Lincoln Uni

I have been in classes for two weeks now. It's such a change! Because of the delayed schedule, we only have ten weeks of class total. We have two weeks off for fall break at the end of April. We are going to the fiordlands!

I am taking four classes: evolutionary biology, soils science, maori cultural studies, and perspectives on the environment. They are all very interesting. Lots of reading, and no homework! That's a big change for me.

I live in Centennial 2.

There are four pods in each building. My pod has four other students, and we share a kitchen and bathroom.

My bed

My desk

 My podmates are Emma (from Oakland), John (from Colorado), Nick (from Colorado, but he is doing his full degree at Lincoln), and Grace (from Auckland). Everyone likes to cook, so we always have good food! I get dinner every day in the dining hall.

A very typical meal here

For everything else (and then some) we get food from the New World supermarket. It's about a half mile from my dorm. 

New World

I go too often and get too much food. But it's all good!

Don't forget to park your trundler!

A few days ago Emma, Kelcie, and I walked into Lincoln Village. It's very small. Not much to see!

Lincoln village

Unfortunately, we won't be able to go into CHCH at all while we are here. 

Being at Lincoln is very different from Michigan State. It's so small! It only takes five minutes to get to my classes. So I am always early for class here. I overestimate how long it will take. 

My prof called these rock kabobs

The campus is very pretty though. It's definitely fall here!

For my perspectives class, I have to do a mapping assignment of the campus. So Thursday I walked all around campus finding things for the map. It was a beautiful day! For about a week we had rain and clouds and cold. But thursday, friday, and saturday were very nice. Yesterday it almost got up to 30C, which is 85F! It was a nice break from the cold. But, comparatively, it's the end of September. The days are getting shorter and fall is here! I love fall. 

Beautiful tree

On my walk thursday, I got to go to the vineyards, which are just off campus. It's very beautiful there, and there were sheep!

Sheep!

I also got to see a nice sunset. Lincoln is in the middle of farm country. There is not much to do at all. About ten miles from Lincoln is Banks peninsula. 

The hills of Banks peninsula

It's hard to get to without a car though! 

Overall, Lincoln Uni is great. My schedule is much more relaxed than it would be at MSU. I'm obsessing about the trees and birds. I also (as you can tell) got my "new" camera! I read up about it, and took some pictures of the sky. They look better when they are bigger.

The southern cross is about in the middle

Which brings me to my next point - I uploaded many of my pictures of Lincoln onto picasa. You can access them right here: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/112091875103829024217/LincolnUni?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbeof3Q7reFKQ&feat=directlink

Just copy and paste the link. If it doesn't work please let me know!

The other day a crazy fantail took over the bush outside my window. Here's a short video of it:

Overall, New Zealand is quite similar to the States. One thing that constantly reminds me is the fauna. About 80% of all species here are endemic (live only in NZ, nowhere else in the world). It really is a remarkably beautiful country, even the farmland!