Author Archives: Jen

(*Jekyll & Hyde moment!) With just under a week of homecoming under my belt, I guess it’s that time to look back, have an “aha!” moment, and otherwise generally reflect on my trip. (Oh, PDP, you have me well-trained, don’t you?) Well, here goes. On July 5, I wrote, I think today for the firstContinue reading “When This All Began…”

“There and back again“ Not just a hobbit’s tale.* Well folks, after a long-and-short three weeks, I’m back in the U.S. and feeling more than a little jet-lagged and woozy after right about 30 hours in transit. Operation stay-awake-until-a-normal-bedtime is now in effect. But along the way, I’ve made some interesting discoveries about the wanderingContinue reading “In Transit”

So last time I rode the ferry from Wellington to Picton, and vice versa, picture pristine, rippling water. Slightly hazy blue sky. A hilly harbor with small houses ranged over the slopes and a small, sheltered town with tall sail boats all along the forest-edged waterfront. Today was a little bit different. 2:05 p.m.Ferry exitsContinue reading “Hostile Ferries and (F)ery Good Hostels”

Well, I have to say this is the first–and probably the last–time I’ll have had seven different men in my bedroom over a period of seven nights. Ah, hostels, how do I love thee? =P Research “finished.” Museum…museumed. Rugby match cheered. And down to the wire for my trip. In some ways it’s gone byContinue reading “Heading South”

Wind. Cold rain. More wind. Yep, welcome to Wellington. They don’t call it the Windy City for nothing. After a lazy weekend of reading, sitting and watching the rain, and watching new friends dance tango at a local pub, I started my research at the national library today. I was prepared for a new roundContinue reading “Windy Welly”

To my dear (now-ex) roommates, Thank you for apologizing when you turned on the lights at midnight and entered en masse. No thanks for subsequently continuing to party for another hour. Thank you for not “waking me up” to show me the pictures in your porn magazine. No thanks for narrating the pictures in aContinue reading “Goodbye, Auckland (take 2)”

After a great two and a half days in Hamilton visiting classes and talking to professors, students, and tutors at Waikato, I’m back in Auckland for one more night (in a definite partyers hostel) before heading south. I think my public transportation usage is permanently cursed. Allow me to explain. At least one sick personContinue reading “Goodbye, Auckland”

Yesterday’s lesson: If I ever propose visiting New Zealand without an umbrella again, someone stop me. (Sub-lesson: puddles form in low places on the street. Sub-sub-lesson: puddles are bodies of water that, when stepped in, cause dampness in denim and canvas. Sub-to-the-third-power-lesson: jeans take a lot longer to dry in cold weather.) After a fullContinue reading “Romeo & Juliet, NZ-style”