Day 1: Waking up in Moscow

I slept for a full 12 hours in the dark, calm jungle. Before that we stayed up talking with Katrin and Jen and I learnt about sororities and the Greek system, the drinking culture here and the meth problem in America. The sororities and fraternities definitely don't sound like the movies, and seem to be a combination of buying friends and contacts and buying into a pre-determined identity. For example, some houses are known for being 'good girls' or 'easy' or 'religious' and you pay thousands of dollars to live in the house with 40 other girls and to be assured you are projecting the 'right' image. I'm not sure why anyone intelligent or independent would want to do that, it sounds horrible. I suppose the security is nice for some people. But we discussed how people who just transfer their identity straight from their high school clique into a sorority never grow, expose themselves to new ideas or try new things. The people who live off campus in these apartment buildings or student houses seem to be very social and easygoing, and the houses are much nicer than any of the dives at home.

Binge drinking doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a problem here. People don't believe, as they do where I come from, that you need to be wasted to have a good time. Sure they drink and they party, but the girls were surprised to hear my stories of beer funnels, people regularly passing out and getting kicked out of bars being a badge of honour. I was sober for 6 months last year which was fascinating. At parties people couldn't understand why I wasn't drinking if I wasn't driving, and they seemed genuinely shocked when I shrugged and said I just didn't feel like it. I believe that many young (and old) Kiwis have an alcohol problem, but they aren't seen as 'alcoholics' because it's only on the weekend, or they're students so it's expected, or everyone else does it. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens here on the weekend.

Bethany took me to the 'co-op' which is an organic wholefoods shop selling local produce with a cafe and craft shop in it. This is what I had for brunch: Barbequed tofu, salmon and wild rice salad and mango chicken curry with a pumpkin spice flavoured latte..

Absolutely delicious.

The prices were fairly similar to what you would pay at home for that sort of food. However the range was huge, foods from all over the world and some things I had never seen before. The fruit and veges were all very big and healthy looking. We shopped for superfoods - grain wraps, spinach, cranberries for our muesli, almonds, quinoa. I've definitely noticed a difference in my weight and general feeling of health since I started trying to eat more whole food, organic produce and plenty of fruit and veges. A meal is so much more satisfying if after eating it you feel energised and healthy rather than bloated and full.  I also think it's important to know where our food comes from and move away from overly processed and artificial things.

I was disappointed with the yoghurt here - it's very sweet, runny and smooth. We get used to taking quality dairy products for granted. The juice is also very sweet and less refreshing because it's all made from concentrate.

While Bethany was in class I sat in the One World coffee shop with all the students on their Macbooks. Everyone also has iPhones and iPads, which are a lot cheaper here.

Then I went to the Storm Cellar which is a consignment or secondhand store. I'm going back there as often as I can. The clothes were all amazing and cheap, the shop was lovely and the staff and clientele were attractive young hipsters. I bought a 1960s double breasted coat-style dress, two tops including a sequinned midriff number, and a beautiful Polo Ralph Lauren satchel bag. I'm a size 5-6 here which seems so small. But in LA airport we saw some tiny skinny women and some huge obese people - no one looked healthy. Thankfully not too much of that in a small college town.

After showers and stories we went to James's place for dinner. We put some six60 on and sang along to 'Don't forget your roots'. Bethany read her Skydiver magazine and I read Germaine Greer. Published in 1970, it was very interesting, angry and seemed old-fashioned. For example, her horror at the 'extreme cases' of feminising one's body where some women went to the lengths of shaving their armpits and pubic hair. I wonder what she thinks of the Brazilian wax which is now the norm. I also didn't realise that the motivation behind the bra-burning movement was that bras were worn to make breasts look more like the idealised version in films and books. Greer warned that women should defy this by refusing to wear a bra and forcing men to accept the natural shape of their chest. I read out the passage and we realised that it's still true today that bras benefit the male gaze more than us. Push-ups and padding from the breast into a shape that is entirely unnatural, and we are conditioned to believe that this is desirable. Another thing I learned is that 50 years ago men did not commonly attend the births of their children, and were shut out so they did not have to witness this disgusting event. How strange.

James and I discussed his antler collection, hunting and fishing and the different reasons people do it. You are allowed to shoot black bears and moose here, but only if you draw one of the tags they issue after a yearly population count. So the populations are regulated to a healthy level, which they don't do themselves because humans have tampered with the natural ecosystems so much. Then he gave us a demo of the 'backwards' Southern drawl some of his friends in Oklahoma use. Hilarious. There are so many different cultures here, a lot more heterogeneity than NZ. I definitely want to come back.