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. :)