Phew. It's been a busy three months but at the end of this week, first semester classes end (she says with a grin on her face :). That doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed the classes. In fact, I've loved them. One course is an honours class. This is different from honors at US universities. Here, the basic undergrad degree is 3 years. Students with a high enough GPA can enrol in a 4th (honours) year which gives them a separate degree. It's kind of like the first year of an MA (the 2nd year involving writing an MA thesis). Anyway, I have two very smart, motivated students in my year-long honours class and it's a joy to spend a couple hours a week discussing sound patterns with them.
My other class is made up of 14 third-year linguistics majors. Part of the class has involved the students carrying out an experiment in which a native speaker of another language (Maori, Japanese or Korean) produced made-up foreign words. The students designed the experiments, recorded the subjects, analyzed the acoustic data and presented the preliminary results at a gathering at Jon's and my home last night. It was so great seeing these students who were so intimidated a couple of months ago at the thought of doing their own experiments, giving powerpoint presentations with pretty graphs illustrating their results. After the presentations, we had tacos, drinks and good conversation (pictures to come). What a wonderful end to my first semester.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've also been hosting two good friends, Andy Wedel and Adam Ussishkin, who are visiting the New Zealand Institute for Language, Brain and Behaviour (plug, plug, plug :), giving presentations, talking with folks, and working with me. Andy and I collaborate on research investigating the impact of uncertainty on language production and processing, and Adam and I work on the sound system of Maltese. It's amazing how much more productive a research collaboration can be when you're sitting across the table in the same room!
It's also been so much fun having them here. Aside from us being able to show them some of the places that we like, they've also served as a very good reconnaissance team for me and Jon. Andy and Adam drove out to the west coast last weekend (North Americans: it took them *3* tiny hours to cross the country :), and came back with great stories and tips on what to see and where to go. Jon and I are going for a couple of days after the semester ends. (I.am.very.very.excited.:) (pictures of this definitely to come as well).
A week after that, I leave for the northern hemisphere (sounds weird to say that since I really don't feel like I'm that far away -- denial perhaps or just good internet and phone connections). Would love to see as many of you northern hemispherers as I can! My itinerary is below.
June 13-15, Columbus (OH)
June 15-22, Thornbury (Canada)
June 22-28, Paris (France)
June 29-30, Rochester (NY)
June 31-July 8, Columbus
Love and cheers,
Beth
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Unpacking (or really moving in)…
One of the perks of waiting two months for your life to arrive by boat is that everything seems new, and it is, New Zealand New but more about that later.
It’s been a while since the last blog and it’s not been because there’s nothing to report, just no time to report it. Since our ship came in most of my days have been spent unpacking. I have to say that the packers did an impressive job wrapping and boxing our life. I guess there’s a reason you hire professionals (when you can afford it).
We knew our goods were being sent in a container on a ship, but that really doesn’t do it justice. Within the container are wooden boxes (probably 10’ x 6’ x6’) and my guess is that the container holds four of them. Boxes and furniture are loaded into the wooden boxes and then the wooden boxes are loaded into the container for a pretty cozy fit.
While we had a crew of about eight people on the move crew in Columbus, there were two Maori gentlemen who were responsible for unloading our life in Mt Pleasant. We had experience with a mover called Two Guys and a Truck in Columbus and they were a complete disaster. I don’t want to compare apples and oranges but our two Maori guys were awesome. In about six hours they had everything off the truck and in the house in one piece.
As I’ve had intimate experience with unpacking the packed boxes, you appreciate the task at hand and problems with the process. Movers in Columbus pack everything room by room. In the interests of keeping things from shifting, the boxes are filled with balled up paper and the movers label boxes as they see the items, not as you know them. Related items stay together only as space in the box allows and once the box leaves home, there’s no guarantee in what order it will come out of the truck in New Zealand.
Christmas in New Zealand started with the unboxing. If you’re unpacking all day, there are things you look forward to, music being a big one for me as I plug through the day. I was extremely excited to find my I-Pod docking station in one of the first boxes I opened. Finding the plug and remote for the station wasn’t so easy. The movers take things out of the truck and you think you know what’s in the box and have them put it in the appropriate room. That’s where that labeling issue comes in. It took me four days and seventy boxes before I found the necessary equipment for music.
It’s pretty amazing to see how your possessions will translate to a new house. All in all we’ve had a pretty amazing conversion. Having said that, our house over-runneth. In the interests of good taste and common sense an essential part of the process has been re-packing what we have no room for. I’ll consider it a good sign that what came over in 160 boxes has only led to the re-packing of a dozen.
On to New Zealand New; there are no cars manufactured in New Zealand. The big car dealers are Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Holden, etc. New cars from a dealer are very expensive, with used cars being a lot more reasonable. In earlier blogs we detailed that we bought a Yaris and that car was New Zealand New. It was used in Japan, bought by Toyota New Zealand, re-conditioned, and sold as New Zealand New. I guess that now all our worldly belongings are New Zealand New.
Cheers,
Jon
Monday, May 7, 2012
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