My first week here!

Settling in was rough at first, but luckily I have gotten to know some great girls, from both New Zealand and all over the world!  If you are curious, the native population of New Zealand is the Maori, and the people here take great pride in their traditions.  Everything is of course written in English, but with Maori translations always under it.  This is a picture of them in traditional dress doing a presentation:

Although I haven't had a chance to travel, I have enjoyed taking in the sights of Hamilton. The city is gorgeous and there must be a park every 500 meters or so.  (That's right, I have converted to the metric system)  Here are some of the photos I have taken so far, which include the campus and ponds around the campus, along with our duck friends who like to have some of our bread in the morning :) So far, I have started running in the mornings, making friends with anyone anywhere, and drinking instant coffee (sadly they don't use the real stuff).  I would love to skype everybody daily back home but Andrew likes to steal alllll my free-time.  School is going to be a lot harder than expected, so hopefully I can get my butt in gear.  I donated blood today and bought my mandatory lab coat for labs.  I promise to try and update this as often as possible!