Of course I found my wallet b/c this is NZ

I wanted to reassure all of you and let you know after a short trip to the police station this morning, I got a call from a nice UK family who had found my wallet at the falls. Apparently in my excitement to take a picture, I'd inadvertently dropped my wallet. All is good and I'm now wwoofing in Whangaroa Harbor. Gorgeous and I get to work on the mini hydro dam tomorrow. More soon....not a lot of internet time here since its on solar power, sleeping in a camper van tonight....

I lost my wallet

My wallet is missing after my car battery not starting. I relooked/checked everywhere after buying the guy who jumped my car a beer and hiking to a waterfall (sans jumper guy). So pray for me, because right now I have no way to get back to Wellington since the one extra credit card I brought happens to be expired. NZers are trustworthy so I'm hoping when I wake up it has appeared somehow somewhere. I've left contact information everywhere, and people keep saying "Well if worse comes to worse you have your parents", I think they think I'm younger than I am, which I'll take, but I'm not calling my parents. Please, Argentinian leather turquoise wallet show up....otherwise news from the road will be cut very short.....

Week 9, SCUBA Beall

SCUBA BEALL
The ok sign when under water, wearing

my fashionable 7mm wetsuit

Relaxing on a boat in the Bay of Islands
A pirate ship in the distance
Cruising in the Bay of Islands

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to head north for two weeks to make the most of the end of summer and see a bit more of New Zealand. First on my tour - scuba certification at Goat Island Marine Reserve and then Bay of Islands, one of NZ's most visited locales. Well over Easter I had my own rebirth in my own way....

The premise for getting scuba certified was that I thought it would be fun and would allow me to go diving while I'm here in New Zealand, and that its something I wanted to tick off my list....well I was half right. I should also mention that I thought the course would be easy and was just a sort of run through and that during training you'd also get to dive and see some cool stuff. Now that you have the premise....

My first roadblock was that you need a doctor's note saying you're fit to dive. I looked forward to putting my FREE healthcare to use by visiting the doctor. She then refused to sign the form because I had childhood asthma and had a few fainting spells back in high school/college, so I had to see a diving doctor specialist. My Mom was thrilled at this extra vigilence. Well fine, more free healthcare. I will just note here that NZ offers free health insurance to all, even emergency medical for visitors, with a tax base about 1/10th the size of ours. And I'll leave it at that.

So cleared to dive, I made my way to beautiful little Leigh and Goat Island Reserve after a one night stop in Auckland for a meeting (see I'm working) and stayed with another Fulbrighter and shared stories of settling in. I arrived in Leigh, checked into my backpackers and got down to the books, since you have to complete five tests and read about 150 pages before you start the SCUBA course. Two things I'm good at are tests and reading so this was a breeze. In my backpackers was another Chinese girl, Jing, who was also enrolled in the PADI course. I can't imagine taking this course in another language....she soon became my hero for many reasons.

Most of the time the PADI course has two days in the pool to practice skills, but the pool was closed because it was Easter weekend so lucky us (I thought) we got to learn everything in the ocean. It also happened that there was an unusually high swell and current passing through. Now, while I love the ocean and big waves, this didn't prove ideal for a couple reasons.

To describe the course, it basically is four days of doing everything under water that you'd never want to do, and hopefully will never actually have to do while diving = not that fun and you don't see a ton of stuff cause you're focused on doing skills that are stressful (or seem to be). Like remove your air source and simulate having to ascend without air, which includes exhaling the whole way while not ascending too quickly. Or remove your mask and have to put it back on (I'm almost legally blind and don't like removing eyewear ever, hence I sleep in my glasses). Now while these sound simple (and actually are), when underwater at 18 meters all of your instincts tell you you don't want to do these things for all the reasons you can think of - water up your nose, choking at 40 feet down, rising too quickly, having your ears burst, etc. Added to that is carrying about 40lbs in equipment including a weight belt and wearing fins while trying to enter the water on a rocky shore with a 2ft swell trying to knock you over, then swimming for 15 minutes out to where you'll dive. I kept trying to equate it to something, and the closest I can come is imagine carrying all of your ski equipment while wearing your boots, with a foggy mask, and walking 100 yards up an icy hill and then someone telling you to jump off a cliff and that it would be okay and easy.

I'm sure some of you already certified out there found this course a breeze. I did not. Maybe it was the fact that I had to wear a prescription mask which meant I had to wear the mask to walk the 50 meters to the ocean, or maybe its that I'm not good at letting someone else or something else be in control (like my equipment). I had a few minor panic attacks and on the third day after two shore entries and two swims with high swells and strong current, I was ready to quit, until sweet little Jing encouraged me that I shouldn't give up. The instructor also had very little patience and kept saying it should be fun and relaxing, which didn't help because it wasn't and I kept trying to think why was I doing this again, until the last day. It was all worth it the fourth day, when you get to do the boat entry dives, so the equipment becomes less annoying and you realize that you can do all the skills without drowning/choking/bursting your ears. I would actually say the course was more of a lesson in meditation (keeping calm), trusting myself and the equipment, and realizing sometimes you have to do exactly the opposite of what your instincts are telling you. So now I can dive anywhere in the world and I know I can get over myself and do things that I think suck but payoff in the end.

Today I rewarded myself by spending the whole day on a sailboat in the Bay of Islands....I thought of diving the sunken Rainbow Warrior, but cost deterred me. However, I should dive again soon so I don't have to do the whole mind conquering all over again...anyone want to come dive with me??

In other news, my meeting in Auckland was with the dudes in charge of what I actually want to research and they're the only ones who can actually get me in with the iwi (tribes) that I want to work with. The upside is I think I convinced them to let me work with them, the downside is they said they want me in Auckland. I don't want to move and I don't want to move to Auckland! So I need to have a serious think...

Also, in traveling alone you tend to eavesdrop on a lot of conversations unintentionally. My latest info I've gathered from this new habit is that NZers have never heard of the Segway, at least they've been spared a few things. Additionally a new puzzle - The person who makes it doesn't want it, The person who buys it gives it away, and The person who receives it doesn't know they've got it. What is it?

Two Months and Just Fulbrighting Around

Serving up Indian food at the Aro Valley Fair. A patron

asked what I was in NZ for and when I said the Fulbright, he said

I was the first Fulbrighter he'd ever met and that he was honored.

I could get used to this....It was almost as good as when someone

here told me my accent was exotic.
My new car
Just enjoying a Monday afternoon stroll on the beach, ten

minutes from my flat

Today marks two months since I arrived and I thought it an appropriate moment to reflect on some of the New habits I've developed here in New Zealand:

-Eating ice cream every night, and sometimes cake, and always a dark chocolate bar (mostly Alice and Aaron's fault. Having never been a big sweet eater before, I'm getting pretty used to this)

-Exercising, walking, generally moving about much more that I'm not stuck behind a desk all day (I'm hoping this counteracts my ice cream eating)

-Watching Mad Men, also thanks to Alice and Aaron. I never even saw one episode while in the States, but now I see what all the fuss was about

-Making my bed everyday, not living in an attic means people actually see my room

-Not flying, this is the first time that I have not been on a plane in two months in over 2 years

Now that you're getting bored, a few other items of note this week to mark my two months:

I finally defined my "research question" and turned in my proposal for the Masters by Thesis, so cross your fingers they let me skip a year and bang this out by December

I also finally made contact with the iwi (tribe) representative he seemed willing to let me in on what they're doing. The catch - he wants me to provide support to them on biofuels. Oh biofuels, I'll never escape you....

When I met a new person this week and I said, "I'm Elizabeth". They said, "Can I call you Beth?"

What? Wouldn't I introduce myself in the name I wanted to be called? This isn't roll where you then inform the teacher your nickname, I'm introducing myself. Why don't you call me Larry for that matter.

LJ's advice of Facebook stalking to make friends paid off. Finally met up with my stalkee for trivia night, where I quickly proved my worth by getting a bonus question for our team - In what century did knitting begin and the English adopted the abacus from China?

What better way to bond on a Laura Jack tip than trivia?

They say the Fulbright opens doors, well behind door number one is a fellowship position at UNESCO in Paris, reserved just for us (6 positions for all 2,000 of us). So I applied for that this week - the catch, I now need to add French while relearning English and trying to pick up Maori...

Now that I've been studying hard for four weeks, they've decided to give us three weeks off for autumn break. Although I've really enjoyed not packing for once, I'm going to pack up and head off to Auckland and the Winterless North to chase down the end of summer for the next two weeks.

The Fulbright stipulates cultural exchange as one of the goals/values of the program. Well, while I'm touring NZ over the next two weeks, Alice and Aaron are off to California. Cultural exchange = done and done.

One other small item of note - found out that Jermaine from Flight of the Concordes also lives down the street. Aro Valley = Hollywood Hills

Stay tuned for updates from the road and upcoming dates of my limited city U.S. tour in June

Week 6, Learning English as a Second Language and Mastering the Hongi

I know you were starting to think they

didn't exist. Well here they are - Alice and Aaron,

on their two year anniversary today.
I promised to add a manly photo of Aaron after letting

his Project Runway viewing out. Here he is ripping two full flax

plants out of the ground with his bare hands.

At a Haiti Benefit concert featuring Little Bushmen. This guy

is mesmerized by the music, it was that good. Also, expect to

see this shirt a lot as it is one of the only warm shirts I have with me

Running along the beach towards Wellington.
At the marae with 100 students.

Sorry about not posting so that you could pass Friday at work reading about my exploits here, but I was busy finally getting a car and doing the hongi....

The car:

The model is the same as the last - a Mitsubishi RVR (because I couldn't get the awesomeness of a combo of 4x4, with a van door, and station wagon size out of my mind). This one is a bit older (1994), and its a bit more Momish in color (maroon), but it does have a sunroof and an alarm (hopefully no more thefts in my future) and I paid for it in my hard won cash from BoA. Walking down the street and then handing someone hundreds in cash was a bit unnerving, but that feeling went away as soon as I was singing Lady Gaga at the top of my lungs while reminding myself to stay left. I've really missed the sound of my own voice, as its not really acceptable to walk down the street singing aloud to my iPod. This also means exposure to the radio, which you may think is antiquated but if we've discussed rental radio before, you understand.

Learning English as a Second Language

This week I've been corrected on my pronunciation of Nissan and oregano, and the use of the word period to finish a sentence (this was accompanied by giggles, they apparently use "full stop") among other words. Isn't Nissan a Japanese word and lets just say oregano is an Italian word. And no form of punctuation should require more than one word (okay question mark, easy there).

As I may have mentioned previously, I'm taking Maori 101 in an effort to at least learn a little bit of te reo Maori so that I can hopefully offend the people I'll be conducting research with slightly less, by telling them how many siblings I have and what my favorite color is. People have told me the vowels in Maori are just like Spanish, so I thought perfect, this will be easy to pick up. Well, one thing people failed to think about is that Maori is of course obviously taught by Kiwi with NZ accents. In my class the other day, I was practicing my introduction (mihi) with a Kiwi dude in my class, and he kept correcting my pronunciation of the "o" in my Maori words and said, "Its like the o in pour", and I said "No, its like the "o" in your pour, but we pronounce the r". Later in the class, the instructor was trying to help us with the ng sound in Maori, and said its like the ng in singer, which Kiwis pronounce "singa". So I guess I need to learn English again, in order to learn Maori....

This past weekend, I went to a marae (a traditional meeting house of the Maori) for the weekend with another of my classes. At the marae, as I explained previously, you sleep on mattresses on the floor in a big room. Last time, I shared this sleeping space with Americans with sleep apnea and crying babies. This time I was with about 100 college undergrads. We were instructed to bring something of significance to us as part of our introduction. As we know, not much made it over here with me, other than about 50 tank tops and 5 containers of Old Bay, so I was at a loss of what to bring....

However I did remember to bring the sleeping pills. I've never taken sleeping pills before, and given my "issue" with sleep walking/talking, I was a bit worried about taking them for the first time while sharing a room with 100 people. But again, I was sleeping in a room with 100 people, so I decided the risk was worth it. I may have not been a good role model for the kids by pill popping at the marae, but while everyone else was complaining the next morning and exhausted, I was ready for more marae learning.

While I've still had no hugs, I'm excelling at the hongi, which is the maori greeting after the welcome ceremony. The hongi entails pressing your nose against the other person's nose and holding for a brief second. This is in order to share the same breath so that you're okay with one another, meaning not going to make warfare and that you're no longer "tapu". I think I'm good on hugs for awhile, since I'm hongiing away.

Next marae trip is in about a month. I will be doing three more before June. I'll either never need another hug again or become addicted to sleeping pills.

A few updates:

-Total Bret sightings to date - 3, one which included me walking directly by him on our street

-Still hanging onto my office

-In other school news this week I had to write an essay about my identity formation, and I struggled - who am I???

Week 5, This week could have been awesomer

From my deck after a huge hailstorm

I had high hopes for this week, I mean it was the one year anniversary of my trip to Italy, which was pretty awesome. Well the way this week went, I was missing Italy even more. Here's a recap:

First, the bad news

-As you read in the previous post, I spent quite a bit of time battling with Bank of America, and as I finally wrested my money from them, I received a phone call that my car was stolen. Now, I guess I can be thankful that I hadn't actually picked the car up yet (thanks BoA), so I'm really not out much, except my precious time when I could be at the beach, or hiking, or I guess doing some of my research. So in case you missed it - No Car, back to square one

-I had been planning to write a post about how awesome Magic Jack is, I mean they really helped me this week with enabling me to scream at BoA for free, and coach my Mom through texting for free. Well Magic Jack stopped working on Wednesday. I spent 3 hours on tech support and they still couldn't figure it out. Just as I was signing off with them, I decided to try my own tech support of deleting and reinstalling and it worked - so for now, Magic Jack you're forgiven, but don't act up again

-Both of the above happened in the same day, so I ate some prosciutto and put on my stripes in honor of Italy anniversary day and I started to feel better, because frankly when don't prosciutto and stripes make you feel better. Without going into the details, the rest of that day I got caught in the rain in white shorts, and I had left my laundry on the line, so suffice it to say I would have much rather been in Milan eating risotto, gelato, and sipping red wine while looking for TI.

The Good News:

-Found a volunteering position at the Aro Valley Community Center where they have put me in charge of managing the organic gardening after-school program. I think they may be surprised how little I actually know about gardening, but I'm excited to learn while I teach the kiddies

-In my research methods class this week, we learned about Copernicus. Really? Its like this course was made for me. Last week DDS, Copernicus this week - I don't see how I can't get an A. For those of you not up to speed, these were two of my nicknames in high school, yes I was/am a huge nerd. Something stressed in class was how everyone ignored Copernicus' theory, until Galileo came along and took credit for it and just because he lived closer to the center of the world at the time (Rome), everyone gives him credit. Hmmm, you may want to remember that when discrediting any of my theories while I'm way over here in NZ. Also funny how everything leads back to Italy this week....

-In my Maori Business class, the professor who is also a former business owner, told us a story about how they had been attempting to make sausages more healthy given the bad rap sausage was receiving, so they added CHEESE (of course, that makes everything healthier) and renamed them Sizzlers. Pure brilliance.....next week, fried pies....

-Found out that Bret McKenzie, from Flight of the Concords, is my neighbor, meaning he lives about 6 houses away. I walk by his house everyday. I was informed that Kiwis "don't do celebrity". I think this means that while I'm not allowed to ask for an autograph, I can stop by with some carrot cake.

A few other random things of note-

-Kiwis don't mix chocolate and peanut butter, they just don't do it. Reba, this is your paradise.

-Still zero on the kiwi hug counter, LJ's paradise. Anyone want to take the over/under on my first hug from a kiwi?

-Personal learning for the week, I don't excel at group work. I'm too bossy, impatient, and a nerd. This week I just did all the work and then sent it to the rest for comments. I find this method more efficient.

-Made a German friend in gym class (specifically Fight Do which is basically Mortal Combat as a workout, lots of upper cuts and elbows). She warned me ahead of time that the instructor stunk, so I gave her my number.

Today there was the first huge rainstorm, actually there was hail, and I got stuck in it, of course, came home and put every warm layer I brought with me on and got into bed and was still cold. Then just an hour ago, huge rainbow. So, the ultimate cheese factor moral for this week is - at least when there is rain, there are rainbows

Mid-week moment for Bank of America

Now maybe its my fault for not realizing long ago, since the name is Bank of AMERICA, that ol BoA actually hates the rest of the world, so much so, that they will try to not let you spend your own money there. A few of you have heard of my trials with BoA over the last three years, which after each time, I have sat them down and tried to see how we can resolve things for the future so that I can actually access my own money. Here are a few of the conversations we've had:

-Me: I'm trying to access money and my ATM card is not working. BoA: Yes, we noticed that you were trying to withdraw money in South America so we shut off your card. Me: Yes, I work in South America, as we've discussed, so I need to be able to withdraw money here.

-Me: I'm trying to access money in X Casino and my ATM card is not working. BoA: Yes, we noticed someone trying to access money in a casino so we shut your card off. Me: Yes, thats ME! I didn't realize I needed your permission for gambling.

-Me: I'm trying to access money in Venice and my card is not working. BoA: Yes, we noticed many prosecco and risotto transactions so we shut off your card. Me: Yes, I'm on vacation in Italy, am I not allowed prosecco?

Now, while I appreciate the idea of BoA's vigilance, I've repeatedly asked for them to stop it. I can look out for myself without big brother BoA helping me out.

But now they have decided that I will not get a car today - with my own money - because I don't have a U.S. mobile phone number for them to text me a Safe Pass code. When I inquired whether they could maybe email this code to me or do a transfer over the phone, they first asked me if I had informed the person that I was transfering money to that the transfer would be coming through. Yes I informed myself, well informed. They then informed me that they could only do that if I was in the U.S. What? Why would I need to transfer myself money if I was in the U.S.?

I should also mention, that I first went along with their whole Safe Pass text system, and actually walked my Mom through receiving a text on her phone in order to play BoA's game. Well wouldn't you know it, they canceled that transaction because their system went down. Maybe this is BoA's way of teaching my Mom to text. They aren't satisfied with just parenting me, now they're after my Mom.

Moral of the story - BoA, when I do get back to AMERICA, I'm becoming an emanicpated minor.