Look at all the Ducks!

Kia Ora!

And Happy Valentine's Day! I know that's a little bit early for all of you, but still. Well, I've been adjusting to life in New Zealand, it's been for the most part quiet around campus, not very many people have moved in yet. But there are a few people who have been in my dorm since I've arrived, and about 4 more Americans moved in today, which is nice just to have more people around. But these past few days I have just been getting acclimated to life here. One thing I've come to notice is that time goes by very slowly, which makes you take life a little more slowly, which is refreshing really. So often we get caught up in everything we have to do that things go by in such a flash. I've noticed that now I do things much more deliberately, paying much more attention to the little things. Just looking out the window, washing dishes, walking around... I feel I take more things in and just breathe. It's a very cool feeling. 

Over the past few days I've had the chance to take in a little more than just the campus. I went out into Palmy (which is what the locals call Palmerston North) and walked around, did some necessity shopping, and of course took some pictures. 

Most of those pictures are taken in and around the square, which is about the central part of Palmy. I don't think they quite convey how pretty it is. But for me, the thing that can't not bring a smile to my face are the ducks. They are all over the area all around campus and this area, similar to squirrels would be in the Midwest. 

There are so many of them! They always seem to lighten the day when I see them, just waddling around everywhere. Well, time for me to go get to know some more people. Have a wonderful day!

Welcome to New Zealand

Kia Ora!

After a very long and long day in things that have to do with air, I have finally arrived at Massey. My day began in the Minneapolis airport where I said my farewells to my family and then entered the terminal, en route to San Francisco. That flight was fine, nothing out of the ordinary. I sat next to two very nice gentlemen, one who owned a bicycle franchise and talked about it a lot. He also snored a bit when he snored. But all around it was a good flight, and now the tricky part was to find my way to the International Terminal in the San Francisco Airport, which turned out to be cake. Soon I was in line to get on my 14 hour flight to Auckland, NZ. Again, I was seated next to two very nice gentleman, one who was in the pharmaceutical industry ironically enough. He spent much of the duration of the flight trying to coax me into that professional choice. But besides that he had experience living in this region of the world and shared with me some of his best tips and experiences from his time abroad. I watched a single movie due to my headache, but the trip didn't seem to take so long since I was in an out of sleep. By the way, Air New Zealand is GREAT. Fantastic food, nice people. If you ever find yourself needing to buy a ticket to come Down Under, I would recommend them. Given, I don't have anything to compare them to, but the were very accomodating, and did I mention the food? 

Even despite the fact that the flight went well in many ways, I was getting quite sick of flying for one day. However seeing this cheered my spirits back up: 

In the Auckland Airport I had the option of taking a shuttle to the domestic terminal or walking, and not only did walking give the chance to not sit, it let me go outside. As you can plainly see it was gorgeous! It was comfortably warm with the sun not even up yet and I was surrounding with views like this. It was hard not to be excited to be here with green all around you. But then it was time to get in a plane for the last time, which was a slightly uncomfortable fit with my slightly too large carry-ons. But again, the scenary shut up any negative thoughts in my head when I looked out my window and saw Middle Earth.

And now I'm finally here! A Massey International Student Support Employee was there with a little sign that said "Kelsey Moore", which is just so cool. And then we were brought to campus. While driving you could hardly believe how green this place is, it's just beautiful and I'm not even into the good stuff yet. 

And now I'm in my room at the University.

That's the view from outside my window.

This is the Kitchen and Common Room with big Plasma TV.

Here's my Hall.

So that's about all I know about so far, I've done a little bit more wandering around campus and such, but going into the city is for tomorrow, and hopefully I'll just continue to branch out from there. Have a goodnight!