When we got to campus we were shown to our "flats" aka apartments which are part of the campus and about a 5 minute walk to the actual class buildings. There's a bunch of different "blocks" aka apartment buildings located around a central quad which is a really nice place to hang out for people and ducks alike (there are ducks everywhere!). Since all of the international students are placed in the Ilam Apartments, I'm surrounded by people from all over the world which is really cool but the majority of international students are from America ( my 2 non American flatmates are calling it the American invasion). Anywho I ended up in a pretty diverse flat which is great. Our 5 person flat is made up of me, Alex a sophomore from UVM who is here for 1 semester, Jacob from Montana who is getting his second degree at the University of Canterbury (from now on referred to as Uni Canty or just Uni), Emir from Paris who is doing an internship here at the Uni for 1 year, and Rebecca who is originally a kiwi but has been living in Australia for the past 7? years. We each have our own bedroom which is nearly the size of a double dorm room from back home and the beds are definitely wider than Geneseo beds which is sweet! We have 2 bathrooms which each have their own shower so we designated a boys bathroom and a girls bathroom which is quite convenient. We have a fully furnished kitchen and a living room with 3 couches, and a small flat screen tv. But my favorite part is the balcony, even though it looks directly at another building (as does my window which my desk is in front of) it's soo cool! We've had a few dance parties on the balcony already which is always a fun time. One thing that's different than at home is that there's no screens on any windows because there's barely any bugs here. Other than the extremely loud humming of the cicadas I've only seen a few flies which is soooo nice. I can just leave my winow open all the time and not really worry about bugs-can't do that at home! Oh another fun fact, all of the flat buildings are solar powered; when you open a window the heat turns off...very eco friendly here in new zealand. But yeah, I love my flat, it's awesome....and Emir is a realllly good cook! By the way, I'm going to come home speaking French (or with an improved vocab of useless french slang) and cooking Tunisian/ Arabic/French food...last night we had some delicious crepes! So far the only problem or slight downfall that I've encountered while here in NZ is the fact that the 3 boys i live with love Sardines...our fridge smells GROSS, but I think i can live with that minor misfortune.
