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I'm writing this from the computer lab at St. Margaret's College, one of the first-year dorms at the University of Otago. I just moved into the little three-bedroom flat (though it's not in an apartment building, so I would really call it more of a bungalow) where I'll be living for the next five months or so. And yes, I'm in New Zealand, Maori name Aotearoa.

The campus here is--well, there are a lot of words I could use. Imposing. It's definitely a university as opposed to a college--I didn't realize there was a visible difference until I got here, but there is. It's sprawling, and the architecture is a mix of imposing old buildings made of limestone and basalt rock and modern concoctions of glass. I would post pictures, but I haven't taken any: in the meantime you could google the University of Otago clocktower or library to see what I mean.

As for the city of Dunedin: it's a college town more than a big city. Its airport is small, nestled in the agricultural hills around the city. It has a beer factory (Speight's, "Pride of the South") and a chocolate factory (Cadbury, as in eggs). It is by the ocean and the mountains. Its town center is a roundabout shaped like an octogon with a statue of Robert Burns in the middle. The weather is wonderful. What else can I say? I think I'm going to go move into my new home (home?).

So that's me. Happy Waitangi Day!