Yesterday the international orientation programme started at Victoria University. While we had basically organisational lectures and enrolment procedures in the morning, the fun part started at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when I met my buddy, Rosey, at the international buddy programme drop-in afternoon tea. And I must say, the people who are responsible for the programme are true matchmakers! Rosey and I have so much in common, from photography to Asian movies, and we've been in close contact since. I also talked with some fellow international students there, surprisingly many dutch girls. And I realised something, that is in fact very obvious, I just never thought about it before: People, who participate in an international students programme, are easy to get to know, easy to connect to, so open-minded and open-hearted that it makes you cry jolly tears of happiness inside... with one word: AWESOME!!!
So, the programme continued this afternoon with a traditional Maori welcoming ceremony. We had a one-hour briefing lecture first, to get us prepared for the whole thing. In this lecture we also learned a Maori song we later sung together with the Maori people in the meeting house. (Watch the "Waiata" video when it's uploaded, it was both beautiful and hilarious^^)
We then were lead to the uni's own Maori meeting house (Marae) for the ceremony. Although it was only speech and song in Maori words, it was incredibly beautiful and as I am now officially a member of their community, I will definitely go there again and enjoy the atmosphere of this very special place. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to upload photos of the meeting house, due to copyright issues. Apparently, some US companies used pictures of the Marae that they found on the internet without asking for permission, so they are very strict with this. Still, you can find two photos of the event in my "Victoria University" album. They don't show very much, I don't think, any company would want to use them ;)
So, that's basically what I did the last two days. Plus watching a whole season of "Dexter". What can I say, it was a rainy week... tonight there will be a party for international students downtown, I'll propably go there (if the rain doesn't get worse). I'm more excited about tomorrow, though. I'll go to Weta Workshop for the first time, on a LotR-tour, again especially for international VUW students. So there'll be much to write about tomorrow :)