End of classes and weekend in Wellington

No more classes! I officially finished with classes in New Zealand and all assignments! I spent the whole of last week writing two huge assignments for my Equine Reproduction class and my Animal Health, Welfare and Behavior class. One of the assignments was on the benefits and drawbacks to Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer in horses, which was really interesting because the lecturer gave us a situation and asked us to explain what we would do and why. The other assignment was a report on parturition behavior in dairy cattle which incorporated observational research we did on a dairy farm next to the campus. The report for me turned out to be almost 20 pages but I feel like I did a good job. It's bitter sweet to end my classes because on the one hand I am glad that I can relax and study for my exams, but on the other hand I will really miss going to class here and seeing everyone.

I finished this week definitely on a high after turning in my assignments with a trip to Wellington to hang out with, you guessed it, handballers! The Spartanz were having a "friendly" game of piantball with the other team from Wellington and we were invited to come join. Zoe, Inger, Sybille and I drove down to Wellington on Saturday morning and met James, the goalie for the Victoria Lions team, for a cup of coffee. It was hilarious to try and find the coffee place however, because it was called cafe Ice, but spelled Eis because it was German! Afterwords we met up with Collin, whose house we were staying at, and went to paintball. It was so awesome to play paintball with 30 other guys, but there were times where there was a little too much testosterone in the room. We played several strategy games and I got hit hard a couple of times but it was totally worth it, especially when I completely took some guys out! I even hit one guy in the back of the head by accident. The hit that hurt most for me, however, was right on my butt from a couple of meters away. After the paintball we went back to Collins flat and had an awesome bbq. More people from other teams around Wellington came and we had a great time socializing with everyone. Around 12:30 we decided to go into town for a bit, which unfortunately for me was not very long because I was feeling sick from having inadvertently consumed pineapple, which I have an intolerance for. Town was pretty intense, since I have never been out in a big city before for the nightlife. The next day we had an awesome breakfast at Cafe Fidel and came back to Palmerston just in time for a Canadian thanksgiving at Allyson's flat. I made green bean casserole for the first time and I think it was a success! But now it is Monday which means I have exactly a week to study for my first exam in my Maori Culture and Society class! Pictures will come up as soon as I get them from everyone!