Four assignments to go before spring break...

My week began with a relaxing snow day. The picture to the left shows the very beginning of the snow storm where there were huge fluffy snow flakes. I was really excited, hoping that there would be more than an inch of fluffy snow, but the fluffy snow was short lived and soon became hail and there really only ended up being about an inch... of hail.

That inch was enough to get my Monday class cancelled though, and since it was my only class, I declared it a snow day. Many other people also had all of their classes cancelled and thus they also had snow days.

Tuesday was still a muggy day out but I managed to leave the house and go for lunch with Julia. We were debating what to eat but could not really decide. Luckily a group of random guys happened to walk by saying, "Let's get Indian!" We thought that was a splendid idea and thanks to some random boys, Julia and I ate some delicious Indian food at the food court underneath Meridian (the mall). After filling up on butter chicken and naan we went and did a little shopping. I bought a new hat that has ear flaps, so my head AND my ears stay warm! This hat also happens to be in the shape of a giraffe.

Giraffe hat!

We returned to campus and I headed off to my computer science lab. This is the first week that the lab actually took me the entire two hours. The lab was not very hard, but there was pages upon pages of calculations. When I was packing to come to New Zealand, I was debating whether to bring my graphing calculator, and after much thought I had decided not to because I was only taking one CS class and I didn't think I would need it. The result of that decision was me sitting at the computer typing every calculation into Google. I have to admit though, I would rather spend two hours calculating things, knowing that i'm doing the lab correctly than sitting there for the same amount of time having no idea what to do. So generally, I was still pretty chipper after the lab. I walked home in the rain to eat dinner (left over naan from lunch) and to gather my towel before heading off to ceramics class. Ceramics that night was rather exciting because I made a teapot. I'll have to take some pictures of it next week before it goes off to the kiln.

Wednesday night was Katie's birthday and it was Gluwein themed. Katie is the kiwihost in flat number 1, and Gluwein is a type of German mulled wine. I have never heard or tried it before so I tried a sip and surprisingly it did not really taste like wine. I can't really describe what it tastes like, definitely lots of cinnamon and some citrus maybe? Basically it tasted like how a Glade apple cinnamon candle smells. It is also served warm.

I made my weekly visit to $3 lunch on Thursday with Sophie, Fiona, and Grace. They had yellow rice and lentils. Actually, I have had yellow rice and lentils every time i've gone to $3 lunch. I'm beginning to wonder if yellow rice and lentils are the only thing they serve, or maybe they only serve yellow rice and lentils on Thursdays, which is the day I go. Regardless, yellow rice and lentils are yummy.

Baldwin Street take two happened on Friday. I went with Jose who had never been before. It was finally sunny out, and it wasn't all that cold. We climbed the street again, and not only did it seem shorter the second time, but it was also much less tiring, probably because I was not carrying a weeks worth of groceries. This time around Jose and I both planked on the street. I had to seriously try to not roll down the street. It is really that steep. After Baldwin street, Jose and I went grocery shopping. I did not need much as spring break is in a week, but I caved and bought a little jar of Nutella. I did mention that it has been pretty warm the last two days or so, but apparently not warm enough because my Nutella kind of froze just sitting in the cupboard and is rather unspreadable at the moment. However, I did make Nutella oatmeal, and that was delicious.

Early Saturday morning I made my way to the Unipol for my ride to my Kiln Fired Glass class. We got to see the pieces we had made the week before and although I was generally happy with the results I was slightly disappointed about two of the pieces because they were mixed up with some other peoples. One of my plates was matched with someone else's plate design and the designs fused together. It was okay though, and I did not mind too much, but the other plate that was fused with another piece had a lizard on it. Instead of having a red background, the lizard was fused on to a blue and orange speckled background. As a loyal Mawrtyr, this bothered me a bit more, and I spent the rest of the class making dishes with lizards on it. Like I said though, I was generally pretty happy with the results and my other pieces came out looking nice. 

Momona Studio is next to a sheep farm. Not surprising, but cute

Pretty sunset before Rail Jam

Later that night, Gaia and I went to the Octagon to see the Rail Jam. Basically 30 tons of snow was shipped in from Wanaka (a town about 3.5 hour away from Dunedin) and was put on an 11 metre half pipe in the middle of the Octagon. There was then a competition with many people skiing and snowboarding down the pipe doing tricks. It was pretty crazy but fun to watch. 

Rail Jam!

Crowd watching Rail Jam

Afterwards, we stopped by at Savoury Japan for rice balls. We didn't eat them right away as we also wanted to get Rob Roy's Ice Cream. I don't remember if i've blogged about Rob Roy's yet, but even if I had, it is worth another blog post. Rob Roy's is the best ice cream deal in Dunedin. A single scoop, is actually like... 3 or 4 scoops. You can get two flavors in a single scoop and it costs $2.40NZD (apprx $2.00USD). The first time I went to Rob Roy's I got a single scoop, and could not finish it. Now, I just get the children's size, which is the perfect amount. I had a children's size hokey pokey on a cone. I believe hokey pokey is a New Zealand flavor. It is vanilla ice cream with bits of hokey pokey. Read more about hokey pokey here. Anyways, it was yummy, and hokey pokey is crunchy.

Ice sculptures in the Octagon

I went back to Gaia's house where we ended up talking for about four hours. It was one of those classic Bryn Mawr moments where you and some friends finish dinner and are like "Come over for a few minutes" and it turns into this elaborate conversation that goes on and on for hours and hours. It was great. We also consumed our rice balls. Now, as my clothing slowly dries on my balcony, I am starting to realize how close spring break actually is, and how much work I actually have in the next three days. I suppose I should go do some work now.