An Actual Update….With Pictures!

First and foremost, allow me to sincerely apologize for the wait. You have long anticipated hearing facts about what the hell I’ve even been doing over here, and all I’ve offered are pictures of my cats (which you’ve undoubtedly seen before, since I have been obsessed with taking pictures of them for almost a year now). Let me to begin by saying that moving to New Zealand has thus far been the best decision I’ve ever made.


First up, living in the city: loving it. I suppose it’s not technically “city living,” since I don’t live downtown. Also, there’s only about 4 million people living in NZ, and 1 million of those live in Auckland. The rest are spread out among Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin, and random rural areas. But living in Dunedin is more similar to living in a city than it is to living in Livonia or Mt. Pleasant, so from here on out I will refer to it as city living. In my defense, the downtown area is fairly close- only about a 30 minute walk from my flat. Or, if I go shopping, I can call a cab that will take me back to my flat for 8 NZD, which is only 6 USD. And there’s no tipping here, so taxis are a pretty decent option. I can also wait for the bus for even cheaper, but the cheap cab company I use comes within 10 minutes (usually less). Plus with the bus, I would still have to stagger up obscene hills with all my bags (as seen here):





Other things that are close to my flat:

• Campus (aka uni)- only about a 20-25 min walk
• Several bus stops- about a 3-4 min walk
• The grocery store, post shop, and pharmacy- a 5 min walk
• A few bars (one is possibly a gay bar, another is a townie bar similar to Marty’s)- a 5 min walk
• A delicious, albeit expensive, pizza joint called Filadelfio’s that has an American flag and several creative pizza names, such as the Lewinsky or Brooklyn- also a 5 min walk

My flat itself: also loving it. It is huge, it is super cheap, it is completely furnished- what is not to love?? There is one tiny problem. Well, maybe two tiny problems. One: It is up a giant hill. I have still not gotten used to it. I’m pretty much dying whenever I return home. The seasoned Dunediners apparently enjoy hills, or at the very least don’t really notice them. I am desperately hoping to become a seasoned Dunediner soon. I better, or I might just have to start calling a cab from the bottom of the hill. The second issue is that this house has temperatures similar to that of an igloo. Most of you are probably aware that I love cold-ish houses. It’s at least better than having a house that is way too hot. However, after now having lived here for about a month, I challenge anyone to a Whose House Is Colder Contest….yes, a WHICC. I bet you my thousands of dollars of higher-education-related debt that my house will win. We do have a heat pump:


 



…but it is basically useless. You can’t feel it unless you are in the lounge. One especially cold recent night, we shuttered ourselves in the lounge and basked in the warmth that we forgot could exist indoors. That turned out to eventually be a mistake. As we opened the lounge door to quickly race to our sub-freezing bedrooms, a blast of frigid air that made Alaska seem ideal nearly knocked us over. (Let me pause here to briefly clarify something- it IS late summer/early fall here, and outside it is generally T-shirt and shorts weather. The nights can be a tad chilly, but not too bad so far. But for some reason, it is always winter in this house. People do, however, constantly feel the need to tell us that we should’ve gotten a flat on the OTHER side of the valley. The sun actually shows it face across the street. Not a problem. Since we are basically committing theft with rent this cheap, we can totally afford electric blankets. Or just drag all our mattresses into the lounge and camp out in there.)


Other than these minor issues, I love where I’m living. My flatmates and I get along great, which seems to surprise everyone. People at work, at lab, etc keep asking me: “So how’s your flat and flatmates?” And when I say everything’s great, people are like “Oh…really?? Wow…that’s good…” Not sure what to think about this reaction. I guess everyone is just surprised that we decided to live together within an hour of meeting one another, and we don’t hate each other yet. Au contraire, we’ve been having some pretty crazy wine pong nights of late:





We’ve also been watching a truly impressive amount of Dexter:

  


It’s unlikely that I will ever stop liking these people.


Also, I couldn’t be more glad that I didn’t have the university set me up with international housing. There’s an American exchange student in my lab, and that’s what she did. Apparently like 90% of NZ exchange students are from the States, and so are all 3 of her roommates. I am so glad that’s not the case with me! I feel like that’s kind of ruining the experience of living in another country. If I lived with three other Americans, how would it really be that different than being in America? I like being around different cultures to see what they’re like. Kind of the point of coming here. I’m sure it’s not like this girl planned it that way or anything, but hearing that just made me glad I hadn’t done that.


Unfortunately that’s about all I have time for right now! I have to get to bed so I can get up early and have a semi-productive day tomorrow. But later this week, I hope to post some info about my lab, my job, and any random ponderings I may have.

**UPDATE**
See pics below!! I tried to get them in album format, but it didn't really work. I'll keep trying. At the very least I'll add some captions. Enjoy!

KITTIES!

 

Just a little something to fill the void between posts. As promised, I’m quite busy. Additionally, I feel the pressure of creating another post that artfully weaves wit with exceptional writing. I fear I have set the bar too high with my first few entries. So as I ponder my next work of comedic art, here are some adorable pictures of my baby kit cats that I miss so dearly:

 

Babies just learning to walk! They were so tiny they all fit in a box!

 

 

Snuggle buddies

 

 

Snug as a bug in a rug

 

 

Grace the beast crushing her poor, defenseless offspring

 

 

Mary loves electronics

 

 

Mary the conehead! Haha poor baby was just trying to see what was going on

 

 

Mary’s backside sneak attack on Bess

 

 

 

Bess’s backside sneak attack on Mary about 6 months later….

“I told you I’d be bigger than you one day…”

 

 

Look at that belly! I can’t wait to snuggle with her when I return to the States :)

 

 

PS: Pictures that you all are actually interested in (ie, of NZ), are coming soon! Promise!

PPS: Just kidding with all the “comedic art” stuff  :p

Ok so, change of plans....

Let me start from the beginning. A very, very long time ago, I applied to OU’s 1-year Master Programme. If you qualify for this programme, you skip all of the coursework and only complete a thesis project. Basically the people in charge would have determined that you took enough undergrad courses, and did well enough in them, that you only have to do the research component of your MS. Also you can start in Feb or July, so I wanted to start in July 2010 (2 months after graduating from CMU). I was told I was not accepted to this programme, but was accepted to the 2-year programme (first year courses, second year research). However, I could not begin until Feb 2011 (which is like August in NZ). After much debating, etc, I eventually decided to go ahead and get my Masters here anyway.


I mentioned in my previous ‘Dunedin’ post that I went to Course Approval a couple Fridays ago (Feb 18), but needed to take care of some details before finalizing my courses. Essentially, I had to contact my PI (FYI his name is Cliff) and see if he had any specific courses in mind that he wanted me to take based on the research I would be doing with him. So I emailed him that Saturday. The following Monday (a week ago yesterday), I received an email from the director of the Neuroscience Programme (Megan). Cliff had forwarded her my email inquiring which papers I should take. (Another note: ‘papers’ is synonymous with ‘classes.’ I may occasionally sprinkle NZ-talk into my posts, so I apologize if I forget to clarify something.) Megan’s email stated that everyone was under the impression that I was doing the 1-year programme, not the 2-year.


After my initial confusion, I was pretty irate. For months now I have been preparing to come to NZ for 2 years: setting up my classes online, doing all the student visa requirements, collecting a 2-year supply of whatever I might need. But the worst part was that I had been accepted to the 1-year programme all along! My life would have been SO much easier had I been told this from the beginning. Loans, living situation, work, finances. So many problems that would have never had to have been resolved because they never would have existed! I’m still not too happy, if you can’t tell.


It might seem stupid for me to have gotten upset about this. But you have to keep in mind that I had been planning a 2-year stay for so long. Even though I initially wanted to do the 1-year programme, 1 year no longer sounded like enough time to spend in NZ. Also, crazy as it may seem, I was looking forward to taking classes again. I feel I still have a lot to learn. I’ve always learned more from the hands-on stuff, granted, but classes still provide a good foundation. So I suppose the main reason I was upset was because I was now forced to make a snap decision about precisely how long I wanted to stay in NZ, and exactly what I wanted to get out of my education here. (I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my mom for putting up with my unreasonable, chaotic behavior yet again, this time via skype.)


Thanks to my mom, my dear friend Kendra, and my PI Cliff, I was able to weigh the pros and cons of 1-yr vs 2-yr and also MS vs PhD. 1-year won out for several reasons, main two being that 1) I’ll have my MS in just one year, and 2) it’s easier to transition to a PhD from the 1-year programme. That’s only if I decide to go that route. I still haven’t decided. I’m just keeping my options open is all. If and when I decide to get a PhD, I’ll let everyone know. But for now the plan is the same -- get my MS. The only difference is that now I’ll receive it much faster and without taking classes. But there’s still no guaranteeing I’ll come back to the U.S. in one year either. I imagine I’ll have a better idea of what I want to do in a few months, but it’s no rush. I like having no idea what I’ll be doing or where I’ll be in the next couple years :) For the time being, I’m just going to enjoy what’s happening now and worry about the future when it arrives.