Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas--it's still Christmas in the US, just barely, and we're finishing Boxing Day here in the bottom of the world. Boxing Day is an excuse for another day off, and is celebrated mostly these days with a shopping mania similar to that seen in the US, except that it is warm, and the hot items are barbeques and swimming suits ("togs"). Originally, it had something to do with boxing up the Christmas leftovers for the household staff. In England, of course, which some old-time native New Zealanders still refer to as the Home Country.

The household staff here is a bit tired, but content. Santa brought us a croquet set, some bocce balls, a kite, and some other outside stuff, and Mom's been reliving childhood summer days. The kite was not terribly successfull, but that is familiar, too...maybe too much wind, today. Maybe we will find some kite consultants at the Quaker summer gathering we're going to in a couple of days.

We had a miniature turkey (about 7 pounds), and it was just right. Sticky buns for breakfast, and the leftovers for dinner, in honor of Sarah Wine. We were going to make Pavlova, but we haven't gotten around to it yet. We keep just eating the strawberries and blueberries we buy for it.

On Christmas eve, we went to the races--a family affair, quite casual, in a small town nearby--harness races alternated with greyhound races. We didn't win big...though Emily almost won a bag of popcorn in the children's pool. We didn't lose, either. Didn't bet, actually, but had fun watching for a while, a distraction from the agonizing wait for Santa.

I seem to be working backwards, so I'll keep going. Let's see...on Friday, the university kicked us all out at noon, and closed the doors for almost two weeks. It seems that half of the country has taken off for the beach, though they say the weather is really much better for it in February. Now it is variable--can be clear and beautiful, crisp, windy, hot in the sun, but cold at night, and it rained yesterday afternoon, which was ok for us Yankees used to a cooler Christmas.

And Charlie is settling in, getting a bit bolder in tasting toys of all sorts...she got a few more of her own, and we are working on helping her to recognize (and respect) which is which...she likes to sleep under our bed, but is also happy that the presents have been removed from her second favorite spot, behind the Christmas tree.

I'll post some more pictures...

Anniversaries

Yesterday, here (which is today, there, or something) we had our six month anniversary here, which we celebrated with a cheesecake (I believe it was called a Mississippi cheesecake, for some reason). I suppose we should have had half a cheesecake (which you can buy here), but I was also belatedly celebrating my half-birthday, so we got a whole one. It may take us all week to eat, as it is so rich none of us could finish our piece last night. There is no shortage of cakes here. Bakeries in every little shopping center, and two outlets of the Cheesecake Shoppe, which has all kinds of creations.

We also realized that it has been almost exactly a year since we came to visit--last year at this time we were stumbling around Hamilton, mixed up and jet lagged and trying to visit schools for Emily on their almost last day of school. It was colder and wetter last year than this, though we have had a bit of rain this week, for old time's sake. Emily had her last day of school yesterday, and seems happy and sad, since she did like school, but is also looking forward to summer and unbearably eager for Christmas. Joseph has been out for a week, hanging out on the computer and video games, with or without friends. He was going to go bike riding with a friend on Tuesday, but it rained, so they were forced to play games...

Charlie is settling in and getting bolder. She ate two candy canes sometime last night. She carried Emily's Cabbage Patch doll into the back yard, but didn't eat it. She is very sweet and playful. I think she misses being with other dogs, but will make do with us.

I think we've decided to have a turkey this Christmas, in spite of the heat generated by the oven. It is cool in the mornings, so maybe we'll have an early meal. Maybe next year we will be real Kiwis and do it on the Barbie. But we don't have a barbie yet. Perhaps they will be on sale after Christmas, and we will be capable of making a decision then. They range here, as in the US, from flimsy things to gleaming $2000 contraptions. What I want is one that is already put together.

We hear that New Zealand is Santa's first stop, and we expect we'll lighten his load a bit as he works his way toward colder climes...the helpers in the malls look hot in their traditional garb. You'd think he could leave his coat in the sleigh.

The university is closing up and battening down the hatches today--everyone is encouraged--well, required--to go home and not come back until at least January 3rd, when summer school starts. There is a Holiday Tea at 11, to which we are asked to bring a plate. I was thinking that this was interesting, possibly very green and all that, bring your own plate; then luckily I remembered that this means bring a plate with something on it. Pot luck. So I've brought a plate of cookies (biscuits). And then I will shut down the computer, gather the stash of gifts Santa has been storing behind the chair in my office, and GO HOME.

Carrie

Attachment

I have celebrated the completion of most of the year's academic duties (we spent most of last week torturing the poor clinical graduate students with make-or-break oral exams) by wandering over to the library and checking out a stack of books on various aspects of attachment theory. This has relevance to my teaching and research, but maybe most immediately, to Charlie.

Charlie came to our house on Monday, after an unsettled early life. She lived with Pam, her breeder, until she was 12 weeks old--I think Pam planned on keeping her (and had named her Ella), but then Pam's father was dying, and she decided she didn't have time for a puppy, and a promising family came along, so she sold her. They lived by the ocean, in Russell, which is a small, historic town north of Auckland. The father, a Kiwi, had grown up with a bearded collie, and wanted his son, who was 6 or 7, to have a similar experience. Seemed good. But then a divorce ensued, and mother and son went back to England (where I presume she was from), leaving Charlie (they changed her name) with Dad. He had to travel for work, and couldn't take care of her, so finally contacted Pam, who took Charlie back--but she was about to be off for the US for a month, so she placed Charlie a bit quickly with a lady who lived on what they call her a "lifestyle block"--some land in the country. Charlie sounds like she had a grand time, chasing ducks and getting all muddy in the pond, but this was not to the lady's liking, and a month later, when Pam got back, she talked to the woman once and ran right up there to rescue her baby (Pam is clearly very attached to her dogs). We heard about Charlie when Pam contacted one of the grad students in the department, who has another bearded collie, to try to tempt her to take Charlie. We visited the next day, and decided to take her after our Christmas party and subsequent trip to the beach (maybe that'll be the next post).

So Charlie came home to us on Monday, probably quite confused about where home is. She came with a great big basket and her own blanket. She seemed a bit tentative, but we really didn't realize how timid she was until we were trying to train her about our new invisible fence. We had this put in because the back yard is fenced, but at some parts it is pretty low, and she is quite capable of jumping over it--we read about the invisible fence, and one of Emily's friends has one, and it works great. Basically it is just a big wire that makes a circuit, usually buried underground, and the dog wears a collar with a receiver, and if the dog gets near the wire, it beeps first, and then gives a shock (which can be adjusted from very mild to much less mild). We thought this would be good because it would not only allow us to circumvent digging in the vegetable garden, but also expand the area available, because we've got a pretty big side and front yard she could run around in...anyway, you start the training process without the collar, by putting up little white flags all around where the fence is, and then taking the dog out on the leash and playing happily in the yard. When they go near the flag, you wave it at them and growl. The fence guy growled twice at Charlie, and she became afraid of the whole front yard and hasn't gone out there since...

Maybe we shouldn't have done this on the first day. Live and learn. But she is settling in now, and playing happily inside the house, anyway, with her ball and rope toy and any socks she finds around...and she has started to venture back out onto the grass in the back yard. Manford has been taking her when he walks Emily to school, and Joseph is done with school today, so he'll be home to play with her. She loves to be scratched, and is getting used to the noises and life in our house. Emily says she is the best dog in the world. In spite of having seen the arguably adorable two-week old puppies at the breeder's house...

Anyway, it may take a while to establish a really secure attachment, but we are all willing to try, and we will continue to post pictures as her hair grows longer. I don't think we will be able to handle it really grown out, given that I can barely get Emily's hair detangled once a day, and it is only on the top of her head...

More soon.
Carrie

potpourri or miscellany

Warmest holiday greetings from the Barbers in New Zealand, including Charlie who landed here last night. We had a good walk this morning except when any large vehicle came near for she seemed cowed by them. Carrie will no doubt have more to say about this and more about her as time goes by. It sounds like Topeka had some nasty ice and we hope that will clear up soon. I won't say too much about our beach trip this past weekend other than to note that Emily is an enthusiastic boogey boarder and that I was within about a yard from a pair of rays crusing along the ocean floor in about four feet deep water! Gave me a start - one being I think about 4 feet wide. Stories like the one in today's paper make me count my blessings - about a 4 year old with multiple complications from Crouzon's syndrome - currently with a shunt a tracheostomy and a feeding tube - poor thing. We bought a bread machine a while ago and have been enjoying good bread since while the children like it ok they prefer softer commercial stuff. Joseph won two chess games against a school in Auckland - the only one from his school to win both, so his team lost. He has established himself as a smartie making his mom and dad proud but still a challenge to get him up some mornings. He has a new video game - Assain's Creed - with just amazing graphics! My Parkinson's seems pretty stable now - using Sinamet and Requip. It is interesting how hot it feels here when the air temp is only 70 or so. Intense sun rays. There is a meditation group near by that meets on Friday evenings - I will go this week. Joseph's school ends this week with not much going on academically til Friday, and Emily has about two weeks. She has been in a drama camp and has her play tonight. Well I have bread to make, lawns to mow, floors to vacuum, clothes to wash and dry and some thinking to do so more later. We miss our friends and like our new ones and wish all who read this a safe, healthy and prosperous new year. Manford

Charlie

We've been waiting (at least some of us have) eagerly for the right dog to come along, and beating the bushes a bit, considering different kinds of puppies, dogs...and this week, along came Charlie, who is actually a girl, and who will actually look quite different when her hair grows in a bit...she is a bearded collie (remember the Shaggy Dog?) who has had a hard last few months when her family broke up and the mother and child went back to England and she was left with father, who travelled, and so she was given back to her breeder, who gave her to a woman who didn't have time for her and she chased the ducks and got all muddy and swam in the pond...so she's clipped short of all the mats, and back to the breeder, who is a local woman who clearly loves her dogs. Charlie is about a year old, and loves attention and chasing Pukekos...she needs to learn not to get on the furniture, and some basic obedience, but she is smart and likes to play, and Joseph and Emily are planning on teaching her some tricks...she is not at our house yet, as we have to get the fence bolstered a bit (it's only 4 feet high in some places, and she can jump that) and we're planning to go to the beach the weekend after this. When we get home, she'll come home too, and the family will be complete again...at least that's my perspective. Manford may have something different to say--

back to work!
Carrie

Apologies

Well, I've been meaning to write about apologies, anyway, but first I must apologize for not writing for so long. The weeks are flying by, and I think of things in the wrong places, and not when I'm sitting down to write. Classes are over, and next week my last academic obligation for the year will be done (two days of oral exams for the poor graduate students)--then you'd think I was scott free, but it's not really summer off for academics here, especially in clinical--there's lots to do with planning for next year and finally having some concentrated time for research. But it should be very flexible, perhaps permitting a bit of shopping around the margins, and some days off for exploring beaches and other places (Manford is not keen on caves, but there are some famous caves near here with glowworms, and maybe I can persuade someone--my cousin Suzy is coming in February--to play tourist with me. There's also Rotorua only an hour away, with steaming mud baths and hot rivers).

Anyway, apologies. They take their apologies seriously here. If you are not going to be in a meeting, you send your apologies, and they say them at the beginning of the meeting ("John and Sue send their apologies") and then they ask if there are any more apologies. I am always sorely tempted to speak up at this point; I must have something to apologize for--but I have kept my mouth shut. They also use apologies in the usual sense--if you do something wrong, you are expected to make an apology, and they seem to use it in the justice system as well. I was talking with someone whose field is "restorative justice" and I will be interested ("keen") to know more about that. When Manford had an early driving glitch and almost hit a cyclist, and the police pulled him over, they had him apologize to the cyclist, and let the cyclist decide whether to give him a ticket (he didn't). A little apology goes a long way...

Emily is starting to say "no" like a Kiwi. I can't quite spell how it sounds, but there's almost an "r" in there somewhere. We're getting ready for Christmas, but around here it involves barbequing things. Your outdoor grill (and the event that surrounds it) is called a "barby"--or "barbie"--I'm not sure how to spell it, and am still confused when someone suggests that we must have a barby for Christmas. I think we have enough Barbies, and we should move on to some more anatomically correct plaything. Emily wants something called a Mooshabelly. I think it is kind of the opposite of a Barbie.

Joseph seems to be doing quite well. His final exams start today; they are exams over the whole year's work, but he seems quite unfazed by it. Perhaps too unfazed...we'll see. I think they got a grade at the end of the first half of the year, but we haven't seen a grade card since we got here, and have only his vague report that he's doing ok...the grading system in high school is "NAME"--N is something bad, like "not acceptable"; A is Acceptable; M is merit; E is Excellent. At the university they have our regular ABCDEF (I'm a bit fuzzy about that E category), but the percentages are quite different: 85-100 is an A+, for instance; 75% is A-; 50% is a C. So we make the questions harder? I'm still figuring it out. In my honours class, I gave quite a lot of A's--I think more than half the class--

Anyway, Joseph is going to Auckland next week to represent his school for chess--it sounds like they have all kind of sports that they play against this rival school, and chess is included...and he might get to go next year on a five-day adventure on a tall ship (http://www.spiritofadventure.org.nz/) with the enrichment programme of his school. It looks great to us--hope it happens. I think they have to get enough interested and schedule a time.

We had Thanksgiving last week, on our Friday, which was your Thursday, and had two American expatriots (one who works with me, one from Friends Meeting), two Kiwis (the husband and child of one American) and a Chinese student (who is living with the Friend). The student kindly took the picture of us here. I forgot to get the turkey in the picture before it was carved. It was a good turkey (Emily said it was the best turkey ever), big by NZ standards (5 kilos), but rather tiny by ours, and expensive (I think I paid about $60 for it, frozen). Not quite organic/free range, but no hormones/antibiotics, anyway. Unfortunately I got the stomach flu that night, and have been barely eating since, but made turkey soup yesterday and it went down ok.

Our tree-trimming party is next weekend, so we got a tree (artificial, sorry...but summer is not really the time to have a real tree in your house. I hear they are even more inclined to drop needles) and got the lights on it yesterday. Trying to translate traditions and recipes. There is no corn syrup in the stores (a major ingredient in gingerbread houses), but there is treacle, and apparently that is molasses, and worked fine for the dough. We may do mulled wine, but sangria really seems more appropriate, so we will try that, too. And I think the cider will be cold.

Stay warm! I hear it snowed in Topeka!

Carrie

See Manford . . . .

See Manford. See Emily. See them walking into her school yard. It is raining. Does Manford have an umbrella? Yes! Is he using it to keep his head dry? No! Is he using it to keep Emily's head dry? No! What is he doing with the umbrella, then? Look. He is holding it over the creation Emily made for show and share. It is made of cardboard with sand glued on, and styrofoam pellets adhering to one another in many vertical columns of two pellets that were attached by making each a little wet and pressing them together (a fun activity - you can do more and make a star, e.g.). Is the umbrella being held too low? Yes! It keeps the creation dry but also keeps Emily from seeing where she is going. Does daddy tell her where to go? You bet! Do they make it to the shelter of the classroom overhang? Yes! Bye daddy. Bye Emily. Now daddy is home. What is he doing? Reading. Read, daddy, read! What is he reading? He is reading a cookbook, looking for things the children will eat. (Did the children eat most of the yummy strawberries daddy brought home two days ago? Yes! Did daddy and mom get to eat any? Yes! about two.) What looks good in the cookbook? Is it called 4 ingredients? Yes! Can daddy give an example recipe? Yes! 500 g premium organic mince; 3 free range eggs, lightlly beaten; 3/4 cup of organic breadcrumbs; 4-5 tbs. tomato paste - reserve an extra tablespoon. Prehead oven to 180C. Mix all ingredients together and place in a lined rectangular baking dish. Spread reserved tomato paste on top of meatloaf. Bake for 50 minutes until lightly browned on top. Serve hot with vegetables, salad or mash potato. This is also great to freeze. Optional: for an added zing add 1 tsp of curry powder. To get your 5 vegetable quota for the day add shredded carrot, sweet potato, diced mushrooms, and peas and corn to the mix before baking. Is daddy done? Yes! What will he do now? Listen to some Bach on the relatively new Philips mini-stereo that sits on the kitchen counter. Does Carrie listen to it too? Yes! To the news in the morning. It will also play music through an i-pod or clone. Does time fly? Yes! (sometimes). Gotta go. Thanks for reading this. Oh, yes!

Four in a row . . .

Around 7:30 this am it was 9 outside (hmmm, convert that to F using 9/5 C + 32 = a little below 50, and at 9 it is around 14 - aka a little below 60 Farenheit, I believe). The sun's rays are very intense here so I have a farmer's tan. Re the topic in the title, in some parts of town you may see a single house on a piece of property and may see nearby two, three, or more rarely four, houses in a row, one behind the other, sharing the same driveway. Interesting. There is also a difference in house prices between here and Auckland, with many there going for a million dollars or more. On a more mundane level I am fighting with my pretty new lawnmower - crank it, no start, crank, no, crank no, wait a while crank and sometimes start. It will eventually start so I have not smashed it yet or even cussed at it though the latter has almost happened. Otherwise things seem to work. You can e-mail me at manford_barber@hotmail.com if you have ideas about how to get the mower to start: it has a petrol briggs and straton motor. In fact you can e-mail me about anything you want to, since Google makes it hard to reply to the blog using its system. Hope all is well with those who read this. Respectfully, Manford

Creeping Rocksnot...

No, its not a reflection of my mood. I don't think...I just like the sound of it. There is this algae, which has a formal name of Didysomething, but which is called "rocksnot" by the poetically minded; it has unfortunately invaded creeks in the South Island, and has recently been in the papers when dead Didywhatever was found in some rivers up here in the North Island. Dead Rocksnot is spread by fisherman, and particularly those who are fishing during whitebait season, another appetizing water-product that looks kind of like worms and is a delicacy when made into fritters. We haven't tried it yet...

I keep meaning to write about the phone book. Business names. In the US, those cute clever names are confined mostly to hairdressers. But I was looking up midwives (most maternity care here is delivered by midwives) and found "Babies 'n' Bellies," "Babies-R-Us," "New Additions," "The Midwife Shoppe," and "Mums and Tums." Then there's RatTray's Catering. I'm not sure there was really a second "t," but there seemed to be. There was something else, but I forget right now...Friday afternoon.

We are missing you all, but enjoying the advent of spring. Manford came over for lunch today and we walked around the pond (hence the rocksnot association. We didn't see any rocksnot, just garden variety algae), and enjoyed the sun. Tomorrow if the weather holds, we will go to Raglan, about an hour west of here, where there is the longest left-hand break in the world (that means something to surfers) and see if we can get Joseph inspired to do something besides video games. I think he could be a life guard, don't you?

Emily had her first cricket lesson yesterday. She was afraid she would be the only girl, but she wasn't, and she had a good time. We will try to get pictures in the next week or two.

I am keeping an eye out for a turkey for Thanksgiving. They had a few frozen turkeys in the grocery store for the first time, advertised for Christmas; they cost like $60 for a smallis one. We are planning to invite one of my American colleagues and her family (Kia, aka Elmo), but will probably have it on Sunday the 25 because she and I will both be at a conference all day Friday and Saturday. Even Joseph seems to have a hankering for turkey.

Time to go home!

Carrie

Colors

The predominant color is green - leaves, grasses, plants - of many shades and hues - a truly green landscape. Flowers and flowering trees everywhere - red, purple, mauve, lavender, pink, orange, yellow, white, off white - with many variations and some combinations. Truly lovely. We only shot off some sparkling fireworks yesterday for Guy Fawks day - a British tradition to have fireworks on that unsuccessful guy's day. We hope you are having a good month and that the holiday season will be a good one. Manford

Unique or unusual from Manford

Sign on a city bus - This bus will kneel on request. (the driver will lower the curbside for easier exit and entry if requested). A restored antique Humpbomile at a nearby garage. The ground carpeted with little daisies and petals blown off of flowering tgrees. Fred Phelps picture on page one of the world section of the New Zealand Herald under the headline "Anti-gay church fined $ 14m for funeral protest" An elderly man in drought ridden Australia attacked and killled by a younger neighbor for watering his lawn. There's more, but enough for now. Emily had a great time at the local Boo at the Zoo bash on Haloween. She wore frameless glasses from which I, with much scraping and muttering, had removed the incredibly glued in lenses on these $2.00 spawns of the devil. Used them to make a ghost we hung in a tree by the driveway. Total of about 14 trick-or-treaters - not quite up to Potwin's many. We bought a bread maker. The first loaf was great. So Manford decides to make another, only larger. Oh, my at least it didn't stick to the pan but what a bulbous, distorted, in places underdone (Carrie threw it out), in places overdone, lumpy thing was created. So back to a smaller loaf, and it was ok. Must try more liquid next time I decide to go bigger, says Carrie. It so shall be. Some rain last night. Anyone drink Durif, a type of grape, wine. We had a yummy bottle from Rutherglen Estates in Australia, a 2004. Lots of good wines so far, and not expensive. Have just bought a cookbook entitled 4 ingredients - which is what most of the recipies require. Sound pretty good, actually, so far. Will try some and see. We send our best wishes for happiness and good health to all who read this. Manford

The continuing adventures of Emily

We've been doing lots of fun things lately--weekend before last, we finally met a couple of real Kiwis (the bird kind). We went to the Otorhanga Kiwi House, a kind of bird santuary/aviary. They have an indoor Kiwi environment where they mix up the poor birds so that they think it's night in the daytime and you can spy on them when they're active. They are shy and reclusive by nature, and very hard to see in the wild. Unfortunately, there was taxidermy present (a couple of stuffed Kiwi and some possums, which are a problem because they eat the eggs), but thanks to a very kind staff person, Emily and mom got to go in by a special back entrance and see the Kiwis, then sneak out to the rest of the birds.

The Kiwi was surprisingly large and almost mammalian-looking--it is a flightless bird, about the size of a large rabbit, with feathers that look almost like fur, and its walk is very unbirdlike; it gives the impression of strength, and apparently they can defend themselves with their claws. They have very long beaks, to extract worms and grubs from the dirt.

And we saw a variety of other native birds, including Emily's favorite, Pukekos, which are not actually endangered at all, and roam around local farms and make pests of themselves, but we enjoy them. They are a nice rich blue color, and I see them sometimes on the way to work in the morning. There were also more conventional duck with ducklings (it's SPRING!) and New Zealand pigeons, which are huge, and some very colorful parrots, and pretty little birds like finches. It was about forty-five minutes south of here, a very pretty drive through rolling farmlands. We'll take you if you come...

And then last weekend, Emily was invited to a birthday party at Candyland, an amusing local attraction that we had visited on our Christmas trip last year, but we didn't get the full tour. We got to see the chocolate-melting vats, and the enrobing machine, and then watch them handling the melted sugar stuff, mixing and folding and kneading and pulling it to make lollipops, and then we each got to make our own lollipop, being handed a worm of hot candy and told we had 30 seconds to shape it into a lolly. Then the party children retired to a party room, ate more candy and cake, and ran around screaming and shooting balloons at each other. Really quite an ideal party plan...as long as it's not at our house.

This week is Halloween, and it is a very minor holiday here, but apparently on the increase. There is some paraphinalia at the local Target-like store (the Warehouse, which Manford now refers to as the Whorehouse), and there is a "Spook at the Zoo" event on Wednesday evening, with apple bobbing and lolly scrambles (I hate to think what that is) so that's where we're taking Emily. They don't do anything at school, but apparently some kids trick-or-treat, so we've constructed a ghost out of old curtains to welcome them to our house, and signal the presence of candy.

And starting next week, Emily starts cricket lessons. Stay tuned...

My cultural education continues--

I just got back from a morning at the Marae Graduation Ceremony. This is one option for graduates of any program at U of Waikato, though the largest group was from the School of Maori and Pacific Studies. Tomorrow is the regular Pakeha (NZ European) ceremony at a downtown theater--I will go to that, too; I hear it also does incorporate some Maori customs, but not to the extent of the Marae ceremony.

A Marae is a Maori meeting house/cultural center; there is one on campus, though I'd never been to it before, as it is tucked away in another side of campus, behind the school of education. So this morning I donned my academic regalia (hired by the university...I didn't really have the proper robes and hoods and whatever for Vanderbilt. They just told me to choose whatever colors (ok, colours) I wanted, and I ended up with a quite Swarthmorean combination of black robe and maroon hood. Maybe tomorrow I'll get someone to take my picture) and followed my compatriot from psychology over there. It was a beautiful morning, sunny but still cool enough to sit in a black robe in the sun for three hours. We snuck into the back row of the area for faculty (as a woman, I would not be allowed to sit in the front row, even if I wanted to. I learned that the wrong way at a Maori welcome ceremony at a clincal agency we visited...).

The ceremony started with a Powhiri, which is a Maori welcome ceremony--first a haka (challenge) by a whole group of people, kind of a relatively tame version of what was to come, but a ceremonial assertion of sovereignty, in a way, in a grimacing and grunting and dancing sort of way. Then a woman sings a welcoming call, as the visitors (we, as faculty, were in the host box...) walk slowly down toward the Marae. There follow a series of prayers and speeches of greeting, all in Maori, first by the hosts, then by the guests. This went on for about 30 minutes, while people wandered around in the background and children played on the railings. Then a group of women began singing (my colleague claims that in spite of being excluded from some aspects of this ritual, the women actually have considerable power, as they begin singing whenever they get tired of the speechifying). Then all the front-row types on both sides greeted each other with Hongi (touching foreheads).

Then things were rearranged and we were on to what initially seemed to be a more familiar graduation process. The recently-appointed chancellor spoke (he is apparently a former prime minister), and the vice chancellor (who is the one who actually runs the university) and the student speaker (who was quite good, and from the psychology department--rah--getting her Ph.D.) and an honorary degree to a Maori woman weaver.

Then they started awarding degrees. They started with the more mundane schools, like Computing and Arts and Social Sciences (that's us) and Sciences, which each only had a few students. Most of the graduates had some family members who came part or all of the way up to the podium with them--from elderly folk to children--and a few had groups of people who sang or chanted things, sometimes in English, but often in something else (mostly Maori, I think, but other Pacific Island, and one that Neville thought was Celtic). They weren't all Maori, at least not obviously so. Anyone can choose to have their graduation in this ceremony, which is more informal and includes family. But many were Maori, and many wore, on top of their robes, woven cloaks of flax and feathers, and some (I think Pacific Islanders) got bedecked with spectacular garlands of flowers and ribbons and other sparkly things (I got a look at one later, and it has candy, and money, and god knows what else)as the left the stage. About ten or twelve of them had full-blown Hakas performed for them, by between one and twenty people--almost all men, though there was one group of women, and one mixed group. These Hakas can get pretty scary, if you have to face one down. If I was the enemy, I'd have second thoughts about challenging these guys...It's where they shout and slap themselves and stick out their tongues and grimmace and chant, apparently various stories of battles and such...one group looked like maybe the kids of the graduate, four pre-teen boys. Sometimes the graduate joined in, and haka'd back, facing them...somewhere before or after these expressions of support, the graduate got their cap and degree conferred. And finally we all got to go to lunch, 3 hours down the road...

and I guess I'd better get to work, but I'm glad I went--

More soon. I have a list of topics waiting for words.

Carrie

"You can go back now, daddy" and about the cheese shop

I walk Emily to(ward) school in the am for sure - if rainy in the pm pick her up in the car. Depending on when we finish our conversation on a topic or topics of her choosing she says to me at some point before we get to the school "You can go back now, daddy." This gives me time to catch the bus that stops two minutes from our house and goes downtown. I feel a little "greener" riding the bus vs. driving, and they run every 30 minutes with a 2 hour time to catch another should I wish to transfer, and run on time. Today I went to the chiropractor, scoped out some of the exhibits at the local museum (including a big Maori canoe - a dugout) and had a lovely savingon blanc and kumara (local sweet potatoes) and salmon patties with a delicious sauce. Next noon meal downtown probably Indian vegeterian. Lots of interesting little shops to peek in the window and sometimes go inside. Books are expensive here - $39.00 for a paperback street food one, for example. My lunch was $15.00 including tax and tip so not too bad. Re the big bad CHEESE STORE I have so far only ordered some bread but Carrie is right I will have to restrain myself for there are many lovely, yummy looking cheeses on the shelves. Wish me luck on that. We are looking into getting Skype for cheap phone calls so don't be surprised if some day you get a call from New Zealand! A grey day- I miss the big Kansas blue sky and miss hearing friend's voices. I have had one art lesson and drew an almost recognizable picture of a cow skull. Art class makes you look. And look. And look. Ta ta for now, and we wish happiness and health to all who read our blog. Manford

First Flight

Well, MY first flight, as Joseph has made the even bigger flight to the South Island, but refuses to comment on it, or much of anything else...

I (Carrie) flew to Wellington yesterday, for a meeting with all the other clinical psychology programmes in the country (there are five others. Like my Commonwealth spelling?). Wellington is the capital, at the south end of the North Island; it is supposed to be a very nice city, built into the hills and harbours, but renowned for its bad weather. When we arrived (a little after 8 in the morning, a 65-minute flight from Hamilton), it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have a window seat and didn't get much of a view of the city on the way in--the side of the plane I was on and could see looked out over a range of small but pointy hills, very green. I saw a few houses built into the hills, and around the airport there were some, but we never really got to see the city, as we went straight to the meeting at a small psychology clinic somewhere (I have no idea where) toward the city, and met, and then the storm came in, and the rain started going sideways, and we went straight back to the airport and were happy to get an early plane out, just a little bumpy going up, then over the clouds the whole way, and home by 5...I had heard that landing in Wellington can be "thrilling," and was unsure whether I really wanted to experience that. It is often very windy, and weather reports did forecase "gale force" winds yesterday...

Back in Hamilton, we have living room furniture, and it all fits and is very cozy. I will try to take more pictures tonight. Manford has discovered it is an easy walk to the cheese shop up the road from our house, and they have bread delivered on Fridays--we may have to watch his cheese habit...Emily is enjoying her drama lessons, at a church just up the street. She is going to be a pirate named Nancy, I think...I am charged with finding a pirate scarf. Joseph went for his first overnight at a friend's house, also walking distance away--it sure is nice to live near the kids' schools. And we discovered that they have "spook at the zoo" for Halloween, with bobbing for apples and "lollie scrambles" and whatever--so we do not have to figure out which of the neighbors is keen on trick-or-treaters; we can just go to the zoo. Halloween is not big here. It exists, but not the American way. We'll see...I am wearing my Halloween socks at least once a week in October, just to express my cultural heritage.

"Lollie," by the way, is a general term for candy, just as "pudding" is a general term for dessert. So if you come to our house for pudding, you might just get cake. Or we might even "shout" you for pudding at the local bakery...that means we pay...more reasons to come visit...

Carrie

The last box, the front-loader song and more

This am I went through the last box and what to my wondering eyes should appear but more clothes, a keyboard, an umbrella and a wooden box, but no reindeer. We haven't emptied all the boxes but they have all been looked into and/or had their contents removed and there are fewer of them than there were last week. The front loader song: We got a front loader washing machine, a front loader dryer on top of the washer, a front loader washer, a front loader one-and-a-half wall oven, a front loader microwave, a front loader fridge, but the hob sits on top and is I guess a top loader (make up your own tune for this one, featuring at least your favorite instrument) (Guess you can tell by now Manford is writing this stuff) Joseph got a haircut and so did I this past Sunday: Barber "Do you want your hair short like mine?" Joseph "I don't care" and sure nuf that happened - he looks great and it is different to see his neck. Went to a good concert with the keyboard player using an instrument that is a copy of the kind Mozart and Bethoven and others of that time wrote for - fewer octaves than subsequent grands and a delightful evenings entertainment at the concert venue at Carrie's university. Am walking Emily toward her school - she decides where we part company before we get there - but pick her up around 3 for the entire walk back. She started a once a week drama class that will put on a play in 9 more weeks. Joseph remains somewhat brief when discussing his school experience. Well, thanks for reading this and our best to everyone.

FINALLY

We are in! and ALMOST all the furniture is in the room where it will ultimately reside (if we get the coffee table into the living room tonight, that will be as much as can be done at this point). Everything we can find in mover's boxes is unwrapped and put away in the nice new cupboards and drawers, and the boxes of miscellany that we moved from the rental house are shoved in various corners. I am still working on clothes. I thought we got rid of a lot of clothes, but then I keep finding things tucked in various drawers and boxes...our closets here are much smaller, but that is probably good, in the long run. After all, people here seem to wear the same clothes over and over again quite happily, and that suits me fine. The washer and dryer and working (at the same time, yet, after some intervention from the electrician), and Emily is delighted with having a bathtub again. We put up the net canopy Grandma gave her, over her bed, and she feels like a princess and goes to sleep like an angel. Or something.

You may not be aware of the great national tragedy that occurred over the weekend; there is a chance this is not big news your little corner of the world, but here, the front page of the newspaper is all black, because the All Blacks (the national rugby team) lost their game against FRANCE of all countries, in the Rugby world cup. Apparently this has happened before. It is the object of much lamentation. There was the little matter of a volcano that erupted a couple of weeks ago, causing evacuations of many spring break skiers, and the rescue of one fellow trapped by a boulder that came through the roof of his cabin--but that was small news, compared with the defeat of the All Blacks.

We found the camera, and have taken pictures, and we have the computer set up, but that pesky cable may take a few more days to unearth...but we will have pictures, soon...

I had some other New Zealand oddisms, but I can't remember them now. More to come...

Carrie

My two cents...

Actually, there is no "two cents" here, as the lowest denomination of coin is 10 cents. My ten cents? twenty? Oh well. I was going to write that if you are waiting impatiently for news, it is because we are waiting impatiently (at least me. Manford is more patient) for Kitchen. Then I see that Manford had posted yesterday, so you know we are still making gradual, very gradual progress toward moving in. We did sleep in the house on Saturday night, so Joseph could sleep in it before he left for camp. But there was no hot water (the new water heater is in, but we didn't realize that the plumber who installed it would not actually hook it up to heat water--that's the electrician's job, and he won't come until after this and that...) and no refrigerator (well, we have that, too, but it's in the living room, and taped shut). There is TV and Joseph set up his video games, so the children are happy.

Manford did not describe the even more surprising commercial for the same product...an older couple arrives at what we presume is his son and daughter-in-law's home; he goes in the bathroom and finds this cologne, which he spritzes on. He walks back to the main room, where his daughter-in-law (or son's girlfriend, or whatever) suddenly begins saying "boom-chicka-wow-wow" and dancing, and his clothes disappear, leaving him in his underwear. He says, in a perhaps Italian accent, "God bless America."

Figure that out.

I hope the next update will be from the new house...
Carrie

Boom, chicka ....

Has this ad hit the states? An attractive lady in a grocery store looks at a pleasant store clerk and begins to dance rather provoctavie manner while intoning what sounds like "Boom, chicka wow wow," much to the clerks amusement; he it turns out is wearing a particular brand of cologne that apparently causes women to act like this (she was pushing an older lady in a wheel chair at the beginning of the ad, and pushes her away before beginning her dance). Well, the tv programming otherwise is a mix like the states. We have just signed up with Sky TV - a satellite service that Emily was thrilled to find has as one of its channels the Disney Channel. The painter has finished his work at our house and the floor guys started working today and will be coating the hardwood floor with three coats of polyurathene and Friday the electrician will finish wiring things like the new hot water cylinder and the hob (ceramic cook top), with plenty of plugs (sockets). Then we have a busy week end devoted to moving in. Joseph is in camp near Christchurch in the South Island all week - comes home Sunday evening. It is sponsored by the Quakers. Emily is in a day camp each day this week, sponsored by the YWCA. It rained really hard yesterday and dad and Emily got soaked on the way to the car. There has been some thunder yesterday and today. Temperature in the 60's. There are magnificent blooming trees all around town. Spring has begun. Thank you for reading this. Manford

Progress

We're still in chaos and flux, but making progress. They started the kitchen six days ago, and tore out the old, and got half-way in with the new, but then the installer got sick on Friday, when he was supposed to finish, so we have a house full of dust and half-done things, and I am trying to ration my patience...The floor will be very nice--it's not Rimu, but some other exotic wood you can't get any more. They did discover that there was not floor, but concrete, under the chip burner (kind of a mini wood-burning stove), so they had to patch that part with wood salvaged from under the cabinets. They've sanded it all (hence the dust), but won't finish it until all the other stuff is finished. There's a dispute between the painter and the floor guy about who gets to be last. They took out the old hot water heater ("cylinder") but did not put in the new one yet. They put in the washer, but not the dryer. The refrigerator is in the living room, and the dishwasher is in the dining room. The dining room (furniture) is in the living room. Fortunately, we have no living room furniture. Except what's in the family room (the new coffee table, which I am trying to prevent the kids from destroying). I hope it will be done by the end of this week, but I'm not sure...what is in looks good, though. Remind me to be very grateful we're not living there.

Confessions: we've been to KFC. Twice. Didn't eat the deep fried mashed potato balls, though. There is a Burger King near our new house but we have NOT been there. Somehow I thought we'd be eating healthy here in the land of green...we do eat kiwis. They are cheap and plentiful. Sometimes tempted by Kumara chips (sweet potato fries). Emily's school is having a PTA fundraiser where they buy Domino's pizza for lunch. The choices are Hawaiian and Vegetarian. We are trying to figure out whether Kiwi kids actually eat vegetarian pizza, or if that is really cheese. Yesterday we discovered that the dairy (convenience store) near our new house is quite nice, at least from an inner child's point of view. It has a wide variety of lollies (candy), kind of like an old fashioned penny candy shop--you can get a gummy worm or two, or a mixed bag. And it has ice cream cones (this has been hard to find--no Baskin Robbins), and also a pretty nice selection of wines, for Mom and Dad. It's next door to a hardware store of the everything-crammed-into-a-small space variety, and there's also a post office, video store, Domino's, bakery, and Chinese takeaway (not terribly appealing, but maybe ok in emergency--chop suey type), all on the lower level below a restaurant called Boston something, and a grocery store that is undergoing major remodeling and will open in November. We are looking forward to that, as we currently have to go across the river for groceries.

Several stores seem to be having Manchester sales this month. We have finally figured out that that is a white sale. I don't suppose it makes any more sense than "white sale."

I went to two garage sales yesterday and bought a dog bed (might come in handy), a DVD rack, and a small shelf for Emily's closet. I did channel my frustration about not being done with the kitchen into organizing Emily's room yesterday; it had gotten a bit out of hand, as we discovered the toy boxes but no system for where to put it all, so her room was filled with boxes and toys and furniture, in no particular order. Now it is better, and she can really play under the bed (which is a kind of chest-high loft) and keep most of the mess under there. I have been trying to figure out where to put all of our books, and have gotten most of them unpacked and either in the family room (kids books, poetry, mythology) the living room (art, essays, interesting books...), the linen closet (reference, buddhist, quaker, novels), and there are shelves in the kitchen for cookbooks, garden books, and maybe our NZ collection, for your tourist information. We got shelves for Joseph's room last weekend, and he filled them mostly with miniature monsters and dragons, but I snuck some science fiction in there. And, of course, Harry Potter. We got the curtains up on his bed, so his room is looking full, but homey. I am hoping we all get to sleep there at least once before he leaves, next Monday, for quaker camp in Christchurch.

The weather yesterday was beautiful--warm and sunny, barefoot weather (of course, for some here it seems to be barefoot weather year round). Unfortunately, Emily stepped on a nail and is now wounded, but recovering. Today is rainy, anyway. Good for the grass.

See new pictures. You can scroll down to see the kitchen before. I hope next week we will be posting "after."

Take Care!
Carrie

My Dance, by Emily

Today is my recital & I am the leeadr of the fountain!

(now mum types)
I am part of the parachute on the first part of the dance. There is four parts to the danced, well, five, actually, because one of them is just one that I think is in Maori, and it just kind of tells about New Zealand,a nd the second is a parchute, and I am the parachute and the others are clouds. And then is something called the V8, and the parachute which me and some of the others are form a V and some of the others form an 8. And the next one from the V and 8 go to the fountain, and after the fountain, because I'm the leader of the fountain, then we roll out and then it's moo-loo, it's a rugby game song and some New Zealanders sing "moo-loo, olealealea..." when they're at a rugby game. & I am the last act in our, we are the last act, so once we're done, we don't have to move, becuase at Mooloo we're spread out, and then we're gonna do the school song, and everybody else will like crowd into us.

I think my dance will be really cool and I can't wait. but the dance is at night, and I think I'm gonna have a lotta fun, and this will be the best day. & I think that everybody else will have really fun because I'm not the only act; there's hip-hop and there's something about the seven whales, and something about the Waikato river, but I'm right after the hip-hop. It's fun to watch the other people, so I think that everybody else is going to have a lot of fun.

Some more names, house work, etc.....

Hello again. Here are some more names of children at Emily's school - Flower Lei, Te Ahuora Macfrarlane, Tessa Impey, Nicola Aldridge, Hilary Sue, Joel Impey, Aven Bufkin, Satveer Logarh, Anna Van Wijk, RaikiWillison, and Tony Wu. An article in the paper indicates that there are 80 ethnic groups represented in Hamilton. It rains often here but with few thunderstorms. There are some flowering trees in bloom, red ones, white ones, pink ones, and some flowers including the hebe, I believe it is spelled. We have been working on the house and have found things we sought, thanks to Carrie's good work, such as video and still cameras, glass shelves for the curio cabinet and the itmes that go in that cabinet (Emily delights in rearranging them). She will have a dance concert this Tuesday at Joseph's school gymnasium. She sings with a kiwi (New Zealand) accent now and calls Carrie "mum." I recently saw The Italian, a Russian movie that I would recommend to anyone, about a six-year old who is in an orphanage and goes on a quest, after travails to get the address, to find his mom. Tomorrow the kitchen work begins, and some plumbing and possibly some floor work, should be an interesting week! Emily had strep throat last week but is ok now. I am pretty much a home body, doing the wash, vacuming, cleaning, by choice - and now have greater appreciation for woman's work never being done! Well, I hope all who read this have a happy and healthy week. Manford

Destruction and rebirth...

I stopped by the house on Tuesday this week, and couldn't stand to stay...guys--blokes--were crawling all over with chain saws, cutting down trees and parts of trees. My pretty bush with the purple flowers (it's actually just cut back--to the ground--and will come again), the grapefruit tree (neither Manford nor I can eat grapefruits, because of cholesterol meds, and the kids are not likely to; we will plant a lime, or lemon, maybe), and dozens of other bushes, trees, and plants condemned by Mark, the yard guy. I agreed to this. He seemed to know what he was doing. He said this one causes hay fever, that one is invasive, that one has been poorly trimmed for years and is beyond home, that's just ugly...but I still couldn't stand to watch. By Wednesday afternoon I had to agree it looked better, less chaotic, still green. I will go over today (Friday) and see, because Manford says it looks good. Then they're going to plant a bunch of things, mostly native things. And we get to plant some, too. We have a big area for vegetable and herb garden. They did save the pretty, fragrant flowers near the kitchen door. I've been walking around campus and getting inspiration from the flowers and ferns here--they say it's barely spring, but there are flowers everywhere, including familiar daffodils and lots of unfamiliar sorts. There are redwoods on campus, and they must like it here, as the whole campus has only been here 40 years and they are huge. Maybe we will plant a redwood in place of the grapefruit and remind me of home.

We got a sofa that turns into a bed, and it is even comfortable (for one. if two come, they get Joseph's bed, which is the biggest in the house, and he sleeps in the family room). We got a coffee table. Our bed and Emily's bed came. There is hardwood (rimu, and native, very pretty, wood) under the kitchen linoleum, and apparently all over; we had a floor guy come yesterday, and will probably refinish it in the kitchen and dining room, for now, and expand that as the carpets wear out...

We all just want to live in the house, and it will be only another three weeks or so and we should be in there full time. I am hoping to make real progress on the boxes this weekend, once we get some of the closets in order so we can put stuff in there. I got my books in my office, and that feels good. Still haven't found my mug, though...

Carrie

Greetings, fellow earthlings

It has been a long time (to me) since I wrote. Sorry. Been healthy, just busy and (probably) lazy. Emily is in a multiethnic setting at school - I thought you might enjoy some of the names listed in her school newsletter as having birthdays: Zane Thompson, David Su, Tulloulah Moghini, Levi Lewis, Rex Pan, Trish Hauriasi, Henri Wohling, Elyse Amai, Caleb Callaghler, Lamentation Hauriasi, Wendy Turlington, Raj Prasad, Marcus Overwater, Cyprus Tauhara. She still likes school. Had a little cold that kept her out Monday this week, but otherwise fine. Joseph is enjoying chess at noon twice a week, and has gone downtown with a friend, on the bus, to play internet games at internet cafes. Carrie has a conference - New Zealand Psychological Association this week - a good opportunity to network with fellow psychologists, some of whom are mostly academics, some clinical. She will try and get some research underway this year and may blog about that. Beds for Emily and mom and dad will be delivered next Tuesday at 10 am, and a gent is coming to consult about new kitchen flooring next Monday. Wednesday evening we walked the walk with a landscaper who will have his crew at work next week to remove, trim and clean up landscaping that looks like it has been untouched for years. I am looking forward to being a gardner, and we will try to only have native New Zealand plants over time. I am on a little different medication regimen, and am sleeping and moving somewhat better. Have avoided being sick so far. When we move to our house we may buy a Vespa like scooter, and also I will only be a half block from a bus stop for a bus that goes downtown - the car will last longer if we do either or both, and I will feel better about being kinder to the environment. My very best wishes to all who read this. Manford

Two Months

We have been here two months today, and time is starting to accelerate. We have been puttering around in the new house, and Joseph has his room almost all set up. He is the only one with a bed so far, but ours and Emily's are supposed to come in the next week or two. This weekend mostly I opened boxes, looked at the books inside, and wondered where we are going to put them...then I decided to paint some of the shelves (linen cabinet, a desk that is built into a closet) that were bare wood. At least with that, I can see the result, and then get some of the boxes unpacked into the products of my labors. Labours. I primed them yesterday. However, it now involves picking out more colours. At least in these private spaces (also the inside of the garage) not much depends on my choice, and I may get a little wilder. How about plum shelves? On the inside of the garage, I suppose I should be more careful. The reason I want to paint it is because it is a shade of green that harkens back to the 70's, at least. and peeling. Not that it matters, much, but it could be nice if we spiffed it up a bit, and that seems doable. Hey, maybe I could paint it Half Ash.

Emily and I went to a garage sale at a small church half a block from the house (it is Methodist-Presbyterian-something else, combined)--very friendly people, not really much stuff, but we got an exercise machine kind of like the one we had to leave in Kansas (but older...), and one of those small exercise trampolines so we can send Emily to bounce when she gets too bouncy.

The university is on Teaching Recess now, two weeks off from classes--I suppose kind of like spring break. Except that the faculty (staff) don't get it off; just no classes, so lots of meetings are scheduled...but I am looking forward to going to the New Zealand Psychological Society meeting later this week. It happens to be in Hamilton, on campus, this year, so I don't have to worry about navigating unfamiliar territory, but should meet a lot of people and perhaps learn some things...I also finally got myself to take a couple of walks around campus last week, when it wasn't raining, and it was really lovely--there are a couple of large ponds fairly near my office, with a path around them planted with things that are just starting to bloom, and the performing arts building looks out on one of the ponds through a huge two or three story window--I can tell that as spring really comes, it will be an excellent 15 minute break from whatever.

But for now, I'd better get to work--

Stay cool and come visit us!

Carrie

Homeowners!

We did it! We negotiated the banking and legal and whatever bureacracies and we now own a house in New Zealand! It is done without much fanfare, here, no closing meeting where you write the big check--just electronic dealings between some cyberbanks and the solicitor calls and says its yours. This was all happening on Monday during a meeting where clinical students present and discuss cases, and I was trapped in a corner, with my phone buzzing silently in my pocket, as Manford called to tell me various pieces of news: we can't have the colour cabinets I picked out (so today I go again for the colour-choosing debacle), the bank sent the money, we're officially owners, and some other message...we haven't become techy enough to do text messaging, so I just knew he was calling every 15 minutes or so--making me a bit nervous--but it all came out fine, and we got the keys and walked around the house on Monday night, with nothing particular to do. Then, Tuesday, the day of Big Stuff. Manford went early to wait for the delivery, while I took the kids to school and went in to the office for a meeting with a student--then I came by, and ended up cancelling my other meetings, which were non-essential, and staying most of the day, helping to identify objects and figure out where they should go, and pick up Emily (Joseph walked to the house after school). The government inspection guy came at 1:00, having identified 10 boxes from the list that he wanted to check--all our Christmas boxes (looking for pine cones), something the packers labeled a tent, which was really a canopy for Emily's bed, and so not a contamination hazard, and several boxes mysteriously labeled. All the boxes said "Manfrott" on them, and they wondered what that might be (the packing guy thought that was our last name). "Gunnsswanns" turned out to be "glassware." It was the same guy who labeled the boxes and later wrote the list, but apparently he couldn't read his own handwriting. The fellow from whatever agency he was from (biosecurity of some sort) was very nice, and only confiscated one object (a Christmas decoration with some sort of possible seeds on it).

Emily got home and revelled in her toys, and Joseph also seemed quite happy to be sitting on familiar pillows (on the floor...we didn't bring any couches, and right now our family room has a very inviting floor to sit on. Actually, the carpet is quite cushy. maybe we don't need more furniture). Joseph's room works fine if we don't have a dresser. We think maybe he can get by with a small chest/bedside table and his closet.

Our dresser is quite the worse for wear, though. It was gouged in two places, and then I'm not sure what they did to the mirror--dropped it?--and did not break the glass, but broke the frame. They may try to fix it (I'll contact the moving company today), but maybe it will solve the problem of what to do with Joseph's dresser, which is Manford's old dresser, anyway. I did like my dresser, though. Just stuff, though. We are all fine and happy to be settling in.

Stay cool! Spring is coming here, lots of blooming, baby lambs on the way...

By the way, I meant to clarify Emily's post. She did type it herself, at least until the end, when we were in a rush to get off to Meeting. The bird she likes and has seen a bit of is called a Pukeko. It is a chicken-sized blue native bird (I think flightless), and she is quite fond of the idea of it--we haven't really been up close--just seen it on the road.

Emily Speaks

I am having so much fun! I have seen two pookeckose .Last night I went to a disco. I had so much fun. I hope everybody has a lot of fun! I like New Zealand. We are going to a place where they have kiwi birds. I like the kiwi fruit they have here. I hope everybody has fun!

Speech (non) recognition - by Manford

Our local telephone company (reached by pressing 123) uses speech recognition when first called - but not for me - almost no matter what i said, the reply was either "you are calliing about an overdue account, is that right? (and could not then recognize my NO, no matter what accent I useand), or said it didn't understand and then asked me to say more words. When I got fed up and said "Ich bin ein Berliner" and it replied "You are calling about an overdue account, right?" I gave up, redialed for the umpeenth time, growled and made gibberish and it then let me know which number key to press to get some service and that worked. Now all I have to do is go to a Telecom office downtown and let them make a copy of the information page in my passport and have them fax it to headquarters and then we can be signed up for a land line and wireless modem (which they shipped with one day service so I have it now) dsl. So it goes. We hope those of you who have an opportunity to see our Woodlawn house in its current shape will do so, or maybe buy it; but mainly we wish you good health and happiness. We met the former owners of the house we are buying today (Saturday) - they are from Malaysia, he is a pharmicist at a local hospital - with two grown kids. They are very nice.

Contingencies...Carrie

I said I needed to finish grading my papers (wait, marking my essays) before I could write in the blog, so I apologize to all my devoted readers for the delays...I would have finished yesterday except I had to go and pick out colors (or colours) for the kitchen, and it took ALL AFTERNOON. Who would think. We will have a new and exciting colour for our cabinets: barge blue. The ladies there restrained my from my impulse to have actual colour, rather than the subtle and possibly imaginary colours contained in the final selections of "barge blue" (grey with perhaps a hint of blue), seafog mist (or some such nonsense--kind of speckled grey) bench (countertop) and some other fog rendition for the walls. They did have a dizzying and sorely tempting array of colours for the walls, including systematic gradations of non-colour. I think we actually have double fog, or something. they had half-fog, fog, and double and sometimes triple somethings. I was most tempted by "half-ash." Although I really don't want a half-ash kitchen (it was a bit dark), I really would like to be able to say I had one.

Enough about kitchens? I am allowed to add colour as I accessorize. or maybe that's accessorise. they do that sometimes. Then we can change as the fashion police direct. Though I really do think there is something to that trying-not-to-be-too-quickly-dated. A bit too much of the current kitchen is harvest gold. Probably used to have an avocado fridge.

Then I arrived home dazzled and plumb out of decisions, and found that Emily's school had a disco planned that night. In fifteen minutes (5:30-6:30 for the little ones). We rushed over with much excitement and it was great fun: lots of little kids, girls mostly kind of dressed up, and boys looking cool with sunglasses (though it was dark), dancing happily to favorites (favourites) like "Rock around the Clock," "The Locomotion," and "Bob the Builder," DJ'd by a guy who looked like someone's grandpa. Some of the boys were quite good future breakdancers. Popcorn and juice were served, and an hour was just right.

Joseph also had a social milestone, or two. Last Saturday he was included in a group of boys from his Form (homeroom) who decided to go to a local internet cafe to play bloody computer games with each other. I mean that literally, not Britishally. So we said ok, and I ventured downtown and had a nice afternoon exploring the nice main library, and lots of shops around the area--discovered one very nice little street with cafes and a real bookstore (not a chain) and a couple of galleries. Joseph had a good time and assures me they were all on the same team, so were just killing computer-generated people, not each other, and it was a nice, clean, apparently safe place with very flash (snazzy) computers. They appeared to be decent boys...and then on Tuesday he announced that the next day was a half-day at school and they would like to take a bus downtown and play again. Ok, the fledgling is ready to venture out...so we said yes, and he did it, and we all survived. I went downtown to pick him up and the whole area was crawling with teenagers at that time of the afternoon (4:00). Identifiable by school uniforms of various sorts. He still won't let me take a picture of him, but we're thinking of sending Emily undercover. She likes to use the camera. I hardly ever see him in his uniform, anyway, as I leave before he wakes up and he strips it off immediately on getting home, before I get there.

And we are about to close on the house--Monday is D-day. D for dollar. We've been negotiating the tricky waters of international money-shifting for weeks, and seem to be ready...we do a walk-through tomorrow with the realtor, and the previous owners called and want to meet us and try to get us to buy some of their furniture--they seemed quite nice, actually; they are from Malaysia, and had all kinds of interesting shrines and figures around the house. I suppose those are gone, now, but we'll see. On Tuesday they are supposed to deliver our furniture and boxes, boxes, boxes. The shipment will be accompanied by the customs inspector, who is wondering what is in all those boxes, particularly (we suspect) the ones that the packers described on the shipping list as containing "gunsswans." We are wondering what could possibly be in there, too. In our next episode, Carrie and Manford have interesting encounters with international law enforcement...

Stay cool!

After about a week...by Manfoord

After about a week of intermittent, sometimes heavy rains (heavy enough at times to knock flowers off plants and our front yard cherry tree) this Wednesday dawned clear and chilly, with frost on the car windows. As the day progressed so did cloudiness and it was (Emily;s wird) "spitting" by the time I went to pick her up at 3 pm. Whilie still not too cloudy, looking up through the open sunroof my impression is that blue skies here are lighter in color than in Kansas. On to other things. I had a visit with a neurologist Tuesda, and from him learned that the Neuro patch, available in the States, is not, and may not for a long time be, available in New Zealand. So we will try a mix of Sinamet (I am alread taking) and Requip to see if that will get me moving better. Medications are quite inexpensive here, but I almost passed out when presented the bill for his consult - $340.00!! REMINDER - All dollar amonts in our posts are New Zealand dollars. Tanks for the qery about that. I reall haven't yet looked very hard for things to do outside the home - the two major audiology groups in town would basicall have me selling hearing aids and I like that ok even thogh I will have to learn some new software and fitting techniques, and I have grown lazy in my retirement. Time will tell. There is not a lot being done about auditory processing disorder testing or remediation, so maybe there will be an opportunity. I need to find something that will put me in contact with folks outside the family and have that as a goal for August - September. Well, thanks to all who read this, and may you be well. Manford




















REMINDER

A little Kiwiana from Manford

When commenting on car engine power, instead of horsepower the term "kW" is used - e.g., a "12.9-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine which produces 809kW at 7000rpm" (not my car!). You can buy a Compaq laptop for $1099. Front load washers run from $1099 up, ceramic hobs (coktop) $600.00 up, dryers from 999 up, a sampling folks. The kids still like school - Joseph is apparently perceived as bright by his classmates, and Emily was surrounded the other morning by girls wanting to play a game she invented! We are well. It rains at least briefly every day - the skies are an encyclopedia of clouds. Our best to all who read this.

Tag Sale!

I have heard from several friends and neighbors that they are having our tag sale! So as we are buying stuff, people are buying our stuff, and it all goes around in a circle, and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad...but finally the house will be on the market, and another of our ties to the States will be untied. I'm not sure how I feel about that, realizing this week that perhaps part of the reason I have been feeling so confused and inept with respect to understanding Maori (and, to a lesser extent, broader New Zealand) culture is that I am so confused and ambivalent about my culture: what is it? am I allowed to value being an American, while being so uncomfortable with what America seems to represent in the world? And can I recognize that I do value many parts of my culture, when I've just left it, and to value it would be to let the sadness creep (or sweep) in? I used to think about the early 20th century poets (like Pound) who left America to hang out in Paris cafes, and I always identified with William Carlos Williams, who stayed in New Jersey and wrote about real life. And thought I could never leave the country, with all its foibles and diversity. But here I am, and I am not regretting it, just feeling the loss of people and roots.

Ah, well, today I am going to an all-day orientation at the university. I am sure that will be illuminating...the schedule includes hours on health and safety, occupational overuse syndrome, emergency preparedness, unions on campus (I already joined. I have my first official union card) and "finding your way around." That last should be useful. And they do have a break for morning tea (of course) and provide us lunch.

Yesterday was "mufti day" (I've no idea whether that is how you spell it), meaning that Joseph did not have to wear his uniform to school, though being 13, he didn't pick up on whenever this was announced. Luckily, he is still wearing Harry Potter shirts underneath, and could just strip off his sweater and school shirt (who needs to be warm) and he was cool.

I did finish the Harry Potter book. I liked it, thought I can't say I always enjoyed it, and I don't think I'll read it to Emily for quite a while. I'm hoping we can hold her off with the Chronicles of Narnia for a while. She is taking off with her own reading, though; yesterday she woke up early but was found in her bed, reading.

Kia Ora! (that means "be well" in Maori, and seems to be an all-purpose greeting and farewell)
Carrie

Garage Sale! (by Carrie)

Maybe it is becoming spring, or maybe they just do garage sales all year here, but Friday we got a little notice in the mailbox: the area Bowling club (not bowling like big heavy balls and pins, but bowling like little balls, akin to horseshoes) was having a garage sale. I have to admit, I was excited. Emily and I got up and went at 8 Saturday morning--well, we got there about 8:10, along with lots of other people. Pretty much just like a church garage sale in the States--but one particularly rich with puzzles (we got two) and kitchen stuff (we got some miscellany). I got an iron. No exercise machine (we'll keep looking for that--seems like it should be a good garage sale item. that's how we got the one we had to leave in Kansas). I decided this morning I need to make a list of all the appliances we need, and check them off. We are already the proud owners of a toaster, a crock pot, an iron, and a space heater, all with funny plugs.

Manford and I also spent a couple of hours at our future home, meeting with a kitchen designer, figuring out what to put where. She will make up a plan and a price (yikes. but seems like less than it would be in the States to rip out the whole kitchen and put in a new one) and we will meet on Friday and pick out colors. We also measured the bedrooms to try to figure out how to fit in at least some of our furniture--a bed and a dresser is about all that will fit in our room, maybe a small chair, but it has one built-in set of drawers between the two closets. Joseph's room with be dominated by his Harry Potter bed, but he does everything on the bed, anyway. Manford is right, the yard is a challenge, but at least it is conveniently divided up into sections, and maybe we can tackle one zone at a time.

It's raining again this morning--the roofs here are nearly all steel, and the sound of the rain on the roof is kind of soothing...I think especially to Kiwis who have grown up with it. One house we looked at had a concrete roof (which sounds very odd, and looked a bit odd, too--the concrete was shaped like tiles, kind of, but still concrete colored), and the realtor was musing that concrete roofs were good, but you missed the sound of the rain...yesterday it started off foggy, and cleared off nicely in the afternoon, so that Emily and Manford and I explored a little in the reserve (park, basically big green area with grass and trees and a small gully) just behind our rental house. It was soggy, but a nice big place to run and play ball and hide in the copse of trees, where Emily was convinced there might be a kiwi. Hopefully it will dry out some so she can enjoy it before we move--there are a couple of these reserves near our new house, too, but not right out the back gate. There is lots of green space here--but unfortunately, most of them don't have what Emily calls "real parks," meaning playground equipment. Though her school has great playground equipment, and we could walk to it from the new house.

I'm halfway through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and looking forward to being able to talk to Joseph about it.

Work is getting busy, as I venture out and try to learn about the local mental health and family support services. I've been following our first-year clinical graduate students around as they do visits to the local agencies, and also making some of my own contacts. Last week I went to the Waikato Family Centre, which is run by an incredibly energetic nurse/midwife, and resides in a beautiful house that used to be a brothel...it's kind of like the breastfeeding resource center, plus--families can come and they help with nursing, but also with figuring how to put the baby to sleep (they have cribs and separate rooms, so they can get the baby to sleep, and then the mom can either sleep or talk to someone), and anything else, for the first year, free; they run postpartum depression groups, and screen everyone for postpartum depression (data!). I'm going next week to spend some time there, and later to interview some of the women about their experiences with the health and mental health systems, to give me some leads on what kind of research might work and needs to be done. And teaching seems to be going fine--I am getting off easy this term, and it is clear I'll have more teaching to do in the future, but it's great to have the luxury of some time both to figure out the university and to set up some research.

I hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie

Typing errors, I really do know how to spell by Manford

Thanks to all who tolerate my typing - I meant Martin Cruz Smith - and though it looks like text messaging I don't mean it to be. Today we meet with a kitchen designer to see what can be wrought - maybe we will just do an out with the old, in with the new! I have met with two landscape persons whom I charcterize as the butcher (lop off the heads of all the trees in the front yard) and the artiste (retain some, lop some, trim some, smell this wonderful scented flower) and am leaning toward him. The yard is sadly neglected and in this environment way overgrown - will take some pics and post 'em. Thanks for the interest says I to all who read this and may you find some joy each day!

Books and things b Manford

Well we came in on the tail end of the dog show (pun intended) but saw some cties, and had a wonderful meal at the hme of a coworkers of carrie Wine is relativel inexpensive and generally good ere. It has been a pretty quiet week here. I came across an amazing (to me) riff on the number 9, called Nmber 9 The Search for the Sigma Code by Cecil Balmond - check it out. And have started the new Cuz-Smith, Stalin's Ghost. Any readers have recommendations for other books? We have a meeting at the house Friday with a kitchen design lad. Yesterday I met with an arborist and a landscaper - whooee, or house is in a jungle (that needs trimming, digging up, transplanting, removal) more about this as we roll along. It has been in the 30's in the am - cool to cold depending on the hmidity. I hope all is well with those who read this. I will tr for more reflection on the move and on living here next blog.

Shopping

Yesterday we went shopping. Mostly just shopping, not buying: scoping out stores for kitchen appliances and furniture and stuff. Apparently, although they call beds "twin, double, queen, king," they are not the same sizes as ours...we shipped Joseph's Harry Potter bed with mattress, so that should be fine, but we just brought the mattress for Emily's bed, thinking we could get a bed here--she wants a loft bed so she can play underneath it. We found a great one at one store, about four feet off the ground, with drawers and shelves and a slide-out desk top underneath, as well as room to play. But it's not quite the same size as her mattress. We either need to get a new mattress, or get the "king twin" which is a few inches larger than the other, and so will be a little big for the mattress...details, details...lots of options in beds, especially if you want to spend a LOT of money. Then you could get a nice platform bed with a built-in LCD tv that pops up from the footboard...don't tell Joseph about that one. Or one with a built-in dock for your iPod. I think we'll just look for a basic model, though--but maybe a king, since the queen is smaller than ours, and the king is between king and queen, but maybe we'll just get cosy and conserve room in the bedroom, which is not going to fit both our dressers, anyway...maybe we should get a loft bed, soo, so we can play underneath...watch out, and I'll get as weird at Manford. It's being upside down. Surprising things are backwards. Door locks, light switches (up is off), and the sweater ("jersey") I just bought Manford has the zipper on the opposite side. I still get confused getting into the car (usually not driving it, any more) if I think about it too much.

They probably have this array of outlandish appliances in the States, too; it's just that we haven't been shopping for everything at once, there. The appliance store we liked (they had reasonable things, too, and a nice saleswoman) had a pink dishwasher and a giant fifties-looking lime green fridge for $5000. I think we'll pass on them. Most of the fridges are small, by US standards, but have a variety of configurations (freezer up, down, and some with extra doors and drawers for various functions), and since we're redoing the kitchen, we can try to figure out what size we really need, and make a space for it. Next week we will meet with a kitchen designer (sounds fancy, but not really) and start to make a plan. The only things we actually bought yesterday were small plastic stuff (we found a store with every plastic thing you could imagine) like a microwave popcorn popper (you can get the bags here, but they're expensive) and juicer (we have a citrus tree of some sort in the rental house. I can't tell if it's lemon or orange, or a cross they apparently have here).

We did our first baking this week--oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, kind of. They have chocolate "buttons" that said they were for baking, disks about the size of a dime. I decided to try them, and the kids liked them fine, but I think I'll get the (more expensive) Nestle chocolate chips next time...and I have to figure out how to measure butter here. Butter is very cheap--less than margarine--but it comes in a huge hunk (a half kilo, a bit more than a pound in one slab). Apparantly there are lines on the package for measuring, but I had long since discarded that. I know, I can use the diplaced water trick, but I was lazy and estimated. They are mostly metric here, but still remnants of old measures on food packaging and recipes--we will have to learn to convert both ways. The oven is in Farenheit, but about half of things you buy are Celsius. I am assuming someday we will stop converting and have a sense of metrics...

Today Manford and I will go to meeting (no kids program today) and then later we will go to a dog show with another family (of the tutor--clinical training coordinator--from work), and then have tea (dinner) with them. We are bringing cake. They have no shortage of cakes here. No shortage of bakeries, either. No, we're not getting a dog yet, but I'd be surprised if we didn't have one by Halloween...

Emily says

School is great, I'm having lots of fun, and I've made a lot of new friends. I think I like sketching best. (what's different about it?) We only have like one, two teachers, but I found out that the computer teacher teaches us, but then our real teachers teach us all our other subjects. (what's your teacher's name) Mrs Tombs. She is a really nice teacher--almost as nice as Mrs. Fisher and Mrs Schwerdt. In the playground at my school they have a giant sandbox, and the playground is really fun. We are doing cross-country and it is really hard.

I got this really cool bed that has shelves and you can take this box of the shelves out, and you can go play under it. That's all I have to say! Happy Birthday to Daddy!

happy birthday Manford

My birthday can be celebrated twice - here tomorrow, there on your Sunday. Has anyone seen Amazing Grace? Inside an egg carton is the notice "Our hens live in small flocks on lifestyle properties where they are looked after by caring farmers and are free to express their natural behavior..." I am composing a poem, Ode to a Toilet that begins "There you sit, where I sit" which is as far as I have gotten (without any other family's knowledge or awareness) and is probably as far as I should go. Hmmmm, gotta think of other ways to use my time. We were in the underground parking lot from hell yesterday - very narrow spaces, but ue survived. Carrie's coworkers don't like it either. I really value all the friendships we had in Topeka and wish I had said that more. The family is out buying the new Harry Potter book and thousands of dollars worth of gifts for me, trying to stop me from hallucinating so much! Best to all and to all a good night . Manford

Progress

We're making progress--it doesn't quite seem like home, but it doesn't not seem like it, either. We are still in someone else's house, but we can see where we're going...as Manford said, the building inspector raved about the house, built in the 60's, when they used solid materials, and it was "top drawer" then...once we get the kitchen redone, it will be top drawer again...we went to a kitchen designer store today, and saw all the fancy drawers we can get, and countertops ("bench") in all colors and textures possible. And all sorts of weird and practical sink options. The typical sink here is stainless steel, with one decent sized sink, and then a tiny one with a disposal in it, and built-in drainer areas on one or two sides...I'd kind of like a double sink, and it seems that that is quite possible, or a full and a half-sink, or any configuration, made of stainless steel, or graphite, or whatever...don't tell Emily, but you can get the "bench" in purple if you really want it. We haven't even looked at floors yet...

The yard is one of the big advantages of this house--it is good sized--about a quarter acre--in an area where many of the "sections" (lots) have been subdivided so that one house we looked at was on a section that was 200 square meters--that's a little over 200 square feet. For the land. Ours has a large grapefruit tree, and lots of other bushes and trees, some even flowering now--camelias, and we'll have to learn all of what else. It needs some attention and pruning, but provides nice privacy and should be even richer as we get into spring and summer. The builder cautioned us that when you buy plants here, and it says "grows to one meter," that means in the first year. Plants like it here.

Our weekend trip to Mount Maunganui was quite nice--it's a pretty 1 3/4 hour drive through rolling hills to the coast (the far coast), then out to a kind of penninsula punctuated by "the mount," which is a hill you can climb up or walk around. We got about halfway around on Sunday morning, then Emily had to go to the bathroom...We arrived Saturday noonish and had lunch at the Stars and Stripes Cafe--and American Restaurant. Exotic. Joseph wanted a cheeseburger, so we ordered one, but the guy convinced us that the Kiwi Burger was on sale, and a better deal, and the same thing, except with an egg on it. We ordered it without the egg, not knowing that it also had beets...I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. It was an interesting double-decker affair, with sliced chicken on the first layer, and salad (lettuce and tomato) on the second...We went to the beach in the afternoon, and found lots of shells; it is winter, and so a bit chilly, but Emily got her feet wet, and on up...then we went to the hot salt water pools, across from our hotel. They were three swimming pools--one warm, one hot,and one for kids (I didn't check how hot that was). Very relaxing, though popular. Apparently this is a VERY popular spot in the summer, and the long beach looked very inviting. There was just one lonely surfer when we were there, but two hang gliders taking off from the top of the Mount and landing on the beach.

Then, back to Hamilton, and work, and house and car...here is a picture of Manford by the house, with his new car; he is driving with impunity, and Emily likes to stick her head out of the sun roof. I am hoping this is while they are waiting for Joseph, whose school gets out 20 minutes after hers. I had my second class, and they all stayed awake, and we refilled all of Manford's prescriptions for $12. And so another week, and our first month, comes to a close...tomorrow we are having a party to celebrate the house, and the month; we will have pizza from Hell and magic bananas (Emily read a recipe in a book for chocolate-dipped frozen bananas). Sunday is Manford's birthday, and we will go to a dog show and have dinner with some friends from work.

We hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie

two of everything and more and less by manford

We now have dibs on a house - just waiting on clearance from an attorney and some money from the states - pictures to follow if we can figure out a small glitch on the other computer. Described in real estate terms as a "hidden treasure" this 60's house with a late 70's addition has three bedrooms, two baths, a computer nook "heaps of storage, practical (this means small and somewhat outdated) kitchen, established treed lawn (trees really need trimming), wide backyard (relatively speaking) and a double internal access garage..." It is within walking distance (about 4 - 5 blocks) of the kids school, on a corner lot. A stell roof. We got a very favorable (favourable) report from the building inspector yesterday. The roof could do with a paint job and there is a need for painting here and there, and we will hope. fully get a kitchen redo. Before we move in. We will need two sofas, two chairs, a washer (front loading) a dryer, a bed for Emily, a bed for mom and dad, possibly an upgrade on a shower, a big trim of lots of vegetation and high tree limbs, and no doubt other stuff. I am inactively seeking gainful employment if I can find a way to work with dizzy patients - I really don't want to sell hearing aids anymore, which is what current audiology positions are for. We shall see. Hope all who read this are well and happy. I think this move away from the nest I created in Topeka is a good one for making me know what is important in life - health, friends, family, spiritually. Carrie will probably write up our weekend trip to the East coast.

No house for now...off to the beach

We didn't get the house...the owners didn't get the house they were bidding on, and decided not to sell after all. So we're still looking. Looked at another one on the same street, just a block farther from school, that seems promising--also four bedrooms (small ones), two living areas, nice patio, and a pool--small, but that's good--but it is being put up for auction August 15. Not sure whether we want to have that much uncertainty. No one else has registered interest on the other one we liked, so we have that as a possibility. We are taking the weekend off from thinking about it and going to the beach.

It is a beautiful, clear and crisp (frost this morning) day, and we're going east a couple of hours to Mount Maunganui, known as "the mount," where there are hot salt water pools and supposedly lots of things to do. I think the mount itself is a dormant volcano, but don't tell Emily. You can walk around or up it. or to the beach. or to the hot pools.

I finished a week of classes feeling good about it--actually I just have one class to teach, but sat in on a couple of other "papers" and a visiting lecture from a guy from New Mexico that was very interesting. And some meetings, and meeting people, and trying to figure out the department structure and politics. That may take a while. People remain very friendly and helpful.

And we finally had pizza from Hell. Check out their website: www.hell.co.nz They even delivered. Joseph had Gluttony (double pineapple, double ham, double cheese), Manford and I had Limbo (vegetarian, but with bacon and blue cheese...) and Emily had 333 (kids one-topping). They have some quite bizarre sounding combinations. But what do you expect? I somehow doubt this chain would go over without controversy in the US. The box says "we are hell bent on providing the best damn pizza and service around..." It also says "dispose of the evidence." It was pretty good. By the way, even pizza hut has pizzas like Chicken, cranberry and brie.

Stay cool! we will take pictures of The Mount--
Carrie

Back to Class--wait, Paper, or something

Well, I just had my first session (class?) of my developmental psychopathology paper, and it felt like it went well. There were 18 students there--a good size, though there are 24 signed up, so we'll see how it develops--and several who seem willing to speak up (in a good way). Only three men--brave souls; we'll see if they stay. Nice classroom, with all the techie stuff well-organized and seems to be working (once I figured out how to turn the lights on, which was not that simple). Close by, on my floor, just the other side of the staff tea room. Now I have to try to figure out the online system for communicating with the class. students. I think they understood my accent...

I am also finding my way around campus a little bit, venturing out--quite near my building is the student union, which has many conveniences--I found the hairdresser yesterday, and she cut my hair barely perceptably, but decently. There is a pharmacy, dairy (which means convenience store), a couple of banks (not ours...), travel agent, at least three eating places, and apparently there used to be surf shop, but it closed. The rec center--wait, centre--is also there, and Manford plans to join and work out there.

Manford and kids are now at the Mall, where Joseph is seeing the Harry Potter movie (5), and we hope Manford and Emily found something else to see or do. I am envying Joseph, but the first show was exactly during my first class, and, though tempted, I couldn't quite work it into the syllabus. outline.

We are bidding on a house! It is across the street from Joseph's school (from the fields, anyway), and so only about two blocks from Emily's school, also across the street from a park we haven't explored yet, but which seems to have a long bike path and a lot of grass. It has four bedrooms--one quite small, but ok for video games and guests, and also both a living room (aka Lounge) and a family room (which could serve as another guest room) and a small office. The rooms are a bit small than the other house we're considering, but there are more of them, and it seems congenial...needs a bit of cosmetic work, such as taking up the carpet, which has wood floors under it, and I'd like to refinish them, and putting in a better fence (it's on a corner; next door in one direction is a huge overgrown barrier of ivy and other unknown plants, which might have been nice at one point but is now out of control and huge in some places and holey in others). So if we get it, we will close in mid-August and have some time to get some work done. But the owners are waiting to see if they get a house that is being auctioned tomorrow, so it may be a few days before we see how it comes out.

Back to work.

tv or not tv - by manford

Free tv has some local programs (e.g. Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) and quite a few US ones - e.g. The Simpsons, Ugly Betty, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The OC, My Name is Earl, Desperate Housewives, Wife Swap, Gray's Anatomy, American Chopper, Mediu, Stargate. There are 20 pay tv channels, including National Geographic and the History Channel, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. No PBS clone that I can find. Lots of American movies - e.g. tonight, Hitch. Things are rolling along. The weather was perfect today, and we had lunch in a nearby town with Carrie's department chair - an Australian by birth. His wife fixed a tart with plums from her tree! Yummy! With ice cream, custard and whipped cream for the tartness. I am getting the hang of driving a little more. Our car started sounding a bit like a threshing machine a couple of days ago, but seems to run ok. Will get it checked out tomorrow. Wednesday Joseph will see the new Harry Potter movie, while dad and Emily see something less scary. Tuesday Carrie has a doctors appointment - not sick but to have someone who can write perscriptions. We are still house looking. May all who read this be well.

Still learning the language (almost a week at the University)

Staff means Faculty, and Faculty means School; Paper means Course, and Course means Program; Essay means Paper; Marks means Points, and Points means Credits; Semester means Semester (surprise!) but for kids in primary and secondary school, it is "term," but we mustn't use "term" for University Semesters. I'm almost finished with my outline (aka syllabus). The real fun starts next week!

Joseph's Blog

Happy 4th of July! Even though here it's the fifth. I've been here two weeks now and I've had three days of school, almost everything is different here even the schools. The school is spread out over a large area and everything looks pretty much the same, the lunch is extremely long, about an hour, and they have an extra day on the schedule. The two week brake started just about as I got here so I was only at school for a couple days and didn't learn much since all they had was tests and end of the year stuff. For the past couple of days I've stayed at home and played my video games which only started working a few days ago because I need a transformer and a special type of TV. The food is kind of different here and there are no good hamburger places, there are not many crackers I like, and we haven't found a Chinese restaurant. I don't know what more to say, Happy 4th.