well, i actually don't know how describe what i experienced this weekend. we made a trip to auckland, but a very special one. we (that's jamie, maike, jenny, mo and i) started friday noon from hamilton, te rapa road. right, we hitched up to auckland. anyone who wants to try that, too: it worked perfectly fine! mo, maike and i got a ride after 5 minutes, jenny and jamie waited for 10 minutes. the guy who took us buys furniture off trademe, refurbishes it and sells it for 10 to 20 times the price he paid for it... seems to be a pretty good idea, especially as he makes up stories about the furniture to make every piece unique. sometimes he uses fake skandinavian names to make it even more appealing... (isn't that illegal?! - whatever)
he dropped us off at manukau shopping center, where we were picked up by jessie's cousin fritz. jessie lives with mo and maike and we where invited to stay at his homeplace over the weekend. so, this is a bit random: staying at a house with people you never met before and that just say yes to 5 foreign students staying over. jessie and his family are from samoa, a pacific island, and their hospitality was just overwhelming. we where welcomed and then taken out for dinner. they just invited us all! then naphier, jessie's sister, took us to a liquor store to get prepared for the night. naphier is awesome. she spent the whole weekend with us, driving us everywhere, showing us around and just being an amazing person. and she never met us before! jessie's mum put it like this: "you stay at our house and and so you are treated as family." and we really were. i really don't know how to describe it. people treating you with a kindness and openess that is immense. sharing their whole life with you, cooking for you, talking to you, sharing their culture with you. that is, we stayed in a part of auckland that tourists normally wouldn't visit, cause it is the part where the "islanders" live; maori, samoa, people from the pacific islands. we hardly saw white people there, actually, none, to be honest, and pretty much everyone stared at us as we got out the car. it can be dangerous down there and we were told not to walk around at night. this surrounding our wonderful time at naphier's.
friday night, after getting drunk in the garage (they have a whole garage set up for hanging out so the parents can sleep) we went out. had a great time, naphier again organising people to take us to the club. they are just so friendly!
saturday we went to the pacific island festival, where schools and colleges from auckland show songs and dances from the pacific islands. every island has an own stage, performing their specific songs and dances. at the same time it's a competition and the best performance is rewarded. the stages where surrounded by places where you could buy things from the islands and special food. of course fish and chips as well ;-) and again: very few white people there. jessie's mum said later that it might be because they have it every year and people are used to it. but i don't think that's the whole story. i was surprised how racist most people still are, i thought new zealand was a successful example for different cultures living together peacefully. well, there are still issues on both sides. saturday we went out in central auckland, not to a club but to a place where they had a live rock band. naphier later said that it was the first time for her to dance to rock music ;-) they really are into hip hop here... sunday, after a huge barbecue-lunch we left. naphier drove us to mission bay (beach close to central auckland) and then dropped us off in the city. we went shopping a bit and then, after not being able to catch a ride back to hamilton (who wants to go there, honestly...) we took the bus.
i really won't forget this weekend. i am still totally overwelmed. jessie's mum even gave everyone a samoan lavalava (similar to a pareo) she painted by herself. soooooo ... i can't find the right words. i think if more people were like that the world would really be a better place. i hope one day i can live up to this...
i'll put up pictures soon!
