Kia Ora!

Hello from New Zealand!! I made it to Christchurch safe and sound! Of course with my wonderful airport luck I got got "randomly selected" for a student drug search. Apparently alot of American students bring drugs into the country so they search some of them. I was travelling with a few other students and of course...I was the only one who got searched. I was escorted to a room and they took EVERYTHING out of my bags and ion tested the inside of them for drug and bomb residue. Seriously now...there must be some red flag that goes off the second Deanna Stradford pops up on the airport manifesto.
I was picked up by a shuttle service along with another CSU student and my CSU advisor and taken to Lincol Uni. I still feel like I am going to crash driving on the opposite side of the road! I am living in Stevens Hall with a bunch of other international students. I have 5 other podmates (but my own room) that are tons of fun and an RA from Zimbabwe who is absolutely wonderful.
My second night in Lincoln was a blast....all the Kiwi students moved in and they are crazzzzy!! Half of them were wasted before 5pm. We all walked over to the pub in Lincoln and celebrated Kiwi style. They drink pints like they are water and have the craziest drinking songs that the whole pub will randomly start singing at the top of their lungs. I will know all the songs by the end of the semester...its a personal goal :0) They have a song for when people spill their beer...and even one that the whole pub sings when someone gets thrown out for being too intoxicated! Shell...I imagine its like 9 Fine Irishmen...times like a thousand...and much rowdier!
Registration was a pain...I will never complain about computer registration again! They do everything by hand here and it took over 4 hours to get everything done! I am in 4 classes...Wildlife Biology...Biology...Ecology...and Animal Physiology. Hopefully it wont be too difficult so that I can relax for the semester!
The Kiwis here are absolutely wonderful. They are nice to EVERYONE. I love that it is a small campus because I can walk around and stop to chat with people everywhere I go. The guys all wear SHORT shorts (called stubbies) and rugby jerseys...the more mismatched THE BETTER.
We had a huge campus beach party the other night. Tui Beer sponsors our parties and our dorms so we got a bunch of free stuff. Our ticket in to the party was a disgusting bright orange fishermans hat that has the Tui logo on it and says "Lincoln Halls Tracking Device"...they were horrible but I kept mine on ALLLL night! They gave us a free pair of flip flops or Jandels as they call them here and a light up beer keychain.
There are so many events coming up...we have a welcome back party on Monday...a Toga party Wednesday... apparently the start of school doesnt slow down the partying here! Today is silly sports day and we are competing in our halls to win a ping pong table...ill let you all know how it goes. I bought my first official New Zealand outfit today...a rugby shirt and some stubbies! Ill send pictures when I can! We taught the Kiwis how to play kickball and beer pong last night...we brought the American games to New Zealand :0)
I miss you all and wish you were here to see this AMAZING place! I will send pictures soon and post up more when I can!