I Am Dunedin

For the last two nights, I’ve based myself in my former University town of Dunedin. I graduated from Canterbury, but I spent the best part of 2005 busting my ass trying to get into medicine or dentistry in Dunedin. Consequently, when I go back, I have to fight off the feelings of “coming home”.

It’s been a while. The last time I was there was in 2006, for a New Zealand Academy of Sport lecture. Before then, I spent many a memorable night in 2005 walking Dunedin’s streets late at night. When Travis visited me from Queenstown, we mused over how I could one day call a chapter in my memoirs “I Am Dunedin”. This of course, was when I was destined to be an Olympic gold medallist in the 2008 Games. Never happened. Nor did I spend enough time there to fill a chapter. Now that this blog has become my memoirs, of sorts, here it is.

Dunedin, to me, feels so safe it’s almost unsettling. For one thing, on campus, you can leave your laptop anywhere for up to an hour without worrying about it being stolen. Probably longer than that, but I dare not try. One never knows. I only just got my keyboard replaced after the infamous Spray n Wipe incident.

And Dunedin’s streets aren’t menacing like those in Christchurch. When I studied at Otago in first year, I often did my run training at midnight or 1am. Why, I’m not entirely sure, but the fact was I could, and I never for a second worried about my personal safety. Likewise, on Tuesday night when I embarked on the walk from Otago’s Central Library to the Stafford Gables YHA, over two miles away, I didn’t think of being mugged.

I’m looking forward to returning there a few days after New Year to pursue my graduate education. Tuesday’s night at the library was spent not researching, as it probably should have been, but you guessed it – looking at available courses at the University of Iceland. It excites me that should I get back into my night running habits, in the Icelandic summer, it won’t even be dark!

I did spend all of Wednesday reading prescribed texts for uni, however, so I feel like my Dunedin vacay wasn't a complete waste. Unless, of course you count the six idle hours I spent on a bus between there and Christchurch this morning. I drifted in and out of sleep (drooling all the while - I kid you not). It's a long way.

For now, I'm watching There's Something About Mary and wondering why she never wears a bra. Is that what it is about her? Really?

*rolls eyes*