This is my first experience living away from home not in a dorm with dining halls around every corner. It has been so enjoyable! At first it was a little bit of a shock to make food for myself every meal. However, after a week of straight pb&j and a conversation with mom about recipes my diet has become much more diverse. My recent favorites have been pasta salad, pesto pasta, Nutella!!, my new strawberry jam (not even close to as good as mom’s), and fresh random veges (veggies). Flatting with three other girls has been really fun and only a wee (little) bit dramatic. There was only one big issue between two of the girls and it has been resolved and they have moved on, so that is awesome. This living experience is very good practice for my living situation next year. I’ll be living in a house with 7-8 of my good friends at Miami! I have discovered that I like to do dishes and laundry. I kind of can’t wait to be a mom and have a house of my own :) That is a stage of life that I am quite looking forward to whenever, if ever it occurs.
Classes are going well. This is the third week of class and everything is going smoothly. Statistics lecture is getting more and more tempting to skip, but I haven’t done it yet. I think the only reason I would do so would be to go walk a dog for the SPCA (animal cruelty/pound place) some morning. I need a dog fix. Geology classes are awesome. Sometimes I just can’t help but smile in a lecture when I realize I’m in New Zealand learning about terranes in the NW United States that are “like Viking death ships”. My professor is an incredibly intelligent sedimentologist/paleontologist who has found many, many amazing fossils in NZ and was influential in discovering two new families of fossils. He’s kind of a big deal. I am thrilled to be learning about this beautiful world we inhabit.
In Basins class today we started “picking” our forams. This process is done with a TINY TINY miniscule paintbrush and a microscope. We find the microfossil/foram and pick it up with the brush and place it on a special slide. We then identify, orient and arrange then on the slide. This process will be going on for the next few weeks. Forams are stunning shells of single-celled ancient organisms. Under the microscope it’s like a whole new world that you have never seen anything like in the macroscopic world. Mom told me this before I left when we were talking about studying forams in this class...I had no idea how right she was. Making the foram slide is going to be a pain in the butt, but I will enjoy it! Here are pictures of a few different kinds of forams if you are interested...
Planktic Forams
Bethic Forams
I found a few that look like this one, I think the genus is Textularius
Geology 252 class, on the other hand, is quite quirky. I love it, but I never know what exactly I’m supposed to be doing. This is the class that is going to make me a “real geologist”. The class is split into two lab sections that meet on Thursday (other than this lab we just have field trips)...the teachers for my section are Dushan and Tim. Dushan is a sarcastic, masters student with a dry sense of humor and an intimidating demeanor. Tim is in postgrad as well, he comes off as mean, he’s not mean but he is extremely sarcastic and sometimes rude/crude. They are both really funny, if you this sarcasm is funny (I do). They love to make fun of Americans. They assured us that they will teach us how to be real geologist. I’m looking forward to that.
Lab class is vexing. I really like the exercises we do, but I am never exactly sure what is expected of me. Possibly by the end of the semester I will have a better grasp on this. Here are a few things I find helpful for geology in NZ:
GEONZ Helpful Hint #1: Always ask questions.
GEONZ Helpful Hint #2: Be content not knowing expectations.
GEONZ Helpful Hint #3: Don't be intimidated.
GEONZ Helpful Hint #4: Use sarcasm tactfully.
GEONZ Helpful Hint #5: Do your best.
GEONZ Helpful Hint #6: Try not to care.
Dushan arranges a few trips each year for international students. He said this is so we can go to some places we would never be able to see in NZ. This coming weekend a small group of Americans, yours truly included, are going to Fiordland and Milford Sound on the West coast. My friend Drew from Butler is coming too. This trip will include day tramps (hikes) and camping on the tops, four wheel driving, camping or sleeping outside, jumping DOC (Department of Conservation) fences and lots of driving. I am BEYOND excited.
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