March. 4th Just a few events I want to remember

Here in New Zealand and also in Australia it is a huge thing to go out on Wednesday nights. They have cheap drink for about 4 to 5 dollars. They also have 1 dollar wines for girls at certain bars as well. Instead of Thirsty Thursday I guess it's Wasted Wednesdays? haha.
                For the start of the first week of college one of the big bars in town called the Big K had a foam dance party. It turns out one of my friends from my study abroad group had her 21st birthday that night so we celebrated at her house and then headed downtown to go to some small bars before ending the night at the foam party. Since the bars do not close until 4am we didn't end up at Big K until 1:30am. They had a huge dance floor and a stage that people were dancing on; some people were in their swimsuits on; but everyone was covered in foam and drenched from the soap. It was funny to watch people try to dance on the slippery floors.
       Before we went out Wednesday we were walking down the steps and my flatmate, Julien, ripped one of the paper fish off the apartment wall. I got mad at him because I thought the little fish looked cute with are royal blue walls. He started laughing and said they were everywhere when he first moved in last year and he has slowly taken them off ever since. He told me that he would make me a new one that was bigger and he kept his promise because now I have a foot and a half fish hanging on my door!

 I laugh when I think about him drawing it and cutting it out like a little kindergartner. My friends and I plan on making a ton of sea animals and taping them all over the blue walls just to make him mad...I'm an awesome person to live with :)
      We also went to the Te Papa Museum which is free admission and contains 5 floors! A lot of the floors had the Maori (their ancient ancestors) history and artifacts in it. They also have an art floor and a floor that talks about the different wars. It was interesting to see the difference in our war history compared to there's. We saw many articles and comics referring to the Vietnam war as well.  One talked about how their government would "bend over" for LBJ.

 I thought these sculptures were really cool until I saw them moving in the wind an found out they are plastic and foil.

 One of the many sculptures that are found near the houses of Maori people.

 Here you were able to step on different places in New Zealand and a TV clip would show you what that place looked like

 Here we took a ride into the sea in a submarine and saw what the volcanoes look like underwater (virtually that is)

 We also ended up going on a virtual New Zealand roller coaster where we experienced sand hill sledding, the Maori Haka dance, and being tackled in Rugby.

  This is the Moa bird bird that the Maori ate when they first came to New Zealand. They were as big as horses but were prey for smaller animals like the giant eagle above it.

 This house showed clips of earthqaukes and gave you an idea of what an earthquake would feel like. I think the extreme cases that were shown freaked me out more!

 This is Papatuanuku who is the land god who's wife was the sky. Together they created the earth with many sons. The Maori story was very similar to the one of Greek Mythology.

 These are the sons of the earth who quarrel for good and evil and ownership of the land.

 This is just the first half of the huge Pygmy Blue Whale that was hanging about us. I can't even imagine what size an actual Blue Whale is.

 This was a Colossal Squid. The only Colossal Squid on display in the world. It weighed over 1,000 pounds. They showed a video of when they caught it and it was surreal to see alive. They said it had soccer ball sized eyeballs.

 Another Maori house greatly decorated.

This was at the center of town in Wellington. Below it is a metal ball with pretty lights all over it, that hold 3 people. It sling shots the people up in the air and then they bounce around for awhile. It was cool to see how high they went up.