Day 11: First Day of School

Today we started school, Monday, July 12th.

Woke up at 9am and had class at 10am. So I am nervous and not sure what to expect at a new school, new place and being an international student. So I didn't bring and school supplies with me, so had to buy some at the bookstore. Expensive as I said before! Bought myself a 5 subject notebook, some pens and an highlighter, all came out to $12.48 NZD. Hurried off to my first class, Te Reo Māori (Māori language). Nervous and all entering into a class that is in it's second semester. So pretty much everyone in the class was Māori except me and probably 2 other students. So the teacher wanted us to sit up front and closer to each other. We all introduced ourselves. So I did mines in Hawaiian and a little bit in Māori. Kinna shame speaking Māori in front of them. Interesting, the teacher is pretty cool and nice. We began class with a karakia (prayer). Then she just went over some stuff they did last semester and then went over the course outline. It was about 20 pages. When I got it, I was like wow, thats choke pages and pretty much back at UH theres probably 5 max. LOL!!! This school is pretty rich! Then we ended the class again with a karakia. It was really good! Then I went off to my Hist 107 New Zealand Fresh Histories class. Ok class, aurite teacher, hoping this class would be good in the end.

Was about to head back to grab lunch at the cafe, because class ended at 1pm. Heard the food wasn't great, so I went to buy lunch, sushi! My lunch came out to be about $13. Sushi is expensive. Came back to room to cruz because I my last class didn't start till 5:00pm thats like 7pm in Hawaiʻi! Anyways got bored and it was like 3pm so went around campus to take pictures of the campus. Check out the campus pictures on my FB!

So after that I went again to the sushi place AGAIN! And ate AGAIN! LOL!!! That was my dinner, after couple hours from lunch. Met up with Kara, the other Hawaiian from UH Hilo and was just cruzin till class started. Class started, our kumu is also the associate dean who greeted us when I had my orientation. Nice lady. Anyways there 4 of us Hawaiians in the class (Me, Logan, Leo and Kara). This class is the Tiriti o Waitangi. We started class off with a karakia. COOL! After that, it was introductions again. So it was funny, because she mentioned to the class of our presence as "our Hawaiian visitors". So had us introduce ourselves and then everyone else. After, went over the course outline (10 pages i think?) and then started off with the first lecture.

So it was good for my first day of school here. Pretty much everyone is back, back to school back to the dorms. It's noisy now. Each class is really clean and nice lecture classes. Each class has a computer with at least 2 screens and projectors with a overhead projector or the digital one. Pretty high tech this Uni! Gonna go do homework now. Check out the pictures of the campus! Pretty much every sign is both in Māori and English.