Since I'm actually on this trip for a reason, I thought it might be time I started to do just that. I spent Monday walking around the various art galleries that seem to be everywhere in central Dunedin. One of the most striking things for me was the amount of sculpture on display. I'm more used to paintings dominating, but I found an incredibly amount of installation art. After a nice chat with a woman in the local community gallery I now have even more people to email.
My plan on Tuesday was to go to one of the many museums, but as soon as I went outside I couldn't bear to be indoors. It was just so beautiful. Instead I went back to the botanical gardens. I was soon recruited to help with a school scavenger hunt-- I was asked by almost every group if I had seen yellow flags. Eventually I just sat on a bench and pointed the same flag out to every group. NZ has managed to successfully make their little children cuter not only with their little accents but with their blazers and kilts. I decided to splurge for a "flat white coffee" while writing emails. I'll admit-- I felt pretty spiffy sitting in a garden in New Zealand, sipping coffee while typing. I'm not caught up enough on the barista lingo to know how it differs from a latte-- but it was delicious.
The rest of the day was spent on the bus. It was beautiful, of course, but uneventful. I spent the night in Queenstown and went out to dinner with one of my roommates from Korea. She's finishing her last year of getting her elementary teaching degree. I asked her if she was going to become a teacher and she replied, "Maybe." I asked her why and she replied, "It's hard, we (Koreans) need to change but I'm not sure we'll be able to change... There aren't arts as you would have them. I've been teaching in Auckland. In Auckland it's really nice, kindergarten is nice. It's not nice in Korea." Hearing her talk that way about arguably the best school system in the world made for quite an intersting conversation despite our language barrier.
I was early to bed, and was out early in the morning. Too early for one bus driver-- who described my half hour of extra time as "just disgusting." But I most certainly preferred to be me than be the couple who tried to sprint after the bus.
Oh, and as per my last post. Here are two views of the campus-- I took one picture and then just turned around to take the other:
Also, I found a small frozen turkey in the supermarket for $70. I couldn't figure out where to put that in my post, but I couldn't quite believe it.
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