Let's get it started !

So 7 days ago I have arrived into Christchurch, New Zealand. One week. One crazy, full of everything week. My first day at work. New people. And little adventures of course. Shall I start with work? The Institute where I work is really new and really lovely. People who work there are incredibly nice as well. And really really chilled. Kiwi style. Say I was told that if I ever feel like it I can just not show up at work for a day or two- all I have to do is email them. Of course, I can’t do that too often, but still. Another good thing is that I can show up whenever I want as long as I do show up and get my tasks done. And it’s not like I have that many tasks yet. But I plan on getting involved in more projects soon. We have quite a few meetings during the week where people who work there present their research ideas or just discuss research that has already been conducted. I plan on leading a couple of those meetings in the future- I think that it would be incredibly useful to say have my dissertation idea discussed in one of these meetings. But of course, first I have to come up with one. By the way once a month at work we have happy Thursdays- that is everyone drinking wine or beer and chilling together. Also, turns out one of my collegues is a surfer who has already promised to teach me the basics once the spring in Christchurch settles in properly. Yes, spring. It’s so strange to know that we are heading towards summer again. My second summer in a row. Thanks to the lovely Mona who I also met in my work on my first day and who is also an intern there, the only difference is , she is here only for 10 weeks and now has only 4 weeks left, I have met quite a few cool people outside my work as well. That was when on Tuesday I went to an international students party. It was really really fun, but how I got there is even more worth telling. I came home to have lunch and right before I had to leave this crazy storm came out of nowhere. Black black clouds, thunder and lightning and the biggest hail I have ever seen in my life. As I later found out these type of storms come to Christchurch from Antarctica. My housemates told me they’ve never seen a storm like this before. Anyway, my housemate who just got back from work did not want me walking in this weather and decided to give me a lift to uni which was incredibly nice. A bit scary though- beware of 19 year old kiwi’s driving, I’m not joking. You don’t want to be in their way. He dropped me off and then I headed to Mona’s where we were supposed to meet up and go to the party together. The only problem was- I forgot where exactly she lived. So I just knocked on a random door hoping I’d be lucky. Well I wasn’t. I didn’t even have any credit so I couldn’t text her and find out where she was. The guy on whose door I knocked happened to be very nice though and let me text her from his phone. Also he made me tea while we waited for reply. He said I was welcome to pop up whenever I want. Quite an interesting way to meet people, huh? Oh and by the way the next day Mona got a text from him asking if he could have my number and this is how I ended up going on my first kiwi date today, right after happy Thursday. Then Wednesday I joined the tramping club. While I was going there I bumped into a guy who I met and talked for a bit when I was walking around campus on Saturday. He ended up giving me his number “In case I ever got lost, needed a lighter or whatever”. Anyway I am now going tramping on Saturday and will finally get to see some of the beautiful mountains surrounding Christchurch. That is my first trip outside the city, but definitely not the last. Also, one of the club members kindly borrowed me a jacket a pants because I do not have any clothes with which I could climb up the mountains and survive. So now, even though I do not even remember which mountain I signed up to climb up, I am really really looking forward to this weekend. Including the international students dinner tomorrow. And a party on Saturday after the trip if I come back from it alive. We'll see. Until next time ! P.S. photos hopefully coming soon !