Where we had been greeted by immaculate weather, sunshine, 60 degrees F (17 degrees C) and blue skies in Auckland, we were met by rain, wind, and overcast in Wellington.
After living here a little over a week and a half, I've realized Wellington rain is a lot like Indiana rain. One minute it can be "misting" rain. The next minute it can be a "cloudburst" of rain, complete with cup-sized water droplets. However, Wellington has another kind of rain: a shear, blinding wall of rain that hits you square in the face because it's coming "down" horizontally. Needless to say my wind-resistant, waterproof jacket was an excellent investment.
We didn't have to deal with too much of the horizontal, bucket sized rain much when we first arrived (that came later). I only had to luge by 23K (remember how heavy that is?) bag up sixty, very steep, very slippery stairs in the middle of a light shower. No biggie.
And without any further a due, here is my
(Those are my stairs.)
(My flat is the upper level. So those two top windows are mine. See the yellow stairs going up to my door? My room is just to the right of the front door.)
(My desk. I would have a lot of pictures of my family up there, but I ran out of tacks. The middle of the three brochures at the top is for The Lord of the Rings Wellington Tours. The door to my room is to the right of the heater.)
(The closet is big enough that I can put my suitcase on the top shelf. That's a pile of laundry on the floor. The bookshelf to the right holds all my clothes I brought with me as well as the paper towels I bought for cleaning purposes.)
(My shoes and owl bag in their proper place. A rare sight.)
(As you walk out my bedroom door, you'll walk down a thin hallway with doors to my four roommate's rooms lining it. At the end of the hall you come to the bathrooms, one with the toilet and one with a stand-in shower (no tub). I cleaned these yesterday.)
(To the right of the bathrooms is the closet for the washer, dryer, and little sink. If you leave your stuff in the dryer after its done, it beeps five times every 15 minutes. My roommates are not in the habit of taking our their laundry as soon as it's dry.)
(Finally we've made it to the end of the long hallway and into the common area. That door opens onto a little deck but doesn't have a door handle on the outside, so there is always a possibility of being locked out and trapped on a deck if you're not careful. I don't go out there very much at all. To the right of the door is our very fancy TV that only gets three channels. We are supposed to get another couch cause the little one under the window only seats two and their are five people living in the house.)
(Just behind where I stood to get the last picture is the kitchen. It's got everything we need, including a rice maker. However, it is not a two or more person kitchen. Only one person can fit behind the counter at a time, so we are always playing a crisscrossing game trying to get around. From my room to the common room, we have a ton of space. Except in the kitchen.)
Each of the flats the IFSA students are staying in have a Kiwi-mate. Someone who is local to the area who doesn't mind helping international students find their way. Mine is Alice. She is extremely nice, bouncy, and Kiwi. Her accent is awesome.
Alice helped me get settled then we ran off to join the other IFSA students to run to the grocery store. It was at this very moment that I got the first real shock since I'd been in New Zealand. I don't think it really counts as culture shock. Maybe more like geography shock? I live on "Steep Hill" Terrace (the name has been changed), which stuck right between two very tall, very steep hills. That's why I have to climb 60 steps to get to my house everyday. But my house is only half-way up the hill. So as Alice led myself, my next door neighbor (who is one of the people that took some of the pictures in my last post), and another IFSA student up the hill, and we found that we had to climb 115 additional stairs to get up the hill (my neighbor counted). Not just regular stairs, mind you. Tall, steep stairs that slant downwards (for some strange reason).
Try to get a feel for them as I share the experience with you:
(Hill Terrace downhill.)
(Hill Terrace uphill.)
(We shall call these Stairs A. One of the stairs is about to fall off. One in the middle. Which I never remember so I feel like I am going to fall to my death every time I step on it.)
(Those are Stairs B that you can see from the street level. Can you see where they end?)
(Top of Stairs A. Looking at Stairs B. Those yellow stairs in the distance are Stairs C.)
(Top of Stairs C. Looking at Stairs (and steep hill) D.)
(And finally, Stairs E.)
THAT, my friends, is the top of hill one. Which is only the first of several hills on my way to Victoria's campus. The good news is, this is the hardest hill. The bad news is, it is one of the easiest compared to the hills on the other side of campus.
There is more good news. The view at the top is pretty darn worth it.
(You DO have to cross the street to see it, but what's a couple more meters?)
(A close up.)
Remember that it was raining on the day I arrived? I took those lovely shots during a sunny day that appeared a few days later. But at the moment, that was my first real look at the city, just as it is for you, my readers. But even with the rain, I was pretty happy in my coat (after I caught my breath from going up the stairs, mind you). We met with a big group of people and walked up the next couple of hills, through campus (which I'll show you pictures of later), to the famous cable car.
The cable car goes up and down the super, unreal, unfair, mean, horrible, terrible, ferocious hill that is three times as steep and long as the hill that takes you up from my street. But that's why they have a cable car. We all piled on, now throughly soaked, and very grateful to be a little dry. But the feeling was short lived as we exited the car and took off for the grocery store.
Now, no one is really sure why, but somehow between the 20 or so of us walking, someone decided to take us to the furthest possible grocery store known to mankind. We walked along the main street in downtown Wellington, which I still found interesting despite the weather, which was getting worse.
Finally we got the store, where we were met by another shock. Again, I'm not totally sure I can call it "culture shock." Maybe fiscal shock? Anyway, the prices at this market (and all markets I've visited afterward) are about three times as expensive as they are in the U.S. A small container of baby tomatoes cost $6, milk was $4, three chicken breasts were $10.75, and six eggs were $2. A regular size can of tuna in the U.S. is almost always under a $1, but it's over $3 here. Now I didn't actually buy all that stuff. I got only what I needed to survive. Milk, instant noodles, rice, and shampoo (I'd only brought a travel sized one). I did this because I knew I had another long walk back home to look forward to. However, I did get those items on the next trip, minus the tuna. (I'll share more about food, prices, and my adventures with cooking a little later.)
Sure enough, a few minutes later, we were trudging back the way we came and the rain hadn't let up at all. With the plastic bags cutting into my hands and after walking down those rickety, steep stairs and up the slick ones to my house, I tossed everything in the fridge and went straight to bed without bothering to unpack or organize the rest of my stuff.
I might have been exhausted, cold, and wet, but still I was happy. I know that sounds crazy. After reading this post, you must have thought I would have hit a valley after my mountain of a day the day before (yes, the marae was only a DAY ago!). But really, how could I be? This place was going to be home and I knew I couldn't expect perfect weather like what I'd had in Auckland to be the norm. Of course, it's taken me a little while to get past my jealousy of the IFSA students who don't have to walk up and down almost two hundred stairs a day to get to their flats, but I have. I had only been in New Zealand four whole days. This was just another adventure. And WHAT a great one it was!
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