Whoa whoa.. Cultural Differences!

I must start this blog post with this epic video that I took during my first week in Wellington at Red Rocks with my awesome flatmates and bros (pause the music up top to the left):

Yes that was music that was already playing from my phone when I found Corey a better 'Gandalf'.

Now that I've been in the country for a month I think it's time to talk about my thoughts on Kiwi culture. There's a lot. From the lingo to the attitude to the way most things operate is similar to the US in some ways but very different in others. The one thing you MUST remember down here is that Kiwi are not Australians. After a while you begin to understand why Kiwi's like to distinguish themselves from their bigger, louder, more obnoxious, and goofy neighbor. It's like the rivalry between the US and Canada that you've seen in South Park but a bit more intense. At least that's what I've experienced. Here's a few examples:


Obviously, New Zealand wins by a long shot.

The next most obvious thing that I've experienced here is the attitude of just about every single Kiwi I've come in contact with here. I can't recall any locals here in a month that have been pissed off or generally unhappy. No everyone down here is loving life. there are some homeless on the streets but even they seem to be in high spirits although it might just be the drugs that they might be on. Aside from that, from the convenience store clerk, to my classmates, to my doctor, to my professors, everyone is considerate, respectful and smile every time you make eye contact and I don't think it's just because of my good looks. I think people tend to be happier when they are more relaxed and EVERYTHING here is more relaxed than anywhere I've been besides maybe Hawaii. The atmosphere is relaxed but people here are extremely efficient about the way they do things. The design of crosswalks, the way bus stops have digital times of when the buses will arrive, the amount of ATM's at every corner, the security chip scanners at grocery stores, the monetary incentive to use reusable bags at grocery stores, the way they've simplified change to make small change actually useful and less complicated.

There are no pointless 1 cent or 5 cent coins here

(Much more cultural experiences in my next post.)



Schoolwise, I love the way things operate. Some students complain about the need for tutorials but I think
it's an awesome idea and I feel like I'm actually going to remember some of the things I hear from lectures when I'm at them. Tutorials at VUW are similar to labs from my school at Bridgewater State except almost every class has them either as a requirement to attend or a recommendation to attend. One of my tutorials is an hour and briefly goes over some things covered in the past 2 weeks lectures. My professor said the other day that "the point of Uni (University/college) is to learn things about the world but the biggest thing to take away is the ability to remember and decide what is important/relevant to you". Boom, nail on the head for me and I think tutorial help a lot with figuring out the important stuff said in class and discussing it instead of going straight to tests and not fully understanding whats important and whats not.

The other great thing at VUW is the idea of a class rep for every class. This is such a typical Kiwi Can Do attitude. (Kiwi Can Do attitude meaning how most Kiwi are bold, speak up when they have something to say, and don't care what other people think; very similar to my own mentality.) A class rep, to which I agree strongly with my professor is a genius and convenient idea in which the students of each class (like all 70 to 200 students) vote an elect 1 person to be the main communicator to the professor. It's a mini democracy within each class. The professors tend to be busy and if there's a major issue such as a class being too difficult or a professor talking too fast, the class rep will address the issue to the professor but do it anonymously so nobody is thrown under the bus and the professor is made aware of criticism or problems. I loved the idea and raised my hand to be one for every class I've been in. After a close election in my Urban Geography class, I was elected the class rep. I immediate created a Facebook page and strangely, I think every single person in the class joined within a week. I love it when people are proactive.

VUWSA is great

The Student Government here has their own building with their logo on it and provides free bread to students on some mornings, helps fight legal cases for the student against the school (yes I know, like a real student government should), gives you a credit card for signing up that you can use around town for discounts and all kinds of other awesome things for students.

The student magazine here is pretty worth picking up and has some pretty funny opinion pieces and actually good articles written by students about current events. It's free and published every Monday.

Then you got your VILP, The Victoria International Leadership Programme which you sign up for and listen to super interesting lectures about world issues and do projects that count for class credit.

Then you have the just plain crazy views from all over campus as a result of the Uni being located on a hillside.

(Pictures to follow shortly)

That's my intro for now to mark my 1 month here. I'll add more later.

Fast Forward

For those of you interested in my first few days in New Zealand and still reading, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut my first few weeks short since so much is happening here in Wellington and I'd hate to forget something. The first few weeks with the Globalinks people was one of the best parts of my trip so far but I'll have to talk about it later or at another part of my blog before I lose my train of thought of all the unique experience during my time in school.

So to quickly sum up from July 2 to July 7th with the other badasses at Globalinks:

We went out to the bars in Auckland got back around 2, woke up, ate breakfast, stole an extra yogert and jumped on the bus to head out to the very unique town of Rotorua aka RotoVegas.

On the way we stopped over at Hobbiton for about 15 minutes to take a few pics and grab a coffee: 

 

After that we hopped back on the bus and about an hour later, we walked off the bus and got hit with the nauseating smell of sulfur and we were in Rotorua. Rotorua was a quaint little town that for some reason gave me a 1970's vibe as I walked down the street. There were dozens of Inns and hostels along the road to the liquor store and burger king. I was told Rotorua was one of the north island's biggest tourist spots, kind of like the Queenstown of the North Island. The buildings were no higher than 2 floors and the landscape past  the street from our hostel was flat for a few miles with mountains over the horizon. Very New Zealandish. They had some mud baths that I didn't get to try which is my motivation to go back eventually.

View from the road in Rotorua - Google Maps

We unloaded our stuff, had a small lunch and got our room keys. I was roommates with the bros Shea and Conner (Chief), Wyatt, their friend and frat bro, Mike, one of the dudes studying with them in Auckland, and Cameron another dude studying in Canterbury on the South Island. We all bonded but I was bummed when I remembered that they were all headed up about 300 miles North from where I was studying down in Wellington and one dude was on the South Island. I was told Bus rides to Auckland were about $40 and 8 hours so if I was going to pop over it would take half a day there and back.

Auckland to Wellington - Google Earth

Nonetheless we partied and rafted together and it was a genuinely good time. Later that day I forget what happened because it was almost a month ago then I went to sleep.

The next day was the god damn 4th of July and I woke up feeling proud to American. It was our day of adventure and I grabbed all my Gopro gear and American attire and headed for the bus. What happened next that day will take me time to put up all the video but I will get to it eventually.

 That night I went out to one of the fine dinning venues with Kristen, Daniel and Sam and experienced our first awkward tipping situation, and also met up with Alyssa, who was my Norfolk county buddy, from the next town over from my hometown, and Julie. We grabbed some more absurdly expensive alcohol and headed back to the rooms to pregame were I handed out some US gear to the girls and got drunk. I heard loud people in the kitchen, played some flip cup and we all headed out to the Lava Bar to get shithoused.

The Lava Bar - James Sales Photography

Some people were rocking their American pride but I personally think I was the most patriotic:

and the most attractive.

The bar had a bungie rope and everyone tried to show how loud and cavalier Americans are at bars. I did my best but by the time my turn was up as the very last attempt, my adrenaline was already gone from starting USA chants and motivating everyone else:

Big thanks to Sean for the cinematography

People started to leave around 1ish while others stayed out until 4 like nutcases.

The next day was community day:

 

Views: Pyes Pa, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

where we planted saplings along this hillside to slow erosion,

And then stopped at Mount Maunganui on the way back:

Views: Tauranga, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

Views: Tauranga, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

and then Maori Day and then we left Rotorua for our caving adventures. I'll cover these days in a later post. After that we made the trek back to Auckland where everyone parted ways to go to their own Unis and then I arrived in Welly friggin Woo.

Arrival

Catherine and I made it through customs without much trouble. I told them I had hiking books and they thoroughly inspected them to make sure I wasn't bringing any microbes into the country. I can deeply respect that policy after reading about what had happened to Australia with their frog problems.

We walked out with our luggage and saw a group gathering. I met with Stephanie and Daryl from Globalinks and they registered me into the program ,took my luggage and gave me a phone card which I used to call JoAnn and Big D back home. Next I saw a huge line at the phone store and grabbed a SIM card for my phone and got my NZ number. By then I needed a coffee and had my first Kiwi exchange with a barista and order a flat black coffee. I had read in my tour guide menu that you order coffee differently in the Zeal so I tried my best to not act like a tourist and got my coffee. After that I saw everyone beginning to grab their stuff and head for outside. I saw heaps (Kiwi lingo for a lot) of people wearing jeans and decided to change in the bathroom. When I left the bathroom, I saw that everyone, like all 70 people were gone from the airport. I looked outside and just saw a few people waiting for buses and no sign of any Americans. I did a quick circle around the airport in a panic and found Stephanie and gave me directions to the bus. I barely understood what she said through her New Zealand accent and headed in the opposite direction. I was not being a very good geography major.

When I turned around I saw a grinning dude about middle aged who asked if I was lost and I said "yeah I have no idea what I'm doing in this country." He said cool and I told him I was headed to Wellington to which he replied "Ohhhh Windy Wellington eh?" I said um yeah probably. Now eventually you find out that for some reason Kiwi's absolutely love talking about how god damn windy Wellington is. I must have heard 15 people call Wellington windy on that first day. I was just so confused but they always said it with a smile which was even more confusing because I would think a windy city would be frustrating to go to. I eventually came to the conclusion that Kiwis just had fond memories of Wellington and liked to add the windy part as a lead up to it or that I was in for some gale force winds and was about to be laughed at by the locals as I struggled to walk down the street.

This guy Daryl had an interesting life story from what I could tell. Later I would learn that he's certified in just about every single adrenaline activity you could imagine, knew an unbelievable amount of kiwi history with an insider kind of point of view. Daryl was indeed the man.

I got on the bus and headed towards some dudes who seemed like some level headed bros. Wyatt introduced himself next to him was Pete and I think Andy but I'm not 100% because he didn't have a Gopro like the rest of us Gopro bros and who I reintroduced myself to at breakfast the next day not realizing it was the same dude. But either way we were all getting annoyed at how long we had to wait for some students to join us who had missed their flight. I was a little confused when the Kiwi bus driver/ tour guide started talking with an extremely laid back attitude and the occasional cuss word but you soon pick up that that's the culture here and that seemed pretty badass to me. Our bus started moving and we discovered that 3 of us had Gopro cameras and how good of an idea it was to have one in New Zealand.

We got to the President hotel in Auckland and dropped our bags off in what appeared to be the hotel dungeon then left for a quick orientation at a university down the street. As we were walking we were kind of annoyed at the weather, the huge hill gradient, the way cars seemed to almost hit you every time you crossed the street and industrial like atmosphere but the city seemed like a very unique place. Our hotel was across the street from the giant SkyTower and a random bungy swing thing just hanging out in the middle of a city but was out of order that day. 

Auckland: where you can get in a quick bungy during lunch breaks - Photo credit: Google Earth

We got to the university, talked a bit about lingo, history, and elected our chief, Connor, for the Maori culture day. Then we ate some subway and played a history picture game and learned that Cameron was very enthusiastic about bungee jumping. After that we headed back to the hotel and awkwardly waited to see what random stranger we would be roommates with that night. My roommate was Horticulture Sean who is the most laid back, easy going LA dude I've ever met. We unpacked a bit and went out to check out the Auckland scene. We walked around for a bit then headed down to the waterfront and grabbed a beer and talked to a cute bartender who gave us the low down on what to expect in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

  

Auckland

Wellington

Christchurch

We got back, met up with everyone then headed out to get food poisoning at a pizza place. We all got our own pizzas made with some kind of strange dairy product that made most of us sick. Never-the-less I sat with almost all of the girls who were going to Victoria and they all seemed like a fun bunch. After the food poisoning we decided to poison our livers and grabbed some absurdly expensive alcohol at the packie headed up to someones room to pregame. That's where I met Wyatt's frat bro Shay and his brother Connor who were all from Ohio and a couple of the greatest people on the planet. A few other people came up and we decided to head out to check out the bar scene in Auckland.

So by this point, some of you may be saying "what the hell why am I not mention more in Dennis's awesome blog?" to which I say Im sorry but my memory is not that great after two weeks and you should have been louder or done something funny/crazy for me to remember and I apologize. Some others might be wondering "Holy shit. Is Dennis going to tell the world what I said/did that night?" and the answer to that is no Scotty, I will not. I think I'm a pretty good judge of things and I've always tried to keep drama levels down and on another note I'd prefer good Karma over bad if I can help it. So no worries readers. I'll do my best to keep most situations as anonymous as possible. If anyone from my program actually does read this blog and wants me to remove something from my posts, don't hesitate to FB message me or gmail me asap. Cheers bros!

-Dennis

Back to the beginning

The day before I left for New Zealand I was thinking back in my life to my old friends and classmates from high school. It had been about 8 years, nearly a decade, since I finished high school. It felt like a lifetime ago but never the less I felt the urge to talk to them all again once last time in case I decided to stay in Kiwi land. I texted them all and told them to meet up on the waterfront. My friend Bill was the first to greet me by pretending to shank me. We went up to the roof deck of Legal and order a few drinks then met up with Matt. I hadn't seen Matt in a year or 2 and hadn't had a real conversation with him since high school so we caught up and I started to remember our old friendship bond and how alike our thinking was. Steve came a little later with his girlfriend who thankfully took a group pic for us.

 I took off my shirt to show my american pride one last time before I left the country. I was kind of bummed that I was going to miss one of my favorite holidays: the Forth of July but I was definitely going to celebrate it to the fullest extend in New Zealand. I was also bummed that my good friend Tim had promised to show up and drink with us but backed out because he's an idiot and makes promises he can't keep but it was good that I saw Timmah earlier in the weekend. And that was the beginning of the reasons why I was beginning to think maybe I should consider staying in New Zealand and never looking back. I had a few more drinks with the bros and reminisced about our high school days and what everybody was up to. Soon enough it was 12 and I said good bye to everyone and they wished me good luck. Then I had an intense political debate with Bill to sober up then I went home. 

By the time I got home it was nearly 2am and I had to be at the airport by 5 so I tried to sleep for about 30 minutes then gave up after realizing all the things I needed to repack. I looked over all the things I needed and prepared all the documents I needed and when I looked at the clock it was 4:30. I said good bye to my favorite lady and headed out the door.

I got to the airport, said goodbye to my parents and got in line for security. It wasn't until I was walking to the terminal that it hit me that I was going away from everything and everyone I knew for a long time and I was happy and excited for a change of gears in life.

I got to Denver then LAX without sleeping and listened to a few tunes on my phone. I was way too excited to read or sleep. I just landed at LAX and saw a Facebook posted 4 minutes earlier about someone wanting to meet up. I searched for terminal 2 and figured out that I had to walk outside through the parking garage. I got to the street to terminal 2 and a plane fin hovering above the top of the terminal caught my eye. 

Photo Credit: Air New Zealand

It was an Air New Zealand plane and the Lord of the Rings theme was booming in my head.

I got through security and immediately ordered a beer and Hawaiian cheeseburger. Eventually I looked up and saw the random Facebook girl that was running around the airport with a giant Globalinks poster. I saw Kristen first and raised my beer and said hello. We walked back to the gate and I met Danielle and Samantha who were also in the Wellington Facebook group. We all figured out that we were going to the same university in Wellington and bonded. I turned my head and saw Maddy who was sitting nearby. I said hi and she said she was going to Victoria too which was great. I told her I was from the Boston area and she mentioned that her family used to vacation on the cape. She told me that she had a Gopro and that she was up for some bungie jumping and scuba diving there and that's when Maddy and I became adrenaline buds. More people showed up and one kid (Collin the Texan) yelled and asked if anybody wanted to start drinking. I was caught off guard and immediately regretted not joining him. I walked towards the plane and saw that THE PLANE HAD A GIANT DRAGON PAINTED ON IT. I was on the right plane for sure.

I got on the flight and in my sweaty, anxious haze of excitement I couldn't figure out how to fit my bag in the storage bin much to the dismay of the other girls in my aisle who I think might have also been in my program but am still to this day not sure. I sat down in my seat and started playing with an amazing computer contraption in front of me that let us watch movies, play music, order food, play poker and Tetris with other people on the flight and check where the plane was. I quickly snap chatted Kristen a pic of Captain America 2 that we had discussed earlier about watching.

(Little did I know that this foreshadowed my own Captain America escapades in the days to follow) I decided to stop watching Captain America and was compelled to watch Gravity. I was unaware of how awesome a move this was.

Gravity Warner Bros. Pictures

I was watching the intro scene of Sandra Bullock spinning out of control after the space shuttle is hit by debris right as our plane was taking off giving me MY MOST EPIC MOVIE EXPERIENCE TO DATE!

acuityorg.com/wallstock/ba-plane-taking-off.jpg

Imagine watching this and feeling a little extra G-force. I was an astronaut there for a minute.

So that was great then I realized how alarming my diseased looking, poison ivy outbreak arm might appear to the girl next to me so I quickly said that it's only poison ivy and she seemed to not have even noticed but it was good to cover my bases especially on a 13 hour flight. The girl next to me was Catherine who also happened to be going to the same Uni as me which was sweet. The flight went well and I managed to fall asleep for about 4 hours. At one point I got up to use the bathroom and notice this funky wallpaper in the bathroom:

Anyway, we landed and Catherine and I headed for security and immigration. We had finally made it to New Zealand and we had no clue what was going on but we figured it out eventually.

Better Late than Never

Well I figure after starting the majority of my classes and testing out the emergency response system on campus, that it's about time I start writing my travel blog. So much has happened since I left Boston that it's all a big blur in my head but I'm getting around to typing it all out. The title of this blog as some of you might have guessed has a double meaning. As an "unconventional student" / 27 year old college student, I stick out like a sore thumb at times what with my receding hairline and occasional gray hair but with the creepy old man vibes I give off, comes a few extra years of life experience and observations that give me a unique perspective and comparison on life. My journey up to this point has been a long and harder route but I'm happy to have succeeded so far and made it here to this amazing country. I'm here to experience everything and help as many people as I can along the way on my journey. If you're still reading then you should bookmark me for when I add more stories. My name is Dennis and this is my sweet as story: The Kiwi Chronicles of Dennis "The Menace" Corvi.
Still trying to figure out how to add music to this thing for effect