Hunting for Kiwi and getting attacked

Sharing morning tea with kakas
Happy as long as they stay one foot away

Tekahe, just chillin on Kapiti Island

In honor of Mother's Day this coming week, I'd like to take a few moments to acknowledge a few comments my dear and adorable mother made recently regarding this blog. My Mom thought that my Lady Gaga and advanced in age people story may have offended some people. I'd like to say that first of all, I love old people, and second of all a lot of people (prob especially my classmates) think I'm an old person. This story was meant to illustrate how awesome old people can be and how I relish spending time with them for the surprising and endearing things that they sometimes do. Also please know that not only am I surprised you all are still reading this blog, but that its never meant to offend anyone. And while I may enjoy my humor, I understand that the tongue in cheek (or maybe just straight unfunniness of it) isn't appreciated by all. So feel free to tell me when you think my diary has stepped out of line.

As you know I've been back to work this week. Here's a bit of the nitty gritty:

-Had to sing a waiata in front of my Maori class for a grade. Luckily it was only four lines long and I think I nailed the ng sound, although not as good as my rendition of Alicia Keys, No One.

- Also had to give my introduction in Maori at another Maori sleepover (noho). Here it is (macrons missing cause my computer doesn't let me do them):

Tena koutou, No Amerika ahau, No California ahau

Ko James raua ko Laurie oku matua

Ko Anne raua ko Allison oka tuakana

Ko Patrick raua ko Jimmy aku tungane

Ko Elizabeth taku ingoa

He korero tenei, He moana pukepuke e ekengia e te waka (Means this is a proverb I like, and signifies persevering by talking about a canoe through choppy waters)

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

This Maori sleepover was a lot of fun and basically turned into Gigglefest 2010, with bunking up with 80 people, and falling asleep next to two Germans and a Dutch girl while discussing how Beall means stupid in Dutch and E (a potential nickname I gave them when they asked if they could call me Liz) is the equivalent of ugh in English.

-Gave a presentation on biofuels to an audience of 175 at an Electric Vehicles and Biofuels conference. I had to follow a presentation by Nissan about electric vehicles. Let me tell you, biofuels are not nearly as exciting as electric vehicles, and about ten times as controversial. My Nissan buddy (remember to pronounce Nissan differently), couldn't speak English very well, so I was thinking, at least I'll be able to answer questions and relaxed into my own presentation. Now, while I don't relish standing up in front of 175 people and speaking about anything, at least biofuels is something I'm pretty comfortable with, controversy and all. Well, at the end of my presentation, when it was time for questions - instead of a question, a Brazilian priest stood up and went on for a 7 minute rant about slave labor and the atrocity of Brazilian ethanol production and ended with - "So look what you're perpetuating". That was followed by applause and then two more audience members shouting things at me about how I was promoting biofuels and why had I worked for the IDB. Thanks for the personal attacks on my career choices. What did you do, google me? The moderator stepped in and suggested we continue the conversation over morning tea - umm, no thanks. I hightailed it out of there feeling very glad I'm here for a different reason, albeit no less controversial, and made it to my research methods class just in time....

-Had to prepare a presentation about my identity to follow on the paper I wrote a few weeks ago. Well my identity paper (aka my identity) got an A, so I was feeling pretty good although not relishing another presentation. We were also told that we would be graded on creativity, so I was feeling extra pressure. I went with the poem approach, and was feeling very cheeky by making it rhyme. I also decided to incorporate some charades, because frankly, I'm quite good at charades, although usually of the animal variety. When it came time to finally give the presentation on Kapiti, I ended up going last, which was probably a mistake. Almost all the people before me made my rhyming identity poem seem like I was a dyslexic 2nd grader (no offense to dyslexics or 2nd graders). People shared deep emotional moments about their lives in really creative ways and a few even cried during their presentations, whereas I had a rhyming poem about being American (easy way out). I should have done the lean back....

-Went to Kapiti Island, a nature reserve co-managed by Maori, with one of my classes. Kapiti is just off the coast of New Zealand and is home to many bird species previously thought almost extinct, like the kaka, takahe, and the ever elusive kiwi. I was excited since a lot of the Kiwis I know (the people, not the bird) have never been. The ride over felt a bit like approaching Jurassic Park and upon arrival, the birds looked like that too. While this is a birders paradise, I realized I much prefer seeing birds, to interacting with them. We had our classes outside only to be dive-bombed by kakas every 3 min where I would duck and squeal, much to the delight and derision of my classmates. We also went on a kiwi hunt after dinner, which basically entailed walking around in the dark for three hours with a kiwi expert and not actually seeing any. I blame this entirely on one of the tourists on our hunt, a NZer, age 55 (probably doesn't appreciate Lady Gaga, and no offense to 55 year olds), who apparently got drunk on the two glasses of wine we had with dinner and was swerving, vearing, falling into every bush we walked by and doing a perfect job of ensuring the kiwi could hear us from a mile away. Thanks Kiwi for not letting us see kiwi

So thats the week of work for you. A few others items of note:

-My roommates are back and the thing they're most pissed about is going to Vegas and not realizing you can drink for free. They've told me that you couldn't have that in NZ (gambling is legal here) because NZers are too hard core and would get too drunk. I should mention they were in Vegas for less than 24 hours....

So I'm working away on my research. I've almost solved the Auckland question and don't worry I'm not leaving, its just having the conversation....

-The pro basketball team here is called the Tall Blacks. Of course it is....(no offense to tall people or African Americans)

And tomorrow night I'm going to a super hero party, any suggestions for women super heros????

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