Year of the Kiwi

Yesterday at work, I saw a lot of people in the street holding orange Adidas bag, and I thought to myself “ooohh… free stuff”. My curiosity let me in the direction they were coming from. They were people who were registered to run in the marathon this weekend, and they were picking up their gear. I really wanted a shirt, so I signed up. Granted it’s only the quarter marathon… and it cost me $80 for late registration… and it will me more than I’ve ever run in my life… and I’m actually quite out of shape right now. But golly, I wanted a souvenir shirt!!!

 I suppose Halloween is coming up soon. It’s such a minor holiday here. Hardly anyone decorates, and the stores were only starting to sell costumes a week ago. It’s definitely not the commercial juggernaut it is at home.

Now for some random pictures from the last few weeks.

 

 

 
A live band playing outside the Britomart Station. I should’ve continued on
to my work route, but they were playing a song that I’d heard many times
on the radio, so I stopped to listen. I couldn’t tell if they were playing a cover
or if they were actually a popular Kiwi band.

 

 

 
That’s Sebastion, a German guy here studying law at Auckland University.
He’s doing sales promotion too, but is limited to 20 hours a week because
of his study visa. Go working holiday visa!

 

 

Last weekend I took the ferry to Rangitoto, the volcanic island in the
Hauraki gulf. It’s cheap, $20 round trip.

 

It was only a one hour hike to the summit. I didn’t get to take any pictures
of the awesome views because my battery died after I took this one.

 

 

Kev and I headed to Ponsonby to listen to live music one night. It turned
out to be some jazzy soulful blues stuff… the type black americans do best,
but I guess a dark pacific islander will do.

 

 

Another night we headed to the casino where I actually came out ahead.
60 dollars to be exact. I think that was the first time ever. I was tempted
to try the poker tables, but they still look so intimidating. The casino itself
was undergoing some rennovation. So instead of trying to hide it, they
disguised it as a construction theme atmosphere. Clever… but tacky.

 

 

Slots are to Vegas as Pachinko is to Japan as Pokeys are to NZ. Gambling
is legal here, so you find them all over the place. Too many options though.
I just want a simple machine where I can get a cherry-cherry-cherry but
I’m yet to find one here.

 

 

 
Told ya it was pink. Pink for Halloween. I don’t think they
get that holiday at all down here.

 

 

This is from a few weeks ago when I was finishing up at Caci. That’s
James, the boss’s son who I was tutoring in various subjects for a week.
I learned two things that week… one is that amazingly I still remember
some calculus. But even more amazingly, get this… I told him to write
a billion on the board just so I could demonstrate something about limits.
The number he wrote had 12 zeros. No, billion, I said. He added zeros.
No… BILLION… nine zeros, I told him. He said, ohhh… an American billion.
what??? a billion is a billion… 9 zeros. He said he learned it the English way.
Whhhhhaaat? Since when does a billion mean anything but 10 x 10^9?
We headed to the computer to wiki it… OH MY GOD!!! There ARE 2 definitions
of a billion. Actually, there are 2 different systems of naming very large
numbers, short scale and a long scale, or the American and British versions.
Though the American version is becoming a standard in most English speaking
countries, much of the world still uses the long scale… who knew???

 

 

Auckland is not much of a museum city, but their main one, unimaginatively
called the Auckland museum, is pretty impressive. It’s like a natural history,
fine art, and war museum all rolled into one. Their collection of Pacific Island
art is the biggest in the world.

 

 

After visiting the Washington, especially the Vietnam War memorial,
this seemed a bit lacking in emotional impact… and names.

 

 

Hahaha… Kristie is REALLY going to kill me now.
Perfect “oh no, camera” expression.

 

 

Some birthday party of someone I don’t know. They were speaking
Spanish, so it was nice to hear dark people speaking a language I could
sort of make out, or at least know if they were talking about me.  Maori
goes right over my head, though Kevin did teach me some phrases.
Kia ora means hello. Te means the. Nga means of. Yeah… quite useless.
But a good one to know is “e noho” which means sit down for no other
reason than that it sounds like “anal hole”. Kia ora… ANAL HOLE!