Surprise surprise

Yes thats a sun and a tree and rainbow colors

on my poster.
And yeah that's second place...this story is ridiculous

So just as a bit of background, the whole reason I designed a poster was because I wanted a way to get a free conference fee and save myself some $. I realized when I did it, that I not only am semi-slow in visual design, but also that the ideas I was presenting seemed so obvious. So I basically designed this poster just to get the job done and hope that I got a free conference fee. I never thought beyond that....I also didn't put my advisors names on the poster because I didn't want to embarrass them by naming them in this design. I was really hoping that I could just keep a low profile and hide my poster in a corner somewhere.

Turns out there were only three of us with posters, so there would be no hiding. The other two of course were presenting PhD work, one on bee migration, and another on sheep and arsenic pollution. Although I was a bit surprised that there were so few of us, I got through the first day of the conference feeling pretty good, staying under the radar, meeting some of the people that I really wanted to talk to, and feeling really glad that I came. Well, at the end of the first day of the conference, the chair of the conference came up to me and said, "So you're Elizabeth, you designed a poster." Okay, so I guess I won't be avoiding this. After chastising me for not naming my advisors, he paid the poster some nice compliments, and then waved over four more of the conference chairs. One of them said, "Where did you get that diagram from with the tree?" ha ha ha, Umm from my third grade toolbox.

Tanira (conf director) also decided that he wanted to squeeze in a time for us each to present our poster in the style of Thesis in a Minute (a competition that they have here I guess). So much for staying under the radar. In one minute I decided the best approach was to go with the ol "I am but a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants" proverb. I also spoke in a bit of Maori, which really had me nervous, but I got it done.

After the second day, I realized, "Hey wait, if there are only three of us, we are all going to win a prize in the competition" which had me in stitches. So I won 2nd place, and $500 for this poster (bee lady got first which is cool, cause who doesn't love bees). As you can imagine, I'm very excited that I attended this conference, and not just for the hilarity of this poster situation, but the conference content was all basically an affirmation of my research and I got to meet a lot of people that I've been trying to track down for months.

And now with that, I'm off to Samoa on Tuesday.

Skanky but respectable

Haka face
The butts of the All Blacks doing the haka in front of the

South African rubgy team.
The haka on the big screen, SA would soon

find out they should be scared.
At my new fav bar called the Library, first

off you know how I love libraries, second the bar is filled

with books, and handy enough, a bathtub.

Perfect place to finish off my skanky but respectable evening. In order to achieve this difficult combo, I matched Forever 21 sequin dress (skanky) with a jacket from au Paris (respectable), and

leggings given the frigid temps of sitting outside for 3hrs

In the name of cultural exchange, and to honor the mission of Senator Fulbright, I decided I had to get tickets to see the All Blacks play South Africa in the only game in Wellington all season, even though they are priiicey and as I've established in earlier posts there's a bit of a Deepwater Horizon shooting cash out of my bank account. Also you may have heard of a small film called Invictus. Although it is mostly about race relations in South Africa, it also features the Rugby World Cup where New Zealand (All Blacks) lost to SA by one point. Now this is not in the movie, but it is a fact (by NZeders at least) that the team was poisoned by a woman named Sally who had been paid off by some British betting agency. So this is not only a rugby game, this is part of a historical grievance. Last weekend the All Blacks beat SA fiercely, and at the Wellington game, they did it again, including a bit of a fight in the first two min. We bought the cheapest tickets, and somehow that translates to front row in the end zone (try line in rugby speak), so front row for the haka - or so I thought....it was really front row to their butts doing the haka, still not that bad. Additionally, Alice (my roomate in case you're new to this blog) suggested that dating/pashing an All Black would be pretty high up there in terms of cultural exchange for me while I'm here. Not one to balk at my cultural Fulbright exchange duty, I consulted Alice on how this could best be accomplished. She suggested going out after the game to one of the bars that the All Blacks frequent and dressing "skanky but respectable" so that I have an edge over the other ladies in want of their attention, who would be more of the skanky variety. Hmmm, I feel like this is sort of like when you receive an invite for an event that says "Smart casual". I also had to somehow fit "skanky and respectable" into an outfit that I could sit outside in in the freezing rain and wind....Never one to step down from a wardrobe challenge I managed to put something together, although Alice and Aaron were encouraging me to be skankier. In the end, we never tracked them (the All Blacks) down....but it did provide me with some insight on NZeders and celebrity....

So in previous posts, I've mentioned that NZeders don't "Do" celebrity. Well I now reckon they actually DO. Example one, people lining up for autographs at the All Blacks game. Example two, the radio is constantly full of gossip/updates about American celebrities. I think that NZeders in their ultimate hipsterness (aka too cool for celebrities) and their Tall Poppy Syndrome (something very foreign for us that claw and scratch at each other to get ahead, here if anyone excels too high, they cut them down, hence egalitarian/don't do celebrity culture) that they think they don't do celebrity, when they actually do when it comes down to it.

On the note of cultural exchange, I've mentioned previously that I'm pretty removed from the international news here. I've decided that this will probably make my eventual return to somewhere back in reality more difficult, so I've started reading the Economist at my office and occasionally the NY Times when I can't sleep. Each time that I take this foray, I'm reminded how depressing the news outside of New Zealand is. Just to give you a comparison - the big news in New Zealand in the past two weeks:

-Moko the dolphin passed away from natural causes. Moko was a somewhat socially retarded dolphin who swam up a river in the East Cape and played with and befriended all the locals. Sad news, but a totally different kind of sad.

-The National gov't has decided not to explore mining in national parks because (get this), the New Zealand public doesn't want them to, AND THEY LISTENED.

- If you call in sick to work now, you'll have to show a doctor's note if your employer asks for it (I know, crazy)

-Napier is making a bid to get pandas here to attract more tourists who may be bored by just the art deco and wine tasting that they have to offer (umm, that sounds good enough to me, but throw in some pandas, sure I'll take it)

-A Kiwi invented a device for quadriplegics that enables them to stand and walk around

-Being gay/lesbian is in, and now teens are just saying they're gay/lesbian to fit in and clubs are popping up at high schools and they have to turn people away

-Oh and yeah, the All Blacks are trouncing South Africa

So hopefully that gives you a bit of what I'm living in and the vast difference in news and reality. Now I know that the reverse culture shock is going to be fierce, but I don't think I can even begin to prepare for it.

This week I'm at a conference on sustainable futures with Maori lands - yes perfect for my research. I was originally supposed to present at it, but given some iwi drama, I'm not. The conference is pretty pricey, so I applied for a scholarship to attend the conference by designing a poster - AND I got it, even though I'm graphically a bit slow and this poster is a bit second graderish. And they're paying for me to stay in a proper hotel. Funny the juxtaposition of my situation now with a year ago. A year ago I was traveling around the world on the Bank's dime and presenting under the Bank's name, staying at swanky hotels often in my own suite with way more than I would ever need. Now I stay at backpackers in a bunkbed with 10 other ppl in the same room, and pack my own food to cook in the communal kitchen - oh how far I've come. So you can imagine my excitement being in a real hotel room, to myself, with cable tv (6 Channels!) and free internet! Its like a whole new world.

Because TI said I could

In honor of America's Birthday, I made my first flag cake

ever - to the grand confusion of Alice and Aaron. They were

like, "So is this really what you guys do in America, make things with flags all over it?" Me - "Umm yes, what's weird about that?" (While wearing my vertical blue and white striped jacket, and my horizontal blue and white stripe vest, with red boots. I meant to get a picture of me with the cake, but I was too busy eating it). One of my goals (see below) was to get over my

fear and general terribleness at baking. I never liked baking

because of the requirement for attention to detail, and I'm

not sure why I decided to overcome this while cooking in celsius

and grams, but I have finally realized you can improvise while

baking and it will still be edible, and mostly enjoyable. This

realisation was my own mini liberty - Happy July 4th

I stumbled upon this sign in Wellington the other day.

It says, "It's true you can't live here by chance, you have

to do and be, not simply watch or even describe. This

is the city of action. The World Headquarters of the Verb"

Its true it'd be hard to just bump into Wellington....but the

World Headquarters of Action?? I guess I need to get even

busier...

Wellington did not disappoint on race day and

provided a balmy 6 degrees with strong winds

and freezing rain.

Just so you know I am actually doing work here, here's

a picture of the mess I'm trying to make some sense of
Ahh the mecca of fashion, Paris, Texas, luckily they're having a sale
There's been a lot of talk about these bagels

but I finally made a batch myself
One of my goals - starting a

kids gardening club. Planting peas with the pre-schoolers
Another goal - exploring ins and outs of Wellington. This

is on a coastal walk that was in an article in the newspaper

called "Secret Wellington". I'm not sure how secret it is

anymore....
The snowy peaks of the South Island, on a clear

sunny day in Wellington
Hard at work, taking a sunset bike ride along the coast in Raglan

while on the road for meetings for my research. And the

helmet is right where it was growing up, hanging on my

handlebars....

Now while it took till I got to NZ to take this advice to heart...when I arrived I said, "You know TI, I CAN have whatever I like" (Mom - TI is a rapper and no I don't know him personally and he doesn't live in NZ). As I mark my halfway point here with the advent of July 3rd (or at least the halfway point of being paid by the Fulbright, who knows when I'm actually coming back), I decided it was a good time to reflect on what I've made out of the decision to live according to TI's wisdom while I'm here. In thinking about having whatever I like, I made a list of goals when I first arrived of both monthly goals, and full year goals. I've continued to update both lists on a monthly basis, and on the monthly goals I'm still at around an 80% success rate - well in New Zealand, an 80% is an A. While these lists will not appear on this blog, I will say that they all center around 'whatever I like' which also translates into working towards being whoever I would like. On July's list - learning the haka (finally! and just in time for seeing the All Blacks in a few weeks), and finally making bagels myself - check.

General updates -

Bad news - I think Katy Perry might be reading this blog, and just to spite me for thanking NZ for not having her around, she's all of a sudden all over the radio.

I've decided that I probably shouldn't be a car owner, except for my love of roadtrips and singing. First of all, my life is pretty cheap here (even with having whatever I like), and by far my biggest expenditure is petrol. Second, since owning my car I've gotten two speeding tickets, one by a real live cop(tried charming my way out of it, but he was having none of my feigned American ignorance), and one by a hidden camera (which I object to). Also just in the last three days (on my second big road trip), a huge rock flew up and majorly cracked my windshield, my gas tank door got stuck shut (trying to save me money on petrol maybe?), and I drove into a garage and flattened my antennae. Moral of the story - I'm going to have to find a really desperate tourist to sell this car to to make my money back on this. Or I'm really going to have to start sleeping in the back of it to save money on lodging....

Just returned from a quick trip to Auckland, Hamilton, and Rotorua for meetings on my research this week. I had high hopes for these meetings and finally really ramping things up (remember, the World Headquarters of Action), but unfortunately they were mostly frustrating (where were you on that one TI, hmmm?). In one of my meetings, a guy spent most of the hour and a half talking to me about the Hongi and other Maori customs - basically it made me feel like I was back to day one. The highlight of my trip - a deep soak in the sulphuric Polynesian Spa. I also managed to somehow meet a lot of people who were also 29. So apparently I have to go on roadtrips to meet people my age...talked about 30th birthday celebrations - one is planning to go tow-surfing, one a party with a band at a vineyard, jeez I need to come up with something good .....(starting to understand the world headquarters of action bit...)

I never tire of hearing - "Oh I love your accent", each time I look around figuring they CAN'T be referring to me, and then when I realize they are I can't stop grinning and chuckling. Only in New Zealand....

My grades from Semester One are in, drumroll please.....that's right, all As, see and you thought I wasn't working hard! I even got an A+ in Maori language, thanks to excelling at singing waiata

Top Chef DC just started in NZ!

I'll wrap up this post by just clarifying that there are some things I would like, for instance, dry towels to use after the shower when its freezing, after they've been hanging up for three days or a Wegmans sub; but I've realized there are some things out of TIs, and my own control.....