Cultural Fun

With the later light comes later fun! Now that we've set our clocks ahead an hour, it stays light until 8:30 or so. That means we can go biking in the evenings after work, which we did a few times last week. We also went down to the harbor to walk on the path along the water one night. The path is between the water and the railroad tracks. During our stroll, a train went by next to us with a dog racing it on the path. That dog was fast and was keeping up with the train!
Friday night we decided to get some culture and went to see an act from Barcelona in town for the Otago Arts Festival. The act, Camut, was comprised of 7 men who tap dance and place different percussion instruments to make music. It was kind of along the same lines as Stomp but a bit different. It was really amazing, some talented people, and very entertaining. I think we both left wanting to learn to tap dance or play strange instruments.

Saturday morning we walked down to the market and were excited to find some fresh apples! The market was pretty lively that day because of the arts festival and there were a few more performers than usual, making for larger crowds. Neither of us were very hungry so no exciting food to tell you about this week, although I did buy a "no sugar" oatmeal raisin cookie which was yummy.

After the market we came home and chilled out for awhile before meeting Dan, Emily, and Lexie for our first rugby game! We took some beers and crisps to "the oval," a park like place for some American style tailgating and tossed a football around a little bit. Then we walked to Carisbrook, the rugby "pitch" (stadium). The stands were nearly empty because Otago (our team, in last place) was playing Wellington (in first place, undefeated) so nobody expected any excitement. However, it ended up being a crazy good game and Otago somehow actually pulled a win out of their behinds! Due in part, I think to our (especially Craig and Dan's) excessive cheering, jeering, and chanting "Let's go Otago!" The locals thought we were all hilarious but nuts. They definitely don't get into sporting events here like we do back home so we did it for them.

On Sunday, there were surfing and surf kayaking at St Clair beach so we went down for some spectating. Craig was dying to get in the water but still has no boat which is a big bummer. But it was pretty fun to watch and be outside by the beach for a couple hours. The waves were gigantic and a couple of surfers and kayakers got rocked which had good entertainment value. Craig also found his new favorite sign, guess if you can find it below...
After that we hit up Bethunes Gully for some mountain biking. I fell off the edge of a boardwalk and into a tree which resulted in some impressive new bruises and scrapes. We also found a new trail which was pretty cool until we had to ride through a mud pit in which rotted an unrecognizable, smelly, medium sized mammal skeleton. Anyway, except for our fairly frequent bailing (especially me), our biking is improving by leaps and bounds! Craig has nearly mastered the numerous hairpin turns present on the trails here and I am not super far behind (I hope). And we're having lots of fun with it!

Monday night we went for a nice easy bike ride on the path by the harbor. No dogs chasing trains that time but we did see some strange birds.

Work is fine for us both. The semester is winding up and the students are in their last week of classes before finals. Then they're off for about 3 months! So, Craig is finishing up with his teaching and getting ready to focus a little more on research until the students resume. I am not really affected much because I don't have much student interaction so my job won't change at all. This week we get to participated with student interviews. Craig gets to interrogate undergrads to decide whether they are worthy to be let into the Physio program and I get the exciting task of delivering the little bundles of nerves to the appropriate interview room. It's pretty interesting.

On a happy note, I did receive notification from the Physio board that my application is (finally) complete and will now be reviewed which is the final step in the registration process. I still have a long wait though as review usually takes around 3 months. After it's reviewed, the board will either say yes, no, or we need further information. So, while it's far from over, at least it's moving along in the right direction.
Oh, almost forgot a very important point. We have discovered an ice cream place right around the corner from our apartment with the best ice cream ever. Honestly, ice cream here is far superior to any ice cream in the states. It is creamier and tastier. But, they don't have cookie dough over here which is a shame. We plan to hit up the corner store regularly for some icy goodness. At least I do :)

Weekend Pictures