So, the number of times I have signed in to blogger, opened a new post, and then typed nothing since my last post is... four. I have been really busy, but nothing seems interesting enough to put on a blog. But it's your fault for reading this, so SUFFER!
1) Threadless t-shirts were nine dollars yesterday for 09/09/09. The title of this post comes from this shirt: http://typetees.threadless.com/product/1840/Geology_n_Physics_The_original_rock_n_roll
2) I was interrupted between items (1) and (2), as you can see by the fact that yesterday was not 09/09/09, and have no idea what item (2) was supposed to be.
3) I joined water polo, which is heaps of fun! Actually, funny story, I am all kinds of sore today, but that is related to
4) I'm on an intramural soccer team. I know, right!? Plot twist! Lisa + Team Sports = Big Disaster. But Talor (structure graduate student) really wanted to play soccer and needed more people (specifically girls). We had a practice yesterday because Julia and I had never played before (except for the occasional fencing scrimmage). So, water polo on Thursday made my arms and legs sore. Strangely, though I've never been sore from fencing (stiff, yes, sore, no), starting sore made me end even MORE sore. So now my legs are like, hurrrrrgh. Then I went to soccer which made everything else that wasn't sore sore. But it's the good kind of sore, so that's okay. I scored a goal yesterday! Actually, it was pretty funny. We started with a scrimmage. Julia and I were pretty bad. We practiced passing and some other stuff. Then we scrimmaged again. We were four against three, Julia and I on a team with probably the best player, though it's hard to tell at this point. It seemed silly to not only put Julia and me on the same team but to also put us on the three person team. But they must have known what they were doing because Julia scored a goal straightaway, and then five minutes later, I scored a goal. I maybe scored another goal at the end, but the goal consisted of a water bottle and a shoe, so it was questionable whether or not the goal was too high. We have our first game on Thursday. I will be jelly for that game, since I am going directly from water polo.
5) The All Blacks lost the Tri-Nations. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to cry about it.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Mystery Party - to the moon and back
So, after the mystery party, I always go through this stage that is like, "No more mystery party... murrrrr." Even though it is crazy hectic and sometimes a little bit stressful, when it's all over, there's just this lull. So, to celebrate a successful mystery party, here are some highlights from the mystery parties Shalom and I have written together. I'm not giving any context, so I apologise if they are really confusing. I find them really entertaining, but then... I helped write them.
Erin as Olive de Bois, 2006: I saw Max ninja Shalom to death! Hi-yah!
Max as Kilroy Kilstein, 2006: [Perform a random act of Ninjaness on Devon.]
Devon as Alcid Aves, 2006: Brother Cornelius told me that Erin killed Shalom! Puffins don’t lie!
From Matt's final reveal as Don Morto, 2006: He cannot take time out of his busy schedule to off every KGB member that comes his way.
From Max's final reveal as Kilroy Kilstein, 2006: Martinis_for_Jesus1500 had to die. ... Sensing danger with his ninja intuition, Max quickly jumped atop his refrigerator.
Ethan as Freddy, 2007: Luke... I am your brother.
From Matt's final reveal as Lucas R. Naught, 2007: Luke, miserable and confused, drank enough to inebriate a blue whale.
Heather as ViVi, 2007: Between him and Scarlet, your art is selling like tickets to a talkie.
Erin as Madame Violet, 2007: You always thought you and Arthur had a supernatural connection.
From Erin's final reveal as Madame Violet, 2007: Shocked at what she had done, Violet nursed the doll back to health as best she could. [yes, a voodoo doll :)]
From my final reveal as Scarlet White, 2007: She was Arthur’s right-hand girl, but, unfortunately for Scarlet, Arthur was left-handed.
Jordan as Jordan, 2009: Grant, are you wearing underwear right now?
Grant as Grant, 2009: They stole the stamp with my signature on it and I think they are forging documents!
Matt as Matt, 2009: In some ancient cultures, it is considered respectful to eat the dead because then their strength and wisdom become part of you. Like a Jedi. Devon will always be with you.
Grant as Grant, 2009: One day, you will be the Phantom Smile!
And last but not least, my favourite, from a clue, Ethan to Erin, 2009:
Erin as Olive de Bois, 2006: I saw Max ninja Shalom to death! Hi-yah!
Max as Kilroy Kilstein, 2006: [Perform a random act of Ninjaness on Devon.]
Devon as Alcid Aves, 2006: Brother Cornelius told me that Erin killed Shalom! Puffins don’t lie!
From Matt's final reveal as Don Morto, 2006: He cannot take time out of his busy schedule to off every KGB member that comes his way.
From Max's final reveal as Kilroy Kilstein, 2006: Martinis_for_Jesus1500 had to die. ... Sensing danger with his ninja intuition, Max quickly jumped atop his refrigerator.
Ethan as Freddy, 2007: Luke... I am your brother.
From Matt's final reveal as Lucas R. Naught, 2007: Luke, miserable and confused, drank enough to inebriate a blue whale.
Heather as ViVi, 2007: Between him and Scarlet, your art is selling like tickets to a talkie.
Erin as Madame Violet, 2007: You always thought you and Arthur had a supernatural connection.
From Erin's final reveal as Madame Violet, 2007: Shocked at what she had done, Violet nursed the doll back to health as best she could. [yes, a voodoo doll :)]
From my final reveal as Scarlet White, 2007: She was Arthur’s right-hand girl, but, unfortunately for Scarlet, Arthur was left-handed.
Jordan as Jordan, 2009: Grant, are you wearing underwear right now?
Grant as Grant, 2009: They stole the stamp with my signature on it and I think they are forging documents!
Matt as Matt, 2009: In some ancient cultures, it is considered respectful to eat the dead because then their strength and wisdom become part of you. Like a Jedi. Devon will always be with you.
Grant as Grant, 2009: One day, you will be the Phantom Smile!
And last but not least, my favourite, from a clue, Ethan to Erin, 2009:
Promise me you'll think about it. Roman may have wealth, land, two handsome children, and a huge amount of trust in your fidelity, but my love is to the moon and back! And I don't mean Earth's moon, I mean Charon, the moon of Pluto. So. Think about it.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
New Zealand
"Nu Zeelind is ruled by Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement (leaders of the political party Flight of the Conchords') who demand to be called the Hiphoppopotamus and the Rhymenoceros (reverent titles in the New Zealish language)."
From the Uncyclopedia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/New_zealand
Because I cannot let go of New Zealand. I would check out the New Zealand alphabet, under Language, and Rugby, under Sport.
"Technological exports include: 1. Conchords."
From the Uncyclopedia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/New_zealand
Because I cannot let go of New Zealand. I would check out the New Zealand alphabet, under Language, and Rugby, under Sport.
"Technological exports include: 1. Conchords."
Monday, August 17, 2009
Five Hundred
PARTY PEOPLE!!!
Guess what I just found out!? My uncles both know how to play 500 because they grew up playing it on Kauai!!! Apparently the boys of the west side of Kauai all played 500 and the east side played Trumps. Hahaha!
In related news, on Shalom's last night in Juneau, she, Grant, Devon, and I played 500 for almost five hours. Because we are cool.
Well, that's all, I just wanted to share that strangeness...When I encountered 500 in New Zealand, I did NOT expect it to be originated from the United States! I figured that, like everything else in New Zealand, it originated from somewhere in Europe. But no, according to Wikipedia, it was invented in 1904 by the U.S. Playing Card Company! When Bridge was invented, 500 was phased out in America but is still popular in Australia, New Zealand, and French Canada.
Also, apparently the two jacks are not called the left and right hand "bows" or "boughs," as I thought, but "boweRs!" That's what happens when you learn words from Kiwis :p Also the same with gaffer tape... I thought it was "gaffa tape" until I saw it written.
Although, Nick spells it "bow." Do we trust Nicknick? Actually, he makes a fair point... "Bower," even in New Zealand English, would end in a schwa. Maybe it is just a word evolution and it has actually become "bow."
If you don't know how to play 500, ask me when you see me and we will play. It. Is. Awesome.
Unrelated, but Tasman v. Canterbury Air New Zealand Cup game this weekend!!! GO CANTERBURY! Sorry, Nick, but you know where my loyalty lies :) They are playing in Christchurch. Who has two thumbs and wishes she could go to the game!?!? THIS GIRL!
Okay, all, thanks for reading, I'll see you next time.
Guess what I just found out!? My uncles both know how to play 500 because they grew up playing it on Kauai!!! Apparently the boys of the west side of Kauai all played 500 and the east side played Trumps. Hahaha!
In related news, on Shalom's last night in Juneau, she, Grant, Devon, and I played 500 for almost five hours. Because we are cool.
Well, that's all, I just wanted to share that strangeness...When I encountered 500 in New Zealand, I did NOT expect it to be originated from the United States! I figured that, like everything else in New Zealand, it originated from somewhere in Europe. But no, according to Wikipedia, it was invented in 1904 by the U.S. Playing Card Company! When Bridge was invented, 500 was phased out in America but is still popular in Australia, New Zealand, and French Canada.
Also, apparently the two jacks are not called the left and right hand "bows" or "boughs," as I thought, but "boweRs!" That's what happens when you learn words from Kiwis :p Also the same with gaffer tape... I thought it was "gaffa tape" until I saw it written.
Although, Nick spells it "bow." Do we trust Nicknick? Actually, he makes a fair point... "Bower," even in New Zealand English, would end in a schwa. Maybe it is just a word evolution and it has actually become "bow."
If you don't know how to play 500, ask me when you see me and we will play. It. Is. Awesome.
Unrelated, but Tasman v. Canterbury Air New Zealand Cup game this weekend!!! GO CANTERBURY! Sorry, Nick, but you know where my loyalty lies :) They are playing in Christchurch. Who has two thumbs and wishes she could go to the game!?!? THIS GIRL!
Okay, all, thanks for reading, I'll see you next time.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
FML
I would just like to share this post to FML:
Today, I literally stopped traffic. I was crossing the street and a butterfly landed on me. Being phobic of butterflies, I had a panic attack in the middle of the road. Oh, and I am 17, captain of our football team, and in very good shape. My girlfriend laughed the hardest. FML
In other news, the mystery party was AMAZING! I... don't think that any of them actually have this address, but all the same, thank you to Erin for hosting and playing, Matt, Jordan, Grant, and Heather for playing, Shane for doing an awesome job filling in, and of course Shalom for being an awesome co-creator and -writer! It's too bad Mac couldn't be there to fill his own role, but I understand completely. Ethan showed up to his own murder, and Shane actually cracked the case at the end! For those of you curious, it was Heather with the gun in the janitor's closet.
Now that the mystery party is over, I'm a little bit at loose ends until Monday, when Transparent Devices reopens. I leave next Sunday. I hope someone with a car wants to go to Chipotle, because the IES group has made me soooo curious about it, and Chipotle just opened in Rochester! Also I hope someone with a car picks me up at the airport... I should really look into that.
I MISS NEW ZEALAND! I've been watching Flight of the Conchords ALL the time, and I don't know if that makes it better or worse! On the plus side, I've figured out how to fold toilet paper, so. That's all for now, bye-o!
Today, I literally stopped traffic. I was crossing the street and a butterfly landed on me. Being phobic of butterflies, I had a panic attack in the middle of the road. Oh, and I am 17, captain of our football team, and in very good shape. My girlfriend laughed the hardest. FML
In other news, the mystery party was AMAZING! I... don't think that any of them actually have this address, but all the same, thank you to Erin for hosting and playing, Matt, Jordan, Grant, and Heather for playing, Shane for doing an awesome job filling in, and of course Shalom for being an awesome co-creator and -writer! It's too bad Mac couldn't be there to fill his own role, but I understand completely. Ethan showed up to his own murder, and Shane actually cracked the case at the end! For those of you curious, it was Heather with the gun in the janitor's closet.
Now that the mystery party is over, I'm a little bit at loose ends until Monday, when Transparent Devices reopens. I leave next Sunday. I hope someone with a car wants to go to Chipotle, because the IES group has made me soooo curious about it, and Chipotle just opened in Rochester! Also I hope someone with a car picks me up at the airport... I should really look into that.
I MISS NEW ZEALAND! I've been watching Flight of the Conchords ALL the time, and I don't know if that makes it better or worse! On the plus side, I've figured out how to fold toilet paper, so. That's all for now, bye-o!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Mystery Party
Hello,
In anticipation of the mystery party on Thursday, I am going to briefly outline what it is we do. When I was in high school, my group of friends went through all of these "How to Host a Murder Mystery" games. They are written for eight people to play eight suspects. Each character is given information that incriminates themselves (conceals) and information that incriminates the others (reveals). When the group has played through all four rounds of information, there are accusations, and then all is revealed. They have themes, like Ancient Roman or Wild West. But we long ago finished all of the professionally made ones.
So Shalom and I wrote our own three years ago. It took place in present day Juneau. We wrote it for Erin, Matt, Max, Lindsay, and Devon with Shalom (Sasha Milovski) as the victim. The next year, we wrote a mystery for Erin, Ethan, Matt, Heather, Grant, Shalom, and me that took place in the 20s on a yacht with Devon (Arthur Sinclair III) as the victim. We took a year off because I didn't come back until after Shalom left for New Zealand. So now we're back! This year, the theme is Class of 2006 ten year high school reunion. Our players are Erin, Heather, Mac, Matt, Grant, Jordan, Shalom, and me, and the victim is Ethan.
I'll let you know how it goes!
In anticipation of the mystery party on Thursday, I am going to briefly outline what it is we do. When I was in high school, my group of friends went through all of these "How to Host a Murder Mystery" games. They are written for eight people to play eight suspects. Each character is given information that incriminates themselves (conceals) and information that incriminates the others (reveals). When the group has played through all four rounds of information, there are accusations, and then all is revealed. They have themes, like Ancient Roman or Wild West. But we long ago finished all of the professionally made ones.
So Shalom and I wrote our own three years ago. It took place in present day Juneau. We wrote it for Erin, Matt, Max, Lindsay, and Devon with Shalom (Sasha Milovski) as the victim. The next year, we wrote a mystery for Erin, Ethan, Matt, Heather, Grant, Shalom, and me that took place in the 20s on a yacht with Devon (Arthur Sinclair III) as the victim. We took a year off because I didn't come back until after Shalom left for New Zealand. So now we're back! This year, the theme is Class of 2006 ten year high school reunion. Our players are Erin, Heather, Mac, Matt, Grant, Jordan, Shalom, and me, and the victim is Ethan.
I'll let you know how it goes!
Friday, July 31, 2009
VERY EXCITING NEWS
OKAY. So this won't be exciting to everyone. But. I had not seen Arthur for a long while, having missed it last Friday (the only day I'm home at three PM), and I think the Friday before that, too. So, today I watched it for the first time in a long while. The opening comes on, and it's Buster returning from outer space... DOES ANYONE ELSE KNOW THIS OPENING??? It's the opening to Buster's Back. Most of you probably know that Arthur episodes come in twos. Two fifteen minute episodes. So every episode has a partner. Buster's Back's partner is... THE BALLAD OF BUSTER BAXTER!!! IN TEN MINUTES, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER BAXTER IS GOING TO BE ON!!! Talk about luck!
It's my favourite episode ever!!! Although, this episode is pretty great, too. "Pip pip, cheerio, crumpets!" Also, I love it when he shows up on the elephant. Also, Arthur's parents are watching a speed knitting competition. Also, I love Arthur. This show is amazing. I love Arthur's trash can. It's blue and there's a space ship on it. Okay, before I dig myself into any more holes here, I'm going to end this post. This episode is over, so Art Garfunkel the singing moose is on his way. Bye for now!
It's my favourite episode ever!!! Although, this episode is pretty great, too. "Pip pip, cheerio, crumpets!" Also, I love it when he shows up on the elephant. Also, Arthur's parents are watching a speed knitting competition. Also, I love Arthur. This show is amazing. I love Arthur's trash can. It's blue and there's a space ship on it. Okay, before I dig myself into any more holes here, I'm going to end this post. This episode is over, so Art Garfunkel the singing moose is on his way. Bye for now!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Reentry
Can I do that? Can I name two posts the same thing? I'm going to try it! I'm going for it! Pushing the limits! LIVIN' ON THE EDGE!!!
Okay, sorry. No, I just wanted to add, really briefly, and this is going to be an overshare, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fold American toilet paper. In New Zealand, the sheets are skinnier and longer, so three sheets can be nicely folded into four, which confused me at first because that involves not folding on the lines. But HERE, the sheets are really fat (haha, America...), and they're square. So yes fold on the lines, but then you end up with this toilet paper that seems ginormous to me. I do not remember this being a dilemma before...
So. Hi.
Okay, sorry. No, I just wanted to add, really briefly, and this is going to be an overshare, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fold American toilet paper. In New Zealand, the sheets are skinnier and longer, so three sheets can be nicely folded into four, which confused me at first because that involves not folding on the lines. But HERE, the sheets are really fat (haha, America...), and they're square. So yes fold on the lines, but then you end up with this toilet paper that seems ginormous to me. I do not remember this being a dilemma before...
So. Hi.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Reentry
So before we left New Zealand, Eunice gave us this whole talk on reentry and how it might suck. Well, it doesn't suck quite as much as all that, although I do get madly "homesick" for New Zealand (New Zealandsick?) at times.
However, I do spend a fair bit of time wondering why we don't have outlets that switch on and off. I still look right first before crossing the street or pulling out at an intersection, so I just have to look every which way several times before going anywhere! I've finally started moving to the righthand side of the stairs at work when I'm going up and someone else is coming down (or vice versa), but my gut instinct is still to move to the left when I encounter someone on the sidewalk. I've stopped saying "tea" for "dinner," but I still type with the British S and U. I sometimes say "zed." I have nearly remastered Fahrenheit temperatures and am in fact losing my Celsius conversions rather rapidly. There was a little overlap period in there during which I had no concept of temperature at all.
I think that as long as I am in Juneau, which is beautiful like New Zealand, I will be okay. As for reentry to Rochester... that is entirely a different kettle of fish.
You know, I never went to that little bookstore that had a pottery section. Well, I guess I'll just have to go back!
For those of you still following, 1) I'm impressed, and 2) the All Blacks beat the Wallabies last week, 22-16 in Auckland! They next play (possibly tomorrow?) in South Africa against the Springboks. Right now is tri-nations, which means they'll just be playing Australia and South Africa for a while.
That's all for now!
However, I do spend a fair bit of time wondering why we don't have outlets that switch on and off. I still look right first before crossing the street or pulling out at an intersection, so I just have to look every which way several times before going anywhere! I've finally started moving to the righthand side of the stairs at work when I'm going up and someone else is coming down (or vice versa), but my gut instinct is still to move to the left when I encounter someone on the sidewalk. I've stopped saying "tea" for "dinner," but I still type with the British S and U. I sometimes say "zed." I have nearly remastered Fahrenheit temperatures and am in fact losing my Celsius conversions rather rapidly. There was a little overlap period in there during which I had no concept of temperature at all.
I think that as long as I am in Juneau, which is beautiful like New Zealand, I will be okay. As for reentry to Rochester... that is entirely a different kettle of fish.
You know, I never went to that little bookstore that had a pottery section. Well, I guess I'll just have to go back!
For those of you still following, 1) I'm impressed, and 2) the All Blacks beat the Wallabies last week, 22-16 in Auckland! They next play (possibly tomorrow?) in South Africa against the Springboks. Right now is tri-nations, which means they'll just be playing Australia and South Africa for a while.
That's all for now!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Final Countdown
Hi everyone,
This post is going to be bit jumbled and probably not so interesting, sorry. It's just a wrap-up of New Zealand, and post Simon and Garfunkel, it was relatively low-key. Whenever my planetary geology professor would talk about the main sequence, I always imagined a band of helium and hydrogen atoms (as in Radium Man style). They would be called The Main Sequence, and they would always play the Final Countdown. They would have a drummer. Don't ask.
Anyway, so when I got back from Auckland, I had finals. So I dealt with those. Yay, interesting story! No, really, I studied and I took finals. Whoo! Well, okay, there was also a games night in there and a significant number of movies and TV shows. Okay, so, I really was sort of a slacker relative to what I am at home, but I did study, and I don't feel too badly about any of my finals, so... here's hoping!
Ellen left on the 15th, which is ridiculously early, and that was so sad!!! A bunch of people went to the airport with her to lighten the cost of the shuttle and to see her off at the airport. Earlier that day, we went downtown and did some last minute shopping with her and just puttered around Christchurch.
Tamar, Alyssa, Shalom, and I went on the Grand Tour somewhere in there... on a Sunday, as I recall. This is a photo of Mona Vale, a garden in Christchurch.
When we all had just one final left (and some of us none, but I was not one of those lucky few), we celebrated by going to get souvlakis. Unfortunately, the really awesome souvlaki place was CLOSED and we had to settle for a different one. I do have some really fantastic photos from souvlakis, but Shalom would probably kill me if I posted them. She was disapproving enough of me taking photos while she was eating in the first place. Later that day, Nick and I went to Campbell's window display! It was awesome!
Then, on my last full day, I wandered around Christchurch and took some photos.
The fountain outside of the Canterbury Museum and the house in the Arts Centre. Oh, and I went to the Art Gallery with Kate (Maude) and it was AWESOME. Rita Angus is completely talented, but the gift shop had NO Rita Angus postcards. It was tragic. I have no postcards from my visit to the Art Gallery... unheard of. The Canterbury Museum was nice, but was a little bit too much New Zealand for me on my last day.
So, now I am back in Juneau! I might continue to post, but I'll be less frequent (and interesting, let's face it). I'll see you all when I see you, Americans and Kiwis alike!
This post is going to be bit jumbled and probably not so interesting, sorry. It's just a wrap-up of New Zealand, and post Simon and Garfunkel, it was relatively low-key. Whenever my planetary geology professor would talk about the main sequence, I always imagined a band of helium and hydrogen atoms (as in Radium Man style). They would be called The Main Sequence, and they would always play the Final Countdown. They would have a drummer. Don't ask.
Anyway, so when I got back from Auckland, I had finals. So I dealt with those. Yay, interesting story! No, really, I studied and I took finals. Whoo! Well, okay, there was also a games night in there and a significant number of movies and TV shows. Okay, so, I really was sort of a slacker relative to what I am at home, but I did study, and I don't feel too badly about any of my finals, so... here's hoping!
Ellen left on the 15th, which is ridiculously early, and that was so sad!!! A bunch of people went to the airport with her to lighten the cost of the shuttle and to see her off at the airport. Earlier that day, we went downtown and did some last minute shopping with her and just puttered around Christchurch.
Tamar, Alyssa, Shalom, and I went on the Grand Tour somewhere in there... on a Sunday, as I recall. This is a photo of Mona Vale, a garden in Christchurch.
When we all had just one final left (and some of us none, but I was not one of those lucky few), we celebrated by going to get souvlakis. Unfortunately, the really awesome souvlaki place was CLOSED and we had to settle for a different one. I do have some really fantastic photos from souvlakis, but Shalom would probably kill me if I posted them. She was disapproving enough of me taking photos while she was eating in the first place. Later that day, Nick and I went to Campbell's window display! It was awesome!
Then, on my last full day, I wandered around Christchurch and took some photos.
The fountain outside of the Canterbury Museum and the house in the Arts Centre. Oh, and I went to the Art Gallery with Kate (Maude) and it was AWESOME. Rita Angus is completely talented, but the gift shop had NO Rita Angus postcards. It was tragic. I have no postcards from my visit to the Art Gallery... unheard of. The Canterbury Museum was nice, but was a little bit too much New Zealand for me on my last day.
So, now I am back in Juneau! I might continue to post, but I'll be less frequent (and interesting, let's face it). I'll see you all when I see you, Americans and Kiwis alike!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Postscript
Just, as an aside, I think we can all agree that Simon and Garfunkel went above and beyond the call of duty by listening to my blog and coming to sing to me here, in New Zealand, so let's say we call it a tie and let it be even. That's not to say that I won't fervently defend Garfunkel in random hostel conversations, but I will stop holding the Ballad of Buster Baxter over Paul Simon's head all the time. Tens all around, but let's say that one of them showed up and sang Punky's Dilemma to me, then we may have to revisit this. Until then.
Monday, June 15, 2009
"We missed Simon, we missed Simon and Garfunkel, we got Garfunkel!"
It's a quote that Kate told me from Dharma and Greg, don't worry, I didn't miss Simon, I didn't miss Simon and Garfunkel, and I did see Garfunkel!
Yeah, the concert was alright, not as good as I expected.
HAHAHAHAHA, I'M KIDDING!!! No, it was amazing, it was everything I dreamed it would be and more. But I guess I should cover the first part of my trip, eh!? Don't worry, it'll be short, and then we can get to the details of the concert, which was totally the highlight of the trip/my life.
I arrived in Auckland in the eventimes, so I just hung out at the hostel that night.
The next day, I went to the Auckland Museum and the Art Gallery. Auckland Museum: okay, a little bit disorganised. Art Gallery: Win! Recommended. Then I wandered around Auckland, and made plans for going to the Coromandel Peninsula.
Since I didn't really have the time for a whole organised group tour thing, I really had to pick one place to go to, and I picked Hahei because that's where Cathedral Cove is. The rest of the day in Auckland was pretty much spent going, "So this is Auckland..."
When South Islanders, and even non-Aucklanders from the North Island describe Auckland, you are like, no, it cannot be that bad. What could possibly be so wrong about Auckland. And that's just it. There is nothing wrong with Auckland. It is totally fine. But it's a little bit dirty and not very pretty and sometimes it's hard to pass the time if you're just a poor student who is traveling for a few days. I guess, what it comes down to is, it's nice for a city, but it's sort of a hole compared to the rest of beautiful, beautiful New Zealand. A third of New Zealand's population lives there, and yeah, it's okay, but it's nothing special and after that first day, I was sort of over it.
So then I went to Hahei! This is going to sound strange, but the bus ride there was fantastic. It was really great. I just sat there and thought and dreamed and I wasn't bored, or tired, or antsy, I just sat there and watched New Zealand go by and thought to myself. When I arrived in Hahei, it was late afternoon/early evening. So again, the timing of it, I just hung out at the hostel (which was not really a hostel, it was this couple's house, but it was listed in BBH and it was the cleanest place I've ever stayed, so, yeah) and read American Gods and puttered around.
The next day, pouring rain. POURING RAIN like you would not believe. It was my one day in Hahei, and I had picked Hahei because of Cathedral Cove, and come hell or high water, I was going to go. So, the high water kept up its end of the bargain, and I kept mine. In the pouring rain, I went to Cathedral Cove, and then, because I was already soaked and could not get any wetter, I walked all around Hahei. All told, it must have been... four hours, maybe? I got back, took a shower, and spent the rest of the day writing in my journal, studying lingustics, finishing American Gods, and drinking tea. Maybe it sounds lame, but it was awesome.
The next day, I returned to Auckland, but again only for a halfday, so I didn't go the volcano or anything. I went to Albert Park and wandered around a little bit. Albert Park was very pretty.
When I went back to the hostel, I got this text from Kate, asking me where I was. I answered, that I was in Auckland, in a hostel in Parnell, and Kate replied, "me too," and I was like, does she mean in Auckland or at the hostel or what? and then as I was responding, Kate walked in the room!!!!!
Kate is so awesome.
The next morning, I walked with Kate around Parnell and then saw her off at the bus. Then I wandered around a little on my own. I went to find the arena, and I got really excited standing there, it sort of hit me right then that I was going to see Simon and Garfunkel. It was one of those scream off the top of the mountain feelings, so I just stood there for a second. I had my eyes closed when it occurred to me that it was raining a little bit, but then the sun was still warm, and I thought, there should be a rainbow! When I opened my eyes, there was a rainbow right in front of me! I'm magic!
Okay, so. The concert! I was standing outside in line, and there was this couple next to me, and the woman asked me if I was there alone. I said that yes, I was, because nobody wanted to come up from Christchurch, and she was like, Christchurch! She seemed a little shocked that I would come all the way from Christchurch, but I met another guy on the airport bus who had done the same, and the guy next to me at the concert was from Wellington. Anyway, she may have also been thinking, what is this twelve year old doing at a concert by herself???
When I got inside, I bought myself a poster. I wanted a t-shirt, but one, they were about a million dollars, and two, the ones that had tour dates and locations on them were normal Ts, and I wasn't convinced it was going to fit me (they had some girls fit shirts, but they were pastel colours, and they were generic Simon and Garfunkel shirts, without the dates or locations). So, I bought a poster, which has all the tour dates and locations on it. This poster... Okay, I'll get to that.
I went and found my seat, and I was there super early, but eventually it all filled in, and here was how it went. Nondescript people in front of me, uptight middle-aged guy who was half of a couple to my left (we'll call him... Herbert, going by Herb), younger Wellingtonian to my right (we'll call him Geoffrey), entire row of younger (younger than Geoffrey but older than me) friends behind us. Okay, so shockingly, not all Simon and Garfunkel fans are as pure of heart as I am. The people behind us were A-HOLES. They were clearly drunk, talking a lot, dropping their plastic beer bottles, singing along very badly and loudly (there were parts when we all sang along, and it was good fun, but they were completely obnoxious). At the beginning of the concert, Herb was like, can you keep it down? And one girl was like, we're at a concert, we're having fun, that's what being at a concert is about! Which, okay, yes, but let's face it... besides me and a handful of other people, they were the youngest people at the concert. They were surrounded by middle-aged and even elderly people, and I think they should have gotten a clue and toned it down a little bit.
Anyway, about two thirds of the way through, things came to a head and there was a lot of yelling going on... it was in the middle of a song I didn't know (one of two, not counting the song that Art Garfunkel wrote and the song they performed at the talent show in the sixth grade :p), so I wasn't that upset by it, but it was a little bit frazzling. Basically, Herb yelled at them, they yelled back, Herb's wife backed him up by shouting, SHUT UP! at them, and Geoffrey jumped in and said, go to the bar if you want to talk! and then the guy behind Geoffrey, who had this gravely voice straight out of a movie, told Geoffrey that if he didn't shut up and enjoy the concert, prick, he'd punch him in the back of the head, to which Geoffrey shouted, yeah, you want an assault charge!? So that was a little disturbing, but just a hiccup in an otherwise STELLAR evening.
OKAY! So, they came out and sang Old Friends, because that was the name of the tour, and then jumped straight into Hazy Shade of Winter. Unfortunately, I don't remember all the songs or in what order, but I do know those two. They played many great songs, many of my favourites, including I Am An Island, but they did not play my favourite favourite, which some of you may know is Punky's Dilemma (Kellogg's cornflake and English muffin song, yes), nor At the Zoo, nor Poem on the Underground Wall. But that is so okay, because here is the thing... they still sounded amazing. They did not sound like two old singers at all, they sounded just like Simon and Garfunkel, and I was giddy the entire first half.
After many songs together, Garfunkel soloed for a little while and then Simon soloed for a little while, to give each of them a break as there was no intermission. Garfunkel sang For Emily Wherever I May Find Her, a song he wrote himself, and another song. Paul Simon sang Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard, Boy in the Bubble, and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (no Gumboots, but he was so entertaining...). Then they came back together and did more songs together. They finished with Bridge Over Troubled Water, during which I tried to call Mom, but I could not figure out how to make a call to the U.S. (I thought I had it figured out, but then it wouldn't go through, so apparently not), and then they did three encores.
They did Cecelia and The Boxer in one encore, Sound of Silence and Leaves That Are Green in the second encore, and 59th Street Bridge Song for their final encore. Leaves That Are Green really got me, with the opening lines... "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long. Time hurries on, and the leaves that are green turn to brown." After he sang "I'm 22 now," Paul Simon stopped and chuckled and said, let me think about that for a second.
I did forget to mention that shortly into the concert, they described meeting each other (as the Chesire Cat and the White Rabbit in the same sixth grade production of Alice in Wonderland) and playing their first song at a talent show when they were eleven or twelve, I think. The song, the song was about this girl they (well, "he" as the voice in the song goes) wanted to meet up with after school, and it was like, want to meet at three, oh wait we don't get out till three thirty, and it was adorable.
When we got out of the concert, I had my poster rolled up, and it didn't rain on the walk back to the hostel! The next day, I had to carry it all around because I'd already checked out of the hostel, and I was looking after that thing like it was a Verticolli hairbrush. It started to rain while I was in the Auckland Domain, where it always rains, and I dropped everything to get a plastic bag and put the poster in there... I kept rearranging my grip on my bag and, I later realised, walked on the outside of it at all times :p It made it back here safe and sound, and I might frame it when I get home.
More info than you want, but here are the songs, in some semblance of the correct order, that I have and that they sang (they sang that song I didn't know, Bebop a lula, the song from sixth grade, and the song that Art Garfunkel wrote, too, but I don't have those):
Old Friends
Hazy Shade of Winter (love!)
I Am a Rock (also love!)
America
Kathy's Song (Garfunkel sang solo accompanied by Simon on guitar)
Scarborough Fair
The Only Living Boy in New York (always reminds me of Devon)
Mrs. Robinson (preceded by a montage... the montages of the two of them were great, and that one ended in the clip from the Graduate)
For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her (just Garfunkel)
Boy in the Bubble (just Simon)
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (possibly my second favourite Paul Simon song? Although I do love Me and Julio)
Homeward Bound (mildly upsetting because I was feeling a heavy New Zealand inertia at the time)
El Condor Pasa
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Cecelia
The Boxer (they put in the booms!)
Sound of Silence
Leaves That Are Green
59th Street Bridge Song
That last day, I had the most delicious veggie burger I have ever eaten in my life (okay, I'll face it... it was one of the best burgers I've had in my life period, veggie or not. Although that one time Dudley made those burgers at the house... may be number one). Burger Fuel. Jay, if you come to Auckland... Burger Fuel. Also, I have a phone and a Lonely Planet for you. I don't know if you even know I have a blog... will somebody tell him?
MY LITTLE TOWN. That was the name of the song when the fight almost broke out in my row! And A Heart in New York was Garfunkel's third song.
And then I came home! I've been studying, along with watching some movies and getting some new music (so much new New Zealand music, I'm so pumped for it!).
And that is all! The summary is:
Read American Gods
Love Simon and Garfunkel
Buy more than muesli bars when going on a five day trip
Oh, and something that occurred to me on this trip: I assume Art is short for "Arthur." So, Arthur Garfunkel, Arthur Read, and Arthur Dent. I think we can all agree that Arthur is a winning name.
Now I have to go study, but I wanted to share my trip!
I arrive back in Juneau on the 27th. I arrive back in Rochester late August some time. I'll see you all sooner or later :)
Yeah, the concert was alright, not as good as I expected.
HAHAHAHAHA, I'M KIDDING!!! No, it was amazing, it was everything I dreamed it would be and more. But I guess I should cover the first part of my trip, eh!? Don't worry, it'll be short, and then we can get to the details of the concert, which was totally the highlight of the trip/my life.
I arrived in Auckland in the eventimes, so I just hung out at the hostel that night.
The next day, I went to the Auckland Museum and the Art Gallery. Auckland Museum: okay, a little bit disorganised. Art Gallery: Win! Recommended. Then I wandered around Auckland, and made plans for going to the Coromandel Peninsula.
Since I didn't really have the time for a whole organised group tour thing, I really had to pick one place to go to, and I picked Hahei because that's where Cathedral Cove is. The rest of the day in Auckland was pretty much spent going, "So this is Auckland..."
When South Islanders, and even non-Aucklanders from the North Island describe Auckland, you are like, no, it cannot be that bad. What could possibly be so wrong about Auckland. And that's just it. There is nothing wrong with Auckland. It is totally fine. But it's a little bit dirty and not very pretty and sometimes it's hard to pass the time if you're just a poor student who is traveling for a few days. I guess, what it comes down to is, it's nice for a city, but it's sort of a hole compared to the rest of beautiful, beautiful New Zealand. A third of New Zealand's population lives there, and yeah, it's okay, but it's nothing special and after that first day, I was sort of over it.
So then I went to Hahei! This is going to sound strange, but the bus ride there was fantastic. It was really great. I just sat there and thought and dreamed and I wasn't bored, or tired, or antsy, I just sat there and watched New Zealand go by and thought to myself. When I arrived in Hahei, it was late afternoon/early evening. So again, the timing of it, I just hung out at the hostel (which was not really a hostel, it was this couple's house, but it was listed in BBH and it was the cleanest place I've ever stayed, so, yeah) and read American Gods and puttered around.
The next day, pouring rain. POURING RAIN like you would not believe. It was my one day in Hahei, and I had picked Hahei because of Cathedral Cove, and come hell or high water, I was going to go. So, the high water kept up its end of the bargain, and I kept mine. In the pouring rain, I went to Cathedral Cove, and then, because I was already soaked and could not get any wetter, I walked all around Hahei. All told, it must have been... four hours, maybe? I got back, took a shower, and spent the rest of the day writing in my journal, studying lingustics, finishing American Gods, and drinking tea. Maybe it sounds lame, but it was awesome.
The next day, I returned to Auckland, but again only for a halfday, so I didn't go the volcano or anything. I went to Albert Park and wandered around a little bit. Albert Park was very pretty.
When I went back to the hostel, I got this text from Kate, asking me where I was. I answered, that I was in Auckland, in a hostel in Parnell, and Kate replied, "me too," and I was like, does she mean in Auckland or at the hostel or what? and then as I was responding, Kate walked in the room!!!!!
Kate is so awesome.
The next morning, I walked with Kate around Parnell and then saw her off at the bus. Then I wandered around a little on my own. I went to find the arena, and I got really excited standing there, it sort of hit me right then that I was going to see Simon and Garfunkel. It was one of those scream off the top of the mountain feelings, so I just stood there for a second. I had my eyes closed when it occurred to me that it was raining a little bit, but then the sun was still warm, and I thought, there should be a rainbow! When I opened my eyes, there was a rainbow right in front of me! I'm magic!
Okay, so. The concert! I was standing outside in line, and there was this couple next to me, and the woman asked me if I was there alone. I said that yes, I was, because nobody wanted to come up from Christchurch, and she was like, Christchurch! She seemed a little shocked that I would come all the way from Christchurch, but I met another guy on the airport bus who had done the same, and the guy next to me at the concert was from Wellington. Anyway, she may have also been thinking, what is this twelve year old doing at a concert by herself???
When I got inside, I bought myself a poster. I wanted a t-shirt, but one, they were about a million dollars, and two, the ones that had tour dates and locations on them were normal Ts, and I wasn't convinced it was going to fit me (they had some girls fit shirts, but they were pastel colours, and they were generic Simon and Garfunkel shirts, without the dates or locations). So, I bought a poster, which has all the tour dates and locations on it. This poster... Okay, I'll get to that.
I went and found my seat, and I was there super early, but eventually it all filled in, and here was how it went. Nondescript people in front of me, uptight middle-aged guy who was half of a couple to my left (we'll call him... Herbert, going by Herb), younger Wellingtonian to my right (we'll call him Geoffrey), entire row of younger (younger than Geoffrey but older than me) friends behind us. Okay, so shockingly, not all Simon and Garfunkel fans are as pure of heart as I am. The people behind us were A-HOLES. They were clearly drunk, talking a lot, dropping their plastic beer bottles, singing along very badly and loudly (there were parts when we all sang along, and it was good fun, but they were completely obnoxious). At the beginning of the concert, Herb was like, can you keep it down? And one girl was like, we're at a concert, we're having fun, that's what being at a concert is about! Which, okay, yes, but let's face it... besides me and a handful of other people, they were the youngest people at the concert. They were surrounded by middle-aged and even elderly people, and I think they should have gotten a clue and toned it down a little bit.
Anyway, about two thirds of the way through, things came to a head and there was a lot of yelling going on... it was in the middle of a song I didn't know (one of two, not counting the song that Art Garfunkel wrote and the song they performed at the talent show in the sixth grade :p), so I wasn't that upset by it, but it was a little bit frazzling. Basically, Herb yelled at them, they yelled back, Herb's wife backed him up by shouting, SHUT UP! at them, and Geoffrey jumped in and said, go to the bar if you want to talk! and then the guy behind Geoffrey, who had this gravely voice straight out of a movie, told Geoffrey that if he didn't shut up and enjoy the concert, prick, he'd punch him in the back of the head, to which Geoffrey shouted, yeah, you want an assault charge!? So that was a little disturbing, but just a hiccup in an otherwise STELLAR evening.
OKAY! So, they came out and sang Old Friends, because that was the name of the tour, and then jumped straight into Hazy Shade of Winter. Unfortunately, I don't remember all the songs or in what order, but I do know those two. They played many great songs, many of my favourites, including I Am An Island, but they did not play my favourite favourite, which some of you may know is Punky's Dilemma (Kellogg's cornflake and English muffin song, yes), nor At the Zoo, nor Poem on the Underground Wall. But that is so okay, because here is the thing... they still sounded amazing. They did not sound like two old singers at all, they sounded just like Simon and Garfunkel, and I was giddy the entire first half.
After many songs together, Garfunkel soloed for a little while and then Simon soloed for a little while, to give each of them a break as there was no intermission. Garfunkel sang For Emily Wherever I May Find Her, a song he wrote himself, and another song. Paul Simon sang Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard, Boy in the Bubble, and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (no Gumboots, but he was so entertaining...). Then they came back together and did more songs together. They finished with Bridge Over Troubled Water, during which I tried to call Mom, but I could not figure out how to make a call to the U.S. (I thought I had it figured out, but then it wouldn't go through, so apparently not), and then they did three encores.
They did Cecelia and The Boxer in one encore, Sound of Silence and Leaves That Are Green in the second encore, and 59th Street Bridge Song for their final encore. Leaves That Are Green really got me, with the opening lines... "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long. Time hurries on, and the leaves that are green turn to brown." After he sang "I'm 22 now," Paul Simon stopped and chuckled and said, let me think about that for a second.
I did forget to mention that shortly into the concert, they described meeting each other (as the Chesire Cat and the White Rabbit in the same sixth grade production of Alice in Wonderland) and playing their first song at a talent show when they were eleven or twelve, I think. The song, the song was about this girl they (well, "he" as the voice in the song goes) wanted to meet up with after school, and it was like, want to meet at three, oh wait we don't get out till three thirty, and it was adorable.
When we got out of the concert, I had my poster rolled up, and it didn't rain on the walk back to the hostel! The next day, I had to carry it all around because I'd already checked out of the hostel, and I was looking after that thing like it was a Verticolli hairbrush. It started to rain while I was in the Auckland Domain, where it always rains, and I dropped everything to get a plastic bag and put the poster in there... I kept rearranging my grip on my bag and, I later realised, walked on the outside of it at all times :p It made it back here safe and sound, and I might frame it when I get home.
More info than you want, but here are the songs, in some semblance of the correct order, that I have and that they sang (they sang that song I didn't know, Bebop a lula, the song from sixth grade, and the song that Art Garfunkel wrote, too, but I don't have those):
Old Friends
Hazy Shade of Winter (love!)
I Am a Rock (also love!)
America
Kathy's Song (Garfunkel sang solo accompanied by Simon on guitar)
Scarborough Fair
The Only Living Boy in New York (always reminds me of Devon)
Mrs. Robinson (preceded by a montage... the montages of the two of them were great, and that one ended in the clip from the Graduate)
For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her (just Garfunkel)
Boy in the Bubble (just Simon)
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (possibly my second favourite Paul Simon song? Although I do love Me and Julio)
Homeward Bound (mildly upsetting because I was feeling a heavy New Zealand inertia at the time)
El Condor Pasa
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Cecelia
The Boxer (they put in the booms!)
Sound of Silence
Leaves That Are Green
59th Street Bridge Song
That last day, I had the most delicious veggie burger I have ever eaten in my life (okay, I'll face it... it was one of the best burgers I've had in my life period, veggie or not. Although that one time Dudley made those burgers at the house... may be number one). Burger Fuel. Jay, if you come to Auckland... Burger Fuel. Also, I have a phone and a Lonely Planet for you. I don't know if you even know I have a blog... will somebody tell him?
MY LITTLE TOWN. That was the name of the song when the fight almost broke out in my row! And A Heart in New York was Garfunkel's third song.
And then I came home! I've been studying, along with watching some movies and getting some new music (so much new New Zealand music, I'm so pumped for it!).
And that is all! The summary is:
Read American Gods
Love Simon and Garfunkel
Buy more than muesli bars when going on a five day trip
Oh, and something that occurred to me on this trip: I assume Art is short for "Arthur." So, Arthur Garfunkel, Arthur Read, and Arthur Dent. I think we can all agree that Arthur is a winning name.
Now I have to go study, but I wanted to share my trip!
I arrive back in Juneau on the 27th. I arrive back in Rochester late August some time. I'll see you all sooner or later :)
Thank you
Dear Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon,
I love you. Thank you for playing in New Zealand while I was here. I love you.
Love,
Lisa
P.S. I love you.
I love you. Thank you for playing in New Zealand while I was here. I love you.
Love,
Lisa
P.S. I love you.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Rarotonga
Okay. So, this is going to be tricky. It was more than a month ago now, and to cover a whole week... I'm going to go based on my pictures, and just talk about fun photos. To sum it up, we ate a lot of coconut, met a lot of Cook Islanders, got sick, and did many awesome tropical activities, like paddling in a vaka (canoe), husking coconuts, snorkeling, etc. There are actually many places I did not take my camera due to water, such as the beach and the cross island walk. The cross island walk was a tramp across the island (surprise), but some of the views and such from it were really gorgeous, so it's a shame, but that's how it goes.
We dyed pareau (sp?), Cook Island sarongs. Mine came out looking sort of like a watermelon, but it was lightweight and cool, so I ended up wearing it nearly every day after we made them. I took this photo, so I'm not in it, but these are many of the people on my program, showing off their pareu, and also the sweet ways we learned to tie them.
My best photos are from the school visits, since they were camera-safe, and also fun. We did two, one just to visit. I was actually sick when we visited the first school, so I was less than fun. The students performed for us and gave us really beautiful leis and headdresses, though.
These are both from the second school visit, which was for community service. This one was awesome. We helped fill in holes that could catch water (Jai chopped down plants with a machete!!! It was really sharp and kind of scary!!), to prevent mosquitoes from spreading dengue fever. We also helped put stickers on raffle tickets, which some of you may know is what I love doing, no sarcasm involved. And then everyone ran around with the kids for a while, and I took a lot of great photos on that visit. The first is Amanda playing airplane (she, Melissa, and Ellen had races, with their gradeschool partners), and the second is Melissa, Alyssa, Carolina, Tamar, and Meg on the jungle gym.
We also did a fair bit of dancing, and one night there was a dance-off. In the guys', it came down to Jai versus James. Carolina won the girls' dance-off!!! Also, we were fed so well every single night. It was fantastic. Our hotel was right on the beach, and I shared a room with Tamar and Ellen. There was one day, my favourite, when we hired bikes and biked around the entire island, stopping for food and beach stops as we saw fit. It... was pretty great. It also poured that day, which was amazing.
Unfortunately, that's what I have about Rarotonga. It was brilliant, but I didn't get very many photos. Also, I've been putting off posting knowing that I needed to do Rarotonga first, so now that I've done Rarotonga, I can continue on with the blog :p
Till next post.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
THEY'RE COMING
Oh my gosh, he totally listened to me!!! PAUL SIMON LISTENED TO ME. HE'S COMING TO NEW ZEALAND TO SING TO ME, AND HE'S BRINGING ART GARFUNKEL WITH HIM. THEY'RE PERFORMING IN AUCKLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOGETHER! IN NEW ZEALAND! WHILE I'M HERE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Watch This Space
"Watch This Space" is what the television channels always say when they're getting ready to air new shows or swap the schedule around. VoiceTV has it a lot because the channel has a lot of dead time but is expanding. VoiceTV is the Korean television channel, and strangely, often has the best programming...
Anyway, since my last post, I have been in Rarotonga, which is about a million posts in and of itself, and traveled a wee bit with my parents, and seen Ben and Kate, and all manner of exciting things, but it's also midsemester, so I have tests and assignments and stuff, and just in general have not been able to upload photos or write new posts. I apologise, but I promise that the Rarotonga posts will be worth the wait! So watch this space!
A quick note: the Simon and Garfunkel episode of Flight of the Conchords? HAS ART GARFUNKEL IN IT. Yes. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Art Garfunkel, TWO, Paul Simon, ONE. And, okay, I love Saturday Night Live, but the other of Art Garfunkel's points is ARTHUR... so it's really more like INFINITY AND TWO to one. I'm pretty sure the only thing Paul Simon could do to pull ahead at this point is show up here in New Zealand and sing Gumboots to me. If you're reading this, Paul Simon... I suppose you could sing a different song, but my favourite is Gumboots, and I think you need all the points you can get after that Arthur blow... New Zealand is really lovely...
Anyway, since my last post, I have been in Rarotonga, which is about a million posts in and of itself, and traveled a wee bit with my parents, and seen Ben and Kate, and all manner of exciting things, but it's also midsemester, so I have tests and assignments and stuff, and just in general have not been able to upload photos or write new posts. I apologise, but I promise that the Rarotonga posts will be worth the wait! So watch this space!
A quick note: the Simon and Garfunkel episode of Flight of the Conchords? HAS ART GARFUNKEL IN IT. Yes. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Art Garfunkel, TWO, Paul Simon, ONE. And, okay, I love Saturday Night Live, but the other of Art Garfunkel's points is ARTHUR... so it's really more like INFINITY AND TWO to one. I'm pretty sure the only thing Paul Simon could do to pull ahead at this point is show up here in New Zealand and sing Gumboots to me. If you're reading this, Paul Simon... I suppose you could sing a different song, but my favourite is Gumboots, and I think you need all the points you can get after that Arthur blow... New Zealand is really lovely...
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Nerds
Lisa: And that's my avocado plant! Its name is Avogadro.
Nick: Avogadro... like Avogadro's number?
Lisa: Yeah.
Nick: ... You're a nerd!
It was neither a compliment nor a criticism, simply a realisation that apparently he didn't have when I told him about Radium Man.
Nick: Avogadro... like Avogadro's number?
Lisa: Yeah.
Nick: ... You're a nerd!
It was neither a compliment nor a criticism, simply a realisation that apparently he didn't have when I told him about Radium Man.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Windy Windy Wellington
Hi hi. Some of you may know, I went to Wellington for a couple of days with my flatmates, Nana and Mee Siew (Wawa was in Nelson, and did not join us), and friends, Jeevan and Azahari. I flew there, but the others trained, ferried, and drove up.
I got there much earlier, maybe four hours earlier than everyone else, so I went to check in at the backpackers, and then wandered around Wellington. First I went to the Railway Station because it was right across from the backpackers. It is a beautiful building. Here is a photo from our room in the backpackers (it was a room for six, but it was just the five of us, so we had our own room and a bathroom to ourselves).
And then a photo from inside, which made Nana jump up and down. She is so adorable.
Actually, as I walked in, I was thinking, "This is an old school train station. It would be sweet if they had a Platform 9 3/4, because this is just the sort of station I imagine it being in." And then there it was in front of me. Unfortunately, it is not after Platform NINE, which would make more sense, but it's okay, A for Effort. They spend all of their fantasy books-turn-movies concentration on Lord of the Rings, so their Harry Potter is a bit rusty.Then, I tried to find the wharf. I was walking down Featherston Street, wondering how likely it was I was going the wrong direction, when I realised that it was a beautiful day. Featherston Street runs from the Backpackers more or less North-South, South leading to the water, North leading to... the wop wops, I guess. (Wop wops = Kiwi boonies). So I turned twelve noon to the sun, found halfway between twelve and the hour hand, and boom, North (I know I mentioned this in the fieldtrip post, but I don't know how in-depth the explanation was. This is the trick Tim taught me to find North when the sun is out). I was definitely going the wrong way, so I turned around and found my way to the wharf!
I went to the Museum of Wellington, City & Sea, which was a very respectable museum. I sort of thought that being in such close proximity to Te Papa (National Museum of New Zealand) would give other museums in the vicinity a bit of a complex, but it was an adorable museum. Here is a photo of Paddy the Wanderer. Based on the description, Paddy was to Wellington as Patsy Ann was to Juneau.
After the museum, I continued down the wharf. Many things were closed for Easter Monday, but some of the small galleries and shops and stuff were still open. There was a playground. If I had been with Tamar and Ellen, there would have been some crazy photos, but I was by myself, so all I have is this docile one:
Eventually, I came to Civic Centre, which is where the i-site and stuff is for Wellington. Everything was closed, including the huge library :( , but I saw this on the side of one of the buildings in the square, and it made me laugh. Note the distinction between "useful" and "fine."
Shortly after that, the others arrived, and we went back to the hostel to get them situated. We went to dinner at a yummy yummy Malaysian restaurant. We got three dishes to share, and all of them were delicious. We had mee goreng (goreng means fried, so that one was... fried noodle, I think?), nasi goreng (fried rice), and nasi lemak (literally "fat rice," but it's coconut rice. That came with a beef dish that was my favorite, combined with the coconut flavour in the rice).
After dinner, we drove up to the Mt. Victoria lookout. From there, we could see lights all around us 360 degrees. I reckon you are supposed to go up during the day (the stairs were not lit...), but it was so spectacular at night. It made it harder to get a good photo, but it was definitely worth it. I increased exposure time as high as it would go on my camera, but of course that made all the photos come out fuzzy... Here's one:
That one is probably the least fuzzy. This one is also fuzzy, but I really really love it. I think it might be my favourite photo of the entire exchange thus far:
From left to right, although it won't mean much to you, is Jeevan, Mee Siew, Nana, and Azahari. I love it a lot, partially because I just think it is cool, but also because over dinner, we had a conversation about recognizing people from afar by the way they carry themselves (Jeevan said he can always tell when it is me because I talk with a lot of gestures and move in a "bubbly" way, whatever that means). Without knowing them, you wouldn't be able to tell, but all of them are standing in their own classic stances. I don't think they would have done it if they had known I was taking the picture.This morning, we walked to Te Papa, and I have a handful of photos from Te Papa (many of the coolest exhibitions were no photography - my favourite was the New Zealand Artists exhibition, because most of it was modern art. My second favourite? THE COLOSSAL SQUID THEY HAD ON DISPLAY FROM ANTARCTICA), but to not exhaust the post, I have included just this one, which is mostly for Dad's benefit:
This is one of the cannons from Captain James Cook's Endeavour. They had to throw it overboard when the ship got stuck in some shallow water, but it was eventually retrieved, encrusted with a foot of coral around it. I just heard "Sand and broken shell!" in my head. They had a copy of the map that Cook drew up from his voyage, but it was about a bazillion dollars (okay, only fifty...) and I didn't buy it.
Then we ate lunch, followed by the Beehive (like our Pentagon). We took a tour through the parliament buildings, which was very nice. Our tour guide was from California, and I didn't realise he had an American accent until halfway through the tour. It just doesn't register as an accent to me yet.
That's the Beehive! I tried to follow the political talk, but there were a lot of things that I didn't understand. There are seven political parties in New Zealand, all represented in the parliament, and they all have a whip, and then there's the mace, and you can't walk in front of the throne or you're thrown out of parliament.After that, we went to the airport to drop me off. The others are going on to Rotorua. The flight home was pleasant, and I got home right at the same time as Wawa, so we traded stories.
That's all! Next post, unless some madness happens before Friday, will be about Rarotonga!!! Oh, and if you're wondering, that first photo? YES, that IS a Prius taxi. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Eggs
Okay, one more quick one. I was way behind on the blog posts, but I want to be able to just write about Wellington as soon as I get back without having to do any catch-up, and same with Rarotonga. Today, Erin's friends Adeline and Lauren (sp? on both) arrived. They are both on Erin's study abroad program in Brisbane, and they are both from France. Dyeing eggs was a new tradition to them, as they usually paint blown eggs. We are not quite so patient for either painting or egg blowing, so we dyed them hardboiled as per the American tradition.
Lauren dyeing an egg purple:
I introduced the rubber band to them (Shalom and Erin included) as a decorative device. None of them had ever dyed eggs with rubber bands before, and the result was nice:
The red with yellow stripes is Erin's, the green/blue egg with the lines that look like a stick figure is Shalom's, and the other two are mine.
Erin's egg matched her shirt. And our complete dozen (note the French flag upper left):
Happy Easter, everyone!
Hawdon Valley
On Friday, Shalom, Erin, Sam, and I went up to the Hawdon Valley hut and stayed the night there. Sam drove (it was about an hour and a half drive to the trailhead), and the tramp was about three hours. Shalom loaned me her smaller tramping backpack, which was nice. It was really nice weather going up, sunny but not too hot. We didn't break for lunch because we were trying to beat this huge group of kids up to the hut (there were maybe nine of them, and the parking lot was full. There are twenty beds in Hawdon hut, so we were worried that if we didn't beat that big group to the hut, we wouldn't get beds, and we all had just sleeping bags, no tent or sleeping pads), and also because nobody was particularly starving. We ate when we got to the hut, and played cards (Sam and I taught Erin and Shalom a game that I learned on the 230 fieldtrip. It's called 500, and it's a partner game with rules similar to hearts or euchre). We went for a short little walk, but there wasn't much of a trail to anywhere.
We saw a species of parakeet that has an orange stomach. They are fairly rare. Apparently there are only 100-300 in New Zealand, and that tramp is one of the few places to see them. We also saw keas (one of them tried to steal Erin's sandal, but only moved it around the deck) and a small mountain wren that was pretty cute. The keas were pretty amazing... it was my first time seeing one, and I was very excited. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the kea, but here is the parakeet:
Sorry, the photo is a bit dark.The hut was pretty much full, and everyone went to bed way before us. Seriously, the hut was silent by nine o'clock. The next hut on the tramp was nine hours away (we were only doing one night, returning to the car the next day, but if you wanted to continue, you could carry on to the next hut), so we figured they were getting to bed early so they could have an early, well-rested start the next day. That was not the case, as we were the second group out of the hut the next morning, after the South African couple, who had not gone to bed too much earlier than we had.
We left to do a day hike up to a lake in the next valley over. It's the first two hours of that nine hour leg I just mentioned. It entails scaling the ridge just behind the hut and tramping up the neighboring valley. Unfortunately, the sun didn't get the memo and had no interest in scaling the ridge. The next valley over was *frigid* and one big wind tunnel. The scenery was lovely, though.
There were many river crossings, and we had a chilly, windy morning tea by the lake before turning around and booking it back. We ran into the other groups on their ways up as we tramped back down, and they seemed disheartened by our reports.
When we got back to the hut, it was pleasantly empty and quiet. Also, it was sunny because we were back over the ridge. We played a few more rounds of cards, had lunch, threw some marshmallows at Sam, and packed up. We were out by 1:30 and hiked back to the car in good time. It was pretty spectacular. That night for dinner, we had grill cheese and tomato soup. All in all, a good good time.
Oh, and if anyone is keen to know what the coarse-grained counterpart to trachyte is, I forgot to mention it last post: it is syenite, and I will never forget that.
GEOL230 Fieldtrip
Thanks for the comments, Grace and Chris! The zipline photos are fantastic! And, that has been sorted out. We do have flying foxes in the U.S., but Erin says that they are called ziplines (even the zip rails on the playgrounds). Mt. Redoubt almost messed up my parents' travel plans, and yeah, eruption monitoring is pretty key.
I've been away and am going away again tomorrow, but I wanted to put up some photos from my fieldtrip!
We stayed in the shearers' quarters of the Glens of Tekoa farm near Culverden. We had plumbing, electricity, and beds with fitted sheets and pillows (so we slept in our sleeping bags, but on mattresses). Here is a photo of the living/common room:
That fireplace was the best thing ever... even after fine days, it was nice to have a fire in the evenings, and it was a good place to dry wet tramping boots.
The first few days were intensely frustrating. There was a lot of information being hurled at us and a lot of information expected of us. I had no idea, off the top of my head, what the coarse-grained counterpart of trachyte was... Tom and Rose, our trip leaders, would ask those leading questions, like Dave (sed/strat TA, for those who don't know him), but I would have absolutely no idea. It was like an affirmation that I knew significantly less than the other students and that I was going to be a big fail at field work.
The second night, we had an assignment due. We had to map a small section of our mapping area and create a cross section. The cross section was pretty straightforward, but the mapping was so hard... I had to ask Tom and Rose pretty much every step of the way, and I think they were discouraged by how poorly we were all doing. They thought we would be done by ten, but my entire table was still working at 11:30. This was after our first full day in the field, too, so we were all absolutely exhausted.
Those first few days, we all stayed together and traveled together as a pack. It was good to have Rose and Tom there to explain everything as we went at that early stage, and it helped us get through the area faster. At one point, we sent Tim across a small gorge to bring back a sample for all of us. Taking all of us over there, with our varying degrees of fitness, would have taken forever, whereas Tim just zipped over for everyone. I really really love this photo because later I realised how much the outcrop looks like a bird. For scale, you can see Tim as a black dot on the bird's neck.
The third day, things started to improve. Having done the mapping the night before, I had a little bit of a better idea what to be looking for, but I still felt stupid, especially since I could never find where I was on the map. The turning point was really when Lucy and I found the third dike. My mapping group consisted of my mapping partner, Lucy, and two North Islanders named David and Tim. We had different groups on different days, but they were my core group. On Day 3, we were instructed to map out the rest of the river and look for three dikes among the graywacke.
Dike 1: We were all together when we found it, but Tim and Davo were the ones who really solidified that it was a trachyte dike.
Dike 2: Lucy and I, determined to find it on our own, carried on ahead in search of the second dike. We came to a heavily weathered section of graywacke that looked like it could have been a baked margin, and stopped to look at it. We were fairly certain that it was not the second dike, but decided to stop and see what they thought. Tim and Davo caught up and agreed that it was not the second dike, and then Tim pointed fifty metres past us and said, "But that is." So there it was, hanging out on the river bank, right next to us, and Lucy and I were pretty gutted.
Dike 3: EVEN MORE determined to find the third dike on our own, Lucy and I carried on ahead again. And guess what! We found it! Baked margin, phenocrysts, vessicles and all. It was magnificent. We were triumphant! We showed it to Tim and Davey when they caught up, and they agreed that it was the third dike. They did not sound sufficiently impressed :p Here it is:
After that, the fieldtrip was spectacular. It was a lot of physical and mental work, but pretty rewarding in the end. Tim taught me a nifty trick for finding north with my watch when the sun is out, and by the end of the fifth day, I was pretty proficient at finding myself on the map. All three of them helped me out a lot, plus Rose and Tom, who were hugely patient and helpful.
Glens of Tekoa itself is a farm run by the McRaes, and it is beautiful. It is right along the Mandamus River, which runs through the valley. There are ridges to either side (held up by trachyte or syenite dikes) and a large syncline on the eastern side held up by limestone.
The last day, we had the morning to ourselves to do whatever because the mapping area was finished and the late morning was for clean up and departure. A small group of the diehards went to find a small waterfall up in one of the side valleys. It was not very far away at all, and well worth the walk. It was nice to have that small group of people who had treated the fieldtrip as a trip/adventure and not as an assignment/chore.
The last day, it snowed. It was a little chilly, but we went to find the water fall anyway. It didn't snow down by us, but up in the hills where we had just been days before, mapping.
So yeah, that was the fieldtrip. I can't really put it into words why, but it affected me a lot. I made some good friends and did some good work, and it was sort of sad to come back. Other people were rejoicing at the thought of their warm beds and twenty-four hours of dry feet, and I guess I was happy to be back, but not really in the same way.
The next day, Shalom, Erin, and Sam took me tramping up in Hawdon Valley, and that helped me reacclimatize a lot. I'll make that a separate post, so keep reading! If you have any questions about the fieldtrip, because I haven't been all that specific and I've mainly written around the photos that I most wanted to share, email me or leave me a comment, and I'll talk your ear off about it :)
I've been away and am going away again tomorrow, but I wanted to put up some photos from my fieldtrip!
We stayed in the shearers' quarters of the Glens of Tekoa farm near Culverden. We had plumbing, electricity, and beds with fitted sheets and pillows (so we slept in our sleeping bags, but on mattresses). Here is a photo of the living/common room:
That fireplace was the best thing ever... even after fine days, it was nice to have a fire in the evenings, and it was a good place to dry wet tramping boots.The first few days were intensely frustrating. There was a lot of information being hurled at us and a lot of information expected of us. I had no idea, off the top of my head, what the coarse-grained counterpart of trachyte was... Tom and Rose, our trip leaders, would ask those leading questions, like Dave (sed/strat TA, for those who don't know him), but I would have absolutely no idea. It was like an affirmation that I knew significantly less than the other students and that I was going to be a big fail at field work.
The second night, we had an assignment due. We had to map a small section of our mapping area and create a cross section. The cross section was pretty straightforward, but the mapping was so hard... I had to ask Tom and Rose pretty much every step of the way, and I think they were discouraged by how poorly we were all doing. They thought we would be done by ten, but my entire table was still working at 11:30. This was after our first full day in the field, too, so we were all absolutely exhausted.
Those first few days, we all stayed together and traveled together as a pack. It was good to have Rose and Tom there to explain everything as we went at that early stage, and it helped us get through the area faster. At one point, we sent Tim across a small gorge to bring back a sample for all of us. Taking all of us over there, with our varying degrees of fitness, would have taken forever, whereas Tim just zipped over for everyone. I really really love this photo because later I realised how much the outcrop looks like a bird. For scale, you can see Tim as a black dot on the bird's neck.
The third day, things started to improve. Having done the mapping the night before, I had a little bit of a better idea what to be looking for, but I still felt stupid, especially since I could never find where I was on the map. The turning point was really when Lucy and I found the third dike. My mapping group consisted of my mapping partner, Lucy, and two North Islanders named David and Tim. We had different groups on different days, but they were my core group. On Day 3, we were instructed to map out the rest of the river and look for three dikes among the graywacke.
Dike 1: We were all together when we found it, but Tim and Davo were the ones who really solidified that it was a trachyte dike.
Dike 2: Lucy and I, determined to find it on our own, carried on ahead in search of the second dike. We came to a heavily weathered section of graywacke that looked like it could have been a baked margin, and stopped to look at it. We were fairly certain that it was not the second dike, but decided to stop and see what they thought. Tim and Davo caught up and agreed that it was not the second dike, and then Tim pointed fifty metres past us and said, "But that is." So there it was, hanging out on the river bank, right next to us, and Lucy and I were pretty gutted.
Dike 3: EVEN MORE determined to find the third dike on our own, Lucy and I carried on ahead again. And guess what! We found it! Baked margin, phenocrysts, vessicles and all. It was magnificent. We were triumphant! We showed it to Tim and Davey when they caught up, and they agreed that it was the third dike. They did not sound sufficiently impressed :p Here it is:
After that, the fieldtrip was spectacular. It was a lot of physical and mental work, but pretty rewarding in the end. Tim taught me a nifty trick for finding north with my watch when the sun is out, and by the end of the fifth day, I was pretty proficient at finding myself on the map. All three of them helped me out a lot, plus Rose and Tom, who were hugely patient and helpful.
Glens of Tekoa itself is a farm run by the McRaes, and it is beautiful. It is right along the Mandamus River, which runs through the valley. There are ridges to either side (held up by trachyte or syenite dikes) and a large syncline on the eastern side held up by limestone.
The last day, we had the morning to ourselves to do whatever because the mapping area was finished and the late morning was for clean up and departure. A small group of the diehards went to find a small waterfall up in one of the side valleys. It was not very far away at all, and well worth the walk. It was nice to have that small group of people who had treated the fieldtrip as a trip/adventure and not as an assignment/chore.
The last day, it snowed. It was a little chilly, but we went to find the water fall anyway. It didn't snow down by us, but up in the hills where we had just been days before, mapping.
So yeah, that was the fieldtrip. I can't really put it into words why, but it affected me a lot. I made some good friends and did some good work, and it was sort of sad to come back. Other people were rejoicing at the thought of their warm beds and twenty-four hours of dry feet, and I guess I was happy to be back, but not really in the same way.The next day, Shalom, Erin, and Sam took me tramping up in Hawdon Valley, and that helped me reacclimatize a lot. I'll make that a separate post, so keep reading! If you have any questions about the fieldtrip, because I haven't been all that specific and I've mainly written around the photos that I most wanted to share, email me or leave me a comment, and I'll talk your ear off about it :)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The News
So, I heard an interesting story on the news today. I was simultaneously writing an essay on mammoth evolution, so I haven't got all the details, but the gist of it was this:
Somebody important (maybe a Congressman?) changed his wikipedia entry to downplay something that happened during his visit to India. The guy in the news footage was saying that this guy should take wikipedia's advice and read their conflict of interest guidelines. For some reason, this stuck me as highly entertaining.
Wikipedia. It's the revolution.
In looking for the details of this story (if anybody has them, please share them with me. After that guy said that line, I was really sad that I hadn't paid closer attention to the rest of the story - all the headlines are about G-20, so it's hard to find a small story like that right now), I noticed that WHAT, Stevens' conviction may get overturned? Also someone fill me in on that.
Right, reference list.
Somebody important (maybe a Congressman?) changed his wikipedia entry to downplay something that happened during his visit to India. The guy in the news footage was saying that this guy should take wikipedia's advice and read their conflict of interest guidelines. For some reason, this stuck me as highly entertaining.
Wikipedia. It's the revolution.
In looking for the details of this story (if anybody has them, please share them with me. After that guy said that line, I was really sad that I hadn't paid closer attention to the rest of the story - all the headlines are about G-20, so it's hard to find a small story like that right now), I noticed that WHAT, Stevens' conviction may get overturned? Also someone fill me in on that.
Right, reference list.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Who has two thumbs and should be studying for linguistics!?
So yeah, I am procrastinating right now, but I have two stories that I, at least, find interesting.
One is an exchange about wite-out that some of you may have already heard, but bear with me, and the other is a story that showcases how awesome I am.
We'll go with awesome first.
My inbox was full on my phone such that I was not receiving a very important text about the final cricket score. So, I was going through my phone deleting messages, and I deleted all but FOUR of them, and one of them was from Shalom. It was a text in which she said what ink cartridge her printer took from when I saw ink cartridges on sale in Kaikoura. I held on to it because I knew that she still needed ink, and maybe I would see another sale and then I could just buy the one she needed.
Later that day, I was eating lunch with Shalom, and she said, I'm going to go buy an ink cartridge after this. Then we sat there for a very long time eating our vegetable korma (mmmm), and Shalom said, I could just catch the bus from here (instead of going back to Ilam), but I'm not sure what ink cartridge I need. And I was like, HOLD THE PHONE, and I found the number (HP 21!) and Shalom was impressed with my preparedness. For the win!
Okay, so that's one. Yeah, I know, you were expecting something way more awesome than saving Shalom a five minute walk. I lead an exciting life.
The second one can count as "things I've learned that are different about New Zealand and the U.S." for this post. If it says (w) that means written.
Nick: You need twink.
Lisa: What?
Nick: Twink. You need twink.
Lisa: What???
Nick: (w) TWINK
Lisa: What's that?
Nick: What is - ? Twink! You know, like for blanking out mistakes.
Lisa: Ohhhh (w) Wite-out
Nick: Ohh, okay. (w) tipp-ex <-- British.
Lisa: [huh? face]
Nick: (w) tipp-ex <-- brand.
Lisa: ohhh.
Nick: (w) brand <-- typical British
Lisa: [indignant face] (w) Wite-out <-- BRAND.
Nick: (w) oops
So let that be a lesson to the lot of ya! (nobody escapes from Tweedy's farm!... anybody?) When looking for correction fluid in New Zealand, ask for twink!
Also, in other news, guess what I did today *little dance* Yes, it's very exciting... I cut index cards without measuring them first. Yeah. I went there. You know that Garfield strip... Garfield is making fun of Jon and says something like, this from the man whose idea of an adventure is washing his socks without safety pinning them together. Well, I cut index cards in half without making sure it was actually *in half* and I lived. Also, my eyeballing is really good, because they came out pretty stellarly. I was proud of myself. But I still won't open my window at night, not even for a zucchini chocolate chip muffin.
I got a zucchini chocolate chip muffin anyway, and it was DELICIOUS.
Related to the index cards... I am really good at folding paper into threes. I think this is a skill developed from the symphony office, but I can eyeball letter paper into thirds like none other. I should put that on my next CV. Skills: folding office paper into thirds and packratting ancient text messages.
Okay, I am derailing. Back to affricates and spectrograms. Bye!
One is an exchange about wite-out that some of you may have already heard, but bear with me, and the other is a story that showcases how awesome I am.
We'll go with awesome first.
My inbox was full on my phone such that I was not receiving a very important text about the final cricket score. So, I was going through my phone deleting messages, and I deleted all but FOUR of them, and one of them was from Shalom. It was a text in which she said what ink cartridge her printer took from when I saw ink cartridges on sale in Kaikoura. I held on to it because I knew that she still needed ink, and maybe I would see another sale and then I could just buy the one she needed.
Later that day, I was eating lunch with Shalom, and she said, I'm going to go buy an ink cartridge after this. Then we sat there for a very long time eating our vegetable korma (mmmm), and Shalom said, I could just catch the bus from here (instead of going back to Ilam), but I'm not sure what ink cartridge I need. And I was like, HOLD THE PHONE, and I found the number (HP 21!) and Shalom was impressed with my preparedness. For the win!
Okay, so that's one. Yeah, I know, you were expecting something way more awesome than saving Shalom a five minute walk. I lead an exciting life.
The second one can count as "things I've learned that are different about New Zealand and the U.S." for this post. If it says (w) that means written.
Nick: You need twink.
Lisa: What?
Nick: Twink. You need twink.
Lisa: What???
Nick: (w) TWINK
Lisa: What's that?
Nick: What is - ? Twink! You know, like for blanking out mistakes.
Lisa: Ohhhh (w) Wite-out
Nick: Ohh, okay. (w) tipp-ex <-- British.
Lisa: [huh? face]
Nick: (w) tipp-ex <-- brand.
Lisa: ohhh.
Nick: (w) brand <-- typical British
Lisa: [indignant face] (w) Wite-out <-- BRAND.
Nick: (w) oops
So let that be a lesson to the lot of ya! (nobody escapes from Tweedy's farm!... anybody?) When looking for correction fluid in New Zealand, ask for twink!
Also, in other news, guess what I did today *little dance* Yes, it's very exciting... I cut index cards without measuring them first. Yeah. I went there. You know that Garfield strip... Garfield is making fun of Jon and says something like, this from the man whose idea of an adventure is washing his socks without safety pinning them together. Well, I cut index cards in half without making sure it was actually *in half* and I lived. Also, my eyeballing is really good, because they came out pretty stellarly. I was proud of myself. But I still won't open my window at night, not even for a zucchini chocolate chip muffin.
I got a zucchini chocolate chip muffin anyway, and it was DELICIOUS.
Related to the index cards... I am really good at folding paper into threes. I think this is a skill developed from the symphony office, but I can eyeball letter paper into thirds like none other. I should put that on my next CV. Skills: folding office paper into thirds and packratting ancient text messages.
Okay, I am derailing. Back to affricates and spectrograms. Bye!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Midterms
It's midterms week here, right before the three week term break, so I don't have much to say except that I've been studying and procrastinating studying. But there are a couple of things I thought I would throw out there:
1) The Black Caps v. India cricket test (five day game) ended in a draw. That happens when not all the innings are completed. I was - oh wait for it - gutted to hear.
2) On Kate's behalf (I saw Grace's post on Kate's blog), last I heard she was in Wanaka, returning to Christchurch on either Thursday or Friday. So never fear, she shall return! Triumphant, I hope.
3) Shalom pointed out that one of the parks on my map looks like an upside down elephant, and now whenever I look at my map I feel guilty for not having written my paper on proboscideans yet...
At the end of this week, when all my tests and papers and everything are done, I will be leaving for the Island Hills fieldtrip for my field studies course, so don't expect anything for a couple of weeks. Sorry, Ben, I'll try to post when I get back from Island Hills, but by the time I return (also triumphant, I hope), Erin will be here!!! Yes, Erin! And then my parents! And then Ben! And then Claire! A party of goodness!
Okay, I just derailed studying for at least an hour being all excited for the parade of visitors that is coming. Thanks for reading, bye for now.
1) The Black Caps v. India cricket test (five day game) ended in a draw. That happens when not all the innings are completed. I was - oh wait for it - gutted to hear.
2) On Kate's behalf (I saw Grace's post on Kate's blog), last I heard she was in Wanaka, returning to Christchurch on either Thursday or Friday. So never fear, she shall return! Triumphant, I hope.
3) Shalom pointed out that one of the parks on my map looks like an upside down elephant, and now whenever I look at my map I feel guilty for not having written my paper on proboscideans yet...
At the end of this week, when all my tests and papers and everything are done, I will be leaving for the Island Hills fieldtrip for my field studies course, so don't expect anything for a couple of weeks. Sorry, Ben, I'll try to post when I get back from Island Hills, but by the time I return (also triumphant, I hope), Erin will be here!!! Yes, Erin! And then my parents! And then Ben! And then Claire! A party of goodness!
Okay, I just derailed studying for at least an hour being all excited for the parade of visitors that is coming. Thanks for reading, bye for now.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Commentary! The Musical!
Hi! So, not to be a terrible person, but if anybody is like, man, Lisa's birthday is coming up and I don't know what to get her, someone with a U.S. mailing address and fifteen dollars worth of other things they would like to buy off of amazon - eligible for Super Saver Shipping, anyway - you would be totally welcome to get me the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD, which includes COMMENTARY! THE MUSICAL. I'm trying really hard not to read the lyrics off of the website so that when I do have an opportunity to see it, it will be amazing and new...
So I did already read the lyrics to the first song because I have no restraint, and it looks awesome. For those of you who don't know Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, it stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day, and I highly recommend it. It was originally written during the writer's strike and is a free-to-see internet musical. You can Google it and the website should come up, which links to Hulu. If Hulu isn't doing the trick, try alluc.
So it is true, in the first song, they say that it is commentaries like these that sell DVDs... because I could watch Dr. Horrible whenever I feel like (but am trying so hard not to while I am here because it will burn through my internet... my internet expires on April 12, so if I have internet left over on the 11th, I am just going to watch Dr. Horrible a ton of times), but I do really want the DVD because I want to hear Commentary! The Musical... I'm such a sucker like that.
In other news, Tamar and I are going to putter around downtown in a little bit, and then purchase tea somewhere downtown so we can go to the beach and have a picnic! Yes! Picnic! At the beach! I love Christchurch!
So I did already read the lyrics to the first song because I have no restraint, and it looks awesome. For those of you who don't know Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, it stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day, and I highly recommend it. It was originally written during the writer's strike and is a free-to-see internet musical. You can Google it and the website should come up, which links to Hulu. If Hulu isn't doing the trick, try alluc.
So it is true, in the first song, they say that it is commentaries like these that sell DVDs... because I could watch Dr. Horrible whenever I feel like (but am trying so hard not to while I am here because it will burn through my internet... my internet expires on April 12, so if I have internet left over on the 11th, I am just going to watch Dr. Horrible a ton of times), but I do really want the DVD because I want to hear Commentary! The Musical... I'm such a sucker like that.
In other news, Tamar and I are going to putter around downtown in a little bit, and then purchase tea somewhere downtown so we can go to the beach and have a picnic! Yes! Picnic! At the beach! I love Christchurch!
Swings
So, I was looking through Kurt Halsey's website per xkcd suggestion, and I was looking at the calendar in his store. When I'm too lazy to look at an entire calendar, I just skip to May to see if May is any good. Well, May is AWESOME. So, if you google Kurt Halsey and enter his website and look at store, click on the calendar (the image for the calendar is a boy and a girl jumping a fence), then look at May. Don't know 'bout the rest of the calendar... let me know if you look at the others.
Also, do we have flying foxes (the playground equipment) in the States? I know that we never had one in Juneau, but that's also just Juneau. Apparently it is like a zipline but on a much much smaller scale. Of course, this is coming from someone who didn't know what a zipline was until I explained it, so perhaps not the best of descriptions. If anyone has more information on this topic, I would love to know. I saw Weet-bix today, and next is the flying fox at the playground down the street. Eventually a proper rugby game. Lord of the Rings marathon (Nick is sure that it will happen, but I think that I am going to be ready to leave by hour eight... and leave with four hours left...). But how awesome would it be to watch it with a bunch of Kiwis who can just tell you where all of the movie is shot? Because it was shot all over New Zealand, there are locations on both Islands. But really, twelve hours?
Also, this will probably not mean much to any of you, but the Black Caps got to 619 today before declaring!!! It means 1) that they had an awesome first inning, and 2) they had SUCH an awesome first inning that they had to stop before they were batted out because if they don't finish all four innings in five days, it is a draw. So, this is cricket, and here is what will hopefully be a brief explanation:
The cricket game I went to was a Twenty20 game, which means 20 overs per team. A test, which is what the Black Caps are playing against India now, goes until the entire team is batted out. That means that each batsman on the team plays until he is out, so they cycle through all 11 (ten outs, because the last batsman cannot play without a partner), and that is the inning. There are two innings per team for a total of four, BUT if not all the innings are completed within a five day period, the game is a draw. So, even if you are doing awesomely and you score like a thousand points (which would be ridiculous) before you are batted out, that would likely take three or four or five days. Then the chances of getting through all four innings are very slim, and at the end you'd have nothing to show for all your awesomeness because it would just show as a tie. So, each team has the option of declaring (ending its inning early, before all the batsmen are out). It is tricky to find the balance between declaring at a high enough score that your opponent doesn't then beat it and declaring early enough that all the innings get played through. I didn't know this until today, but 619 is like ridiculously high. So they declared at 619, and tomorrow will start the second inning, India batting. There are three days left in the test, so hopefully they'll get through all the innings, and hopefully, the Black Caps will win.
That was not brief and I apologize. But maybe you understood?
Games night tomorrow, so pictionary, taboo, all manner of excellent games to be played. Also tomorrow, fencers go to Cherry Blossom! Good luck, fencers!
Okay, last last last thing: I came so close to beating Greg at pool today. Well, not really, but we each had one ball left, which is the closest I've ever come to beating anyone, much less Greg (the best player I've played with). We were playing on the cruddy table in the common room, which spits every ball out of the corner pockets and makes life difficult. Okay, that was it! Bye!
Also, do we have flying foxes (the playground equipment) in the States? I know that we never had one in Juneau, but that's also just Juneau. Apparently it is like a zipline but on a much much smaller scale. Of course, this is coming from someone who didn't know what a zipline was until I explained it, so perhaps not the best of descriptions. If anyone has more information on this topic, I would love to know. I saw Weet-bix today, and next is the flying fox at the playground down the street. Eventually a proper rugby game. Lord of the Rings marathon (Nick is sure that it will happen, but I think that I am going to be ready to leave by hour eight... and leave with four hours left...). But how awesome would it be to watch it with a bunch of Kiwis who can just tell you where all of the movie is shot? Because it was shot all over New Zealand, there are locations on both Islands. But really, twelve hours?
Also, this will probably not mean much to any of you, but the Black Caps got to 619 today before declaring!!! It means 1) that they had an awesome first inning, and 2) they had SUCH an awesome first inning that they had to stop before they were batted out because if they don't finish all four innings in five days, it is a draw. So, this is cricket, and here is what will hopefully be a brief explanation:
The cricket game I went to was a Twenty20 game, which means 20 overs per team. A test, which is what the Black Caps are playing against India now, goes until the entire team is batted out. That means that each batsman on the team plays until he is out, so they cycle through all 11 (ten outs, because the last batsman cannot play without a partner), and that is the inning. There are two innings per team for a total of four, BUT if not all the innings are completed within a five day period, the game is a draw. So, even if you are doing awesomely and you score like a thousand points (which would be ridiculous) before you are batted out, that would likely take three or four or five days. Then the chances of getting through all four innings are very slim, and at the end you'd have nothing to show for all your awesomeness because it would just show as a tie. So, each team has the option of declaring (ending its inning early, before all the batsmen are out). It is tricky to find the balance between declaring at a high enough score that your opponent doesn't then beat it and declaring early enough that all the innings get played through. I didn't know this until today, but 619 is like ridiculously high. So they declared at 619, and tomorrow will start the second inning, India batting. There are three days left in the test, so hopefully they'll get through all the innings, and hopefully, the Black Caps will win.
That was not brief and I apologize. But maybe you understood?
Games night tomorrow, so pictionary, taboo, all manner of excellent games to be played. Also tomorrow, fencers go to Cherry Blossom! Good luck, fencers!
Okay, last last last thing: I came so close to beating Greg at pool today. Well, not really, but we each had one ball left, which is the closest I've ever come to beating anyone, much less Greg (the best player I've played with). We were playing on the cruddy table in the common room, which spits every ball out of the corner pockets and makes life difficult. Okay, that was it! Bye!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Flatmates
I really have not shouted out enough to my three awesome flatmates. Also, due to the wonders of facebook, I now know how to spell all of their names.
Mei Xiu is always inviting me to join them for dinners and helped me get the skeeter eater out of my room. Wawa and Mei Xiu taught me how to heat my room. Wawa provided the extra mattress for all of us to use, obtained a super long telephone extension so that we can all take the phone into our rooms for private use, and is constantly trying to feed me delicious food. Nana is pretty much the best person to share a bathroom with - our bathroom is immaculate. Also, and this is the reason I am posting this today instead of some other day, she got a moth out of my room this morning.
So I was getting dressed, dum de dum, what shall I wear, Jesse Bear, and I noticed a leaf on one of my dirty socks, and my first reaction was Oh god moth freak out, but that happens to me all the time and after that moment of panic I tell myself, quite reasonably, that it is probably just a leaf and I should make sure before freaking out. So I leaned in closer, and yeah, it wasn't a leaf, it was a proper moth. They have these little ones that Kate pointed out to me when I first got here
Lisa: There is some sort of dead bug over here.
Kate: Oh it's just a moth.
Lisa: Oh god! (recoils)
Kate: Oh right, oops...
Anyway, those barely even count, they just look like normal insects. The one on my sock was like the kind in Juneau that land on the window at dinner time and stay there until dawn the next morning like a little spade of death. So I stood there a little bit panic stricken for a moment before I had the sense to go and ask Nana if she would help me. So she got a tissue and picked up the moth and took it outside. It didn't move when she let it free, and she was like, I think I killed it... So then she disposed of it by wrapping it up in many tissues because she is an angel.
I hope that I can meet up with them in Wellington just because they are awesome, but I'm not sure I will go to the North Island after all because it is such a short amount of time. I will probably go either with Ben or Claire, or with both, so maybe I will just wait. Also, Erin will be here then! and if I leave, I will see her for one day... she will be here from the 7th to the 22nd, and if I go ahead with my present travel plans, I will see her on the 16th and that is it.
Oh, and some other New Zealand things.
1. Crutches here are different. There is this sort of cuff that goes around the lower arm. The cuff goes at the top and comes off the crutch at a ninety degree angle. Then lower down there is a handle coming off the crutch at a ninety degree angle as well. That's where the hands go. So there is no part that goes under your arms like the kind we see in the States.
2. "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" (or worms, or however you learned it) is "Never Eat Soggy Weet-bix" here. Weet-bix is like a big, solid wheatie. It's eaten with milk so that it softens up. It is sort of a cross between cereal and a muesli bar. I said "never eat soggy waffles" while we were determining strikes and dips and Nick and the other Kiwis around me all laughed at me... I suppose it is sort of silly, since "soggy" is not a usual state of waffles, but you know if you leave them in the fridge, they get sort of soggy... anyway. So Weet-bix. Weet-bix is also a sponsor of the All Blacks national rugby team.
3. There are hardly any crosswalks (getting to uni from Ilam across a busy road each day is a learned skill), but when there are, they are non-negotiable. Cars must stop there for pedestrians NO MATTER WHAT. They are marked with large orange circles, and some pedestrians don't even look when they cross at zebra crossings.
4. Cashiers will check the signature on your credit card if you sign for it (instead of entering a pin, which they have for both debit - called EFTPOS - and credit). I always put my card away (because it is often self-swipe) and then have to fetch it out again when I remember that they want to see it.
I don't have that many this time around, sorry. Hope all is well!
Mei Xiu is always inviting me to join them for dinners and helped me get the skeeter eater out of my room. Wawa and Mei Xiu taught me how to heat my room. Wawa provided the extra mattress for all of us to use, obtained a super long telephone extension so that we can all take the phone into our rooms for private use, and is constantly trying to feed me delicious food. Nana is pretty much the best person to share a bathroom with - our bathroom is immaculate. Also, and this is the reason I am posting this today instead of some other day, she got a moth out of my room this morning.
So I was getting dressed, dum de dum, what shall I wear, Jesse Bear, and I noticed a leaf on one of my dirty socks, and my first reaction was Oh god moth freak out, but that happens to me all the time and after that moment of panic I tell myself, quite reasonably, that it is probably just a leaf and I should make sure before freaking out. So I leaned in closer, and yeah, it wasn't a leaf, it was a proper moth. They have these little ones that Kate pointed out to me when I first got here
Lisa: There is some sort of dead bug over here.
Kate: Oh it's just a moth.
Lisa: Oh god! (recoils)
Kate: Oh right, oops...
Anyway, those barely even count, they just look like normal insects. The one on my sock was like the kind in Juneau that land on the window at dinner time and stay there until dawn the next morning like a little spade of death. So I stood there a little bit panic stricken for a moment before I had the sense to go and ask Nana if she would help me. So she got a tissue and picked up the moth and took it outside. It didn't move when she let it free, and she was like, I think I killed it... So then she disposed of it by wrapping it up in many tissues because she is an angel.
I hope that I can meet up with them in Wellington just because they are awesome, but I'm not sure I will go to the North Island after all because it is such a short amount of time. I will probably go either with Ben or Claire, or with both, so maybe I will just wait. Also, Erin will be here then! and if I leave, I will see her for one day... she will be here from the 7th to the 22nd, and if I go ahead with my present travel plans, I will see her on the 16th and that is it.
Oh, and some other New Zealand things.
1. Crutches here are different. There is this sort of cuff that goes around the lower arm. The cuff goes at the top and comes off the crutch at a ninety degree angle. Then lower down there is a handle coming off the crutch at a ninety degree angle as well. That's where the hands go. So there is no part that goes under your arms like the kind we see in the States.
2. "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" (or worms, or however you learned it) is "Never Eat Soggy Weet-bix" here. Weet-bix is like a big, solid wheatie. It's eaten with milk so that it softens up. It is sort of a cross between cereal and a muesli bar. I said "never eat soggy waffles" while we were determining strikes and dips and Nick and the other Kiwis around me all laughed at me... I suppose it is sort of silly, since "soggy" is not a usual state of waffles, but you know if you leave them in the fridge, they get sort of soggy... anyway. So Weet-bix. Weet-bix is also a sponsor of the All Blacks national rugby team.
3. There are hardly any crosswalks (getting to uni from Ilam across a busy road each day is a learned skill), but when there are, they are non-negotiable. Cars must stop there for pedestrians NO MATTER WHAT. They are marked with large orange circles, and some pedestrians don't even look when they cross at zebra crossings.
4. Cashiers will check the signature on your credit card if you sign for it (instead of entering a pin, which they have for both debit - called EFTPOS - and credit). I always put my card away (because it is often self-swipe) and then have to fetch it out again when I remember that they want to see it.
I don't have that many this time around, sorry. Hope all is well!
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