Gangsters, Rugby, and a Bag of Spifes

Next, a social life update... or at least what I've been up to the last week or so. Last Wednesday we had an "American themed dinner" (meaning the Americas - North, Central and South) in the dining hall, complete with red, white and blue balloons for decorations, chicken wings, french fries, apple pie (with rains in it... eww) and tacos (or at least wanna be tacos). Costumes were encouraged, but only about a third of the residents actually dressed up. Outfit highlights include a group of girls who made Hooters shirts (actually so well drawn that I thought they had bought them off the internet), Gabe with his sheet for a poncho, Mexican stache and large sombrero, Jeremy dressing as a cheerleader (yes he is a boy), and a make-shift statue of liberty outfit from a sheet (toga style) and a crown made of paper.

Erika and I had some down time during the day, so when she mentioned she has some skills at cornrowing hair, I took her up on the offer and decided to be a gangster ("G") at the dinner. I had full cornrows, from my forehead down the back of my neck, a gold chain with a dollar sign and dice on it, hoop earrings, a wife beater tank, large hooded hoodie, sagging sweat pants and boots. Sam dressed up as a G too, with sweet as matching bling. Erika was a cute cowgirl :).

Unfortunately, Erika could only do my hair in the early afternoon because we both had a class right before dinner, so she did an excellent cornrow job on my curls BUT, then I had to go to class looking a little too ghetto for my own good. Luckily, my PR Cases class has students and a laid-back, funny teacher so I kept my hood on for a while and then filled them in on why I was self conscious about my head. Over all, it was fun, gave us something to do, I was named one of the best-dressed so I got to have a go at the piñata (thanks to Erika), but I've decided I would make a very ugly bald person and I should stick with my natural hair-do. Although, it was pretty funny how huge my frizz fro got after taking it all out later that night.

Yeah... we're that cool... errr
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Hm, other updates... AMAZING NEWS: Gabe brought us back an entire bag full of Spifes after he went home a few weekends ago, so I will come through on my promise of giving them out as awesome gifts haha. It is now sitting on my desk. It definitely comes in handy knowing the son of someone who works for Zespri (New Zealand's largest kiwifruit company).

Another discovery - I have studied at opposite ends of the earth! If you take a world map, take another and flip it backwards and upside down (to reverse the hemispheres)and superimpose it over the first, you will see that the southwest of Spain is the exact opposite side of the world from the North Island of New Zealand! They are antipodes, or New Zealand is Spain's diametrically opposite point and vice versa.

So you can visualize:

Go to www.antipodr.com to figure out any pair of antipodal cities. Unfortunately, as you can see above, you'll find that the entirety of the United States, and most of North and Central America, are diametrically opposite of a large expanse of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Australia.
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Last but not least, tonight I went to my first rugby game at the nearby Waikato Stadium - the Waikato Warriors (one level down from the region's Waikato Chiefs) vs. Taranaki. Sadly, we lost, 23 - 33, but it was still a fun late afternoon/evening! The stadium was relatively empty, I think because it has been a rainy weekend, but tonight was clear. I actually really enjoy watching rugby, it's much more fast-paced than football because play continues even when the player is tackled, as he must let go of the ball and his fellow players try to gain possession and continue their advance, or his opponents struggle to steal the ball and begin a counter attack.

The Waikato colors are bright red, yellow, and black and I saw quite a few fans with painted faces. A majority sported a Waikato jersey, which I will have to get before I leave. The mascot is Mooloo (a cow) so someone in a Mooloo mascot suit runs around the sidelines and I saw (and heard) a ton of fans with massive, painted cowbells. My favorite part was seeing a group of kids, dressed in jerseys and Mooloo cow masks do a half-time dance performance to the Beach Boy's "Surfin' USA."

Mooloo!!

The dancin' Mooloo kids:
Also, there is one avid fan, Waikato's most dedicated, who owns a cherry-picker (those huge ladder/bucket things used to fix power lines or do tree trimming) and parks it on one end of the stadium. From his high view point he yells loudly, shakes his cowbell like there's no tomorrow, and, believe it or not, has a chainsaw (without the belt I hope) which he revs between plays, during trys (like a touchdown), or pretty much whenever he feels like it. Apparently after the game he throws out lollies (candy) from atop his perch.

Some game snapshots:
Well, I'm clearly having a good time, Sam is being silly and looks like he hates rugby or maybe the crazy girl sitting next to him...
Aw, now that's much better...
We finished off the night with kebabs and ice cream and now I'm back, writing this to avoid studying, in disbelieve that the break is next weekend and that I've already been here almost seven weeks!