Hello all,
No exciting pictures this time as I'm pretty much working flat out to finish my Honors year alive at this point. I keep thinking I'm about as busy as can be and then getting busier. In case anyone's wondering, I didn't even notice the earthquake, although apparently many Wellingtonians did. It sounds like Christchurch is a real mess, but thankfully there were no casualties.
Classes continue apace. I'm also working as a research assistant for one of my professors. We're trying to see if we can improve kids' emotion understanding with an intervention using stories that emphasize emotions. (This is important because good emotion understanding is related to better social, academic, and mental health outcomes as children grow up.) The study involves going out to preschools and kindergartens and getting 3-year-olds to sit still and pay attention while we read to them and ask them questions. Needless to say, this can be a frustrating task. It's lots of fun playing with the kids though. It's also nice to get out of the university, where I would otherwise spend most of my time chained to a computer.
To add further variety, I'm working on a project to raise funds and awareness about the Pakistan floods, which have left 20 million people in need of assistance but are getting relatively little attention. (For a well-written and nuanced account of one writer's experience in Pakistan, see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/opinion/26sethi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4 )
There have also been a few interesting presentations here. Yesterday I saw a talk about the archeological evidence that Pacific Islanders made it to the west coast of the Americas well before Columbus landed. (Essentially, they found pre-Columbian chicken bones that shouldn't be there, since the Europeans were supposed to have introduced chickens to the Americas.) It was fascinating. They're also using gene-sequencing to trace lineages of people and animals, thus showing how prehistoric people may have moved across the world.
Another interesting talk I went to was about the idea of using a Financial Transactions Tax to rein in the financial sector (perhaps using the revenue for development work as a bonus). Apparently this idea is gaining traction given the underlying causes of the current economic crisis. Mostly, this talk just reinforced for me that I know absolutely nothing about economics and should really learn more.
Otherwise, I am spending my days applying for various things. It looks like law school is the best bet for where I'll be next Fall.
Until next time!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Back to uni any minute now . . .
Greetings! I'm now in the last few days of the mid-year uni break. The last semester ended in a haze of assignment-writing and studying, and I've had a comparatively easy last few weeks. I've been working on transcribing interviews from my year-long research project.
I just got back from a few days in New Plymouth, a town along the west coast about 6 hours north of Wellington by bus. My flatmates all laughed at me when I said I was going there, as they seemed to think it was not a very exciting place. However, I had a great time! The weather was beautiful. It was just nicely warm in the sun, though it got quite cold at night. I went hiking along the shore in the mornings and basically spent my afternoons reading. New Plymouth’s coastline isn’t particularly dramatic, but it is very pretty and Mt. Taranaki in the background provides a nice focal point as well. Some of the early European settlers apparently landed here in around the 1840s, and there are lots of monuments to them scattered around the area. Pictures below.
Getting away for a little while was great. I think I've discovered that I really need times away to just be quiet and take in some nature in order to maintain my sanity the rest of the time. Now I'm back in Wellington where it is getting down almost to freezing at night (both inside and outside our house, of course).
Next semester I will be continuing my Spanish literature course, as well as taking Abnormal psych and another neuropsychology course. They look like they should be fun! I've recently started singing with the Wellington Community Choir, and I hope to keep that up as well. I'm finding it tough getting back into singing, but it's a lot of fun and the choir is a really interesting group of people - a different cross section of Wellington than I'm used to.
I continue to explore career/employment options. The myriad possibilities at the moment include law school or social work grad school, maybe preceded by trying to get into Teach for America, a program where you teach in a high-need area for two years.
It'll probably be a while before my next update, I'm afraid. Hasta entonces.
Paritutu rock, a bit of an old volcano. I had to walk west of the main port to get there, past lots of industrial sites.
A cemetery with some pretty old graves and monuments to preachers "massacred" by Maori and the like.
I just got back from a few days in New Plymouth, a town along the west coast about 6 hours north of Wellington by bus. My flatmates all laughed at me when I said I was going there, as they seemed to think it was not a very exciting place. However, I had a great time! The weather was beautiful. It was just nicely warm in the sun, though it got quite cold at night. I went hiking along the shore in the mornings and basically spent my afternoons reading. New Plymouth’s coastline isn’t particularly dramatic, but it is very pretty and Mt. Taranaki in the background provides a nice focal point as well. Some of the early European settlers apparently landed here in around the 1840s, and there are lots of monuments to them scattered around the area. Pictures below.
Getting away for a little while was great. I think I've discovered that I really need times away to just be quiet and take in some nature in order to maintain my sanity the rest of the time. Now I'm back in Wellington where it is getting down almost to freezing at night (both inside and outside our house, of course).
Next semester I will be continuing my Spanish literature course, as well as taking Abnormal psych and another neuropsychology course. They look like they should be fun! I've recently started singing with the Wellington Community Choir, and I hope to keep that up as well. I'm finding it tough getting back into singing, but it's a lot of fun and the choir is a really interesting group of people - a different cross section of Wellington than I'm used to.
I continue to explore career/employment options. The myriad possibilities at the moment include law school or social work grad school, maybe preceded by trying to get into Teach for America, a program where you teach in a high-need area for two years.
It'll probably be a while before my next update, I'm afraid. Hasta entonces.
Looking out along the coast from Paritutu Rock.
Mt. Taranaki seen from Paritutu Rock. Mt. Taranaki according to legend used to hang out with Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ruapehu etc. (whom I met on my last excursion). The mountains were all in love with Mt. Pihanga and eventually fought for her. Tongariro won, and Taranaki was wounded and limped away to the coast, creating the Whanganui River and other natural features as he went. While he slept, the Pouakai ranges blocked him in, trapping him where he now rests.
The way down from Paritutu rock. It was almost vertical in spots.
(No, I did not take photos while climbing down.)
(No, I did not take photos while climbing down.)
The city park
Saturday, April 17, 2010
She's ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!
Hello all, I'm sorry my tardiness has reached such epic proportions this time around. As a heads-up, I think I probably won't update again until June or so when I next have university holidays. This year has been really crazy so far in terms of work load. I'm doing my Hono(u)rs year at the moment, which is considered to be graduate level by NZ's reckoning, though I'm not convinced.
In any case, the emphasis has changed from learning in class to learning through reading and research. I only have 6 hours of class a week, and spend the rest of my time working on assignments and doing readings. There is a huge amount of work to be done. Psychology Honors has a reputation for being particularly evil, and all of us spend most of our time in a state of constant dread. (There are about 70 Psyc Honors students I think.) This is the main reason I haven't had time for blogging.
However, we all have fun together too when we're ignoring the incipient panic, and I'm learning a lot. I'm currently taking Drugs, Brain, & Behavior, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Latin American Literature. I'm also doing a big project looking at how kids use rating scales (like a series of smiley faces or a thermometer) to rate their feelings. I'm also a "tutor" for a 2nd year class, which basically means I run some of the lab sections for the class. I'm enjoying it, although I still find it quite nerve-wracking to be the voice of authority. My final major preoccupation of the moment is my attempt to figure out what to do with myself next year. Suggestions are welcome.
Exciting things in the last several months have included going to see a talk by Neil Gaiman (probably my favorite living author), seeing several shows at the New Zealand International Arts Festival (including some surprisingly enjoyable modern dance), and visiting Tongariro National Park.
Tongariro National Park is the home of Mt. Ngauruhoe (perhaps better known as Mt. Doom) and also of probably the most well-known day hike in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing. I took the train up. It was an absolutely beautiful journey north from Wellington, and I spent a few days in a mostly deserted town near the park. The hike was beautiful but crowded. Pictures follow. It was a great trip. I hope to do some traveling during the mid-year break as well. That's all for now, folks!
A vista from a hike in Wellington
An unfurling silver fern -the "koru" (spiral) shape of the unfurling leaf is
very important in Maori art and also as a general NZ symbol
In any case, the emphasis has changed from learning in class to learning through reading and research. I only have 6 hours of class a week, and spend the rest of my time working on assignments and doing readings. There is a huge amount of work to be done. Psychology Honors has a reputation for being particularly evil, and all of us spend most of our time in a state of constant dread. (There are about 70 Psyc Honors students I think.) This is the main reason I haven't had time for blogging.
However, we all have fun together too when we're ignoring the incipient panic, and I'm learning a lot. I'm currently taking Drugs, Brain, & Behavior, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Latin American Literature. I'm also doing a big project looking at how kids use rating scales (like a series of smiley faces or a thermometer) to rate their feelings. I'm also a "tutor" for a 2nd year class, which basically means I run some of the lab sections for the class. I'm enjoying it, although I still find it quite nerve-wracking to be the voice of authority. My final major preoccupation of the moment is my attempt to figure out what to do with myself next year. Suggestions are welcome.
Exciting things in the last several months have included going to see a talk by Neil Gaiman (probably my favorite living author), seeing several shows at the New Zealand International Arts Festival (including some surprisingly enjoyable modern dance), and visiting Tongariro National Park.
Tongariro National Park is the home of Mt. Ngauruhoe (perhaps better known as Mt. Doom) and also of probably the most well-known day hike in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing. I took the train up. It was an absolutely beautiful journey north from Wellington, and I spent a few days in a mostly deserted town near the park. The hike was beautiful but crowded. Pictures follow. It was a great trip. I hope to do some traveling during the mid-year break as well. That's all for now, folks!
A vista from a hike in Wellington
A stop on the train journey north -we were getting into ski country
and since it was off-season, it was basically a ghost town
and since it was off-season, it was basically a ghost town
An unfurling silver fern -the "koru" (spiral) shape of the unfurling leaf isvery important in Maori art and also as a general NZ symbol
Mt. Ngauruhoe (AKA Mt. Doom) -this and several of the other volcanoes in the area are active, in the sense that small amounts of smoke are coming from them and they could theoretically erupt at any time
A volcanic crater along the Tongariro Crossing
-about a minute later, the cloud had completely cleared
-about a minute later, the cloud had completely cleared
A lake seen from Mt. Tongariro
Fellow hikers silhouetted
Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu seen from Mt. Tongariro
A vista
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
