Odds and Ends

Ok, so this was originally going to be more linear storytelling about how things were when I got here in Napier - I got to EIT about a week before things kicked off for the culinary program, because I wanted a bit of time to settle in. So, what happened in this first week, you ask?

Well, if you didn't ask, I just asked for you.

I went to a lot of grocery stores. Or, I made a lot of trips to the same three or four grocery stores.

Judging by my entries in this handy little book, though, I really didn't buy much of anything useful in all of those grocery store trips...there was a lot of muesli going on in the first two weeks. Haven't touched the stuff since.

Reading through this thing is pretty boring, actually, and so instead of that I've decided to just skip to the few more interesting topics/start talking about NZ in general.

So, I'm living in Villa 7! There are five other folks in the villa/apartment/house/whatever:
Nick (~30, also a culinary student, originally from Serbia but has been living in NZ for a while)
Mike (~19, studying something to do with computer hardware, a kiwi *I think*)
Effie (~20, second-year nursing student, from Gisborne which is NE of Napier)
Alysha (~19, second-year nursing student, from Auckland? Maybe Gisborne?)
Stephanie (~18, first-year nursing student, from Matamata, between Auckland and Napier)

So I'm not the oldest, which is nice!

The program I'm in is about 36 or so students - I don't know the exact number because they started with 38, but some people didn't show up and some people joined without originally being around, so I'm not sure where it's at now. High 30s, though. Our class has been split into two groups, named Group A and Group B. Not very exciting names, I know, but the reason is that the training kitchen only fits about 18 people and, well, not all of us would fit in one. We have three "chef tutors": Grant, Mark, and Rob, and they each take turns teaching the groups.

We have class three days a week, Monday through Wednesday. My first thought, upon hearing this, was something along the lines of "that's great!" Now, though, I kind of wish it were all week because I came here to learn, and with class only three days a week, it feels a bit like we're moving rather slowly.

Of course, a month or two from now when we get on to more complicated things I'll probably be wishing it were moving slower.

I'm in group B, which means that I'm in the kitchen on Monday afternoons/evenings (2 until we're done, which has been past 7 on some days - group A is in on Monday mornings, 8-12:30ish but can run as late as 1-1:30, which cuts in to theory time), and both groups have theory from 12:30 to 1:30ish. Theory can be either working on food safety-type things or how to plan out what order to cook things or demonstrations for upcoming kitchen classes.

Tuesdays are theory/computer days, with the computer things being focused on making sure everyone is computer literate (well, that's what it's been so far, not sure what we'll do after that). Tuesdays run from 10-3 or so.

On Wednesdays, we're in the kitchens in the morning, have theory, and are done for the week.

All in all, it totals to about, what, about 17 hours per week? Depending on how long we're in the kitchen, of course. Either way, even though it's only three days it's still more class time than I had at Clark with four classes - I think it was 2 hours 40 minutes of class per week per class, so four of those would be 12 hours.

So Mark, what do you do in your ample amounts of free time?

(I asked the question for you again)

Well, I'm still working on that. I have the job at the Old Church, as I mentioned, but that's only Friday and Saturday nights for the near future (through April at least), so that's only another 10-14 hours. I still have Thursdays and Sundays and all day Friday and Saturday free, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that time. I'll be calling up a couple of places about volunteering sometime in this upcoming week, and I've been toying with the idea of maybe looking for something that could provide more constant (and more) hours. Maybe.

I do like it at the Old Church, and I would rather not leave but I can't get another job to use up the last 6-10 hours per week that I'm allowed to work. This is mainly because I never know how long I'll be spending there every week anyways since my start time is fixed but my end time isn't.

We shall see!

So that's a bit of general information. There have been a few goings-on (I may be in a newspaper sometime soon! CLIFFHANGER), but I will save those for next time, when I will (hopefully) have pictures! My camera ran out of batteries and I never got an adaptor for the funky plugs here, so I need to get one of those this week as well.

Hopefully more tomorrow, although probably still no pictures.