One highlight since I last wrote was a panel discussion on human rights that I went to. The topic was whether there are such things as universal human rights or not. Now, the panel was lacking a committed cultural relativist so there was no one there saying that all such concepts are cultural constructions and that there's no such thing as objective right and wrong or anything like that. However, there was much good discussion and lots of arguments against cultural relativism. This was helpful because I always find myself arguing against relativism, and it was nice to get some backup.
My semester has just ended, so there was a lot going on at university lately. The most exciting things was a mini "conference" that I had to take part in along with all the other students working on doing research with my psychology professor. We all had to give 20 minute presentations on our research and then take questions. It was terrifying but fun. We got to use a nice conference room at the university and various bigwigs came by to give us words of encouragement. Afterwords, we all went out for a really nice dinner at the house of a woman who owns a restaurant in town. The woman is very Italian and also very New-Agey, so she hugged us all upon entry, gave us various heavily accented speeches about eating only fresh foods, and corrected my posture while I attempted to grate cheese for her. In about 2 months, we are all going to present again at the New Zealand Psychological Society annual conference, which is going to be much more terrifying, but a good experience.
I thought I would leave you with a few cultural tidbits:
First of all, what I had long suspcted has recently been confirmed by my flatmates: New Zealanders do not rinse their plates before drying them. So if you're drying, they hand you a plate covered in soap suds and bits of food and you're just supposed to smear it all off with the towel. This supposedly has something to do with most houses only having one kitchen sink, but personally I'm not buying that and still just think it's kind of gross. I'm trying to adjust. Other foreigners I have talked to here have noted the same thing, so it's not just me.
Also, my belief in the superiority of American desserts has been vindicated once again, as the "American-style" Brownies I made went over exceedingly well with people here. (What they know as brownies tend to be kind of dry, or at best very chewy and tough.) The parts of the world I've lived in so far just doesn't understand the concept of decadence in desserts. I'm obviously not planning my destinations very well.
Our lounge, or living room.
Standing in the same place as above. This is part of the same room.
Our kitchen. Note the steam issuing from the kitchen sink. In our house, you can perpetually see your breath, and everything steams because it is very COLD!
The view from our balcony.
