Magic!

As in the cardgame I play, and pretty well if I may add that. More about that in a moment.

A few days has passed since my last update, so here goes: I started my internship with Yonix, and I've got my project more or less figured out.

Wellington is to my delight very much the same as last year, with awesome food at the Foodcourt where I meet with Chips just about 3 out of 5 days a week - and we're meeting again tomorrow to plan a trip to Brisbane, Australia - to play Magic.

So far things have been going well, 2nd place in the two tournaments I've participated in, a $10 investment total worth winnings worth $50 - not bad.

I've also won the earthquake lottery, in that I've actually experienced one this time here. Last year they happened over night while I was sleeping, and didn't wake me up, but this time I was wide awake and got to see things fall off shelves and people run around, that was fun.

All in all, things are quietly progressing as expected and for a study trip, this is pretty awesome!

Christchurch

This past tuesday, Gigi and I went on our way to leave Wellington to go down to Hayley's place for some serious thesis writing. We have all been really busy lately since our deadline is due next week, so we haven't had much time to travel around and see the area yet, but Gigi and I however did have a few hours in Christchurch before we were on our way to Dunedin, since our flight wasn't direct.

So, we decided to go to town after landing in Christchurch and see what the earthquakes early last year had done to this once so big and beautiful city.

I would have loved to say a lot of nice things about this town, but truth is, it's a giant dump. The centre of the city is completely demolished with everything falling apart, construction work going on everywhere, but no people. It mostly reminded me of parts of Poland and eastern Germany with buildings left unattended since WW2 where they were bombed to smithereens.

Amidst all the tragic ruins, I did however find reason for laughter! I'm telling you, someone's got their priorities wrong in Christchurch, apparently putting together an emergency shopping centre was a lot more important than, let's just say, restoring the many year old historical church in the centre of the city?

For more pictures, flick through my gallery here: http://imgur.com/a/dcyC3