Sports Thought: Looks like the Ags should be in the tournament! They beat ranked Mizzou this weekend for their fifth or sixth straight, which should easily take them in as like an 8 or 9 seed. Good enough.
New Zealand is cool because: The most popular (as far as I can tell) cookie/biscuit is this thing called a Tim Tam. Basically it's two wafer-y chocolate cookies, with chocolate frosting in between them, and then dipped in chocolate. They're amazing. I was talking about them with a bunch of other international students, and every one of us had identical experiences where someone had recommended Tim Tams, we had bought them at the grocery, and then proceeded to eat an entire box alone in one day. They're that good. My flatmate Brittany and I are slowly trying all the other varieties. Currently we've got black forest, which is good, but nowhere near Time Tam classic.
New Zealand is lame because: I JUST WANT TO BUY SOME LIMES. Seriously. At one grocery store, limes come in packages of three for $3.60. That's $1.80 American. 60 cents a lime. That is not okay. And these ones are really ugly. Another grocery I went to had key limes (read: super small) for $17 a kilo! Not acceptable.
Food Find: I got a "bacon buttie" at the farmer's market, which is mostly just a bacon sandwich. They took a huge pile of (American) bacon, chopped it up, and put it on white bread with grilled onions, mustard, relish, and ketchup (actually tomato sauce ((they called it t-sauce)) which is close but not the same thing). I knew the sandwich was going to be good because there was about a twenty minute line to get them (the only other places that had comparable lines were selling super cheap blackberries). It was awesome, and just as heart attack inducing as you think it is.
Saturday I had an excellent day. I got up early and made it to the farmer's market, which happens every Saturday morning in the parking lot of the train station. The train station is this huge, ornate building that looks a little like a castle, so needless to say it's a great setting for a market. It was composed of about half people who had grown produce in Central Otago and then brought it here to sell and half people who had made some sort of good (baked things, candles, organic beer, various sausages and bacons). The primary goal of going to the market was to get limes, baby spinach, and jalapenos (only got the last) and the secondary goal was to not spend all the money in my wallet (barely accomplished). I got lots of plums and cherries, plus a plum pie and a great loaf of sourdough from this nice woman who baked it all from scratch. After learning how overpriced supermarket tofu is, I'm going to go back this weekend and get some homemade tofu from this little Asian woman who was selling it.
While I was at the market, I ran into my friend Ellen, who goes to school with me (although I didn't know her until I got here). She invited me to the beach with her and her roommate that afternoon, and it was such a phenomenal day that I couldn't pass it up. While we were waiting for the bus out to St. Clair's beach, we met these two British guys who are backpacking across the world before they start college, and they joined our group. Mostly we just relaxed on the beach, briefly went into the water (my feet were numb right as I stepped into it), and made fun of how each other said words. The funniest thing to me was that it was almost a bizarro beach: there were people playing touch rugby (rather than football) and one impromptu game of beach cricket (versus baseball).
That evening was the Highlanders versus Crusaders match, one of the more highy anticipated rugby games in the South Island. In a nutshell, the Super 14 is the main pro rugby league, and it represents Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The Kiwis have five pro teams, and two of them are based in the South Island (rather than have specific cities associated with each team, they just have regions, and as a result play home games in a variety of locations). The Highlanders are Dunedin's team, representing the Otago region (and Southland). The Crusaders are the other South Island team, representing Tasman and Canterbury. As a result, this game gets pretty pumped up, especially in a college town where kids love to drink and watch sports. What struck me most was how reasonably priced everything was; tickets at most were $20 US, with souvenirs selling for about market value, and beer an unheard of $2.50. The game itself was pretty slow (it ended up being the lowest scoring game in Super 14 history, 6-0), but we went with an American who played rugby in college, so I got a pretty detailed rundown of how everything works.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Class
Excited: A date was announced today for the Beatles version of Rock Band, September 9 of this year. While I don't think I'm willing to pay the $250 for limited edition Beatles instruments (although maybe it'll have Paul's awesome Hofner bass), I am pretty excited about the prospect of a Beatles game (assuming my Guitar Hero peripherals work with a Rock Band game...). At the same time, I'm a little worried about if the game would actually be, well, fun. The Beatles's music doesn't really fit the mold of things in a Rock Band game. A lot of their earlier stuff is really conventional, as far as musicality (repeat the same three or so chords, George does a really brief solo) while all their later stuff is...unplayable in a video game, to say the least (can't wait to jam out on Wild Honey Pie).
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Queenstown
Food Find: I was at the grocery store today, looking at the muffins. They had two different sizes, so to differentiate between them, the larger were called Texas. As in Texas apricot blueberry muffin, etc. I was really confused (trying to figure out what ingredient makes something Texas...) and then really excited.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
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