School Days, School Days, Dear old golden rule days...

First week of class is done! I made it. Only about 40 more weeks of school to go.

Ok, so what have I been up to this past week? Hmmmm, last Saturday it was gorgeous out! Absolutely perfect. A little windy, but that's expected in Wellington. So I just spent the day wandering; through town, down on the water front, then spent a few hours just laying in the grass by the water reading. Life was good. I also discovered this craft market thing that they have every Saturday. There's a whole variety of handmade goods like knitted items and jewelry, and foods like breads and pastries. It sounded right up my alley, so naturally I loved it. I will be going back frequently.

Here's a funny; I've been looking for a job (I can work up to 20 hours per week on my student visa) and in my search I found a posting for a casting call for extras for the Hobbit! I always knew I'd be the perfect hobbit; I'm short, have brown hair, love to eat, and then, naturally, Elijah Wood and I would become BFFs. I continued to read the posting to see the where and when of the audition, I discovered some terrible, terrible news....I WAS TOO TALL! When, when have I ever been too tall for anything?!?! Huh?! By 2 stinking inches. I should have just gone and slouched the whole time. Maybe they'll need more extras and increase the height requirement because not enough people showed up that were that short. Ugh, my dream of living in Middle Earth was almost a reality. I will not give up hope!

Alright, so now we come to Monday the 30th, the day that I start school again. I was (and still am) quite nervous for classes. Yes, I have spent most of my existence in school, but after taking an almost 2 year break from it,  I don't know how hard it will be to get back into the school frame of mind. I can't come home from class and not think about it again until 9am the next morning like I have been for the last 2 years with work.

For those of you that don't know exactly what I'm even doing here, here's a quick update. I am doing a year long Master of Conservation Biology program, which is done by coursework. Typically, postgrad degrees can be completed in one of 3 ways; by research, by thesis, or by coursework. This particular program appealed to me (not just because it's in New Zealand) because it's more focused on experience than sitting in a classroom or lab. It's also pretty awesome because it has an international focus. This means I get to go to Australia for second term! It also means that most of my classmates are international students. Out of 11 of us in the program, only 2 are kiwis! The rest of us are from US, Canada, Germany, China, and Australia. So, we've got quite the mix, which I also think is really awesome! :) The first semester doesn't start until March 5th, so what am I doing here now? This is a special, one-month long course called New Zealand Conservation Practice, where we get to travel to various conservation sites throughout the country and basically get free access to see, learn, question, study, anything we want. Tomorrow starts our trip to the South Island to Kaikoura and Able Tasman National Park.

This past week we went to Zealandia, which is a conservation site just outside of Wellington, that is privately owned by the Karori Trust. We also went to Matiu/Somes Island in the Wellington Harbor. For those blog readers that followed my adventures to New Zealand the first time around, you will recall that I did a volunteer weekend to this island 3 years ago. To refresh your memory, here's the original post. I could not wait to go back to the island! I was so anxious to see if Charlie had grown at all. After we finally got to the island and were free to wander (which likely only took an hour or so, but it felt like all day to me), I took off straight for Charlie. I was the first one up the hill and didn't care if anyone else was with me. I wanted to see Charlie. I turned the corner around the old quarantine house.....and there he was!

Look how much our trees have grown! Top picture = taken last week. Bottom picture = taken 3 years ago. That's the same building on the left side of both pictures.

Charlie last week.

Charlie 3 years ago.

So, even though it was raining the entire day and I was completely soaked at the end of the day, I had a stupid grin on my face the whole time. Charlie is growing big and strong, and will be for many more years to come! (I couldn't get any closer to him because we weren't supposed to go off the path...and the trees were growing so thick, I probably wouldn't have even been able to.)

Now, I'm finally moved into my room. The person who was in there just moved out yesterday, and since I had to be out of my hostel on the 1st, I spent the last few days sleeping on the couch (which, btw, is a pull out couch so visitors are more than welcome!) The room looks pretty pathetic because all that's in there right now is a bed. I bought a desk at the Salvation Army store for $20 NZD but it's not coming until Tuesday.

View from the kitchen window. Not bad, eh? 

AND, lastly, for those of you that may want to send me snail mail, here's my new address

30 Verviers St

Karori, Wellington

6021

New Zealand

K, time to pack for my trip and finish an assignment before tomorrow.

PEACE.  (")>