Girls playing in the mud

So I was helping Julie in the field yesterday...collecting anemones and crabs. We were having a difficult time finding the crab species she needed. Finding holes in the sand/mud at low tide and making a big scoop around the hole and sieving...found very few that way. Finally we started finding bunches around the rocks and in the muddy gravel. I had to laugh out loud as we were picking up rocks and digging in the mud/gravel with our hands where there heaps of worms and crawly things and we were having a great time...except for my few girlfriends I've made in biology, all the rest of them would be disgusted! Afterwards, Julie introduced me to her favorite cafe that is out on the peninsula...I'll definitely be going back there. Aside from that, I had a productive day in the lab as I dissected fish and Julie helped me by setting up my snails for shedding (putting the snails in an incubator with light so any parasites will leave or "shed"). My lab has not previously found this stage of my study species...which I need to do experimental infections. I'm disappointed to say that there were none of my species swimming around in the dishes today. There has to be some infected snails because the fish are infected with the stage that leaves the snail. So now I'll be collecting snails from another site on Monday and trying those. Other than that, I'm spending my weekend dissecting fish - woohoo.

Left-overs galore!

As I just ate chili for the 4th day in a row, it's a good thing it was the last of it except for what I put in the freezer...and that includes taking it to a potluck and feeding it to Deanna and Rachel after the movie last night...no beach or horse races as it poured most of the day - Golden Compass was great! And I agree with Emily...who the hell wouldn't be in it for Daniel Craig! - Anywho, back to the left-overs...I've had Oyster Stew twice and am saving the last bowl for De. And we have heaps of ham left! I'm planning on making pea and ham soup and scalloped potatoes and ham. Also lots of pineapple upside-down cake with loads of whip-cream left that I'm trying to feed to anyone that comes through the door! De's peanut butter cookies however can't be given away...I'm working on those and the Sangria too! Christmas was good and relaxing and full of food (good thing De and I fit in a walk on the beach each morning). And after working for 3 weeks straight, I did not work at all over last weekend like I intended to. Back at school today...to do a little bit of work as I'm also helping Rachel move this afternoon. But I gotta get back in the swing of things as I have heaps of lab work to do and am helping Julie in the field tomorrow to collect crabs. It was great talking with everyone over Christmas...I talked to or left messages for most of the family and many friends, which was great! Hope all is well for those of you I didn't get to talk to!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I will be spending most of my weekend working. Then Christmas eve I'm making Oyster Stew and Chili and bringing the chili to a potluck at the home of one of my fellow lab member's. Will probably return home to hang and drink with Wayne and his girlfriend and open all my presents...I haven't gotten this many presents since I was a kid! :) Christmas morning, aside from opening my stocking that was Priority Mailed from Santa, I will make mashed potatoes and Pineapple Upside-down Cake (birthday cake for Jesus as my mom says) for the dinner potluck. Spend the day with Rachel and a couple of other girls, then head to Jen's for the potluck, White Elephant gift exchange and Christmas movies. The 26th is Boxing Day...will be doing something fun with Deanna and some friends...beach bbq, horse races...depends on the weather. Somewhere in there I will call as many folks back home as I can! Keeping too busy to miss home too much!

Proposal, potlucks and planning...too much to do!

Finally, I finished my proposal yesterday and sent it off to my committee to read before my meeting tomorrow. I'm also done with the eels (for now) but it looks like I'll be collecting snails and fish on Friday or Saturday (weather dependent) so I won't be getting much time off during the holidays...at this point, I haven't taken a day off in 2 1/2 weeks anyway...who the hell envies the life of a grad student in biology?! I'm not complaining though...having my proposal, and therefore my research plan, laid out gets me excited about my project and I'm realizing how much I should already be doing...3 years is not very long to fit it all in!

I did go to a potluck/party on Friday at Sabine's, one of the postgrads who's office is next to mine. I had a fabulous time! And it's such a small world - my friend Rachel showed up...Sabine is friends with Rachel's soon-to-be flatmate. We ate, drank beer, played SingStar on PS2 -ha! I sang, duets with this total cutie, Careless Whisper by George Michael and Suspicious Minds by Elvis (my mom would be so proud) and then sang Avril's Complicated with another girl - and ended up dancing when I was trying to leave. Some pushy German guy asked me for a ride home, when I was saying I was leaving he actually took my dish out of my hands and grabbed and pulled me to the dance floor - god, I was annoyed! - but of course then Sabine's flatmate wanted me to dance so to avoid dancing with the "hands-on" guy, I jumped in the middle of the circle to dance...he wasn't so grabby once I was the center of attention! Then on the way home he wanted me to drop off my girlfriends first, I told him no. Do pushy men really get any where with women?

I felt another earthquake! 10pm monday I was sitting on my bed - working on my proposal - and it sounded like thunder and everything shook, even Anton, the cat, picked up his head. But again it only lasted a few seconds. It was a 4.2 only 25 miles away!

Got my hair cut for the first time since moving! I'm loving it...similar to what Maggie would do and similar price! The stylist, Andrew, also owns a tour business and gives historic, ghost tours in the evenings...they sound fabulous!

I'm looking forward to Christmas and a couple of days off!! Deanna has the house all decorated. Weird having outside Christmas lights when it's light out 'till 9 something. We have a live tree in a pot that she's used for a few years now...we decorated it a week or so ago. And it's surrounded by heaps of presents for me! Every one must be feeling sorry for me 'cause I'm "all alone" on Christmas! I can't wait to open them all! Finally Deanna got a box of presents today so they aren't only for me any longer. On Christmas Eve I'll be heading to a potluck/bbq at one of the post-docs in my lab and on Christmas Day I'll be going to an orphan Christmas, that I am now in charge of organizing - how the new girl got that job is beyond me! Not sure what's up for New Year's - thought I might go camping and to Queenstown with some friends but as I'll be collecting snails and fish before that, I don't think I can take that many days off....so am looking for something to do around town...

This is for Emily

And anyone else interested in my research, BUT BE WARNED: eel dissection details and lots of parasitology terminology!

Eels: the definitive host (DH) of my study species. So I got to see the adults of my species and collect 20 of them for DNA for my population genetics questions that might get added into my project towards the end. I also found a trematode species in the eels' stomachs! I was surprised but lo and behold, I find out it could be one of two species that reside there...collected and preserved for later IDing...need to fix and stain them. Learning loads about nematodes from the German girl visiting...the eels are really for her project, I just jumped on the chance to collect my species...most of the time I am just collecting and preserving the parasites for her to take back to Germany. So I help her during the week, then work on my proposal in the evenings and all frickin' weekend. This week I won't be able to give her quite so much of my time as I need to finish up my proposal and we're hiring so there's candidate seminars and lunches to go to this week.

Euthanasia of eels is very interesting. As with most fish, the fastest, humane way is to sever the spinal cord by cutting off the head. But eels are so muscular that with the continued nerve impulses, I guess they wrap around your arm while trying to dissect them (new version of "running around like a chicken with its head cutoff"). So instead she inserts a wire into the spinal cord to destroy the nerves...even with that, the local nerve impulses still happen so you see the gills moving.

(I deleted the videos so if you'd like to see them I can email them to you.)

My project: I'm studying a trematode system that uses snails-small fish-eels for hosts. This species is capable of progenesis, ie. can develop into an adult within the metacercarial cyst, self-fertilize and produce eggs all while in the 2nd intermediate host (IH). My study will examine what environmental cues affect the probability of progenesis and the role of genetic determinism. So I will be investigating whether the parasite can perceive cues about transmission opportunities and then make the decision on whether to take the 3-host path or the 2-host path. Factors my experiments will focus on: the condition of the 2nd intermediate host (diet, temperature, population density - all affect the chance of the parasite making it to the DH), presence or abundance of the definitive host or non-host predators (again if no DH, best strategy is to produce eggs in 2nd IH), location of encystment within the 2nd IH and point of reproduction of the 2nd IH (we assume the trematodes eggs leave the fish when the fish spawns - I hope to verify this if possible). For the genetic determinism part: I will immediately collect metacercariae in order to develop microsatellite markers (I hear this can be a really frustrating), then I can determine if a snail is shedding only one clone and use clones to infect the 2nd IH to determine the role of genetics in the probability of progenesis. Then I will do population comparisons - comparing the level of homo/heterozygosity among popns which should give insight on whether they are outcrossing within eels or selfing within the 2nd IH (I will also need to verify that outcrossing is occurring in eels as they could easily be selfing in eels as well), then I will compare other factors of these populations (eel abundance, 2nd IH density and body size). Lastly, I hope to repeat some of the environmental cue experiments on a related species in Australia and New Caledonia (might be the same sp. - I could determine that with some mtDNA work as well)...the collaborators there have not found progenetic worms in natural infections, but that doesn't mean it can't be triggered under the right environmental cues...this would require traveling to labs in these countries and running the experiments!

The Cranberry Salad goes with dinner?!

So I had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday...it was delicious! Glad I made Cranberry Salad as it was a novelty for all but the 3 of us Americans that were there! They were all amazed that we eat dessert salads with dinner and amazed that it went so well with the dinner! Originally I had wanted to make Pistachio Salad but they don't have Pistachio pudding mix here...nor do they have Cool Whip so I had to make my own whipped cream. I am disappointed to say I didn't get any turkey...turkey farms aren't allowed here 'cause they are soo terrible for the environment, thus turkeys are very expensive! We did have a huge roasted chicken so at least we ate bird!

I managed my way driving around town all weekend! I drove De to the airport on friday, shopping and dinner on saturday and a wedding reception on sunday. I only made a couple of wrong turns...the wrong exit in a round-a-bout and often street signs are missing so you have to guess whether or not it's the turn you want! I'm feeling surprisingly comfortable on the right side of the vehicle and the left side of the road though...no mistakes as far as that goes...yet anyway.

Woohoo! I have wheels again!

I'm loving the Nissan! I feel like a tough woman driving a diesel! and I almost feel like I'm representing the Vikings with the purple and one of the stripes is a gold-yellow! I managed my way around town yesterday without too many issues! Hehe :)

Ode to the Wind

The southern alps and glacier lakes are absolutely incredible. My pictures cannot do it justice. We had warm weather, but the wind, the wind was horrendous at times! I really thought our 6-person, dome tent would not last. Our first attempt at setting it up did not work, then we found a tree to set up behind which helped loads. We were quite a spectacle, as was confirmed by a group of Danish lads the next day. I was not able to sleep more than a couple of hours both nights because of the wind. Another effect of the wind was many avalanches! We got to see a few on Saturday morning, but most of the time we just heard the thunderous sound of them.

End of an avalanche...you see the snow disappearing into the V...



The end of another avalanche that was on the right and this is the cloud that came back up the mountain...



Saturday we did the Sealy Tarns trail - the steepest of all the day tramps - and as it was my first time hiking in a mountain, I seriously wondered if I'd make it. But the views of the peaks and the lakes were spectacular and well worth it! The painful part - at least for my left knee - was the descent...thankfully Deanna had loaned me her walking stick 'cause that helped tremendously! Late afternoon, the girls headed out for more hikes, I tried to nap but couldn't, so I made friends with the Danish boys that Rachel was swooning over. On Sunday, we packed up and then walked to Hooker Lake. The wind made this tramp feel like an amusement park ride, with two swing bridges and gusts so strong you had to widen your stance to stay upright and the wind at the lake was un-describable! In the videos, you will see I even have a hard time holding the camera still, but the videos don't do the wind justice, because I could only step out from behind the rock when the gusts died down a bit to take pics and videos!

This is a shot of the Hooker River right before reaching the lake...talk about wind-resistance training!



Hooker Lake - hehe! You'll see a bit of the rock we took shelter behind when looking down the full-length of the lake and at the very end of the lake is Hooker Glacier...I had hoped to see some of it fall in but there was no hanging out to watch for it.



My only disappointment was not getting to see a Kea, the alpine parrot. I did get to hear a Morepork (an owl).

Finally, I'm unpacked!

So I moved into my new flat on Saturday. It feels great to finally be completely unpacked and no longer living out of the suitcases! I love my new bedroom and all my second-hand furniture and clearance items! I had one hell of time putting up a new curtain rod...definitely no yanking on the curtains 'cause they could come crashing down! Deanna is absolutely great - helping me move and taking me to get groceries - and so is Wayne. The kitties are starting to warm up to me but aren't too trusting yet. It's great to have tv again! I'll probably be sitting in front of it every chance I can over the next few weeks! Which won't be much as I'm feeling the pressure of getting to my manuscript and my proposal and starting my microsatellite work (for those who know what that is). I've now started hunting for a vehicle since my money will be available next week...will be test-driving a Nissan Terrano in the next couple of days. I'm heading to Mt Cook (the highest peak in NZ) for camping next weekend...I'm soo looking forward to that! So I'm busy as ever, but I'll try to post an album of the new flat soon!

"I've got a package people!"

Bonus points for naming the movie that quote is from (except Mindy, Michele and Tammy...'cause knowing it is just expected of you)! But more like I've got 4 packages! Hehe! One from Dad Young with some great coffee and yummy pecan brittle! Two from my mom :) with sweaters and a new pink fleece and other clothes and things. And one from Mindy and Jan with girlie stuff - yay! girlie items are spendy here! - and a breast cancer fleece vest and loads of pain reliever! I definitely feel the love! Even the department secretary has been commenting on all my packages.

The back is hurting a bit again this week. And sure enough, my new chiropractor had moved back to Australia! I swear, my chiropractors are always leaving me! So I tried the other chiro who owns the practice that the other one worked out of and I actually think I might like him even better. Anyhoo, I had an I'm-a-stupid-American moment during Pump class, which is an aerobic-like weight-lifting class. Well, I looked right at the 1 Kg on the weights but in my head I was still thinking 1 lb (not the 2.2 lbs that 1 Kg is equal to) so I ended up totally lifting more than I should have. My stupidity didn't even dawn on me until I was laying in bed that night. So now my neck hurts again. And it's soo not good timing, now that I want to get in better shape so I can try surfing...thinking I'm gonna sign up for a 2-day surfing course on Dec 8-9 through the University's recreation services...that only gives me 3 weeks to improve my fitness level! Yikes! Been doing those sit-ups and push-ups, though!

Other than that, I've been working late working on my pile of research articles to read, which just keeps getting bigger...the more you read, the more you find you should read. AND getting way excited to move on Saturday!

Sencond-hand furniture, clearance sales and walks along the beach

So my weekend was full of spending money!! But boy did I find some awesome bargains!! Last thursday I picked up a used, but nice queen bed for $200 - a new one would have cost me $600. Friday night I found a couple of women's hiking packs for $270 (I've been looking at packs here and until friday had only seen them for $400-600!) and ended up getting the larger of the two...I hadn't planned on getting one so soon 'cause I won't be going tramping for a while, but I couldn't pass up the deal. Saturday Rebecca and I hit the farmer's market (surprise), and then she took me shopping for furniture...went to the furniture warehouse - the furniture was way too expensive for me, but I did end up with a bed skirt that was on sale. Then the Salvation Army, where I got this darling little secretary's desk with the fold out top and drawers below. I love it! Off to another 2nd-hand store where I found an unfinished bedside table (which are $100-300 new) for only $20 - just needs to be stained or painted - and a wooden arm chair for the desk for $2! Awesome deal! We stopped at a couple other places for me to compare prices, but I ended up getting a lot of things from Kmart...I love the Kmart here as they are always having clearance sales. Since my new bed is a queen I needed new sheets (my current bed is a double), got a set of 360 thread count for 25% off, a bedside lamp on clearance, a clock radio on sale, a full-length mirror (not on sale but cheaper and nicer than anywhere else I've looked). I also got these curtains on clearance...chocolate brown, marked at $30 a panel (again way cheaper than ones I've been comparing), well they rang up for $1.40 each!! AND I got them back to the new flat, pulled them out to show the flatmate and they are EXACTLY the same curtains I had in my living room in Mankato! Guess I like those curtains, huh?! I've just got a couple more things to pick up - pillows, curtain rod, another power strip - and my room is mostly set-up!

On Sunday, Deanna picked me up and we all met with the landlord to sign the new lease and I paid my deposit. I hung out for awhile and started putting my room together...so I'll have less to do when I move in next saturday. Then I WALKED the few blocks to the beach...hehe...and met up with Rachel and Rebecca. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking barefoot on the beach and watching the surfers. I soo want to try surfing!! Rachel surfs, so I'll have someone to do it with. But that's another purchase - gotta get a wetsuit first. So I started doing sit-ups and push-ups last night...I'll have to do them every night if I think I will ever get my arse up on a board in a couple months!

Central Otago Winery Tour

The tour was absolutely fantastic! In 2 days, we went to 8 vineyards (out of the 32 in Central Otago) and a place called The Big Picture. The region is known for its Pinot Noir - it's almost the only red wine produced in the region with 85% of the plantings being Pinot Noir, and there were sooo many good wines! Other common wines are Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürtztraminer. I ended up with 7 bottles...1 Sauvignon Blanc, 2 Rieslings and 4 Pinot Noirs. We pulled away from the university about 7:20am saturday and got to the first vineyard, Black Ridge, at 10am. The owner of Black Ridge is a story-teller and extremely entertaining; I bought his favorite...2001 Riesling. Then just down the road we stopped at William Hill, where I bought their 2003 Pinot Noir. The Big Picture was a unique experience...they have an aroma room, where you smell different scents and try to figure out what they are...I suck at that game! Their tastings consist of wines of the same variety from different vineyards, so we got to compare 6 different Pinot Noirs...there wasn't a single one I didn't like but a couple stood out, Gibbston Valley (which we were going to the next day) and Mt. Maude. We also had lunch there - platters full of meats, cheeses, spreads, olives, bread, crackers. Mt. Difficulty, with it's incredible views and equally incredible wines, was next. We sat outside for the tastings; it was a difficult ;) decision, but I left with their award-winning 2006 Riesling. Then off to Chard Farm that had sooo many great wines! I splurged here on my most expensive bottle of Pinot Noir they call the Viper, 2006 vintage...it was definitely worth it and will be saved for a special occasion! We spent the night in Queenstown...got a cabin with 6 rooms, kitchen, sitting area, right along the edge of town by all the trees - I was seriously kicking myself for not bringing my binoculars! We hit Gibbston Valley in the morning - definitely one of my favorites. For the tour, they take you through the whole process from vineyard to bottle, and the tastings take place in their cave cellar. (All the male vineyard owners love telling stories of blasting away rocks and through mountains with jelly-mite! ) All their wines were fantastic! I bought the 2004 Pinot Noir. There's a cheesery there as well so, of course, I bought some - Balfour. Peregrine was unique with it's modern architecture. They had a few good Pinot Noirs. I walked off with their good and spicy but cheapest one, Saddleback Pinot Noir 2006, as it's named after an endangered bird and they donate to it's conservation...yes, I'm a sucker! I loved their Sauvignon Blanc 2007 so I bought that as well. At this point I stopped buying wine as I went just over my budget with that Saddleback bottle. We made a spontaneous stop at Bald Hills, and I loved their 2006 Riesling and the 2006 Pinot Noir - the 2004 Pinot Noir was good as well but that 2006 was outstanding! Last stop, Carrick, where we had lunch, again platters of meats (including mussels), cheeses, spreads, olives, breads, oil and balsamic. And we enjoyed the tastings outside in the sunshine with the fabulous view! Again, I liked all but the Chardonnays, but then I'm not a fan of Chardonnay - Mindy, I'm sure, would have loved them. Then the drive back to Dunedin and the gloomy skies and rain! I'm now well prepared to take visitors to some of my favorites, and there's 24 more I haven't visited! I got back and was telling my flatmates about the trip...my new French flatmate kept asking me if I was French...telling her about the wines she says "Are you sure you're not French?", bought some cheese...again "Are you sure you're not French?", then got my brie out of the fridge..."Can't believe you're not French..." - finally I admitted that I do have some French in me and this, I guess, was a satisfactory explanation for my love of wine and cheese! :P

Week of Pain

So I've been in major back pain this week...today being the first day I didn't take any pain reliever, but I'm not quite back to normal. It started monday morning, I found a chiropractor here on tuesday and went back to her again on wednesday. I spent most nights this week taking pain reliever, drinking wine, eating chocolate, icing my back and laying on my bed watching dvds...my kind of therapy...and my days haven't been too productive. So I've been cranky and don't have much else to report. I did pay my deposit and pick up my books for my dive course today...hehe, I can't wait and January is so far away! Tomorrow I'm going to an all-day symposium at our Marine Center - grad students in my department will present their research. Then I leave bright and early saturday morning for a winery tour. 8 wineries/vineyards in 2 days, one of which is a cave winery. We spend the night at a lodge in Queenstown, which I'm dying to visit. I'm way excited and am sure I'll have loads to blog about next week!

In Memory

Molly Jones, one of the blue-veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) I had given to Emily, died last week. :( I'm amazed how sad I am over a reptile! She lived with Derrick for her first several years, then me for a couple of years and Emily since early this year. Not exactly sure of her age, I'm guessing around 6 or 7 years (longer than the expected life span of 5 years). She was survived by her partner, Desmond Jones, and current owner, Emily Koppel.

Collecting and dissecting and other things in my life

So I spent a good chunk of my weekend in the lab - friday night and saturday afternoon - dissecting fish and only have one more to go! After spending a good chunk of time last week running around for non-work related things I needed to spend some time working over the weekend. I certainly feel a bit better about my work load now that I've made some headway. Friday morning I helped some labmates collect organisms...we collected Whelks. marine snails, for Tommy...they have a proboscis (nose-like extension used to detect chemicals) and a feeding tube. So we were out in the wind, light rain and cold walking in the harbor at low tide collecting these things...they're scavengers so if there was something that was dead then you'd find loads of the Whelks feeding on it. Julie needed crabs but the tide was too high in the inlet so we couldn't do that. And Robert and Tommy also collected cockles (like clams - I'm learning the local lingo for animals) from another site.

I went to a dance club with the girls on saturday night...supposedly Julie said it was a club for all ages...yeah, right! The drinking age here is 18 and OMG were we surrounded by teenagers at the club! We had a great time of course, but I think next time I'll try The Fever where they play 70's music and Julie says old people go to....that's sounds much more like me!

Did some shopping on sunday...finally I bought a down comforter and duvet cover! I soo didn't want to get out of my bed this morning! I also bought a small duffel bag for my winery trip this weekend and that I will also use for my workout clothes for going to the rec center.

Starting to think about Thanksgiving. Julie brought it up the other day. I'll be in my new flat so I'm thinking of hosting a dinner...I'll try to remember to thaw my turkey before Thanksgiving day this year!! :) We'll see what memorable story comes out this year's dinner! Turkey is hard to come by here...there's no sliced turkey lunch meat, only sliced chicken breast. I looked at a frozen turkey for $60 yesterday. I'll have to ask around and see what other Americans are doing for it...

Oh, happy day!

Woo Hoo!!! So I had previously emailed the University Accommodation Office asking to get out of my lease early and I got a flat out no. I was over there today and thought I'd stop in and plead my case and maybe at least get out of the power/phone fees since I'd be moving out early anyway. So the boss was there and listened to what I had to say and he's letting me give them a 3 week notice and I'll be moving into De's on the weekend of Nov 17th!! So only 3 weeks with the dirty German boys that I'm suspecting use the bathroom sink to pee in!! Now I've got to find a vehicle and bedroom furniture...but De has a futon I can use until I find a bed I like. I'm so happy, oh, so happy!

I found out a while ago that they were rescheduling the cod fishing for the same weekend that I was going on the winery tour and that I'd have to wait until Feb to go again. So today, my fellow labmate, Clément, asked if instead of me waiting to go cod fishing in Feb through the rec center if I'd be interested in going with him and us finding 4 other people....hell, yes! What a great day!

I'm soaked to the bone right now...as I've been running around taking care of the flat situation, the loan deferment crap, shopping, ran up to my flat twice today....and it was pouring, hailing, and the wind was blowing so hard I was almost swept off my feet - really I was moving sideways while trying to walk! And no I've gotten nothing done work-wise.

I made a decision on where to live!

Ok, so yesterday morning I had decided to move into Ralph's flat. I went to tell Deanna that I wasn't moving in with her. She then tells me that another flatmate was moving out and that she was considering turning that room into an office. I said I would much rather pay more rent and live with fewer people. So Wayne, the other flatmate, and her discussed this last night, and we all are excited for it to just be the 3 of us!! We are all around the same age - so it will be much better situation for me to socialize and meet more people my age! Wayne is a Kiwi who's been working but now getting a college degree in something to do with energy. Deanna is a teaching fellow in my department who's from the midwest. The house is about 2-3 blocks from the beach! Not that you could go swimming here as it's too cold but I will love running on the beach. My bedroom has a north-facing wall (more sun), west-facing windows so I'd get the PM sun, a small stained-glass window that will be above the bed and 2 built-in wardrobes. Deanna and I will be sharing the extra room - she has a futon for guests (the living room also has a pull-out couch and sliding doors for guests as well), book shelves, we can put a desk or two in there and there's 1 built-in wardrobe for extra storage. Wayne already has broadband hooked up and will share that with me. There's a vegetable garden and 2 kitties! I'm way excited!!

Sea Lion Videos

Sea Lion "walking" into the surf



Mating Sea Lions - this is one of the 18 females in all of NZ! I can't believe we were so lucky to come across this!

It's Labor Day

I hate to be so repetitive but it was another fabulous weekend! Friday night I went out for Thai and went to my mate's house to drink wine and watch Wild Hogs. None of us had seen it yet and we needed a laugh - it definitely did the job! Saturday: Surprise! I went to the Farmer's Market...met Rebecca there, bought apples, lettuce and free range eggs - to make deviled eggs for the potluck that night - and had a latte and muffin. Did some other shopping, called folks in the States, made my deviled eggs, did some lab work and went to a potluck at my supervisors - had a fantastic time. Got home and found two new flatmates had moved in - med students from Germany...I think I'm going to be irritated by their messiness! So that makes 6 of us until Peng Yuan leaves later this week. Sunday I was again in the lab briefly and then Rebecca and I headed to the Botanic Gardens for lunch and a walk. It was beautiful and they have loads of parrots. (Pics of the garden will be up soon.) Then back to her place for tea and to get some cheese, crackers, wine, a thermos of tea and warm clothes to head to the beach for the penguins. Well, we ended up driving around the peninsula birding so we got to the beach too late and missed the penguins. (Again pics soon) BUT we did get to see a pair of Sea Lions mating! It was the coolest! I've got some awesome video (will post soon). After the excitement we enjoyed our little picnic as the sun went down and hiked back up the damnedest steepest sand hill I've ever seen....have I mentioned it's hard work to see the wildlife here?! And it was a clear night so I finally got to see some stars and the southern cross constellation and Venus... Got home and my flatmate Rachel was back from her 3-week field trip to the US. I'm so glad she's back!

This morning I looked at another flat...I love it! A fellow in his 50s owns it, Ralph, and I like him alot. He used to lecture at the Uni - design history and web design stuff - and now he has his own web design business. We had a cup of tea and talked for an hour - I don't think we'd ever run out of things to talk about! He's bought the house a couple years ago and it's darling! So far I like it better than anything I've looked at...I'll try to look at a couple more and decide by next week. Now I've got a bit more lab work to do but I'm exhausted...it will be an early night tonight!!

Better than Christmas!

So I got 2 boxes of things from my mom today. It was way better than any Christmas I've had in a very, very long time - getting things you already love! A couple of my favorite sweaters, loads of long sleeve shirts (which I had regretted not packing more of), wool socks, slippers, my favorite statistics book (yes, I do have a favorite!), a parasite book, and a coin purse (they have $1 and $2 coins here). :) I couldn't be happier!

Busy this week looking for a place to live. I do like a house close to the beach and really like two of the flatmates, didn't meet the third - only downfall is sharing a bathroom with 3 other people, 2 of which would be leaving the flat at same time I do in the morning. I looked at another and that's definitely not an option as I would freeze my ass off in that place. The lady told me she often goes to the pool/spa to warm up! Heating is a huge issue here. They don't have central heating systems. The best thing around here is a heat pump, which works like a reverse air conditioner. And you think that'd be spendy right? Well even more crazy is that electricity here is outrageously expensive!! Even being extremely frugal in the winter these homes have $200/month electric bills easy! And that's not running the heat when they're gone and most flats don't have dryers because, as the lady with the cold house put it, "that's a real power sucker"! Anyhoo, I'll be looking at a few more this weekend, so we shall see...

Had to go back in the field this week to find some "bigger" little fish. Robert was expecting me to get bigger ones last week but I didn't know that. So we headed to my field site on tuesday, but to no avail. We found no fish. The water level was up and it was extremely murky. The way to collect bigger guys is to move a rock and if you see a fish dart away, wait for it to come back and try to catch it with dip nets. Well, with the murky water you couldn't even see if there was a fish. So we went to a lagoon and walked along this stream not finding anything...lets try the other side of the road before we go...alas, I moved a rock and a fish darted away! Yeah! We found one! We put on waders and flipped over rocks covered by eggs - that's what these male fish are doing is guarding their territory and eggs - and with loads of effort and patience we ended up with 6 whole fish for me to take back to the lab. So now I'll be dissecting them looking for the parasites and figuring out how to ID them. Loads of fun!

Come to Dunedin to Get Americanized!

So everywhere I go they mostly play American music. Most of my flatmates listen to American music no matter where they're from, the bands at bars and the radio stations play mostly American music and the party I went to was blasting American music. It definitely makes it feel more like home but it's funny that it is often songs from the 80's & early 90's. So friday night at the party this guys comes up to me, sways a bit, and says "Hope you didn't come to Dunedin to get Americanized." I laugh and say it's too late for that, he looks puzzled and I say I was probably already Americanized before I came here. He says "What? Are you Canadian?" Now I'm holding back my laugh and say no. His response "You're not American are you?" Me "yes." He sways and asks if he's offended me - I say no and that I think its funny. He walked away - or I should say hopped away cause one foot was in his mouth. HEHE!

BTW, I posted a photo album from the night at Champp's and the party at Michele's...

People are sooo friendly here!

So I went to my first NZ party on friday night. The hostess is a woman in my department who I hadn't meet yet but greeted me with a big hug (I got another when saying goodbye)! My officemate, Rebecca, picked me up and when we arrived at like 9:10 the party was loud and going strong! The problem being that it was too loud to make conversation with people you don't know, especially when those people have accents! But I did get to meet and chat with quite a few folks in the department.

I spent saturday morning calling the states about my student loan payment. Ya know, I talk to these people before I left and everything was supposedly in order and I had until May to send proof that I'm enrolled at a school...then I leave and they start sending bills to my mom's. Thankfully I'm on top of things 'cause I had already mailed my proof of enrollment form to them, but it's takes a minute to get there from NZ. Then I went shopping...stopped by the farmer's market, went to an outdoor store and got water resistant gloves, a hat, a dry bag and a pair of pink wool socks (I find myself doing laundry 'cause I'm out of my wool socks and these were pink and girlie and cute!). Then I finally got a cell phone - Robynne had left me her SIM card so I didn't need to pay for that at least - and now it'll be easier for me to have a social life. Then I wandered into several wool clothing shops...I was drooling over all the beautiful wool sweaters, shawls, t-shirts, dresses, gloves, scarves...too expensive for me at the moment but I'll definitely splurge on something at some point. I made friends with one of the boutique owners - we chatted for awhile. I had mentioned I where I was going fishing and she said "so you'll be fishing for cod" and then proceeded to tell me how to cook it and where to find mussels and how to make seafood chowder and which seafood restaurants to go to. I'll be going back to have coffee with her - she's great!

On sunday, fishing was canceled yet again due to the wind! Damnit! but what do ya do? So I went back to bed and then spent the late morning calling back home. Best of all, I started working on my first manuscript for publishing - I got the hardest part done! But of course, lots more to do. I worked until I got my first text on my new phone from Rebecca inviting me to dinner...she picked me up and we had wine and she cooked mexican and we chatted the night away!

My nephew's first year of football

I can't believe how small Chad looks compared to Ross! Yes folks, he's only 14 years old! I hear he's liking it...and is playing defensive tackle.

A fabulous week in the making!

Where to start...with the best news I suppose...my truck sold yesterday!! WOOHOO! I couldn't be happier! Now I can begin to look at cars here and bikes. And signup for the diving course...I have another new flatmate, a med student from Austria - Hansi (sp?), who just spent 4 weeks in Australia and dived the Great Barrier Reef. After our conversation last night about all his diving experiences I am soo anxious to get going on the diving...the first available course is in December and I'll be signing up today!

I had my first field day yesterday or maybe I should say field hour. It was a rare beautiful and sunny day! Clement was already going to collect fish, snails and amphipods for his research and I need the same fish species - a little minnow-like fish called a bully. The lake is about a 1/2 hour away, we put on waders, walk out a few feet into the lake, run a net along the bottom and scoop up the bullies into a bucket. Only takes a few minutes to get a good 60 or so fish. Along with Clement collecting his other organisms, we were there maybe an hour. Quite different than collecting at Lake Onalaska with the 3 hour drive one way and 6 hours on the lake. So now I have some lab work to do instead of just spending the entire day, every day, reading and writing at my desk. At this point I'm not collecting any data, I just need to determine which species of parasites (metacercariae) are in these fish and how to correctly ID them. I'm now on the lab website, so click on the Parasite Lab Website link and you can read about my research.

I've also added a link to a time zone map that I've customized. The my time is my Dunedin time. You can move the cursor over the different time zones and the time will flash at the top. I've labeled both Minneapolis and Dunedin...if you click on the labels it will bring you to the Wikipedia page for those cities. If you click on the title Kristin in NZ it will bring you back to my blog. Pretty cool!

I've started looking at my options for where I'll be living come January. I've got a few places to go see and people to meet...one could be close to the beach! We shall see...

I'm also anticipating receiving a few packages from MN this week. I'm anxiously checking the mail!

Back to my work-aholic ways

So it's Sunday and I'm in the office...actually beginning to think about my manuscripts from my Master's project (yes, Bob is probably both relieved that I'm working on it and unhappy that it's taken this long to start). But I'm now back to my normal routine of 10 hour work days, and I've even been bringing reading home in the evening...might as well since there's no tv and my talkative flatmate is gone for a few weeks. I am way excited about my first field day this week...I'll be tagging along with Clément as he's collecting for his research, and then I'll be using the same fish he collects to get started with figuring out how to correctly ID the larval stages of the few species that are in these fish. So field and lab work this week...I'm so excited!

It's been a quiet weekend. My fishing trip was cancelled yesterday...I was sooo bummed! It was rainy and windy and the water was just too rough for the trip. Hopefully we'll get it rescheduled soon. On the plus side, Asian food is popular and sushi is so cheap here! Robynne and I went out for Japanese last night and I was quite impressed. I had read that Asian cuisine was rare in NZ but the international student population is mostly Asian here so when you walk down the main strip of restuarants it is mostly Japanese, Thai, Cambodian, etc...one right after another...sometimes the same type of food in restuarants right next door to each other...maybe one Subway, a burger shop, and a seafood place mixed in. You can also walk up to a window and order sushi from the sidewalk for about $5-6 (3.50-4 USD)...and I thought I was going to be missing out on it! Tonight is Robynne's last night in NZ, so we'll be going out for dinner again tonight!

Oktoberfest

I'm heading off to get some German beer and sausages...wait, I don't have to go anywhere as once a month my department does a happy hour social and this month we're celebrating Oktoberfest! Quite different to be on a campus that is not dry. Everyone is assuming I'll be familiar with the German food 'cause of the name...then I have to go into the explanation of the step dad's name and that the original is Young...and that leads to the "Oh, that's Scottish" 'cause this is a Scottish-colonized town...which leads to me saying I'm mostly Irish and Scottish...and a little bit of English, German, French, French Canadian Indian...what a mutt I am!

Mail me anything and it will cost you a fortune!

I know I sent many of you my address for sending me things...but you'll want to think twice about sending me anything but a card or very small package... So my mom was going to mail me a box of things that I wanted. To send a box it needs to be delivered by a courier...wierd that my university doesn't have a mailing department! A 16 lb box would cost $200!! So she was going to do these flat rate boxes through the post office...but I'm not sure they can be sent to a PO Box. I don't feel comfortable with having things mailed to this flat I'm currently at...last week the whole set of like 12 mailboxes was ripped off the stand and thrown on the sidewalk...I guess it's one of the common things the students do here (like starting things on fire as well...in particular couches! Really, it's university policy that you are expelled if you are associated with a couch fire...it's that common!) So I cut my list of what she's sending me to my statistics book, a couple of long-sleeved shirts and movies (since I have no tv I have to rent movies if I want to watch anything!). Once I move I should be able to have things sent to that flat as I have full intentions to move far away from campus (well, still within biking distance).

A lesson in plate tectonics

Amber has a good question...is it a transverse fault? well, yes but much more...New Zealand lies on the Alpine Fault, where the Australian and Pacific plates are moving past each other AND towards each other, causing one plate to be subducted (going under) by the other, which plate is being subducted changes from the north island to the south. The Alps on the south island are uprising at a rate of 7mm per year. I'm also reading that there is a whole series of large strike-slip (type of transverse) faults, called the Marlborough Fault System, on the north part of the south island. AND a volcano erupted on the north island last week! ...as one plate moves under the other, the one on top stretches and becomes thinner...this allows molten rock to rise to the surface and erupt! Lots of activity! Maybe when my flatmate comes back she can explain more to me...she's a geology PhD studying volcanoes...

My first earthquake

So I was right...I did experience my first earthquake the other night. Sunday night after the wildlife tour I was sitting in bed loading my pics onto my computer when I felt my bed moving...I looked over at my glass of water and the water was moving too! My flatmate said she didn't feel it, but the wife of my officemate did. He told me which website to look at for info. It was a 6.8 (considered strong), 610 km (about 380 mi) southwest of Dunedin. I guess there was a minor one Monday night as well, but I was sleeping. There's about 15,000 near NZ each year and about 250 are significant enough to be felt!

I make friends...and then they leave

So I'm totally missing Rachel, who's in NV for a conference and fieldwork for 3 weeks. We often eat dinner together and chat everynight... The 2 guys I went on the tour with leave today and then Robynne will be leaving next Monday...at least I'll have her to hang out with this weekend.

I did get a chance to chat with Peng Yuan (yes, that's how it's spelled...I actually asked) as one of Robynne's friends left us an extra heater so we have one in the kitchen/living area and I was hanging out there last night doing some reading while Peng Yuan made dinner. She is very friendly and it's nice to talk with someone in my age group! But still...she make's dinner and then takes it to her room...I guess that means I got more work done...

My sleeping patterns are still erratic...thinking I'm exhausted, then not being able to fall asleep, waking at 4 am (the rain woke me last night), then shutting off the alarm (not used to where the buttons are yet) and oversleeping. I'm also just starting to get into a work routine...

Another wonderful weekend in Dunedin!

Friday night I cooked dinner, and Rachel and I watched a movie on the laptop. Saturday consisted of another trip to the farmer's market, some shopping and then I did some cleaning so that I find my flat more liveable now (the accomodation office delivered a vacuum today so I'm much happier now). Saturday night Rachel and I met up with Robynne and her two new flatmates, Nick and Will (also english med students), and went back to their place for some drinks, more poker and watched rugby on their 72 inch tv.

On Sunday, Nick, Will and I went on a wildlife tour on the pennisula. Man, was it fantastic!! I've never worked so hard to see wildlife before...up and down cliffs...but it was well worth it. It's a bad time of the year to see the Royal Albatross but I did get a glimpse of one. The penguins were definitely the highlight. Check out the pics. I also got some awesome video of the male Sea Lions posturing or practice fighting. It was loads of fun watching them...too bad there were no females around else the show would have been even better. The big guy in the foreground is trying to nap and is annoyed by all the ruckus the younger ones are making. He finally got up and walked down the beach with us as we were leaving. In the whole of New Zealand there's 142 males to 18 females...talk about female choice!

We got back to town about 9 pm, I picked up some Pad Thai on the walk home (my first time eating buying dinner out as it's spendy here) and crashed. I am absolutely exhausted today...guess that means it was a good weekend. :)

Things that suck...

Cell phones are such a rip-off here! Back home I paid US$50 a month for like 1500 minutes - here you get only 120 minutes for NZ$60 (like 45USD)! Un-frickin'-believable! If you go over your minutes the cost is outrageous so you might be better off doing prepay but those rates are even more horrendous. I still haven't got one 'cause I just can't bring myself to spending that much for so little! The cheapest phone you can buy is $100 plus another $35 for the sim card. AND cell phones aren't considered local calls so I can't even use my flat phone to call a mobile...you have to get a calling card! Again - un-frickin'-believable!

My internet access pretty much sucks too. I have ethernet connection in my office which can be slow as hell during a good chunk of the day depending on usage. I usually just don't bother from noon-3 because it can get so damn annoying. Wireless access is limited to the main library and science library...

Lastly...the tv networks don't let you watch their shows online except from within the US. What the hell!?! So that means there's no Gray's or NCIS for me until I get a tv!

Perspective

First reality check: I got a new flatmate yesterday, Peng Yuan, who left her 7 month old baby back home with her mother-in-law for the month she's here. Now, I love you all but you all were easy to leave behind comparatively. Rachel and I looked at each other and were like "I guess this was an easy move for the both of us!" I guess she started her program here, then got pregnant...so instead of staying she went home to have the baby and is now going to travel back and forth while doing her PhD...crazy! But I guess quitting/delaying grad school due to getting pregnant or wanting to get pregnant is not uncommon. The Minnesotan I meet last week fell in love here, got married and had a baby so she quit her PhD program and is doing a MS program part-time instead. Robert even mentioned that I can't do that...I assured him I wouldn't...there's much debate about whether having a baby during grad school or while you're trying to gain tenure is easier...I don't think it makes much difference...not that that situation is going to happen any time soon!

Second reality check: How lucky I am to be doing what I love! So last night I was playing cards and drinking with the flatmates and a mate of Robynne's - finally I've learned how to play poker! Robynne and her friend are both in medical programs with about a year left and are not completely happy with it but totally feel stuck after all their effort in their education...yikes! I'm told that in England you have to make the decision to pursue medicine at 16 or 17 years old. Hell, I was about 23 before I even knew I wanted a biology-based career and still didn't know exactly what type of career I wanted. Well, hopefully she goes after the psychology aspect of it that she does like...

So I've come to the conclusion that my life is pretty frickin' grand right now! Not that I don't know this but it's good to be reminded!

My arse is cold!

I know - Mike would say that's nothing new! I totally realize that they warned me about this but I am absolutely baffled by the poor insulation and expensive electric heat they use here! Really, you'd think they'd realize that it would be less expensive to use different heating methods and invest in some frickin' insulation! I'm sitting in my office with my long underwear on, wool socks, fleece pull-over and drapping my fleece zip-up over my legs...and I changed desks today to a smaller desk 'cause I decided that being closer to the heater was the most important factor in desk choice! At home I'm lucky to have an electric oil heater as my flatmates have some crappy tiny electric ones with fans that run for about 3 mins. So my room is decently warm...but the heater does run most of the time on cold nights...when it turns off, it's not off for long 'cause all the heat is lost out the single pane windows (and I suspect the poorly insulated walls). And no doubt, I could go outside right now and find some Kiwis walking down the street in shorts and sandals or possibly even bare footed! Krazy Kiwis! I think I might pick up something to bake tonight!

My lab and research

Check out the link to my lab's website. If you click on people, you will see pics of who I work with (and what they do here). I will be on there eventually but my project focus will be similar to Clement's - alternative life cycle strategy's. There are two local trematode species that can skip the definitive host and produce eggs in the second intermediate host as metacercariae - which I think is very cool and thus will be the focus of my project. On the lab home page, the pic on the right is of metacercariae full of eggs! If you're into science humor you can click on cartoons under Tommy...gotta love geeky science humor!

My first weekend

So as I mentioned before, friday night I was exhausted. I went to the supermarket for hamburger to make spaghetti for dinner, a bottle of local wine and some actual ground coffee. Went home, played music - from my iTunes library as there's no tv or radio - made dinner, drank my wine and Rachel came home halfway through dinner so she joined me for spaghetti.

Saturday I was up early to walk around town and do some shopping. They have the best farmer's market here! All types of food - veggies, fruits, meats, sandwiches, homemade soups, chocolate, herbs, etc, etc - flowers and plants and live music. I will definitely be going there often! I had to go to 3 bookstores before I found the bird field guide my officemate recommended (she studies birds so she's a great reference to have!). I found the upside down maps at the visitor center, where New Zealand is at the top and Canada is at the bottom; it's pretty awesome - looking at the world from a different perspective (let me know if you'd like one). I popped into a couple of bike shops but as the end of the semester is approaching I'm going to wait and see if I can pick up a used one. I checked out cell phones (I'll probably get one in the next couple of days) and purchased a calling card...so of course I went home and spent all of the afternoon on the phone! It was great to talk to the few of you I did! Rachel and I headed to the bar saturday eve for some beers and found a small bar in the city center that had a band. The band mostly played American music, Kiwis head out on the dance floor as soon as the music starts (both Rachel and I said that doesn't happen back home...people need more alcohol before dancing), met a couple of people visiting from Australia, and danced! On the way home Rachel wanted to buy milk and beer (I know - what a combo), but they wouldn't sell us beer because they have an intoxication law!...we definitley were not wasted!...just talkative and giggley...and the guy behind the counter had a such heavy accent (as did the men hitting on me at the bar!) that we could barely understand him so he thought we were more drunk than we actually were!

Sunday was cold and rainy...I had about a third of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows left so I got sucked into the end (as with them all, once you get to a certain point you can't put it down) and finished the book. Also did some reading for my research.

I've pics of my flat in an album on the right...make sure you scroll down after you hit play so you can see the captions under the photos. My flat has 6 bedrooms. The 1st floor has a full bath and two bedrooms; 2nd floor has the living room, kitchen, bathroom with toilet and sink only, and one bedroom; 3rd floor has 3 bedrooms (including mine) and bathroom with shower and sink only.

Still lagging...

It's wierd adjusting to such a different time. I'm exhausted in the evenings (even now at a little after 5pm I could go to bed!) and I start waking up about 5am...then 6am...then I'm wide awake before 7.

So there's 2 other Minnesotans in my department! I met one yesterday...she heard I was here and came by my office to meet me...I think she was quite happy to here my lovely accent! The other is in MN visiting right now.

I had dinner at my supervisor's last night and he took me for a little drive along the pennisula beforehand. Man, it is so beautiful here! I got to see some awesome views of the harbor and ocean and it really wasn't even a good time of the day to go. I totally wish I would have had the camera and binocs with me...but there will be plenty of trips to the pennisula in the future. Robert and his wife are from Montreal and are very social so dinner was great!

I've already got quite a few birds on my NZ list! My officemate studies birds so she's lending me a bird book and I think I'll purchase my own this weekend. No penguins yet...but it won't be long...

I promise...pictures soon...

Hurry up and waiting!

Yeah! I can finally post! I've only had internet access through the lab computer and for some reason cannot log in to Blogger from there. My office mate is letting me use her user name and password to access the internet with my laptop...so here I am! I won't have my own user name and password until next week. Which means I probably won't be calling anyone on Skype until then, unless I want to pay for internet access at a cafe this weekend...

So far I've been filling out lots of forms and then waiting for them to be processed in order to do the next step. I've been meeting lots of people in the department...we'll see how many of their names I'll actually remember. I finally got keys to my office and labs today. Really, I'm just waiting for my enrollment to process so I can get my ID, user name, scholarship $$, access to buildings after hours...

My flat is like a townhome...I'll post pics next week as I don't have them on my computer yet. My flatmates: Rachel, from Ireland, arrived the day before me and is also on a PhD scholarship studying geology (volcano stuff)...we get along well and it's great to be sharing the settling in crap with someone; Christian, whom I've barely said more than hi to, is finishing his thesis in electrical engineering and will be leaving next week; and Robin, an english girl here for some 10-week medical program and will be moving out in a couple of weeks. Rachel and Robin are both tea drinkers and tea time is a social time so I like that. The coffee here is crap...I accidentally bought the soluble kind...not even sure if they have real coffee here!

I dropped a load of $$ at Kmart yesterday. I knew I'd need to take a taxi home so I figured I might as well load up...hairdryer, flat iron, iron, towels, waste basket, etc...got home and realized I bought the wrong size sheets so I had to hike it back to Kmart to exchange. So far I'm walking everywhere and if you all thought my hill in Mankato was a killer, you should see the hill I have to walk up to get home here!

I hope to see more of the city this weekend and pop in (I'm using the local lingo already...you "pop" on by everywhere!) a bike shop to check things out. But really I need some money to come in before I can purchase anything major...anyone know of someone who'd like to buy a Ford Explorer, send them my way!

Leaving tomorrow!

I'm back in San Fran after spending a few days at my Uncle's north of LA. We had a family dinner wednesday eve with Troy's family and Lauren brought Andrew and the puppy. It was great to finally meet Andrew! Jeremy and Claire came up with the kids for a few hours on thursday...i loved seeing them and catching up! Then back to SF on friday...so glad to be out of the desert. Judy, Shawna and Josh brought the kids to Bonnie's today...what a bunch of cuties! It's been great catching up but I'm exhausted. Getting ready to leave tomorrow night...it's 17 hours from SF to Auckland and then another couple of hours to Dunedin! Next time I post, it will be from NZ!

So I'm off!

Boy, was I totally crying as I left MN today! I cried saying goodbye to Mindy - she started it - I cried at the terminal, I cried during take off and as we flew over MN. It was so sad to leave...who would know I was actually happy and excited too?!

I'm at Bonnie and Charlie's in San Fran...waiting for Shawna to arrive. Bonnie, Grandma, Shawna and I are roadtripping to Troy's tomorrow!

Plans are set

So it's all official. I got my student visa, my plane tickets and my Dunedin address all last week. I leave on 10 Sept for CA for a week, then fly out of San Francisco on the 16th and arrive in Dunedin on the 18th (after crossing the date line...it'll be the 17th in MN...I'll be experiencing life a whole day ahead of everyone else...just like Chelsa). WooHoo! I've been looking at the city and my neighborhood on Google Earth...so much fun! I can't wait to go...I'm sad to be leaving but I'm ready...

Preparation

Hey all,

I'm in the process of preparing to leave for NZ...waiting on my visa and will be booking my flight in a few days.