Finally, Some White Stuff Falling from the Sky!

Dunedin finally got some white stuff last weekend.  Snow!  Snow is a rarity here with the temperate seaside climate (read this – cold and damp and never quite cold enough to be dry). My first winter in Dunedin, back in 2004, I lived up on a hill with 2 New Zealand flatmates.  One wonderful morning I gleefully woke up to about 6 or 7 inches of snow.  The three of us went outside in the street and built a snowman, took some photos, and basked in the brightness that a sunny, snowy morning can bring. Then I packed my bag for the day and started to head off down the hill to Uni. My flatmates gasped. “Where are you going?” “Uh, to school,” I replied. “But it’s snowy!”  “I know, it’ll be such a lovely walk!”  Only when I got to Uni did their inquiry and concern make sense. No one was there. Everything was shut. While I found the snow-covered morning to be exciting, it had literally never occurred to me that it would change the course of my day. Silly girl from snowy climates - Dunedin doesn’t function in the snow!

Last weekend, the snow amounted to only about 1 inch, but Dunedin didn’t let me down. Dunedin confirmed what I had learned to be true 7 years ago: It completely ceases to function when it snows. Even 1 inch of snow. As the ground became barely blanketed, people rushed to ask me (in anxious, expectant tones!) – “Doesn’t this remind you of Alaska?”  Ummmmm.  My mind raced to find an answer that would be truthful but not crush their enthusiasm for the ‘storm’ that was practically the event of the decade. Eloquence eluded me and, “Uhhhmm, soorrrt of” was my best answer.  Except that in Alaska or Utah or Colorado, you are still expected to show up at school and work when it snows. Banks don’t close, the highway stays open and events aren’t cancelled. A general sense of armagedon does not hang thick in the air.  The next day’s newspaper headline, when the amazing 1 inch of snow has melted, does not read, in big, bold, serious letters: “Now the fear is Black Ice!”

Kids sledding! Look at them having the time of their lives! (You could hear the sled scraping along the asphalt under the 1 inch of snow, but I won't begrudge them their fun!)

Auckland

 

I’m about 2.5 weeks into a 3 week stay in Auckland.  I came up to do my fieldwork for the research associated with my PhD dissertation.  My research has to do with multicultural interactions in New Zealand and Auckland is indeed a “super-diverse” city!  I’ve been pounding the pavement all over Auckland and many of its suburbs.  By the time my 3 week stay is up, I’ll know this city pretty well.  I’ll have another stay in Auckland for a month in summer – all in all totaling about 2 months in Auckland.  It’s nice to be getting to know a different side of New Zealand. We're not in Dunedin or the South Island anymore, Toto. 

I'm spending a lot of time on buses.  Most are crowded - this one was not, and the view was nice too!

 

The bus map of Auckland and its central suburbs. (I have 4 more maps of outer suburbs - it's an incredibly spread out city!)  The pink arrow is a sticker I move around to reflect where I'm trying to get to at a glance.

I was awarded some research funding by my uni dept, but I have to stretch it a long way. I’m keeping it simple.  I’m staying in a private room at a backpackers in a central city location – it’s basic, no frills here, but clean, safe and friendly.  So I’m living a little bit like a budget traveler – peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and city maps in my backpack, and a lot like an anthropologist – observing and taking notes everywhere I go, doing interviews, talking to lots of strangers, meeting other researchers and connecting with some key-informants!   

The Front Door of Freeman's Lodge.

My tiny room is all I need! There's a kitchen, bathroom, lounge and laundry facilities too.

 

It’s great to be in a bigger city with some energy, variety, novelty and things open past 6pm!! I love some good city life and I can jump right into it when chance or necessity dictates. I’ve been to some markets, had some great food, taken countless buses, trains and ferries. Downtown Auckland is full of life, thanks largely to its immigrant population. And many suburbs boast active centres of their own with plenty of cafes, shops, museums and parks. I haven’t had much time to be a tourist, work has kept me more than busy. It seems to take me about an hour every night mapping out my route for the next day with a combination of the internet, a good map and a bus schedule.  Then it seems to take me about an hour to get between meetings and interviews, especially during busy traffic times and in the pouring rain (which both seem to happen a lot in Auckland).   During the rest of my day, I like to find a place with good coffee and atmosphere so I can caffeinate myself, watch people, write up my notes, do some reading and research, and send the countless emails that will set up the next days' activities.  Without James around or other errands to do, I’m getting a ton of reading and writing done too.  

A market in the Sandringham suburb. It's been my favourite market so far.

Set up to study at Cezanne's Cafe in Ponsonby. This had been my favourite cafe so far.  It's neighbors are quite fancy places with rushing, urban types.  Here, however, I feel I can set up amidst the other non-fancy types and study for a while without being in anyone's way.

I’m also pleasantly surprised to realize that Auckland is also making me appreciate Dunedin more.  I don’t feel like the restaurants, cafes or even shops are necessarily better here than down in little old Dunners (though there is a bigger variety and they are actually open more often!)  And Dunners has a lot less traffic and a lot more cyclists – I think I’d take my life in my hands biking around here the way I do in Dunedin.  By the end of three weeks, I’ll be more than ready to go ‘home’ to Dunedin.  And seeing that Dunedin and I have hardly been an example of “Love at first sight,” this is a very nice feeling.

My Kitchen Aid, a Chocolate Cake and James' Birthday

At one point, a Kitchen Aid symbolized everything I thought I'd miss and sacrifice by migrating across the world. 

The frosting, almost done.

I never owned a Kitchen Aid back in the States, nor did my mom have one in the house when I grew up.  But at some point I began to covet a Kitchen Aid. I knew that one day, when I had a lifestyle that didn't involve fitting everything into a backpack on a regular basis, I would get one and bake beautiful goodies in the kitchen with flair.  Just like Martha, I would effortlessly create baked goods that were at once delicious and pretty.

Over the years, I have learned a lot about cooking and baking and do enjoy doing it.  Semi-settled into our Dunedin, New Zealand home, now with far more than I could fit in a backpack, I started looking for a Kitchen Aid. They didn't seem to be available in New Zealand at all, but then I did find some. For the bargain basement price of about $1000.  Just $850 on sale!!! I thought about bringing one back from America (where they are about $250) but they, 1-weigh a ton and 2-can't be plugged in here.  Over time, I became a bit devastated about the stupid Kitchen Aid. I quietly, steadily over-reacted, internalizing this as a sign that my life was never going to look quite like I imagined; it was going to be different in a million little ways just like this -- and sometimes it's the little things that seem to matter so much.

Till It Be Morrow

Life moves in circles.  It loops around back on itself all the time - leaving us to find ourselves in an old familiar place again, or seeing an old familiar face again.  I really believe that people's paths always cross again.  I find it comforting that the world really can be small.

Last week I saw a poster around Uni advertising a presentation about Shakespeare and The Globe Theatre. There's always dozens of posters advertising dozens of talks around a Uni with 20,000+ students. But this one caught my eye. It caught my eye because I LOVE Shakespeare.  I'm no expert, I haven't read all the plays or memorized the sonnets, but I have a great appreciation for Shakespeare and I've enjoyed every experience I've had with him (via his plays, of course).  My mom thinks perhaps my grandmother always wanted to be an actress. She loved Shakespeare. She quoted him here and there at the perfect moment and we often recalls Gram's moments of Shakespearean wisdom. Come the 15th of March, I remember her as I say, "Beware the Ides of March" all day.  She had two huge golden-leafed volumes of Shakespeare plays and sonnets that my mom now has.

A Glass of Wine and the Evening News

It is 3 weeks from the shortest day of the year, so James and I are spending a bit more time inside this time of year. I've been doing some cooking and we have some unknown fellow-American expats coming for dinner this Thursday and James' bday dinner on Saturday. We've been running our heatpump and filling the fire with wood everyday to stay warm. I’m reading a lot (the classic Gone With the Wind right now) and wondering if I’ll get out the sewing machine. James has projects spread out across our table. It’s nice.


We’ve also installed Free TV. NZ is going digital, so getting the new dish and box to convert our old TV was a soon-to-be necessity anyway. We've gone from about 5 channels to about 12. I was surprised and ecstatic to realize that the American PBS Newshour is on one of those channels at 6:30 pm every night! In my humble opinion, New Zealand news leaves much to be desired. The evening news features about ½ hour of NZ news, about 5 minutes of international news, 20 minutes of sports and 10 minutes of weather. When we watch the evening news, I only watch the first 35 minutes, then get frustrated as coverage turns to regional rugby matches as if there wasn’t a whole world out there to report on. After the news, the two main channels each feature a sort of investigative news show for another half-hour. It is typically an elaboration on a couple of stories already featured in the evening news, going into more detail in a ‘surface’ manner, dramatizing un-dramatic events. I can’t watch them. The world beyond the shores of NZ doesn’t seem to exist in these mainstream news outlets.  Now, after the first 30 mins of NZ news, I can turn to the PBS Newshour for US and international news.

Wherever You Go, There You Are

My mom once gave me a small card that said, "Wherever you go, there you are."  I don't remember who said it originally but what a great quote!  A lot of my posts have been about missing the places I've lived or come from most recently (Juneau, Alaska) as I now live here in New Zealand.  I blog about my reality of being a migrant, and well, missing my 'home' of Alaska and America and all that those places entail is a huge part of my existence in New Zealand. Like it or not, it just is.  And I think that's ok - it doesn't overshadow the fact that I'm also living a full life here, pouring myself into it, growing everyday.  My two realities exist side by side - and while that inherently creates a lot of bittersweetness, I wouldn't really have it any other way. I'm a little bit divided in two and I'm not willing to give up either half. So there you go.