Let There be Light!

We had our power shut off yesterday, because no one had paid the electric company, so we were wandering around in our dark flat for a few hours. But by the time I got back last night it was back on. I was really glad because I don't know where my flashlight is!
I took another long hike this weekend, up the Pineapple track to Flagstaff Mountain. From the lookout on the top you can see all of Dunedin, most of the Otago Peninsula, and the mountains to the inland. It wasn't the most beautiful hike I've ever been on, but it felt great to get out of the city and be looking down on it from a mountain in only a few hours. The sky was blue and the sun was out, and it was a clearly marked trail the entire way, it was great. I was glad that I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt (to block out the super strong sun because the ozone layer has a hole in it down here) because it got pretty chilly once the sun started going down during my descent.

Classes started this week so I've been doing the school thing: going to class, getting all my course books, starting to read for lectures. I like the subject material for all my courses so hopefully the lecturers will be good, from their introductory lectures I like them. My environmental history prof is a hippie historian. For my other two papers (courses, in Kiwi-talk) there are a bunch of contributing lecturers, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to have a different lecturer for each class. My classes also aren't as big as I expected, the smallest is 50 students and the largest is about 300 students.

I went to my first yoga class on Monday night and I'm still sore from it. The floor of the large hall in the student union was filled with students and mats. The yogi was this chill older man who had a very calming voice and peaceful manner, his hair tied back in a bun as he walked among us helping our poses. We did some pretty hard poses and my inflexible muscles were not liking it- but it should help a ton by the end of the semester. I also had my first massage class last night. The instructor was very good, not only teaching us techniques but also about protecting our own bodies while giving massages and about making the client as comfortable as possible. At the end of the session we got to give and receive a half hour back and shoulders massage. Ahhh...it felt so good, I only wish that I had this class every night!

I was requested to tell more about the hangi....so, here goes. Although there were probably a hundred people there, students and people from the Maori department, it was like being at the barbeque of a large family. They were all laughing a lot and telling jokes. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and when people said hello they hugged each other. All the women who worked in the department seemed to treat the students as their own children. In the backyard of the department, it kind of had the vibe of a Hawaiian luau if it was held by a close-knit family. It reminded me of my experiences with Hawaiian culture, if that helps anyone picture it.