drama, drama, and more drama

Just when I thought that I had nothing to report because life was normal, or almost normal . . . the drama began.

Sometimes my friends and I start looking for the hidden cameras in our flats. (A note on friends: Ever since I returned from the break, I’ve been hanging out with some cool friends on a consistent basis. We have dinner together almost every night and discuss and over-analyze everything that could possibly be interesting or controversial or exciting in our lives. It’s fantastic-we’re like a little family!) Anyway, we suspect we might be on a reality TV show because of all the drama that's been happening. With the wide variety of people in flats 42 (my real flat) and 47 (my adopted flat), we fit the profile for a reality show. Up in 47, there’s an adventurous American guy, a creepy Kiwi who smokes Cuban cigars (the cigars aren’t what makes him creepy), a Kiwi lacking social skills, a Jewish American girl, a Christian Kiwi girl, and a stereotypically bubbly American girl. Here in 42, well, the personalities aren’t as big, but the messes are certainly bigger.

Over the past week, I’ve been a witness to too much drama: boy drama (in two very different ways), family drama, class drama, and flat drama. About the boy drama, Tori’s been semi-panicking because of difficulties communicating by text (the primary mode of communication here) with Volker, her special friend who happens to be from Germany. We’ve certainly analyzed every aspect of the past week of their relationship, but I don’t think we’ve come to any conclusions yet. I’ll have to wait until tonight to get the latest update. Moana, my genuine Kiwi friend, has decided to move out of 47 because of the creepiness of Richard. I’ll leave it at that. But we’re going to relocate some of our dinners to her new flat. As for the family drama, Rachel’s parents and grandmother were in town last weekend for a visit. They took us out to a nice, but highly awkward, curry dinner. Apparently it was a lot of family packed into a little time.

The class drama relates to my religion class, again. Mike continues to put forth his views in a completely biased way. After his bashing last Friday of Christianity as highly idolatrous and pre-modern as well as his promotion of Lloyd Geering, a controversial figure of “modern Christianity”, as a Christian and an astute critic of traditional Christianity, I don’t even want to go to the class anymore. Geering doesn't believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, nor does he think the soul human soul immortal. Yet, Geering calls himself a Christian and still preaches in Auckland. Mike holds up Geering as an example of how Christianity should adapt to the modern world and ignores the fact that Geering denies two of the foundational beliefs of Christianity.

And, the flat drama. Yesterday, I awoke to find three mysterious and dodgy (sketchy) male randoms sleeping in the common room. The extent to which they were clothed was unclear. I later discovered they were friends of Jon. This morning I found them again, still asleep, as I tried to make my way safely through the room without falling over relocated couches or heaps of empty beer bottles in the dark. Meanwhile, Jon had been occupying the washer and dryer for over 24 hours. Needless to say, he is not on my list of favorite people at the moment.

In other news, I’m back into bike volunteering, and I did the Globe (a route, named for the Globe Cafe) by myself this morning. I got a bit lost, missed a cafe or two, and even asked one for food that isn't on our list. (Sidenote: out of the 10-15 people who participate in the volunteering, four are Americans . . . kind of funny, I thought. And yet they still don't like us.) When I headed out at 7:00am this morning, the sun hadn’t come up, and I was excited that I’d get to see the sunrise. Alas, I was too busy focusing on not getting lost and avoiding getting hit by cars to notice. (The hours of daylight are decreasing rapidly now – with sunrise around 7:30am and the sun beginning to set around 5:00pm.) But I succeed at least in avoiding other moving vehicles.

This weekend, I’m headed to Kaikoura, a small coastal town about two hours north of Christchurch, with the Butler group. We’re going mountain-biking, hot-pool dipping, and whale-watching (it’s the best spot in New Zealand for that) and staying at a marae (a Maori meeting house).

I’ll leave you with a quote from the waiver: “Although all outdoor physical activities in New Zealand can be considered dangerous . . .”

P.S. Don’t worry! If I can navigate the city centre streets of Christchurch on a bike, I can certainly mountain-bike! Without the challenge of the left side and roundabouts, it won’t be a problem at all!