Forced Silence

Good morning!

This will be my blog for my trip to New Zealand and perhaps continuing. I chose the name because... well I'm rather tall. And trees are tall. And I'm blonde with blue eyes. Plus there's a tree with yellow fungus growing on the trunk outside my window which I can see now. Currently I'm sitting in silence because I can't get my computer to play my music. In fact, only select sounds are coming out at all. I'm more than a little nettled, which illuminates my complete dependency on my music.

Today I am skipping a large portion of the orientation. There are several reasons for this. The first is that I've already had an international orientation. Massey wants us all to go to hear the same people say the same things two times. Additionally, I had freshman orientation at Clemson three years ago, and it's still pretty fresh. By that I mean I know I have to make friends and get my own drinks so no one spikes them. So I feel these are legitimate reasons. My third reason is less so. This orientation is mostly for the new freshmen, who are all about three years younger than me. While I'm willing to make friends with the younger set, for the most part they're all concerned with making the friends who will be staying around with them for a few years. As opposed to my lengthy stay of five months at the most. One girl is going to take me to Wellington, however, which is pretty stellar.

I have heard I'm in the crappy part of the country and it's still the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I keep taking out my video camera and recording in silence, because what can I say about this place? When you see it all you can do is giggle and hold your breath. I am spellbound. And I may take a walk today alone, just for a change of pace. I've made friends and solitude seems unnatural here.

At the orientation dinner two nights ago a speaker came up pretending to be from the U.S. The first thing he did was apologize for being American. People clapped and cheered. What?! Even if you don't like the country's politics, why are we the only people constantly apoligizing for coming from our country? I've met several men from Pakistan and Iran and NO ONE has apologized for coming from those countries. The French never apologize, to be sure. Apparently we're supposed to repent of our nation entirely. I was the only American at the table who didn't clap and cheer when that man (who wasn't even American, it was all a joke) apologized for his supposed ethnicity. Meanwhile, several people have reminded me that they're not terrorists just because they come from the Middle East. I met a man in my hall who informed me that just because his name was Hussain (spelling?) didn't mean he had a bomb stuck to himself. It's like they're all waiting for me to scream and duck when I see them coming because I believe they're all suicide bombers. The best way to describe my feelings is nettled, and perhaps that's an understatement.

I have this fear that I'm missing something important in my plans for the day, although I am not. I am anxious to get to the grocery store because I'm a water snob and ran out of my bottled water yesterday. I'm rationing the last bit so I can take my vitamins. Most of the students I've met who are from America are not proud of their country. My views on the Iraqi war may be close to theirs but I'm never going to be ashamed to be an American. How's that for cheesy patriotism? Yeah, you like it.

Pictures will follow later. I'd like to put up video, but I don't have a digital video camera. Hint hint. My birthday's coming up, after all...