Changes in Latitudes

Well, it arrives again...exam period. I don't have my first exam until November 5, but nonetheless I'm in the library studying away. I work Wednesdays and Saturdays until my exams are done. It's not too bad so far. I've been figuring out where things are and attempting to sell the overpriced camping gear to unsuspecting tourists and weary locals. After seven hours of work on the best Saturday this season, I did some studying on Sunday and then went for a walk to Mission Bay with my flatmates. The day was mostly cloudy, but occasionally the sun would split the clouds for a short time before hiding again. I'm now stuck studying, but luckily the weather isn't the nicest anyways. [Picture 1 - Engineering building, right, on Symonds Street. My preferred location of study] [Picture 2 - Mission Bay, 1.5-2 hour walk from home]

Borghild and Me at the Snagon gig. A really fun show! This is what happens when you leave your room for five minutes. The sofa cushions get stacked in front of your door.

Last weekend I played some soccer in the Domain with some friends. It was good as usual. I got drilled with the ball three times at near point-blank by a German. I told him it didn't hurt, but really it did sting a little. Friday I bought some pet fish! The first pet store we went to only had different kinds of gold fish and a poor selection of bowls, but I grabbed the pebbles and picked out the fish I wanted. However, the lady wouldn't sell it to me sinc e I didn't have my aquarium set up yet. We left and went out to another store. It was strictly a fish store and there was so much more of a selection. I bought a little plastic tank, food, and six fish. Five of them are X-Ray Tetras (one has black eyes, so I named him Stevie Wonder) and the last one is a Pleco (I named him Norman). They like the tranquility of my room, but when I bring them out to the living room they get pretty scared when my flatmate Sawyer taps on the tank. I have to explain to them how it hurts them. ...

This week has been full of earthquakes and tsunami warnings. Samoa suffered from a devastating tsunami, caused by a quake, which killed 104 people. The small island nation is receiving aid from it's southern neighbor, New Zealand. A few days later Vanuatu also had a tsunami. Both of these natural disasters caused Auckland Regional Council to call a tsunami warning. Residents were advised to stay off the beaches. The tsunami must have only been a few centimeters for us, because it didn't even make the news. Yesterday, Borghild and I went to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter Underwater World. It's pretty small, but we still managed to spend about 90 minutes there. Megalodon, the monster prehistoric shark was the featured display. For the Antarctic portion of Kelly Tarlton's you hop into theme park-styled snow cats and are taken around the small penguin exhibit. The aquarium has two types of penguins, King and Gentoo. To see the sharks, sting rays, turtles, and fishe...

Things are beginning to wrap up here at uni. I had my presentation last week and I stuck the landing! Nailed it! This weekend I've been buried in my new essay about Antarctic Tourism and another assignment regarding graphs. Luckily, it's raining today so I'll be able to focus a bit better. It was pretty awesome waking up this morning and seeing that Michigan State beat University of Michigan 26-20. I wonder if MSU did the haka? My flatmates have a little trouble understanding why a college football game would make network television. There are officially only three weeks of lectures left and then only three weeks after that until end of exams. It's crunch time!