Advice:
1) Don’t get a parking ticket. Even if it doesn’t seem like an actual road but rather more like an alley/parking area remember to park facing the right way.
2) Don’t lose your parking ticket. It’s a small bit of paper but pretty important.
3) Don’t forget to change your address on the registration for your car if you move flats. Reminders about parking tickets will be sent there.
4) If you have forgotten, remember to check before you sell your car – it’s an awkward time to find out.
5) Ask someone to keep an eye out for documents arriving at your old flat concerning the sale of your car and when they tell you there is a letter from the Ministry of Justice rather than Land Transport try not to have accrued massive fines for ignoring the reminders which you didn't know were coming.
6) Pay the new fees before you lose the letter and ticket again.
Well at least I managed to do two of those....
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Oozing over with reflectiveness
I didn’t have a lot of expectations coming to New Zealand. My last semester at Morris was challenging. Trying to create and complete my interdisciplinary honors project and carry on despite its consistent deviation away from what I wanted to be the focus (the topic itself wasn’t what I would have preferred to do because professors had left and instead grew more and more into an argument about a tiny historiographical detail that didn’t really ultimately matter for the field of geology or philosophy) When I finally got it done and defended, I had to immediately turn around and start a huge mess of philosophy assignments while trying to attend to other senior sem projects, tidy up the affairs of clubs with which I was affiliated, and generally do every characteristic Morrisian activity I could before I left for good. That said, I didn’t have a ton of time to imagine what New Zealand would be like. When I did think about it though, my ideas about NZ were framed around academic aims, potential cultural experiences, and excitement about different natural phenomena I might observe. But when I think about defining moments in my experiences in Otago, many of them are just life lessons about dealing with people, not Kiwis specifically. Buying and selling a car, trying to navigate through flat disputes, cooking, etc. Living abroad forced me to make a lot of tough decisions on my own because those who I usually count on to give in advice were not necessarily around (due to 17 hour time gap) or able to be contacted (due to sketchy internet service) when I needed them.
If you had told me when I was a freshman that during university I would go abroad at all much less live in another country for a full year, I would have laughed until my sides hurt too much to stand. I had been ill for too long to even have the desire to be well enough to travel – I couldn’t remember what it would be like not to be nauseous all the time or imagine reaching a point where I wouldn’t be concerned about the possiblity of throwing up in public places. I distinctly remember going to a scholarship information meeting at the beginning of sophomore year and deciding that none of them were applicable to me because they were either extremely specific or involved some abroad component. To have last minute decided to enter the honors program, to have heard about the abroad trip to Scotland while on the way back from the annual Gutherie trip (and thus got up the nerve to go far before it was an official program), to have gone to Scotland and been extremely sorry I had not tried to attend a uni abroad for a whole semester, and to have gotten a chance after all of those lovely coincidences...there aren’t enough synonyms for “lucky”.
If you had told me when I was a freshman that during university I would go abroad at all much less live in another country for a full year, I would have laughed until my sides hurt too much to stand. I had been ill for too long to even have the desire to be well enough to travel – I couldn’t remember what it would be like not to be nauseous all the time or imagine reaching a point where I wouldn’t be concerned about the possiblity of throwing up in public places. I distinctly remember going to a scholarship information meeting at the beginning of sophomore year and deciding that none of them were applicable to me because they were either extremely specific or involved some abroad component. To have last minute decided to enter the honors program, to have heard about the abroad trip to Scotland while on the way back from the annual Gutherie trip (and thus got up the nerve to go far before it was an official program), to have gone to Scotland and been extremely sorry I had not tried to attend a uni abroad for a whole semester, and to have gotten a chance after all of those lovely coincidences...there aren’t enough synonyms for “lucky”.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I think I can, I thought I could, I thought you could
I think I can get all of my stuff packed, my final essay exam finished, and figure out a way to get to the airport; I thought I could survive downhill skiing (and fortunately was correct!); Thomas (my car), I knew you could make it up every hill and down every crazy steep narrow ford-filled gravel road without any mechanical breakdowns!
One week remains of the great New Zealand adventure!
I went downhill skiing for the first time in ten years! It was a very spontaneous trip with four other awesome exchange students and about 3 hours between being first told about it and leaving. We were extremely lucky in every respect: 1) even though technically we went after rental hours, the guy at the unipol (fitness centre) “snow shed” hadn’t left yet and fitted us with gear anyway 2) we got the last room in the backpackers and found it without looking up its location or asking for directions 3) the weather was brilliant. Two of the girls had been in Tonga the week before so we listened to a CD they had purchased there as we drove up the steep snowy road to Coronet Peak. I spent most of the day on the “easy” slope trying to learn how to slow up by skiing side to side. I went on a few intermediate hills including skiing down from the highest chairlift! The Remarkables were indeed remarkable with their fresh glistening snow, though I spent most of the day staring at my skis. ^_^ Spent a lot of time sprawled in the snow but it was good fun with good people.
Remind me to never buy or sell a car ever again. I sold dear Thomas, my trusty automobile yesterday. He was the best anthropomorphised 1993 Honda Civic to ever roam NZ roads. It was pretty weird watching someone else (much less an unlicensed moody and absent-minded polytech student) get in and drive away, knowing that I wouldn’t ever see him again. The trade also involved dealing with an extremely annoying father whose every phrase was a constant barrage of intimidation attempts. It was sort of fun at first since I picked up quick on what he was doing. I had so many people interested in viewing the car that I never managed to contact them all and, thus, any attempt he made at telling me I would get a bad price if I took it to auction (my last resort if I couldn’t sell it quick enough) resulted in me trying not to laugh while I repeatedly explained that I was confident I would find a private buyer. It became less fun when he finally made a reasonable offer and I ended up having to deal with him for another half day. I did get to make faces at some giggling babies during the 20 minutes it took to sort out the fact that the actual owner of the car had brought no forms of identification with her.
Thomas, the little car that could:
One week remains of the great New Zealand adventure!
I went downhill skiing for the first time in ten years! It was a very spontaneous trip with four other awesome exchange students and about 3 hours between being first told about it and leaving. We were extremely lucky in every respect: 1) even though technically we went after rental hours, the guy at the unipol (fitness centre) “snow shed” hadn’t left yet and fitted us with gear anyway 2) we got the last room in the backpackers and found it without looking up its location or asking for directions 3) the weather was brilliant. Two of the girls had been in Tonga the week before so we listened to a CD they had purchased there as we drove up the steep snowy road to Coronet Peak. I spent most of the day on the “easy” slope trying to learn how to slow up by skiing side to side. I went on a few intermediate hills including skiing down from the highest chairlift! The Remarkables were indeed remarkable with their fresh glistening snow, though I spent most of the day staring at my skis. ^_^ Spent a lot of time sprawled in the snow but it was good fun with good people.
Remind me to never buy or sell a car ever again. I sold dear Thomas, my trusty automobile yesterday. He was the best anthropomorphised 1993 Honda Civic to ever roam NZ roads. It was pretty weird watching someone else (much less an unlicensed moody and absent-minded polytech student) get in and drive away, knowing that I wouldn’t ever see him again. The trade also involved dealing with an extremely annoying father whose every phrase was a constant barrage of intimidation attempts. It was sort of fun at first since I picked up quick on what he was doing. I had so many people interested in viewing the car that I never managed to contact them all and, thus, any attempt he made at telling me I would get a bad price if I took it to auction (my last resort if I couldn’t sell it quick enough) resulted in me trying not to laugh while I repeatedly explained that I was confident I would find a private buyer. It became less fun when he finally made a reasonable offer and I ended up having to deal with him for another half day. I did get to make faces at some giggling babies during the 20 minutes it took to sort out the fact that the actual owner of the car had brought no forms of identification with her.
Thomas, the little car that could:
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Missitude
Less than two weeks to go! So in a last ditch effort to make use of this space I am going to try to post something every day for my remaining time in NZ ! Feel free to mock me endlessly when I don’t!
Things I miss: family/friends, snow, insulation/double paned windows, being warm when its winter, thunderstorms, squirrels, loons, frogs, MN vegetation in general (maple, oak, pine), piano!!!, people with which to sing, reliable internet, being treated like I’m a long term member of the community
Things I don’t miss: “first past the post” induced party politics and American mainstream media, flatness, humid heat, uncritical use of the concept of patriotism, requiring a car to do day to day activities, ticks
Things I will miss: the hills of Dunedin especially as viewed from the top of the hill in the Botanic Garden and knowing that I could literally walk out of town and be on top of a huge ridge with views of the mountains and oceans simultaneously, walking to the Octagon, tree ferns, the southern cross and galaxies, cricket as a legitimate sport, young, dynamic, and easily accessible geologic outcrops, having a detailed knowledge of the environmental framework of the country I’m living in (going to have to work on fixing that), NZ currency (it might look like play money but its sooo pretty), recognition and incorporation of Maori vocabulary/concepts at a national level, clocktower and Leith, the ocean (surf, jellyfish, crazy seaweed, vastness), tussock, accidentally scaring up kerukeru (NZ wood pigeon), funny sounding tui, rata trees in bloom,
Things I won’t miss: possums, people going barefoot (or even with crappy jandels) in glass strewn streets, no turn on left
Things I miss: family/friends, snow, insulation/double paned windows, being warm when its winter, thunderstorms, squirrels, loons, frogs, MN vegetation in general (maple, oak, pine), piano!!!, people with which to sing, reliable internet, being treated like I’m a long term member of the community
Things I don’t miss: “first past the post” induced party politics and American mainstream media, flatness, humid heat, uncritical use of the concept of patriotism, requiring a car to do day to day activities, ticks
Things I will miss: the hills of Dunedin especially as viewed from the top of the hill in the Botanic Garden and knowing that I could literally walk out of town and be on top of a huge ridge with views of the mountains and oceans simultaneously, walking to the Octagon, tree ferns, the southern cross and galaxies, cricket as a legitimate sport, young, dynamic, and easily accessible geologic outcrops, having a detailed knowledge of the environmental framework of the country I’m living in (going to have to work on fixing that), NZ currency (it might look like play money but its sooo pretty), recognition and incorporation of Maori vocabulary/concepts at a national level, clocktower and Leith, the ocean (surf, jellyfish, crazy seaweed, vastness), tussock, accidentally scaring up kerukeru (NZ wood pigeon), funny sounding tui, rata trees in bloom,
Things I won’t miss: possums, people going barefoot (or even with crappy jandels) in glass strewn streets, no turn on left
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Qualitative Report on Experiences of First Semester 2010 at Otago Uni (aka: oh goodness me, only one month left!)
Just when (okay, okay probably several months after) you reckoned I had given up on this blog....
I. Introduction:
In just over a month I will be flying back to Minnesota.!? 2 weeks of class, 3 weeks of exams left?!. The deciduous trees around Dunedin are turning colours and, though I know it is not going to ever truly seem like winter to me (needs snow or at least dead grass), there is definitely chill in the air. For instance, I currently have several sweaters on and, perhaps more pathetically, am at my desk inside my sleep bag.
II. Methods: Though two of my classes are supposed to be equal portions human and physical topics, the heavy workload of my geology paper has made this semester feel very scientifically oriented (hence the necessity of the structure of this post and the hierarchal labelling below). But because my soul dies a little each time I am asked to write in passive voice, I chose to ignore the traditional “objective” science writing style. This post explores the question of what have I been up to this past (southern hemisphere) academic semester.
III. Results:
i. Classes:
a. Plants, People and the Environment: As you might guess from the title, the paper is pretty heavy into botany. Historical biogeography (working out disruptions (human, glaciations, etc) to the environment based on the distribution and physical characteristics of the plants currently growing there) is sweet and the coursework different from what I am used to – I have sprouts in my window sill and every week get to wander around in the gardens for three hours comparing species.
b. Developments in Environmental Management: A small class by Otago standards with around 20 students. Great, wonderful and every other word indicating happiness. The “heavy” reading load is not onerous by Morris standards with emphasis on deconstruction of knowledge about environmental issues and critiquing different management strategies. Also there are lots of discussions with fellow students (who are mostly postgrads with development/planning experience) about issues close to their hearts such as intensification of dairy farming and the seawall at St. Clair’s beach.
c. Resource Planning and Management – the undergraduate equivalent of the one above. In some ways repetitive of things I studied in environmental politics last semester or just have picked up on having spent four years at a college which prides itself on its environmental consciousness. But I am more and more sure it is what I want to do with my life – distributive justice of resource allocation, recognizing how the different scales at which international banks vs NGOs vs local people interact with their environment and can contribute to best practice management. I am currently writing a paper on Australian coastal management – a bit of a laugh seeing as I could count the number of times I had been to the ocean before coming to NZ on one hand.
d. NZ Field Studies: GeoloGY! (with the appropriate arm gesture) More significantly: field work! Something I have wanted to do since getting pulled toward the subject three years ago. The class was huge (about 80 people) which made every assignment and trip a logistical nightmare. We had our first field camp in Maerewhenua Valley in Central Otago the week before official classes started. It was a very intense week trying to find (make accurate enough observations) of contacts in order to map the rock units, followed by another very intense week trying to finish a map/report of the area while getting other classes sorted out. Our second major project was centred at Borland (Fiordland NP). It was far less intense although twice as much report and featured an overturned syncline, grain flow conglomerates, and sooo many turbidites. Sadly the day I most cared about and my last day in the field (we were looking at crazy cross-cutting relationships of the igneous and metamorphic basement rocks), there was heavy rainfall so we only half heartedly were allowed to do the exercises. We had a lab final for the class a few weeks ago and the class is now over. :-(
ii. Flat Life:
Despite positive impressions in my February post, some of my flatmates definitely did not end up getting along nicely. Alistair was not comfortable with large groups of people in the flat (and decided to outright disrespect American geology students) which clashed with Paul and Liz’s (reasonable) desire to spontaneously have people over, mostly American geology students. This root problem spread negativity to every other activity in the flat. I missed most of the sparring because I would be the university library until after people had gone to bed and then wake up to the sound of slamming doors. It reached the ridiculous point of having professional mediation! Alistair has subsequently moved out.
iii. Random Adventures:
a. stubborn cow in the road on the road to “Paradise” (the name of an actual town)
Fig. 1 Cow
b. midsemester break trip to Green Lake Hut found out my knee is messed up and that I probably shouldn’t go on anymore long tramping trips
Fig. 2 Green Lake Hut
c. Anzac Day activities – dawn service, poppies, anzac cookies, the Settlement Museum display on Dunedin soldiers
d. Dushan (demonstrator for my field studies class)’s optional geology trip up the West Coast to the tippy top of the South Island
Fig. 3 Sunset on the West Coast
e. watching drunk kiwi geologist try to take the strike and dip of a teeter totter during the "geology race"
f. Epic game of table tennis (ping pong) in Big Hut (Rock and Pillar Range)
Fig. 4 Inside Big Hut
g. fire dancing with poi and staffs on a clear night at the monument on top of signal hill
IV. Conclusions: I poked a jellyfish and miss squirrels.
I. Introduction:
In just over a month I will be flying back to Minnesota.!? 2 weeks of class, 3 weeks of exams left?!. The deciduous trees around Dunedin are turning colours and, though I know it is not going to ever truly seem like winter to me (needs snow or at least dead grass), there is definitely chill in the air. For instance, I currently have several sweaters on and, perhaps more pathetically, am at my desk inside my sleep bag.
II. Methods: Though two of my classes are supposed to be equal portions human and physical topics, the heavy workload of my geology paper has made this semester feel very scientifically oriented (hence the necessity of the structure of this post and the hierarchal labelling below). But because my soul dies a little each time I am asked to write in passive voice, I chose to ignore the traditional “objective” science writing style. This post explores the question of what have I been up to this past (southern hemisphere) academic semester.
III. Results:
i. Classes:
a. Plants, People and the Environment: As you might guess from the title, the paper is pretty heavy into botany. Historical biogeography (working out disruptions (human, glaciations, etc) to the environment based on the distribution and physical characteristics of the plants currently growing there) is sweet and the coursework different from what I am used to – I have sprouts in my window sill and every week get to wander around in the gardens for three hours comparing species.
b. Developments in Environmental Management: A small class by Otago standards with around 20 students. Great, wonderful and every other word indicating happiness. The “heavy” reading load is not onerous by Morris standards with emphasis on deconstruction of knowledge about environmental issues and critiquing different management strategies. Also there are lots of discussions with fellow students (who are mostly postgrads with development/planning experience) about issues close to their hearts such as intensification of dairy farming and the seawall at St. Clair’s beach.
c. Resource Planning and Management – the undergraduate equivalent of the one above. In some ways repetitive of things I studied in environmental politics last semester or just have picked up on having spent four years at a college which prides itself on its environmental consciousness. But I am more and more sure it is what I want to do with my life – distributive justice of resource allocation, recognizing how the different scales at which international banks vs NGOs vs local people interact with their environment and can contribute to best practice management. I am currently writing a paper on Australian coastal management – a bit of a laugh seeing as I could count the number of times I had been to the ocean before coming to NZ on one hand.
d. NZ Field Studies: GeoloGY! (with the appropriate arm gesture) More significantly: field work! Something I have wanted to do since getting pulled toward the subject three years ago. The class was huge (about 80 people) which made every assignment and trip a logistical nightmare. We had our first field camp in Maerewhenua Valley in Central Otago the week before official classes started. It was a very intense week trying to find (make accurate enough observations) of contacts in order to map the rock units, followed by another very intense week trying to finish a map/report of the area while getting other classes sorted out. Our second major project was centred at Borland (Fiordland NP). It was far less intense although twice as much report and featured an overturned syncline, grain flow conglomerates, and sooo many turbidites. Sadly the day I most cared about and my last day in the field (we were looking at crazy cross-cutting relationships of the igneous and metamorphic basement rocks), there was heavy rainfall so we only half heartedly were allowed to do the exercises. We had a lab final for the class a few weeks ago and the class is now over. :-(
ii. Flat Life:
Despite positive impressions in my February post, some of my flatmates definitely did not end up getting along nicely. Alistair was not comfortable with large groups of people in the flat (and decided to outright disrespect American geology students) which clashed with Paul and Liz’s (reasonable) desire to spontaneously have people over, mostly American geology students. This root problem spread negativity to every other activity in the flat. I missed most of the sparring because I would be the university library until after people had gone to bed and then wake up to the sound of slamming doors. It reached the ridiculous point of having professional mediation! Alistair has subsequently moved out.
iii. Random Adventures:
a. stubborn cow in the road on the road to “Paradise” (the name of an actual town)
Fig. 1 Cow
b. midsemester break trip to Green Lake Hut found out my knee is messed up and that I probably shouldn’t go on anymore long tramping trips
Fig. 2 Green Lake Hut
c. Anzac Day activities – dawn service, poppies, anzac cookies, the Settlement Museum display on Dunedin soldiers
d. Dushan (demonstrator for my field studies class)’s optional geology trip up the West Coast to the tippy top of the South Island
Fig. 3 Sunset on the West Coast
e. watching drunk kiwi geologist try to take the strike and dip of a teeter totter during the "geology race"
f. Epic game of table tennis (ping pong) in Big Hut (Rock and Pillar Range)
Fig. 4 Inside Big Hut
g. fire dancing with poi and staffs on a clear night at the monument on top of signal hill
IV. Conclusions: I poked a jellyfish and miss squirrels.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Comedy and Tragedy of the Commons
Comic swiped from the lecture slides of one of my geography classes today:
If you know anything about the "Tragedy of the Commons" model of behavior, I suspect you are already laughing.
If you don't:
The "Tragedy of the Commons" theory was proposed by Garrett Hardin (1968). According to it, in cases where multiple individuals use the same communal resource base (shepherds grazing sheep in a pasture), the tendency will be toward degradation of the resource. This is because the benefit to each individual of using more than his or her fair share (aka putting an extra sheep in the pasture to graze) is greater than the cost to him or her (which is spread amongst all of the resource users). If all users act in this way, the pasture will soon be overrun with sheep to the downfall of all. Following this to its logical end, an outside entity is needed in order to regulate the selfish behavior of the resource users.
A dominant critique of this, however, is that it doesn't account for the social relations between users. It suggests that they are incapable of talking to each other and generating their own locally agreed upon resource management solutions.
Now read the comic again. :D
If you know anything about the "Tragedy of the Commons" model of behavior, I suspect you are already laughing.
If you don't:
The "Tragedy of the Commons" theory was proposed by Garrett Hardin (1968). According to it, in cases where multiple individuals use the same communal resource base (shepherds grazing sheep in a pasture), the tendency will be toward degradation of the resource. This is because the benefit to each individual of using more than his or her fair share (aka putting an extra sheep in the pasture to graze) is greater than the cost to him or her (which is spread amongst all of the resource users). If all users act in this way, the pasture will soon be overrun with sheep to the downfall of all. Following this to its logical end, an outside entity is needed in order to regulate the selfish behavior of the resource users.
A dominant critique of this, however, is that it doesn't account for the social relations between users. It suggests that they are incapable of talking to each other and generating their own locally agreed upon resource management solutions.
Now read the comic again. :D
Monday, February 22, 2010
Feeling Lucky
Wow. Its been a while since I wrote anything here and has reached a stage at which so much has happened and changed it is now difficult to come up with what to put. I have spent the summer holiday traveling around New Zealand – on my own for the first month and a half, then with visiting family (hooray!) Uni will be starting up again soon – class officially starts in just over a week but I will be doing field work for my geology paper starting Tuesday. (Oh goodness me I am excited!!)
All of my flatmates have moved in and signs point to us getting along nicely. Paul and Liz are geology students from small universities in the United States (St. Lawrence and Whitman respectively). Alistair, from Auckland, studies accounting (and surveying?). More pertinently, Liz knows how to break apples apart without a knife, Paul is talented at driving vehicles in narrow places, and Alistair worked this past summer on a tourist boat to Antarctica (has many pictures of poo covered penguins and ice shelves) He will also happily kick hedgehogs out of our green space. Literally kick them. I almost want the cute bugger to come back so I can try my hand....er..foot at it. This is Alistair’s first stint for uni flats (international student flats managed by the university which provides furniture, appliances, cutlery etc) so we have all of the things which he furnished his flat with last year. In other words, we have the most well equipped kitchen in the whole city! :-) My flatmates are similarly bewildered by the drinking culture at Otago (extremely loud music, broken glasses, and getting shit-faced as fast and as raucously as you can) – just doesn’t seem fun. Our flat is unlikely to ever be the source of drunken mayhem and, as far as I can tell, there is only one party house between me and campus. Hooray!
I need to sort out a whole summers worth of experiences and do some serious reflecting but for now I will just wax poetic about the benefits of liberal arts education. Turns out (unsurprisingly) I am very, very much a fan. In walking the lines between disciplines, you don’t feel as trapped in the structures of knowledge constructed by academia. You may get to the end of your educational journey with less practical skills in your given field but you have a better appreciation for the complexity of the world around you. I have discovered a serious discontinuity between what I expect to get from being at university and what my kiwi friends expect. The bottom line: the NZ academic system does not seem to understand the logic behind liberal arts. I was trying to find a paper (class) to replace something which had been shifted to second semester and needed to have one of the actual instructors sign off because I hadn’t taken the prerequisite. After asking me some questions, he decided that I should be doing a one-year post-graduate diploma, looked up the details and started reading me the requirements. “Is there any coherence to the courses you’ve taken?” well....yes.... sort of but definitely not institutionally. He commented that I would need to have completed my bachelors degree but I had explained to him that I was essentially done with mine. When I told him that graduating would invalidate my scholarship, he just sort of looked at me in puzzlement: what an odd restriction! who would ever create such a scholarship? Thank you Katherine E. Sullivan! Thank you Sullivan scholarship committee! It is such a mindboggling privilege to be here feeling out of place.
All of my flatmates have moved in and signs point to us getting along nicely. Paul and Liz are geology students from small universities in the United States (St. Lawrence and Whitman respectively). Alistair, from Auckland, studies accounting (and surveying?). More pertinently, Liz knows how to break apples apart without a knife, Paul is talented at driving vehicles in narrow places, and Alistair worked this past summer on a tourist boat to Antarctica (has many pictures of poo covered penguins and ice shelves) He will also happily kick hedgehogs out of our green space. Literally kick them. I almost want the cute bugger to come back so I can try my hand....er..foot at it. This is Alistair’s first stint for uni flats (international student flats managed by the university which provides furniture, appliances, cutlery etc) so we have all of the things which he furnished his flat with last year. In other words, we have the most well equipped kitchen in the whole city! :-) My flatmates are similarly bewildered by the drinking culture at Otago (extremely loud music, broken glasses, and getting shit-faced as fast and as raucously as you can) – just doesn’t seem fun. Our flat is unlikely to ever be the source of drunken mayhem and, as far as I can tell, there is only one party house between me and campus. Hooray!
I need to sort out a whole summers worth of experiences and do some serious reflecting but for now I will just wax poetic about the benefits of liberal arts education. Turns out (unsurprisingly) I am very, very much a fan. In walking the lines between disciplines, you don’t feel as trapped in the structures of knowledge constructed by academia. You may get to the end of your educational journey with less practical skills in your given field but you have a better appreciation for the complexity of the world around you. I have discovered a serious discontinuity between what I expect to get from being at university and what my kiwi friends expect. The bottom line: the NZ academic system does not seem to understand the logic behind liberal arts. I was trying to find a paper (class) to replace something which had been shifted to second semester and needed to have one of the actual instructors sign off because I hadn’t taken the prerequisite. After asking me some questions, he decided that I should be doing a one-year post-graduate diploma, looked up the details and started reading me the requirements. “Is there any coherence to the courses you’ve taken?” well....yes.... sort of but definitely not institutionally. He commented that I would need to have completed my bachelors degree but I had explained to him that I was essentially done with mine. When I told him that graduating would invalidate my scholarship, he just sort of looked at me in puzzlement: what an odd restriction! who would ever create such a scholarship? Thank you Katherine E. Sullivan! Thank you Sullivan scholarship committee! It is such a mindboggling privilege to be here feeling out of place.
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