Ilam Village, 12/2

A week ago I checked in at the Ilam Village, apartment no. 83 room 1. I got to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in a month, and as from today, three of my four flatmates have moved in as well. My room is probably 4.5x2 square meters, and the buildings are only a few years old, making everything quite new and not worn out like one could fear when moving in at student accommodations. All of the rooms where I live are furnished with a bed (for unknown reasons I have only been given a single when I am entitled to a King Single – big issue, which apparently takes more than a week to solve), a desk and chair, a wardrobe without doors, two pin-up boards and a bookshelf mounted over the desk. Unfortunately, my room is on the ground level, so I have quite a lot of traffic passing by during the day, but as long as I don’t have to study full days in my room I guess I will be fine.

The apartment has two bathrooms, where the showerheads are mounted in the wall only 175cm above the floor. We saw this at a few holiday parks in January as well, but I still can’t figure out why they would do such a thing. It’s not like Kiwis are particularly short, and the money saved on those 20cm of water pipes can’t be much. But with a combination of bending down and leaning against the wall, plus a bit of limbo dancing, I am able to wash my hair, and I would rather have it this way than an old, mouldy tub in a dark brown bathroom from the seventies.

Our kitchen is very sparse equipped, and this is probably the one thing that will bother me the most. We have a tiny fridge, with less than one shelf for each of the five in the apartment, and instead of a proper oven we have a microwave with a convection programme. In addition to this, there is just one plate, one glass, one cup and one set of crockery for each of us, and the utensils are pretty much non-existing. I really do not understand how they can imagine us cooking for five with two tiny pots and a small frying pan… But we will be all right, I have already talked to two of my flatmates about getting extras for the kitchen, and they are more than happy to pay their share.

The most important part, however, is that my flatmates seems to be really nice people. So far I am living with a Kiwi girl and a girl and a guy from USA, and I have no reason to believe that it will be an issue living together with them.

The last week have been spent on getting a lot of practical things sorted before international orientation and enrolment kicks off next week, and lectures begin the week after. I have gotten a mobile phone, a bike and all sorts of different stuff for my room and our kitchen. I have been to visit Eva & Nic, have had the last visitors from New Zealand Explorer before they all moved on – thanks a lot for stopping by, I will miss you guys!, and been for a few walks around the proximity of the university plus a long walk to central Christchurch. My bike will come in very handy, since it is a half day project to walk to the city centre, do whatever needs to be done there, and walk back to campus. By bike I imagine the trip can be done in 15 minutes, making it possible to go on days where I need to study as well. Besides, Christchurch is absolutely flat, and thus the perfect city to bike around. I even managed to find a bike that is neither a road or a mountain bike,  but it took some effort to find the right shop with the hybrid I was looking for.

Tomorrow I am biking to The Paddock and staying there overnight. We will be going to Aprils 21^st tomorrow night, and I am looking forward to meeting some of the people that I will be seeing from time to time at The Paddock, plus seeing a bit of the Kiwi family traditions. Sunday we are all going to the Riccarton Market before Åse & Connie drops by to see my apartment, and in the evening the village offers “speed meeting”, where it will – hopefully – be possible to get to talk to some of the others staying at the village and have a bit of fun. So far, the only introduction the village has offered was an open lunchBBQ yesterday and today, and to be honest I expected a bit more in terms of getting to know the place and people around. I guess it will all come naturally in time, but it sure would have been nice with a tour around the facilities instead of just “Welcome, here is your room and your keys, any questions?”.

When I moved in last Friday, Nic and I went for a walk around the university, and I happened to meet one of my lecturers when we were looking around at the physics department. He seemed like a really nice guy, genuinely interested in why I am here studying medical physics, and just as down-to-earth as I am used to from Aarhus University. It is a big comfort to have met one of the lecturers and seen for myself that they are relaxed and helpful, and given the fact that we are only ten people following the medical physics classes, I am sure I will get to know a few of the staff pretty well, even before I start on my thesis next year.