The pictures for today are brought to you from the northern tip of New Zealand. That would be to the northern most point of the north island (I wanted to see how many times I could say north in the first two sentences of my blog). It was a fairly amazing spot to look out on, but it was very much geared towards tourists, which was a bit of a downside. I think I mentioned this before, but it probably bears repeating. Most of my favorite parts of our trip across the country were the places that were off the beaten path, where you could really sit down and enjoy everything around you. I do enjoy places like this that are naturally beautiful, but it does have a detracting aspect when everyone is busy around you with cameras out and posing for that perfect photo. I guess that was one upside of me losing my camera on this trip, I really didn't have to worry about capturing everything I saw in a digital image, I could just relax and look around and know that I was experiencing this for myself and not worrying about viewing everything though a lens. Technology tends to make you worry more about relaying information than actually absorbing it. Thus, why our generation needs iPhones to look up on wikipedia all the answers to the questions that we should already know if we paid attention half the time we were supposed to. Hmmm well I guess that's enough of an aside as to why technology will be the downfall of our generation and of human intelligence in general (believe me I'm not suggesting I'm exempt from such accusations, if I'm leaving my flat for over a minute I won't go without my iPod in hand).
Well I guess it's come down to the last three weeks of my time in New Zealand (actually less than three weeks if you want to get technical about it). I can't say I've really absorbed that idea yet, I've been living in this place for about 4.5 months and I guess a lot of things have become habit for me. I'll probably miss them once their gone, but I can't pinpoint any one things that I'll really miss once I board that plane on the 28th. I guess my mind is a bit more focused on the finals I have ahead of me in the coming weeks. I finished my game theory final (and therefore am done with the course entirely) this past Friday. I'm pretty sure it went well, but I'll know for sure in about a week or two, but regardless it feels good to have at least one class checked off my list so now I can move on to the three others that await. This coming week will consist of me reading and writing essays for my take-home sociology exam. I don't foresee this as being a really difficult assignment, I guess the most difficult aspect is facing procrastination in the face and staring it down until I finish the exam and hand it in by friday.
I may be doing a bit of traveling towards the end of the week, a handful of friends went on a trip around the south island for this week (since it's a study week and I'm the only one who has a take-home test due). I might end up meeting up with them later on in the week down in Dunedin if I can get my act together. I'm not entirely sure I'm up for traveling, but I can always decide that later on in the week. I've actually enjoyed the past couple of days being quieter without everyone around and always feeling like I should be going out or doing something. There is something quite fitting about winding down my time in New Zealand, by spending some quieter time to sit back and reflect a bit and, perhaps more importantly, catch up on some sleep. I suppose a lot of people would be bummed to have a take-home exam during the week when everyone is traveling, but I'm glad to have my finals somewhat divided up over four weeks. I know a lot of friends who have a lot of finals crammed together, which makes preparation a bit hard. However, even with mine being a bit more spread out I will have environmental economics and modern world history (which I am most certainly not looking forward to) within two days of each other. So after this week I'll buckle down and study for the following one and then have my two exams on the 20th and 22nd. Then it's six days until I'm on a plane home.
Aside from that mini-update on academics and whatnot I'm not sure I have any other terribly exciting news to report on. I'm a bit tired-eyed right now even though it's only 8 p.m. so maybe I'll get to bed early tonight (although that's probably wishful thinking at best). Perhaps I'll spend a bit of time trying to get a start on my sociology exam since I've put it off for the past few days, but again that may a bit to ask for right now. I can safely say that I've most definitely reached that point where I'm ready a for a couple of months off from school work (although I feel kind of guilty saying that because I've spent the last four months in a foreign country many would kill to visit, but in my defense I did do a fair amount of school work and have stayed on top of my studies over here). Well, maybe I'll come back next week with an amazing story, or maybe I'll give you another terribly exciting update on how my finals are going because I know how much you love to hear about that kind of stuff. Or maybe I'll just have a bit more on my mind that I do right now, which would make for a more interesting entry. Until then I hope everything is going well with you all halfway across the world.
The pictures for today are brought to you from the northern tip of New Zealand. That would be to the northern most point of the north island (I wanted to see how many times I could say north in the first two sentences of my blog). It was a fairly amazing spot to look out on, but it was very much geared towards tourists, which was a bit of a downside. I think I mentioned this before, but it probably bears repeating. Most of my favorite parts of our trip across the country were the places that were off the beaten path, where you could really sit down and enjoy everything around you. I do enjoy places like this that are naturally beautiful, but it does have a detracting aspect when everyone is busy around you with cameras out and posing for that perfect photo. I guess that was one upside of me losing my camera on this trip, I really didn't have to worry about capturing everything I saw in a digital image, I could just relax and look around and know that I was experiencing this for myself and not worrying about viewing everything though a lens. Technology tends to make you worry more about relaying information than actually absorbing it. Thus, why our generation needs iPhones to look up on wikipedia all the answers to the questions that we should already know if we paid attention half the time we were supposed to. Hmmm well I guess that's enough of an aside as to why technology will be the downfall of our generation and of human intelligence in general (believe me I'm not suggesting I'm exempt from such accusations, if I'm leaving my flat for over a minute I won't go without my iPod in hand).
Well I guess it's come down to the last three weeks of my time in New Zealand (actually less than three weeks if you want to get technical about it). I can't say I've really absorbed that idea yet, I've been living in this place for about 4.5 months and I guess a lot of things have become habit for me. I'll probably miss them once their gone, but I can't pinpoint any one things that I'll really miss once I board that plane on the 28th. I guess my mind is a bit more focused on the finals I have ahead of me in the coming weeks. I finished my game theory final (and therefore am done with the course entirely) this past Friday. I'm pretty sure it went well, but I'll know for sure in about a week or two, but regardless it feels good to have at least one class checked off my list so now I can move on to the three others that await. This coming week will consist of me reading and writing essays for my take-home sociology exam. I don't foresee this as being a really difficult assignment, I guess the most difficult aspect is facing procrastination in the face and staring it down until I finish the exam and hand it in by friday.
I may be doing a bit of traveling towards the end of the week, a handful of friends went on a trip around the south island for this week (since it's a study week and I'm the only one who has a take-home test due). I might end up meeting up with them later on in the week down in Dunedin if I can get my act together. I'm not entirely sure I'm up for traveling, but I can always decide that later on in the week. I've actually enjoyed the past couple of days being quieter without everyone around and always feeling like I should be going out or doing something. There is something quite fitting about winding down my time in New Zealand, by spending some quieter time to sit back and reflect a bit and, perhaps more importantly, catch up on some sleep. I suppose a lot of people would be bummed to have a take-home exam during the week when everyone is traveling, but I'm glad to have my finals somewhat divided up over four weeks. I know a lot of friends who have a lot of finals crammed together, which makes preparation a bit hard. However, even with mine being a bit more spread out I will have environmental economics and modern world history (which I am most certainly not looking forward to) within two days of each other. So after this week I'll buckle down and study for the following one and then have my two exams on the 20th and 22nd. Then it's six days until I'm on a plane home.
Aside from that mini-update on academics and whatnot I'm not sure I have any other terribly exciting news to report on. I'm a bit tired-eyed right now even though it's only 8 p.m. so maybe I'll get to bed early tonight (although that's probably wishful thinking at best). Perhaps I'll spend a bit of time trying to get a start on my sociology exam since I've put it off for the past few days, but again that may a bit to ask for right now. I can safely say that I've most definitely reached that point where I'm ready a for a couple of months off from school work (although I feel kind of guilty saying that because I've spent the last four months in a foreign country many would kill to visit, but in my defense I did do a fair amount of school work and have stayed on top of my studies over here). Well, maybe I'll come back next week with an amazing story, or maybe I'll give you another terribly exciting update on how my finals are going because I know how much you love to hear about that kind of stuff. Or maybe I'll just have a bit more on my mind that I do right now, which would make for a more interesting entry. Until then I hope everything is going well with you all halfway across the world.
0 comments:
Post a Comment