This past weekend was spent here in Dunedin. With spring break just around the corner, I unfortunately had too much work to spend the whole weekend traveling. Which I'm honestly glad I didn't because I still had a blast!
Friday, even though I don't even have any classes, was spent finishing up a paper and working on two presentations. It was one of those days that I spent entirely in the flat until about 5pm. That's when Hira and I met up with the girls in the flat below us, Jen and Elise. We walked over to Starter's bar to purchase tickets to the Otago Highlanders v North Harbour rugby game for Saturday. First game of the season! Then I had to go meet up with my group in the library at 6pm for a presentation for my music technology class. Yes, 6pm on a Friday I was in the library doing homework...can't say that has happened before. But anyways, the tickets for the Highlanders were only about $13, which was ideal because I didn't want to spend a fortune on a sport that still confuses me. I just haven't watched nearly enough to really understand it. We will see if that changes by the end of my time abroad.
While Hira, Alyssa, Jen and Elise finalized plans for their spring break trip to Australia, I spent my time in the library doing my presentation and then other homework until about 8pm. I didn't have my laptop charger with me so I figured I would just head home once it died. When I arrived home, I was the only one there. Sheryl was in Queenstown, Hira was downstairs, and I don't know where Kim and Bekah were. But it sure was quite. So I decide to hop into bed early and just take it easy. I had literally just crawled into bed when Hira texted me saying we are having a girls night if you want to join. I started to consider getting up and throwing on some real clothes. Then she sends we are making donuts! So I wasted no time getting down there after that text.
Turns out then had found a recipe on Pinterest, of course, for homemade donuts. By the time we figured out the recipe and had everything mixed, we had to let the dough rise for about an hour. So we decided to watch a movie while we waited. They chose The Hunger Games, which I haven't seen all of it so that was good! When the hour was up, we were able to shape the dough into donuts. But we got a little more creative and found some Christmas themed cookie cutters to shape the donuts - a star, a Christmas tree, a snowman, and the weirdest looking sleigh. We also made some look like pretzels, along with regular shaped donuts and donut holes. Aaannnddd then we had to let them rise even more, so we watched more of the movie.
Then it was time to fry them! Which actually worked out very well. Expect we didn't have quite enough oil so we ended up baking some as well. We had a pretty good system down: Jen fried them, I transported them, and Hira and Elise added the toppings. We ended up with three plates of donuts covered in glaze, powdered sugar, roasted coconut and peanuts, and cinnamon sugar. And, get this, they actually tasted good! We did have a little incident towards the end though. There was a little bit of oil that dripped onto the burner, causing a flame for about 3 seconds. So yeah that was an adventure...but we survived. No one was injured in the making of these donuts.
Friday, even though I don't even have any classes, was spent finishing up a paper and working on two presentations. It was one of those days that I spent entirely in the flat until about 5pm. That's when Hira and I met up with the girls in the flat below us, Jen and Elise. We walked over to Starter's bar to purchase tickets to the Otago Highlanders v North Harbour rugby game for Saturday. First game of the season! Then I had to go meet up with my group in the library at 6pm for a presentation for my music technology class. Yes, 6pm on a Friday I was in the library doing homework...can't say that has happened before. But anyways, the tickets for the Highlanders were only about $13, which was ideal because I didn't want to spend a fortune on a sport that still confuses me. I just haven't watched nearly enough to really understand it. We will see if that changes by the end of my time abroad.
While Hira, Alyssa, Jen and Elise finalized plans for their spring break trip to Australia, I spent my time in the library doing my presentation and then other homework until about 8pm. I didn't have my laptop charger with me so I figured I would just head home once it died. When I arrived home, I was the only one there. Sheryl was in Queenstown, Hira was downstairs, and I don't know where Kim and Bekah were. But it sure was quite. So I decide to hop into bed early and just take it easy. I had literally just crawled into bed when Hira texted me saying we are having a girls night if you want to join. I started to consider getting up and throwing on some real clothes. Then she sends we are making donuts! So I wasted no time getting down there after that text.
Turns out then had found a recipe on Pinterest, of course, for homemade donuts. By the time we figured out the recipe and had everything mixed, we had to let the dough rise for about an hour. So we decided to watch a movie while we waited. They chose The Hunger Games, which I haven't seen all of it so that was good! When the hour was up, we were able to shape the dough into donuts. But we got a little more creative and found some Christmas themed cookie cutters to shape the donuts - a star, a Christmas tree, a snowman, and the weirdest looking sleigh. We also made some look like pretzels, along with regular shaped donuts and donut holes. Aaannnddd then we had to let them rise even more, so we watched more of the movie.
Then it was time to fry them! Which actually worked out very well. Expect we didn't have quite enough oil so we ended up baking some as well. We had a pretty good system down: Jen fried them, I transported them, and Hira and Elise added the toppings. We ended up with three plates of donuts covered in glaze, powdered sugar, roasted coconut and peanuts, and cinnamon sugar. And, get this, they actually tasted good! We did have a little incident towards the end though. There was a little bit of oil that dripped onto the burner, causing a flame for about 3 seconds. So yeah that was an adventure...but we survived. No one was injured in the making of these donuts.
By the time we had finished, it was nearing 2:30am. Hira and I headed back to our flat upstairs and called it a night. In the morning, well in the last half hour of the morning, we met up with Jen and Elise again to walk over to Capers for brunch. Capers is this cute little all-day breakfast place in town. And it was definitely worth it. I got blueberry pancakes with yogurt and fruit inside (they fold the pancake in half) and an iced mocha on the side which was to die for. Hira got chocolate pancakes with cream and fruit inside. Elise got blueberry too, but with cream and fruit. And Jen got the pancake of the month, which was spiced pumpkin pie with cream. We had a little time to kill before the game so we walked back to our flats. Hira and I spent it out on our baby balcony soaking up the sun for about 30 minutes before we walked over to Forsyth Barr Stadium for the game.
My kiwi host Kim was supposed to join us at the game and teach us about how the game of rugby works. I mean she was there, but instead of sitting with us, she was sitting on the opposite side because SHE WON TICKETS! Gosh, it's like winning runs in the family of 385D Leith. So Jen, Elise, Hira and I walked to the stadium and found our seats. The place was fairly empty for being just over 30 minutes to game time. But of course there is one seat directly next to me had jackets on it to signify someone was sitting there. I was nervous about all amateur things we were going to say during the game sitting next to someone who probably understands the game way more than we do. My dad can attest to this, there is nothing worse than a fan who is completely ignorant about the game. Well the man came back to his seat and we exchanged friendly hellos. And it just went downhill from there. He was about 5' 3'', sporting women's tennis shoes, leggings with lace, boxing shorts, and a hoodie. He introduced himself and we did the same. He continued to engage in conversation with us, but it was more like he was telling us about his life...without pause. He did this today, and he is from here, and he likes this, he knows this, he hates this, he wants this etc. Jen and I said a whole lot of "oh yeah"s and forced chuckles. At one point, he leaned over (too close, because we nudged shoulders) and asked us if he could take off his shoes. He promised they didn't smell. *Cough cough* that was a lie. Then game time drew closer and junior rugby teams were announced and walked around the edges of the field while the players continued to warm up. The guy next to us cheered ecstatically and excessively waved at the kids that walked by. He kept telling Jen and I that we needed to cheer louder for the kids. I could tell Jen was feeling just as awkward as I was. All I could think was, This is going to be the longest game of my life. Eventually he leans over and said that one of his friends worked here and he was going to go say hi. And soon as he leaves, I turn to the girls and we all look at each other with this awkwardly terrified, deer-in-the-headlights kind of look. Judging by the size of the crowd, we decided to find another set of seats before he came back. We went up a section and decided to enjoy the game from there. Throughout the game, we never saw the guy return to his seat, so who knows what happened to him.
So the game started and they announced all the players. One of the players, Sam, actually works in the Uni Flats office, just a few minutes from our flat. He was at the Arana dinner that Hira, Kim and myself attended. He was also the photographer at the cooking class Hira and I did last month. AND he was in charge of the area dinner held in our flat just a few weeks ago. Sooooo I kind of know a player on the Otago rugby team. No big deal ;) Sam was on reserve though so he didn't come into the game until the second half. But the whole entire game was filled with "What does that mean?" "Where's the ball?" "Why do they do that?" "Ouch!" "What are they yelling?" "Now where's the ball?" "Why do they kick it?" "Can you do that?" "Wait, what is happening?" "That doesn't make sense." Although towards the end we started to pick up some things and didn't sound quite so confused. Not only that, Otago won their first game of the season. We are convinced we are their good luck charm now ;)