Tuesday, April 04, 2006

posted by Hoot @ 10:49 PM 0 comments

Rugby Game





Later on Saturday, March 18th: Anjali and I went to the rugby game.
First lesson learned was that getting tickets through one of the local bars would have been smarter. You can purchase tickets through the local bars, and they not only provide you with a beverage prior to your gaming experience, but also a bus to get to the rugby game. But since we were not aware that one could do this, we ended up walking to the game. Carisbrook, the stadium at which the Otago Highlanders play, is far, far away from our meager little flat complex. I think one can safetly say we got our workout.
Upon arrival to the stadium, we stood in line to get standing-only tickets, which were $13 NZ as opposed to the $25 NZ for seats. This, my knee feels, was a mistake. Standing for hours is not so good. Particularly when you are two young women, neither of whom are really 'into' rugby as a sport.
This was our third error: Attending the rugby game without anyone there to explain the rules. Or, who, well, was into sports. Anjali doesn't attending sport games period, and bless her heart is about as far removed from being a sporting fan as one can possibly get. I am what one could call a 'medicore' fan. I sometimes get excited, I sometimes don't. I enjoy going to sporting games because of the atmosphere and the chance to watch people, in addition to the game. But it is rather difficult to get excited over a foreign team (in this sense, just meaning a team that I'm not familar with) in a foreign game surrounded by strangers. Sporting events are definitely best enjoyed in large groups of people in such instances as this.
Thus it was that we stood there for an hour or so, munching on delicious fatty chips and corndogs (the best corndog I've had in a while, actually), trying to figure out what was going on while being swarmed by drunken teenage Kiwis who didn't seem to be really paying attention to the game...exception being the few people I photographed above.

Observations
From an anthropology of sport point of view, it was an interesting event to see. The stadium was not as large as I would have imagined it to be, particularly since this was supposed to be the equivalent to American football. It was by no means as small as a high school stadium, but I've seen US university stadiums that are larger. Concessions were also -extremely- limited. Whereas when I go to the MCI Center in D.C., there are about 25 different places to get food, and it's all extremely expensive...the variety at this stadium was even smaller, and about equivalently priced, to my high school's concesion stand.
That being said, one other difference that I noticed concerned alcohol.
Kiwis are very keen on their alcohol. Very keen. In the States, there seems to be this overreaching desire to limit the amount of alcohol one can consume at a sporting event, in order to prevent violence or havoc, and so forth, from happening, not to mention to promote a more healthy family atmosphere....this is not the case in Dunedin. One could purchase a case of beer right there in the stadium, and there didn't seem to be any restrictions on how many you could purchase over the course of a game.
This led to another interesting observation. The majority of people, at least in the standing section, were teenagers. Young teenagers, even, not even college-aged students, but mostly high school aged. In small groups, in large groups, there were tons of young adults roaming around. Drunk, or tipsy, and unsupervised. The above pictures of the children and the older gent are exceptions to this rule. I definitely felt like we were surrounded by young people.
This is interesting for me because, in my limited experience with sporting games at this professional level, this is not the case in the States. Most professional-level sporting events are attended by older people, especially middle-aged men. What could this age differential indicate about New Zealand culture? I wonder if this is simply because the tickets were so cheap, or if the tickets are made cheap so as to encourage a younger crowd to attend?
In the end, I still know nothing about rugby.

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posted by Hoot @ 3:58 PM 0 comments

Friday March 17th/Saturday March 18th


This will be short, because I can't remember what else we did that weekend.
Anjali and I had a 'girls weekend', with a few exceptions. St. Patricks Day caught us in a bar, where we downed an entire -glass- of Guinneas each. We both decided that it was definitely a girlie beer, or, as Sean put it, 'a beer milkshake'. The rest of the evening was spent discussing the prison camps in North Korea.


On Saturday, we went to the Otago Museum, where we learned that Dunedin is a thriving metropolis. For anyone who has actually been to a thriving metropolis by US standards, this would make you giggle. The museum was otherwise -quite- delicious for any museumphile. Like myself. I particularly enjoyed the photographic exhibit on New Zealand flora and fauna, and the small expo on Chinese photographs. The exhibit on Scarfies, the term used to describe Uni students, left much to be desired.
One interesting point is that, apparently, one of the major things that students here are protesting is the price of education. There is apparently great concern over the financial burden of student loans, with the ideaology being that it is within the interest of the country to encourage as many of its younger generation to attain a higher education. It makes sense. But coming from the perspective of someone who is paying nearly $40,000 US per year for her college education..well, I have to confess that my first reaction, based on this worldview, was that the Kiwis were complaining over nothing. I take it for granted that in order to get a top-notch education, I'll have to pay for it, particularly since I'm from a demographic that has been -told- that we can pay for it.
I wonder what would happen in the US if college students protested more about the price of their higher education what the reaction would be.

Right, so speaking of protests... there was a minor protest that we saw the tail end of, which occured in the Octagon. I think there were about 25 people protesting the war in Iraq and, most specifically, President Bush. He is not much loved down here. Anjali and I were on our way to a movie, so I didn't get too many pictures. The above picture was taken when we were walking back and playing with the debris that was left behind.

The movie we saw was "No. 2", which is specifically about generational conflicts amongst Pacific Islanders who's families immigrated to New Zealand. It's a story that we're quite familiar with in the States, but I've never seen something from a Pacific Islander point of view. It's quite a good movie, and I highly recommend it. Posted by Picasa

posted by Hoot @ 3:39 PM 0 comments

Mid-March Backlogged Entry

A collage of March...12th? weekend shinanigans.
Went to center city, and saw some interesting tagging. The graffiti in this area is primarily done with stencil, as opposed to the emphasis on free-hand that I've noticed in most American cities. It generates a much cleaner image, I feel, and is definitely fresh. I have no idea what these are supposed to represent, though.

The monkey (from a thrift shop, or, op-shop as they're called here) was a present for Thimo, who was at an ultimate tournament that weekend. Mostly I just used it as an excuse to walk around with a stuffed monkey all day and embarass Anjali by talking to it or..well..through it.
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posted by Hoot @ 3:15 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 03, 2006

Dinner Party, Thursday March ....Something



Since other people (see below links) have talked about the dinner party itself, I'll focus on the making of the dinner party.

To cut to the end, the moral of this story is that you should never leave two Mawrters in the same room. This is a reoccuring moral, however. It's like leaving two Mawrters alone with an open window. It's just a Bad Idea.
But I guess this moral only holds water if the goal is to keep people away from food.

See, when you leave other people alone, they come up with fun things to do. Like, go to the movies. Something enjoyable, something not necessarily difficult. You leave two Mawrters in the same room and they come up with grand schemes to challenge themselves. It's just a fact of life. This is the basis of the dinner party.
So you've left two Mawrters in the same room. The next thing you want to make sure is you don't give us a cookbook. Or a kitchen. Taking away the kitchen is a good plan. And don't give us sugar. Or make us laugh or enjoy your company. In fact, just don't give us friends period. Giving us friends only makes us want to do things for them.
It is traditional in New Zealand culture to have a potluck. In fact, many people I know (not me), have been to potlucks already. This is a bad thing. See, knowing this little tidbit put the thought in my little head that a group social gathering with food would be a good idea for 'our' flat. And when I say food, I mean lots of food. I think I was really hungry when I proposed this idea to Anjali.
We decided a potluck would be too easy. But hosting a dinner party -ourselves-....now that is both challenging and fun! Grand planning and stupid doodles ensued. I thought it would be fantastic for us to have a Pirate Ninja themed party, or at least a But Why Is The Rum Gone? party. But Anjali is far wiser than I, and so grand plans for a Pirate Themed Extraganza were put aside in favor of a Formal Affair. We knew it was possible when it came to our attention that certain folks had formal clothes with them and basically no chance to wear them. The possibility that other people had fancy outfits was considered.

We in no way shape or form decided to have a formal party because we wanted to see menz looking sharp. But, well, we are Mawrters.

We decided on a guest list (namely, Flat J/K, but also some other people, coming to a total of 13 people or so). We consulted the cookbook and our mothers. I went OCD on poor Anjali and made about fifty different lists...for menus, for supplies, for possible costs, for the number of meat-lovers vs. veggies....it was quite insane. We bought things from the Farmer's Market and Countdown, etc, including a sparkly new pie pan.

Things we learned:
1. Pie crust is NOT to be kneaded. Also, for my mother's recipe, you need wax paper to do the rolling. Or Al.
2. It is not necessarily a good idea to have over half of your items for a large dinner party to fall into the category of "Hey, this might taste good...we'll just toss something together!" Sometimes this is good, like in the case of the chicken. Sometimes this is bad, in the case of the sad little marrow pie I tried to make.
3. Starving yourself on the day of a big party is a bad idea. Also, sleep is probably important.
4. The veggie cutter likes Mawrter fingers way too much. But blood adds flavor to carrots...right?

That being said, it was insanely fun. Anjali and I definitely leveled up. +10 cooking experience, you gain Dinner Party skill...or something. And knowing what I know now I would definitely do it again. I don't have many chances to prance around in my Domokun shirt and beach shorts, singing along to Dar Williams while making mass amounts of food. Not to mention having so many people together in one room was a blast. Sadly, I think the cooks were too exhausted to do much more than slump down and get drunk.

Come to think of it, despite allllllll the work that Anjali and I put into the dinner party, I definitely think one of the big highlights for me at least was the pseudo-bartending contest that certain people had going on.

Sadly, I think I'm now addicted to white russians.

Oh, and just for shits and giggles, here's a list of what we made. I can't remember -specifically- what everything was called, so feel free to snerk at my creative titles.

Garlic Bread
Salad Thingy aka Lettuce In A Bowl
Guac (actually, Dan made this....need to remember to put avacados in his hands more often)
Honey Chicken Wings
Red Wine, Plum and Beef (which, um, didn't come out so terribly well....but wow was it -purple-)
Carrot Dish of Scrumptiousness
Mashed Ranch Taters
Lentil & Rice Dish of Delicious
Gone-In-60-Seconds Spinach Cheese Bake
Marrow...Pie...Thingy
Granny's Apple Pie


posted by Hoot @ 9:29 PM 0 comments