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. :)