Week 3- Jazz with Jack

I’m now fairly settled into classes and I haven’t gotten too lost trying to find lecture theaters. At home, I’ve my 10kg bag of potatoes on my balcony and just in case that wasn’t enough of a hint I’ve also hung my Irish flag from the window, to be sure everyone knows where I came from! This week I trained for the first time with the university hockey team and got on very well so I’m looking forward to training each Monday evening with them, even if they only train an hour a week on the pitch (there are very few pitches in Auckland so pitch time as at a premium). I also began my career as a kayaker. There’s a pool session every Tuesday night where I’m learning how to roll so that I don’t drown when I get on the river! I really enjoyed the kayaking but it is quite discombobulating being upside down underwater and trying to figure out the mechanics of righting yourself. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon and be ready for the first trip!

Speaking of staying upright, I’m learning all about the mechanics of gyroscopes in college (I’m also enjoying learning about turbine blades and non-Newtonian fluids) and my take home lesson from this week is that when gyroscopes aren’t spinning they fall over! My lecturer felt the need to demonstrate this several times in the lecture by holding his toy gyroscope on the desk, saying ‘Look, when it doesn’t spin it falls over’ and then would let go. Outside of college I started coaching at St. Peter’s School, twice a week at 6:30am. A very different set up here.

On Thursday I was invited to play in the internal engineering indoor Frisbee league. I found myself playing for the 2nd year biomeds, racking up two wins from two, but it was a fantastic way to get to know some of my classmates. After this I attended my first heat transfer lab. Not ten minutes into the lab the fire alarm went off and two fire trucks arrived. Thankfully there was nothing awry and we finished it up before heading to the sky tower with the aim of going up for free as it was its 20th birthday. However, we were not the only ones with this idea so quickly abandoned that plan and headed for home.

I have been selected for the university ultimate Frisbee first team, known as Flood, so training began on Saturday. It was a great mixture of competitive games and drills and overall a good experience. We are playing the university national championships in Christchurch at the beginning of September and I can’t wait to travel around the south island after the tournament. When I returned home some of my friends announced they were heading thrift shopping and persuaded me to come with them. Still covered in mud we headed to K road and I had my first experience of thrift shopping, although I was more interested in looking at the swords. That evening we went to a bar before walking to a park in Ponsonby to a playground with famed slides and it was worth it! Though I think the darkness added something extra to the thrill.

On Sunday I had the highlight of my week. I was very kindly invited out to breakfast with Jack, Tara, Mark and Clare and also the Whitlock family (They were in Poland last summer at the World Junior Ultimate Championships supporting their son Nick who was on the NZ team with Jack). After the most delicious breakfast we went for a walk along Point Chev beach before attending Jack and Nick’s jazz performance. They were playing in a competition as part of their school’s ‘Big Band’. It was truly fantastic. You can see Jack’s solo on the Sax and their rendition of ‘Crazy little thing called love’ here. Clare then fed me lunch, smoked chicken pasta, it was delicious! I then walked up mount Eden with another neighbour, Charlotte. You can see those photos here.

I apologise for the photo and audio quality this week. Most of them were taken on my phone.