Helmet Hair, Etc.

Helmet Hair has become a part of my life . . . because I have a bike! After quite a bit of effort and stress monitoring bike auctions on trademe.com (an online auction site just for kiwis), I finally won a bike! My friend Genevieve (a Caniwian – half Canadian, half kiwi) told me she was very impressed that I managed to use trademe.com! I’ve had the bike for about a week now, and I am immensely enjoying my new freedom – almost as much as I enjoyed getting my driver’s license! After I picked up the bike from the seller’s house, I rode back to Ilam Village and tried to figure out how to coexist on the roads with cars. I guess my squeaky brakes alerted drivers of my presence, because I made it back to campus safely.

This Wednesday, I woke up early to go with my friend Len to do some ‘bike volunteering’. I’d heard from him about a group that bikes to the city centre, picks up leftover food from cafes, and takes it to the City Mission. Now that I had a bike, I could go with him. We met up with the group leader, Tessa, at an intersection near campus and biked down busy Riccarton Road to the Botanical Garden, where we stopped to meet up with other volunteers. After splitting up the routes, we headed out to the cafes. Len and I went with Tessa to learn one of the routes. After we’d gone to all the café’s on the route, we met up with everyone else in Cathedral Square and headed to the City Mission to drop off all the food. By this point, we all had bags of baked goods hanging off our handlebars, so cycling was a bit difficult. On the way back, it started raining, and my wet glasses created an extra challenge. I was already attempting to carry on a conversation with Tessa; she seemed to want to talk about our futures as we peddled through the rain, tried to stay in the bike lanes, and navigate the roundabouts. Needless to say, she is considerably more confident of her cycling than I am of mine!

On Saturday, I awoke early again to go off on a little tramp with some ICF (International Christian Fellowship) folks. (All of the Tramping Club Tramps were cancelled; alas, the crossword puzzle trick will have to wait.) We headed out to the Barnett Park Track, near Sumner Beach. ICF is the international affiliate of InterVarsity, the Christian group I belong to back at Wake; but, here, apparently, anyone—not just students—can join. Out of the six of us, I was the only undergraduate. Genevieve, the president, is working on her Ph.D. in something to do with Biology that is beyond my comprehension. Jennifer, Genevieve’s flatmate, is studying for her master’s in clinical psychology. Audrey just graduated from law school (an undergraduate program here) and is taking a final class to earn her certification. Yani, a Belgian-Australian-Kiwi, is an electrical engineer. And Omar, a Muslim from Egypt, is studying Chinese language and other things at the university. Anyhow, we tramped up to a cave, took pictures, learned that many foods originated in China from Omar, discussed differences in various Asian foods, and walked back down the mountain. Quite an adventure!

I spent the rest of Saturday in Flat 47, my adopted flat, working on a religion essay and hanging out with my friend Rachel. Later on, I made a cookie-cake with Rachel because she had never had one before! We decorated it with a variety of m&m’s to form the shape of the South Island (see my web albums for a picture). When our friend Adam came over, he refused to believe that we were actually working! We shared the cookie-cake with the other flatmates, Richard and Moana, both kiwis; they had never had cookie-cake before either. We had trouble convincing Richard to call it cookie-cake because here cookies are “biscuits.” I told him “biscuit-cake” just wasn’t acceptable!

Today, I biked to St. James Anglican Church to meet up with Genevieve for the Palm Sunday service. The church was quite small, with only 25 or so people in attendance. There’s no choir or organ music, and one man plays the guitar—and this was a good day! (When I went last Sunday, the priest played a CD of the hymn music!) Afterwards, Genevieve and I rode to an outdoor market, where people sell all sorts of things: artistic treasures, new clothes, old kitchen items, used appliances, anti-wrinkle lotion, and just about anything else they can find in their attics.

I’m still a “wee bit” in shock at all of the freedom I have here—freedom to go wherever I want, freedom from peoples’ expectations, freedom to be whoever I feel like being, freedom from school stress, and freedom to sleep! I actually might be getting a tad sick, which I believe is a result of my short night of sleep on Tuesday night—I have been so spoiled by being able to sleep eight hours a night that I can’t handle any less than that! It’s strange, though, knowing that I’ll be here for only three more months yet trying to create meaningful friendships. I can’t be too picky about friends, mostly because friends are vital, but also because there just aren’t that many people here! It’s fun learning about German eating and study habit from Maria, and it’s exciting to discover kiwi life firsthand from my kiwi friends; it’s also cool to find out about different regions and cultures of America from friends from other parts of the country. But, sometimes, the constant learning and the looming ‘temporariness’ of it all wears me down; as much as I try to live in it and enjoy it all, it’s tough to abandon a ‘cultural anthropologist’ attitude. As I write about New Zealand’s identity, religion, and culture for my religion class, I am forced to think about my own. And as much as I cherish the conversations and relationships I have with people here, I long for the people who really know me and for permanence, for days that don’t feel like a dreams—days that aren’t all jumbled up, scattered, quick, and confusing.