Nice Shot?

The Lantern Festival returned to Albert Park last weekend, marking the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. It's gorgeous; I only wish I knew enough photography to properly capture how the colors come alive at night.

Two weeks ago Friday, my aunt and uncle from Central Illinois arrived in Auckland at 5:00 AM. Ali & I picked them up at the airport, we all shared a big pot of coffee, then set out to do some exploring: Devonport, the kauri trees in Waitakere, Piha beach, etc. On Saturday we stayed in town, walking around the CBD, the University, and the lovely Cornwall Park - where they were amused to see sheep grazing virtually in the heart of the city. On Sunday they left early to join their Elderhostel travel group, which is touring the whole country, but they'll be back with us for a few days before heading home.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to keep up with the employment relations class I'm teaching at UUNZ - preparing lectures and marking homework every week, plus special assignments, essays, and exams, etc. - it's incredibly time-consuming and endlessly frustrating. This was the last week of summer school classes, and I'm looking forward to getting it over with. I'm sure the class would be much easier to teach the second time around, but with my classes at UoA starting in a few weeks, it's just too distracting.

In addition, for most of this week and part of last, I've been in UoA's introductory teacher-training workshops. I wasn't looking forward to it - expected a lot of touch-feely gobbledygook - but thought I should 'eat my spinach.' I'm glad I did: I learned a lot. The best part was meeting a bunch of wonderful people from other departments. (I keep finding I'm a lot more social than I ever thought I was; maybe I'm just growing into it as I get older.) Of course, now I have a lot of new work to do in order to implement what I learned (begin a teaching portfolio, record what I learned from last semester, etc.), but, hey, it's all good.

In between all the rest, we managed to try snorkeling at Goat Island with Armaz and Angelique on Waitangi Day (February 6th). This is the national holiday - marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British and the Maori. It's a commemoration, not a celebration, although this year's Moari protests were pretty subdued - both in contrast to years past (when the PM was jostled and protesters threw dirt clods at government officials) and, especially, compared to what's going on elsewhere in the world.


Coincidentally, there were about 700-800 people marching through downtown Auckland because a couple NZ papers had reprinted the 'Danish' cartoons. The next day the publishers, Muslim community representatives and the Human Rights Commission sat down and sorted things out - apolgies were made, accepted, and life has moved on.

However, since Kiwi political news is so (wonderfully) boring, I need to keep up with the U.S., if only for the 'entertainment value' of gems like this:

“The man is out of control. Then again, out-of-control is the way this whole administration operates: Ready, fire, aim. Global war on terrorism, global war on poultry, what’s the difference? You see something moving, shoot it.”
-Eugene Robinson in yesterday's WaPo op-ed page, noting the Cheney incident is a good metaphor for the Bush administration’s entire foreign policy.

Cheers,
Sandie