I'm back!

Hello all!

Well I'm back in lovely Wellington and I'm having quite a nice time so far. It's been hectic but fun. My flights were fine. A highlight was the woman in front of me at the security checkpoint trying to convince the screener that Puerto Rico is indeed a US territory (she was eventually successful). Also, I've decided that vegans, or at least airline vegan meals, should stop trying to make chocolate chip cookies. A high point came when I discovered that alcohol was free and that I could thus avail myself of Bailey's to wash away the vegan cookie taste. Landing in Wellington was exciting as always. It's a gorgeous location to fly into since you basically come in right over the ocean and between beautiful hills.

Since I've been here I've been getting myself settled, meeting friends from last year, and training to help with orientation. I quite like my new dorm, except for the fact that I'm on the 12th floor and there are no working elevators at the moment (there was a pyromaniac with a grudge apparently).

Yesterday was great! Summer in Wellington is a season of many festivals and yesterday there were three on. There was a Pasifika festival with stalls from all the islands in the vicinity, several of which I'd never heard of. Unfortunately it rained much of the day so that and the chalk art/picnic extravaganza were rather subdued, although still fun. The clear winner, though, was the free celebration in honor of the 10th birthday of New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa (incidentally the most visited museum in Austalasia).

Te Papa has history, nature, and culture exhibits with lots of stuff for kids. Anyway, it was a great day with all sorts of shows and things going on. I cannot overemphasize how impressed I was. The NZ Symphony Orchestra played and did a few great pieces along with a Maori woman singing which were beautiful. There was also a ukulele band, which was quite nice, though hard to hear as they had to play in an unwired room due to the rain. They played mostly kiwi songs including a lovely paean to gumboots. The final event of the evening before the fireworks (it had stopped raining by then) was a "Queen of the Whole World" pageant (i.e. a drag show) which usually performs in Auckland to raise money for the NZ AIDS foundation. I think it says a lot about New Zealand that the culminating event (and the best-attended) of the evening at their biggest public museum was a drag show. What exactly it says, you can decide for yourselves, but it was hilarious.

Anyway take care

















somebody's chalk creation








Miss Canada












people leaving Te Papa after the pageant