Dallas to Dunedin: Rachel Graduates from Uni!

Two weekends ago, Rachel graduated from Otago University with a degree in Arts. Now that she has been away in Wellington working on her honors degree in publishing, it was so great to have her back in town. (They do graduation a bit differently here, they graduate like 5 months after finished class -- weird).

We started off her graduation day with pictures on campus, then the graduates have a parade where they walk down the main street of the city. After that they have the same 2 hour commencement like we have back home. The biggest difference was of course the inclusion of New Zealand tradition. The Dean of Maori Studies gave a commencement speech in Maori - which was really cool (as he translated it for us whities). The other difference was when a Maori graduate walks across the stage, their family in the audience stands up and does a 2 minute Haka (their form of publicly acknowledging an accomplishment - you might has seen the boys do it at Haley and Chris' wedding). Although the Haka during graduation provided a type of relief from the usual bore of name calling and shaking hands of graduation, I also felt it extremely disrupting for the every day european student whose family had to wait until the end of the row was called to clap their hands. I understand why the Maori families do their thing, but it seemed a bit unfair to me... but I guess I also see this from American eyes not New Zealand ones.

After graduation, we had friends and family over to Chanel and Damon's house for snacks and drinks and then we took the party to nearby Pier 24 restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous 3 course meal thanks to Aaron and Damon!

Rachel looked stunning in her graduation gown and I was so so so so proud of her for getting the first University degree out of the Cooper clan! What an amazing accomplishment!