Three weeks of studying at the University of Canterbury are completed, and things have never been as good. It was a big decision to come all the way to Christchurch but I couldn't have done anything better, cause I'm loving every second.
Same thing is to say about the choice of my courses: Antarctic Studies is cool, Geology rocks and Biology is just in my genes... the latter is definitely the core, involving lots of studying as well as two lab-sessions per week, but I have no problem whatsoever to come up with motivation. There are so many fascinating things in every little bit of live, no matter what it is.
Two examples:
1. Because they are the origin of all life, we first studied a good deal of bacteria. They might appear boring, since you never see them and only think about them when you catch a disease, but these guys are totally important and hugely diverse. Today I examined them for the first time under a microscope with a lense that increases sight by a 1000 times. And it was an oddly exciting feeling to see these tiny busy organisms swimming around in the water.
2. Yesterday I was watching the late news on TV One and they showed some pictures of dolphins, playing with air-bubbles they blow themselves, for sheer fun's sake. Especially if I hear about all the bad things happening in this world - the terror-attack on Sri Lankas cricket team in Pakistan, the assault on Tsvangirai and his wife in Zimbabwe or the shooting tragedy in Germany to name just a few happening recently, not to speak about all the repression and tragedy not making it to the news - compared to the lightheartedness of a dolphin enjoying his community and playing with these jewels of air, I seriously doubt whether human beings are so superior to everything as we think we are. Probably there is a good deal more we can learn from animals than just how they manage to survive.
If you've never seen it, have a look at Youtube under air-bubble blowing dolphins.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Christchurch - Love it, mate!
Actually, my first post about my new home should have been a sarcastic look at the disadvantages of living in New Zealand, since everyone has a positive image of NZ anyway. But after four weeks in Christchurch, there is hardly anything bad to write about, so I'll end up listing the highlights so far, and there are quite a few...
1. University
After just one week at Uni you realise what kind of torture Highschool actually was:
- You can choose which courses you want to take, so my timetable is consisting of cool and interesting things with three Biology, three Geology and one Antarctic Studies paper.
- In classes of up to 400 people, no one cares when or whether at all you turn up and whether you pay attention or not.
- No one cares when or where or how you study, and no one punishes you like a five year old for not doing your homework.
- The lecturers are close to the theme and mostly into research, so they bring in lots of fascination and positive energy, rather than the Highschool teachers who are usually either freaks or underchallenged or both.
- Classes start at friendly times like 10am, so you can actually pick up something rather than sleep through the lessons or end as early as 9am, so that you can actually do something with your day.
2. Living on Campus
One thing Christchurch is not fussy about is space - there is enough for everyone everywhere. The Uni Campus is an own suburb with streets for different facilities, restaurants and shops, two huge sportfields, tenniscourts, a big recreation centre and six residence halls, in the most beautiful I'm living in along with 69 other students. It's peaceful and quite, yet just a 15 minutes walk away from the lecture rooms. We have a wonderful Japanese garden as well as a nice common room with pool table, table tennis and Sky TV.
3. My new Road Bike
Christchurch is the perfect city to ride a bike, since most streets have actually room for three cars on each lane. Therefore I bought myself a brand new Genius road bike at the second weekend and am loving it ever since. My favourite ride in the city is along the Avon river, where hardly any cars are driving and you can observe the ducks among rowers and the caracteristic willow trees. For longer rides, I go up the hills south of the city, which lift you up to an altitude of 400m above sea level and offer breathtaking views over the city, the Canterbury plains, Lyttelton harbour and the Banks Peninsula.
4. My new Tennis club
I joined the Burnside Park Tennis Club and it immediately became my second home in the city. With nine courts and hundreds of members, it offers me heaps of competitive hitting partners and I'm playing more or less every other day. After many years of hitting the ball for its own sake, I now can start working a little at my game again and might be competitive soon as well. Moreover, I get a chance to get into kids coaching there, which I regard as a dream job during Uni. And of course, like everywhere in the world, you easily make lots of friends.
5. Cricket
Hardly anyone is into this sport, but everyone who is into it knows, that they're missing out. I was really longing for it during my time back in Europe and still can't get enough, especially since I'm learning new things everytime I watch it. After a rainy tour of the West Indies in New Zealand, the Kiwis nearly crushed the mighty Australians and are now taking on red-hot India. I was at the first match of the series last Wednesday and saw a world record of Sixes in a comfortable win for New Zealand. What's more, I am occasionally playing a little as well.
All in all, life here is greater than the highest expectations, I just love it and am so excited about sticking around for a long time in beautiful Christchurch.
1. University
After just one week at Uni you realise what kind of torture Highschool actually was:
- You can choose which courses you want to take, so my timetable is consisting of cool and interesting things with three Biology, three Geology and one Antarctic Studies paper.
- In classes of up to 400 people, no one cares when or whether at all you turn up and whether you pay attention or not.
- No one cares when or where or how you study, and no one punishes you like a five year old for not doing your homework.
- The lecturers are close to the theme and mostly into research, so they bring in lots of fascination and positive energy, rather than the Highschool teachers who are usually either freaks or underchallenged or both.
- Classes start at friendly times like 10am, so you can actually pick up something rather than sleep through the lessons or end as early as 9am, so that you can actually do something with your day.
2. Living on Campus
One thing Christchurch is not fussy about is space - there is enough for everyone everywhere. The Uni Campus is an own suburb with streets for different facilities, restaurants and shops, two huge sportfields, tenniscourts, a big recreation centre and six residence halls, in the most beautiful I'm living in along with 69 other students. It's peaceful and quite, yet just a 15 minutes walk away from the lecture rooms. We have a wonderful Japanese garden as well as a nice common room with pool table, table tennis and Sky TV.
3. My new Road Bike
Christchurch is the perfect city to ride a bike, since most streets have actually room for three cars on each lane. Therefore I bought myself a brand new Genius road bike at the second weekend and am loving it ever since. My favourite ride in the city is along the Avon river, where hardly any cars are driving and you can observe the ducks among rowers and the caracteristic willow trees. For longer rides, I go up the hills south of the city, which lift you up to an altitude of 400m above sea level and offer breathtaking views over the city, the Canterbury plains, Lyttelton harbour and the Banks Peninsula.
4. My new Tennis club
I joined the Burnside Park Tennis Club and it immediately became my second home in the city. With nine courts and hundreds of members, it offers me heaps of competitive hitting partners and I'm playing more or less every other day. After many years of hitting the ball for its own sake, I now can start working a little at my game again and might be competitive soon as well. Moreover, I get a chance to get into kids coaching there, which I regard as a dream job during Uni. And of course, like everywhere in the world, you easily make lots of friends.
5. Cricket
Hardly anyone is into this sport, but everyone who is into it knows, that they're missing out. I was really longing for it during my time back in Europe and still can't get enough, especially since I'm learning new things everytime I watch it. After a rainy tour of the West Indies in New Zealand, the Kiwis nearly crushed the mighty Australians and are now taking on red-hot India. I was at the first match of the series last Wednesday and saw a world record of Sixes in a comfortable win for New Zealand. What's more, I am occasionally playing a little as well.
All in all, life here is greater than the highest expectations, I just love it and am so excited about sticking around for a long time in beautiful Christchurch.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Melbourne - Surprise, it's hot!
Spending 10 days in Melbourne taught me a few lessons:
1. The Oz summer is hot
When I stepped out of the air-conditioned airport hall at 11am on January 20, having flown in from Auckland, a decent wind blew into my face being so hot that my nose immediately started bleeding. However, the first day was relatively cool with a high of 34 degrees - it was up to 44 when I left! In fact I experienced the first time in a hundred years that Melbourne had three days in a row over 40 degrees. As long as your in the shade - as I was in the 2nd week, reading and listening to music in the botanic gardens or near Albert lake - you have a chance to survive. But if your unlucky to be a tennismaniac and don't want to miss out on any second of Grand Slam action...
2. I love the Australian Open
The tournament has been my favourite sports event for a long time. I was in Melbourne Park on six days, watching around 70 hours of livetennis. The crowd is amazing, the matches are fantastic, the venue is beautiful, the city is great and it's incredibly cheap: I paid just 160 Oz-Dollars for all days and have been several times in the big stadiums, seeing some of the most amazing five-set-battles and players like Federer, Safin, Roddick, Tsonga or Murray.
3. No worries
In Australia, such a thing as a problem doesn't seem to exist. The whole holiday went absolutely smooth. After living with my billet from Auckland and a friend of hers in a flat with the perfect location near the MCG, I was supposed to move into the apartment of a friend for the last three nights. After a misunderstanding, I was left with my luggage but without accommodation at 10pm on the streets of Melbourne, a hopless time to find a bed in the city. I called up the only person I knew and had the number of and asked whether I could spend the night on their sofa, and despite barely knowing her, she gladly welcomed me. Many thanks for that and another example of no need for worries in Australia.
4. There are weird people in every city
As every big city, Melbourne has got some seriously weird people, and I happened to meet two of them within 12 hours. The first meeting was in a tram, where the - beyond doubt - gayest gaylord in the whole gayworld started talking to me. I got off the very next stop!
The second meeting was somehow more pleasant, since it was an extraordinarily hot Indian girl, making me beautiful eyes and starting conversation. She was worringly straightforward - until she found out that I'm not having a flat in city for her to stay overnight. We were talking in a park when I went off to pee, and coming back she was gone, and I was glad that I had decided not to trust her and take my bagpack with me.
1. The Oz summer is hot
When I stepped out of the air-conditioned airport hall at 11am on January 20, having flown in from Auckland, a decent wind blew into my face being so hot that my nose immediately started bleeding. However, the first day was relatively cool with a high of 34 degrees - it was up to 44 when I left! In fact I experienced the first time in a hundred years that Melbourne had three days in a row over 40 degrees. As long as your in the shade - as I was in the 2nd week, reading and listening to music in the botanic gardens or near Albert lake - you have a chance to survive. But if your unlucky to be a tennismaniac and don't want to miss out on any second of Grand Slam action...
2. I love the Australian Open
The tournament has been my favourite sports event for a long time. I was in Melbourne Park on six days, watching around 70 hours of livetennis. The crowd is amazing, the matches are fantastic, the venue is beautiful, the city is great and it's incredibly cheap: I paid just 160 Oz-Dollars for all days and have been several times in the big stadiums, seeing some of the most amazing five-set-battles and players like Federer, Safin, Roddick, Tsonga or Murray.
3. No worries
In Australia, such a thing as a problem doesn't seem to exist. The whole holiday went absolutely smooth. After living with my billet from Auckland and a friend of hers in a flat with the perfect location near the MCG, I was supposed to move into the apartment of a friend for the last three nights. After a misunderstanding, I was left with my luggage but without accommodation at 10pm on the streets of Melbourne, a hopless time to find a bed in the city. I called up the only person I knew and had the number of and asked whether I could spend the night on their sofa, and despite barely knowing her, she gladly welcomed me. Many thanks for that and another example of no need for worries in Australia.
4. There are weird people in every city
As every big city, Melbourne has got some seriously weird people, and I happened to meet two of them within 12 hours. The first meeting was in a tram, where the - beyond doubt - gayest gaylord in the whole gayworld started talking to me. I got off the very next stop!
The second meeting was somehow more pleasant, since it was an extraordinarily hot Indian girl, making me beautiful eyes and starting conversation. She was worringly straightforward - until she found out that I'm not having a flat in city for her to stay overnight. We were talking in a park when I went off to pee, and coming back she was gone, and I was glad that I had decided not to trust her and take my bagpack with me.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Auckland - Working in Paradise
Celebrating the New Year in a plane, believe me, is not worthwhile. I would have expected at least a glass of champagne to drink on a good year, but most people were just sleeping through it or watching a movie.
The flight Down Under is long and straining, no matter how much your used to or excited about flying. I had some decent stuff to read and my new mp3-player with me, a good chat with a Hongkong flight attendant on holidays who was sitting next to me and the 8 hours stopover in a smoggy Hongkong with winter-temperatures of 16 degrees was wonderful. But arriving in the early afternoon on January 2 in Auckland, I had picked up only a couple hours of sleep, after starting my journey in Zurich at noon on New Year's Eve.
Kiwi-summer: 50 degrees warmer
The excitment to see New Zealand after hours of sea and after looking forward to it for so long was overwhelming. I was welcomed by a humid 25 degrees (it was -25 back home) and by Clare Wade, who was so friendly to take care of me and give me a home for my two and a half weeks in Auckland. Very fast I realised why I've been missing this country ever since leaving it. The broad roads, green parks, random people greeting you cheerfully, cricket, the sea and the uncomplicated relaxedness and lightheartedness of everything make it a unique and wonderful place.
After a slightly rainy start, the two tournaments I worked at as a line-umpire we were spoiled with the most beautiful Kiwi-summer-weather and it was working in paradise for me. The team of umpires, as at pretty much every tournament I guess, was very welcoming and blessed with all kind of nice and weird people, so we had good fun together. They gave me a lot of time to work on the serviceline, a new challenge for me, which I consider as another level of umpiring compared to the other lines. I made many mistakes during the ladies event, some on the first day because of the jetlag, some because I still had to learn how to deal with the serviceline and some I just couldn't explain to myself. So I was really eager to improve towards the mens event and did fairly well, conceding just one overrule and making two bad calls during the whole tournament. I was pleased to do more serviceline and to make the final, where Juan Martin del Potro unfortunately crushed Sam Querrey in straight sets.
Next stop: Oz Open
I was working on 14 of the first 15 days in New Zealand, leaving only little time to enjoy the city. I went for runs around the beautiful Orakei Basin near my house, played tennis at Parnell with my billet and different mates, was invited for several dinners and a very interesting bbq, was spoilde by Clare with good food, watched some amazing cricket and, on my only free day, went to Piha and Whites beach on the westcoast for a swim and walk.
It was definitely a good start into my time in New Zealand and I'm looking forward to come back to Auckland someday and meet all the people I've got to know. But now, the Australian Open, my favourite sports event, is about to start and I seize the chance to go to Melbourne for 10-day-holiday, before coming back to NZ - and stay.
The flight Down Under is long and straining, no matter how much your used to or excited about flying. I had some decent stuff to read and my new mp3-player with me, a good chat with a Hongkong flight attendant on holidays who was sitting next to me and the 8 hours stopover in a smoggy Hongkong with winter-temperatures of 16 degrees was wonderful. But arriving in the early afternoon on January 2 in Auckland, I had picked up only a couple hours of sleep, after starting my journey in Zurich at noon on New Year's Eve.
Kiwi-summer: 50 degrees warmer
The excitment to see New Zealand after hours of sea and after looking forward to it for so long was overwhelming. I was welcomed by a humid 25 degrees (it was -25 back home) and by Clare Wade, who was so friendly to take care of me and give me a home for my two and a half weeks in Auckland. Very fast I realised why I've been missing this country ever since leaving it. The broad roads, green parks, random people greeting you cheerfully, cricket, the sea and the uncomplicated relaxedness and lightheartedness of everything make it a unique and wonderful place.
After a slightly rainy start, the two tournaments I worked at as a line-umpire we were spoiled with the most beautiful Kiwi-summer-weather and it was working in paradise for me. The team of umpires, as at pretty much every tournament I guess, was very welcoming and blessed with all kind of nice and weird people, so we had good fun together. They gave me a lot of time to work on the serviceline, a new challenge for me, which I consider as another level of umpiring compared to the other lines. I made many mistakes during the ladies event, some on the first day because of the jetlag, some because I still had to learn how to deal with the serviceline and some I just couldn't explain to myself. So I was really eager to improve towards the mens event and did fairly well, conceding just one overrule and making two bad calls during the whole tournament. I was pleased to do more serviceline and to make the final, where Juan Martin del Potro unfortunately crushed Sam Querrey in straight sets.
Next stop: Oz Open
I was working on 14 of the first 15 days in New Zealand, leaving only little time to enjoy the city. I went for runs around the beautiful Orakei Basin near my house, played tennis at Parnell with my billet and different mates, was invited for several dinners and a very interesting bbq, was spoilde by Clare with good food, watched some amazing cricket and, on my only free day, went to Piha and Whites beach on the westcoast for a swim and walk.
It was definitely a good start into my time in New Zealand and I'm looking forward to come back to Auckland someday and meet all the people I've got to know. But now, the Australian Open, my favourite sports event, is about to start and I seize the chance to go to Melbourne for 10-day-holiday, before coming back to NZ - and stay.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Switzerland - Last week back home
There was one week left to wrap up a fantastic 2008 and I would spend it, as supposed to at christmas time, with my family in Switzerland. One more week before starting the adventure New Zealand, and it was very much like the other brackets I spent at home during the last 8 months.
Since april I was planning lo leave my homecountry permanently, so everytime I went home, which was between 4 and 10 days once a month, I could enjoy it a great deal. Eating typical food, attending events, hiking in the engadin valley, playing tennis with my brother, enjoying Zurich and our fabulous public transport system, just seeing my family and talking to them or this time around skiing, playing icehockey, catching up with old schoolfriends and looking at the breathtaking mountains covered in snow were things I never had enjoyed that much before. The fact that life and every little bit in it is volatile, that we are mortal, that nothing lasts, that's what makes life precious.
Why would I do such a crazy thing and leave Switzerland, a place so well-known for its wealth and beauty all around the world? Maybe because I am crazy. But then, everyone of us has his pecularities, and as long as it doesn't cause any harm to anyone, there is no reason for hiding them. In short, Switzerland didn't feel right anyomre when I came back from Down Under a year ago. The idea of living my life there was unbearable, and it felt like I could do something better with my life. I choose Christchurch and New Zealand because I believe that I'm going to have a great time there. After 15 months of treaveling I need a place to call home, where I can take part at regular activities, be part of a community and build up something. Christchurch is the place that I believe will suit me most.
In the end, saying goodbye to everything in Switzerland was tough, but staying any longer would have been impossible. And, by bording the train to Frankfurt from where I would fly to Auckland at New Year's Eve, the excitment about 2009 and my future in New Zealand was overwhelming.
Since april I was planning lo leave my homecountry permanently, so everytime I went home, which was between 4 and 10 days once a month, I could enjoy it a great deal. Eating typical food, attending events, hiking in the engadin valley, playing tennis with my brother, enjoying Zurich and our fabulous public transport system, just seeing my family and talking to them or this time around skiing, playing icehockey, catching up with old schoolfriends and looking at the breathtaking mountains covered in snow were things I never had enjoyed that much before. The fact that life and every little bit in it is volatile, that we are mortal, that nothing lasts, that's what makes life precious.
Why would I do such a crazy thing and leave Switzerland, a place so well-known for its wealth and beauty all around the world? Maybe because I am crazy. But then, everyone of us has his pecularities, and as long as it doesn't cause any harm to anyone, there is no reason for hiding them. In short, Switzerland didn't feel right anyomre when I came back from Down Under a year ago. The idea of living my life there was unbearable, and it felt like I could do something better with my life. I choose Christchurch and New Zealand because I believe that I'm going to have a great time there. After 15 months of treaveling I need a place to call home, where I can take part at regular activities, be part of a community and build up something. Christchurch is the place that I believe will suit me most.
In the end, saying goodbye to everything in Switzerland was tough, but staying any longer would have been impossible. And, by bording the train to Frankfurt from where I would fly to Auckland at New Year's Eve, the excitment about 2009 and my future in New Zealand was overwhelming.
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