Hello All,

Thursday started out pretty average. It was a little cold in the morning so I had to wear jeans. I went to class, paid attention, and then proceeded to answer e-mails and take care of other administrative stuff. Most of it concerns Georgia Tech and I find myself filling out more forms for them then for Victoria! But that is to be expected as I have to maintain a life and presence at home as well as here.

I proceeded home and typed up my notes for Philosophy 104 because I have an upcoming test. My normal strategy is to take notes in class, type them, and then spend most of my time studying the class power points and using my personal notes as additional information. Although it takes longer to write, then type it means I have to see the material more than once and thus cuts down on my study time.

Thursday night I watched Slumdog Millionaire (Yes I know…. finally) and found it to be interesting. I was warned by the Indians that I know to take it with a shaker of salt and I did. I found it to be interesting and well filmed but it definitely only showed the bad parts of India (not that I know from first hand experience but you can pretty well tell).

Thursday night I also cooked some mince to go with my homemade pasta sauce I made on Sunday. It was frozen so there was a lot of smoke while I was cooking it. Unfortunately I set off the fire alarm. The funny thing was as soon as I heard it go off I heard the trucks from the fire station turn on there alarms. I got concerned that they were coming here so I called 111. I was relieved to find out that wasn’t the case and made sure to open the doors and windows to get better ventilation.

Friday was actually a beautiful day and sense I start late I decided to sleep in. I went to class but couldn’t really focus as it was back to back philosophy day as well as the fact that it was beautiful outside. I had an interview at 1:50 to see if I would be involved in the Faculty Committees organized through VUWSA. I think they are kinda a big deal and I hope to get picked. One of the things I really wanted to see was the background organization of the university and bring some new ideas back to Tech for improvement.

The interview went really well and was conducted by 3 other students and lasted for 5 mins over the allotted time. I answered all of their questions completely truthfully, a bit of a change from my normal style which would have definitely been to gloss over some of my more negative opinions. They seemed to react positively and I will find out next week if I got in.

I have yet to join another on campus club. I probably need to get around to doing it. The justifications I have used thus far are the fact that many of the clubs I wanted to join occur during times when I have classes. From a rational POV this just means that I need to pick different clubs to join but I personally am not at the completely rational level yet.

I spent Friday afternoon basking in the glory that is Oriental Bay. It was beautiful and surprisingly there was little wind. This might seem like a good thing as after awhile you get used to the gale force winds, but I found the lack of wind annoying as it made the little no-see um bugs come out. Anyways I had a good time and took a wonderful nap.

Friday night I attempted to cook French Toast. It didn’t turn out too terrible awful. I added the cinnamon directly to the bread during cooking and it started to burn and smoke as well (I was hoping NOT to set off the alarm this time) but served it with Jelly as I had no maple syrup.

I watched Knocked Up, which was quite hilarious, and then began to plan for my trip at around 10:00 PM. In case you didn’t know my spring break (fall break…. its debatable) starts on April 1st and Lasts till the 18th.

I decided I will spend the entirety of the time in the South Island exploring. Currently I leave early on the 1st of April on the Inter-islander to Picton, then am on a Bus to Nelson, staying in Nelson, then on a shuttle to the Abel Tasman National Park where I am going to hike down the coastal trail til Monday the 5th. Past that I haven’t booked but tentatively plan to go to Picton by bus, take the train to Christchurch (CC), and more.

I will let you all know the details as they come along and that way when I don’t turn up I can have multiple Americans calling the emergency hot line informing them to look for the kid in the Georgia Tech clothes.

I will cover my Saturday in the next post!

Hope all is well! The weekend weather is supposed to be beautiful so I hope you all get to enjoy it!

All the best!

-Mathias