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We’ve gained nearly four hours of daylight in the two and a half weeks that I’ve been here. 25 minutes per day. The official sunrise for today was 8:52 AM; the sunset was officially over at 4:55 PM, an hour ago. But, as the sun itself has yet to make an appearance above the horizon, […] I feel I should begin this entry with a moment of silence. Perhaps two. Maybe three moments will allow me to collect my thoughts and begin to put words to the last week. In this quiet time, imagine that you cannot speak. You can barely even think. When you look out the window there is […] It’s like freshmen orientation for the coolest university in the world. The students are older and the focus is neither intellectual nor academic, but on Sunday I looked around and found that I had been returned to the world of classrooms and cliques. Like freshmen year, I’m on the verge of a new community, watching […] …jiggedy jig. One word: weird. Good, more than good, but jeez louise, odd as. Arrived in Cali Monday afternoon, and spent that night, Tuesday and Wednesday nights with Beeker in San Jose. Heat! Cars! People! People! The entire freakin’ population of NZ in one city! Can you say ‘culture shock’? Driving back from the airport, […] I don’t really have time to do this past week justice. I’m not sure that it would be possible, in fact, to do it justice. It’s been that good. But if I don’t write it now, it will never get written, and if nothing else, the pictures that go with this particular episode need a […] It’s all happening. I’m going! I’m going to Antarctica!! ::unintelligible shrieks of joy and amazement:: Oh, wow. Wow, wow, and yes, wow. Life, at the moment, is so good that it hurts. So good, in fact, that you see I write it out in plain English, without fear or superstition that I might somehow jinx […] Time, it seems, is rapidly running past me. Sprinting on from May, through June, and then damned if isn’t July already. I’m overdue for a good update, and I owe a few of you some solid emails, but I can’t say that either of those things is going to happen soon. I’m working and skiing […] It is winter here. I haven’t seen any snowfall yet, only crusty, frosty piles on the sunless southern sides of mountains and on the tops of the larger peaks I see in the distance, but it is winter, unmistakably. The tourists have gone home, the towns look closed-down and nearly devoid of life. Trees have […] I’ve been in the Westland (aka the rainforest) for about a week and a half now, and have been having incredible luck with the weather. Lovely sunny days and astounding clear skies at night. The moon is full tonight, but because the days are so short this time of year (sunrise 7:30, sunset 5:00), the […] Arthur’s Pass – the town at the highest elevation in NZ, and about a kilometer away from the mountain pass of the same name. I spent three frosty, cold (but fantastic) days camping for free next to the Bealey River, cooking on my tiny little Trangia stove, and shooing the noisy keas away from Dr. […] |
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