merry christmas from new zealand folks :)

okay, i have much exciting and interesting news to tell you all.

one: next july i will begin my post graduate diploma in science (one year) in environmental management. thats equivalent to the first year of my masters.

two: have had inspiration as to what to do with the rest of my life with regard to study... (told you it was big news!) wait for it... you see, i have these two loves - geography (in particular environmental geography) and archaeology (in particular mediterranean archaeology) and all i ever really wanted to do was to somehow combine the two together. now i have figured out a plan that lets me do that. it also gives me a research topic that could warrant becoming a phd one day. but thats jumping to far off conclusions at the moment!

when i was in belgium, i did a whole bunch of readings about experimental archaeologists in the near eastern negev desert, who decided to build farms based on ancient techniques. there are two big problems with deserts - a lack of water for the majority of the time and a sudden huge abundance and flooding of water in a very short period of time. being able to catch, manage and farm that rainwater, when it comes, would be a of huge benefit to local communities and to the country. anyway, so these archaeologists created a farm based on ancient techniques - and came away with impressive results that could benefit the area in the future. so ive been thinking...

this is a great way to combine environmental management and archaeology - if i researched and looked into the possibilities of managing such natural resources as water, that is so incredibly important to us in todays society, but has always been important throughout time (like my masters thesis proved in belgium), based on what methods were used in the past. i have long believed that the civilisations of the past have so much to teach the modern world. im excited!

three: from the 20th of january to 18th of february im heading down to wellington, new zealands capital located at the bottom of the north island. i shall be joining a team of archaeologists in excavating historic houses that stand in the path of a soon to be motorway bypass. i havent been involved in much historical archaeology work so im keen to get a bit of experience in this new field. i have good friends who will also be down there so i think it will be a lot of fun, plus its consistent, paid work for a month and thats always good news!

four: i would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas!! its hard to imagine that a year ago i was playing in the snow in munich, and on my way to spend a white christmas in salzburg... and here i am, back in a supposedly (!!) warm summer environment, awaiting our barbeque christmas lunch... thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in what i have been doing over the last year or so since i began this website. and i hope that you all have a wonderful time wherever you are, whatever you are doing and whoever you are with.

five: and all the best for 2005!

my latest news shall now be reported below:

- physical work is indeed physical.
- was involved in my first burial excavation - sieved dirt and found teeth, dug soil to reveal bone and used brush so photos could be taken.
- have severe* windburnt face due to gale force winds hitting the hill i was working on.
- studying is a necessity to keep me sane, hence currently insane, hence returning to university next july to do postgraduate study in environmental management.
- heading back to canada and america at the end of april for a few months to visit friends**.

*severe in my opinion anyway.
**would love to mention all the canadians but too many. americans = karin.

ok. its been awhile. but there were reasons for that. the biggest reason probably being that up until this moment i havent been doing much, unless you classfiy being unemployed as doing something... and hence i didnt really feel like sitting down and telling you all about how great it is to be sitting twiddling my thumbs and watching the bank balance continue to downwardly spiral. however. good news. this is no longer the case. hence i can write to you all and tell you about how great my life is. heh. indeed.

so firstly. im home in new zealand. and its different being home after being away for over a year. not necessarily bad different, but not necessarily good different either. for example, i no longer get to cook things like pasta with chickpeas and tomato with plenty of chilli powder. but, on the up side, i dont have to wash the dishes anymore. and other things like that. its nice catching up with family and friends here, but i miss my family (because thats what some of you guys became) and friends from over there. just part of the process.

right. so yes i have a job. as an archaeologist so hurrah, finally what i study has some use. though actually what i studied in beligum - all that mediterranean stuff, not quite so useful. nevertheless its a job, and its good. i have sore arm and back muscles to prove it! currently im working down in tauranga (about 3 hours south) where i am given accomodation, food, money for the car, and a job! the site is a maori settlement up on a hill that will soonish be turned into subdivisions and housing. so it firstly must be excavated. and today was spent doing the following:

firstly i dug a hole. then it got bigger. then it got bigger. then i had to sit down and keep going. then i had to lie down and keep going. then i had to climb into the hole and keep going. yes. its whats known as a rua - a subterranean storage pit, so it has a smaller opening and then bellows out into a bell shape underneath. anyway that was fun. the day continued in a similar fashion - finding features and digging them up, taking samples, photos, surveys and things... anything from postholes to terraces to pits... its fun and im glad to be back home and working with new zealands history again. perhaps no big marble statues are appearing like in turkey, but im enjoying it regardless.

and once thats done, i think other things should hopefully appear on the horizon. im hoping to get work in wellington for a month in january, excavating a group of historic houses in the downtown area before they are removed and replaced with a large road thing. the options look good and now i can smile and know that im getting good experience, having fun, and earning some money to go towards that trip back to the northern hemisphere next year!

this little piggy went to market.
this little piggy stayed home.
this little piggy had roast beef.
this little piggy had none.
and this little piggy went wee wee wee wee wee all the way home.

remember the rhyme? well, i am that last little piggy. and i am home.

soon i shall be departing this fair land of canada.
soon i shall head southward toward my homeland of new zealand.

another year has rolled by and ive been given the informal title of the 'double dozen'.

friday was the 8th in canada, but friday was the 9th in new zealand. hence i thought i deserved the luxury of celebrating my birthday early. and down in the ottawa markets is a tasty little dessert cafe which seemed fitting for the occasion... it was warm enough to sit outside on the patio without jackets, and the 11 of us enjoyed mammoth proportions of cake*. a cheers was made to the clinking glasses of milk, tea and water and we were all home and ready for bed by midnight. i know - it sounds like my partying days are doomed huh? i would disagree. but it is true that when a toast is made with water - one must stop and ponder the deeper meaning behind the act.

saturday may very well have been the 10th in new zealand but it was the 9th in ottawa and hence i was going to celebrate then also. it seemed the same as any other birthday. i woke. i said happy birthday to myself. i looked out the window. it was snowing. the same as every year... so everyone here will probably refute the snowing part but i tell you - it was snow. it lasted i suppose maybe 15 minutes. and then turned into rain. but during those 15 minutes there was some definite floating action and fluffiness going on outside of that window. i saw it with my own eyes. very pleased. because, of course, in case you didnt pick up on it, it has never snowed on my birthday before! quite the treat!

eric and i then took the bus from ottawa to north bay - right across the top of algonquin park, and right across some of the most beautiful colours i have ever seen in my life. the trees were glowing with reds and oranges and yellows and every blend in between. even the green trees looked different due to the sharp contrast of their neighbours. and every time the suns rays hit these leaves, there seemed to be some sort of magical burst of fresh colour. i cannot believe that something so beautiful and refreshing was doing this as a final memory before falling to the ground and dying.

in case youve forgotten my diary entry from this time last year - my birthday coincides with canadian thanksgiving and erics family, and extended family, had invited us up to his cottage for the final weekend in cottage country before the snow arrives and everything shuts down and sleeps. a bit like hibernation really. i dont think i have ever felt more welcome - and after eating far too much turkey (22.2 pounds) with 17 others - i was surprised by a big round of happy birthday and 24 chocolate cupcakes with orange candles! i was also blessed with being able to ring home and talk to mum, dad and stephen for about an hour i think, as the fire crackled in the background and darkness lay over the silent lake (i think the loons had moved south to avoid the winter).

it is not long before i follow those loons south - but my trip will be far greater i think - because new zealand is my next destination. i leave here on friday 29th and arrive back in auckland on the sunday morning, after i stop in los angeles and tahiti.


*this is cake of enormous dimensions in varieties too numerous to mention but so numerous that a footnote underlining the excessiveness is necessary.

about two hours northeastish of ottawa, inside the borders of french-speaking quebec, is montreal. so i thought id go for a visit. it actually reminded me a lot of european cities - with the foreign languages, the bulk of tourists, the cafe vibe and the expensive icecreams. its a very beautiful city. and i discovered that it was named after the (no longer active) volcanic hill in the north - mont royal - which, once climbed, has a huge park on the top. couldnt find the crater though.

global warming is most certainly upon us. ottawa - the second coldest capital in the world (after mongolia!) - still feels like summer! its amazing! apparantly it often is snowing by thanksgiving (second weekend of october), and if not snow, then definitely weather that is colder than what would be expected in auckland mid winter! yet this year it is still so warm. i love it! perhaps i will be able to have a perfect leap from summer here to summer back in new zealand...

the trees are starting to change colour. two friends of ours are coming up to visit this weekend from america (hurrah for jen and karin!!) - and i think we plan on heading across to the gatineaus to admire the colours. watching out of the bus window as i travelled to montreal - the trees are looking incredible! this was my favourite time of year in canada when i was last here so i am excited to see it once again!

hmmm - i admit ive been just a tad bit useless at keeping you all updated on my happenings now that ive reached a new continent. sorry about that. its tough though to see sense in sitting infront of a computer screen when there is so much canadiana to experience. hence i have devised the following list of bullet points.

- squirrels are the best. and live life to the max here in canada. they enjoy backflips off treetrunks and making crazy dives through the air. chipmunks join the fun at a faster speed - probably as they are smaller and more streamlined.
- plenty of loons calling to each other, the sound echoing off the forested shores as i sat in a canoe.
- four moose were sighted, three on one day, including two male moose less than ten metres from me - playing* in a swamp.
- i have seen three bears - the first was a bit scared - as were we - but the other two were happy to continue dining at the local rubbish dump and posing for photographs.
- three deer pranced about and showed off their little white tails.
- two racoons including a little baby. cute to the extreme.
- one otter / muskrat (identity uncertain due to incompetence of the observors)
- one beaver swimming through a lake.

*you know - just chilling, eating some swamp food, sinking into the mud, shaking their shoulders, that sort of thing.

- i also made a trip to toronto to relive the year of 1990 when my family lived there. saw my old house, walked down to the lake and then up to my primary school. amazing the amount i remember - but the twist being that i remember it from a nine year old perspective - so the front yard, the school playground, and the walk down to the lake is a lot smaller than i recall. suppose i was shorter with teeny eyes back then. or something.
- camped in algonquin park.
- canoed.
- lost one of my orange jandals to one of the many lakes of ontario.

ok.

london is the most busiest and fullest place i have ever been to. its like hometime pedestrian and road traffic all day long. crazy! but somehow i managed to survive on the footpaths, on the crossings, in the subway, the tram, the overland train and finally in the plane. i saw all those things you hear about in london. you know - trafalgar square and big ben and buckingham palace and squirrels and piccadily circus and the tower of london. i came to the realisation that london bridge is not the bridge all the photos and postcards are of - thats the tower bridge - so i walked right on past london bridge without stopping. i also spent many hours in the british museum inspecting all the things the english stole from the ancient mediterranean world. somehow i didnt spend much money but thats because im cool and went to a supermarket and ate sandwiches and weetbix everyday. the weather was good. i took photos. i like the tate modern art gallery. and i am a legend at using all types of transportation - especially walking with a pack that is over half my weight.

canada is fun! the plane ride was nothing compared to the journey to new zealand. i didnt even get jetlagged! so far i have seen a black baby bear. a mummy racoon and her baby. some loons. and a frog. sadly i missed the two snakes but i shall continue to explore. oddly enough i have not yet seen squirrels.

'there was only one catch and that was catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. orr was crazy and could be grounded. all he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didnt. if he flew them he was crazy and didnt have to; but if he didnt want to he was sane and had to.'

nothing like reading a good book when youve got nothing else to do! its turning out to be the funniest dark satire that i have ever read.

the sun actually did end up following me back from turkey so this last week i have been relaxing in the park, reading, catching up with the remnants of people that have yet to leave leuven, and doing one important thing a day. bank account is now closed and i no longer have health insurance. that sort of thing. im off to london on monday which im looking forward to.

the dazzling blue above and high temperatures of turkey continue - but i am no longer under such skies.  flying back 'home' to belgium brought with it a familiarity and sense of peace.  it also brought with it overcast skies.  in turkey it is a cloudy day if three clouds can be spotted on the horizon.  in belgium it is a sunny day if only three clouds can be seen above.  only 5 hours of flying and yet these two places are worlds apart in all respects.
 
my time is turkey was fantastic.  i met some wonderful people, i learnt about the art of drinking tea, i saw a snake, i saw my dad and i realised i am the worst person ever to teach card games.
 
so a brief summary of different aspects...
 
workwise - sagalassos is the biggest archaeological project right now being undertaken in the east.  it has such potential for reaching the standards of ephesos and pergamon because, unlike many other ancient cities, it was not looted of its material.  an earthquake led to the abandonment of the city and then, over hundreds of years, the city was completely covered by rubble tumbling down off the mountains in the north.  now - it is being excavated and entire buildings, in the years to come, will be given the chance to stand once more.
 
my job was not that of an archaeologist, despite what many believe (and despite that i now have a masters in archaeology!) but a geomorphologist.  our job is to look at the environment, which has a large part to play in dictating how people in the area live.  a lot of walking is involved.  a lot of coring into the ground is involved.  knowing about the movement of the earth is important at a site like this.  knowing about where people farmed is important.  and these were the things we were dealing with.
 
peoplewise - with over 80 people involved in the project - and with a great deal of them flemish - it was only to be expected that my flemish would improve more in three weeks than it did all year.  it's all about immersion my friends.  while i couldn't hold a conversation in the language, by the end i could certainly understand 60 or 70% of what was being said.  impressive in three weeks i must say.  my turkish also greatly improved from nothing to being able to say hellos at different times of the day, thankyous, and most importantly (when visiting tourist markets in big cities) saying no thankyou.  firmly.
 
i was lucky to have my dad come and visit me too!  he had been travelling about europe getting up to all kinds of mischief on scooters and behind no entrance doors - and then popped in via a bus that took him across more of turkey than i have ever seen - to see me!  so that was great fun and he got to have a look around the site and see the sorts of things that i do.
 
and now i am in leuven, dad is in new zealand, and the sun remains in turkey.  i'm here for two weeks, relaxing, closing bank accounts and making the most of this free and fast internet connection. 
 
i'm sure you'll see me around.  this site shall be running as long as i keep having adventures.  and i'm not planning on stopping anytime soon.

ok so week two of turkey wıll have to waıt. thıs ınternet cafe ıs slow and cant handle my news. my daddy gets here tomorrow evenıng and ı leave on saturday so ıts comıng to an end. quıck huh? ı thınk so!

turkey week one:

ı get up at 6 and get ready for a day of walkıng. we walk up hılls and down hılls. we are lıke goats. lıterally. each step comes wıth an element of rısk because the ground ıs covered ın a rubble-lıke substance that moves downslope constantly. ıt makes for some serıous decısıons ın how to tackle each step.

ıt gets ınto the hıgh 30s up there on the mountaıns and ı kınd of wısh ı was an archaeologıst on thıs trıp because then ı could at least sıt ın one place and look at pottery. but alas ı have joıned the geomorphology team - and our job ıs to walk for kılometres and dıscern what ıs goıng on ın the landscape surroundıng the sıte.

thıngs ı have seen ınclude an ıllegal opıum plantatıon, movement ın the undergrowth that ıs thought to represent a snake or snake-lıke creature, a herd of goats come crashıng down the hıllsıde bleatıng lıke, well lıke goats ı suppose, and the art to makıng real turkısh chı tea.

ı am ın love wıth the sound of runnıng water.

despıte drınkıng 3 lıtres of water a day my throat remaıns parched and ı have lost my voıce.

weekends are on frıday and saturday and rıght now ım ın antalya - glad to be part of the sagalassos team as we got a dıscount at a very flash hotel equıpped wıth aırcondıtıonıng and a swımmıng pool. ınstead of payıng 70 euros a nıght - ı only paıd 17. cool eh? pays to know people hıgh up on the lıst ı thınk! ıts 43 degrees here today and ı am covered ın salt after swımmıng ın the medıterranean.

am ın turkey. all ıs good. ı love thıs place already. thıngs that have happened so far: saw a bıg turtle and took a photo thınkıng ıt was uncommon. then walked around the corner and saw about 50 of them wanderıng about. was mındıng my own busıness when a lıttle yappıng puppy came up wantıng to play and bıt a hole ın my extremely cool brown baggy pants. not ımpressed though can see the funny sıde. landed at 4am and was up at 8am to start work today. walked up and down bıg hılls and shall be ın paın tomorrow after lıvıng a year ın leuven where no hıll exısts. enjoy usıng the turkısh 'ı' so get used to ıt! rıght. thats ıt for now. shall keep you posted.

rebekah merriman: BA (Auckland), BSC (Auckland), MA (Leuven)

not only did i pass, but i passed with 'great distinction' which was a huge surprise to me. this meant i got an overall average of over 80%, with my supervisor giving me an 18/20 for my thesis!!! am most pleased i must admit!!

the graduation ceremony is much shorter than that in auckland, as students just have their names called, and do not go up on stage, and hence do not dress up, or parade through the streets. but there was a good reception afterwards for everyone to chat and mingle. all in all - an exciting morning.

am all packed for heading to turkey tomorrow at lunchtime. uncertain what the internet situation will be but i'll try and post something once i'm there.

where am i? wouter's house, tilburg, holland.

what have i been doing?
1: last night i saw more people dressed in orange then i have ever seen in my life. i saw more orange balloons and streamers and hats and general orangeness than you could imagine. why? last night was the big soccer game, in the eurocup 2004 competition, between holland and sweden. and last night i watched the game from a jam-packed bar on the main street in downtown tilburg. the tension, the excitment, and the roar of delight that came with plentiful jumping up and down in the air when the penalty shoot-out ended with holland winning was crazy. and you thought that we get hyped up with the rugby. soccer over here is a huger deal than can be possibly explained. am so pleased to have had a true european soccer experience. and of course i was all dressed up in my day-to-day orange clothes and a holland jester type hat. now my thoughts stay with holland as they play this wednesday... HUP HOLLAND.

2: today i ate new zealand royal gala apples in zeeland. that's right folks, the daddy of new zealand. such a beautiful area, much of it on reclaimed land due to the impressive dykes built out into the north sea. so another ocean has been witnessed by oneself, more beaches to be added to the list. i saw the old traditional style windmills that make me think of that cute children's book about that cow... errr, clarence? who falls in a canal. and then the new super alien style windmills now generating power for the region.

hurrah for me. as of 4 hours ago i finished my masters. but no time to chat. i have some celebrating to get on with.

in this past week the temperature has risen 10 degrees from 25 to 35. this has caused statements such as: 'i had to put water on my face and my pillow last night' (sandro), 'i couldn't sleep because the pillow was sticking to my head' (naomi) and 'i wish we had a little paddling pool' (me).

so two exams down this week. and they were fine. i got to talk about a lot of water related things. like greek fountains and roman fountains and arches being flooded and becoming fountains. and that the maccabees invented the swimming pool along with ritual baths. things i had studied a lot because of the heat. because it's hot!! and a little paddling pool would be quite nice.

i don't study at home anymore. my room is a sauna. literally with temperatures in the 40s. i promise. no exaggeration there. why? because there are 50,000 (perhaps slight exaggeration) mosquitos waiting outside my window. so my window stays firmly shut. no mosquitos but high temperatures that do not permit studying.

look whose back. dee dee dee. bex is back. dee dee dee.

ha, right, so wasn't gone for long eh? that is because i have an awesome flatmate who leaves her door unlocked when she leaves, and puts notes under my door saying her computer is all mine for the weekend! woohoo for elien.

not much fun stuff to say though. sadly. here is my routine. i get up at 9am. i eat some brekky. muesli these days. good for the mind. then i pack my bag and head up the street to morna's to study. such an arrangment is very beneficial to us both. i get her up in the morning, she stops me from falling asleep over my notes in the day and we both end up getting a lot of study done. hurrah! though obviously quite a boring 'hurrah' huh? sorry about that.

so until next time i am procrastinating...

farewell little computer. you have served me well.

due to the aforementioned handsome lads heading to hamburg tomorrow, my computer is to be returned this afternoon. such an event will bring with it a variety of consequences:

a) i will have a whole lot of space on my desk.
b) i will have no exam procrastination options.
c) i will be given back my deposit!

of course i shall be visiting - but from the computer lab up the road.

so here i am. one thesis down, and five exams to go. quite the anti-climax really.

whereas the last exam period was full of coldness, rain and gloomy clouds, now it seems leuven has finally submitted to the sun. this makes it slightly more difficult when it comes to studying, but i surprisingly got quite a lot achieved at the park today, so perhaps i can escape my bedroom more often now. which would be wonderful.

my blog entries, my msn chatting and my general emailing will be coming to a bit of a halt soon. this computer is due back on friday at the rental shop. so once again the saga of carrying these boxes half way across town will be undertaken - hopefully by two handsome lads who wish to impress me with their strength.

of course this does not make me disappear from the rest of the world. no doubt i'll make trips up to the computer lab but obviously not with quite the same frequency as turning on the computer every morning when i wake up!

my future plans are set a bit more in stone now. or at least in receipts. so just as an update, here's the latest:

7th june: exam one
9th june: exam two
15th june: exam three
16th june: exam four
18th june: exam five
- from the 18th until the 2nd i will endeavour to completely relax. some of us may (if it's cheap) fly back to barcelona girona and camp on a beach for a few days. otherwise just will do nothing or take day trips out of leuven.
2nd july: graduate
3rd july: fly to turkey
- nearing the end of july my daddy is coming to visit me in turkey! hurrah!
29th july: return to belgium
- between then and the 13th august i shall make my way across to england
13th august: fly from london to toronto
- sometime mid-late october i fly back in to auckland. date still to be confirmed.

well well well. guess what? indeed. thesis is printed and ready for copying and binding. despite rising early and going to the copy shop - it seems they are all closed on saturdays. never mind. it's still all done and ready and copying can take place first thing on monday morning.

hurrah!

here is my thank you list: to dad for HUGE (note capital useage) support and help with everything. to mum for statistics help. to stephen for excel help. to rachel for statistics help. to regan for computer help. to frank for turkish spelling and computer help. to julian and naomi for moral support!!!

you guys are the best!

the sun is shining. a day of relaxation in the park is beckoning.

yeah, so after making such a fuss about my blood type, typically i forgot to go and pick it up yesterday. got it now though. those that guessed were right.

my room is like a sauna right now. it is ridiculously hot but i refuse to open the windows. last night i had an uninvited guest who went by the name of mossie. note the past tense. mossie came to a very decided end this morning, after much damage had already occurred. i refuse to go through the same event tonight which means putting up with temperatures that must be over 30 now (though im suspicious there may have been another, as mossie did not have the amount of redness inside of him that i believe left my own body). i'm drinking water to keep my brain alive, as well as eating speculoos (think gingernut flavour but just normal biscuity crunch).

my supervisor has finally swayed and given in to the idea that i want to finish this week. so today he sent me half of my thesis back with corrections to be made. yeah, it means more work, but it's not the end of the world, and he did write 'it looks good' which is quite the compliment i assure you! the second half arrives tomorrow. so today i have been fixing things, changing things, adapting things. yawn. i think i'll be on here late into the night. but hey, it will be worth it in the long-run!

is it normal to bruise when you get a needle stuck into you? i've had a few blood tests in the past and a few injections against different diseases... but i've never ended up with a bruise. especially not a big blackey bluey reddy weird looking one that seems to follow my vein part way down my arm. (just a little way, mind you, i'm prone to do a bit of exaggeration)

so i'm going to turkey and they want to know my blood type. seems logical enough. seems simple enough. of course i don't know it myself, but surely someone back in new zealand will. does dad? nope. does mum? nope. does my doctor (whom i have had since i was born!!!!)? nope. does my little baby book? nope. hmprh - that baby book contains so many other randomly random facts. you'd think it would talk about my blood. however it seems that i officially have an unknown blood type. i must be one of a kind. but on monday the truth will be revealed. i'll even be given a little card that i can put in my wallet and show off. and i will show it off. i've been missing out on showing it off for the last 23 years! it's a pretty big deal. really. it is.

in other exciting, world breaking news... i ran out of milk and had to eat cornflakes with water this morning. that wasn't the news. i just saw my bowl and remembered. anyway. so yeah. today i gave this presentation. it was quite the big deal, with a panel of four lecturers, arguing back and forth (though luckily more with each other than with me...) and asking questions. it's actually worth more than an entire class so i hope i did okay.

i'm nearing the end. i'm nearing the light. i'm nearing insanity too. this weekend will be one of plenty of work but hopefully plenty of work leading to one completed masters thesis. my only slight concern is that i met my supervisor again today and he wants me to resend everything through to him on monday. which i don't like the sounds of as i'm printing it all off and handing it in next friday. oooh, one week away.

so yeah. soon you will be hearing a happy me. a happy me with no more thesis. and no more school as next friday is the last day of term. i think i can afford to be happy for perhaps two days and then i will have to drop back to reality as the dreaded oral exams approach.

moh. sometimes work just doesn't happen. you know? once upon a time (last thursday for instance) i would have been exceptionally frustrated about this fact. but today i've come to terms with the reality that sometimes i can do work. and sometimes i cannot. today i cannot. so i sit here and ponder un-work related things that i could do. this involved colouring in all the places in europe i have been to and how i got there. on my big map of europe on my wall. that took a substantial amount of time. i have seen a good chunk for an unemployed student without a loan living off new zealand currency. let's all say a big hurrah to my parents for teaching me how to budget. one, two, three 'hurrah'.

paris is one amazing city! i know i have always had a tendancy to prefer the ancient cities of athens and rome... but when it comes to just loving a beautiful european city for being a beautiful european city, paris is right up there on my favourites list.

today i'm in a list mood. so here's the list:

1: note dame is an impressive church with perhaps the most incredible stain-glassed windows i have ever witnessed. wandering around inside i was in awe of the elaborate motifs and at the same time, slightly unimpressed with people's disrespect when the sign clearly states that no photos should be taken...

2: eiffel tower is gorgeous, night and day. nothing like sitting on a park bench eating a baguette and brie, drinking french wine and admiring the view. and then taking the lift up to all three levels, stopping each time to note the difference in wind speed. preplanned to experience the day and night scene - i saw paris in the daylight, the sun setting, and the lights coming on as evening fell. note: new zealand is the most furthest place away from the eiffel tower according to the distances given at the top! auckland is 18,542km and wellington is 18,983km away! very cool. we are famous, in a far away kind of way.

3: sacre coeur is another great landmark, perched up above the city in splendour. not sure which church i liked more. they were both completely different from each other. the best part about this one was that often jesus gets represented as the guy hanging on the cross. but here, he's very alive and well and reigning triumphant.

4: the louvre museum is just fantastic! the egyptian exhibit was incredible and to finally see the book of the dead and other exceptionally famous works (if you are an egyptologist person). and the hellenistic and roman sculpture was also amazing - once again i was able to see so many of the things i had studied and only ever seen in a picture. typically my camera is now filled with incredible masterpieces that i can fully appreciate because i have learnt the ins and outs of the history and style and artists that created them. also saw the mona lisa which was surrounded by a zoo of tourists. a very pushy zoo too i might add!

5: l'arc de triomphe is very big and lines up perfectly with the champs elysees, the egyptian obelisque and the louvre. it made for a very pleasant walk. napolleon won a lot of battles.

ok, that will do for now. i have a thesis to finish! eeek.

i'm off to see the paris, the wonderful paris of france.

yes.

see you on the other side.

whatever side that is.

here's the thing.
a) i feel like writing on here before going to sleep.
b) it would be nice to write to you all and tell you about the exciting things going on.
c) the slight problem of having absolutely nothing to talk about is an issue.

life right now could possibly be the most hectic and busy period i've ever experienced. and yet, still nothing to say. suppose that points out the large amount of tedious work that comes when your thesis for the year is due in under a month.

soon i will have elaborate stories and adventures that i can inform you of. just not today.

oooh, i almost forgot. on friday i'm going to paris. i mean really, it's just such a short hop away and is very cheap too. am working very hard now so i won't be concerned as i relax at the top of the eiffel tower. heh heh heh.

22 may: school finishes
1 june: hand in thesis
7 - 18 june: exams
19 - 1 july: continue to explore europe
2 july: graduation
3 july: fly to turkey
29 july: fly back to belgium

and after that things get more blurry... hopefully i'll get to see my dad who will be over in this neck of the woods... might also try to get to england to see friends there... and then it's fairly definite that i shall be heading to canada for a little while... before returning home to new zealand (shall certainly be back before christmas, if not earlier)

so how about some highlights eh?

driving: it's such an odd feeling, after so many years of being able to drive without really thinking, to getting a fright when the windscreen wipers go on instead of the indicator. the hardest part for me wasn't the road, but the car itself... just having all the gadgets opposite, and having to look out the left window. also slightly un-nerving was the 120km/hr highway thing, where some cars were passing us at least at 170km/hr!

countryside: very different from anywhere i've been. a lot of barren rugged hills, very jagged and prominent. incredible variations in wild flowers - combinations that could never be reproduced so perfectly as done by nature herself. compared to all other places i've been to in europe - with the trees in straight lines, and parks bordered by fences - spain's countryside felt far more real and beautiful in that natural reality. interesting to see so much of the land covered by glasshouses for irrigation, covered in olive green material - deemed by us to be due to the salt spray from the ocean.

beaches: gorgeous coastlines once we escaped the built up cities, with an aqua-marine blue ocean. the rocky shorelines were a sight to behold, from high up as we drove around cliff faces, to down on the beach itself.

barcelona: gaudi is incredible! a city i shall definitely return to one day.

overall favourite part? watching the sunrise over the mediterranean, perched on top of a cliff with an old ruin of a fortress behind me and nothing but the ocean infront of me. birds soaring. ocean calmly lapping at the shore. sun rising in elegance. peace.

photos not yet ready but check out the map to your right. we landed in jérez de la frontera then head south west to cadiz. then up to seville, across to granada and down to the south coast (motril). across through almeria, up the coast through murcia. past alicante to the eastern tip (calpe). then all the way up to barcelona. nearly 2000km in 4 days.

day one: destination - cadiz. south-west coastal town. swam in atlantic. watched sunset. put up tent on the terrace roof above a hostel.

day two: destination - car. ridiculously small silver vechicle, named 'thecar', with a lot of power and a cd player. drove from cadiz up to seville, then across to granada. unable to see the alhambra, we headed up into the sierra nevada mountains and witnessed snow. continued driving southward to motril on south coast.

day three: destination - south coast. beautiful blue sky, rugged cliffs, rocky coastline. unbelievable variation in wild flower species. huge waves that drenched us. tiny roads that led to nowhere except straight into the middle of the most powerful wind i have experienced! ended in a little place which for the moment i have forgotten the name of... but a little campsite with our own rocky beach on the south-east coast. watched the stars come out. listened to the waves beat against the shore and the wind howl between the palm trees. yes. palm trees. spain is full of them.

day four: destination - east coast. continued to drive up the coast. but not until after watching the sunrise and walking along the clifftops and staring out at the ocean. made our way up past alicante to a beach resort town called calpe. swam in the mediterranean. fished off the rocks with a spaniard. ate three full fish at a seafood restaurant. lazed on the beach under palm trees.

day five: destination - ifach rock. this rock, towering 332m into the air is incredible! shall show photos as soon as they get uploaded off the digital. eric, joe and i climbed it - with the help of a tunnel, some ropes in places, and the onlooking and cawing of seagulls nesting less than a metre away. spent the rest of the day on the beach before driving up to barcelona to drop off car. as this occurred nearing midnight we took a vote and decided to camp out in the airport instead of paying for accommodation. ha. the life of poor students.

day six: destination - barcelona. floors of airports are not as bad when you are with friends. headed into barcelona. amazing city! sad we only spent a day here. climbed the sagrada familar and wandered in the park guëll - both designed by gaudi and both so refreshingly different from everything else i have seen in europe. wandered down la ramble - the main street - to the port. then off to a different airport to have another floor night's sleep.

day seven: awoke and bordered ryan air plane back to belgium.

highlights to follow soon...

as brenda pointed out in her comment, i'm off to spain. in a few hours. and i have a very long list of things to do before i get there. writing on here was not on the list. but don't worry because once i'm done writing this, i'll add it to the list, and then have the joyous feeling of achievement by crossing it off again. ahhh, i get it from my parents you know. the love of crossing things off a list. indeed.

anyway, nothing like flying for 2 hours and ending up in a new and foreign land with another language to attempt and with beaches along the mediterranean sea to explore. and to top it off, no need to think about bus timetables, no need to think about train schedules, no need to think about booking hostels... this is the classic road trip in hired car with borrowed tent scenario.

hurrah!

for those interested in particulars, here's the scoop. heh. what a word - 'scoop'. me and joe leave belgium at 8pm tonight and arrive in stansted london a few hours after that. we then get to play cards and draw pictures and keep ourselves amused by making up stories about the people in the airport - until the next morning. yeah, i know, yet another night in an airport. why do i do this to myself you might ask? because this way we save money, and get to spain faster. heh. i'm such a genius at travel arrangements.

right, so we then arrive in jerez, southern spain, 11am on wednesday (that would be tomorrow!), where we meet morna and eric, who have previously been wandering about in the sahara desert. from there we pick up our nissan and hit the road. we've got four days to drive up the coast of spain to barcelona.

then we spend two days in barcelona looking at, um, stuff? to be honest, the only thing i know about barcelona is the olympics and that olympic theme music. heh heh. but i'm sure there must be some stuff to do there. then we fly directly home to belgium early on tuesday 20th, getting back about 8am.

right. so what's going on with me? you may be asking. or may not. i wouldn't know. but if you were, here's my answer. and if you weren't, here's my answer anyway.

in the midst of recovering from jetlag (which i find a ridiculous concept because a) i was only in new zealand for four nights, and b) i never adjusted to new zealand time so c) why am i waking at 4.30 every morning??), i suddenly became very aware of the amount of work that needs to be done before the crunch-hand-in-thesis date at the end of may (perhaps one good point about the jetlag is that i get many more hours in the day to work). my supervisor sadly did not make me feel any better when he suddenly announced that part of my data was 'wrong' and that he had some 'new ideas'.

data being 'wrong' is not what one (heh, would you have ever imagined me using such a term mum, after all those years of not liking it!!) likes to hear when the thesis is due in 6 or so weeks. and as for 'new ideas'. i think i have come to loathe such a term. especially when they involve graphs. and maths. and things that i did not spend four years at university studying.

so a not-so-happy girl talked to her ever-loving father and it now seems that, thanks to good internet connections and a wonderfully supportive family that all can do maths, i quite possibly shall be okay after all!

very good news.

i have been gorging myself on easter eggs from new zealand. and i have my eye on the four one litre bottles of l&p that i put in my hand luggage but so far have resisted temptation. apart from that, leuven is still overcast, my room is still a mess and i still like the colour orange.

i got home to leuven late last night to find a letter, written 18th of march, from my grandad. he always liked to finish a story. i suppose it's his way of getting the last word after all.

my trip to new zealand was mixed with happiness to hug all of my family again, and sadness at not being able to hug my grandad. but i'm so glad i went home because i got to say goodbye properly. and even though i was unable (due to upsetness factor) to speak at the funeral, i was able to spend time with him on my own beforehand which i am very pleased i did. the six of us grandkids were given the difficult honour of being the pallbearers.

my grandad was an incredible man who loved me and who took such a genuine interest in my life. i am so fortunate to have had the last 23 years of my life with him. the memories i have will be always greatly treasured and never forgotten.

i love you too grandad.

my grandad passed away yesterday. so i'm going home. tomorrow i leave leuven at 8.30am for dusseldorf, germany. from there i fly to dubai, then singapore, then brisbane, then auckland, arriving at noon wednesday (nz time).

i saw the movie 'big fish' last night. most probably it's been out in new zealand for ages. but belgium is a little behind when it comes to new releases. but belgium? i forgive you, namely for the reason that the movie theatre chairs are the most comfortable chairs ever (except for the lazy boy in my lounge at home). i didn't want to get up at the end.

anyway, the chair thing was a tangent. i wanted to talk about the movie. and an exceptional movie at that. i was a bit nervous to begin with, because i had absolutely no idea what it was going to be about - which is rather odd when you think about it. generally you have some inkling of an idea about some type of storyline and some type category - whether it be action or romance or horror. but no. i went in with not the vaguest hint or clue.

and perhaps this is the type of movie that is best when you know nothing about it. which is why i shall not disclose its secrets but instead urge you all to check it out. however what i will say is that it did make me jump, laugh outloud, and cry (though really, these can in no way be seen as hints, as those who know me well enough know that i have cried in full house, jumped in macgyver and laughed outloud with tigertaperia).

yes. quite delightful. the type of movie i would see again. though, due to my student budget, next time it will be on the little screen (by 'little' i refer to the classic laptop size which is our only means of watching such things).

spring has sprung
the grass is gris
i wonder where
the birdies is

indeed. you know it's funny. before i came to belgium i did a little research. to find out about the weather and things. to know what to expect. to know what to prepare for. and the biggest conclusion that appeared everywhere i looked was the rain.

when i first arrived here i was told by some of the orientation guys that once it started to rain, it wouldn't stop until may. and that it would start sometime in october.

however i don't think belgium knows what rain is at all. truthfully the last two days have been the first two days in months that it has properly rained. good old real rain. rain you can hear on the roof. rain that you can see on your window. rain that creates puddles in the streets. in fact, without exaggeration, i honestly think it has 'rained' (by my definition) no more than 7 days maximum since i arrived here. i know! this may be quite hard to believe but rain over here is not 'rain'.

what i think is regarded as 'rain' in belgium consists mainly of grey skies. occasionally a light misty wetness will emerge from the greyness above and cast a gentle scattering of something that i could not even define as droplets. sometimes this lasts for half an hour, maximum, and then the grey skies continue to be grey skies and the ground continues to be dry. this is a large part of belgium weather, often mistakeningly referred to as 'rain'. none of this heavy pelting down of large drops that splash as they hit a surface, forming runoff down the streets. nope.

the last few days have been wonderful! i've stayed indoors writing my thesis, and have had real auckland rain keeping me comfort. doing work when the elements outside are fierce is somewhat enjoyable.

nothing much else to say. sadly my life now consists mainly of work-related activities. but in a few weeks i will be landing on spanish soil which shall be a nice, and hopefully by then, well-deserved, break!

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation"

- Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1905).

i like this quote. but the thing is, does me liking it and posting it on here somehow conclude that i am just another one of those 'most people'? hmprh. how about i clarify by saying that despite liking the quote, it isn't one of my passions? maybe it just proves there is truth behind such a statement, despite how much we like to believe otherwise.

for a long time i have been very cynical about the media.

to be honest, i think it began when princess diana died. i can distinctly remember a particular scene where you see the car she was in going into a tunnel, and you can see all these motorbikes with video cameras chasing after the car. and i remember that the voice over spoke about how you could see the reporters and how perhaps they had something to do with the accident. and i got so angry. because the coverage we were viewing was not intended to be a video camera video-ing these reporters and their actions. it was a video camera video-ing the car that princess diana was in. the video the news reporter had used as an example of showing the reporters chasing the car was so hypocritical. and it upset me.

when september 11 happened i also got angry with the way in which reporting was carried out. every night the same footage would be shown of the plane crashing into the building, time and time again. it felt like i was watching a hollywood movie. the hype that was built up by the media was quite overwhelming. of course i was genuinely upset by the event, but many events around the world cause numerous deaths, and it is up to the media to determine which of those events we feel most sorry for.

the media can be so biased and slant things into any angle they wish, or someone higher up the scale, wishes. ever seen the movie 'wag the dog'? brilliant movie that always summed up exactly how i felt about the media and the control they have over so many things.

however in this last week i have realised that perhaps i had become over cynical. i have not watched tv since i left new zealand last september. i do not read any newspapers, and only very occasionally do i go to a news website and find out what is happening around the world. due to this i have become lost in my own little life, due to this i have become ignorant to those events occurring around me and due to this, i have realised how important the media can be.

when the bombings occurred in spain last week i did feel sad and upset for those of my friends who are spaniards, those of my friends who have friends that are spaniards, and those people in spain who have been affected by this tragedy.

however, in my ignorance at not reading the news, i have not been affected very much at all by this event. until today. before today i felt saddened, but in no way felt threatened. people have emailed me worried, as they know i am going to spain in a month or so. but i don't feel threatened because i have not been paying attention to the media. i have not heard all the facts. i have not seen any footage. i have not seen any pictures. i have not read much with regard to the tragic stories. without the media, i have become unaware of those important things that i should perhaps be more aware of.

today all of europe held a one minute's silence at noon. we had a lecture and we stopped in order to do this. and it was at this moment that i suddenly realised, suddenly put things into perspective, suddenly discerned where in the world i was and what in the world was happening.

perhaps i disagree with some of the techniques the media use to portray world events. but without them i have fallen into ignorance which is not acceptable.

in the joy of rediscovering weetabix i accidentally missed the first hour of my lecture. i have julian to thank for finding me a supermarket that has enough initiative to be fully stocked in such a great cereal. i have naomi to thank for sending me a text reminding me that i do have classes to attend and that perhaps i should make an appearance.

today i shall gorge on nothing but the divine goodness of weetabix. not as good as the classic kiwi kid 'weetbix' but the finest substitute that exists to my knowledge.

it will be a wonderful feast.

firstly, however, i think i am in need of a nap. it's nearly 4pm afterall. definitely the hour when naps should occur.

i have THE coolest brother and sister in the world. no, seriously. SERIOUSLY. note the capitals. and note that i never use capitals. that must mean something.

here i am on one side of the world, sitting at my computer in utter despair on saturday morning (belgium time) as i cannot figure out how excel works and how to get little graphs to graph stuff that needs to be graphed.

and there is my wonderful brother on the other side of the world, sitting at his computer on saturday night (nz time), about to save my life.

i send him my little excel file. he opens it. there we both are. opposite sides of the earth. in front of two computers. looking at the same data.

then he proceeds, via msn (a simply marvelous lifesaving contraption), to tell me step by step how to make graphs. he says things like 'okay, now highlight these columns, and then press this button'. i follow his instructions. when i get it wrong, i.e. what i end up having on my screen is nothing like what he has on his screen, he figures out what i did. and how to fix it. then he proceeds to say things like 'hang on, let me see, i think this might look even better' and takes me through a different range of instructions that gets me a different graph.

four hours later it is 1pm here in belgium, 1am there in new zealand. my very cool brother just spent his entire saturday night helping me with maths. from one side of the world to the other. i then saved the little msn window dialogue box and used it for the rest of the weekend to remind me how to do stuff. brilliant. absolutely brilliant.

and then there's my sister. also very cool. who just saved me about 20 hours of work. literally.

i have these numbers in a table that was created in this programme i use. the numbers have decimal points. with a '.' point like is used in new zealand. however belgium have this weird system where they use the comma instead of the point in excel. i needed the data in excel to make graphs. so i thought i had to go through and change every decimal point into a comma so that excel recognised it as a decimal. this probably makes no sense. oh well. the point is (ha ha ha, the point. get it? obviously you can tell i'm tired and have spent far too long on this computer when i start making jokes like that!) that i have 35 tables, each with 50 rows of numbers and i was going through one table at a time, converting each decimal point to a comma, on every single row. this takes a long time (hence the bad jokes).

rachel came online. i sent her one of the tables and she said she would see what she could do. two minutes later (yep, only two, actually probably not even that to be honest) and she had the solution. man. now it takes me one second, one button, and suddenly all my points are commas.

i could (and perhaps should) say that i am so glad that such technology exists that i can communicate with no time lapse at all from here to home and back again. and i am glad. however despite technology having good points, it also causes me to want to rip my hair out (more often these last few weeks then ever before in my life).

on the other hand, i am very glad that i have a brother and a sister who are quite happy to interrupt their day or night to help me solve dilemas, that, despite not being such a big deal to them, mean a huge deal to me. and save me from going insane.

so thanks. :)

once upon a time, back when i was a young 18 year old, i was browsing through booklets containing stage one university courses (the whole website thing was not so mainstream back then - lucky, because i always liked highlighting and circling interesting classes - something that cannot be done online - but i digress...).

and my wise father said to me "you know rebekah, statistics will always be handy to have" and notably pushed me in the direction of doing a little stage one course on the aforementioned topic. at the time i was not too eager. coming from a family of mathematicians, it's sometimes nice to be out of the loop and do my own thing. however he persisted, i wavered, and the next thing you know, there i was, 8am, five days a week, semester one, first year of university.

since then i declared i could escape the clutches of the subject. i went off onto tangents involving greek monumental architecture and egyptian hieroglyphics. i pursued geography and how natural and cultural processes throughout the earth mix and mingle. i wrote, i drew, i painted, i lived outside in the dirt discovering what lies beneath the surface we live on. yet, somehow, no matter how hard i tried, statistics always reappeared...

imagine wandering the ruins of ancient greece, taking in the beauty of an ancient estate, that handled olive production for the nearby region in 500bc - only to have the bubble broken by being shown a greek script in the form of a ready reckoner table (to this day i still am unaware exactly what such a table is, however i am fairly confident that it has something to do with maths and that perhaps my former teacher, mr poleki, once mentioned it in class, interrupting my attempts at opening a calculator with my keyring screwdriver).

imagine being on the most beautiful beach in new zealand, with only two other people in the near vicinity. a beach that stretches for 7km in a gentle curve, bright blue sky echoed by a deeper blue ocean. and to suddenly discover that in order to understand the reason for thousands of stones strewn high up above sea level on the dunes, statistical sampling techniques need to be put into action (for your information, the stones are believed to have arrived via a large tidal wave caused by a volancic eruption off the coast many hundreds of years ago).

imagine living in a tiny town of weaving cobbled stone streets and canals in the very centre of europe. where bells chime every hour in delightful tunes of all varieties (just the other day i was reminded of that very humourous musical feat involving bell type instruments, the merrimans, the haines and stella), and where it snows the perfect amount so that it is never all slushy and muddy but allows for snowballs to be thrown. imagine this, and then to find that the supervisor in charge of the dominant piece of assessment due for the year - expects statistical analysis to be understood and calculated for my little village sites in the mountains of turkey.

just as clark kent's destiny was to save the world, it seems that the merriman family's destiny was to be surrounded by numbers. my rebellion on the matter seems not to make the slightest bit of difference.

time on your hands?

check out my two favourite procrastination sites on the right. the penguin one is relatively new to me and is simply a fun game. try and beat my high score of 319.3. as for homestar - strong bad's emails are worth checking out.

meanwhile, tomorrow i'm giving a one hour lecture about soil erosion in greece. the articles i read were ridiculous and i'm looking forward to ripping them to shreds. little does the lecturer know i did four years of physical geography and am not easily fooled by researchers writing biased articles to try and prove their hypothesis.

so it might not be a big deal for any of you, but i have not played minesweeper for one entire week - since i linked it with my odd illness, that magically disappeared with one night of solid sleep (and one day without minesweeper).

this is of great substance. before that vital moment where i informed the world (i.e. those who care to read this) of my decision, i had been playing a sickening amount. no wonder i got sick! i hate to think how many hours i spent, eyes glued to the screen... but then that momentous decision and i have done well. my addiction has waned.

okay so ive found this new game which requires being a yeti and hitting a penguin. but i dont play that very much. not in comparison. and its all about comparisons as far as im concerned.

thesis is not going well. the computer i am working on, which seems to have been suffering for many years, has come to a conclusive death. the files i use are too big to copy anywhere else and thus i am stuck, until next week when hopefully the man will come and fix the machine (or better yet, provide me with a new one!). so once again a weekend approaches and i feel things are not going my way.

however, despite the miserable predicament of work, the weather is keeping me happy, and distracted! it has snowed for three days now. three days. and this morning when i got up at 8, it had been snowing all night and the snow was thick and fluffy, all over the ground. i nearly slipped over about 20 times and found this quite amusing. i walked down streets and paths that were untouched and perfectly covered (until i jumped through them and caused footprints that would probably resemble a rugby team at training).

how can i be disheartened when there is snow??! its just not possible!

so, since i last wrote, a sudden realisation wave swept over me, and work had to occur.

1) next monday i am giving a lecture for an hour to the rest of my class, and yesterday i had to give them all an abstract and a run down on what i would be talking about. this required me knowing what i would be talking about... hence work was required. by 2am monday morning the typing stopped, and after a visit to the lab to print and then the photocopying shop to photocopy, i made it to my 11am class just in time, with handouts to deliver.

2) thesis. ouch. my eyes are blurry after spending the day down at the lab, struggling to work out the elevations and slopes of all of my sites. this is how i go about it: firstly i select one point from one computer programme. this point represents a village and the programme is made up of tables that give data about that village. however i want more than tables so the point must be transferred. so, secondly i export this one point out of the programme into what i shall call twilight zone, where it sits in a form that allows it to be manipulated into other programmes. thirdly, i import the one point into another programme. however, while the point can be seen, the programme does not yet understand it. thus, fourthly, i have to convert it into a file that this programme understands. in order to do that i have to create a fake map to act as a background for the new point, and then once the point is put on that fake map i can give it a name and then, fifthly, put it into the map containing slopes and elevations. the complexity has not yet begun. this little village then needs to be overlayed in such a way that everything is black except the little dot representing the village, which then shows the elevation map, that is behind it. i then zoom in, find the centre of the point. and mark the elevation.

one village down, 34 to go!

and then i do the slopes. and then i put a 1km radius buffer around each of the sites and find a mean elevation and a mean slope. then i compare the over all mean elevation and slope of the entire region (sadly my supervisor mentioned standard deviations and statistics today... so prepare to be ambushed with data if you know things about stats - heh heh, i have a few contacts up my sleeve. heh heh.).

then? i switch to another computer and start to use satellite images that give geology and terrain and vegetation stuff, which in turn can also be analysed. by similar type methods as above.

3) i have much reading to do before friday. but at least im not presenting this week.

enough about work. what else have i been doing? um. well. i am in the midst of planning a week long trip to spain. cool huh? morna, eric and shannon are heading to morocco for two weeks around easter time. and then me and joe are planning on flying down and meeting them in southern spain, hiring a car and driving up the east coast to barcelona. ryan air flights are pretty cheap and hiring a car, not only is cheap, but allows me to stop at every single deserted beach i see... need i say more?!! (ha, of course i will say more, but i have no more to say right now).

today is shrove tuesday. so tonight we eat pancakes.

for once the sun is still shining and its now late afternoon. what a breakthrough (note the literal play on words there). yet, unfortunately i am fighting internally with the feeling of illness upon me, thus dont appreciate the outdoors in the way that i should.

now really, i dont quite understand how this can be possible? i mean, up until now, apart from two days when exam pressure caused my head to hurt, i have been 100% healthy. which i have been quite impressed by. however i am not impressed that it has been less than a month since my last slight under the weather feeling and now the back of my throat is demanding attention. it just will not do.

the only suggestion i can put forward is that it is my body trying to tell me to stop playing minesweeper, which i have become far too addicted too. even if this is not the case, it is a good thing to believe and an opportunity to stop playing!

anyway, i refuse to accept the condition at hand and shall 'soldier on (with coldral, solider on... solider on...) - eh dad?

today i gave a presentation in class. its a class on the origins of christianity and naomi and i were cast into the limelight as we discussed paul and his missionary journeys through asia minor. the limelight was actually more of a spotlight, a spotlight that moved between us and our lecturer who loves to interrupt! ha. but we kept it up for the two hours and he gave us a big nod of approval and a thank you at the end. and now i have a much better understanding about many things.

i think thats all. time for minesw... oh no wait. nope. time for... other stuff.

yawn. am being extemely lazy. so lazy that ive felt the need to update this site three times today! what does that tell you about my state of mind eh?

so firstly, i just came to a realisation that the little ads that appear at the top of the page, somehow have picked words up out of my entries and turned them into ads... i.e. the other day they were talking about buying owl pellets (coincidently after my blog about seeing an owl) and now its all about squirrels. perhaps i should have noticed this months ago. probably all of you did. this obviously shows my disregard for advertising - which i view as quite the positive thing!

secondly, hurrah i got mail! and its none of this 'youve got mail' internet stuff either. but real mail in the post. thanks rachel. am listening to the cd now and am bobbing my head with the rhythm. just like when we used to study (or where i pretended to study and you got terribly distracted and couldnt study, due to my amazing bobbing and dancing abilities).

thirdly, tonight morna and leigh are the djs at a bar called wink. its sort of the international bar - it apparantly has international parties every saturday night. this is exciting. the dj-ing i mean. they will be playing classic indy-rock tunes. but good for them for getting in the door i say. so we are heading off to that. later.

anyone planning to visit me soon by the way? five new canadians have arrived (either they are extremely loyal, extremely rich, or flights here are ridicuously cheap!!). no, to be honest, most of them are studying somewhere in europe. seems half of the humanities department from carlton, ottawa, are on exchange this year, somewhere in europe. 7 of them are here. anyway, its not christmas and im not at all homesick, so i welcomed them all with a 'gday'.

thats all really. might go play another game or two of minesweeper. i need some serious motivation to get work done these days.

today is the most beautiful sunny day. bright blue sky. white fluffy clouds. the sun is beaming, happy to not be concealed by fog-like, overcast-like matter usually dominating the scene. ahhh. after what feels like so long in greyness, sunshine is, quite literally, a ray of light urging me to venture outside. i can almost smell the possibilities of spring in the air. if only the weird grinding noises of some construction drill tearing up the concrete in the very near vicinity would cease, all would be right in the world.


update: hmprh, two hours later and somehow those little fluffy unsuspicious clouds have mutinied into one giant blanket, once again covering the city and in doing so, have merged into the ever familiar greyish tone ive become so use to seeing. meantime - concrete drill work has quietened down, or at least is more periodic as opposed to continuous.

apparantly belgium has squirrels. apparantly these belgian squirrels are big. big and red. and fluffy. as squirrels should be. as i've always imagined squirrels to be. and just how i want squirrels to be. apparantly they run about, up and down trees, collecting nuts, making squirrel-type noises, and just generally being squirrelish.

now i've known about these so-called facts for some time. i've known that if i leave the cobbled streets behind and head to the outskirts - no further than the outskirts of leuven in fact - that squirrels will appear. and they will appear in big and red and fluffy forms. i know this.

and so saturday was 'the day to find a squirrel'. of course this required me leaving those cobbled streets of leuven behind. and finding some trees. because, as far as i'm aware, squirrels like trees. and so that seemed like the logical step to take. in my mind, this is how it should work:

bex + camera + multiple trees (preferably with some sort of nut attached) - cobbled streets = big and red and fluffy squirrels.

and so off i went, camera in hand. and i found the trees, equipped with some nut variation, and i departed from the streets of leuven...

squirrels? no. none. not one. horses? yes. dogs? yes. birds? yes. water buffalo? yes... okay, well they looked like water buffalo but actually ended up being some large 'water buffalo look alike' rocks. but squirrels? no.

in retrospect i am wondering exactly what went wrong. i'm not that much of a squirrel expert. so i cannot come up with any definite solution. though, it has just occured to me, that despite entering a forest, the tracks were all like miniature cobbled streets... perhaps my fundamental 'seeing a squirrel' equation was foiled as i didn't specify that cobbled paths in forests are different from cobbled paths in town. hmmm.

however i will not give up. i will succeed. the squirrel will not pull wool over my eyes and lead me astray. the squirrel will be found. and i shall reign triumphant. (and this is sounding like one of those speeches the president gives in the movies before they attack the aliens...)

so the results are in.

and after sorting out a slight mishap whereby they thought i didn't sit one of my exams, i can now be very happily contented with the following: three 15s, two 16s and one 17. out of 20. so it looks like i can handle a university system on the other side of the world after all!! but the best news? the 17 was for the course my thesis supervisor lectured... i.e. hopefully i'm in his good books, despite the lack of thesis!

and in other news. frank and i have decided to write a rap. i'll be keeping you informed as it comes together.

i have this friend. his name's dermot, which of course means he's irish! and a lovely one at that. he's studying at the music school here in leuven. we met on the very first day i arrived in town, when i was still very sleepy and confused from 37 hours in travel mode.

last night i finally got to hear dermot play the piano. the piano.

now, i know a thing or two about the piano. i myself played it for 7 years, members of my family have, and still do, play... but when dermot played last night, i was swept up into a world i have never been to before.

he played, not with music, but with his heart. i have never heard a piano be played in such a way. i felt like i was inside each note that sounded. and all i could do was shut my eyes and let it all soak into and through me.

one of the pieces, i later was told, he had created himself... at one point, he was joined by another guy who played a bass jazz type rhythm and dermot just started playing melodies - completely ad lib and free, in a way i have never seen or heard or experienced before.

it blew my mind and has left me refreshed. if there could ever be such a thing as musical cleansing, i have just come up from total immersion.

thank you dermot.

so i found this material store. uh huh. and there was a sale going on. a half price sale in fact. which of course requires a rummage about to see what was on offer. typically i found some random orange type material that is always useful to have about. and this great purpley pinky fabric with big flowers - very 70s curtain look i suppose. i am not in need of curtains, i have them already. but i am in need of brightening up this grey and bleak town that consists of people wearing the darkest or dullest possible colours invented. they might blend beautifully into the overcast sky, but really... what this place needs is some colour. some action. some boldness. and of course, that is where i come in. yeah, so there's no sewing machine. but since when has that stopped me? that's what safety pins, and tape and string and other handy devices are for...

ahhh, when there's work to be done, there is nothing more satisfying than putting it off with great ideas about starting new fashion trends throughout europe.

hmprh. it is still raining. and i don't feel like leaving my room.

now this brings about slight complications to my plans. my plans had been to get up bright and early and walk down to the lab and put in a solid day's work on my thesis. it is nearly 11:30am. i am still in my pyjamas. hmmmm. the things is, rain just doesn't inspire me to go outside. unless i really have to. in fact, it doesn't really inspire me to get up either. but i successfully pulled myself out of bed by 9:30 this morning so am quite pleased with myself (despite the fact that i had set my alarm for 7:30...)

this is most frustrating. however i have reshuffled my plans slightly and now will spend the day attempting (no - accomplishing!) to write chapter one. inside. without needing to leave my room. and going to the lab can occur tomorrow. when it will hopefully have stopped raining...

why does it have to rain? and why don't i have a car that would allow me to get to places without getting wet? and why did i leave my umbrella at davis' place?

today is raining. and rain just isn't as fun as snow.

however i currently have my hands on the book 'flowers for algernon' by daniel keyes. hence meaning i do not need to go out into the rain (except to go to the laundromat...). anyway i've read it before but reading it again, now having noticed the quote at the start by plato, gives it such a new meaning. if you've got time on your hands (or even if you don't) - i highly, highly recommend it.

"progris riport 1 martch 3: dr strauss says i shoud rite down what i think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on. i dont no why but he says its importint so they will see if they can use me. i hope they use me becaus miss kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. i want to be smart. my name is charlie gordon i werk in donners bakery where mr donner gives me 11 dollers a week and bred or cake if i want. i am 32 yeres old and next munth is my brithday. i tolld dr strauss and perfesser nemur i cant rite good but he says it dont matter he says i shud rite just like i talk and like i rite compushishens in miss kinnians class at the beekmin collidge center for retarted adults where i go to lern 3 times a week on my time off. dr strauss says to rite a lot evrything i think and evrything that happins to me but i cant think anymor because i have nothing to rite so i will close for today... yrs truly charlie gordon."

first semester in belgium complete! what a funny feeling - to be half way through (though theoretically, with a thesis yet to be severely tackled - it doesn't feel in the slightest like half way yet!). and it is nice to be done. to be able to sit and type this and know that i'm not procrastinating!

snowflakes are falling outside my window. it amazes me: the huge variety of snowflakes. i mean, of course, people always say that no two are alike - and of course i believe them... but i don't just mean that...

the wind is swirling, in a kind of spiral, and large floating fluffy flakes are being swept up in the current and spinning upwards, tipping in different directions, until the wind slackens, ever so slightly, and the snow starts to gently descend, only to be caught in another waft of air.

it reminds me of when i hear my brother play the piano. the wind builds to such a speed and with such a force, and the snow tumbles and collides and turns seemingly out of control. and then things die down, become quieter, and the snow drifts and settles to the window sill and the roof and the tree that the owl lives in - and somehow moulds together with other snowflakes until a fresh white line appears. and it gets thicker gradually - yet not so gradually that you can't gaze out the window and watch it occuring.

truly beautiful.

shall i begin with some updates? i think i shall begin with some updates.

firstly i am now well. all it took were two nights of good sleep and decent food - you know, food like meat (just as an aside - nobody except me uses the term 'mince' - they all call it ground beef. interesting.).

secondly - that decent food came via a trip to the grocery store. and guess what? the 'wet your finger' technique for opening a plastic bag really does work! how brilliant. guess that means i don't need to recycle now. heh heh heh.

thirdly - the owl was white. well, more of a white-ish blur through the tree. but definitely a shade of white. not as big as hedwig mind you.

and fourthly, five exams behind me, one to go this coming wednesday. am feeling quite content with my current situation!

okay, with the updates out of the way i have discovered i have no more news. as of yet. so, until next time...

(also, after next wednesday i'll be putting up more photos...)

today is a great day.

today is a great day despite the fact that i had my toughest exam this morning (which, subsequently, wasn't so bad).

today is a great day despite the fact that i am sick and am about to go to bed (hoping that sleep + sprite will cure me).

today is a great day because i finally saw my owl.

that's right. i have an owl. okay, so theoretically he is not 'my' owl... but that's how i like to think of him.

i discovered i had an owl a few months ago. at first i was a bit confused as to what was making the 'ooo-ooo' type noises. my confusion comes from the fact that my owl is not nocturnal. nope. not at all. in fact he prefers to sleep at the same time as me. at night. and all day, when i'm awake, he's awake too. hooting and whooting and ooo-oooing and generally making rather mournful sounds. all day long.

and today we met. at least, i saw him fly from the tree he lives in - which is across from my window, to a neighbouring tree.

i think i will call this entry 'the day i saw my owl'.

yawn. tonight is one of those evenings. one of those evenings when i really don't feel like doing work. one of those evenings when i know, without a doubt, that i need to do work (after all, wednesday is looming ever nearer, and that is the day that i sit my hardest exam). but one of those evenings nevertheless, when i would much rather procrastinate and chat to all of you instead.

so. here i am.

today i had another exam.

- are you getting tired of me talking about them? sorry, but currently they are all i can talk about. unless i made something up. and i don't seem to have any imaginative abilities at the moment, i think the exams (there's that word again) are causing me to be rather boring. -

anyway, it was oral. again. however each exam i have had so far has been different somehow. i think it is a belgian thing. little surprises all the time. keeping us foreigners on our toes. so to speak. anyway i showed up at the time i was meant to, only to find that the lecturer was taking his time... like, 'really' taking his time. two hours later, i was still sitting in the room, twiddling my thumbs and feeling decidedly hungry. funny how you get hungry at those very moments when it is not possible for you to eat.

anyway it was fine. the exam i mean. the worst part about it would have to be the hunger pains i suffered from. however my stomach behaved at the crucial moment and didn't interrupt audibly as i talked to my lecturer.

afterwards, on the walk home, i scoffed down two mcdonald hamburgers to console myself. mmm. it's a rare occurrence to eat such delacacies in europe. so expensive. far cheaper to go to a restuarant.

and that sums up today. hmprh.

oh, i know what i can talk about. the 'storm'. the 'storm' that arrived suddenly last week. funny kind of storm really. i'm used to the ones where it starts raining, then you hear the thunder in the distance, then it gets a bit closer, then you see some lightning, then it dies down again. belgian storms are obviously like belgian exams. always unexpected.

so yeah i was sitting in my room. as i do. it is raining quite heavily outside, but i'm fairly used to that. then all of a sudden there is the biggest flash of lightning i have ever seen, followed (split second i assure you) by the loudest, most rumbliest thunder i have ever heard. i wish i had words to describe the noise. perhaps imagine a big construction drill digging into concrete. or something. anyway i had a headache for half an hour afterwards. but the crazy thing was that everything shook. all the things on my shelves fell off. the house was vibrating.

it seems the lightning stuck the library's clocktower (which reminds me a little of the clocktower that you see in back to the future). this makes sense as it is the highest point in leuven. the clock still isn't working. the library is, hmmm, two minutes walk from my house perhaps? maybe three. depends on my speed...

so at 2:45 i wander up to the arts building to get ready for my third exam - this time it's written and i feel quite prepared. written exams, after all, are what i am accustomed to.

at 3:10 we're all sitting there. outside the room. waiting. waiting. no lecturer. hmmm. this is not exactly what i am used to.

3:15 and in we go, only to be told that pens are not necessary... hey, wait a minute... how do you write an exam without a pen? this exam is not going at all the way i thought it was going to go...

(i should also inform you that this guy is an austrian with a thick accent that always makes me laugh - so instead of saying "site conservation" it's more like "zite konzervaation".)

so instead we have a "group discussion". and what happens in a "group discussion"? so he asks us individually a question and when people want to add more information, we add more information.

that's it. that's the exam. the "written" exam.

but wait, there's more. oh yes, there's more. after "discussing" for 2.5 hours he returns to the front of the room, sits down and ponders...

"zo, vot do you thinkz you zud get?"

silence.

"vell, you must have zome ideaz vot you zud get?"

i meekly ask "do you mean as a group, or individually?"

finally a conclusion is reached. we all get a 15 (out of 20 - an exceptionally good mark by belgian standards) and if we want more, we say so and he will ask specific questions and then give us an extra mark if we answer correctly.

of course i would like another mark so i answer a question or two, and wham, there you have it - my first mark - a 16!!

one down, five to go... six exams is quite a significant amount i feel. quite significant. but it was fine. the exam i mean. for those interested. and i made the lecturer laugh. a good laugh too i might add. that must be a goodish sign, and i was wearing my orange woolley hat and not looking very formal at all...

also, what is wrong with me? why is it that i can't open plastic bags? no, don't laugh, i'm quite serious. every time i go to the supermarket, i dread the 'opening the plastic bag' process. you know how they have them, on the counter, all joined together in a big heap? and once you're done paying, you pull one off and open it and put your groceries inside? yes, that's what i'm talking about. i just can't figure out the technique. and i've tried a variety. it just doesn't open for me. ever...

it can be incredibly embarassing when there's a big queue (and there nearly always is...) and people are waiting for you to collect your food and leave so that they can leave too...

i think my new rule is to recycle more. who needs plastic bags anyway, right?

so, wish me well... tomorrow i undergo the belgian examination process.

this is how it supposedly functions. in formally dressed attire one student enters the room and is handed questions by a formally dressed lecturer. student then sits down and has 20 minutes to prepare for examination. student then speaks for 20 minutes regarding questions. lecturer intervenes as they feel necessary - asking for clarification or for more information or just generally opening up a discussion. formally dressed student then departs from room.

i don't have any formal clothes! the only shoes i have are sneakers (well i have jandals but it's raining outside)! and i certainly don't have time to check out the shops right now... but surely they'll let me get away with it?

did i mention that i met a guy in the czech republic who knew my grandmother in tauranga?

who would've thought...

so here i am once more. sitting in my pyjamas in my room in leuven. pondering how best to fill you in on my two week trip. pondering how much procrastination i can do before feeling exceptionally guilty about the lack of study i have done (first exam is one week today). so i'm going to try the bullet point entry for a change. not sure if i can pull it off. but i'll give it a shot.

21st december: start the day at 5:30am walking through dark quiet (perhaps the most quiet i've heard it) leuven to the train station. me, eric, sandra, peter. me and eric nearly missed the train. a sign of things to come...

saw a squirrel! highly delighted! the trip is off to an excellent start. little grey squirrel. running up the branches and down the branches. its grey fluffy tail making little wavy movements.

and then snow! yep. it starts to snow. what a way to begin a trip across germany. little snowflakes drifting through the air as the train speeds through german countryside.

14 hours of switching trains later... munich.

excerpt from diary: 21-23 december: "i felt like i was inside one of those glass balls that you shake and then watch the snow float through the air... climbed up a big church tower to view the city... very very beautiful... ornate old churches, palace gardens, old and new town halls..."

saw lord of the rings - jumped, laughed outloud and cried. proud to be a kiwi.

ate sausages in a very typical german beer hall with big heads of deer with antlers on the walls. one litre mugs of beer.

23-26 december: christmas in salzburg! snow everywhere. most beautiful little town i've been in to date.

walked up to the castle and into the abby used in sound of music. saw where they hid from the baddies near the end of movie. also saw "you are 16 going on 17" gazebo. hurrah! not to mention archway that mum and dad always say "we've been there kids" when we watch it...

spent christmas with eric's cousin and his family. absolutely perfect. shared christmas eve and christmas day with them and their two kids fiona and julien (5 and 7) and took delight in them running around and squealing as they opened their presents and then proceeded to jump on top of me and try to pull off my socks. loved it.

despite cell phone issues, was able to get in touch with family back home.

went to christmas mass in the big dom cathedral - gorgeous building - liked it more than st peters in rome to be honest.

went sledding!

26-29 december: grunau - little skiing hostel type place up in the mountains in austria. meet many aussies. walked through the snow. i spend time on my own (eric is skiing) and try to study a bit. nice, relaxing - let my feet rest from all the walking we do.

excerpt from diary: "saw both the big and little dipper - reminded me of the fact i am on the other side of the world - viewing the stars upside down. in a different place. stars hold such a peace. a peace and a clarity at the same time. the night sky is so deep, not only literally but how it can penetrate - right inside my eyes and almost through me... i marvel at the enormity of creation sometimes. the creativity, the uniqueness, the openness. no straight lines, no systematic patterns. it's all random beauty. in a world full of straight lines and codes, where people try to keep their surroundings manicured. the stars defy that thought process."

29-30 december: vienna. despite what so many people say - about how beautiful vienna is - it just wasn't a city for me. the extravagance and excessiveness - everywhere. every direction i turned was another huge building, trying to outdo the building on either side of it. more windows than i could ever count. too much and i felt out of place. vienna to me seemed to be a place that worships money.

the parks had too many park benches in line - so i moved one of them into the middle of the path - just to try and make things not so perfect.

did go to a concert and hear mozart, beethoven, strauss, brahams. that was good. in a place mozart had performed in when he was younger.

highlight - meeting up with sandra and peter and spending an evening in a far too classy for us bar, listening to old american jazz, drinking a drink that was called casablanca and catching up with good friends.

excerpt from diary: "as we walked home in the rain - i finally caught a glimpse of a pretty vienna. perhaps the rain washed away some of the immaculateness. perhaps it washed away some of my negativity and cynacism. but a mist lay over the city and the lights - lighting up the palaces - no longer with an air of disdain. the rain somehow glistened through... vienna isn't the place for me, but it wasn't so bad afterall."

31-2 january: the czech republic is awesome! and it begins with cesky krumlov - little town right on the border...

went to a bar that had a live snake under the glass counter. it was green. it was big. but it didn't move. all very exciting.

wonderful hostel where i met kiwis and spent new years eve dancing with them and people from all over the world. fantastic fireworks display that involved utter randomness and slight danger as people held up strange wand type devices that spurted forth fire and magic into the sky.

hello 2004.

walked up, over and through the castle - to read a sign saying "watch out for the bears" who sadly seemed to be hibernating. instead i made a snow bear much to my delight.

thick powdery snowy snow. fun fun fun.

2-4 january: onwards to prague. gorgeous. far nicer than vienna. most beautiful city in the world. fell in love with it. amazing buildings, bridges, castles, churches...

walked for kilometres and kilometres in freezing conditions where i had to hop and jig to keep myself moving.

went and saw don giovanni - a marionette puppet performance of opera. mozart's gift to the city of prague. funny and very very good.

found and bought orange earmuffs.

missed our train connection (was bound to happen as we had so many close calls along the way) and ended up taking a bus right through germany and back to leuven - a good 14 hour ride i guess, including a crazy 3 hour wait at the border whilst the germans inspected us...

excerpt from diary: "checked out the huge metronome - ticking back and forth, keeping the music of prague in time like a giant conductor - overlooking the orchestra which is all of prague itself. bitterly bitterly cold. could hardly feel my nose. ouch. fingers dying. literally i'm sure."

and here i am. off to study now. hope you all had a lovely christmas and welcome to 2004!!!