a couple days in christchurch

So I've been in Christchurch for a couple days now. We've had lectures on ecology, tourism, sustainability, Maori culture, multi-member proportional government, and agriculture. A nice break from all of the hard-core science at Tech.

I have been to the grocery store a few times. Kiwis have some strange tastes: vegemite, instant coffee, ovaltine, nutella (can be bought for NZ$2.89), muesli and granola cereal, chicken flavored chips, kiwifruit, dried fruit, instant juice... just to name a few. I've been snacking on lots of dates and nutella sandwiches. And the fruit is a kiwifruit. It is not a kiwi. Kiwi means either the person (a european decent new zealander) or a kiwi bird (which are rare and only come out at night).

We went to the botanical garden and the Canterbury Museum today. I took so many pictures of the garden, I wish I could upload them. The museum wasreally interesting. They had lots of Maori artifacts. There was an entire exhibit on the geology of Antarctica, which I wish I could have spent more time at.

The Maori culture and language is very fascinating. There are two periods of Maori history. The first is when they were first here and hunted extensively. They hunted the large flightless moa birds, which whent extinct because of this hunting. The second period is more of a farming and agriculture period where they developed towns and tools.

On another note, this hotel is interesting and weird. It is very modern. The rooms are all different, and somehow we ended up with the bad bathroom with NO counter space and a huge shower. The floors all have different color themes, I'm on the green floor.

Christchurch is a cute town. All the buildings are very English looking. You can find so many coffee places here, and they all serve the ovaltine. I don't know why so many people keep going to starbucks for breakfast.

Well, I have to go get dressed for the Maori dinner/reenactment thing we have tonight. It's supposed to be cold and involve lots of walking. We'll see...