Fish Have Feelings Too

                For the past few weeks I’ve been working on getting settled, meeting people in the department, and working on my thesis proposal.  This week was the first time I got to get into the field and do some real hands on science (which is why I’m really here).  On Monday I went on a collection trip to a few streams up north with a couple others from the lab.  I got my own set of waders (only a small hole near the crotch), jumped in with nets, and spent a few hours fishing.  Overall we probably caught about 200 fish, pretty good haul.  Sorry, no embarrassing pictures of me in waders, but here’s a good one of the cuties we caught:

                The rest of this week has been spent stressing fish out.  I swear I’m in this field for the overall benefit of animals!  Stress is a really difficult thing to study, but we tried to do a small test to see if handling has any significant impact on sodium excretion (as a stress response).  It will be important to know for the rest of my research.  Hopefully you aren’t asleep yet...here, look at this!

                I also went to the beach a week or so ago.  I meant to write a post about it then, but forgot, so here are a few pictures from New Brighton.  It was a little too cold for swimming, but it was still a beautiful day, and it’s only a $2.30 bus ride from my place, boo-ya.

My First Tramp

                Translation: tramp = hike in New Zealand.  Imma tramp the shit outta this place!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to tag along on a field trip with the food web folks, so basically I got a free ride to a bunch of cool places.  The first stop was Castle Rock which is an area with a bunch of crazy rock formations (picture below).  Apparently part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was filmed there.  It’s also a popular climbing area (Jimmy, you’d have loved it…we’ll go there when you visit).

We stopped at the University’s Cass Field Station for lunch.  It’s basically this beautiful cabin in the mountains where a bunch of freshwater ecology research goes down.  After lunch they did an electrofishing demo in one of the nearby streams.  I’ve done some electrofishing from a boat, but this was basically a Ghostbuster’s backpack with a metal rod.  It was good to see in action since I’ll probably be doing some of that myself at some point.

                Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ just came on.  Had to take a dance intermission.  Thought you should know.  Maybe do the same.

                After we shocked the hell out of a bunch of unsuspecting fish, we drove up to Aurthur’s Pass which is a National Park in the middle of the Southern Alps.  This is where we really went tramping.  Absolutely gorgeous.  That’s when I realized I’m really in New Zealand and it’s just as pretty as the internet says.  I’m a lucky girl.

I'm a PhD Candidate, No Big Deal

As of yesterday, I am officially enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Canterbury.  Yay!!  Now I need to get business cards that say ‘PhD candidate’ on them and hand them out to everyone I see.  I’m obviously joking, but it’s been done.  Apparently starting at the beginning of the month was a bad idea since scholarship pay-outs come at the end of the month, so I just missed mine.  Guess I’d better find a 7-11 to stand in front of.

It’s a bit hard to understand New Zealander’s at the moment.  It’s a thick accent and they have alternate words for just about everything.  Hopefully I catch on soon...they seem a bit annoyed when I ask them to repeat what they’re saying 3 times then shrug and say, yeah, I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re saying.

Of my five new roomates two are Indian, one is Afgani, one is Austrian, and the other is British (although she is apparently a New Zealander now cause she’s been living here for 3 years, duh).  No kiwis!  Two of them are also PhD students, just in different fields.  Unfortunately, they’re the type of PhD students who are decidedly right about everything strictly because they are PhD students.  Annoying.  Four out of the five are also boys, so the place was a MESS when I moved in.  Don't worry, I've gone on a thorough cleaning binge, so it’s much better.

Overall, it’s been a lot of fun getting settled and exploring the area.  I’m super stoked to get started on my thesis.  There are even possibilities of getting involved with other projects at the same time.  Antarctica?  Who knows…I’ll keep you posted.

Besos!