Sevens, Success!

Jet lag has finally set in. Now I get tired at six at night, and can't go to sleep after I make myself stay awake until eleven. Then I sleep for ten hours. Also, I'm sunburnt- but I'm not complaining about that. The weather has been so cooperative for most of this week. It's fabulous.
Well, the last few days have been very eventful in Wellington. I was really bummed out on Wednesday because it was raining and shopping for an apartment turned out to be way harder than I expected. When I say raining, I mean like torrential downpour, rain hammering along the sidewalk and roof. Nobody else seemed to notice- people didn't even use umbrellas. I guess that's something I'll have to get used to.
But then Thursday rolled around with bright sunny skies and mid-seventies temps. I went to see two apartments that day- the first turned out to be a disgusting, shady-looking hostel setting that I didn't even go inside, and the second was a fabulous one-story house in a suburb that's still close to center city, with lots of space and skylights. I loved the house immediately- big porches, backyard with a swing, huge kitchen. But then I met my potential roommate. She was, well, let's just say she really liked science fiction and wore a lot of leather. A totally nice girl, but I could already imagine talks about medieval literature forming in her head... So I left there running. On the way home, I took the wrong bus. Now, I had already gotten lost about three times that day, despite the map I obtained from stumbling across the Wellington Tourist station. I didn't mind- like I said, it was sunny and beautiful, and I was feeling okay about life, even though I kept freaking out about not having a home. But this getting lost was way different than the others. I never realized that when someone says they live in Mount Victoria (a suburb outside Wellington) that it's not the same thing as climbing Mount Victoria (a huge ass mountain outside Wellington), so I took the bus to Mount Victoria, annnnd got dropped off on top of a mountain. When I asked the bus driver how to get back to where I was staying, he directed me down a hiking trail, through the mountain, and over the other side. It was a great trail, and they filmed some of Lord of the Rings there (I saw a sign, but had to pee so bad, I didn't stop- I'll go back, I'm sure, a thousand times with all you guests.) but I really wasn't dressed for it and definitely wasn't in the mood. Once I got through the wilderness and to the street my bus driver directed me to, I realized it was the wrong street. Called my advisor, and he didn't know where I was. Stopped in a convenience store, and had to take a different bus all the way home. I think I fell asleep at about nine that night.
On my way to the first apartment that day, I noticed a ton of people lining one of the more active streets in Wellington. Of course, I had no idea what was going on, so I asked a woman standing in the line. She turned out to be the sweetest little English lady you could ever meet, and we stood together to watch what turned out to be the parade for the International Rugby Sevens Tournament. Talk about timing. Pictures will be posted once I'm sure how to do it. I bet it's easy.
Friday- I went to see two apartments again. The first was disheartening- about twelve people showed up for one room, and the roommates were late teens and definitely not what I was looking for. I was so bummed out I almost didn't go into the next one, but it was only a few streets away, so I figured why not? Thank god I did. Within minutes, my drunk future flatmate told me she was "keen" on me moving in, which roughly translates to "thank god you're not crazy," we hung out, and I'm moving in next week! Afterward, I met up with another American student at Victoria and we walked around all the Waitangi Day and Sevens nonsense.
Good day for Ivy.