43 Howe Street and then some

Ok it's official.  I never thought I would find such a place, but I think that Dunedin actually has more schizophrenic weather than either Grove City or Somerset.  Today we lucked out, it's slightly breezy and sunny and really nice.  The weather predictions are often inaccurate, so we just never know what we're going to get.  I think i mentioned this before, but the people here say to be prepared for 4 seasons every day when you leave your house.  Anyways, I am totally appreciating the sun while it lasts!

Today I want to take you on a tour of my flat.  This is probably something I should have done a while ago but I always had other things to write about so I've been saving it.  I really like where I live; our flat is tidy and well-kept, actually a whole lot nicer than a lot of the other ones I've seen.  It's got 4 bedrooms and a bathroom and a common room and a kitchen.  The flat used to be residential so that is why all of our bedrooms look very different...I think Paula's room was once the living room.  The common room that we have is pretty small but it's cozy and nice when it's cold because we can all sit in there and keep the door closed and the heat stays in.  Out back we have a clothes-line type of contraption for drying laundry.  I will be sad once it's cold and rainy all the time (winter here) and I can't hang my clothes out to dry anymore, I find line-drying very satisfying.  Oh we also have a covered porch in the front of the house (most flats don't have a porch) and it's really nice to sit out there and do homework and amuse ourselves by watching the neighbors across the street (the boys that party all the time on their couch on their roof). Click here to see my flat photos.

43 Howe St. - and the sun was shining!!

[video didn't load in time; i'll try again tomorrow and edit this post to include the tour - sorry!]


Things with our flat are going really well too.  Asma, Paula, Maxine, and I are getting along really well and we have a lot of fun together.  I really appreciate how different each of us are, both culturally and just personality-wise, it makes for some really fun and interesting group dynamics.  Broughers, Kimmels, and Marissa: you'll be proud to know that i have successfully gotten all of my flatmates hooked on Modern Family.  Not like it was difficult...Asma watched one episode shortly after we arrived here and proclaimed, "I love this show!!!".  The tv here is way behind where we are in the US (they are only part way through season 1 currently) but I have all of season 1 on dvd and can get the new episodes from iTunes.

Maxine, Asma, and I in our backyard

Other random thoughts/updates:

1. I joined a zumba class on Monday nights - such a fun time!

2. I attended the Grace Bible Church student bible study this past week (every thursday night) and it was soooo great!  This is one of the things I've been pleasantly surprised about since arriving in Dunedin - I have found it easier here to locate both a church and a bible study to attend than I did at Grove City.  It has been really fantastic to be plugged into a place with solid biblical teaching where I am challenged and strengthened and can have fellowship with other believers.  The bible study is held each week at Grace House (a house that the church owns) - the leaders meet earlier to cook dinner for us and then students come, we all have dinner and hang out, and then we have a mix of large and small group bible study, followed by evangelism training.  This is the cool part: the study is held on Thursday evenings (the night notorious for bigger parties) and around 10 pm the Engage group goes on/near campus and sets up a small barbeque to cook sausages.  The Engage students hand out the sausages for free to random students who are walking by and use that opportunity to share their faith with them.  It's a great way for us to get some experience in sharing the gospel and for other students to hear it.

I was like a little kid having ice cream for the first time

3. I stayed around Dunedin this past weekend because I was again supposed to have a field trip for my marine science course (again cancelled due to weather; this is the third time it's been postponed and it's become a bit excessive now!).  But I had a really great weekend with Paula and Maxine (Asma was hiking on Stewart Island) - baked cookies, watched some movies, went to the farmers' market, shopped till we dropped, stopped by a rugby game, went to a fringe festival dance show, wrote a lot of postcards, and went to church.  Time well spent.
There is a little convenience store called Rob Roy's that sells great ice cream, a place notorious for large scoops and small prices (only $2.40 a cone!).  It's like college student dream shop.  But I recently found another ice cream place which is closer to our flat and that sells cones with the same amount of ice cream as Rob Roy's but for $2.30!!  This was a huge Jenn excitement moment, as any of you who are familiar with my love for ice cream will understand.

Paula and I with our day's work

4. Tonight is my night to make flat dinner and it's going to be ham and cheese bagels - something I will thoroughly enjoy but my flatmates will probably not be quite as enthusiastic about.  I wish I could take them to camp and they could eat them there; I'm sure that the dining hall + 300 campers would totally make the difference in their feasting experience.  But I am also serving cookie sandwiches for dessert, can't go wrong there.

I'll try to get that video post up soon!