1st week of class

hello all! not much to report on my kiwi end of things, but i thought i'd stop by and give a brief update anyway.

last week was my 1st week of class. the month of feb will contain my entire new zealand conservation practices course (that's the one w/the field trips). monday was the usual "getting to know you" intro lectures, where we talked abt the syllabus, what we'll be graded on (aka our marks ;) that's a little kiwi talk), and our schedule (aka our timetable). in the afternoon we had our powhiri (remember that maori welcome ceremony i did @ parihaka?? same thing) to welcome us to the Vic (nickname for my school, aka uni) marae (marae is to powhiri as chuch is to service. take that GRE'S!) there we learned about the treaty of waitangi, which is very controversial and i suggest you do your own research abt it if you're interested. we had a wonderful lunch prepared by the local iwi (maori for people...btw i'm becoming "very" trilingual, almost got the aussie, and kiwi down, and i'm working on a few maori vocab words. (i use the term 'very' very loosely)).

on tuesday we took the ferry to matiu/somes island in the wellington harbor. it is one of the small nz island where all pests have been removed so that endangered native wildlife can repopulate. it was a beautiful day, and i took a few pics for your enjoyment, i just wish we had more time to look around leisurely. later in the afternoon we had a lecture on the department of conservation's (aka doc, NOT d.o.c) role in policy. i rate it a c- on the interest scale.

wednesday morning we had a lecture given by murray (environmental restoration prof, also really loves ducks!! :-D i'm sure i'll be hanging out w/him a lot) abt our north island field trip (taking place feb 9-13). we'll traveling north to cape kidnappers sanctuary and the te angangi marine reserve to do the research for our group projects (50% of our grade in the class!!!) i give murray's presentation an a, because i def learned a lot of things i never knew. they have a system here in nz, where they will build a fence around a reserve, then work on getting all the non-native pests out of the area and then work on repopulating it w/endangered and threatened species. interesting idea...very expensive...we'll see how it works in the long run.

sidebar.
my group project: status and monitoring of te angngi marine reserve bird populations-
i wont' give you the whole write up, but basically my group of 4 will monitor the birds and get a count of species diversity, behavior, location of birds, interactions, and location/behavior in relation to tides. i'm working w/3 other girls who are very interested in birds, just like me, so it should be good :)

after a long afternoon break, we had a lecture given by cath wallace, from doc, on the legislation which relates to conservation. d on the interesting scale...i almost fell asleep.

we had thursday AND friday off. thursday for no reason, and friday was waitangi day. the 7's are going on now (world rugby tournement) and it's really crazy. everyone who attends dresses in crazy costumes and parades around the streets of wellington. i guess it's the kiwi version of halloween, only there's no candy and it lasts for the whole weekend. since i did not have tix to go to the 7's my mconbio friends and i went to 'one love', a concert held on bob marley's birthday to celebrate unity and peace worldwide. the music wasn't as good as it was @ parihaka, but the weather was much nicer and it was still fun to picnic w/the girls :)

other than that, i've just been doing a little bit of research for a popular science article i have due later in feb (i've decided to write abt short-tailed bats, one of the 2 native mammals of nz), and playing travel agent. since nathan's internet is so spotty, it's up to me to plan out our journeys. so far i've got the whole oz part figured out (5 day tour in taz, and 4 days in cairns to see the GBR). that will leave us 7 days to hang out and see the north island of NZ.

other random news: i stopped reading the 'sex and the city' book, cause it was boring and NOT like the show. i was really hoping for more carrie, miranda, samantha, and charoltte stories...but no such luck. so now i'm reading 'harry potter and the chamber of secrets' because all the other books i wanted to check out were at the central library and i was at my local one :-\

also i feel it is my duty as a conservationist to pass along this information to you, my family. the monterey bay aquarium has put out a 'best fish guide', which lists all best fish choices according to status and fishing methods. there is a guide for reach region of the us and also a sushi guide for you sushi lovers like me. PLEASE download the pdf, print it, and put it in your wallet or hang it on your fridge so you can do your part of eat sustainable and safely caught fish only. i know it's hard, and it might be sad that you can't eat your favs anymore, but do it for the oceans!!!

download them here, or just click on the pdf in the email i've sent.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

sushi guide
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_SushiGuide.pdf

northeast guide (ME-PA and NJ)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_NortheastGuide.pdf

southeast guide (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA and TX)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_SoutheastGuide.pdf

central us guide (OH, WV, KY, TN-ID and UT)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_MidwestGuide.pdf

and for those of you who have moved and never told me...
southwest guide (NM and AZ)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_SouthwestGuide.pdf

west coast guide (AK-CA)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_WestCoastGuide.pdf

if you've moved here and haven't told me yet, i'm gonna be REALLY pissed...
hi guide
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_HawaiiGuide.pdf

ENJOY!!! ps. i've added some pics from manly...cause i forgot abt them til now :)