My Life Right Now

The Queenstown post is coming soon - I'm just waiting for pictures from Andrew. Needless to say, it was great. More importantly, in my remaining two or so weeks here, here's a look at my daily routine:

• Wake up around noon; shower and make eggs for breakfast.
• Head to Gardie's, a sports bar near campus, at 1; watch the Red Sox dominate while having Speight's and wedges.
• Walk down to Pat and Rob's flat on Castle St. (middle of the student flats); have a BBQ with a bunch of friends, enjoy frisbee and Speight's.
• Play poker, win my $5 buy-in back.

Now I'm sure maybe a few of you are wondering, 'Wait, that's too specific to be a routine!' Well, it's what I did today, and will do tomorrow, so that's enough to me. Also, you may claim, how is this experiencing study abroad culture at all? Well when you're a 'Scarfie' on a beautiful spring day during finals, this is what you do. And it can't be beat.

Off I Go

I'm off to Queenstown, again on a spur of the moment type deal. Queenstown, of course, being home to spectacular views such as this and this. This time around, I'm going with Andrew on the bus to meet his parents - we'll likely get the chance to dine on some wonderful food and see all the lovely sights in the area. Pictures when I get back, with any luck. And did I mention I don't have any anything school-related to do for 2 and a half weeks?

I could get used to this.

Not a news-maker, by any means, but I just felt this little trembler - it's the little blue scribbles in the middle. That makes two in a week - not bad! I'm really lucky too, because it was a tiny earthquake, barely registering on any other drums. I doubt it'll even get a mention on the website, but my guess for magnitude? I'd say it was a magnitude 2.5, 100 km away. Alright, sleep before an exam is a must.

Boston, you know we love you madly

For the video embed-disabled, go here.

[Updated Oct. 23, 1:55 AM]: You know, on second thought, this isn't really a great video - it's almost painfully awkward, just rocking out in the middle of the day at an empty Fenway. And all the while this woman from Teddy Roosevelt's days is sweeping your stage? Sounds like oppression in gender roles, no? Maybe that's just all the studying for my human geography final talking...yeah, it is. I need sleep.

Final Frontier

On Friday, I took my first final exam for the semester, for my Metamorphism class - although I suppose it could have been my second, since I took the lab practical exam for the same class just a week before that. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it went pretty damn well - they have a great system here where they (meaning every class at the University) provides at least the previous final exam for the course, if not several. Knowing the format and style of an exam ahead of time makes studying so much better, especially when you get four of the previous exams, like my Metamorphism one.

Anyway, I came away from the exam and the week or so of studying previous to that realizing that, yeah, I've actually learned a lot from that class. I guess it's a little surprising, given how little I thought I had done here, but both and Andrew and I were pretty happy with the outcome.

For now, I'm going back to my typical study routine - watching the Sox clamber back into their series and listening to Car Talk podcasts - until my Human Geography final Tuesday. After that, I have two and a half weeks until I get to take my last final for Māori Society, which means lots of backpacking for me. More on that in days to come...

Earthquake Weather

If you don't care for geology-obsessed rantings, you may want to stop reading here. However, if you like the rantings of someone who is completely and utterly, head-over-heels for his major, then this might be quite the thing to witness.

I'll set the mood for you first. It's late - about 1:30 am, to be precise - and I'm just minding my own business, sitting on the couch, browsing Facebook (are you really surprised?) while KC and Page are watching Troy. Then, all of a sudden, it happened: an EARTHQUAKE. Well, I couldn't be entirely sure at first, because I'll admit, it was hard to tell if I really felt it or maybe I was just woozy from being tired. It was (and still is) late, after all. It felt like the couch was gently oscillating below me - a little bit of a rolling motion, while moving side to side, for about 6 seconds. What's that, you say? Sounds just like Rayleigh and Love waves? That's why I thought too! Goodness, we sure know our seismology, don't we?

Naturally, I asked KC and Page if they'd felt the shaking too, even mentioning that it could have been an earthquake, but I think they were too engrossed in the death of Achilles to have noticed. Their loss! At this point, though, I was getting excited about the possibility of having finally felt my first earthquake. For a long time, I've always wanted to feel one, even before I went to college, just because it would be cool (ironic for someone interested in hazard management). Honestly, the only reason why I chose to go to school in Southern California and the South Island(PDF) of New Zealand is because both of these places are really prone to earthquakes. I mean, really, what else is there to care about?

Being the investigative person I am, I immediately went to the USGS Earthquake site - nothing there. Frustrated that I might have been thwarted once again (by a large passing truck, perhaps?) I tracked down the NZ version of the USGS, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS). Quickly navigating through the EQ site, I found a fantastic page with the seismic readouts of a set of 15 seismometers throughout NZ - just a representative sample. There weren't any readings on them, but it was also at least 6 or 7 minutes old, before I felt anything. My thoughts were confirmed, though, when I saw the individual readout of the WNZ (Wanaka) drum - one I knew would be close to any EQ action, which went up to 1:30 am, showing a solitary, large, red line. That was it! Within a few minutes, all of the stations' drums were showing this (huge) blip. Money in the bank.

Still, I didn't know where this happened, or even what the magnitude was. It was about this time that the USGS world EQ map updated - this time with a satisfyingly large, red box over Fiordland (map). Clicking with anticipation, I clicked and was blown away to see a big, bold '7.0' on the EQ page. And there it was. Of course, I knew that this would probably change, since most magnitudes are revised with time, after a lot of different seismometers have been analyzed, so in the mean time I went to the GNS and USGS sites, filling out 'felt reports' like a good little geology student - after all, these are important in calculating things like the Modified Mercalli index of the quake. It came out to pretty much a III. Shockingly, within 45 minutes of the quake, there had been well over 200 felt reports from all over NZ - that's by 2:15 am. Well done, Kiwis. Dunedin, for those who don't know, is the concentration of dots in the center-right of the above map.

To get a little more into the geological nitty-gritty of this quake, at this point, the magnitude has been placed at 6.8 - a pretty decent showing. It was centered just off the coast of Fiordland (maps here), clearly along the boundary between the Pacific and Australian Plates. This fault, the Alpine Fault, runs from here and forms the nearly linear western boundary of the Southern Alps - see some fantastic evidence of this here, here and here. It's a right lateral fault, but with a lot of oblique motion - the Pacific plate is essentially being thrust over the Australian plate (45 degree dip in places), hence the Alps. It's also the reason why we see these two moment tensor solutions - both indicating convergence along a SW-NE plane. Hmmm...funny how these things have a way of working themselves out. It's a good feeling, really.

Alright, that's enough from me. The USGS page on this quake can be found here, and the GNS one here. Check out some of the accompanying maps and other goodies - they're good times. Also, more on the Alpine Fault from our friends at the Otago Geology Dept. Alright, now I really need to sleep...being able to study for my final on Friday - for my metamorphism class, no less - would probably be a nice thing.

NZ Tunes

First off, I should probably say that overall, Kiwi music isn't all that extraordinarily different from what you might see in the States - in fact, American music is really popular here (sadly, they like a lot of the same crap we do, too). Some New Zealand music has had success in the US, too - you may recognize 'So Bizarre' by OMC, which was a hit in the mid-90s, and 'Walkie Talkie Man' by Steriogram was used in an iPod commercial, obviously the epitome of success. You may have even heard of the Rocky Horror Show - that was written by a transplanted Brit. Close enough. And most recently, if you watch HBO, you'll know about Flight of the Conchords, 'the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand." They're the best.

Anyway, one of my favorite things about being at a big university (for those not in the know, Otago has around 20,000 students) is that there's a pretty good music scene around here, and more importantly, it's a real draw for a lot of Kiwi bands - and that's great news for me. Back in September, I had a three week run of going to some pretty cool shows:

The first one was for Shapeshifter, a drum and bass act from Christchurch. I'm not the biggest drum and bass fan, but for what they are, I think they put on a pretty good show. The concerts here are put on by ReFuel, the on-campus bar, but are actually held in a gym-like concert hall, which works as a pretty good venue. This was by far the biggest show I've been to here - the entire place was packed and really bumping, and the entire place basically smelled of sweat, weed and beer (not to mention the beer cups and puddles on the floor). An entirely classy concert. Overall, I just find their music hard to listen too (music videos here, here and here), especially because it feels like you're at a rave and need to be on ecstasy to enjoy it. Not my thing, man. Crazy concert though.

Next up, a week later, was The Black Seeds. They were just awesome, and I loved the whole show, even the opening acts. One of them, Dubwize, was a Kiwi reggae group whose lead singer had the longest dreads I have ever seen - they literally went down to his feet (far left in this pic). Insane. The Black Seeds, however, were the main attraction, and with good reason. They're a reggae/dub band from Wellington with some great music - check out two really good songs/videos here and here - and see if you can find Bret from Flight of the Conchords in there, too - he's a former member. This wasn't as huge a show, since it fell on a Thursday, but it was just very well done.

Finally, we saw Katchafire, another pretty popular reggae/dub act from the North Island, south of Auckland. This was by far my favorite show, for a couple reasons. First off, they started out as a Bob Marley cover band, so they played several great covers, the best one, I though, being Iron Lion Zion. Secondly, they played was must have been at least a two hour set, if not longer - major props to any act that can play that well, for that long, in that hot a venue. Anyway, you can check out a couple videos here and here. Good stuff.

If anyone's still reading at this point in the post, I'm impressed. But if you are, I just have to end this with some FOTC stuff - they're a Kiwi version of Tenacious D (with more musical variety), and their show is like Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Napoleon Dynamite. I can't really get over them. This one here's 'Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros.'

Dunedin Shenanigans

So I thought I would keep up with more of the Dunedin cultural stuff with a couple other interesting things going on in these parts.

First of all, the bi-annual Cookathon was on Friday. It's held at the Cook (it's that student bar I mentioned way back in July), which is conveniently close to campus. It's a great place to go hang out, especially when it isn't crowded (i.e. not Thursday-Saturday nights), and me and my New England friends even went there at 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon to watch the Pats on MNF, which was pretty awesome, obviously. Lemme tell you, Kiwis sure do look at you funny when you're cheering for American football.

Anyway, steering back to the Cookathon, it's an all-day party, basically, where you pay $20 at 10 a.m. and you get a pint, 3 meals and a t-shirt. That's quite a deal, and the scarfies (Uni students) gobble it up, and go all out with costumes themes. It's really hard to get in at all on those days - the picture of the people outside is from 1:30 pm! Note the cop. I would've loved to go to this - Andrew and I had even been planning on it - but it's pretty hard to convince yourself to wake up at 10 am just to pack into a bar to drink and eat questionable food all day when the payoff is just a (reasonably cool) t-shirt.

SPEAKING of t-shirts, here is one the funniest comeback fads that I've seen in a while. I know that I'm not one to judge - not when I wear my 'I'd hit that'/'Erotica Tectonica' t-shirt - but holy crap, you'd think that Wham! reunited and re-released 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' as a hit iTunes single/ringtone/dance remix/mashup/charity work.

Considering the typical wearer of said costume - high school age girls (17 and under here) - you have to wonder if they even know who Wham! was, let alone their songs. Hell, I wasn't even alive when they existed - the duo broke up in June of 1986, 6 months before I was born - but at least I was a teenager (16) when I Love the '80s came out (they were 12). Clearly I am justified in my argument. Sane, too. Anyway, these shirts are pretty popular here in Dunedin (I'd take the photos on George St. to prove it, but that would be pretty creepy), so now I'm just waiting for the day when cutoff denim vests are in fashion, because then I'll be in business.

Best. Billboard. Ever.

I've never been the biggest billboard fan. After all, I grew up in one of four states that prohibits them - Alaska, Hawaii and Maine are the others - and I was pretty glad that the gaudiest sign I had to look at growing up was this one, but mostly just because it meant I'd crossed the river into West Lebanon, a bastion of congestion and commercialization.

Anyway, I've had to change my ways since going to school in L.A., obviously, and I can appreciate good advertising, which leads me to this incredible billboard. It's just two blocks south of my flat, on the side of the main northbound road through Dunedin, outside 'The Bowler,' a bar, and Video Ezy, a movie rental place.

I love this sign for a number of reasons, but it's mostly because it just has so much going on, on either side. The older ad on this sign is for Tui, a brewery from the North Island that makes what's probably the second-most popular student bar beer here, next to Speight's (a Dunedin brew, see more here). As a beer, it's alright, although I've got to admit I've never seen anything other than their East India Pale Ale. It doesn't matter though, because they've got the best advertising campaign I've seen - the left side of the ad has some 'rational' phrase or declaration, simply white text on black, and to the right, 'Yeah, right.' It's hilarious, simple and effective, especially since they cater to the area they're in - hence the flatmates statement. To add to the greatness, don't miss the graffiti below it too.

The newest addition to this board is on the other side. Actually, it's more of an alteration, but an extremely timely one that gives it a whole new dimension. For some more back story on this, go here, but just as soon as the riots happened, the Bowler plastered this gem up. Not really much more to say about it, but for those here who know about the riots (that would be everybody) it's fantastic. Doesn't make me want to go to the Bowler any more than before though - it's probably the #1 or 2 destination for Dunedin high schoolers on weekends. Blegh.

Our Spastic Weather

I'm not totally sure if I've ever really conveyed how ridiculous the weather can be here, but man, it can be really crazy - especially in the spring, like it is now. Take last Wednesday as a pretty good example.

The morning starts off chilly and gray, and soon enough, it's raining as I head off for my 8 a.m. class. Lovely, really. The weather clears up while I'm in class, and by the time I'm out of geography just before 10 a.m., it's only cloudy. No less than 45 minutes later, we hear the sound of banging on the roof, but much louder than rain, and it turns out it's hailing out - a lot. Incredibly, I leave for my 12 noon class, and it's sunny and beautiful out, almost as sunny as you'll see in Dunedin. Of course, I got too excited about this, and once I got back to my flat in between class and lab at 2 p.m., we got even more hail. Top it off later that evening with rain, and you'll have a complete day of weather in Dunedin. Nice.

Also, I've gotten some feedback about my post, 'Geology Escapades,' about my field trip down to Nugget Point, and apparently the geo may have been a little much. No worries, though! This isn't a geology blog - I just wanted to give a little taste of what I was learning, particularly for those who have a geo background. I have given a lot of thought to maybe writing a geology blog next semester, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Anyway, back to hoping for the wretched high winds that've moved in to blow away to sea.

(Not a) Quiet Riot

This may be about 6 weeks late, but it's definitely worth it. I guess a little back story is in order, though. And you can check out news stories here and here.

So every year for the last five years (at least) the University of Canterbury Engineering Society has been organizing this event called the Undie 500 (Wiki link). That university is in Christchurch, about a 5 hour drive north of Dunedin. So what is it? A race, of sorts (hence the similarity to Indy 500), although it would probably be better characterized as a rally. Here are the rules:

1. Your car must be purchased for under $500 - think about that; in US terms, that's around $380...
2. It must be registered and have a warrant of fitness - like a US inspection, but you get them every six months
3. You have to have a sober driver - sensible, no?

After they've met these rules, they decorate their cars in any number of manners - and there were definitely some creative ones. Then they make (or attempt to, considering how cheap their cars are) the drive from Christchurch, with a long pub crawl along the way. You might wonder, how many people are going to spend $500 on a car, hundreds on repairs and fuel, and even more on lots of alcohol - and that's just on the way to Dunedin? Well, the number of cars has been limited to 150, so several hundred, at the very least.

Okay, let's get more specific here. This year, the Undie 500 was the last weekend of August, the same weekend we were leaving for mid semester break, so I wasn't around to witness this firsthand, but there were plenty of news cameras. Here's why.

First of all, last year after the Undie 500 was completed, a lot of the participants, and their comrades-in-arms here in Dunedin, started burning various cars (presumably the Undie 500 entries) and couches, with some general rioting, too. Arrests were made and North Dunedin (where the student flats are) was a mess, so this year an alcohol ban was placed on the area, so no one could walk around with open containers. Didn't make any difference though.

I don't really know the sequence of events here, but it doesn't particularly matter. Despite limiting the number of cars to 150, imposing a liquor ban and city's riot police being out in full force, some crazy stuff went down. Emergency crews had to respond to more than 70(!) fires, many to piles of trash, but a sizable portion of couch and vehicle fires too. Bottles and other trash was thrown around, particularly at the police, so what happens? 69 people were arrested - 54 of them students.

And I'll be honest, I kind of wish I'd been there to see it. At the time, I was having a blast caving in Greymouth and seeing the pancake rocks in Punakaiki, and I wouldn't have missed that for anything. But what a thing to see - hundreds, maybe thousands, of students acting recklessly and irresponsibly - actually rioting; this is something I'll never see in Claremont. I'm not saying I like that or would have taken part, but it would have been pretty sweet to sit on the roof of my flat and watch the chaos go on below me.