Hello all!

I am currently recovering from the last week of classes. Things were pretty crazy assignment-wise, and on Monday I had to give a talk for the members of the psychology lab I worked with this year. I have to admit that all these talks have been good for me. I really wasn't too nervous about actually giving the talk this time, just about the content.

I've still got two Spanish exams, and then I will be done with my Bachelors! My plan is to go back for an Honors year next year (kind of like the first year of a Masters). I'll take classes in psychology and Spanish and do a year-long project in psyc. At this point, I'm deciding between working with a professor who measures brain activation and response to emotional stimuli and working with another professor who studies children's abilities as eyewitnesses as well as how they develop healthy mechanisms for processing emotions. I'm leaning in the latter direction, because I've recently decided that I might want to work with kids in some capacity in the long term.

I'll be staying in Wellington for most of the southern summer, measuring electrical signals in the brain (ERP, for those who care) and looking at how they relate to certain kinds of decision-making. However, I will be coming back to Ohio for 3 weeks at Christmas!

Recent highlights included visiting the tulips at the Botanic Garden. They were absolutely amazing. There were brilliant color combinations and everything was just beautiful. They're all gone now, but I suppose their ephemeral nature is part of the charm. There are still lots of flowers springing up along the hills around my house.

A couple of my flatmates and I took part in a flash mob on Friday, meaning that we all trooped into a food court, froze in position for 5 minutes, and then went our separate ways. We managed to confuse large numbers of people, which was the goal. I love the concept of flash mobs and the fact that their whole aim is pretty much to show people something that they are not expecting.

I also went to an interesting talk a few weeks back about the banning of cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are problematic because many of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, meaning that they often kill civilians after a conflict has ended. New Zealand was instrumental in getting a recent cluster-bombs ban signed into effect. (Unsurprisingly, the US didn't sign it, but quite a few other major players did.) The talk was given by a NZ government negotiator and a representative of a Non-profit that was involved in the fight. It was very inspiring, because it is an example of a time when a small country, as well as private organizations, actually were able to accomplish significant change.

One more movie plug to send you off with: go see Ponyo if you get the chance. It is a delightful animated movie very loosely based on the story of The Little Mermaid. It's probably aimed at kids, but was very enjoyable for my friends and me (which may or may not tell you anything). It's from the creator of Spirited Away and other well-knowns anime movies, but I'd recommend it even if you don't really like anime. It's just very whimsical and fun.

Take care, everybody!