Vassar Has Prepped Us Well

Our last night in Sydney, we stopped at a free concert/party (it's the Sydney Summer Festival aka concerts and activities around the city).   Picture this: night time, slow drizzle, DJ playing the Postal Service, "Such Great Heights", 2 girls grooving out on the dance floor wearing oversized floral dresses, black leggings and bomber jackets.. for the Vassar kids, you must know this image.  It was hipster galore; a flashback of sorts.  

Fast forward:  We left our Sydney hostel at 6:30am.  We've learned:

• With a size 13 shoe and a few good swings, cockroaches the size of my thumb (Mailynh's thumb) are squishable.
• Flying Lan Airlines means excessive announcement that interrupt movies and games but they have better blankets than United Airlines. These announcements are made twice, first in Spanish then in English.

So we landed in Auckland at three in the afternoon. It's warm and sunny here, less humid than Sydney, perfect weather.  We found the backpackers kiosk and discovered that almost every hostel is full due to a huge concert, "The Big Day Out" in Auckland (oops).  Luckily we found accomodations at Nomads Fusion Hostel but we stayed in separate rooms.  Brian's room was full of people who slept the whole time. My room had a couple Germans, 3 Canadians and someone else I only saw sleeping this morning.  Fusion was far nicer than the Sydney one.  There was a jacuzzi on the roof top and a bar/club downstairs. 

Last night, though thoroughly exhausted, Brian and I went to the Fusion Bar.  Fusion Bar is the equivalent of the Vassar "Mug".  For those of you who did not attend Vassar, the Mug is a dimly lit space in the downstairs of Main Building that has a bar, a sweaty dance floor and randomly placed tables filled with underclassmen trying to kiss each other while indulging in alcohol.  Fusion bar was the same except there were more people with accents.  Brian and I did what we would do at the Mug as upperclassmen, bought a couple beers, sat a table and people watched.  My kiwi mate Mel (an Indian dude from North Auckland) called this "mockery" but he doesn't understand the sport of People Watching. 

What we learned about Auckland:

If you're interested in seeing this city, first visit New York City's SoHo and then take a look at the Vassar student body. That about sums it up perfectly.  Off to KeriKeri.