Now that I have been here a bit over three weeks and am in my second week of classes, I have been able to take the time to make some general and knit-picky observations. This may be a random array of things I have noted, but nevertheless, I have found them interesting:

Everything on campus closes by midnight. I find this almost funny as so many American universities brag about their 24/7 study and food offerings. I’m not one to stay up late studying, but I think it’s a very healthy decision for the university to be closed by midnight.

Last Wednesday, I saw the first person wearing sweatpants on campus. No one here really dresses “athletically.” This is much different than Penn State where sweatshirts and sweatpants are the norm.

The Rec Centre has a Women’s Weight Room. It is a small room in a back corner with a few cardio machines, some free weights, and three or so pieces of lifting equipment. There is a sign outside it’s entry that reads “Women Only Beyond This Point.” I am definitely an advocate of promoting women to lift (there are signs everywhere about myths of “bulking up”), but at the same time, it bothers me that women can’t just lift with the “men.” I know it can be intimidating at Penn State too to pick up some free weights as all the huge guys around press more than they can handle, but we shouldn’t be encouraged to resort to some small room with less equipment.

None of the bathrooms here have paper towels. They have paper towel-like dispensers but with a reusable, revolving kind of cloth towel. You simply pull it down for a clean section. I think this is a great idea. It’s better than paper towel and better than hand dryers. Also, all the toilets have the two-button system to preserve water. I think it’s funny that at home, only newer eco-friendly buildings have such a feature where as here, and in Israel as I recall, even the most outdated facilities have this feature. I am happy to see the world conserve its resources.

Drivers here are terrible.

Crosswalks make a strange beeping sound in addition to changing from the red hand to a green walking man. It should raise your awareness but after hearing it a few times, you don’t even notice anymore.

Sometimes, traffic is set up so that all lights are red. This is in the main parts of the city. So, corners build up with masses of people, then all at once, chaos breaks out as people cross left, right, diagonally, and you do your best to not run over anyone while getting where you need. I find this quite amusing.

So, perhaps I thought I had a few more (and more significant) observations but they’re currently eluding me. So, to keep with the randomness, here are some photos from my sunrise run yesterday! My flatmate and I just did about 7.5 miles total so this is all relatively near to where we’re living (yes, we carried a camera while running).

Seeing this never gets old

Yes, we got a killer sunrise and a beautiful rainbow in one run. That’s what you get for starting your run in clouds, then rain, then sun, I suppose. There were two rainbows and they were very bold at one point but it was difficult to capture on camera…of course.

I know it’s dark, but, that is me sporting my lovely Penn State shirt (always PSU proud) towards the end of our run. This is right along the path we ran on. We looked ridiculously tourist-y, but oh well.

Location: Auckland, NZ