Christmas comes to Cromwell.

Things haven’t been so exciting here lately, probably because I’ve been really cranking my work, which is good!

The work is fun, I’ve almost got two online surveys ready to run, am working on writing a publication for Chris (my supervisor in New Zealand) and am going to be a confederate (pretend that I’m another participant but really be in on the whole thing) in a study for a post-doc in January. It’s on ostracism, so basically I’m introduced to a stranger, we talk for a while and then are separated and then they are told that they can’t talk to me, and I have to try and talk to them for 3mins and pretend to be confused/ upset when they don’t talk back. Good times!

This weekend I went and visited my mum’s cousin, Linda and her son Daniel on the Sunshine Coast for the weekend which was amazing. I’ve seen a lot of them throughout my life and get on really well with them so it was a great weekend. We went up to the Eumundi markets which I definitely recommend. Such a treat and I got some good presents stocked up for upcoming birthdays etc. Then we went to Noosa where I had a swim and we drove a scenic route home.We also watched the Pursuit of Happiness which I enjoyed. Linda gave me a million Christmas presents and a little Christmas tree to have in my room to get into the Christmas spirit – so lovely.

Then on Sunday I went to church with a lecturer I met in Scotland and then back to her house for coffee. She is really interesting; she is a law professor and has horrific stories about sexism. Then I slept, actually all day.

Aside from that it’s been an amazing week uni-wise, that’s why I’m writing this now: I’m too excited and can’t focus on my reading. My first paper is officially in press, I got into Honours, with my first choice supervisor, I am probably going to be working on Dunedin Longitudinal Study data looking at how children’s age of walking and talking is related to later outcomes. FUN. I got the University of Auckland Honours Scholarship which pays fees and a stipend. And today I found out I am shortlisted for this large scholarship for studying overseas and they are flying me back to NZ for an interview in January. So please cross your fingers for me (or pray for me if you’re so inclined). And if you want to see me book in a coffee date for Jan 26^th – one day only! Haha.

It will be strange not being in NZ for Christmas and missing Phoebe’s annual Christmas Eve party and C3 carols and not being with my family on Christmas and missing Getaway (it would have been my 8^th), but I am off to Melbourne tomorrow night and cannot wait for that!

So, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope and pray you are blessed in the year to come.

LOVE! PEACE! HOPE!

Visiting ACT...

I can’t believe I’ve only been away 18 days. It feels much longer. Brisbane and UQ feels very much like home and my flatties like long term friends. I always find it strange how when you’re travelling you almost forget about home, and when you’re home you almost forget about your travels. Well I do. Humans tend to adjust quickly I guess.

Anyway, last weekend I went to Canberra – “the Nation’s capital”. An accurate slogan, unlike Hamilton’s attempts –

Hamilton: Where it’s happening.

Hamilton: City of the future.

Until they finally got it right with this one – Hamilton: More than you’d expect (aka. better than you fear).

Yes I am a JAFA. But anyway, Canberra and not Hamilton is where I’ve been, and Canberra is really is just the Nation’s capital - parliament and a uni (which is like a city in itself). However, those two things sum up my interests pretty well so it was a good time, especially as Max was there – which, of course, was the main reason for going.

So we did the tourist thing which I love:

The photo of us dressed up is in the “Hands On” section at the Museum of Democracy. I love this. Civics Education is so important and so neglected. Someone told me (this is non-confirmed but interesting) that at Epsom Girls Grammar they did a civics education module where they presented party policies without the party names and got the girls to vote. “Party A” aka “Labour” won. Remember, Epsom currently elects Rodney (= ACT = very far from Labour). So many of the people here have told me they don’t know Left from Right (politically) or that they don’t know why they voted the way they did. In first year labs when I was collecting data someone asked me who John Key was (this is a University student, after he’d just been elected!!). I think we are clearly failing on having a (even vaguely) politically educated population, and obviously I think this is crucial.

Anyway, moving on, sorry about the rant, some other highlights of Canberra were this vegetarian restaurant that serves fake duck, fish, chicken, pork – bizarre I know. Unfortunately I failed on the tourist front and didn’t get any photos, but it was amazing what one can do with soy beans! Also, this unbelievable chocolate restaurant and delicious markets – although we had to walk two hours to get there. The walk was nice too though as everything there is political (Max - not just everything generally) so along the lake they have an exhibition of “Australian of the Year”, and more importantly we were with good people :)

Aside from Canberra, this week has been awesome. I read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It is the second book I have read by him and in both I have sobbed uncontrollably. Not just cried, but bawled. His latest book is called “Eating Animals” and I’m afraid to read it as I’m sure he will be able to convince me to be vegetarian (unlike Caitlyn and Max who I don’t listen to).

I also had dinner with an amazing lecturer who works in Social Psychology and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies. She did a really interesting evaluation of changing racist views through a cross-cultural psychology course. I am really interested in the idea of having a compulsory Māori culture, history and language paper at uni. I honestly think learning Māori history in depth is life-changing. People have a total aversion to it because all through school and uni it’s taught in small segments that are arbitrary, and I think that it’s only doing it in depth that really changes you – that was my experience anyway. I’m ashamed to admit that I avoided Year 13 history because it was purely focused on New Zealand history, and it was only when I had to do Christianity in Aotearoa (which I complained about) that I got passionate about New Zealand/ Māori history. But there would obviously be a lot of backlash over anything like that being made compulsory, which might add to, rather than alleviate the problem. Anyone have any thoughts on this? - Bebe? (Mini/Maxi political blog coming soon).

Ok, sorry this blog is way too much about what I think and not what I’ve been doing. Um, I run and swim and eat gross food and study all day (a little more productively this week) and have coffee and do applications and spend too much time on facebook and skype and curse the heat and miss you guys.

xxx

Buses: A documentary

On the weekend I went shopping with the college girls at the West End markets (the Grey Lynn-type suburb of Brisbane) which was amazing, lots of good purchases, and I was introduced to iced-tea = best thing ever.

I then bused to visit my family who live in Redlands. I discovered that an hour and a half on a bus can give you a lot of insight into a place. I concluded that Australians are ruder than New Zealanders (this I already had suspicions about given the majority of the staff at Cromwell College).

Incident One: Two teenage girls jump on and don’t have their student ID cards or enough money to pay adult fares. The bus driver won’t let them on. Fair enough. The girls roll their eyes and make up lame excuses. A man behind them ends up giving them money. Nice guy. They give the money to the bus driver, who gives them change, they then walk off without thanking the stranger who gave them the money - with his change!! They yell obscenities at the bus driver on getting off.

Incident Two: A lady with a pram jumps on the bus. Some twelve year old girls are sitting on the seats that fold up. They clearly don’t understand they should move (and there is no sign to say they are the pram seats – in fact the only sign says, “those with prams should take care not to inconvenience other passengers” = terrible – sorry if my having a baby inconveniences other passengers grrrrr). Anyway the lady starts yelling at the girls who still don’t get it, until a lady near them finally explains that those are the pram seats – they immediately move. What I don’t understand is how people can be so rude to strangers. If she had just explained she needed them to move, they would have, instead she immediately started making a scene. I think it’s the heat.

After my eventful bus trip – there were lesser events on there too! - I hung out with the family. They have a pool, we played guitar hero and had a picnic. Good times. My cousins are cool.

This week Daniel was here from Melbourne and it has been such a treat. Caught up with him and Dave and swam and sauna’d in his flash hotel. Good times!

Have been meeting heaps of nice people in the Psych department but am finding it way too hard to get any work done as it’s too hot in my room and there’s too much fun stuff to do. Really need to get cranking as I realized with all my travel I’m not actually here very long.

Off to Canberra on Friday and unfortunately my flight is at 5.30am and the latest time I can bus to the airport to get my flight is 7pm tomorrow (Thursday) night. So it’s going to be a nice long sleep in the airport. Lucky I’m amazing at sleeping. Very excited to see Max.

Well my first week is almost over. My days pass in reasonable isolation – I don’t have an office at this stage so I sit and read in my bed all day. I can’t get through the day without a nap though, I really am a grandma.

The other international students on the scholarship are really nice and we hang out, and I do have other friends in Brisbane, so I’m not really isolated. It was one of the girls' 21^st so we all went out for a Turkish banquet. It was probably the best food I’ve ever eaten. Check it out!!!

Aside from that amazing meal out, the food here is standard fare. It’s not as bad as I expected, but is definitely lacking in imagination. Everything is fried or battered, there’s a full cooked breakfasts every morning, and dessert every night – I’m doing a lot of running to try to burn it off!

Aside from that the campus continues to amaze me with how beautiful it is – it has all these lakes and the wildlife is like a zoo – turtles, eels, beautiful parrots, lizards, geckos, turkeys, cockatoos, ibises.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading; my favourite thing I’ve read so far is probably an article about changing the norms of prejudice. In experiments, just one person expressing anti-racist views dramatically reduced tolerance for racist acts among the other participants. Conversely, when the person expressed benign acceptance of racist acts, the other participants also recommended acceptance. I like this, because I’m making it a goal to actually speak out when I see or hear prejudice, and it’s encouraging to hear that this can actually make a difference. I was inspired/ disgusted after watching this video that Luke Sizer (who is extremely awesome) recommended me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqbQWxHIn4U

I’d like to think I’d be one of the people that would speak out, but I wasn’t so sure – now I’m making a conscious effort to.

I’ve also re-read Michael Cullen’s valedictory speech. He is so hilarious. Here are some of my favourite parts:

... In the 1980s the urgent and necessary process of modernisation and reform lurched off into ideological excesses underpinned by the belief that there was no gain without pain. That came to mean that pain must inevitably lead to gain and then to a kind of political sado-masochism in which pain almost seemed to become an end in itself.

It certainly caused me some small financial pain. The biggest speeding fine I ever got was driving back from Whakatane to Wellington in January 1990 when I heard on the news that Geoffrey Palmer was supposedly moving to reinstate Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance. I hit 134kmph before a firm but polite traffic cop restored me to my senses...

...But today I want to emphasise the many good things that I have been part of. Apart from the issues already mentioned, the end of the right to rape one's wife, the end of the attempt to prevent gay people being themselves, the end of corporal punishment in schools, the greater openness about domestic violence and mental health issues, the increasing diversity, richness, and tolerance of our society are all to be celebrated.

New Zealand is, in fact, far less of a nanny state than it was in 1981 in terms of both social and economic freedoms. It takes a peculiarly warped sense of values to equate using an obsolete, inefficient light bulb to the right to be who you are...

The full speech is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxdCu3VlOfo

Hmmmmm, so that’s me at the moment. Busy finishing U.S. applications, chatting on skype, and getting ready to shop and explore Brisbane this weekend!