changes are afoot

the awesome blog of gillian will continue...

with some slight modifications.

it will now be an awesome place where haikus find a home

best news ever right?

if only haikus were cool

oh wait...haikus rock!

aviary awesomary

Today it was a beautiful day so I left work early and went for a walk/jog in the park. I stumbled across an aviary. It had talking parrots and lots of crazy looking birds. Of course, I did not have my camera but I will go back and take pictures soon.

awesome!

Brain Images in Different Fluorescents....

Hoechst nuclear staining of apoptotic cell death!

astrocytes stained with GFAP!

Ah memories...

Picture Madness

Hey everyone,

instead of posting a few images I am going to give you a behind the scenes like experience by showing you all the picture taken on this trip. The link for this is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/PirateGillie/NewZealand201002?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSA4PegksK1Yw

Enjoy! and please leave comments!

Gillian

Road Trip Madness

Well, since the last post a lot has happened. I will post many pictures of this within the next 24 hours, as I do not have the means to right now.

However, this is what has happened, try to imagine if you will

Two crazy awesome people, one sweet ride and an open road (for reals, there is no traffic here at all). First we drove to Fjordland and took a scenic cruise in Milford Sound, it was pretty awesome, we saw more penguins and seals and boated under the waterfall of youth. Then we went on to Te Anau, where our hotel was. Here we also went on a tour of the underwater caves and saw glowworms, pretty sweet, ay. The next day was pretty laid back we woke up and did some shopping, not for gifts for you guys...and then drove to Wanaka where we went to Puzzlingworld. There was a giant 2 story labyrinth which we completed and some crazy optical illusions. Then we drove to Fox Glacier, in the process having to dodge the animals that were darting out onto the road. We woke up early the next day and hiked up fox glacier. This was pretty intense, for me anyway, Amanda breezed through it. It was beautiful up on the ice though. Definitely worth the hellish hike. We then drove (forever) to Christchurch which is where we currently are. We are staying in a sweet hostel, which was a working jail up until 1999. The facilities are awesome, and apparently some of the old inmates will come stay here to see how much it has changed. Pretty sweet stuff. Today we are headed to Antarctica to see penguins and the like and then back to Dunedin.

So yeah, that's what's been going on. Picture blog to come!

Gillian

Comment!

I've changed the settings, so now anyone can post comments on this blog, so please post some comments. Thanks!

Dunedin is the wildlife capital of New Zealand.

True story. There are lots of awesome animals here. Now predominantly, this is going to be a picture post!!! as I am able to upload pictures thanks to the safe arrival of my BFF! Her first day here was pretty chill, we went into town where we got rained on pretty heavily. It hasn't actually fully stopped raining since Amanda got here, but it should be clearing up soon. Today we drove up to the peninsula and observed a lot of nature (see pictures) The pictures actually go backwards and some are not oriented correctly. Sorry, I am new at this blogging thing.

This was a really cool rainbow that we saw at the end of the tour. It was awesome.

This is a yellow eyed penguin who just swam into shore and was headed for the sandy rocks when we were leaving.

Little family of yellow eyed penguins. There are less than 5000 of these penguins in the entire world, we saw four of them. That's a pretty good percentage I think.

Amanda and I and a friendly sea lion. They were all very friendly and not scared of humans. Most of them were born in this area and since humans walk around them all the time but don't harm them, they are not scared of us!

Did I mention all of the little fur seal pups there were? They were adorable and they have big black eyes due to their need to hunt at night.

Amanda and I at the peak of the nature reserve, really pretty view behind us. We may have been standing in sheep droppings at this point.

Really cool view of the land.

I don't remember what this is called, but I thought this was an awesome bird with it's red eyes. We had to stop the car to take a picture of it. EDIT: It is called a red billed gull.

Little baby royal albatross, we also saw some adults flying but the babies were cuter because they are sooo fluffy!
There are lots of signs like these around NZ and they make me giggle. I like that they tell you how far to london and the south pole and the toilets....

Cool view of the ocean and the beach.

This is the crossroads for the building in which I work. Notice, they are great king street and frederick street. Dad, you're welcome.

This house is called the shrieking shack. Harry Potter fans may now giggle.

quick updates

I have seen 2 mullets today...

You're a pie is a common insult here....

oh shivers! (meaning oh no!) is my new favorite saying...

and...

...

...I bought some awesome snow trousers today!

updates galore

Well, a lot has happened in the past week so I will attempt to summarize but first, an awesome quote on the whiteboard in the lab here:

"science rocks!"

"what, like geology?"

hahaha. awesome.

anyways, did you know that in NZ they really love their grad students. In fact they give them a communal area with a kitchen and sitting area. It has an oven and a giant fridge and a sink and dishwasher and lots of nice things. Also, this is where they have their weekly 'brownbags'. Oh did I mention that in this kitchen area they have beer that anyone can pay for and drink during their meetings? It's pretty sweet. Finally, there are sinks with sensors in the taps at the door of all labs so that you can wash your hands before leaving the lab without recontaminating yourself by touching the tap. Brilliant i say!

Also, I've been wandering around a lot, found some pretty awesome restaurants, bought too many clothes, and found some awesome old buildings. Even the train station here is amazing.

I've been working a lot at the moment so that I can get time off for Amanda visiting! We are going to have an awesome adventure. I should know, I've seen the itinerary. It's going to be legend-wait for it-dary!

I have a crazy neighbor who talks too loud late in the night and listens to the radio until the wee hours in the morning. If it weren't for the fact that her whining was somewhat entertaining I would be much more annoyed.

I had more planned for this update but I have to go pack for my ski weekend!

today I kicked butt at gavaging. Next step, giving them alcohol.

that is all.

lab excitement

Updates since my last post. Hmm.

Things i have learned:

- to lock doors in NZ you turn then lock the opposite way than you do in the US.

- macdonalds is called mackers

- a homer simpson pizza consists of spaghetti, pineapple and pepperoni

- the cafe by my apartment makes a delicious chai latte

- chocolaté croissants in NZ consist of bread with a little bit of chocolate. Once you get past the lack of flaky goodness, it tastes just like fresh bread and nutella....mmm.

- it's silly to abide by crosswalks here...they're not very functional

- although its very cold in the morning, it is surprisingly warm in the afternoon. This makes choosing outfits to wear difficult.

- the botanic gardens are not that impressive in winter

Update on life:

Yesterday, I finally for started on lab work. It was quite exciting. I met David, one of Dr. Nappers students and he showed me his technique for gavaging adolescents. After watching him for a while I tried one. Following a couple of mishaps I successfully gavaged the animal. However, that was the only success of the day. I was unable to gavage the remainder of the animals. So I have work to so. After this, David showed me some pre-processed brains that are stained with Hoechst to see apoptotic cells. The microscope here is pretty sweet. I am very jealous of how awesome it is. Very fancy.

Today, it has been somewhat of a repeat, but on my own this time. I handled my animals in the morning (they hadn't been handled before I got here, making them a tad bit jumpy) and practiced wrapping them in a towel (which is done when they are gavaged). I personally feel I have improved on this aspect. Next, I went down and got trained on the scope (took 2 seconds) and started looking at some slides and taking pictures of apoptotic cell death. It's a pretty sweet stain and easy to see. I'm scheduled for the scope again later this afternoon.

So yeah good stuff.

Also, I found a cafe that has magic shows! I need to find out when these are because I am going.

That's all for now.

sightseeing

I have settled in quite nicely to life in Dunedin.

I went to work on Friday and got situated with keys, people I should know, internet access at the university...then I went to the bank and looked into getting a phone for my time here. I then went to the grocery shop bought some essentials and came home.

Yesterday I woke up too early (its an unpleasant theme at the moment), and went to explore the town. I walked down to the Octagon (cool city center) and did some window shopping. Didn't buy anything yet, but found some things I could get people if I don't find something more awesome. I also went to a museum and checked out some cool exhibits. I saw some Moas and kiwis. Some yellow eyed penguins and blue penguins. All stuffed of course, but I would like to see some live ones also. I also saw lots of boats and totem pole carvings from the indigenous Maori people. It was a pretty sweet museum. I then checked out more shops and walked around the botanical garden, which is next to my apartment. Then for dinner, I went to this awesome pizza place right down the street and got a homer simpson pizza. It was pretty awesome.

Today I was supposed to work, but sadly dr. napper is feeling ill. Therefore, she told me to spend the day exploring and suggested I take the bus (bus stop is right outside my apt) and go to St. Claire ( a beach!). She said there were really nice cafes and a cool bridge I could walk on, so that is on the itinerary for today.

Also, I apologize but I seem to have forgot my cable for uploading pictures from my camera. If my awesome roommate wanted to help me out by sending it to Amanda, and my awesome BFF wanted to bring it over to me....I would be eternally grateful and reward you both with presents!

learning is fun

Things I have learned about New Zealand:

1) It's not actually that new...some of the buildings are quite old.

2) They drive on the left side of the road here.

3) They have pelican crossings here.

4) This town is full of scottish things..including a scottish shop, fish and chip shop, and a giant robert burns statue.

5) The weather here is awesome

6) They have small silly cars here

That's all for now.

jet setter

I am currently sitting in the Auckland airport eating beans and toast for breakfast. It's awesome.

I survived my flight to LAX by watching the movie "the bounty hunter" (meh), an episode of the office, and dexter. I then had to change terminals at LAX. People were all very helpful, each one telling me a different way to get to where I was supposed to...but I made it. By this point I was exhausted and ready to get on the plane. As I sat in my middle seat, I was ready to pass out, but then I saw that Air New Zealand is awesome and I had my own personal TV screen and remote with sooo many movies and tv shows free to watch. Still, I was responsible and slept for a good 8 hours. I then woke up and watched the pilot of glee! (still amazing), during which the crew sent a message to the screen saying breakfast would be served in 30 mins and they were slowly going to start putting the lights on. During and after breakfast I watched the runaways...I'm still not sure what the point of the movie was, but I did learn Kristen Stewart can act in movies without stuttering! I was amazed. Finally, we landed and I had to go through customs and walk over to the terminal where I am now. Its really nice out, slightly chilly but no wind.

Only one flight left in about 8 hours, i will fly the two hours to Dunedin! where i will stay for the next seven weeks. Will post pictures of my apartment when I get there!

Test page

Today I leave for New Zealand.

This blog will document my trip.

Follow it if you dare.