Wow, where does the time go?!

Well, I managed to infect 120 fish by Christmas, plus 2 because a couple died.  I think I'm getting carpel tunnel from squeezing a pipet bulb too much!  Thankfully Christmas came along when it did cause I was getting burnt out!  The holidays were great.  I had a party on Christmas Eve with about 25 other foreigners and we did a White Elephant gift exchange (where you bring a gift from home).  And for Christmas dinner I went to Rachel's...other than that I was lazy.  And I couldn't ask for more!  All I've done is come in everyday to feed my fish and clean tanks once in a while.  I'm cat sitting for some friends now.  And am back to running...I was working too much to even fit in a workout!  But no more, I say!  This damn cold town, with it's damn cold houses has allowed me to put on too much weight this year and I'm getting to the point of not fitting into most of the pants in my closet!  This is a problem!  But it seems summer has hit this week (who knows how long that will last) and I'm getting back to jogging on the beach.  This mornings jog was great...I went to a different beach than normal since it's closer to where I'm cat sitting.  And the horse farm nearby was exercising the horses with those tiny one person carts.  Well, I'm off to feed my fish and then home to do some gardening.

More infections!

So my next experiment is off to a good start! I've infected 19 fish and have only 101 more to go!  And I'm behind on every other aspect of my project!  Arghh!  Too much to do, not enough time!  Luckily I HAVE to leave the lab by 6 tonight because I'm babysitting for one of the lecturers...great kids and they spoil me with a fabulous dinner!  But my life is now revolving around my snails producing my parasites and me getting them into fish as fast as possible!

Thunder Storm and 007 excite me!

Yesterday was exciting...we had a thunder storm!!  They are rare here and this was the first one since I've been here!!  I sooo miss the lightening and thunder!  It rains here so much that you get sick of it, but yesterday it was wonderful!  Despite the fact that by the time I walked to my truck, I was soaked and had to sit through the entire James Bond movie with wet jeans.  The movie was great and a large group of us went...or several small groups met up at the theater.  And ahhh, Daniel Craig.....sigh...

Gobble Gobble

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast last night!!  Pot-luck style at Jen's house.  Wayne got me a turkey through his work...he thought it was huge and I said it's the smallest turkey I've ever cooked at 10lbs.  But there was plenty and I also made pistachio salad.  And we had all the typical fare:  homemade bread, salad, green bean casserole, candied yams, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie and even rhubarb cake!  I hadn't had turkey in over 1.5 years and it was everything I imagined I missed!!  YUM!

Videos from traveling with Kristi

McLean Falls in the Catlins


Kea at the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown


Fur seal colony at the entrance to Doubtful Sound from the Tasman


360 around Doubtful Sound

Water activities...

Wow! What a couple of wonderful, fun-filled weeks with Kristi! This past week we went white water rafting on the Shotover river by Queenstown. BTW, I will do my best to NEVER stay in Queenstown again...at least not at the cheap backpackers unless I'm ready to party hard! Too many young partiers for me...god, I'm getting old. It was hilariously horrible. And since we had to rise at 6:30 am for the rafting, we did not get much sleep! It had rained a lot the previous day, so the rapids were rated 4+! And it was great...I'm ready to go again! Then off to Te Anau, where we went to the glow worm caves and spent the night at a great lodge/backpackers (same place Leah and I had stayed). Then we drove to Manapouri,  and what a fabulous 24 hours! We took a boat across Lake Manapouri and then got on a bus to take us down to the sound. We got on a bus of 27 other Americans, all Master Gardeners, most from Arkansas. They were great! So enthusiastic and they pretty much adopted us as part of their group and called us their MN Girls. It felt good to here all those American voices, especially that southern drawl. The ship, crew, food, accomodation, scenery, wildlife, people were incredible! This was by far the best thing I've done in NZ to date! We got settled in, then went kayaking and even jumped in the sound for a quick dip. Kristi stayed in as long as possible...me - well, I jumped in, swam around to the ladder and got out...that was enough! Then hot soup and out on the deck to take pictures and out to the Tasman sea where we saw lots of Fiordland-crested penguins, fur seals, a few dolpins and lots of sea birds! We were much colder during this time than when we were swimming! But we stayed out on the deck so not to miss any of the amazing wildlife! Dinner was incredible! Afterwards our charismatic nature guide gave a slide show presentation, and then off to bed so we could rise early! I was up before the engine revved up. Again out on deck so not to miss anything...more penguins the second day, even a few blue penguins. It's was a rare sunny day in Doubtful. I'll post photos as soon as I can! I took Kristi to the airport yesterday...so sad! I'm still recuperating, unpacking, washing clothes and linens. I should be getting to work, but the day is beautiful!

Holiday!

I'm having a fabulous time with Kristi. This last week we spent in the Catlins...hiking to waterfalls and walking many beaches. The weather was beautiful! Then we headed to central Otago, went to a bird sanctuary and saw kiwis! And stayed in Wanaka. We woke up to lots of snow all over southern NZ! The pass to Mt Cook was closed so we drove through central, stopped at one of my fav vineyards (Black Ridge), went to St Bathans and Blue Lake and to Moeraki Boulders. We mostly cooked at our backpackers or fixed lunch on the road, but we did have to fabulous seafood dinners! Today I had a symposium and gave a talk on my master's research. Tomorrow we were supposed to go cod fishing but it has been cancelled due to sea conditions...sooooooooo disappointing! Instead we are collecting fish for my research and going to Sand Fly bay to watch the penguins come in in the evening. Then we plan to head off again on Sunday...hopefully for Doubtful Sound for a couple of days.

Dream analogy: Kristin is Legend

So I dreamt last night that I was with all my family hiding in this house and I had a rifle and a shotgun to protect us from werewolves.  One werewolf showed up and I shot him.  But then I couldn't find my guns cause my dad didn't think they were safe where I left them so I spent most of the dream in a panic that a werewolf would show up and I wouldn't be able to shoot it.  Finally, I found them again.  Then the dream shifted to us being out somewhere and there was this taco bar (like a salad bar) that had $3 tacos but my dad refused to pay for it saying that it cost too much so I had to go hungry cause I didn't have the $3.  WTH?  I think 3 things contributed to this nightmare:  1.  Yesterday on my nephew Ross' Facebook page I saw I am Legend is one of his favorite movies...well, my nightmare werewolves were the same ones from the movie.  2.  my good friend's mom died last week and the news has made me terribly homesick...I think the panic of not knowing where my guns were stems from the fear of me not being there when something bad happens to my family.  3.  I'm really struggling to live on what I make here and am constantly evaluating how much money I have and what I can spend and if I can eat out or not.  I feel exhausted today...for some reason, I don't think I got a good night's rest!

What a shocker

So this week I've been learning how to use an electric fishing machine.  We had a day-long class on Tuesday and today Anson and I got to do the practical part and go out in a stream to learn the techniques.  After following a very long list of safety procedures and equipment, it's not dangerous at all...keeping in mind that it could easily kill you if the electric current goes through your chest or anyone's around you.  I managed to not shock Anson nor myself.  If you are using the appropriate amount of voltage for the habitat then the electricity causes the fish to swim towards the hand-held electrode and then you can scope it up with a net.  And again, if you are doing it appropriately, it doesn't harm the fish at all...just so long as you didn't zap it too long.  And it's pretty much like regular fishing...much more fun if you're catching fish but still great to be out in a stream on a beautiful day.

Another exciting note...I've submitted my first paper on my master's research to a journal (Journal of Parasitology).    WOOHOO!  Now I just gotta keep my fingers crossed that it's accepted.

View from the sea

Anson and I went on a pelagic (ocean) birding trip last weekend.  It was great weather and the birds were awesome!  We were out for 3 hours in total.  Link to my photo album is on the right.

The list for the boat:

Southern Royal Albatross: 2
White-capped Albatross: 20+
*Salvin's Albatross: 1 
(Southern) Buller's Albatross: 15+
Black-browed Albatross: 1
Northern Giant Petrel: 2
Sooty Shearwater: 1000+ 
*Common Diving Petrel: 1
*Fairy Prion: 400+
Blue Penguin: 1

Black-backed gulls

Red-billed gulls

White-fronted terns

Spotted shags

Stewart Island shags

Little black shags

*Royal spoonbills

(* means it was a new bird species for me)

I did not get to see the black-browed albatross but did see a reef heron while we were waiting for everyone to board.  It was my first time seeing an adult royal albatross...the sightings were brief but fantastic!  And I saw my first Hector's dolphins, which are the rarest dolphins in the world and the smallest marine dolphin.

My vote has been cast!

So my absentee ballot is in the mail!  They say a high percentage of absentee ballots don't get counted because they don't arrive on time or for not following some regulation.  Well, I think I followed all the directions properly and it should arrive in Blue Earth County on time.  Let's hope so!!

A friend sent me this link to a blind quiz you can take on the candidates.  It gives you a series of 2 quotes and you choose the one you agree with the most.  It tallies them up at the end and tells you which candidate you most agree with.  Well, I had already sent in my ballot but took it anyway...it confirmed my choice.  :)  Try for yourself here.

I've got Ick

So my experimental fish started dying, I thought it was due to an external parasite but now know it's due to a fungus called Ick or white spot or here they call it Itch.  A fungus that I treated the fish for when I first brought them into the lab but now I know I should be treating them every 3 weeks or the following happens...more fish were dying, then I saw the fungus and treated the fish for it at 10 pm on Thursday and by 8 am Friday 17 out of 35 fish were dead.  So yesterday I euthanized the rest of my fish and ended my experiment 2 weeks early.  We think that my parasite needs 5 weeks to develop so I'm not sure if any of them will have matured at this point.  My supervisor keeps talking positively (I think for my sanity) and says I might still get data and I'll know how much the parasite grows at this time and what the infection success is and if the fluorescent dye lasts this long, yadda, yadda, yadda.  I'm taking some time for myself today to recharge...slept in, rang home, doing errands, have a coffee date and going out for a friend's b-day tonight.  But I'll be back in the lab on Sunday for a full day of dissections.  Oh yeah, it's day light savings tomorrow so we Spring forward...damnit, I need every hour I can get these days!

1 down, 2 to go

So my first year is over. Today is the one-year mark but I certainly haven't done 1/3 of my project thus far!! Yikes! I better get a move on it. My first experiment is up and going and I've started my monthly field sampling so at least I'm collecting data now instead of doing preliminary crap. But I have a cold and it has slowed me down the past week...in fact I've had it longer than a week but the damn cough is still lingering and waking me up in the middle of the night. Oh and I'm trying out an online dating site here. Two women in my department have found really great partners through this site so I thought I'd give it a try. But the number of men who send you messages is overwhelming! I'll keep you updated...

Minnesota sun

Me enjoying Minnesota summer and Coor's Light, mmmm

Cannibalism isn't a pretty sight

On my 6th day of infecting fish (every other day) I was oh so happy to have all 70 fish for my experiment infected!  At the end of the day, I was doing some cleaning in the tanks and started to feed them.  Just as I was feeding them, I saw one of the bigger fish grab a small one by the tail, shake it around and in a blink of an eye had it half engulfed!  I was giving them food at that exact moment!  I knew these guys can be cannibalistic but damnit! now I am 1 fish short in that treatment!  So today I will infect one more fish and hope they don't eat too many of the wee ones!

On the home front, we now have a sofa bed and 2-seater couch in the lounge!  It's starting to look like a home again...we just need to get some stuff up on the walls now!

Pink parasites are oh so cute!

Yeah, after almost a full year I have finally started my first experiment!  I know that doesn't sound like a very long time to do preliminary work but when you only have 3 years in total the time is flying by!  On Sunday I started infecting the fish for my experiment, by 7 pm my snails started shedding heaps of parasites.  I had gotten 2 fish infected during the day, and then 17 infected Sunday night.  I put the snails in an incubator with a light which cues the parasites to leave the snail.  Then I take the parasites and flourescently dye them (to tell which parasites I put in the fish versus parasites that are already in the fish).  I anesthetize the fish, lay it in a little trough and drop the parasites on them (which look pink in regular light from the dye), wait a few minutes and then put the fish back into water.  To say the least Sunday was a very long day in the lab - 15 hours.  I infected another 11 yesterday and am giving the snails a rest every other day.  3 more days of infections and I should have all the fish done and the experiment up and running for 5 weeks.  I have 3 treatments at low, med and high fish density and am interested in which reproductive strategy the parasite takes in these different treatments.  If there is a low chance of being transmitted to the next host, then it would be advantageous for the parasite to reproduce early (rather than waiting to reproduce inside the eel).  This is what I'm expecting in the high density treatment - when the fish are in high densities they have a low chance of being preyed upon by an eel and thus the parasites inside the fish have a low chance of being transmitted to an eel and thus should choose to reproduce early.  We'll see what happens in a few weeks.  Oh so exciting!

New Photos

I've posted new albums from my trip home. Check them out. I'm also now on Facebook.

The Love of my Life

I once told a boyfriend that my dog was the love of my life...are you not supposed to do that? Maybe that's why I'm still single. But his love is unconditional!

Jake and his treasure chest of toys...


I know, I'm a terrible singer...

Back to reality

So I've been back in Dunedin for a few days now.  I've slept a lot and am freezing my arse off at home!!  I had to take a shower in the middle of the day on Sunday just to warm up!  Seriously, it's not that cold outside but indoors sucks, even with an electric blanket.  Weather has been a pain.  My pelagic (ocean) birding trip was cancelled over the weekend.  And I'm supposed to have 3 field days this week...one has already been postponed, tomorrow's should be a go, but Friday's weather isn't looking good either.  All I can say is blah!  The only good thing about cancelled field work is that I have more time to work on other things.

I'm back into a workout routine.  Due to all the back pain I've experienced over the last couple of months and taking a 3-week vacation, I've decided there's not enough time to train for the half-marathon in Sept.  But there is a 10k (6.2 miles) run in October that I might sign up for.  I can already run 4k so I'm off to a good start.

It was sooooooo fabulous to be home in Minnesota!!  I really don't have the words to explain.  I just wish I would've had more time to spend with my peeps.  LA was great.  I'm so happy to have shared Scott and Leo's wedding day.  It was great spending a few days with them and getting to know Leo.  Lots of great memories!  I'll get photos up as soon as I have the time!

3 days from home

I leave in 2 days!  I can't wait!!  Summer here I come!

I'm exhausted today.  Went to the gym yesterday morning and had a pretty easy day.  Rebecca and Deanna ended up flying into the airport about the same time so I picked both of them up yesterday afternoon on my way back from the lake.  Then went over to Rebecca's friend's for dessert potluck - I made Grandma Young's cherry pie (with more cherries and less sugar) and it was a hit - and we painted our toenails.  I managed to get up for the gym again today - it was hard since I got home late but after all that dessert it was certainly needed.  So now I'm knackered as they say here.  But heaps of things to accomplish before I leave on Thursday so no time for rest!  See you soon!

The Black Market of animals

Poaching and the animal trade horrified me as a teenager, and now it is worse than ever.  It makes me want to cry, makes me sick to my stomach and makes me outraged all at the same time.  This video is incredibly eye-opening.

The Haka

So we postponed soup night and went out to eat on Friday night...to that Mexican restaurant. I finally got the expensive meal I've eyed someone else eating everytime i've gone. It was well worth it. I was in the lab all day saturday infecting fish, and I set up a new microscope station Keep your fingers cross that my infection procedure worked!

I went to the All Blacks match on Saturday night against South Africa...we lost by 2 but it was still heaps of fun. We went to our friends' place for the pre- and post-party. We drank heaps, I left my purse in Wayne's girlfriend's car at the beginning of the night and didn't even realize it, played some intense foosball so much so that my hand is still sore. The All Blacks do this intimidating Maori dance at the beginning of their games called The Haka. The All Blacks website says "More than any aspect of Maori culture, this complex dance is an expression of the passion, vigour and identity of the race. Haka is not merely a past time of the Maori but was also a custom of high social importance in the welcoming and entertainment of visitors. Tribal reputation rose and fell on their ability to perform the haka"

The haka performed by All Blacks at the Carisbrook stadium here in Dunedin in 2004

TGIF or better yet TGFIO (Thank God Friday Is Over)!

This is how my day went...I put my snails in the incubator to shed my parasites and laid out everything I need for my experimental infections. I come back to pull out my snails and one of my labmates has shoved all of my set-up out of his way to use the scope I was using when there were 3 other scopes that no one was using. I kicked him out of my spot, telling him I had my stuff set out for a reason. Then I accidentally killed all my parasites by using a new light that emitted heat and the incubator that's supposed to be at 25C was at 33C. After transferring my snails to fresh water and getting the temperature back down, I only got one snail to shed any more parasites. My intentions were to try infecting an anesthetized fish by dropping the parasites right onto it. Well, no one could tell me how long the anesthetic solution will last but obviously two weeks is too long cause my fish was as lively as ever. I did get quite a few parasites to contact the fish though. So it looks like I'll be back in the lab on Saturday mixing up new anesthetic and hoping my snails will shed!

I'm supposed to have a couple folks over for my tomato bisque soup tonight and see what Anson thinks of the flat...we're hunting for a new flatmate since Deanna is leaving me! And tomorrow I'm going to an All Black's rugby test (it's a test not a game, don't ask me why)...I'm way excited about that! Other than that I'm working as much as possible this weekend...infecting fish and cranking out a draft of another manuscript from my master's research.

Habit at Work

New Zealand has this great website to help you assess your work area and other ways to alleviate the sources that can aggravate pain.  I now have my chair backrest in a new position and my laptop (which I already have it on a riser to make it closer to eye level) and keyboard moved to a new spot.  I highly recommend this site if you have any type of back, neck, limb, joint pain!

www.habitatwork.co.nz

Happy 4th of July!

No fireworks for me this year, but a few of us are getting together for burgers, drinks and pool tonight.  Maybe we'll find some place to play darts if we're lucky.  It'll mostly be Americans but a few international folks in my lab will join us as well.

My infection procedure is making some progress!  I had some luck getting the parasites to penetrate the fish if I anesthetize the fish first.  I'd still like better infection success...3 out of 50 successfully infected a fish and 10 out of 50 infected another and I'd like an average of 10 parasites to infected each fish.  Next I'm going to try dropping the parasites in a small drop of water right onto the anesthetized fish and see what happens.  Wish me luck!

The Attachment Style Test

My Results for The Attachment Style Test ...

The Free Agent

19% Anxiety Over Abandonment and 28% Avoidance Of Intimacy

You like to be independent, to play by your own rules. You're not terribly interested in finding a partner and settling down, and it makes you nervous to imagine that someone might depend on you for anything. Were you to find the right partner--someone as independent as you, probably--you'd not be too put out about sharing your adventures with him/her.

Fictional characters with whom you might identify: Han Solo (Star Wars), Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing")

To find out your Attachment style, go to: http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-attachment-style-test

Wishing I was home already...

I broke up with my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago.  Turns out he's verbally abusive which has really shown through the last couple of weeks since I refuse to take him back.  It's gotten worse the past couple of days - I suppose because I talked to him, which gave him hope but the talk turned into a horrible mess, and now I refuse to answer his calls or even read the texts he sends.

Petrol perspective

I know you all are going into shock over the rise in fuel costs in the U.S.  But you don't realize fuels is cheaper in the states than in Canada, which is cheaper than in Australia which is cheaper than here in New Zealand and we get it cheaper than in the U.K.  And cost of fuel is rising here just as it is there.  I did some calculations from NZD to USD and liters to gallons...petrol costs over 6USD/Ga here and diesel costs about 5.50USD/Ga including the extra road user charges us diesel owners have to pay.  I know the sudden rise is a shock, but adjust your frickin' life style!  If you bought one of those largest SUVs to get that Bush tax write-off, you might be thinking that wasn't such a great idea now.  Get a more fuel-efficient vehicle, walk to the store, learn how to ride a bike again, combine several errands into one trip!  It's good for your pocket book, the environment and your bum!

The U.S. is neglecting diseases of the poor

Summary of a news article from msnbc.com:

9 parasitic diseases afflict 10 million Americans, predominantly  minorities living in the Mississippi Delta and the American South, in disadvantaged urban areas, along the U.S.-Mexican border and in disadvantaged white populations in the Appalachia.  The diseases include Ascariasis, the most common human worm infection; Toxocariasis, a roundworm transmitted in dog feces; Strongyloidiasis, another roundworm; Cysticercosis, pork tapeworm; Giardiasis, or beaver fever that causes diarrhea; Cytomegalovirus, which causes deafness and mental retardation in infants; Chagas disease and Dengue fever.  These are not killer diseases but instead cause people and children to be anemic, weak and unproductive.  With global climate change and increased flooding many of these diseases will be promoted.  Yet the U.S.  tolerates these diseases of our poor while spending $1 billion per year preparing for outbreaks of diseases the have not occurred, including smallpox, anthrax and avian influenza.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25352442/

Videos from the trip

Videos of my trip with Leah and new albums to the right...really Leah was with me even though I don't have a single photo of her!!  Every photo I took of her was with her camera, and I didn't always have my camera so Leah has heaps more photos, especially from Milford Sound when we took her disposable camera, but I probably won't get those from her until I come home...

Jack's Bay in the Catlins


Purakaunui Falls, Catlins


"Moving" picture of me in front of the falls


Moeraki Boulders - the Maori legend is that gods came to visit mother earth and when leaving one of them messed up the chant and came crashing back to earth in his canoe, New Zealand is the canoe partly upside down with the ridge of the canoe forming the mountains. The food baskets spilled out of the canoe and these boulders are those upside down baskets...


Dunedin Railway Station

More penguin videos from Sand Fly Bay...

Can you see the 3 fur seals laying on the rocks behind this penguins?

And another sea lion video

Round and round the South Island I go

I have soo much to share!

The first week of June I spent doing fieldwork with Dave from my lab and Andy, another PhD student in my dept. We went north and west over the mountains to Lake Poerua. I wanted to collect snails from a creek that runs into the lake and a student from Indiana U told me these snails were highly infected with the parasite I work with. Well, we get there and the creek is dry - damnit! So I collected snails from another creek and 3 locations of the lake. I'll be screening these snails this week to determine if they're infected. We stayed in Shearer's quarters on a farm on the lake - a complete shit-hole with mouse turds and faulty heating and no hot water for the first day - I took pictures. The good thing was we had easy access to the lake since this farm was on the lake. Then we drove down the west coast - absolutely beautiful! - to Haast area for Andy to collect some fish. The drive was windy and up and down...horrible when you're in back pain and want to lay down but laying down makes you carsick! Yes, I was in back pain when we left for this trip, then I spent the week sitting long hours in the truck or bent over collecting snails. By the time we got back Friday night, I couldn't sit or stand very long. I had a ticket for a whiskey and chocolate tasting for Friday night. Haseeb in my lab put together the tasting and the chocolates were designed and made by his wife who is a chocolatier. The chocolates were made with the whiskey they were paired with...ahhh, whiskey was great for the back pain....until Saturday...I could barely move - I couldn't even sit up in bed, I had to roll over and roll my legs out so my knees were on the floor and then stand up. It hurt to sit, stand, walk, so I spent most of the day in bed...then something must have happened in the middle of the night because Sunday morning I felt great, just had sore muscles and by Monday I was feeling perfect - weirdest thing.

So good that I felt back to normal cause Leah arrived that Monday. I had to take care of my snails so they'd live while I was traveling with Leah and she mostly rested on Monday since she had vertigo from traveling. Then Tuesday we made a couple of stops in the Catlins and then headed to Te Anau and stayed at a backpackers. We went to the glow worm caves - they were pretty cool - insect larvae that glow to attract other insects upon which they feed....they have these little sticky fishing lines that insects get caught in. On Wednesday we went kayaking in Milford Sound - that was the highlight of the trip for me! Kayaking is sooo much easier than canoeing. I got to try Sea Urchin, raw, for lunch - very, very salty! Thursday we shopped for souvenirs and drove to Queenstown, which we decided was too commercial and touristy so we continued on to Wanaka via the Crown Ridge road over the mountains. Spent the night there at another backpackers and on Friday we had lunch and a tasting at one of my favorite vineyards, Mt Difficulty, which has incredible views of Central Otago. Then we drove like hell to get to the Moeraki Boulders on the east coast and we arrived there just at dusk and in time to take a couple of pics before it was too dark. We had dinner at Fleur's in Moeraki, a place many folks have recommended - it's a run-down looking place with the best food ever and the fish on the menu were caught that morning! And finally by Friday night we were back at my place. We spent Saturday going to the Farmer's Market, shopping, and Rachel came over for dinner and we made Roasted chicken and vegetables, then we headed to town for a few drinks - the latest Leah stayed up the whole time she was here! Sunday I drove her around for some sight-seeing and then headed to Sandfly Bay for the penguins. There were heaps of sea lions and fur seals so I didn't know if we'd see any penguins. We saw one right away but I was worried that was it until right before dark and two more popped up over the cliff and then another two popped up on the rocks. Leah was so excited and said that was the best experience of the whole trip. And Monday I saw her off at the airport...talk about a whirl-wind of a trip!

Albums and videos will be posted shortly...

Now I'm trying to get back to the swing of normal life. Still haven't been able to infect my fish...argh. But hopefully I screen these snails and find infected ones so I have more parasites to sort out the problems I'm having with the infection procedure.

mmmm, baked goods make problems seem less severe

As I write I'm devouring a chocolate croissant from the corner bakery...it's horrible that these temptations are literally right around the corner. I have cut back on how often I indulge though.

Indiana Jones was great! Very classic and corny and has the same 80's essence of the others. I loved it and so did the 6 others that I went with.

So I'm still problem solving with my experimental infection procedure. I'm now down to using only 5 ml of water (just enough to cover the gills of the little fish but not the dorsal fin) and am trying different numbers of parasites. For the first time I was able to observe the parasites on the outside of the fish...Houston, we have contact!! Woo Hoo! But over 20 hours later many of these parasites are still on the outside of the fish, damnit! They are supposed to get into the fish and I'm not sure if they still will or if the ones that haven't made it in will die on the outside. So now I wait a few days before dissecting the fish and seeing if the infection worked. But there's a problem with needed more parasites to infect a fish...the snails just don't produce that many parasites in a day so I wouldn't be able to get all the fish needed for an experiment infected in a timely manner. That means I need more snails...this has been a problem for a while...I had thought I finally had enough but no. So another PhD student from Indiana is working with the same system. She has collected from areas on the north part of the South Island and found a couple spots with high prevalence (10 and 22% of snails are infected). It just so happens that one of the places is also a study site for a couple other folks in my lab and we are now planning a trip. It's a ways to go and through the mountains and not the best time of year...the pass was closed over the weekend because of weather. So it's looking like I won't have this experiment started before I leave for home...that sucks...but I'd rather wait and be able to have an experiment with a good number of parasites in the fish so I can have solid results (meaning that I want it to be good so I can publish the findings). In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at trying to figure out the infection procedure and start one of my field projects and head back to the genetics lab.

And I've started my training for the half marathon now that basketball is over and I'm not injured most of the time. I've gotten up and been to the gym by 7am 3 times in the last week and gone for a couple runs outside and am heading to pump class tonight. I can tell my body is certainly not used to all this working out...on Saturday, I never even bothered to leave the house...I did some chores and watched Indiana and the last crusade (getting ready for the new one) and Wayne burned Heroes Season 2 so I watched a bunch of those too. But hopefully I can keep at it!

Happy Birthday Tammy!

Welcome to 35!! Ha! Totally wishing I was there to celebrate...9 weeks until I'm home and I can't frickin' wait! For those that don't know, I'll be in MN Jul 24 - Aug 10 and in LA Aug 10-12 before heading back to NZ. I can't even express how excited I am!!

Deanna, Wayne and I had a party Saturday night. We had a great time! We fixed some apps and I couldn't believe how quickly all the food disappeared. Mostly folks from my department came. I was waiting in anticipation of my supervisor showing up so I could talk about my problems with my infection procedure (more to come on this). Most folks cleared out between 12-12:30 and the last handful left around 2am...I was thankful Dee didn't want to cleanup until morning! It didn't take long...lots of recycling and glasses to wash. Wayne and I hung out and watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...a bunch of us girls will be heading to the new one next week. It comes out on Thursday, but Tuesdays are cheap night so it will only cost $9 instead of the normal $12 for a Uni student (yes, the $12 is a discount for students).

I'm in a lull work-wise yesterday and today. Still not getting my experiment started...surprise! Now that I'm working on figuring out the infection procedure, I'm discovering some issues. So first I put my infected snails in an incubator with a light for a couple of hours, this causes the parasites to leave the snails. I pipette up the parasites that are swimming around (problem #1 is that I don't get as many parasites from these snails as I had hoped...means I probably need to go after more snails yet). Then I transfer them to a fluorescent dye solution for 1 hour and then put them through a series of rinses. By the time I'm finished with all of this, most of my parasites have died before I can even get them to a fish. These fish are most likely already naturally infected with this parasite so I have to dye mine so I can distinguish between them. Tomorrow I get to play around with dying them for a shorter time, maybe at a higher concentration (which could also kill them) and learn how to use the fluorescent microscope to look at these guys after I dye them. Also, I'll get to look at one of the fish I've infected to determine if the infection procedure is working at all. In the mean time, I've been shopping with my research budget...getting some glass pipettes and a new keyboard so I can put my laptop on a riser thingee so it's at eye level. And I've been organizing my desk and files and articles and heaps of crap...taking out the recycling...working on the huge reading pile on my desk...

Cheesecake and strong men

So yet another birthday passed yesterday. I had to give a presentation to my department...telling them what I plan to do for my PhD. It went very well and I was quite happy with the talk. Rachel and I went for lunch and I headed home. Folks came over for a potluck last night and we had a good time. Deanna made me cheesecake that was absolutely fantastic! I didn't contribute a thing but there was more than enough food. Other than having boy troubles it was a great day.

Went to my first rugby game on Sat night with most of my lab and others from the department...15 of us in total. We (Highlanders) lost, but it was great to finally have a few rules explained. I find it to be such a strange game but it's THE sport here. I'd love to go to an All Blacks match!

Rules of Rugby video

Still here

Ok, so I didn't die. In fact, playing the entire game was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. But I couldn't play this week cause I hurt my back and was laid up in bed on wednesday...I hear we won and that the other team was a bunch of kids. Been calling home a lot...trying to get my work done so next week I can book my flight home for July. Went to 3:10 to Yuma last weekend...western with Russel Crowe as the bad guy - weird but good. Out for Japanese on Tuesday night and we sat on the floor (on little chair like things without legs) and I think that's what did my back in as it had already been bothering me. Tomorrow is Shannon's birthday...not sure what we're doing - something cheap - but I am cooking him dinner and baking a cake and got him a great present! K, back to work now...

Last posting before possible death on the basketball court...

Where does the time goes? Last week was very busy...out for Thai on Monday, Mexican (again) on Tuesday, Basketball on Wed, went back to Central Otago to collect snails on thursday, Department Happy Hour and hung at Rachel's on Friday and I spent most of Saturday baking so I could warm up the house! I think I will be baking heaps this winter as the houses are frickin' cold here! In the last few days I've made apple pie, wheat bread, roasted winter veggies, cinnamon raisin bread, apple crumble. We've got a couple apple trees so the apple desserts will keep on coming. Research is going great this week. I was worried 'cause we didn't find very many snails last week...where would they go?...but I found plenty of them infected with my parasite species - so YAY, finally I should have enough snails to get my first experiment started...as soon as I can take a break from working on my microsatellite library - which is going well so far...keeping my fingers crossed as I hear it's quite frustrating. Other exciting news: got my hair cut last night! Woo hoo! I'd let it grow out the longest it's been in quite sometime. Crappy news: only 2 of us girls can play basketball tonight (Rachel's in Korea and Kelly is sick) so that means I have to play the whole damn game...hope I don't die! And I'm sick yet again with another sore throat (5th one since moving here).

Sand Fly Bay

Went back to Sand Fly Bay this weekend...Deanna was playing tour guide for a friend of a friend.

Me running down the sand hill...fun to go down, not so much to come back up... you can see the group of folks resting on their way up the hill.


See if you can find the penguin


Now he's moving!


This pair went all the way up the cliff, over it and then came back down closer to the blind.


They hold out their wings to cool off.


Sea lion pair...some tourists were standing there too scared to walk by, as soon as we started to walk by they ran up behind us to walk by with us....wish I would've gotten video of that - funny people behavior!

Noche de Mexicana

So the Mexican night was muy bueno! We had a house full of people,and the food and margaritas were fantastic. I by far drank the most margaritas but then I didn't have to drive anywhere. I was asked how many I drank and I tried to say an uncountable number but it came out as something like "an uncournerble number". Don't think I'll live that one down. Everyone didn't clear out until about midnight and then Dee and I attacked all the dishes...it totally sucks to have a dinner party without a dishwasher! Friday morning I slept in and then walked to school. Our friday seminar was by a parasitologist...he talked about how salmon farming affects the ecology, evolution, virulence of salmon parasites and how that in turn affects the wild salmon populations. After work, we all went to the staff club for drinks. The staff club is this unmarked brick building in the middle of campus that you go in, up the stairs and lo and behold there's a bar for post-grads and staff and faculty. It's cheap too! My glass of wine was about half the price that I'd pay elsewhere. Almost my entire lab went and quite a few others as well. Then Deanna and I headed home for dinner and we watched Rat Race - hilarious. And finally Shannon got home from Wanaka so I headed over there to hang out with him. Yesterday was chore and errand day. Then I headed out to an Irish pub with Rachel and a couple of her friends for some live music - where I discovered that they think a jag bomb is a small shot of jag and an entire can of Red Bull and was $12! Yikes! I didn't stay out long as I heading to the lake this morning to collect more snails. Rebecca and Yuri went with to help so I got many thousands of snails...with a 0.2% prevalence I hope there's some infected ones in there! Tonight I'm trying out yet another of Susanne's recipes - Lamb chops with caramelized onions and couscous - yum!

So what have I been doing with my life for the past week? Umm, lets see...

Well, we lost horribly in basketball last week. So Bryan and I went to the gym on Saturday so he could give some pointers to work on and lo and behold I pulled a muscle in my leg! I thought it was getting better and I jumped rope on Monday and hell, if it didn't start hurting again. It hurts to even walk up the stairs. To say the least, I didn't play tonight but hear we lost anyway...we should've never won that first placement game.

Last Friday was the department happy hour...lots of socializing and food, and drinks were on Robert because we were celebrating Clément turning in his thesis last week! Yay for Clément! Afterwards, the lab went for drinks at one of the Irish pubs, again on Robert. However the night did not end well as I got food poisoning and ended up with the chills so bad I was shaking uncontrollably even though I had fleece on from head to toe and the electric blanket was on high.

Saturday, I met Rebecca at the farmer's market and then headed to work. I spent the entire day working on extracting DNA from cercariae, larval parasite stage which I get from the snails and I also discovered that only 3 out of my 22 infected snails were kicking out parasites...not enough for my experiments damnit so I'll be collecting yet another several thousand snails! Anyway, by 7pm I discover that the extraction did not work...ARRRRGG!! I was crabby and tired and hungry. I was supposed to go to a party and tried to find someone to go with me...no luck and after fixing dinner and showering it was 10pm and I certainly was not in the mood to get ready to go to a party by myself (normally it wouldn't bother me as I would have know a couple people there).

Early Sunday morn, I was awoken by Shannon, who had partied all night long and was on his way to my place...on foot! It is quite a long walk, especially after dancing all night, so being the sweet, loving person I am, I left my toasty, comfy bed to go get him. We spent most of Sunday together until I took him home so he could get ready for working out of town again this week, hopefully for the last week...I'm so looking forward to him being done with that!

I started working on my microsatellite library this week...using DNA from metacercariae I already had prepared (the cercariae DNA was just a back-up plan). So far so good but I'm just in the beginning couple of steps...digesting the DNA into smaller pieces and adding sequences that we know to the ends...

Monday night I went to Rebecca's for dinner...vegetable curry stir-fry - delicious! And after she dyed her hair, I did the highlights...yes, dinner was a bribe! Tuesday night, Dee and I went shopping and prepped for our dinner party tomorrow night. We are having all the Americans in the department over for Mexican. There is like 1 or 2 Mexican restaurants in town and I hear they're not very good. There are 9 of us in the department, including Dee and I, and 3 of us are from MN! So with partners and Wayne, there will be 13 of us for dinner. Deanna's making enchiladas, we'll fix a salad, I'm making Susanne's Avocado and Grape tomato salad again (still have heaps of cherry tomatoes ripening) and margaritas! And even though we told folks not to bring anything, Jen is making home-made salsa and Lisa is making guacamole. Yum! I can't wait for tomorrow!

Kiwis really know how to celebrate Easter!

The good news last week was I finally scored during a basketball game! Woo Hoo! Bryan is the greatest for planning that out for me :) And I'm still eating cod!

Sadly, today is the last day of our 5-day holiday weekend. I haven't been up to much...worked a wee bit and relaxed most of the time. Friday Shannon came over as soon as he got back from working in Wanaka for the week. We hung out and fixed cod again. This time I coated it in flour, then egg, then a breadcrumb seafood mix and boy, was it yummy! Again I fixed potatoes and onions...yes all these potatoes are coming from our garden. And Shannon made the lettuce salads with all types of yummy toppings. Deanna made Self-saucing chocolate pudding (pudding here means cake with a sauce)...it was delicious, and she made it in the microwave - amazing! Saturday morning I spent browsing Susanne's blog and all her wonderful recipes she's been posting for the last couple of years. I was looking for ideas since we had a few pears left that hadn't fallen off the tree and rotted away and our cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen. Saturday night Dee, Kathy and I ordered curry, and using a recipe from Susanne's blog, I roasted the pears with honey, red wine and cinnamon and served with ice cream...roasted pears are way better than I thought they would be! And we watched Pirates 3. Sunday, I made Susanne's Avocado and Grape tomato salad using the cherry tomatoes to accompany some left-over cod, and it was delicious! And yet again Shannon and I talked about going to see the glow worms but ended up watching Casino Royale instead. Oh and I also worked a wee bit on my manuscript. Easter Monday and New Zealand is still in holiday mode...Kristin actually went into the lab and dissected fish - which she should have been doing all weekend... Monday night played poker at Shannon's. And today is Otago Anniversary Day, meaning another holiday! I slept in, did laundry, made deviled eggs for the pot luck and headed to Haseeb and Stephanie's for shark bbq. Yes, that's right, shark. Last weekend there was a local shark fishing tournament and Haseeb was given some of them to dissect for parasites. Well, there were heaps of good meat going to waste so Haseeb kept some to bbq. They cut off the tail behind the dorsal fin and slice for steaks. Shark tissue is full of ammonia and urea so you have to soak it for a day in salt water and lemon (or milk or salt water and vinegar). Then Haseeb did all these different types of marinades that I can't even begin to describe how good they all were. And we tried blue shark, 7-gill shark, dog fish and taupe shark. Shark meat has the consistency of a steak...much firmer than you'd expect and the 7-gill was very firm. It's been a great holiday weekend - relaxing and eating - but I have heaps of work waiting for me...

Best day in NZ yet!

So Saturday I went cod fishing with my flatmate (Wayne), 3 labmates (Clément, Rachel, Dave) and another post-grad (Bryan). We had a fabulous time, well everybody but Bryan who got seasick. We fished off a reef about 40 meters deep. Just as your line reached the bottom they were nibbling at the bait and with 2 hooks per line we were reeling 'em in like crazy! And from 40 meters it seems like you're reeling in forever. We mainly caught blue cod, but also some Jock Stewart perch (aka sea perch), trumpeter, tarakihi, pink wrasse, parrot fish and a red cod. Sorry to say I was either too busy fishing or taking pics of birds and thus did not take very many pictures of the fish (photo album on right). The birds were incredible even though no Royal Albatross showed up. The bird list: NZ White-capped mollymawk, Buller's mollymawk, Cape pigeon, Sooty shearwater, Black-backed gull, Red-billed gull, White-fronted tern, Artic skua, Black shag, Spotted shag. To top it off, dolphins showed up and since it was my first time seeing them in the wild, our guide marked our spot, pulled anchor and drove along with the dolphins for awhile. I climbed around to the bow and took video of them swimming under and along the boat. It was incredible! There were Bottlenose and Dusky dolphins. Glad to say I did not get seasick...I didn't take any thing cause I wanted to find out if I would. And driving a jet boat was pretty cool...you have to anticipate the boat drifting in one direction and turn the wheel the opposite way...takes a minute to get the hang of it and if you over compensate then you keeping zig-zagging back and forth. I've had cod for almost every meal since. Saturday lunch Wayne and I fried some in butter. Then for dinner I fried the cod in butter and made potatoes and onions and a lettuce salad for me and Shannon...he says it's the best tea (Kiwi for dinner) he's had in ages. Amazingly there were enough left-overs for Sunday and Monday lunches. And Sunday night I coated a couple fillets in egg and cracker crumbs and fried them. Our guide said it's best to wait a few days before battering them as they're just too wet...so I'll try that tomorrow night (going out for St. Paddy's tonight). I'm over my homesickness now!

I know there are a lot of videos but most of them are quite short.

Clément catching a trumpeter and a pink wrasse. See how long it takes to reel in from 40m!


NZ White-capped Mollymawks going after the fish we throw back


Bottlenose and Dusky dolphins


You can see the dolphins swimming under the water


Our guide filleting the fish...video taping made him nervous so this was Take 2


Filleting a Jock Stewart perch


Birds flying around the boat as scraps from filleting were thrown out


Me driving the jet boat

Where to begin?

Research has been keeping me overwhelmingly busy. I've been quite stressed about it as someone is waiting for me to be ready so she can train me on developing my microsatellite library. I haven't been ready cause we thought I might be dealing with 2 species...which might still be the case but we can't say for certain...regardless I had to go collect more fish on Saturday and start dissecting them for the trematodes so I can try to collect one kind out of the two genetic lines to redo my DNA extraction for the library. Now I find out that Tania isn't waiting on me so I can stop being so damn stressed about it and maybe take a wee bit of time off. So I'm thinking I might take this afternoon off...I'm participating in my friend's son's school geography project. He sent me a paper doll, Flat Stanley, who is vacationing with me and I'm "showing" Flat Stanley around and taking pictures and what not. I might take him out to the peninsula today (if its nice out and I can get out of working) so I can get photos printed and send him back. I'll put a photo album up in a couple of days. I had my first basketball game ever last week...we won but I didn't score any points and since everybody else has played before I am by far the worse player on the team...oh, well, it was fun. Other than that, I've still been feeling a bit homesick...it takes so much effort to make new friends and since I've been working so damn hard I just haven't had the energy. It's doesn't help that Shannon and I got into an argument this weekend, which is still unresolved...arguing through texting is not good.

Poaching

Newsweek article on poaching to fund militias

The ups and downs of research, or just the downs

The semester started last week and even though I'm not taking classes, my schedule became a bit more hectic. First, I don't have enough infected snails to start my experiment...that means another trip to central otago for more snails. But before that, since Devon (one of the post-docs) clearly stated he thinks I might be working with 2 species instead of one, I spent most of my week and evenings not only going through snails but also getting some DNA ready to be sent off for sequencing so that we can hopefully figure out what it is I'm working with - one or two and do they both have 2 life cycle strategies or does one do one and the other do the second stragtey - depending on what comes back my project might stay the same, might change a little or the whole thing may be shot to hell and I'll have to figure out what else I want to do. So waiting on those results now...in the meantime I'll hopefully be getting more snails tuesday (was supposed to go today but the weather is crappy) and waiting to find out the sequencing results. And now that the semester started, there's speakers and meetings and training for this and that so it was one hell of a week. Ooo, me and couple other Americans in my department went for KFC and then doughnuts this week. I have to say that KFC was quite disappointing as there was no extra crispy recipe, everything came with fries (chips here) and if you asked for potatoes and gravy they came in these tiny serving. The doughnuts were good...not Krispy Kreme good, but good. I've let my research go for the weekend since it's pouring outside and my field day was cancelled today. Friday night Shannon and I hung out and played poker late into the night. Most of Saturday I was a bum - lounging and napping. And then went to a party Sat. night with Rebecca. Today, Dee and her weekend company fixed an American pancake breakfast (yeah, that's right, even the pancakes are different here). Breakfast was great and we sat around all morning drinking coffee and chatting. I doubt I'll work today...it is Sunday...

Mt Cargill at Night

Shannon and I tried to catch the sunset at Mt Cargill last night but the sun was behind clouds when we got there. My pics didn't really turn out as there was not enough light and too windy for me to use a slower shutter speed. In the video the harbor and peninsula are behind Shannon and then there's a quick view of Dunedin right before getting to the tower and my truck.

Yay for infected snails!

Finally I have enough infected snails to start my experiments. After heading back to Chatto Creek on thursday (new album on right), I came back with heaps of snails and thus far have found 9 more infected snails for a total of 12. And I have a few more yet to screen. This made my day as I'm homesick as ever today! My friends backed out on going out this eve so heading to Shannon's now.

Sad news

I talked to my mom this morning and her good friend, Dick, died Thursday morning. She seems to be ok...he was in pain from lung cancer and it is for the best. But it has left me feeling very homesick today and just missing everyone at home.

Busy and exhausted

So I've decided to do a half-marathon in Sept and thus have started focusing a working out this week...Monday night pump class, Tuesday a jog on the beach, Wednesday shooting hoops (as I've also signed up for our department basketball team, which I've never done before), Thursday was a field day - long and lots of driving - and spent a couple of nights hanging out with Shannon, the night owl. So that leads to an exhausted Kristin by Friday. And I have so much work to be doing that I will be working the entire weekend - checking all these snails for parasites, working in the genetics lab and cranking out another draft of my manuscript.

Students are back for O-week, two weeks of partying starting the week before classes. So they are everywhere! Damn they are so young! I've also agreed to be a demonstrator (what they call teaching assistant) this semester for Behavioral Evolutionary Ecology, a third (and final) year course...my supervisor asked me so I really couldn't say no. For the most part it will require me supervising 2-3 groups that work on freshwater parasite projects, which should be heaps of fun!

2 Americans and an Aussie sitting in a tub...

So last tuesday Rachel from my lab took me to a bunch of her study sites for me to collect snails as I've been unable to find ones infected with my study parasite. So we drove to Central Otago (inland area of my region) and collected snails from 6 streams (well, only 5 cause there were no snails to be found in one of them) on farmer's land. Sheep country. In the pic there's a boy on a 4 wheeler and a couple of dogs herding sheep down the road. The farmers are very wary over letting people in their streams...water right issues...so we have to stop and chat with each one before wading in.



I brought back heaps of snails (couple thousand-ish) and found 3 infected snails...luckily all from the same stream. So WOO HOO I finally have a source to infect fish with! So I'll be heading back to this creek to collect a few thousand more just from here so I can get my 10-20 infected snails.

Yesterday, I met Rebecca at the farmer's market as her car broke down there. AA came and push started her to drive to the mechanic. I stopped to check my snails, then on to the mechanics where Rebecca had stalled in the drive and they needed another person to push to start it again to get it inside. Went over to Rebecca's for dinner last night...she was making me a tofu dish...the stir-fry was good, the tofu not bad, the best that I've tried I guess. In the meanwhile, I had left my lights on so when trying to leave to come back to my place for a hot tub we had to call AA again to come jump my truck. Chilly evening to be waiting 45 mins for the guy to show up. Finally back to my place...Deanna has an old bath tub in the back yard which she starts a fire under and you have a hot bath...it's awesome...incredibly hot so you have to keep adding cold water and sit on a board so you don't burn your bum. Rebecca, Dee and I took turns. Ahhhhhhhh...

Rippon Pics

Me, Lisa, Rachel, Deanna and Tania


My most remarkable I'm-loving-NZ moment thus far - really, how lucky am I?


The crowd


Hot as and we're looking at a glacier

Blah, it's Monday

It's one of those I-really-don't-feel-like-working Mondays! Friday night I went out with Rachel, her brother and her flatmates for a wonderful dinner and then out to the pubs and clubs. The flatmates petered out early but Rachel, Paul and I finally grabbed a cab at 4am. We had a really good time...the bars were quiet (school hasn't started yet) but that just meant more room on the dance floor. The dance floors were unusually male-dominated...at one point I was the only female on the dance floor 'cause Rachel was in the bathroom. Her brother is quite the entertaining storyteller and had all of us girls laughing most of the night. I spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with Shannon and exploring a bit of Dunedin...it was very cloudy so no great views of the city yet. Deanna and I got Thai and watched movies Sat eve. And I was mostly a bum on Sunday...did a little shopping, Rebecca came over and we watched Raiders of the Lost Arc, and new episodes of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy are finally on here!

Waitangi Day

It's been a great week after coming back from the music festival. Spent monday night with Shannon...hanging out, seeing his place which is a total bachelor pad but well picked up for me. Tuesday I got 3 boxes from my mom packed full of things from my closet along with some new things. And I pretty much took the day off, doing laundry and bedding, putting all my new (or old) things away, hitting the supermarket, etc. Wednesday was another day off since it was a public holiday, Waitangi Day, which celebrates the signing of the treaty between the Maori and the settlers and ending war between them. Rebecca, Rachel and I spent it at the beach...it was beautiful we walked along the beach, had lunch, laid out on the beach and actually spent a good 15 minutes in the ocean...screaming every time a wave hit us...I wanted to get out after 3 mins but Rachel insisted it was just getting good - meaning your legs are just starting to get numb - and sure enough a couple more minutes and it wasn't so bad...we got knocked over by a few of the big ones and it was loads of fun. The guys next to us were arguing whether we were American or Irish and once they asked they figured out they were both right. Then we headed back to my place to BBQ, which entails starting an actual fire in our outdoor brick oven with a long grill over the top...we had potatoes and onions and sausages. Today was back to work...is it Thursday already?! Ha! And even took off early to meet Ralph (the guy I almost flatted with) for beers. Tomorrow eve I'm going out for a fancy dinner and drinking with Rachel and her brother who is visiting for the weekend (he's traveling in Australia right now visiting his girlfriend and making a quick trip here to see Rachel)...so we'll see if I can keep up the Irish...

Lake Wanaka the day after the Rippon Festival

Bird pics from Tomahawk Lagoon

RIPPON '08

oh, it was absolutely fantastic! got up to the house friday night...it was a beautiful 4 bedroom house. had margaritas and the first group of us were in bed before the second group even arrived. the concert was great, at a vineyard, looking at the stage with the lake behind it and mountains all around...BEAUTIFUL! A few of the others were being all judgemental about the bands, but I was absolutely in awe of the scenery and that I so lucky to be at such an awesome concert in NZ...did I mention how beautiful it was?! Music started at 11 am and the last band came on at 11 pm. Music was great, wine was great...we drank too much early on and then didn't drink at all in the evening. it was hot. Surprisingly, I only danced a bit...with one of the girls during the day, but then she got heat stroke and ended up having to go back to the house. I did stand up and dance on our tarp...mostly cause my hind-end hurt so bad from sitting all day. And finally Luke wanted to go to the dance floor (I found out later that he also had wanted to go up there earlier). My favorites were the first one, Anika Moa and then a band called Shapeshifter and the second to last band, Kora, which is the one Luke and I went to the dance floor for. The last band was ok...very different from the rest of the bands, much more hard rock, loud with lots of smoke that was making me sick, but it was the only band that I knew one of the songs as it's played on the rock station here. I'm proud to say we made it through all the bands...the rest of us girls left before the encore of the last band. on sunday, we had breakfast, cleaned the house, had coffee in town, drove around town and went down to the lake where Dee showed off her rock skipping skills and where as my rocks made one single plunk right into the water as usual. I'll get pics up later. On the way home we stopped for ice cream blended with real fruit, and then stopped at one of my favorite wineries from that wine tour I went on...Black Ridge, where the owner is a real story teller...we tasted all 10 wines and between 4 of us we bought a case...I bought 3 bottles...did I mention I'm broke?! ha! they are really cheap wines comparatively so how could I pass them up? got back to Dunedin and I was starving since we only had ice cream and wine for lunch so Dee and I picked up Burger King on the way home...my first fast food in NZ...whopper with cheese value meal...the only thing different is the size of the pop was a bit smaller. What a fantastic weekend!
http://www.ripponfestival.co.nz/

My lab group

Here we all are in our brand-new t-shirts!
Back row L to R: Haseeb, Robert (my supervisor), Rachel, David, Tommy, Devon
Front row L to R: me, Kim (who will be leaving us on Friday), Clément, Dave

Another exhausted Monday

I'm wiped out...but it was a fantastic weekend. And it's official...I am now a PADI Open Water diver. My 4 open water dives went well. Most of the skills were easy. The visibility was about 3 meters and it wasn't as cold as I had expected it to be. I about died after getting all the gear and weights on and then walking down the damn rocks to the water on Saturday...I didn't do that on Sunday...the boys - or maybe just Shannon - carried all my crap for me except I carried my own weights on the way down. I got to see fish, star fish (one with 10 arms) and a dead octopus. We dived around a wreck so that was fun to go through...lots of sponges and barnacles and kelp. Saturday was Australia Day and I went to Rebecca's for a bbq. Sunday I came home to flatmates! - Deanna's been housing-sitting for over a month and Wayne's been at his girlfriends for a couple of weeks...I've liked having the flat to myself but it was great to hear voices when I walked in yesterday. Deanna made dinner and the three of us ate together. Then Shannon came over and we hung out and watched tv. This pic is from Sunday when we were all through...6 students, 3 instructors and 3 divemasters working on becoming instructors. I'm on my tip-toes, with Shannon next to me in the middle, and my main instructor, Tracey, is the one that's half-hidden on the other side of me.

Not working too hard this week...

Spent the last couple of days not doing a whole lot of work. Catching up on laundry and errands and rest was about it. Yesterday, I stayed home to work...never got to the working part...I slept in, cooked breakfast and called bunches of people back home since it was MLK day. Then I had my last pool dive last night. It went well. My hovering is good, well, for a beginner anyway. Since my feet are extra floaty, this time I started out sitting so I was in a reclined-Lazy-boy-position rather than the full head stand. Then we had to do skin diving - scary...you get used to having air down there and then they take it away! Skin diving is just your suit, weights, mask, snorkel and fins. My first try was decent but didn't have quite enough air to clear water out of my snorkel when I came back up. Second try was way worse and third was inbetween the first two. But the fourth was awesome - I did it perfectly - probably a combination of getting comfortable with it and getting the technique down. So now it's just the 4 open water dives...hopefully the weather will be good this weekend and we can get to it! I'm looking forward to it but am a little anxious about it as well. After dive class last night, I headed over to Julie's to say chao since she was leaving early this morning. Had tea and ice cream with her and Rebecca and hung out for a bit. She will be missed...it will be quiet around here without her!

Living, eating, breathing Scuba diving

Good thing learning to dive is exhilarating cause I'm absolutely exhausted! We did all the classroom stuff Sat and Sun mornings and spent both afternoons in the pool learning new skills. I had a hard time with not taking water in through my nose when I was completely filling my mask with water and removing it for an entire minute until being able to put it back on. Part of the problem was that they removed weights from me so I was more floaty and couldn't stay under (the top of my mask was above the surface so I had a hard time filling it). But I did that lots more on Sunday and was able to easily swim without my mask on (with the instructor guiding me cause I can't stand keeping my eyes open in the chlorine water). Still don't have my buoyancy under control...I did hover yesterday which was hilarious...my feet are way more floaty than the rest of me (thinking I'm gonna need some ankle weights) so when I hover in mid-water completely relaxed, my feet float up. So there I was in mid-water, doing a headstand, but they'd stuck an extra weight in one of my pockets so one side of me was heavier so the headstand was at an angle. It was fun being upside down; I just gotta learn how to control it better. Another pool session on tuesday night, and then, weather permitting, we'll be out in the ocean all next weekend. Communicating anything other than with the usual hand signals under water is difficult, and I'm proud that I made a "joke" with my actions and made one of the assistant instructors laugh so he had to clear his mask. I forget that I'm the one with the accent around here since I'm always working hard to understand what Kiwis are saying and what their words/phrases mean. Togs = swim suit; sweet as = good, great, awesome; and many things I'm starting to figure out what they mean but couldn't spell the word properly. Leaving the dive center yesterday, one of my instructors commented on the wind, I complained that it must be Dunedin and his response was "well, you couldn't have been here very long with that accent." Oh yeah, I'm the one with the accent, not him. Most people like my accent and want to know where I'm from, as they can't tell whether I'm American or Canadian and a good chunk have no clue where MN is.

Saturday evening was Julie's going-away party...she was here for 3-months as a research assistant...maybe she'll be back for her PhD before the end of the year... Anyway, the potluck was great - especially since I was starving after the diving class - and Julie and her friends held a Capoeira holda for their fun and our entertainment. Capoeira is the Brazilian martial arts-music-dance combination. They were pretty awesome...wish I would had my camera to take some video but Tommy gave me copies of his pics.

Sideways air flip


Julie and another doing head stands


Julie fighting this scrawny boy


My supervisor, Robert, playing with the musical instrument like he knows what he's doing