First day of orientation.

Today was the first day of International Student Orientation. Woke up in time to catch the bus at 8:30 this morning and it was a nice 45 minute commute to the Uni by bus (it's fairly expensive so I have to get a student discounted bus pass soon). A girl from South Africa got on the bus shortly after me and we became quick friends; her name is Ashley. We were welcomed by the Vice Chancellor and then Maori students from a local grammar school did a haka variation...the coolest thing I have seen here in New Zealand so far, and it will be hard to top! There were so many students; a mixture of International and Post-Grads. We moved into a building for "tea," which was just a variation of orange juice and some pastries. Lisa and I mingled with the students and met a Chinese girl and a guy from Greece.



We then were instructed to proceed into a huge lecture hall..much larger than the halls at GVSU. There was a brief introduction and then the lady leading the orientation took a tally of the number of countries represented. At first the majority seemed to be from Germany but then she asked the Americans to raise their hands and we gave the Germans a run for their money! In 3rd place was Malaysia and then little groups from other countries such as: UK, Ireland, Russia, China, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, etc.



Around noon Lisa, Ashley, and I went to find some lunch and then decided to explore Queen Street, which is the main street downtown for shopping and eating. We found a bar around 2:30 and celebrated my birthday with a birthday beer. It was pretty good. A locally brewed New Zealand summer ale. The whole Auckland area is actually pretty hilly so walking up and down streets downtown tired us out quick! We caught the 4:15 bus out of Auckland to Birkdale and Lisa went to her homestay. For dinner my hosts made chili and some vegetables...they said they're having trouble figuring out how to serve for four people rather than just the usual two. They got up to make tea and brought over a chocolate cake for my birthday with 20 candles on it! I was pleasantly surprised and had a wonderful 20th birthday despite not being with family and friends.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pancho is 6 months and I'm finally published!

Image
Work is going fine. My boss has given me some lab activities to keep me interested in my work, so I'm testing antibodies. The positive control turned out as expected, but it is such a pretty staining that I have to share the picture. This is an embryo of a starlet sea anemone ( Nematostella sp.) approximately 30 hours old. The green is actin (a protein in cell walls), the blue is nuclei, and the red/pink is clusters of DNA. There are some pretty examples of cell division in this embryo! Also, as of a couple weeks ago I'm officially a published scientist! ....well, the paper has been accepted for publication, so it will likely not be in the journal before next year. The journal is called ICES Journal of Marine Science. Furthermore, this weekend the mountains got a nice thick layer of snow, so I took Pancho up for his first time in a proper bit  of snow (not counting the icy leftovers that were on Jutenheimen this summer). He's now 6 months old and weighs bout 34
Read more

This week on M/S Brennholm

Image
[There's something wrong with the synchrony of the acoustics] My job aboard Brennholm is to work on the acoustic part of my thesis. So I am practicing some sonar and echo sounder scrutinozing. I am also relating the mackerel movement to the currents, but this will be hard since mackerel are so hard to see at all on any of the acoustic equipment since they lack a swim bladder. It is nice to just have a 7:30 to 10 work day though and I have my supervisor right next to me for help. Everyone on the cruise has gained weight, and despite doing some exercise almost everyday I am no exception. We are feed too well on the boats and you don't move around too much. (I was even convinced to try salted and dried whale meat from the Faroes. I stayed far away from the blubber!!) At least I have been able to run 13.5 km the past couple of days with the calm seas. There aren't many options for exercise on this ship compared to G.O. Sars. [The "gym" in the bow of th
Read more

Smalahove

Image
Many Norwegian traditions are distinctly regional. Even recipes are variable by region to go along with dialects that can be different by town separated by just 50 kilometers. This tradition, that both Marius and I were new to trying, was from a town just about an hour and a half east of Bergen called Voss....smalahove, or half of a sheep's head that is cooked in a broth for several hours. Smalahove comes from two Norwegian words: smale = sheep, and hove = head. It is served before Christmas with potatoes, mashed rutabaga, and red cabbage. Many of my friends were telling me that the cheek is supposed to be the best part, and others were saying that they wouldn't dare eat it. So I can now say that I have done something that many other Norwegians haven't dared try. I actually really enjoyed it! It had a texture like corned beef and had a very nice flavor. Marius went as far as to try the tongue, and thought that eating the eye was a normal thing, so tried that as well...bu
Read more