Seriously, where is time going? This is ridiculous! AHH!! We still have half our papers to write, but apparently they are due a week from now, oh boy. Should be fine, hopefully we will get our results back today. Unfortunately the Quest has been a bit dull for the past couple weeks. All the other groups came back from their trips and everyone’s pretty much just writing now.
Last night was a blast though. We had a joint birthday party for 3 of the staff members and a few of the students. SO many people were here, well for the Quest it was a lot of people and of course I was on kitchen crew and had to clean all the dishes. But the food was SO GOOD! One of the cooks husband made a rotisserie from a keg, so unbelievably cool, not gonna lie. Anyways, there was so much food. Hors d’oeuvres, pasta salad, pulled pork, potatoes, salad, curry rice salad thing, sausages, lentil patties, couscous, etc. YUM! Then for desert, a giant cake with awesome frosting, homemade chocolate éclairs and these maple coffee square things. But besides the food it was really fun to have everyone there having a good time. It felt like the earlier days at the quest where we would all just hang out, play frisbee and grill. It’s been awhile since that’s happened.
After hanging out here we all went down to the pub for Maree’s (field leader) boyfriend playing music. SO GOOD. He’s Irish and has an awesome voice and can play so many instruments. He was the one that played the drum and flute/recorder thing in the cave at Poor Knights. They played a bunch of music and had a good variety. I actually liked their rendition of some American songs more than I like the original song. It was really fun to jump around and fail at doing an Irish jig, haha. Even the staff was dancing. Bottom line, it was a very good night. :)
Not too much else to report on. I’m getting things ready for Australia seeing that I am going to be there sooner than I realize. AH! Should be good though, it will definitely be another adventure.
Fun Facts:
Jandals = flip flops
Courgette = zucchini
Ratbag = child
Bumbag = fanny pack
Dairy = corner store
Entrée = Hors d’oeuvres
Lolly = candy
Wellies = gumboots
Tramping = hiking
Rubbish = trash
Banger = sausage
Common Phrases: No worries, Bugger, Sweet As, Cheers
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Lovin' The Quest
So its DRP time and everyone seems to be scattered around all the time. None of the groups schedules really mesh together well so it’s interesting to figure out when you can actually hang out with people outside your own research group. It does kind of suck that this how we are spending our last month here. We finally get to know everyone pretty well, especially after the 3 weeks of close quarters in the South Island, and all of a sudden we are split up. Three of the groups left this week to go to their respective places for data collection. My group, marine debris, and the education team are staying at the quest. Unfortunately the education group is literally staying at here 24/7, we at least get to travel to a few beaches during the day.
Marine debris is turning out to be quite hysterical, our data collection is anyways. Our methods for rubbish collection is basically 4 people walking with 3m horizontal sticks protruding from our backpacks side by side down a 500m long transect line. It’s quite the site to see. I carry my ihome in my backpack so whoever is in my group gets the jams :) Sorting through the rubbish is pretty interesting as well, usually very smelly, but we get to see everything people collected. The first day we found a dried up baby hammerhead shark. Obviously it didn’t count in our data but it was really cool none the less. We’ve found some huge aquaculture ropes, rusted engines, clothing, disgusting nappies (diapers) and who knows what else. We are planning on decorating the wet lab (our work place) with our treasures, or at least I am planning on it, haha.
Friday night we went to a Cheifs rugby game. SO MUCH FUN. And SO unbelievably intense. Those guys are beasts, legit, they are huge. They were playing South Africa (Bulls) who are apparently one of the best teams in South Africa. We lost but it was close for awhile, some really awesome plays. There are like 6 of the All Blacks players on the Cheifs which was awesome. I really wanted to see an All Blacks game, but I’m really glad I got to see the Chiefs!
Instead of writing the introduction to my paper yesterday (which ended up to be 7 full pages, just the intro…holy crap) I went kayaking with a few people to the shipwreck again. The tide was lower than the first time I went so it was cool seeing more of the ship. Afterwards we went to fish & chips. SO GOOD. They are apparently the best in New Zealand which I don’t have a hard time believing. I have a feeling I will be there every weekend until we leave. Probably not a good idea.
I realized the other day that I am roughly only half way through my time away from the states. Everyone keeps talking about 3 more weeks here and then they are going home, I tend to forget that I am not leaving yet, haha. Ten more weeks in Australia, wow! Everything seems to be playing out well with that so far though; it has been a bit stressful trying to figure out all the grant stuff but hopefully it’s just about done! I should be doing some really awesome field work while I am there in addition to the project I am doing. I can’t wait! :)
Marine Debris and our sticks
Its a tough life
RUGBY!
Marine debris is turning out to be quite hysterical, our data collection is anyways. Our methods for rubbish collection is basically 4 people walking with 3m horizontal sticks protruding from our backpacks side by side down a 500m long transect line. It’s quite the site to see. I carry my ihome in my backpack so whoever is in my group gets the jams :) Sorting through the rubbish is pretty interesting as well, usually very smelly, but we get to see everything people collected. The first day we found a dried up baby hammerhead shark. Obviously it didn’t count in our data but it was really cool none the less. We’ve found some huge aquaculture ropes, rusted engines, clothing, disgusting nappies (diapers) and who knows what else. We are planning on decorating the wet lab (our work place) with our treasures, or at least I am planning on it, haha.
Friday night we went to a Cheifs rugby game. SO MUCH FUN. And SO unbelievably intense. Those guys are beasts, legit, they are huge. They were playing South Africa (Bulls) who are apparently one of the best teams in South Africa. We lost but it was close for awhile, some really awesome plays. There are like 6 of the All Blacks players on the Cheifs which was awesome. I really wanted to see an All Blacks game, but I’m really glad I got to see the Chiefs!
Instead of writing the introduction to my paper yesterday (which ended up to be 7 full pages, just the intro…holy crap) I went kayaking with a few people to the shipwreck again. The tide was lower than the first time I went so it was cool seeing more of the ship. Afterwards we went to fish & chips. SO GOOD. They are apparently the best in New Zealand which I don’t have a hard time believing. I have a feeling I will be there every weekend until we leave. Probably not a good idea.
I realized the other day that I am roughly only half way through my time away from the states. Everyone keeps talking about 3 more weeks here and then they are going home, I tend to forget that I am not leaving yet, haha. Ten more weeks in Australia, wow! Everything seems to be playing out well with that so far though; it has been a bit stressful trying to figure out all the grant stuff but hopefully it’s just about done! I should be doing some really awesome field work while I am there in addition to the project I am doing. I can’t wait! :)
Marine Debris and our sticks
Its a tough life
RUGBY!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Week 10
I can’t believe it has been over 2 months. WHAT?! Where has all that time gone? We have done SO much though, it is unbelievable. We have been back at The Quest this past week, where I will remain for the next 5 weeks. No more fun trips, at least not during school time.
We spent last week mostly doing work. We were told of a debate assignment, in which we didn’t get a grade so nobody was very motivated to do anything for it. It turned out well though. They didn’t pick the speakers were going to be until an hour before the debate which was a little annoying and of course with my luck I got picked as a speaker. It was good though. Our topic was about the Clean Streams Accord, we were in favor and lost. Apparently ‘it was close though’, whatevs haha.
We had our final on Thursday, 3 ½ hours of essay-like questions. Boo. It was significantly better than the midterm though, it helps when you don’t have a presentation the day before to prepare for. :) Hopefully I will find out what my grades are soon! 3 classes down, 1 to go! It’s amazing how much less work and stress I had for those 3 classes. I would have like 4 times that for just one class at UNH. Go figure.
After the final we had a four day weekend. Eight of us went down to Taupo and Rotorua for two days of the weekend. In total, I drove over 1000 km in like 2 ½ days, lots of gas money. The ride down to Taupo was SO long but at least there was some good music on the radio for most of the ride. We hit a station that was playing 90’s music the entire weekend. Some dancing and rockin out to Blue and some Backstreet Boys happened. It was awesome. We didn’t get to the campsite till 12 am, after leaving The Quest at like 6:30 pm. Boo. The next morning a smaller group did the Tangariro Crossing hike (8 hours), but I thought that I shouldn’t chance it with my knee. We saw Mt. Doom though!! Pretty awesome, go Lord of the Rings. A couple of us did a smaller waterfall hike which turned out to be pretty awesome then went to a small lake and hung out for awhile. That night we drove up to Rotorua that night and stayed at a camp ground. We found out that New Zealanders take their holidays seriously. The DoC site we were at had TONS of families with tents that seriously had 8 rooms. They were huge. The next morning we went Zorbing! SO MUCH FUN! For those of you who I have not already explained it to, you are basically in a huge plastic ball with some water inside and roll down a hill. We did a zigzagged track, it was so insanely fun! You are literally uncontrollably rolling around getting soaked in water. I want to do it again and apparently they have one in Tennessee. Road trip anyone?
The remaining couple days of the weekend were pretty chill except for the 30 km bike ride I had to do. When we returned the cars we didn’t have anyone to come pick us up, so we rode back. Longest bike ride I’ve ever been on but it really wasn’t that bad. Could be those morning bike rides though. :)
We are starting our DRP’s this week (directed research projects), but I will discuss that more this coming week since I probably won’t have much else to talk about.
Mt. Doom!
Tongariro Crossing
Waterfall 1
Waterfall 2
ZORBING!
So awesome.
Fun Fact
I have had more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches here than I have had in my entire life. Significantly more.
We spent last week mostly doing work. We were told of a debate assignment, in which we didn’t get a grade so nobody was very motivated to do anything for it. It turned out well though. They didn’t pick the speakers were going to be until an hour before the debate which was a little annoying and of course with my luck I got picked as a speaker. It was good though. Our topic was about the Clean Streams Accord, we were in favor and lost. Apparently ‘it was close though’, whatevs haha.
We had our final on Thursday, 3 ½ hours of essay-like questions. Boo. It was significantly better than the midterm though, it helps when you don’t have a presentation the day before to prepare for. :) Hopefully I will find out what my grades are soon! 3 classes down, 1 to go! It’s amazing how much less work and stress I had for those 3 classes. I would have like 4 times that for just one class at UNH. Go figure.
After the final we had a four day weekend. Eight of us went down to Taupo and Rotorua for two days of the weekend. In total, I drove over 1000 km in like 2 ½ days, lots of gas money. The ride down to Taupo was SO long but at least there was some good music on the radio for most of the ride. We hit a station that was playing 90’s music the entire weekend. Some dancing and rockin out to Blue and some Backstreet Boys happened. It was awesome. We didn’t get to the campsite till 12 am, after leaving The Quest at like 6:30 pm. Boo. The next morning a smaller group did the Tangariro Crossing hike (8 hours), but I thought that I shouldn’t chance it with my knee. We saw Mt. Doom though!! Pretty awesome, go Lord of the Rings. A couple of us did a smaller waterfall hike which turned out to be pretty awesome then went to a small lake and hung out for awhile. That night we drove up to Rotorua that night and stayed at a camp ground. We found out that New Zealanders take their holidays seriously. The DoC site we were at had TONS of families with tents that seriously had 8 rooms. They were huge. The next morning we went Zorbing! SO MUCH FUN! For those of you who I have not already explained it to, you are basically in a huge plastic ball with some water inside and roll down a hill. We did a zigzagged track, it was so insanely fun! You are literally uncontrollably rolling around getting soaked in water. I want to do it again and apparently they have one in Tennessee. Road trip anyone?
The remaining couple days of the weekend were pretty chill except for the 30 km bike ride I had to do. When we returned the cars we didn’t have anyone to come pick us up, so we rode back. Longest bike ride I’ve ever been on but it really wasn’t that bad. Could be those morning bike rides though. :)
We are starting our DRP’s this week (directed research projects), but I will discuss that more this coming week since I probably won’t have much else to talk about.
Mt. Doom!
Tongariro Crossing
Waterfall 1
Waterfall 2
ZORBING!
So awesome.
Fun Fact
I have had more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches here than I have had in my entire life. Significantly more.
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