and one of the other reasons I accepted is because I want to be able to focus on being here rather than applying for jobs, so on the being here front, please don't talk to me about Italy, I'm in New Zealand and Italy's time will come shortly, but lets put it on a shelf out of my reach (with heaps of prosciutto) for a few more months....Although I did have a little mini celebration for myself tonight by making a pizza - dough and sauce from scratch included, and watching When in Rome. Too bad none of the movie is actually in Rome - like I will be :)

So life in New Zealand.....

I've been traveling off and on over the last month to finally conduct interviews with Maori for my research, and while it may sound hoki, as challenging as it's been, I really feel privileged after each conversation. There's also just no way I could script this stuff. For instance, one of the parts of Maori culture that I love is that you don't start talking bizness until you've established where you're from, like mountain, river, ancestors, the whole bit - it's called whakapapa (fakapapa).

The Mountain to Sea Relay, (photo above) was something I thought was a brilliant idea a few months ago and convinced the other Fulbrighters to do it with me. It's probably unbelievable for you to imagine, but I actually am the most, or maybe second most athletic of the four of us. So needless to say we did not come in first. But the run was on trails through the hills/parks of Wellington and although the weather was ridiculous, it was really fun to see parts of the city that we hadn't seen before/didn't know were there. Also something about running through the woods immediately makes me feel like I'm 7 and in a hide and seek/tag game, or maybe as most things do here, filming a scene in LOTR.

In New Zealand news this week:

-The Commonwealth Games - have you heard of them? Didn't think so. Well, they're basically like the British colonization Olympics, except that the U.S. doesn't participate because of that whole Revolution thing or maybe we just think we're too cool for it. It has been in Dehli this year for the last two weeks, and let me tell you NZeders have been in their heydey. If it hasn't been clear on this blog, NZed has a bit of a complex with Australia. The Gold Medal for Netball (see previous post re Bob's visit) came down to AUS vs NZed, and resulted in a tie that went into overtime, then extra overtime. My flatmate, Aaron said, "Well Elizabeth you can basically bet the house that the Ozzies will win because NZed can't hang when it comes to the big pressure against Australia". But in the end, after a lot of screaming at the television, the Kiwis (the Silver Ferns to be exact) pulled it out and won gold. Big time

-Racism - have you heard of it? Well I didn't realize in coming to NZed that I was not only taking on the politics of climate change, but also a whole lot of racism. It continues to astound me. This week the host of TV1 morning show stepped down after making a comment to the Prime Minister on air about one of his Minister's looking like a "real NZeder", cause the dude is Fijian Indian, born in NZed as if that matters. The dude in his apology/resignation then proceeded to call himself a gypo, (never heard this term before, but I guess its used in England to describe Eastern Europeans?) There's also been a show on TV here, airing over the last few weeks called "Are you My Tribe?", which is basically a white Kiwi going around to different iwi, making pretty offensive/ignorant comments, and then exploring the specifics of that Maori tribe. In the end it is a feel good show, because you see that he does learn a bit and he actually says, "I'm jealous that I can't be Maori". Can't we all just get a long?

And in case I needed more alone time, Alice and Aaron are off in Tasmania this week for a family wedding, so I have the house to myself for ten days. This will be the longest that I've ever stayed on my own (other than in a hotel for work). When my sister and I left for college, I remember coming home and discovering some weird habits that my Mom had developed - like eating Fruit Loops for dinner, after she never let us even eat junk food. I now finally understand this, cause when you're by yourself, there's no one to say - Hmm, that's strange, and no one to keep you in check - you can do whatever you like. I'm looking forward to a week doing whatever I like - first night alone last night and made a bacon pizza.