Sports Thought: Looks like the Ags should be in the tournament! They beat ranked Mizzou this weekend for their fifth or sixth straight, which should easily take them in as like an 8 or 9 seed. Good enough.
New Zealand is cool because: The most popular (as far as I can tell) cookie/biscuit is this thing called a Tim Tam. Basically it's two wafer-y chocolate cookies, with chocolate frosting in between them, and then dipped in chocolate. They're amazing. I was talking about them with a bunch of other international students, and every one of us had identical experiences where someone had recommended Tim Tams, we had bought them at the grocery, and then proceeded to eat an entire box alone in one day. They're that good. My flatmate Brittany and I are slowly trying all the other varieties. Currently we've got black forest, which is good, but nowhere near Time Tam classic.
New Zealand is lame because: I JUST WANT TO BUY SOME LIMES. Seriously. At one grocery store, limes come in packages of three for $3.60. That's $1.80 American. 60 cents a lime. That is not okay. And these ones are really ugly. Another grocery I went to had key limes (read: super small) for $17 a kilo! Not acceptable.
Food Find: I got a "bacon buttie" at the farmer's market, which is mostly just a bacon sandwich. They took a huge pile of (American) bacon, chopped it up, and put it on white bread with grilled onions, mustard, relish, and ketchup (actually tomato sauce ((they called it t-sauce)) which is close but not the same thing). I knew the sandwich was going to be good because there was about a twenty minute line to get them (the only other places that had comparable lines were selling super cheap blackberries). It was awesome, and just as heart attack inducing as you think it is.
Saturday I had an excellent day. I got up early and made it to the farmer's market, which happens every Saturday morning in the parking lot of the train station. The train station is this huge, ornate building that looks a little like a castle, so needless to say it's a great setting for a market. It was composed of about half people who had grown produce in Central Otago and then brought it here to sell and half people who had made some sort of good (baked things, candles, organic beer, various sausages and bacons). The primary goal of going to the market was to get limes, baby spinach, and jalapenos (only got the last) and the secondary goal was to not spend all the money in my wallet (barely accomplished). I got lots of plums and cherries, plus a plum pie and a great loaf of sourdough from this nice woman who baked it all from scratch. After learning how overpriced supermarket tofu is, I'm going to go back this weekend and get some homemade tofu from this little Asian woman who was selling it.
While I was at the market, I ran into my friend Ellen, who goes to school with me (although I didn't know her until I got here). She invited me to the beach with her and her roommate that afternoon, and it was such a phenomenal day that I couldn't pass it up. While we were waiting for the bus out to St. Clair's beach, we met these two British guys who are backpacking across the world before they start college, and they joined our group. Mostly we just relaxed on the beach, briefly went into the water (my feet were numb right as I stepped into it), and made fun of how each other said words. The funniest thing to me was that it was almost a bizarro beach: there were people playing touch rugby (rather than football) and one impromptu game of beach cricket (versus baseball).
That evening was the Highlanders versus Crusaders match, one of the more highy anticipated rugby games in the South Island. In a nutshell, the Super 14 is the main pro rugby league, and it represents Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The Kiwis have five pro teams, and two of them are based in the South Island (rather than have specific cities associated with each team, they just have regions, and as a result play home games in a variety of locations). The Highlanders are Dunedin's team, representing the Otago region (and Southland). The Crusaders are the other South Island team, representing Tasman and Canterbury. As a result, this game gets pretty pumped up, especially in a college town where kids love to drink and watch sports. What struck me most was how reasonably priced everything was; tickets at most were $20 US, with souvenirs selling for about market value, and beer an unheard of $2.50. The game itself was pretty slow (it ended up being the lowest scoring game in Super 14 history, 6-0), but we went with an American who played rugby in college, so I got a pretty detailed rundown of how everything works.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Class
Excited: A date was announced today for the Beatles version of Rock Band, September 9 of this year. While I don't think I'm willing to pay the $250 for limited edition Beatles instruments (although maybe it'll have Paul's awesome Hofner bass), I am pretty excited about the prospect of a Beatles game (assuming my Guitar Hero peripherals work with a Rock Band game...). At the same time, I'm a little worried about if the game would actually be, well, fun. The Beatles's music doesn't really fit the mold of things in a Rock Band game. A lot of their earlier stuff is really conventional, as far as musicality (repeat the same three or so chords, George does a really brief solo) while all their later stuff is...unplayable in a video game, to say the least (can't wait to jam out on Wild Honey Pie).
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Queenstown
Food Find: I was at the grocery store today, looking at the muffins. They had two different sizes, so to differentiate between them, the larger were called Texas. As in Texas apricot blueberry muffin, etc. I was really confused (trying to figure out what ingredient makes something Texas...) and then really excited.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Alive and wet
Weather: It's been raining for four days straight here. My weather widget says it'll stop tomorrow, so we'll see. I can't think of a time when I've experienced rain of this constancy before in my life. What's worse is it's not even hard--a downpour or what have you--it's mostly just a light drizzle that never ends. I get the impression that not only is this typical, basically any type of weather can be expected at any time. What??
New Zealand is cool because: Basically any food can come in pie form. Currently in my fridge I've got chicken and veg, bacon and egg, and the mysteriously named "potato top."
New Zealand is weird because: Internet is all over the place. Actually, as an econ student, I guess I should marvel at the fact that it's pay as you go for bandwidth i.e. you use more gigs you pay more, but mostly it sucks because I'm the kind of person who would use more, and don't get penalized for that in the States.
Shaq says: "I hate leprekons lol."
Well I am alive, contrary to my amount of blogging. I finally got to Dunedin on Wednesday, and since then it's been a lot of stop and go as far as my activities. I've had to do all your basic moving into a new place things (a couple shopping trips for food staples, plus the Wal-Mart equivalent for towels, toiletries, etc) plus all your moving to a new country things (setting up a bank, getting a phone), plus all your starting a new semester things (campus tour, registering for classes, taking care of all my fees) so things have been pretty hectic, although not the most exciting. I'm living in a flat with five others, four of whom are American and one native Kiwi. The roommates are nice enough to be around, but probably people I won't see much of once school gets into full swing. Campus is about two blocks in one direction, the gym about two blocks in the other, and the main drag (George street) is about a ten minute walk, so can't complain about the location at all. The flat itself doesn't have any heating or cooling system, which will take some getting used to, but my room did come equipped with a pretty industrious space heater. The TV gets about seven channels, all of which mostly just show American or British shows (at night) or Rachel Ray and infomericals (during the day). School doesn't start until next week, but registration for classes ends tomorrow, so I guess all the students should be on or around campus by that time. I'm sure there are other interesting things going on, but they aren't coming to mind. I've been told I'll finally have internet access in the flat tonight (I've been using the library), and hopefully I can keep up to date a lot better as a result.
New Zealand is cool because: Basically any food can come in pie form. Currently in my fridge I've got chicken and veg, bacon and egg, and the mysteriously named "potato top."
New Zealand is weird because: Internet is all over the place. Actually, as an econ student, I guess I should marvel at the fact that it's pay as you go for bandwidth i.e. you use more gigs you pay more, but mostly it sucks because I'm the kind of person who would use more, and don't get penalized for that in the States.
Shaq says: "I hate leprekons lol."
Well I am alive, contrary to my amount of blogging. I finally got to Dunedin on Wednesday, and since then it's been a lot of stop and go as far as my activities. I've had to do all your basic moving into a new place things (a couple shopping trips for food staples, plus the Wal-Mart equivalent for towels, toiletries, etc) plus all your moving to a new country things (setting up a bank, getting a phone), plus all your starting a new semester things (campus tour, registering for classes, taking care of all my fees) so things have been pretty hectic, although not the most exciting. I'm living in a flat with five others, four of whom are American and one native Kiwi. The roommates are nice enough to be around, but probably people I won't see much of once school gets into full swing. Campus is about two blocks in one direction, the gym about two blocks in the other, and the main drag (George street) is about a ten minute walk, so can't complain about the location at all. The flat itself doesn't have any heating or cooling system, which will take some getting used to, but my room did come equipped with a pretty industrious space heater. The TV gets about seven channels, all of which mostly just show American or British shows (at night) or Rachel Ray and infomericals (during the day). School doesn't start until next week, but registration for classes ends tomorrow, so I guess all the students should be on or around campus by that time. I'm sure there are other interesting things going on, but they aren't coming to mind. I've been told I'll finally have internet access in the flat tonight (I've been using the library), and hopefully I can keep up to date a lot better as a result.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Okay more
So it's been a pretty long day--I'm still considering it that since there was no formal sleep time, although it's spanned three calendar days. Flight from IAH to LAX was pretty boring; the movie was "The Family that Preys," needless to say, I didn't watch. Watched "The Sting" on my computer (it was awesome), didn't eat the meal (it wasn't).
Had to switch to the international terminal at LAX, which I've never been to before. It's so much swankier than the usual Continental one I'm at. Had some fancy restaurants and lots of neon and giant Kobes. Still had to wait about an hour to get through security (versus no time at all in Houston). Eventually made it onto the plane, which ended up being delayed for two and a half hours while they closed a loose valve. Right. They showed us an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty while we waited. Quite the consolation. Mostly I passed the time talking to the cool Texan couple in my row. This was an 11 hour flight, but since they were leasing these crummy planes from United, we didn't get individual TVs. Instead, they chose the movies for us, which were "City of Ember" (watched from LAX to Houston in December), "The Longshots" (chose not to watch from SFO to Houston), and "The Family that Preys" (...again?). I sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the fight.
Finally got to Fiji, which was the most podunk airport I've been to. The terrain was beautiful, but it was basically a runway and a terminal in the middle of a tropical village. I had to get off the plane, wait in security, and then walk right back onto the same plane. That math didn't really add up. We were running so late from the LAX delay that I didn't get time to look at all the interesting things in the Fiji tourist shops, but luckily I'll be back in June.
Eventually made it to Auckland, where I had to navigate the bus system to get to my hostel. There was a really helpful Kiwi woman at the airport who got me onto the right bus for the first leg, which took me downtown to this gigantic bus depot. From there, I finally found a map and able to get on the second bus, where another really nice man (the busdriver) helped me get to my next stop. At this point, I was within the radius of my hostel, but still didn't know where it was. I wandered around for a while, until I asked a guy for directions. He just happened to have formerly lived next door to the hostel, so he told me to throw all my stuff in his car, and drove me right there! Another friendly Kiwi.
I settled in, showered, and set out to explore the best I could. Which of course means going to a grocery store. Produce looked good, there was a huge Cadbury selection, and lots of interesting meats and sausages. I bought a sandwich called "Brunch Benedict," which was a cold poached egg, ham, lettuce, and hollandaise on wheat. A good idea, but the sandwich itself was gross. I roamed downtown Auckland for a while, going into a mall and checking out a movie theater (8 American movies and two Chinese). For the most part, the city seems pretty standard, at least the downtown touristy parts. I went to Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in NZ (and some girls I talked to seem to think in the whole Southern Hemisphere), but is mostly a hotel and casino. I lost two dollers in a slot machine, which I think was well spent. They carded me going in, but the gambling age here is 20, so I was off the hook. Also bought a beer at dinner, so that was exhilirating.
Ok looks like my Canadian roommate Roger wants to sleep, so time to stop making noise.
Had to switch to the international terminal at LAX, which I've never been to before. It's so much swankier than the usual Continental one I'm at. Had some fancy restaurants and lots of neon and giant Kobes. Still had to wait about an hour to get through security (versus no time at all in Houston). Eventually made it onto the plane, which ended up being delayed for two and a half hours while they closed a loose valve. Right. They showed us an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty while we waited. Quite the consolation. Mostly I passed the time talking to the cool Texan couple in my row. This was an 11 hour flight, but since they were leasing these crummy planes from United, we didn't get individual TVs. Instead, they chose the movies for us, which were "City of Ember" (watched from LAX to Houston in December), "The Longshots" (chose not to watch from SFO to Houston), and "The Family that Preys" (...again?). I sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the fight.
Finally got to Fiji, which was the most podunk airport I've been to. The terrain was beautiful, but it was basically a runway and a terminal in the middle of a tropical village. I had to get off the plane, wait in security, and then walk right back onto the same plane. That math didn't really add up. We were running so late from the LAX delay that I didn't get time to look at all the interesting things in the Fiji tourist shops, but luckily I'll be back in June.
Eventually made it to Auckland, where I had to navigate the bus system to get to my hostel. There was a really helpful Kiwi woman at the airport who got me onto the right bus for the first leg, which took me downtown to this gigantic bus depot. From there, I finally found a map and able to get on the second bus, where another really nice man (the busdriver) helped me get to my next stop. At this point, I was within the radius of my hostel, but still didn't know where it was. I wandered around for a while, until I asked a guy for directions. He just happened to have formerly lived next door to the hostel, so he told me to throw all my stuff in his car, and drove me right there! Another friendly Kiwi.
I settled in, showered, and set out to explore the best I could. Which of course means going to a grocery store. Produce looked good, there was a huge Cadbury selection, and lots of interesting meats and sausages. I bought a sandwich called "Brunch Benedict," which was a cold poached egg, ham, lettuce, and hollandaise on wheat. A good idea, but the sandwich itself was gross. I roamed downtown Auckland for a while, going into a mall and checking out a movie theater (8 American movies and two Chinese). For the most part, the city seems pretty standard, at least the downtown touristy parts. I went to Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in NZ (and some girls I talked to seem to think in the whole Southern Hemisphere), but is mostly a hotel and casino. I lost two dollers in a slot machine, which I think was well spent. They carded me going in, but the gambling age here is 20, so I was off the hook. Also bought a beer at dinner, so that was exhilirating.
Ok looks like my Canadian roommate Roger wants to sleep, so time to stop making noise.
Finally in NZ
Sports Thought: Watched about the first twenty minutes of the H-O-R-S-E contest while I was waiting to board in Houston, aaaaaand...it was boring. As expected. It started to get good when O.J. went into the audience stands and made a shot, but then I got on the plane. So who knows where it went from there.
Food Find: Really saw the evolution of airplane food on this trip. First leg was a Continental flight from Houston to LAX, which served these disgusting cheeseburgers (I assume, I passed on them) with an iceberg lettuce salad and probably some candy. Then I was on Air Pacific from LAX to Fiji, but they were leasing a plane from United, and got United food instead. This was a choice between beef and chicken, so I went with chicken. It was like a stir-fry TV dinner, with chicken, teriyaki sauace, rice, carrots, and peas. Plus a salad that was just romaine lettuce, a roll, and this thing called an oatmeal chew, which was basically a really soft, oblong, oatmeal cookie. There was breakfast too, which was pancakes filled with raisins and apples, weird sausage, AND banana bread. That's a lot of sweet breads. Then came the king of all, the actual Air Pacific flight, from Fiji to Auckland. It came on a tray (classy); the entree was a foil box containing an omelette, hash brown, sausage, marinara sauce (?), and corn (??). There was orange juice in a little mug, mixed fruit (pineapple, pears, apricot, peaches), a strawberry yogurt, and a little spice roll with authentic New Zealand butter. Plus a hot towel.
America Watch: I've seen Wisconsin Burgers, Hollywood Espresso, and Texan Art School. The last one is really perplexing, because it was mostly just a jewelry store. But the Hollywood and Texas stores show that they're really targeting their marketing at me.
New Zealand is cool because: The little walk man on the pedestrian walkways is animated!
New Zealand is weird because: At the grocery store, they kept the dog food refrigerated and the eggs not!!
Shaq says: "Allen iverson cut off his braids, dam hes cute, lol,"
Ok there's more, but the battery is dying, so that's the best I can do.
Food Find: Really saw the evolution of airplane food on this trip. First leg was a Continental flight from Houston to LAX, which served these disgusting cheeseburgers (I assume, I passed on them) with an iceberg lettuce salad and probably some candy. Then I was on Air Pacific from LAX to Fiji, but they were leasing a plane from United, and got United food instead. This was a choice between beef and chicken, so I went with chicken. It was like a stir-fry TV dinner, with chicken, teriyaki sauace, rice, carrots, and peas. Plus a salad that was just romaine lettuce, a roll, and this thing called an oatmeal chew, which was basically a really soft, oblong, oatmeal cookie. There was breakfast too, which was pancakes filled with raisins and apples, weird sausage, AND banana bread. That's a lot of sweet breads. Then came the king of all, the actual Air Pacific flight, from Fiji to Auckland. It came on a tray (classy); the entree was a foil box containing an omelette, hash brown, sausage, marinara sauce (?), and corn (??). There was orange juice in a little mug, mixed fruit (pineapple, pears, apricot, peaches), a strawberry yogurt, and a little spice roll with authentic New Zealand butter. Plus a hot towel.
America Watch: I've seen Wisconsin Burgers, Hollywood Espresso, and Texan Art School. The last one is really perplexing, because it was mostly just a jewelry store. But the Hollywood and Texas stores show that they're really targeting their marketing at me.
New Zealand is cool because: The little walk man on the pedestrian walkways is animated!
New Zealand is weird because: At the grocery store, they kept the dog food refrigerated and the eggs not!!
Shaq says: "Allen iverson cut off his braids, dam hes cute, lol,"
Ok there's more, but the battery is dying, so that's the best I can do.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Austin
Sports Thought: O.J. Mayo in the NBA All-Star H-O-R-S-E Game! Score. I think from a regular fan's view, the lineup is pretty weak (no Rasheed?), but maybe they were instead going for that lucrative market of Tennesseans and Southern California basketball fans. All I can say is, the last time I saw O.J. play in person, he spent the whole game shooting/dunking over the Lopez twins, so maybe he can embarrass Kevin Durant to some degree too.
Food Find: An important lesson I learned this weekend is that lying is often the right thing to do. I went to the Austin P.F. Chang's with my friend Shannon specifically to have this waiter, TJ, who she had for her birthday in November, since he was like a life changing experience (so much so that he gave her his card at the end of the meal). Although we had to wait about an extra half hour to get a table in his section, he was really excited to learn it was my birthday (it wasn't), and even said he remembered me from Shannon's birthday (impossible). But nevertheless, he brought us free lettuce wraps, upgraded our seafood entree to include THREE different dead things from the sea (scallops, shrimp, and calamari), and brought us a free dessert eggroll (banana in wrapper and fried) with ice cream, fruit, and candles at the end. Apart from the freeness, the food was about what I would expected from a mass producing mega chain. The spicy seafood was too hot to eat consistently (even for two hot-food-loving native Texans), the cucumber salad was tossed in virtually no dressing, and the secret ingredient in the lettuce wraps was an uncompromising amount of salt. The highlight, though, was the Peking duck, which TJ recommended, telling us he "didn't normally like duck," but this was some sort of hyperbolic experience. I don't normally like duck either, but the P.F. Chang's stuff was really well smoked and seasoned, and didn't have too much of that gamey taste you'd expect from non-chicken poultry.
Shaq Says: "Ok i admit it i at performance enhancing frosted flakes 2 yrs ago, lol"
So as I mentioned above, I spent most of the weekend in Austin, specifically at the UT campus. Most of what I did involved food, as usual, or Texan-y things.
-Before I left, got breakfast at La Bodega, a taqueria in town, with my dad. I was really impressed by this place's breakfast menu, since it was basically all your Tex Mex staples, but altered so they could be served in the AM. Dad got breakfast enchiladas, which were corn tortillas filled with eggs, black beans, and cheese, then topped with a "spicy tomato butter" and chorizo. I got some breakfast tacos, one with really good, citrusy crawfish and the other with spice rubbed salmon. The crawfish worked in the taco context, but the fish did not at all--the fish flavor just didn't mesh with eggs. Both came with potatoes and a refried black beans.
-A typical go to in Austin is the Whole Foods in the middle of town, so our lunch was no different. I had already eaten my big TexMexBrex, so I just confined myself to dessert. Unfortunately, Whole Foods has just added a dessert bar, and my major achilles heel is choice, so I ended up getting samples of eight or so. The highlights: a cinnamon roll bread pudding, which was basically a bread pudding with cinnamon and raisins, topped with a cream cheese frosting; Mexican chocolate bread pudding, which had cinnamon and chiles in it; breakfast bread pudding, which was made with challah, and had maple syrup and bacon in it; and mint brownies, which were...brownies with mint in them, and a mint frosting, and then brownies on top as well. There were other things I ate, but I can't recall them so they aren't worth recalling.
-We saw a show at this semi-famous bar in downtown called Stubb's. The band was called the Bridge, who had billed themself as a bluegrass funk jamband, and I think they satisfied all those criteria. I really like bands that have more instruments than the typical guitar-bass-drum combo, and these guys didn't disappoint, sporting a sax player, a guy on a mandolin (both acoustic and an electric, Les Paul mandolin) who also beatboxed, and a keyboardist (who also had an electric organ). They also traveled with a Scandanavian artist duo who "painted the show" and then sold it afterward. The show was really solid, really only limited by the fact that there were about thirteen people in the audience.
-Ate at this place called the Austin Cookie Lounge about two or so blocks from campus which lets you custom make your own cookies. They had six different batters (and two gluten free) which you select from and then about forty mix-ins, including various chocolates, dried fruits, nuts, and candy bars. Once you place your order, they go ahead and bake it for you. This is one of the smartest ideas I've seen, so the less I say the better. That way I can go open my Southern Californian ripoff, and nobody else will beat me to it.
-Sunday night we got to see the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space. The whole movie was filmed in Austin (except for two scenes in Dallas, which was brought up by a fan in the q&a), and Mike Judge, the writer/director, is affiliated with Austin, hence its showing there. I think this movie really proved that there are fanboys for basically every popular quirky film, with people dressing up and bringing props to the showing. We had seats in row V, upper balcony, which was the last central row in the entire theater. I was pretty glad I've seen this movie some fifteen times, since people were quoting along and laughing before jokes were told, and applauding for the first appearance of every character. Afterward, a decent number of cast members came out on stage (Samir, Michael Bolton, Lumbergh, Brian the waiter, Nina the receptionist, Lawrence, the Bobs (one being John C. McGinley, aka Dr. Cox of Scrubs), and Milton) and answered some really nerdy questions (whether the deleted scene with the security guard would be included on the Blue-Ray since it wasn't on regular edition, etc.).
Food Find: An important lesson I learned this weekend is that lying is often the right thing to do. I went to the Austin P.F. Chang's with my friend Shannon specifically to have this waiter, TJ, who she had for her birthday in November, since he was like a life changing experience (so much so that he gave her his card at the end of the meal). Although we had to wait about an extra half hour to get a table in his section, he was really excited to learn it was my birthday (it wasn't), and even said he remembered me from Shannon's birthday (impossible). But nevertheless, he brought us free lettuce wraps, upgraded our seafood entree to include THREE different dead things from the sea (scallops, shrimp, and calamari), and brought us a free dessert eggroll (banana in wrapper and fried) with ice cream, fruit, and candles at the end. Apart from the freeness, the food was about what I would expected from a mass producing mega chain. The spicy seafood was too hot to eat consistently (even for two hot-food-loving native Texans), the cucumber salad was tossed in virtually no dressing, and the secret ingredient in the lettuce wraps was an uncompromising amount of salt. The highlight, though, was the Peking duck, which TJ recommended, telling us he "didn't normally like duck," but this was some sort of hyperbolic experience. I don't normally like duck either, but the P.F. Chang's stuff was really well smoked and seasoned, and didn't have too much of that gamey taste you'd expect from non-chicken poultry.
Shaq Says: "Ok i admit it i at performance enhancing frosted flakes 2 yrs ago, lol"
So as I mentioned above, I spent most of the weekend in Austin, specifically at the UT campus. Most of what I did involved food, as usual, or Texan-y things.
-Before I left, got breakfast at La Bodega, a taqueria in town, with my dad. I was really impressed by this place's breakfast menu, since it was basically all your Tex Mex staples, but altered so they could be served in the AM. Dad got breakfast enchiladas, which were corn tortillas filled with eggs, black beans, and cheese, then topped with a "spicy tomato butter" and chorizo. I got some breakfast tacos, one with really good, citrusy crawfish and the other with spice rubbed salmon. The crawfish worked in the taco context, but the fish did not at all--the fish flavor just didn't mesh with eggs. Both came with potatoes and a refried black beans.
-A typical go to in Austin is the Whole Foods in the middle of town, so our lunch was no different. I had already eaten my big TexMexBrex, so I just confined myself to dessert. Unfortunately, Whole Foods has just added a dessert bar, and my major achilles heel is choice, so I ended up getting samples of eight or so. The highlights: a cinnamon roll bread pudding, which was basically a bread pudding with cinnamon and raisins, topped with a cream cheese frosting; Mexican chocolate bread pudding, which had cinnamon and chiles in it; breakfast bread pudding, which was made with challah, and had maple syrup and bacon in it; and mint brownies, which were...brownies with mint in them, and a mint frosting, and then brownies on top as well. There were other things I ate, but I can't recall them so they aren't worth recalling.
-We saw a show at this semi-famous bar in downtown called Stubb's. The band was called the Bridge, who had billed themself as a bluegrass funk jamband, and I think they satisfied all those criteria. I really like bands that have more instruments than the typical guitar-bass-drum combo, and these guys didn't disappoint, sporting a sax player, a guy on a mandolin (both acoustic and an electric, Les Paul mandolin) who also beatboxed, and a keyboardist (who also had an electric organ). They also traveled with a Scandanavian artist duo who "painted the show" and then sold it afterward. The show was really solid, really only limited by the fact that there were about thirteen people in the audience.
-Ate at this place called the Austin Cookie Lounge about two or so blocks from campus which lets you custom make your own cookies. They had six different batters (and two gluten free) which you select from and then about forty mix-ins, including various chocolates, dried fruits, nuts, and candy bars. Once you place your order, they go ahead and bake it for you. This is one of the smartest ideas I've seen, so the less I say the better. That way I can go open my Southern Californian ripoff, and nobody else will beat me to it.
-Sunday night we got to see the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space. The whole movie was filmed in Austin (except for two scenes in Dallas, which was brought up by a fan in the q&a), and Mike Judge, the writer/director, is affiliated with Austin, hence its showing there. I think this movie really proved that there are fanboys for basically every popular quirky film, with people dressing up and bringing props to the showing. We had seats in row V, upper balcony, which was the last central row in the entire theater. I was pretty glad I've seen this movie some fifteen times, since people were quoting along and laughing before jokes were told, and applauding for the first appearance of every character. Afterward, a decent number of cast members came out on stage (Samir, Michael Bolton, Lumbergh, Brian the waiter, Nina the receptionist, Lawrence, the Bobs (one being John C. McGinley, aka Dr. Cox of Scrubs), and Milton) and answered some really nerdy questions (whether the deleted scene with the security guard would be included on the Blue-Ray since it wasn't on regular edition, etc.).
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