My first weekend

So as I mentioned before, friday night I was exhausted. I went to the supermarket for hamburger to make spaghetti for dinner, a bottle of local wine and some actual ground coffee. Went home, played music - from my iTunes library as there's no tv or radio - made dinner, drank my wine and Rachel came home halfway through dinner so she joined me for spaghetti.

Saturday I was up early to walk around town and do some shopping. They have the best farmer's market here! All types of food - veggies, fruits, meats, sandwiches, homemade soups, chocolate, herbs, etc, etc - flowers and plants and live music. I will definitely be going there often! I had to go to 3 bookstores before I found the bird field guide my officemate recommended (she studies birds so she's a great reference to have!). I found the upside down maps at the visitor center, where New Zealand is at the top and Canada is at the bottom; it's pretty awesome - looking at the world from a different perspective (let me know if you'd like one). I popped into a couple of bike shops but as the end of the semester is approaching I'm going to wait and see if I can pick up a used one. I checked out cell phones (I'll probably get one in the next couple of days) and purchased a calling card...so of course I went home and spent all of the afternoon on the phone! It was great to talk to the few of you I did! Rachel and I headed to the bar saturday eve for some beers and found a small bar in the city center that had a band. The band mostly played American music, Kiwis head out on the dance floor as soon as the music starts (both Rachel and I said that doesn't happen back home...people need more alcohol before dancing), met a couple of people visiting from Australia, and danced! On the way home Rachel wanted to buy milk and beer (I know - what a combo), but they wouldn't sell us beer because they have an intoxication law!...we definitley were not wasted!...just talkative and giggley...and the guy behind the counter had a such heavy accent (as did the men hitting on me at the bar!) that we could barely understand him so he thought we were more drunk than we actually were!

Sunday was cold and rainy...I had about a third of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows left so I got sucked into the end (as with them all, once you get to a certain point you can't put it down) and finished the book. Also did some reading for my research.

I've pics of my flat in an album on the right...make sure you scroll down after you hit play so you can see the captions under the photos. My flat has 6 bedrooms. The 1st floor has a full bath and two bedrooms; 2nd floor has the living room, kitchen, bathroom with toilet and sink only, and one bedroom; 3rd floor has 3 bedrooms (including mine) and bathroom with shower and sink only.