Hola todos,
It has been a few days since I updated this and that’s because I’ve been so dang busy! Last week was spent mainly getting into the swing of things and adjusting to being a student again. It’s a strange thing to be on the other side of the fence again. Now, I’m the one with all the questionsJ I also had my first Spanish lesson and that was a resounding success. My partner, Cindy, is from Colombia and she is training to be a Spanish teacher, so I’m in good hands. She sized me up fairly quickly and summed it up succinctly, I have a good vocabulary, but can’t conjugate verbs to save my life;)
Friday and Saturday evening, I went out to experience the nightlife here in Auckland. I made some friends and enjoyed myself immensely! On Sunday, I spent most of the day on a goat farmJ Yes, I did say a goat farm. Actually, the farm belongs to my supervisor, Darl Kolb, and I’m convinced his ‘ranch home’ is one of the most beautiful in the entire country. Indeed, his home perches atop a small mountain outside of Auckland and the setting is rustically beautiful. In fact, if you walk just above his home you can see both the East and West coast of the Northern Island while being assaulted by the cow packJ Good times! I’m including a few photos and videos for your viewing pleasure!
As for today, it was spent in doctoral seminars geared toward new PhD students. We learned a bit about everything and who to contact if we had more questions. One interesting things I learned today is called dissertation by publication. Basically, if you can get a fair amount of your research published in peer reviewed journals before graduation, you don’t have to submit a traditional 100,000 word dissertation. Instead, you submit a framework of your research and include the publications as part of your dissertation. So you get the PhD and also have something to put on your resume/CV.
Right, well I’m off now to go to a July 4th Celebration. I'm glad I'll be meeting new people because they won't know that I've been wearing the same 3 outfits for the last week because my luggage still hasn't shown up. Anyway, I’ll update you later this week on how the celebration goes. Cheers!
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