It's time now to review When the Bough Breaks, the second book in the two book omnibus that also included Wheels of Fire, the last book I reviewed. This book is set in the same universe, where elves living undercover in the United States race cars to raise money for youth shelters (yes, that;s seriously why they're doing it). Although the premise is...unpromising, this is actually a farly good book, and definitely is better than the mediocre Wheels of Fire.
This book deals with Mac Lynn, an elven race car driver in North Carolina whose real name is Maclyn (clever aliad there), whose girlfriend is a human school teacher named Lianne, who at the beginning of the book brings her 5th grade class to the race track to talk to Mac about race car driving. Suddenly, one of the cars crashes, but miraculously no one is seriously hurt. Mac notices a girl in Lianne's class named Amanda who seems to have controlled the explosion, and who seems to have immense magical ability. This is of immense interest to the elves, so Mac decides to investigate. Unfortunately, a woman named Belinda, who works for a man looking for telekinetics, happens to also be at the track at the same time and sees the incident. Fortunately, she believes Mac was the one who controlled the explosion, and Mac pretty soon is able to figure out what she's trying to do and decides to play along to lead her away from the child.
However, there are complications. Amanda has apparently developed her magical abilities because she has been seriously abused by her father for most of her life. This has also caused her to develop multiple personality disorder, with her personality split into three facets: the obsessively clean and incredibly judgemental puritan Alice, the sweet and intelligent Abbey, and the angry and rage-filled Anne, who is the personality that has to do with the abuse by her father. She is also the one who has developed the magical abilities, and that combined with her psychotic distrust of everyone endangers everything else in the book. In addition to the three personalities, Amanda is being possesed by the spirit of an ancient Celtic druidess named Cethlinn who one day appeared inside Amanda's psyche for unknown reasons. Cethlinn tries her best to reunite the three facets of Amanda's personality so that Amanda can deal with her father and be a whole person.
The main plot of the book is for Mac to figure out some way of removing Amanda from her house so she can be raised by the elves, who know how to teach her to use her magical abilities and also can raise her in a loving environment. This is a fairly simple goal, but Mac keeps on getting distracted from it by having to deal with Belinda, Lianne's suspicions about him, and omens of an invasion of the elven realm by horrible unkillable monsters. Lackey accomplishes this balance quite well, so that I never thought that Mac could have just grabbed Amanda first and dealt with everything else afterwards. The other parts of the plot never felt like distractions to me.
The characters are all well balanced, with Mac as a powerful but not perfect hero (which was one of my problems with Al from the last book) who screws up some times and is even put in real danger quite a lot. His mother Dierdre (who works in the human world as his mechanic D.D.) is also quite good, a snarky woman who has earned her wisdom about the way the human and elven worlds work. Lianne was also pitch-perfect, and significantly more interesting than Cindy from the last book, as a logical woman who is forced to accept that which she thought was impossible, and she is able to hold her own with Mac over the course of the book. I also liked how the book ended for her, which is so very different from how the last book ended for Cindy, and is so much better in my opinion. Finally, Belinda was a character that I spent the entire book alternating between pitying and thinking that she deserved what she got, laughing at all of the various tricks Mac plays on her and fearing her increasingly insane rage at him. And her final two scenes in the book, where she suddenly becomes sympathetic, were wonderful.
The three personalities of Amanda are the center of the book. For the first two thirds, Alice barely appears, to the extent that I began to wonder why she was mentioned. It seemed like the story was more of a struggle between the light side of Amanda (Abbey) and the dark side (Anne). But the final third of the book showed that this was not true, and demonstrated both how Alice was a fundamental part of Amanda and how Anne (who by this time had bec0me a truly frightening character) might not be simply the darker side of the poor tortured girl. Cethlinn was also quite good and very necessary to the book, as she was the reader's portal into Amanda's troubled mind, able to see all three aspects of Amanda for what they were. Without her, it would have been difficult to truly understand Amanda.
There were a few loose ends that were never explained (like what Belinda was doing at the racetrack in the first place, and where Cethlinn came from), but all in all I thought this was a surprisingly good book. It's the kind of book I'd read again in a heartbeat.
My next book is going to be The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, so I may end up doing reviews of individual stories therin. Anyways, see y'all later
David
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Super!
The main thing I want to talk about that happened yesterday was that I went to a play put on my the Drama Society. It was an improvisational play, where various things the audience suggested would become part of the story. It was entitled "Super!" and featured the adventures of a young UC student who became a....SUPER HERO! In the case of the play I saw, young Henry Hay was bitten by a radioactive ferret in his calculus class (the ferret was my suggestion, the class was not) prompting him to become FERRETMAN! He then used his powers to fight crime and save intrepid campus reporter Susan Superfluous from the evil Taxidermist and his evil army of trespassers, as well as thwart the Taxidermist's plot to steal the corpse of Ulysees S Grant from his tomb with a plunger and the help of former NZ prime minister Helen Clark to lead a ZOMBIE ARMY against the world. I was impressed with all the actors for being able to create a fairly plausible and coherent storyline from such disparate elements. The narrator (a deadpan guy smoking a pipe in a suit) didn't get much response when he solicited answers, so he generally went with the first thing he heard, which wasn't that great sometimes. The tomb of Ulysees S Grant was way too obscure a location for the evil villain to attack, for instance, which was especially bad since he had to guess his plan, as he was deliberately offstage when the narrator solicited ideas. But the actor playing the Taxidermist was very good at working all of the weird crap together to make something that made at least some sense. Also of note was a fight scene between Ferretman and the Taxidermist under a blacklight, which was awesome and rediculous. All in all, a great and awesome play. I look forward to DramaSoc other productions in the future.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
First 2 days of school
So Monday I went to what I thought was my first class, trying for 20 minutes to find the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies for my Treaty of Waitangi tutorial class. Then it turns out that tutorials don't meet in the first week. Boy did I feel stupid. So I used my hour or so of now free time to pick up my course books.
When 11:00 finally rolled around, I went to my first class: my Treaty of Waitangi class. It looks to be fun and interesting. The Prof is the head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies, a big Maori guy. He told us that he doesn't like communicating by email or phone, and prefers we come and talk to him face-to-face, because it's easier to tell if we're lying face-to-face. I also think I might be the only non-kiwi in the class. He had us take a little mini-test on the Treaty, and I surprised myself with actually getting some of the answers right,
After class I ended up hanging out with some fellow IESers who were in the area while I had lunch. They all seem to be having cool classes too. I was surprised and pleased to learn that quite a few IESers were in my next class, NZ history from 1350 to 1940. I'm not so sure about the professor in this one, but as its team taught perhaps the other professor will be more dynamic. The one I had on Monday seemed kinda nervous and was a bit shrill. Apparently, whenever the class involves white people, she'll lecture, and whenever the class involves the Maori, the other professor will lecture. Hopefully it'll all be interesting.
My final class of the day was NZ Lit 1, which looks to be a quite fun class. When the prof was passing out the syllabi, he stole my hat and wore it around the room before returning it to me, saying that he felt like a "real man" whilst wearing it. He then spent most of the class drawing a time line on the board with important dates in NZ history. Interestingly, he didn't pick the more classic ones, like 1840 (when the Treaty was signed) instead opting for 900 (when it's possible the first Polynesians reached NZ), and 1522 ( when Magellan circumnavigated the Earth). He also talked about what makes NZ lit, and NZ culture so special: because it's essentially English lit nad culture grown in very foreign soil. This should prove interesting.
Tuesday I had only one class, Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners. Before that, though, I went to the Club fair underneath the library. There were all kinds of clubs-religious, political, sporting, etc. I was surprised to learn that one had to pay to join several of them. I ended up joining the roleplaying, scifi, gay straght alliance, French, Medieval Reenactment, and ninja clubs. Yeah, I know, I'm a super nerd. Sadly, although there were like 5 Christian clubs, one Muslim club, one Buddhist club, and one club that seemed to be all about generic hippie new ageism, there was no Jewish club. I'll check at the club fair today to see if there are any new clubs or anything.
Anyways, Conversational Maori looks to be interesting. The prof is actually a student at UC, which surprised me a bit. We practiced how to say hello and goodbye, as well as practicing the hongi, the Maori touching of noses as a greeting. The prof gave me a kitkat bar because I touched so many noses, which was pretty cool. I hope this won';t be too difficult a language to learn.
So last night I went to the Ilam Village Welcome Night. There, we were told by the RAs what we can and can't do and the procedures of what to do in emergencies, etc. After that was the houngi, the traditional Maori feast they had promised to us to get us to go to it. It was alright, but everything had this weird sour taste to it that I didn't like too much.
So anyways, that's all to report now. I'll tell y'all what happens next when it happens
David
When 11:00 finally rolled around, I went to my first class: my Treaty of Waitangi class. It looks to be fun and interesting. The Prof is the head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies, a big Maori guy. He told us that he doesn't like communicating by email or phone, and prefers we come and talk to him face-to-face, because it's easier to tell if we're lying face-to-face. I also think I might be the only non-kiwi in the class. He had us take a little mini-test on the Treaty, and I surprised myself with actually getting some of the answers right,
After class I ended up hanging out with some fellow IESers who were in the area while I had lunch. They all seem to be having cool classes too. I was surprised and pleased to learn that quite a few IESers were in my next class, NZ history from 1350 to 1940. I'm not so sure about the professor in this one, but as its team taught perhaps the other professor will be more dynamic. The one I had on Monday seemed kinda nervous and was a bit shrill. Apparently, whenever the class involves white people, she'll lecture, and whenever the class involves the Maori, the other professor will lecture. Hopefully it'll all be interesting.
My final class of the day was NZ Lit 1, which looks to be a quite fun class. When the prof was passing out the syllabi, he stole my hat and wore it around the room before returning it to me, saying that he felt like a "real man" whilst wearing it. He then spent most of the class drawing a time line on the board with important dates in NZ history. Interestingly, he didn't pick the more classic ones, like 1840 (when the Treaty was signed) instead opting for 900 (when it's possible the first Polynesians reached NZ), and 1522 ( when Magellan circumnavigated the Earth). He also talked about what makes NZ lit, and NZ culture so special: because it's essentially English lit nad culture grown in very foreign soil. This should prove interesting.
Tuesday I had only one class, Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners. Before that, though, I went to the Club fair underneath the library. There were all kinds of clubs-religious, political, sporting, etc. I was surprised to learn that one had to pay to join several of them. I ended up joining the roleplaying, scifi, gay straght alliance, French, Medieval Reenactment, and ninja clubs. Yeah, I know, I'm a super nerd. Sadly, although there were like 5 Christian clubs, one Muslim club, one Buddhist club, and one club that seemed to be all about generic hippie new ageism, there was no Jewish club. I'll check at the club fair today to see if there are any new clubs or anything.
Anyways, Conversational Maori looks to be interesting. The prof is actually a student at UC, which surprised me a bit. We practiced how to say hello and goodbye, as well as practicing the hongi, the Maori touching of noses as a greeting. The prof gave me a kitkat bar because I touched so many noses, which was pretty cool. I hope this won';t be too difficult a language to learn.
So last night I went to the Ilam Village Welcome Night. There, we were told by the RAs what we can and can't do and the procedures of what to do in emergencies, etc. After that was the houngi, the traditional Maori feast they had promised to us to get us to go to it. It was alright, but everything had this weird sour taste to it that I didn't like too much.
So anyways, that's all to report now. I'll tell y'all what happens next when it happens
David
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Canterbury Museum
So Saturday I went to the Canterbury Museum in downtown Christchurch. It's a free museum that I had noticed on the walk around Christchurch, and I wanted to explore it in more depth. It turned out to be a fun way to spend an afternoon. First off, there was an exhibit about the moa, New Zealand's ancient giant flightless bird that was hunted to extinction by the early Maori, as well as a few artifacts from the original Maori inhabitants. The next room involved more advanced Maori art and artifacts, as well as Maori interaction with white explorers and settlers. There was an interesting sidebar about the Moriori, the native people of the Chatham Islands, a part of New Zealand a ways away from the main two islands, who were related to but different from the Maori. After that I seemed to have gotten to the end of the exhibit by accident somehow, as I ended up in a section about New Zealand in the 19th and 20th centuries. I ended up working my way back through to the Maori section. There were a lot of kids with their parents in the museum, and there were quite a few things for them: I especially liked the old 19th century bicycle (one of those ridiculous ones with the tiny back wheel and giant front wheel) which you could get on: I wanted to go on myself, but there always seemed to be a kid, and plus I worried that it might not have supported my weight.
The second level of the museum had stuff on more than just New Zealand. There was a picture gallery of Pacific Islanders from throughout Polynesia, an exhibit on the Antartic and Antartic exploration (by the way, apparently UC is one of the few places in the world to specialize in Antartic research), a mummy (no, I'm not really sure why), a gallery of birds (including New Zealand birs like the kiwi, the tui, the kakapo, and the kea), an Asian art gallery (which was cool), and a gallery focusing on the challenges to New Zealand right now (i.e. invasive species, like how. The reason why New Zealand can resemble England sometimes is because so very very many English plants, animals, and the like came over with the English). All in all it was quite a fun gallery.
I wish I had someone to show Christchurch off to. I think I'm beginning to grasp the structure of the downtown, and it really is a beautiful city to see
Anywho, today is my first day of classes. I hope they go well, and I shall report back.
David Lev
The second level of the museum had stuff on more than just New Zealand. There was a picture gallery of Pacific Islanders from throughout Polynesia, an exhibit on the Antartic and Antartic exploration (by the way, apparently UC is one of the few places in the world to specialize in Antartic research), a mummy (no, I'm not really sure why), a gallery of birds (including New Zealand birs like the kiwi, the tui, the kakapo, and the kea), an Asian art gallery (which was cool), and a gallery focusing on the challenges to New Zealand right now (i.e. invasive species, like how. The reason why New Zealand can resemble England sometimes is because so very very many English plants, animals, and the like came over with the English). All in all it was quite a fun gallery.
I wish I had someone to show Christchurch off to. I think I'm beginning to grasp the structure of the downtown, and it really is a beautiful city to see
Anywho, today is my first day of classes. I hope they go well, and I shall report back.
David Lev
Friday, February 20, 2009
I did some tramping! Also, Operation Friendship
So Thursday after i had come back from buying some course packs for my classes, I came upon Amanda, a fellow IESer. When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she and some other were going to go take a gondola, and asked if I'd like to come along. I agreed. First we went to one of the cafes on campus and got some food (it was about lunchtime). I had one of the riceballs, which I had seen in the UCSA cafeteria but hadn't gotten yet. It turned out to be pretty good. I also had a blackcurrant soda which was cool but different.
Then, we took the bus to the small town of Lyttelton, which is on the outskirts of Christchurch. Now, when I heard "gondola rides," I was expecting one of those boats going up and down the Avon (and I was somewhat justified in this, given that I had seen just such boats in town). But no, in this case "gondola" meant one of those little cabins that get pulled on a wire up a mountain. It wasn't so bad, but the fact that they had to keep on stopping the gondolas to load more people off and on at the top and bottom was kind of...unnerving. A few times when we stopped the cabin definately shook from side to side as well.
Well, when we got to the top, we discovered a souvenier shop that had all of the kitschiest New Zealand mementos imaginable. There were Maori carvings, stuffed animals of kiwis, moreporks, tuis, and wekas, t0-shirts, book, mugs, and all sorts of stuff. Anyways, there was also the "Time Tunnel" ride, where a little car on a magnetic track took you around to various dioramas where a video of a little NZ girl named Olivia told us about the history of NZ. Finally, there was an observation deck and snack bar, but since it was foggy it was hard to really see anything. Finally we decided to hike down the mountain.
It was a couple hours hard tramp, but it was fun, and we got some cool photos. Sometimes the path was alarmingly narrow, and sometimes it was alarmingly close to the edge of a cliff, but it wasn't that hard to tramp along it. Along the way there was a neat little memorial to the Pioneer Women who had founded the Canterbury colony, which I kinda liked. Once we got to the bottom, there was also a nice Maori arch. After getting out off the trail, we still had to walk into Lyttelton, which took about 15 minutes. Once we got to the busstop in Lyttelton, we divided into two groups: the first decided to go home, while the rest of us went in search of a coffee shop. Since I was quite thirsty, I went with the second group. We found a coffee shop with some nice funky decor, and went in. I bought a bottle of something called Lemon Lime and Bitters, which lived up to its name: it was incredibly bitter, although I got used to it as I drank it. I also had a Peppermint bar, which was deliciously chocolatey and minty. After that we went home.
Since I was so tired, I didn't do much Thursday night. I also found myself being quite lazy on Friday, until about 5:30 when I went to Operation Friendship.
Operation Friendship is this organization of kiwis interested in getting to know International students. So yesterday was their welcoming dinner, where we were taken to various houses around Christchurch to have dinner. The guy organizing it wanted each house to have a good cultural mix, so he separated us out into Europeans, Asians, and Americans. The problem was only about three Europeans had shown up, so it was kinda awkward.
I was sent to the house of a man named Nick (who was actually an Australian) whose wife fed us burgers and potatos and other tasty things, For dessert was ice cream with chocolate sauce, which was delicious. However, I did learn that Operation Friendship is a Christian organization, although they weren't trying to convert us or anything. It did make me feel a bit weird, but not enough to prevent me from going back or anything. After dinner we played a game where we each submitted 6 names of famous people and we had to get our partner to guess who they were. I was partnered with a very exuberant Chinese guy named Sam, who was quite enthusiatic about the whole evening. It was interesting to see what people assumed people from other cultures would know: everyone but me in my group had no idea who Leif Erikson was, and our hosts submitted the names of several prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand that I had never heard of. After the game, they took us back to Ilam and I turned in for the night.
So today I hope to either do my laundry, go to the Canterbury Museum, or possibly both. Anywho, I'll update the blog accordingly.
David
Then, we took the bus to the small town of Lyttelton, which is on the outskirts of Christchurch. Now, when I heard "gondola rides," I was expecting one of those boats going up and down the Avon (and I was somewhat justified in this, given that I had seen just such boats in town). But no, in this case "gondola" meant one of those little cabins that get pulled on a wire up a mountain. It wasn't so bad, but the fact that they had to keep on stopping the gondolas to load more people off and on at the top and bottom was kind of...unnerving. A few times when we stopped the cabin definately shook from side to side as well.
Well, when we got to the top, we discovered a souvenier shop that had all of the kitschiest New Zealand mementos imaginable. There were Maori carvings, stuffed animals of kiwis, moreporks, tuis, and wekas, t0-shirts, book, mugs, and all sorts of stuff. Anyways, there was also the "Time Tunnel" ride, where a little car on a magnetic track took you around to various dioramas where a video of a little NZ girl named Olivia told us about the history of NZ. Finally, there was an observation deck and snack bar, but since it was foggy it was hard to really see anything. Finally we decided to hike down the mountain.
It was a couple hours hard tramp, but it was fun, and we got some cool photos. Sometimes the path was alarmingly narrow, and sometimes it was alarmingly close to the edge of a cliff, but it wasn't that hard to tramp along it. Along the way there was a neat little memorial to the Pioneer Women who had founded the Canterbury colony, which I kinda liked. Once we got to the bottom, there was also a nice Maori arch. After getting out off the trail, we still had to walk into Lyttelton, which took about 15 minutes. Once we got to the busstop in Lyttelton, we divided into two groups: the first decided to go home, while the rest of us went in search of a coffee shop. Since I was quite thirsty, I went with the second group. We found a coffee shop with some nice funky decor, and went in. I bought a bottle of something called Lemon Lime and Bitters, which lived up to its name: it was incredibly bitter, although I got used to it as I drank it. I also had a Peppermint bar, which was deliciously chocolatey and minty. After that we went home.
Since I was so tired, I didn't do much Thursday night. I also found myself being quite lazy on Friday, until about 5:30 when I went to Operation Friendship.
Operation Friendship is this organization of kiwis interested in getting to know International students. So yesterday was their welcoming dinner, where we were taken to various houses around Christchurch to have dinner. The guy organizing it wanted each house to have a good cultural mix, so he separated us out into Europeans, Asians, and Americans. The problem was only about three Europeans had shown up, so it was kinda awkward.
I was sent to the house of a man named Nick (who was actually an Australian) whose wife fed us burgers and potatos and other tasty things, For dessert was ice cream with chocolate sauce, which was delicious. However, I did learn that Operation Friendship is a Christian organization, although they weren't trying to convert us or anything. It did make me feel a bit weird, but not enough to prevent me from going back or anything. After dinner we played a game where we each submitted 6 names of famous people and we had to get our partner to guess who they were. I was partnered with a very exuberant Chinese guy named Sam, who was quite enthusiatic about the whole evening. It was interesting to see what people assumed people from other cultures would know: everyone but me in my group had no idea who Leif Erikson was, and our hosts submitted the names of several prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand that I had never heard of. After the game, they took us back to Ilam and I turned in for the night.
So today I hope to either do my laundry, go to the Canterbury Museum, or possibly both. Anywho, I'll update the blog accordingly.
David
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Review: Wheels of Fire
Because nothing much has happened since my last post, I think I shall take a little break and write a review of the book I just finished, "Wheels of Fire." This book was given to me years ago by a friend for my birthday, but I never got around to reading it until now. It's in an omnibus with another book, "When the Bough Breaks, " titled "The Other World. " To be truthful, I strayed away from this book partially because of the description on the back cover and the tagline on the front: "Hot Rods and High Magic to the Rescue." Both of these seem to imply some sort of fusion between a story about elves and a story about car racing, which frankly sounded a bit stupid. But as I read the book I discovered that it's better than I was expecting.
The book is by Mercedes Lackey (who is one of those authors I keep seeing in the bookstores but have never read) and Mark Shepard, and concerns the adventures of an elf named Alinor ("Al" for short) and his human friend Bob. Elves in the world of this story moved to the Americas to get away from encroaching humans and the iron used to build their civilizations, which makes the elves sick. However, elves also have great concerns for abused children, and have a tendency to take them away from abusive parents to either live "Underhill" (in the otherworldly realms of the elves) or raised by human foster parents friendly to the elves. Bob is a grown up example of these children. For some reason that I couldn't quite understand (there were two books in this series before this book, and perhaps they can explain better) elves and some of their human allies have gotten together a racecar-building company, called SERRA, which seems to specialize in building engines out of aluminum (since elves of course couldn't work with iron to make steel engines).
So that's the setup we're given to the story, with Al and Bob working on their engine on a racetrack in Oklahoma. Into their life comes Cindy, a young mother from Georgia whose ex-husband has run off with her son, Jamie. Jim, the ex-husband, had joined a cultish white supremacist and seperatist fundamentalist Christian sect called the Chosen Ones. Cindy has been able to track Jamie to Oklahoma, but has lost track of him. Al, because of his fondness for rescuing children, decides to help.
Meanwhile, the head of the Chosen Ones, Brother Joseph, is planning to use Jamie as a medium to contact a mysterious entity he refers to as the Holy Fire, which tells him how to make money off the lottery and selling drugs. Brother Joseph's son, Joe, is losing faith in his father's movement, and Jamie himself is being contacted by the ghost of a girl named Sarah, who used to fulfill Jamie's role, before she was murdered.
This book was actually surprisingly well written. The Chosen Ones, whilst being obviously the antagonists, are not cackling evil masterminds, but instead misguided people that have gone so far around the bender that they truly believe building a compound out in the middle of nowhere and stocking up on guns for when the US government inevitably will raid it. They are not cartoon villains, whilst still being believably evil. I also like how the various "Good Guys" (Al, Joe, Sarah, the local sheriff, Cindy, and Jamie) don't always agree as to what should be done, and sometimes act at cross purposes to one another. There are several scenes later in the book, for instance, where Sarah is downright cruel to Joe, who she partially blames for her death.
Joe as a character is probably my favorite. He is conflicted and truly changes over the course of the book. When the reader first meets him, it appears that he might even be a villain, but he undergoes much thinking on what his father has done and will do. He is the most human of all the characters, imperfect and yet totally sympathetic.
However, this book has several problems. One of them is the presence of Al and the background that goes with him. It's not in the story enough to really matter to the story, and seems oddly out of place for a story about trying to rescue a little boy from a deranged cult and the dark force manipulating it. Except for a chapter explaining Al's relationship to the mysterious dark creature controlling the cult (one of my favorite parts of the book, by the way), Al and the rest of the book seem to be in two separate universes. Lackey seems to have included him and his elven background to tie this story to a previous series of books, and to allow Al to be an almost Mary-Sueish source of power and ability, which is another problem. Despite Al needing to be careful around the iron gates of the Chosen Ones' compound, and trying to be care so as to avoid alerting the evil creature controlling the cult, he seems to triumph effortlessly over anything the antagonists can throw at him, all without them ever realizing he even exists.
A final problem for me was the character of Jim, Jamie's father. Although we are told that he used to be a good and loving man, before the book starts he has become a drunk, a white supremacist, and a bully. And yet he never seems to be more than a dupe to me, as opposed to a willfully evil person, like Brother Joseph or his lackey Luke. He didn't seem evil, just deceived. I was puzzled how the character I read about could have ever been a good person, while simultaneously finding it difficult to really consider him to be a villain. This was made even more frustrating by the fact that Lackey and Shepard obviously seemed to think of him as an antagonist.
So, all in all, the book was alright, being an entertaining read while simultaneously having serious issues that I could not reconcile. We will see whether "When the Bough Breaks" is any better.
David
PS look to see a post of my adventures from today later on. I wasn't expecting to have an adventure today, but I did. I'll tell it soon
The book is by Mercedes Lackey (who is one of those authors I keep seeing in the bookstores but have never read) and Mark Shepard, and concerns the adventures of an elf named Alinor ("Al" for short) and his human friend Bob. Elves in the world of this story moved to the Americas to get away from encroaching humans and the iron used to build their civilizations, which makes the elves sick. However, elves also have great concerns for abused children, and have a tendency to take them away from abusive parents to either live "Underhill" (in the otherworldly realms of the elves) or raised by human foster parents friendly to the elves. Bob is a grown up example of these children. For some reason that I couldn't quite understand (there were two books in this series before this book, and perhaps they can explain better) elves and some of their human allies have gotten together a racecar-building company, called SERRA, which seems to specialize in building engines out of aluminum (since elves of course couldn't work with iron to make steel engines).
So that's the setup we're given to the story, with Al and Bob working on their engine on a racetrack in Oklahoma. Into their life comes Cindy, a young mother from Georgia whose ex-husband has run off with her son, Jamie. Jim, the ex-husband, had joined a cultish white supremacist and seperatist fundamentalist Christian sect called the Chosen Ones. Cindy has been able to track Jamie to Oklahoma, but has lost track of him. Al, because of his fondness for rescuing children, decides to help.
Meanwhile, the head of the Chosen Ones, Brother Joseph, is planning to use Jamie as a medium to contact a mysterious entity he refers to as the Holy Fire, which tells him how to make money off the lottery and selling drugs. Brother Joseph's son, Joe, is losing faith in his father's movement, and Jamie himself is being contacted by the ghost of a girl named Sarah, who used to fulfill Jamie's role, before she was murdered.
This book was actually surprisingly well written. The Chosen Ones, whilst being obviously the antagonists, are not cackling evil masterminds, but instead misguided people that have gone so far around the bender that they truly believe building a compound out in the middle of nowhere and stocking up on guns for when the US government inevitably will raid it. They are not cartoon villains, whilst still being believably evil. I also like how the various "Good Guys" (Al, Joe, Sarah, the local sheriff, Cindy, and Jamie) don't always agree as to what should be done, and sometimes act at cross purposes to one another. There are several scenes later in the book, for instance, where Sarah is downright cruel to Joe, who she partially blames for her death.
Joe as a character is probably my favorite. He is conflicted and truly changes over the course of the book. When the reader first meets him, it appears that he might even be a villain, but he undergoes much thinking on what his father has done and will do. He is the most human of all the characters, imperfect and yet totally sympathetic.
However, this book has several problems. One of them is the presence of Al and the background that goes with him. It's not in the story enough to really matter to the story, and seems oddly out of place for a story about trying to rescue a little boy from a deranged cult and the dark force manipulating it. Except for a chapter explaining Al's relationship to the mysterious dark creature controlling the cult (one of my favorite parts of the book, by the way), Al and the rest of the book seem to be in two separate universes. Lackey seems to have included him and his elven background to tie this story to a previous series of books, and to allow Al to be an almost Mary-Sueish source of power and ability, which is another problem. Despite Al needing to be careful around the iron gates of the Chosen Ones' compound, and trying to be care so as to avoid alerting the evil creature controlling the cult, he seems to triumph effortlessly over anything the antagonists can throw at him, all without them ever realizing he even exists.
A final problem for me was the character of Jim, Jamie's father. Although we are told that he used to be a good and loving man, before the book starts he has become a drunk, a white supremacist, and a bully. And yet he never seems to be more than a dupe to me, as opposed to a willfully evil person, like Brother Joseph or his lackey Luke. He didn't seem evil, just deceived. I was puzzled how the character I read about could have ever been a good person, while simultaneously finding it difficult to really consider him to be a villain. This was made even more frustrating by the fact that Lackey and Shepard obviously seemed to think of him as an antagonist.
So, all in all, the book was alright, being an entertaining read while simultaneously having serious issues that I could not reconcile. We will see whether "When the Bough Breaks" is any better.
David
PS look to see a post of my adventures from today later on. I wasn't expecting to have an adventure today, but I did. I'll tell it soon
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Enrolment
So today was registration. And it wasn't that bad, I just went up stairs, down stairs, into classrooms, handed people stuff, was handed stuff by people, and got out about an hour after I hand gotten in. The only hitch was in the second to last room, where they print out your Enrolment Contract or some such thing and ask you to sign it. But something was wrong with the computers in the room so it took forever for the darn thing to print. Once I was done with enrolment, I went to the student center to get my Canterbury card. In between the bridge nearest the student center and the room where I was issued my card, I was accosted by 6 separate Christian groups, all wanting my membership, as well as plenty of other groups who wanted me to sign up, register, or buy something. Ironically, the one group I actually wanted to talk to (MetroCard, who I had heard were offering to put $10 on a MetroCard if you also put $10 on a MetroCard) couldn't do anything for me: their deal only applied for when you got your first MetroCard, and I already had one.
Finally, I got my Canterbury Card and went back to my room to get online and change my courses. Y'see, I had only signed up for 3 classes for this semester, and I needed to take 4, so I went to go add a course. It was significantly harder than adding a course at UPS, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the system kept on crashing. Plus one of my courses (Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners) kept on conflicting with my proposed fourth course, so I had to keep on trying. I eventually ended up with a class on the Treaty of Waitangi, which should hopefully be cool. I shall update as time goes on.
Tonight I might go to a "Speed Meeting" event. It's probably going to be kinda lame, but I guess it shouldn't hurt to meet more people. Anywho, I'm signing off now
Bai bai,
David
Finally, I got my Canterbury Card and went back to my room to get online and change my courses. Y'see, I had only signed up for 3 classes for this semester, and I needed to take 4, so I went to go add a course. It was significantly harder than adding a course at UPS, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the system kept on crashing. Plus one of my courses (Conversational Maori for Absolute Beginners) kept on conflicting with my proposed fourth course, so I had to keep on trying. I eventually ended up with a class on the Treaty of Waitangi, which should hopefully be cool. I shall update as time goes on.
Tonight I might go to a "Speed Meeting" event. It's probably going to be kinda lame, but I guess it shouldn't hurt to meet more people. Anywho, I'm signing off now
Bai bai,
David
Monday, February 16, 2009
International Orientation
I ended up going to the Chinese New Years festival with some IES people. We took the bus downtown, then walked up Columbo Street until we reached Victoria Square. The festival was crowded, filled with people and stalls selling cheap goods, as well as lanterns in the shape of people, animals, and other things. I took lots of pictures of the lanterns, which were especially striking once the sun went down. I also bought myself some chicken satay with peanut sauce, which was relatively cheap and quite tasty. Just before we left, a whole bunch of us found a tent where they were selling Chinese lanterns for 2 dollars, so we each bought one, in order to decorate our rooms with them. Then we met back at the statue of Victoria, and got back to the dispatch center in order to catch a bus within the 2 hour limit (if you take a bus within 2 hours of taking another bus, it's free).
So yesterday was International Orientation, which was long and boring and filled with lots of weird video clips like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8, when talking about the possibility of being misunderstood in a different culture. We also had a somewhat uncomfortable "birds and bees" section, which mostly served to warn the Asian and Middle Eastern students that American and European students might mistake their intentions. Anyways, after all that they gave us lunch, mostly consisting of sausages. I had the lamb and mint sausages, which were halal, which is probably about as close to Kosher I'm going to get in New Zealand. I first ate with some fellow Americans in a different study abroad program (Study Australia, I believe), and then, once they left, I found my group and ate with them. But never fear, those of y'all who worry that I'm not exposing myself enough to the non-American International students, for soon a young man named Jean-Luc plopped himself down next to me. He and I tried our best to understand each other, given his less-than-ideal English skills. I told him about how I lived in France when my dad went to Montpellier when I was a kid, but it;s possible that he thought I had said that I visited my dad in France while he was away. I learned that he's a mechanical engineering graduate student here to do research, that he's from the Alpine region of France, and that he;s looking forward to wintertime when he can ski in the mountains here. He seemed like a nice guy and I hope I see him around.
A few hours later, I attended a welcome ceremony put on by UCSA, the student association. This included tea and coffee, and a welcoming haka, which is a Maori dance. In the second half of the program, they asked for volunteers, and I surprised myself by volunteering. I ended up with a mishmash of Americans, Germans, Japanese, and a Malaysian guy, learning a few basic moves. Then we got up on stage and did our thing. I thought we'd be toward the back, but I was wrong: there I was, up front and center, slapping my chest and bellowing as loud as I could. It was quite an experience, and I suspect the IES girls in the front row probably snapped a few photos, so it's probably one I'll have to relive for a while now.But it was fun: if there's a haka club on campus, I might consider joining.
Yesterday evening, I spent some time in front of the TV. I ended up watching a Horatio Hornblower movie, which I used to watch when I was younger. My flatmate Damien stopped by for a while and I learned a bit more about him. He seems like a nice guy.
Unfortunately, I missed a couple of opportunities to talk to Erika and my mom yesterday, so since I have nothing to do today, I'm going to see if I can do some skyping this evening. I just came back from the gorcery store, and I'm happy to report that there are tortillas in NZ. I also bought a big bottle of Lemon & Pareoam or L&P's, which is a NZ soft drink sort of like carbonated lemonade.
So yesterday was International Orientation, which was long and boring and filled with lots of weird video clips like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8, when talking about the possibility of being misunderstood in a different culture. We also had a somewhat uncomfortable "birds and bees" section, which mostly served to warn the Asian and Middle Eastern students that American and European students might mistake their intentions. Anyways, after all that they gave us lunch, mostly consisting of sausages. I had the lamb and mint sausages, which were halal, which is probably about as close to Kosher I'm going to get in New Zealand. I first ate with some fellow Americans in a different study abroad program (Study Australia, I believe), and then, once they left, I found my group and ate with them. But never fear, those of y'all who worry that I'm not exposing myself enough to the non-American International students, for soon a young man named Jean-Luc plopped himself down next to me. He and I tried our best to understand each other, given his less-than-ideal English skills. I told him about how I lived in France when my dad went to Montpellier when I was a kid, but it;s possible that he thought I had said that I visited my dad in France while he was away. I learned that he's a mechanical engineering graduate student here to do research, that he's from the Alpine region of France, and that he;s looking forward to wintertime when he can ski in the mountains here. He seemed like a nice guy and I hope I see him around.
A few hours later, I attended a welcome ceremony put on by UCSA, the student association. This included tea and coffee, and a welcoming haka, which is a Maori dance. In the second half of the program, they asked for volunteers, and I surprised myself by volunteering. I ended up with a mishmash of Americans, Germans, Japanese, and a Malaysian guy, learning a few basic moves. Then we got up on stage and did our thing. I thought we'd be toward the back, but I was wrong: there I was, up front and center, slapping my chest and bellowing as loud as I could. It was quite an experience, and I suspect the IES girls in the front row probably snapped a few photos, so it's probably one I'll have to relive for a while now.But it was fun: if there's a haka club on campus, I might consider joining.
Yesterday evening, I spent some time in front of the TV. I ended up watching a Horatio Hornblower movie, which I used to watch when I was younger. My flatmate Damien stopped by for a while and I learned a bit more about him. He seems like a nice guy.
Unfortunately, I missed a couple of opportunities to talk to Erika and my mom yesterday, so since I have nothing to do today, I'm going to see if I can do some skyping this evening. I just came back from the gorcery store, and I'm happy to report that there are tortillas in NZ. I also bought a big bottle of Lemon & Pareoam or L&P's, which is a NZ soft drink sort of like carbonated lemonade.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
IES orientation in Springfield
I just got back from our orientation in the small town of Springfield. I woke up yesterday at 8:50 (which was when we were supposed to leave), and had to throw all of my stuff quickly in my backpack and book it, leaving behind my towel, shampoo, and sunscreen, all of which had rather unfortunate effects.
Our driver was a Kiwi named Colin, whow was the owner of the hostel we were staying at. He was a nice guy who told us all about the area we were driving through. The first place he took us was a sheep farm where the farmer, a guy named Big Chris, showed us his sheep, which were for both wool and meat, as well as his alpacas (one that I took a picture with tried to kiss me), and his dogs (where he showed us off their herding skills). He also showed us how to sort the sheep, which was pretty cool.
Then we went to get lunch and walk down to watch the Coast to Coast race. This is a race that goes from the West Coast to the East Coast on bikes, kayaks, and on foot. Eunice's son was biking for one of the teams, and we watched where the kayakers switched over to bikes. Although we all kind of got separated from one another, it was fun to watch. There was a certain crazy energy to it that was addictive.
The next place we went to was Castle Hill, which was a beautuful natural rock formation where rocks shot out of the ground, bent over into tunnels, and spread out over the ground. We all had great fun climbing all over the rocks, exploring all the weird nooks and crannies. I avoided the edges, but some of the others didn't, and I was surprised that one of the guys, Greg, didn't end up with all of his leg bones broken.
We went back to Springfield and had dinner at Smylie's, the hostel we were staying at. It was delicious, and I personally loved the corned beef and mint sauce. After dinner we went to the Fire Station, where Colin was a volunteer fireman, where we got drinks and played pool (I didn't, but others did), and also this weird drinking game (sans the drinking, actually) where you tried to hammer a nail into a piece of wood in one swing. It was a truly frustrating, but strangely addictive game. I returned to the hostel after losing and fell asleep watching the NZ movie Second Hand Wedding.
In the morning we ate breakfast and then prepared to go off for our activities of the day. Beofre we left, however, we took pictures in front of the giant donut statue (in honor of Springfield winning the right to display the Simpsons Move first in New Zealand), and admore the cute kittens at an outdoor gear sale. Those of us who had paid to go horseback riding (which didn't include me) went horseback riding. The rest of us went jetboating, which was amazing as we went impossibly fast over impossibly shallow water, occasionally doing spins splashing everyone in the boat. It was a unbelievably exciting.
Afterwards we ate lunch (beef sausages, steaks, and lambburgers), then those horse riders who hadn't gone went and the rest of us swam in the Waimak River, which is apparently Maori for "fast moving and cold." Colin pointed us towards a tributary, which was slower and shallower, making it (slightly) less cold. After I got out I had to fight off the swarms of sandflies, which land on you and bite you, leaving very itchy bites. I don't know if they got me at all, but I hope not.
Our final stope before coming back to Christchurch was at the horse riding farm, where we saw more alpacas as well as Big Chris's kunikuni (or Maori) pig, Wilbur, a big fat and ugly creature that snuffled around for food.
After that we came back here. Tomorrow is the International Student Orientation, which should be alright, hopefully, and tonight I may try to go see the lantern lighting at a Chinese New Year's festival downtown. Anywho, I look forward to seeing what's what tommorow and this week, when I register for classes. I hope y'all are doing well as well, and I'll update again later.
David Lev
Our driver was a Kiwi named Colin, whow was the owner of the hostel we were staying at. He was a nice guy who told us all about the area we were driving through. The first place he took us was a sheep farm where the farmer, a guy named Big Chris, showed us his sheep, which were for both wool and meat, as well as his alpacas (one that I took a picture with tried to kiss me), and his dogs (where he showed us off their herding skills). He also showed us how to sort the sheep, which was pretty cool.
Then we went to get lunch and walk down to watch the Coast to Coast race. This is a race that goes from the West Coast to the East Coast on bikes, kayaks, and on foot. Eunice's son was biking for one of the teams, and we watched where the kayakers switched over to bikes. Although we all kind of got separated from one another, it was fun to watch. There was a certain crazy energy to it that was addictive.
The next place we went to was Castle Hill, which was a beautuful natural rock formation where rocks shot out of the ground, bent over into tunnels, and spread out over the ground. We all had great fun climbing all over the rocks, exploring all the weird nooks and crannies. I avoided the edges, but some of the others didn't, and I was surprised that one of the guys, Greg, didn't end up with all of his leg bones broken.
We went back to Springfield and had dinner at Smylie's, the hostel we were staying at. It was delicious, and I personally loved the corned beef and mint sauce. After dinner we went to the Fire Station, where Colin was a volunteer fireman, where we got drinks and played pool (I didn't, but others did), and also this weird drinking game (sans the drinking, actually) where you tried to hammer a nail into a piece of wood in one swing. It was a truly frustrating, but strangely addictive game. I returned to the hostel after losing and fell asleep watching the NZ movie Second Hand Wedding.
In the morning we ate breakfast and then prepared to go off for our activities of the day. Beofre we left, however, we took pictures in front of the giant donut statue (in honor of Springfield winning the right to display the Simpsons Move first in New Zealand), and admore the cute kittens at an outdoor gear sale. Those of us who had paid to go horseback riding (which didn't include me) went horseback riding. The rest of us went jetboating, which was amazing as we went impossibly fast over impossibly shallow water, occasionally doing spins splashing everyone in the boat. It was a unbelievably exciting.
Afterwards we ate lunch (beef sausages, steaks, and lambburgers), then those horse riders who hadn't gone went and the rest of us swam in the Waimak River, which is apparently Maori for "fast moving and cold." Colin pointed us towards a tributary, which was slower and shallower, making it (slightly) less cold. After I got out I had to fight off the swarms of sandflies, which land on you and bite you, leaving very itchy bites. I don't know if they got me at all, but I hope not.
Our final stope before coming back to Christchurch was at the horse riding farm, where we saw more alpacas as well as Big Chris's kunikuni (or Maori) pig, Wilbur, a big fat and ugly creature that snuffled around for food.
After that we came back here. Tomorrow is the International Student Orientation, which should be alright, hopefully, and tonight I may try to go see the lantern lighting at a Chinese New Year's festival downtown. Anywho, I look forward to seeing what's what tommorow and this week, when I register for classes. I hope y'all are doing well as well, and I'll update again later.
David Lev
Friday, February 13, 2009
Phone and metrocard
After I finished my last post, I wandered back to my flat and then went to meet the IES group. Our group leader is a very nice middle aged Kiwi woman named Eunice, and her assistant is a Canadian PhD student named Justin. We did some basic introductory games to introduce ourselves to one another (the only problem with them was that everyone was talking at once so it was sometimes hard to understand what people were saying). We also celebrated the 21st birthday of Carolina, one of the girls who came here from the University of Rochester. Eunice gave us a handbook which includes all kinds of information, and in the car to our next event (dinner in town) one of the girls in my car was reading off the glossary of NZ English terms, bizarre things like "box of birds," "sweet as," and "tramping." Dinner was at a buffet place which had some scary looking food (self-saucing pudding?) but all in all it was tasty. Because we all ended up finishing a lot earlier than Eunice was expecting, we took the opportunity to wander around in Victoria Square, which was a park. I had forgotten to grab my cellphone, so I had to take pictures of stuff with my cellphone camera. There was a lot of stuff for Chinese New Year in the park, mostly animals made of papier mache. When we got home, I got myself internet, and then at around 10:00 realized I needed to get food for tommorow, so I had to go find the Countdown (the local supermarket) at the same time most of my group members were coming back from their own shopping trips.
Our first activity today was a treasure hunt. We were split up into groups of 4, and then sent out to find places so we could answer questions about them (i.e. "how many yellow chairs in Cafe 1o1" or "What flags are over the door of the International Student Services house?"). Eunice then told us the right answers. Those who got the most right got a New Zealand delicacy, Cadbury Chocolate Fish (marshmallow fish covered in chocolate). My group didn't win, but one of the girls who did didn't want her chocolate fish, so I took them off her hands. They weren't bad, really. Eunice then gave us a long talk on alcohol abuse, not taking drugs, and the various horrible ways one can die while out tramping.
Then we moved on to the main thing we were doing today: a walk down to downtown to get ourselves Metrocards, which are buspasses. We walked past a park which is apparently the only existing forest of this one kind of New Zealand tree, and had lunch in a cafe in the Botanical Park. I had a roast chicken, cranberry sauce, and brie ciabatta sandwich, which was delish. Then we walked through the botanical garden, stopping at the rose garden and the conservatory, where everyone looked for the room of carniverous plants, so we could figure out which of the plants was the monkey-eating plant. We also had our picture taken in front of a massive tree (supposedly the biggest one Justin had ever seen).
We eventually got into downtown Christchurch, where we wandered through museums, the art center (which was where the University of Canterbury used to be), New Regents Street (where I saw a cool-looking used bookstore that I have to go back to at some point), Christchurch Cathedral, and the oldest department store in Christchurch. We finally got to the Metro central station where we all rushed to turn in our applications for Metrocards. It was here that Eunice turned us loose, telling us that we had everything that we needed. A whole lot of us got off at a mall on the way so that we could buy phones and plans for ourselves. First we went to the Telecom shop, then the Vodaphone shop, then back to Telecom. Most of us (including me) ended up with Telecom phones, which were more expensive phones but cheaper plans, and worked better with other Telecom phones, but won't work outside NZ. I think I made the right choice, but it was so dizsying that I basically followed what most of the others seemed to be doing. It also took me a little while to figure out how to "top up" my phone (i.e. put credit on the phone), but eventually I figured it out.
When we got back to Ilam, we discovered that the free BBQ that we were counting on for lunch had already finished. I accompanied some others to this sketchy looking Chinese fish and chip shop (which served fish and chips, all kinds of weird burgers including beet and pinapple burgers, and Chinese food), which had food that was cheap but incredibly good, and in very big portions too (I still have some chips in the fridge here). When we got back, Tamar (another IESer) yelled down from her balcony that she was going to watch Finding Nemo, and asking us if we wanted to come and watch. I and some others did. I ended up falling asleep in the middle of the movie, but I woke up when some of the others decided to got to a party they'd heard about with some IFSA Butler students. They and I got separated when I mistook a completely separate party (which had mostly Kiwis) for the one we were planning on going to. Apparently both I and they were both disatisfied with our respective parties, as we all went back to our dorms pretty shortly after we arrived at them.
Tomorrow we go to Springfield (a mountain town a little ways away) so I probably won't be able to update this blog until Sunday evening (which would be Saturday for my readers). Until then, I hope y'all are doing all right!
David Lev
Our first activity today was a treasure hunt. We were split up into groups of 4, and then sent out to find places so we could answer questions about them (i.e. "how many yellow chairs in Cafe 1o1" or "What flags are over the door of the International Student Services house?"). Eunice then told us the right answers. Those who got the most right got a New Zealand delicacy, Cadbury Chocolate Fish (marshmallow fish covered in chocolate). My group didn't win, but one of the girls who did didn't want her chocolate fish, so I took them off her hands. They weren't bad, really. Eunice then gave us a long talk on alcohol abuse, not taking drugs, and the various horrible ways one can die while out tramping.
Then we moved on to the main thing we were doing today: a walk down to downtown to get ourselves Metrocards, which are buspasses. We walked past a park which is apparently the only existing forest of this one kind of New Zealand tree, and had lunch in a cafe in the Botanical Park. I had a roast chicken, cranberry sauce, and brie ciabatta sandwich, which was delish. Then we walked through the botanical garden, stopping at the rose garden and the conservatory, where everyone looked for the room of carniverous plants, so we could figure out which of the plants was the monkey-eating plant. We also had our picture taken in front of a massive tree (supposedly the biggest one Justin had ever seen).
We eventually got into downtown Christchurch, where we wandered through museums, the art center (which was where the University of Canterbury used to be), New Regents Street (where I saw a cool-looking used bookstore that I have to go back to at some point), Christchurch Cathedral, and the oldest department store in Christchurch. We finally got to the Metro central station where we all rushed to turn in our applications for Metrocards. It was here that Eunice turned us loose, telling us that we had everything that we needed. A whole lot of us got off at a mall on the way so that we could buy phones and plans for ourselves. First we went to the Telecom shop, then the Vodaphone shop, then back to Telecom. Most of us (including me) ended up with Telecom phones, which were more expensive phones but cheaper plans, and worked better with other Telecom phones, but won't work outside NZ. I think I made the right choice, but it was so dizsying that I basically followed what most of the others seemed to be doing. It also took me a little while to figure out how to "top up" my phone (i.e. put credit on the phone), but eventually I figured it out.
When we got back to Ilam, we discovered that the free BBQ that we were counting on for lunch had already finished. I accompanied some others to this sketchy looking Chinese fish and chip shop (which served fish and chips, all kinds of weird burgers including beet and pinapple burgers, and Chinese food), which had food that was cheap but incredibly good, and in very big portions too (I still have some chips in the fridge here). When we got back, Tamar (another IESer) yelled down from her balcony that she was going to watch Finding Nemo, and asking us if we wanted to come and watch. I and some others did. I ended up falling asleep in the middle of the movie, but I woke up when some of the others decided to got to a party they'd heard about with some IFSA Butler students. They and I got separated when I mistook a completely separate party (which had mostly Kiwis) for the one we were planning on going to. Apparently both I and they were both disatisfied with our respective parties, as we all went back to our dorms pretty shortly after we arrived at them.
Tomorrow we go to Springfield (a mountain town a little ways away) so I probably won't be able to update this blog until Sunday evening (which would be Saturday for my readers). Until then, I hope y'all are doing all right!
David Lev
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
In Christchurch
My flight to LAX went fairly smoothly, so I shall say no more about it. When I was waiting in the airport, I saw actor Sam Elliot get off a plane (pic of Elliot here: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1938528256/nm0000385), which I thought was cool. As I was getting into the line for the flight to Auckland, I encountered a lot of people who were also coming here to Christchurch, which was pretty cool. Apparently, there's at least one other program bringing American students here, becasue I met some guys from Ohio who were in that program.
The flight to Auckland was enjoyable if long. I was sitting next to a guy who had the latest by Ann Coulter, but I didn't comment on it, even tho I was slightly tempted to. I saw 2 movies: "Rachel Getting Married" and "The Wrestler," both of whom I would enthusiatically reccomend to those who read this blog. I also saw a few episodes of the British show Little Britain, which was pretty awesome, and featured Anthony Stewart Head as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
At Customs I hit a hiccup. For some reason, my student visa wasn't in the Immigration people's database, so they had to go off with my passport and do something to make sure it was OK. Anyways, I got through it all, went through customs, and checked my bags back in. I encountered 2 fellow IESers on my way: Reggie from Honduras, and Alise from New York. Auckland was almost tropically hot, although overcast.
The flight from Auckland to Christchurch was unremarkable. When I got off the plane, there were 2 taxi drivers waiting for all of us IESers on that particular flight. One looked vaguely like Grandaddy Jim, the other like Terry Pratchett. I was in Terry Pratchett's cab. I also received a folder from International Student Services, where I learned that I could use the internet here at International Student Services.
Christchurch right now is almost exactly like Oregon in Mid-October or April: rainy and overcast. I almost feel like home.
When we got to UC, we were taken to the "New Common Room," where we checked in, got our keys, had our pictures taken, and got our linen packs, which apparently IES bought for us. We also got T shirts and book bags. I was shown to my building (there are a whole series of apartment buildings in semi-alphabetical order. I'm in H) by a very nice young man whose accent I had trouble understanding, and met a young woman who was visiting her brother, who is apparently a flatmate of mine. She was Malaysian, so it appears I have a Malaysian flatmate.
After settling in as best I could, I decided to set forth across campus to reach this place. UC is HUGE, much bigger than UPS. I got lost quite a few times, but I got here eventually. I also encounter the University Bookstore, which is big and has an enormous and varied selection. The Terry Pratchett books made me consider briefly staying here permanently, but I decided against it.
Whilst here, I've been checking my email. The internet is a little funky, so I hope that I can get my own internet to work soon. I shall attempt to post more about my adventures in the future, and hopefully even be able to skype you guys.
Bye for now, and I love you all,
David
The flight to Auckland was enjoyable if long. I was sitting next to a guy who had the latest by Ann Coulter, but I didn't comment on it, even tho I was slightly tempted to. I saw 2 movies: "Rachel Getting Married" and "The Wrestler," both of whom I would enthusiatically reccomend to those who read this blog. I also saw a few episodes of the British show Little Britain, which was pretty awesome, and featured Anthony Stewart Head as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
At Customs I hit a hiccup. For some reason, my student visa wasn't in the Immigration people's database, so they had to go off with my passport and do something to make sure it was OK. Anyways, I got through it all, went through customs, and checked my bags back in. I encountered 2 fellow IESers on my way: Reggie from Honduras, and Alise from New York. Auckland was almost tropically hot, although overcast.
The flight from Auckland to Christchurch was unremarkable. When I got off the plane, there were 2 taxi drivers waiting for all of us IESers on that particular flight. One looked vaguely like Grandaddy Jim, the other like Terry Pratchett. I was in Terry Pratchett's cab. I also received a folder from International Student Services, where I learned that I could use the internet here at International Student Services.
Christchurch right now is almost exactly like Oregon in Mid-October or April: rainy and overcast. I almost feel like home.
When we got to UC, we were taken to the "New Common Room," where we checked in, got our keys, had our pictures taken, and got our linen packs, which apparently IES bought for us. We also got T shirts and book bags. I was shown to my building (there are a whole series of apartment buildings in semi-alphabetical order. I'm in H) by a very nice young man whose accent I had trouble understanding, and met a young woman who was visiting her brother, who is apparently a flatmate of mine. She was Malaysian, so it appears I have a Malaysian flatmate.
After settling in as best I could, I decided to set forth across campus to reach this place. UC is HUGE, much bigger than UPS. I got lost quite a few times, but I got here eventually. I also encounter the University Bookstore, which is big and has an enormous and varied selection. The Terry Pratchett books made me consider briefly staying here permanently, but I decided against it.
Whilst here, I've been checking my email. The internet is a little funky, so I hope that I can get my own internet to work soon. I shall attempt to post more about my adventures in the future, and hopefully even be able to skype you guys.
Bye for now, and I love you all,
David
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I leave today
It's kinda scary, I will admit, and I hope that the snow on the ground here (very little, I admit, but still) will not delay me terribly. My mom and I will be leaving soon (in like 10 minutes), a little early so that we can stop at the outlet mall so she can buy me a pair of sneakers. Not that I think that I'll NEED sneakers, but oh well.
I also have snuck my green blanket into one of my suitcases, and I hope that it won't take up too much space on the way back. But Erika made it for me, and plus I suspect that the "linen pack" I can buy at the university in New Zealand doesn't include blankets.
I'm a little sad I wasn't able to do a review of "Otto and the Flying Twins", which I just finished. Mebbe I can try to do one on the fly later.
Anywhoo, I hope that I will be able to post more later, but probably I'll be posting from New Zealand next.
I also have snuck my green blanket into one of my suitcases, and I hope that it won't take up too much space on the way back. But Erika made it for me, and plus I suspect that the "linen pack" I can buy at the university in New Zealand doesn't include blankets.
I'm a little sad I wasn't able to do a review of "Otto and the Flying Twins", which I just finished. Mebbe I can try to do one on the fly later.
Anywhoo, I hope that I will be able to post more later, but probably I'll be posting from New Zealand next.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Review: The Rabbi's Cat 2
Weird how of the two things I've reviewed so far, both of them involve Judaism. But while the Yiddish Policeman's Union dealt with Ashkenazi Jews, the second volume of The Rabbi's Cat deals with the world of Sephardic Jews in 1920s Algeria. This is a place where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam meet and have to deal with each other as best they can.
The first volume of this comic by the French comic creator Joann Sfar deals with the cat of the rabbi Sfar of Algiers. The cat learned to talk by eating a parrot, but stopped talking when people stopped listening to him. The cat, who is nameless, is a wise but somewhat amoral creature who has little patience for the niceties of human society but an abiding love for his master the rabbi and mistress the rabbi's daughter, as well as the Jewish people as a whole: speaking about the rabbi's students, the cat waxes poetic: "Who would want to wage war against those creatures who only think about books?...I love you because you're vulnerable. I love you because there has to be someone who loves you."
The book is divided into two long, rambling stories of a sort (each is made up of several smaller stories that flow into one another as the narrative goes on). The first, "Heaven on Earth," has the cat follow around the rabbi's cousin, the mysterious mystic Malka of the lions, who travels the desert with a tame lion who he drives away from each town for money (a ploy that it becomes obvious that the villagers have become wise to, even though they still pay Malka for his "services"). In turn, they are followed by a snake, who the cat is initially afraid of and tries to scare away. But is soon becomes clear that the snake is an invited guest of Malka and his lion: he follows them because they know the various oases in the desert, and in return he keeps away intruders at night. He also has promised the lion to bite the beast once he becomes too old to follow Malka around anymore, allowing him to die before he has to watch Malka decline. The story is about that decline, of the end of the age of wonders that Malka (and to a lesser extent, the rabbi Sfar) belonged to, where Islam and Judaism thrived side by side. Now the world is a more ominous place, which the reader is given glimpses of when Malka attends a speech by the anti-semeti French mayor of a town they pass through, and when the rabbi throws out an interloper to his rabbinical class who urges the students to put down their books and take up arms to defend Judaism.
If the first part of the book was about decline, then the second part, titled "Africa's Jerusalem," is about the possibilities of the new world. It starts when the rabbi's son-in-law recieves a case full of books and documents from Russian Jews. But in addition to the books, the case contains an unconscious Russian whom everyone but the cat thinks is dead. But indeed, the Russian is not dead: he is a Jew, a painter, and a Communist who has become disillusioned with the Soviet government. So he stowed away in a case he thought was going to Addis Ababa (and is quite surprised when he ends up in Algiers), where he was hoping to look for the mythical Ethiopian city of Jerusalem, where the Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) live. Although they don't quite believe him, the rabbi, as well as the cat (who can understand the Russian, and be understood by the Russian), a rich former Russian noble who acts as translator, and the rabbi's cousin (a wandering Muslim sheikh) go off in search of it, because it's an adventure. On their way they encounter hostile Muslim nomads, racist Europeans, Africans completely different from anything they'd experienced before, the return of the ability to understand the cat, love for the painter in the form of an African barmaid, and a cameo by the famous comic book character Tintin. I especially loved the one page cameo by Tintin, who behaves exactly as he does in the infamous "Tintin in the Congo," except unlike that comic, the viewpoint of the story exposes the Belgian reporter as a racist moron who doesn't believe the rabbi or the sheikh can read or understand the concept of baths. It was immensely satisfying.
The love story between the painter and the waitress is very touching. Although no one (except maybe the cat) understands their relationship, still they find love and completion in one another. From the tender French lessons that the waitress gives the painter to their attempts to persuade the rabbi to marry them to the bittersweet moment they share when they finally make it to the African Jerusalem at the end of the story is just pitch perfect, demonstrating a heartwarming understanding of each other. I loved it, as I loved all of this story, and I wish/hope that Sfar will continue this, as well as his other series "Klezmer," which deals with Ashkenazi Jews.
In other news, I have recently installed skype on my computer, so if anyone else with skype wishes to contact me, my handle is davidlev13
Hope to have more to report soon
The first volume of this comic by the French comic creator Joann Sfar deals with the cat of the rabbi Sfar of Algiers. The cat learned to talk by eating a parrot, but stopped talking when people stopped listening to him. The cat, who is nameless, is a wise but somewhat amoral creature who has little patience for the niceties of human society but an abiding love for his master the rabbi and mistress the rabbi's daughter, as well as the Jewish people as a whole: speaking about the rabbi's students, the cat waxes poetic: "Who would want to wage war against those creatures who only think about books?...I love you because you're vulnerable. I love you because there has to be someone who loves you."
The book is divided into two long, rambling stories of a sort (each is made up of several smaller stories that flow into one another as the narrative goes on). The first, "Heaven on Earth," has the cat follow around the rabbi's cousin, the mysterious mystic Malka of the lions, who travels the desert with a tame lion who he drives away from each town for money (a ploy that it becomes obvious that the villagers have become wise to, even though they still pay Malka for his "services"). In turn, they are followed by a snake, who the cat is initially afraid of and tries to scare away. But is soon becomes clear that the snake is an invited guest of Malka and his lion: he follows them because they know the various oases in the desert, and in return he keeps away intruders at night. He also has promised the lion to bite the beast once he becomes too old to follow Malka around anymore, allowing him to die before he has to watch Malka decline. The story is about that decline, of the end of the age of wonders that Malka (and to a lesser extent, the rabbi Sfar) belonged to, where Islam and Judaism thrived side by side. Now the world is a more ominous place, which the reader is given glimpses of when Malka attends a speech by the anti-semeti French mayor of a town they pass through, and when the rabbi throws out an interloper to his rabbinical class who urges the students to put down their books and take up arms to defend Judaism.
If the first part of the book was about decline, then the second part, titled "Africa's Jerusalem," is about the possibilities of the new world. It starts when the rabbi's son-in-law recieves a case full of books and documents from Russian Jews. But in addition to the books, the case contains an unconscious Russian whom everyone but the cat thinks is dead. But indeed, the Russian is not dead: he is a Jew, a painter, and a Communist who has become disillusioned with the Soviet government. So he stowed away in a case he thought was going to Addis Ababa (and is quite surprised when he ends up in Algiers), where he was hoping to look for the mythical Ethiopian city of Jerusalem, where the Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) live. Although they don't quite believe him, the rabbi, as well as the cat (who can understand the Russian, and be understood by the Russian), a rich former Russian noble who acts as translator, and the rabbi's cousin (a wandering Muslim sheikh) go off in search of it, because it's an adventure. On their way they encounter hostile Muslim nomads, racist Europeans, Africans completely different from anything they'd experienced before, the return of the ability to understand the cat, love for the painter in the form of an African barmaid, and a cameo by the famous comic book character Tintin. I especially loved the one page cameo by Tintin, who behaves exactly as he does in the infamous "Tintin in the Congo," except unlike that comic, the viewpoint of the story exposes the Belgian reporter as a racist moron who doesn't believe the rabbi or the sheikh can read or understand the concept of baths. It was immensely satisfying.
The love story between the painter and the waitress is very touching. Although no one (except maybe the cat) understands their relationship, still they find love and completion in one another. From the tender French lessons that the waitress gives the painter to their attempts to persuade the rabbi to marry them to the bittersweet moment they share when they finally make it to the African Jerusalem at the end of the story is just pitch perfect, demonstrating a heartwarming understanding of each other. I loved it, as I loved all of this story, and I wish/hope that Sfar will continue this, as well as his other series "Klezmer," which deals with Ashkenazi Jews.
In other news, I have recently installed skype on my computer, so if anyone else with skype wishes to contact me, my handle is davidlev13
Hope to have more to report soon
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