A Whole Mess of Things

Hm, where to start? Day by day, I suppose.

I saw Crash at The Embassy last Tuesday. I think that everyone should see this film. It is a drama, a social commentary, on making snap judgements based on race. Prejudice, racial profiling, etc. It is very well written. You follow a group of people through a day in L.A. and see how they all interact with each other, see how a prejudice against one can come back to hurt you. I missed it in the film festival, so I am glad I got the chance to see it. It comes out on DVD in the USA on 6 September, so check it out! It will make you think, but don't be scared of the film. You will be drawn in to the lives of all of the characters. It has a couple of big names as well.

Nothing terribly exciting happened on Wednesday. I got back my geology test. I got an 87, which is an A+, and pretty good, judging by the reactions of the people at my lab table. Thursday I ran some errands and went to class. My conflict analysis presentation was Thursday afternoon. Abi and I had met on Monday evening to research the topic, and then we met again on Wednesday to put it all together. We were supposed to cover the conflict between China and Japan. It was more complicated than we realized. There is not much physical conflict any more; it is more of a psychological conflict and thus harder to pin down. Our presentation went very well, though, and I think our tutor (T.A. for you Americans) was impressed. He said we did a very good job. This makes it a very good week academically for me!

Thursday night I went to Primal and saw a lot of my friends. It was nice seeing everyone again after being gone for two weeks holidays in Fiji. It was especially nice because, as I have no mobile now, it is hard for me to get in contact with anyone. When everyone depends on texting to communicate and you break your mobile, it can be hard to track people down! I am dealing with it.

Friday I saw a couple of movies (Bewitched in theaters, Ocean's 11 in my flat) but ended up turning in early. I had to get up early on Saturday morning for a geology field trip. We went out to Princess Bay / Island Bay and Red Rocks. It was a beautiful day. Legitimately warm, little cloud cover, no wind - amazing for being on the south coast! We spent the day climbing over boulders and examining the rocks by the coast. I know all about the bedding, degree of dip, composition, fossil contact, etc.

I got home around 4, rested for awhile, took a shower, then headed down to dinner. Once again it proved too inedible (right word?) for my tastes, so I headed to the trustworthy Satay Kingdom for some roti chenai. I ran into Alex on my way there, so we came with me to get takeaway and we met plans to meet later at Hotel Bristol to watch the All Black's trounce the Wallabees. It was the final test of the Tri-Nations tournament. Congrats to the new champs, the New Zealand All Blacks! Anyways, we left Hotel Bristol and wandered down to Hopes Bros. Bar. This place has a nice balcony, so we got drinks and people-watched for awhile. I had the best amaretto sour I have ever had. The bartender made it with an egg white, among other things, and mixed it very well so that there was a nice foam on top. It was amazing. I really love people-watching as well, so I was pretty happy.

I woke up a bit early this morning (truthfully, I haven't slept in in a long time) to go see a special showing of The Return of the King. It was showing this morning at The Embassy, where it had its world premiere, so of course I had to go. It happens every once in awhile, and I told myself I was going to go the next time they showed it. I mean, what kind of fan would I be if I lived in Wellington and didn't see it where it premiered? I know, a crazy-bad one!

Now, I should be doing work now. There are only 5 weeks of class left, but they are a packed 5 weeks. I have a Rotary presentation every week as well as something major due academically. This week, I have a presentation for the Tawa club on Tuesday, a POLS 244 test on Thursday, and a big geology project due on Friday. I have enough time to get everything done if I could make myself focus more! Silly Wellington, always enticing me to do other things besides schoolwork.

That is about it for this side of the world. Keep everyone along the Gulf Coast in your prayers as they try to sort through the wake of Hurrican Katrina. You know, they finally name a hurricane after me, and look what happens. No one is forgetting this one any time soon.

In case you missed it, I also published a post earlier today with my weekly picture update. I still don't have a camera, so I am posting Fiji pictures. A big thanks to Amy and Meredith for them!