This is my last planned post for this blog, detailing my very last adventure. I have now been back in Corvallis about a week, and I felt I should write about my trip to the International Antarctic Center while I can still remember it.
I took the bus into town, and then changed to the bus that went out towards the airport. The Antarctic Center is just beyond the airport, but the driver didn't realize that I was going there so he tried to get me to get off at the airport. Once I got to the center, I picked up my ticket and was told that the penguin feeding was happening right then. I rushed over there, as the penguins were pretty much the reason why I wanted to come to the International Antarctic Center. They were Little Blue Penguins, which is a native New Zealand species, not Antarctic penguins, so why they were at the Antarctic center is anyone's guess, but I was glad I was able to see them before I left New Zealand. Most of them had been injured in a way that they couldn't survive ( damaged wing, partially or entirely blind, that kind of thing). they were quite cute, however.
After I was done with the penguins I wandered back out through the other exhibits. when I got to a room where there was actual snow, a lady came out and asked if I was waiting for a storm. I asked her what she was talking about, and she told me it was an Antarctic storm simulator. I was leery of how cold it was going to be (she said it got down to -18 Celsius with windchill), but they gave us coats (which I put over my sweatshirt). It got very dark, and a little windy, but it didn't seem all that much colder during the storm than before it. It was alright, I guess.
I wandered my way through various other exhibits, learning lots of cool stuff about Antarctica. I was especially intrigued by a list of all the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, which allowed them to send scientists to Antarctica for research. North Korea is a signatory, which I think was the big surprise. I was also surprised to learn that Canada has no Antarctic base of their own.
The last thing I did was go on a Hagglund ride. These were these huge all terrain vehicles that looked rather like tanks that they took us out for a ride on a specially designed course. This was made up of lots of very steep hills that we climbed, a crevasse we breached, and a 4 meter deep lake we swam through. It was a little like going on a rollercoaster ride. They're impressive vehicles.
So I think I shan't write any more on this blog. Exams were unremarkable, as was the plane ride back to the States. The night before I left my flatmate invited me to a party (part birthday party for himself, part farewell party for me) where we played Trivial Pursuit and I was repeatedly schooled by questions about rugby, but that was about it for interesting things that happened to me when I was in New Zealand. I plan to transfer all of my reviews of books and stuff to a book blog I'll be starting up soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Review: Soon I Will Be Invincible
"Soon I Will Be Invincible" is a book I started reading in Australia. I was almost finished with it by the time I left Australia, a scarce three days later. It was an incredibly fast and fun read.
The book takes place in an alternate America in which there are superheroes and supervillains. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of two of these: the cybernetic superheroine Fatale and the supervillainous Doctor Impossible. Although Fatale is an interesting and complex character, it is Doctor Impossible who steals the show. As literally the most intelligent man on the planet, he finds himself quite alone. It's hard to not be evil when you feel so alienated from those around you. It is his alienation that makes him so sympathetic, as it shows him as a flawed being that merely wants to be extraordinary, but feels shunned for his extraordinariness. His down-to-earth and self-aware inner monologues (especially when compared to his over-the-top external pronouncements) also make him an oddly sympathetic character, despite his unrepentant desire to bend the world to his will.
The story concerns two unconnected events: the disappearance of the most powerful superhero in the world, CoreFire (roughly equivalent to Superman), and Doctor Impossible's breaking out of prison and setting into motion his latest plan to conquer the world. To deal with both problems the Champions, a superhero team that broke up several years before the story starts, is reassembled. The team includes new recruits including Fatale, a woman who became a cyborg after a horrible accident in Brazil who remembers nothing of her previous life. Just as Doctor Impossible is more complicated than he appears, so are the Champions: they are flawed, contrary and fully three-dimensional characters. This book also doesn't resort to the infamous crutch of the comics it's based on in miring the characters in either unnecessary moral greyness or angst: they may be complicated people, but they're not gratuitously violent and cruel just because it makes them "deep."
As I said, the story is told in alternating chapters: first a chapter from Doctor Impossible's perspective, then one from Fatale's. Often chapter titles (especially Impsosible's) are taken from cliche lines from comic books, including "Join Me and We Cannot Be Defeated," "My Master Plan Unfolds," and "Maybe We Are Not So Different, You and I." Occasionally the author, Austin Grossman, plays around with this gimmick in interesting ways; for instance at least once a Fatale chapter happens before the Doctor Impossible chapter that preceded it. This switching back and forth also allows for interesting character exploration: for instance many of the Champions severely underestimate Doctor Impossible, thinkinbg of him as some sort of harmless hack, even though the reader knows very well how dangerous he is.
In the edition I purchased, there is an insert with fake comic book covers depicting characters and events in the story. This really helped the comic book feel of the book. A lot of the characters in the book are versions of famous Marvel and DC characters, and it is very clear that Grossman loves his superhero comics. The book is packed with references to a long and complicated continuity of superheroes and supervillains as complicated as the universes of the Big Two of comics. This made the world of the book seem incredibly real and interesting. I really want to learn more about events and characters only referenced occasionally.
Except for some occasional plot confusions (for instance Regina's backstory and the encounter between Doctor Impossible and Mister Mystic) that for me made no sense (I felt like I was missing something), I really liked this book, and I eagerly await the next book by this author, whether or not it's set in the same setting as this (although I hope it is).
The book takes place in an alternate America in which there are superheroes and supervillains. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of two of these: the cybernetic superheroine Fatale and the supervillainous Doctor Impossible. Although Fatale is an interesting and complex character, it is Doctor Impossible who steals the show. As literally the most intelligent man on the planet, he finds himself quite alone. It's hard to not be evil when you feel so alienated from those around you. It is his alienation that makes him so sympathetic, as it shows him as a flawed being that merely wants to be extraordinary, but feels shunned for his extraordinariness. His down-to-earth and self-aware inner monologues (especially when compared to his over-the-top external pronouncements) also make him an oddly sympathetic character, despite his unrepentant desire to bend the world to his will.
The story concerns two unconnected events: the disappearance of the most powerful superhero in the world, CoreFire (roughly equivalent to Superman), and Doctor Impossible's breaking out of prison and setting into motion his latest plan to conquer the world. To deal with both problems the Champions, a superhero team that broke up several years before the story starts, is reassembled. The team includes new recruits including Fatale, a woman who became a cyborg after a horrible accident in Brazil who remembers nothing of her previous life. Just as Doctor Impossible is more complicated than he appears, so are the Champions: they are flawed, contrary and fully three-dimensional characters. This book also doesn't resort to the infamous crutch of the comics it's based on in miring the characters in either unnecessary moral greyness or angst: they may be complicated people, but they're not gratuitously violent and cruel just because it makes them "deep."
As I said, the story is told in alternating chapters: first a chapter from Doctor Impossible's perspective, then one from Fatale's. Often chapter titles (especially Impsosible's) are taken from cliche lines from comic books, including "Join Me and We Cannot Be Defeated," "My Master Plan Unfolds," and "Maybe We Are Not So Different, You and I." Occasionally the author, Austin Grossman, plays around with this gimmick in interesting ways; for instance at least once a Fatale chapter happens before the Doctor Impossible chapter that preceded it. This switching back and forth also allows for interesting character exploration: for instance many of the Champions severely underestimate Doctor Impossible, thinkinbg of him as some sort of harmless hack, even though the reader knows very well how dangerous he is.
In the edition I purchased, there is an insert with fake comic book covers depicting characters and events in the story. This really helped the comic book feel of the book. A lot of the characters in the book are versions of famous Marvel and DC characters, and it is very clear that Grossman loves his superhero comics. The book is packed with references to a long and complicated continuity of superheroes and supervillains as complicated as the universes of the Big Two of comics. This made the world of the book seem incredibly real and interesting. I really want to learn more about events and characters only referenced occasionally.
Except for some occasional plot confusions (for instance Regina's backstory and the encounter between Doctor Impossible and Mister Mystic) that for me made no sense (I felt like I was missing something), I really liked this book, and I eagerly await the next book by this author, whether or not it's set in the same setting as this (although I hope it is).
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Review: The Thief of Always
This was a short and strange, but fun book I read on the plane to Australia. It's by horror author Clive Barker, although this is targeted towards children (or at least its main characters are children and nothing too horrific happens). It's the story of a young boy named Harvey Swick who is growing bored of his life of no excitement. One day he is visited by a strange smiling creature called Rictus who offers to take him away to an exciting and wondrous place. Harvey decides to go, but says he'll only remain a few hours. When he gets to Mr. Hood's Holiday House, however, he finds it so wondrous that he cannot leave. There is tons of delicious food, and all of the seasons of the year happen in a single day. He can go trick or treating in the most beautiful constumes, and he gets whatever he desires for Christmas.
But as time goes on Harvey begins to notice some odd things about the house. He can't seem to figure out how to get back to the outside world, and Lulu, a child who's been at the house much longer than Harvey, is beginning to act odd. A Halloween prank on another child, Wendell, that goes wrong makes Harvey realize there's something sinister about the operation, and that he needs to get away. But escaping may not be enough: Harvey needs to defeat the myaterious Mr. Hood himself.
I was a little leery of this book at first. Something about the "all of the holidays in one day" concept seemed unoriginal and uninteresting. But it grew on me: the monsters and setting are so creepy and weird and the situations Harvey gets into so unexpected that I found myself liking it. It's an efficient little horror novel for children: delivering scares and suspense whilst not also being gratuitously violent or gory. The characters were interesting, with pretty much every character initially seeming to be fairly simple but revealing complexity as the story went on. I also liked that when Harvey describes what happened to his parents, they don't dismiss him out of hand, but actually try to believe him. All in all, a good fun read
But as time goes on Harvey begins to notice some odd things about the house. He can't seem to figure out how to get back to the outside world, and Lulu, a child who's been at the house much longer than Harvey, is beginning to act odd. A Halloween prank on another child, Wendell, that goes wrong makes Harvey realize there's something sinister about the operation, and that he needs to get away. But escaping may not be enough: Harvey needs to defeat the myaterious Mr. Hood himself.
I was a little leery of this book at first. Something about the "all of the holidays in one day" concept seemed unoriginal and uninteresting. But it grew on me: the monsters and setting are so creepy and weird and the situations Harvey gets into so unexpected that I found myself liking it. It's an efficient little horror novel for children: delivering scares and suspense whilst not also being gratuitously violent or gory. The characters were interesting, with pretty much every character initially seeming to be fairly simple but revealing complexity as the story went on. I also liked that when Harvey describes what happened to his parents, they don't dismiss him out of hand, but actually try to believe him. All in all, a good fun read
Monday, June 15, 2009
Eunice's Tea
The flight back from Brisbane was unremarkable. I almost missed my shuttle to the airport, but another bus driver called it back.
Once I got out of the airport I took a taxi to Eunice's house. It was significantly longer and more expensive than I was expecting, but I got there. Eunice had quite a spread, with lots of sweets and finger food, the kind of stuff that I tend to constant graze on. I was the first person there, but others came later on. Not everybody did come, which was a shame, but it was nice to see some of my fellow IESers, some of them probably for the last time. We chatted about what we'd been doing--a group of them had gone over to Sydney, so I was not the only person who had Australian stories. We ate food, and played around with this toy that Eunice and her family had brought back from the Philippines--a wooden elephant that walked down a slope. A lot of people apparently have finals early this week, so apparently I'm lucky that my first final is at the end of this week. I still do wish I could be done with my finals earlier though. As it got later those of us who still hung around played this game called "Yaneev," an Isreali card game where the object was to get the lowest value hand possible. After it got dark, the rest of us went for a walk out in the nearby park with Eunice and her dog. After that we ate more, talked about the next crew of IESers for the next semester (they show up a week after we leave), and then Eunice drove us home. It was here that I discovered that my duffel's handle is jammed up and cannot be lowered. I'm going to probably have to buy a new suitcase, which makes me sad.
Tonight I went to the farewell for Ellen, an IESer who's leaving early (tomorrow) to be a counselor at a summer camp. It was alright, we had pizza, watched TV and played Yaneev. It made me wish I had interacted more meaningfully with my fellow IESers, but I did try.
Tomorrow I'll try to write a review of a book I read whilst in Australia.
Once I got out of the airport I took a taxi to Eunice's house. It was significantly longer and more expensive than I was expecting, but I got there. Eunice had quite a spread, with lots of sweets and finger food, the kind of stuff that I tend to constant graze on. I was the first person there, but others came later on. Not everybody did come, which was a shame, but it was nice to see some of my fellow IESers, some of them probably for the last time. We chatted about what we'd been doing--a group of them had gone over to Sydney, so I was not the only person who had Australian stories. We ate food, and played around with this toy that Eunice and her family had brought back from the Philippines--a wooden elephant that walked down a slope. A lot of people apparently have finals early this week, so apparently I'm lucky that my first final is at the end of this week. I still do wish I could be done with my finals earlier though. As it got later those of us who still hung around played this game called "Yaneev," an Isreali card game where the object was to get the lowest value hand possible. After it got dark, the rest of us went for a walk out in the nearby park with Eunice and her dog. After that we ate more, talked about the next crew of IESers for the next semester (they show up a week after we leave), and then Eunice drove us home. It was here that I discovered that my duffel's handle is jammed up and cannot be lowered. I'm going to probably have to buy a new suitcase, which makes me sad.
Tonight I went to the farewell for Ellen, an IESer who's leaving early (tomorrow) to be a counselor at a summer camp. It was alright, we had pizza, watched TV and played Yaneev. It made me wish I had interacted more meaningfully with my fellow IESers, but I did try.
Tomorrow I'll try to write a review of a book I read whilst in Australia.
Friday, June 12, 2009
A day out on the town
So today I decided to meander about downtown Brisbane. I crossed the William Jolly Bridge, and found my way over to the Queensland Museum (which was closer than I thought, to my relief). There were a lot of interesting things there, includinjg dinosaur bones, exhbits on the history, culture, and economy of Queensland (which was pretty interesting), exhibits on endangered and threatened Australian animals, a small exhibit on Charles Darwin, and a really cool one on the culture of Australian Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders (this really was interesting; especially compared to what I've been learning about Maori and Pacific Islanders). After that I decided to skip the next door Art Gallery and walked over to the Queen Street Mall, where there were a lot of shops. I meandered about, getting a few souvenirs (and fulfilling a promise I made to Erika that I doubt she even remembers), as well as something that I hope Dad likes for Father's Day. I got really hungry, but a lot of the food places I went to looked either pricy or kinda gross. I finally ended up getting BBQ chicken wings at a Portugese restaurant in a mall. After that I meandered about a bit, finally making my way back to the backpackers. THen I talked with one of my roomates, a Taiwanese guy who's in Australia for a working holiday. He seemed cool.
Well, I'm gonna go now (see if Erika's online), and see if i can find any food. I go back to NZ tomorrow, and hopefully to Eunice's afternoon tea, assuming that there isn't some horrible timing problem. Talk to y'all laters!
Well, I'm gonna go now (see if Erika's online), and see if i can find any food. I go back to NZ tomorrow, and hopefully to Eunice's afternoon tea, assuming that there isn't some horrible timing problem. Talk to y'all laters!
Crikey!
So my big thing for today was my tour to the Australia Zoo. I went over to the Brisbane Transit Centre and got on the bus. The driver informed us all about the zoo and Steve Irwin (the Australia Zoo was initially the Queensland Reptile Park, owned by Steve Irwin's parents, and there are pictures of Steve EVERYWHERE). He also told us that when the time came around for him to pick us up we needed to be ready ASAP or he'd leave us behind. He wasn't kidding: he actually did leave one guy behind. The zoo had tons and tons of animals, many of which I snapped pictures of. Because it's the Crocodile Hunter's zoo, you can bet there were tons of Australian crocodiles all over the place (And each one is given their own pond with their name on it, too). It was also a very hands-on zoo: there were a lot of zoo staff walking around holding animals. When I first came in there was a staffwoman holding a koala, which I got to pet. Not only are koalas adorable, their fur is ridiculously soft. About a half hour after I got there, they had a oppurtunity to feed their elephants. I took it, and it was weird: the elephant's trunk snatched the carrot I was holding out of my hand, leaving behind a little bit of snot. According to a staffwoman who was commenting as we fed the elephants, the snot is a good anti-aging cream; I'm not sure if she was joking.
I saw a lot of Australian animals. Besides the ubuquitous crocodiles, there were koalas, kangaroos (in big open enclosures where you can walk up to them, pet them, and feed them), wombats (the most adorable animals ever--basically koalas on the ground--a lot bigger than I was expecting), lots of poisonous snakes, goanas, echidnas (which were both cute and cool to look at), emus, cassowaries, Tasmanian Devils, and dingos. Part of what I was wantingto do in Australia was to see some native animals, and I definitely accomplished that.
But they also had plenty of nonnative animals. Two of their newer exhibits were Elephantasia (not so sure about that name), where they had elephants, and the Tiger temple, where there were tigers (although I didn't see any there). There was also plans for a cheetah run, but it hasn't been built yet.
I also caught an animal show at the "Crocoseum" (again, not so sure at that name), where they demonstrated the many talents of the saltwater crocodile, had macaws flying all around, and showed off some snakes. It was nice, and I'm glad I caught at least one show.
I actually managed to get all around the zoo 2 hours before the pickup time, so I just sat down near the entrace and watched the Crocodile Hunter feature film, which was on a loop on a monitor right at the front of the zoo. Once the bus came we took off. We stopped briefly at a fruitstand to get some fresh fruit (I decided to conserve my money and didn't get any), and then we watched a film about Steve Irwin's life as we drove back to Brisbane. He really was a fascinating guy, and it was fun to get to know more about him. I also didn't know that his wife was an Oregonian, although apparently everyone else does.
Tomorrow I plan to meander about town and see if I can find some cool things to see and do in central Brisbane. Wish me luck!
I saw a lot of Australian animals. Besides the ubuquitous crocodiles, there were koalas, kangaroos (in big open enclosures where you can walk up to them, pet them, and feed them), wombats (the most adorable animals ever--basically koalas on the ground--a lot bigger than I was expecting), lots of poisonous snakes, goanas, echidnas (which were both cute and cool to look at), emus, cassowaries, Tasmanian Devils, and dingos. Part of what I was wantingto do in Australia was to see some native animals, and I definitely accomplished that.
But they also had plenty of nonnative animals. Two of their newer exhibits were Elephantasia (not so sure about that name), where they had elephants, and the Tiger temple, where there were tigers (although I didn't see any there). There was also plans for a cheetah run, but it hasn't been built yet.
I also caught an animal show at the "Crocoseum" (again, not so sure at that name), where they demonstrated the many talents of the saltwater crocodile, had macaws flying all around, and showed off some snakes. It was nice, and I'm glad I caught at least one show.
I actually managed to get all around the zoo 2 hours before the pickup time, so I just sat down near the entrace and watched the Crocodile Hunter feature film, which was on a loop on a monitor right at the front of the zoo. Once the bus came we took off. We stopped briefly at a fruitstand to get some fresh fruit (I decided to conserve my money and didn't get any), and then we watched a film about Steve Irwin's life as we drove back to Brisbane. He really was a fascinating guy, and it was fun to get to know more about him. I also didn't know that his wife was an Oregonian, although apparently everyone else does.
Tomorrow I plan to meander about town and see if I can find some cool things to see and do in central Brisbane. Wish me luck!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
AUSTRALIA!
So I got to the airport easily enough and went to check in. It was then that I larned I needed to buy an Australian visa, which was annoying, but at least there was a kiosk for it in the airport. I checked in and then had to pay my exit fee (I damn both of the governments of Australia and New Zealand for the pirates they are), and went ot wait by the gate. The flight was fairly uneventful. It had stuff like viewers to watch movie and meals on the plane, but you had to buy them, so I just sat and read instead. I had a bit of a shock when the flight attendant said we were making our descent into Syndney, but apparently that was her little joke to make sure we were paying attention. I breezed through customs (although I was pulled aside for further questioning by an immigration official--I guess I just look extra sketchy)and then went to the Coachtrans kiosk, where I checked in for my shuttle. The driver dropped me off somewhere supposedly closer than where I had told Coachtrans to drop me off, but i got a little lost before I found my backpackers. But once I got there, it was dead simple to check in. Once I checked in I wandered out to buy some batteries and find the bud transit centre. I did find it eventually, but it took some time. But when I go on my tour to the Australia Zoo tomorrow, at least I'll know where to go. Well, that's about all: I shall write more tomorrow about my trip to the zoo.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Review: Flashman
So yesterday I finished up reading "Flashman," the first book in the aptly named Flashman Papers series by George MacDonald Fraser. These books feature the adventures of Harry Flashman, a Victorian-era soldier and adventurer, who is secretly a coward and a scumbag who takes advantage of lucky situations to appear to be a hero. Flashman was originally featured in a Victorian-era school story called "Tom Brown's Schooldays," in which he was a bully. "Flashman" opens with him being thrown out of Rugby School for drunkeness and going to London to become an officer in the army. The book details his first posting in a regiment in England (which he specifically picked so he wouldn't have to do any actual fighting), his transfer to Scotland (where he is forced into a marriage to a factory owner's daughter), his posting to India (which he finds to be less horrible than imagined), and, containing most of the book, his posting in Afghanistan, in a horribly bungled campaign by the British to control the country.
Flashman himself is a surprisingly charming character. He is utterly without heroism, but to get ahead in life (especially in the army) he knows how best to fake it. He is also remarkably self-aware, fully admitting that he's a coward and more than a little bit of a bastard, which softens the blow when time after time he does exactly what a character in a British soldier novel SHOULDN'T do. A couple of times i wished the bastard would grow some courage and do something heroic, but that usually passed to humor as he manipulated a situation to appear to be a hero. He is also a remarkably intelligent character, and his contempt for his foolish, arrogant, or stupid commanders forgives his amorality most of the time.
"Flashman" is also a remarkably fast-paced book, especially since Fraser has also written a very detailed (and historically accurate) book. The people Flashman meets were real people and the stuff he witnesses actually happened in real life. Something about this made the story even more exciting. A part of the shtick of the book is that Fraser is adapting the memoirs of the {fictional) Flashman, so Fraser occasionally has end notes clarifying or correcting Flashman's historical mistakes. It works remarkably well.
THere are a lot more books in this series, and I hope to read them all (although I have no idea how easy to obtain they are in the US). I really really liked this book.
Flashman himself is a surprisingly charming character. He is utterly without heroism, but to get ahead in life (especially in the army) he knows how best to fake it. He is also remarkably self-aware, fully admitting that he's a coward and more than a little bit of a bastard, which softens the blow when time after time he does exactly what a character in a British soldier novel SHOULDN'T do. A couple of times i wished the bastard would grow some courage and do something heroic, but that usually passed to humor as he manipulated a situation to appear to be a hero. He is also a remarkably intelligent character, and his contempt for his foolish, arrogant, or stupid commanders forgives his amorality most of the time.
"Flashman" is also a remarkably fast-paced book, especially since Fraser has also written a very detailed (and historically accurate) book. The people Flashman meets were real people and the stuff he witnesses actually happened in real life. Something about this made the story even more exciting. A part of the shtick of the book is that Fraser is adapting the memoirs of the {fictional) Flashman, so Fraser occasionally has end notes clarifying or correcting Flashman's historical mistakes. It works remarkably well.
THere are a lot more books in this series, and I hope to read them all (although I have no idea how easy to obtain they are in the US). I really really liked this book.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Review: Fevre Dream
''Fevre Dream'' is an earlier book by one of my favorite authors, George R.R. Martin. It concerns the owner of a small steamboat company in 1857 named Abner Marsh. Abner's been having some bad luck, and at the start of the story he has only one ship still running. However, he is approached by a mysterious man named Joshua York. York wants to buy into a partnership with Abner, and together captain the greatest steamship ever. This is the titular ''Fevre Dream'', a ship covered in silver, mirrors and other finery. Part of the deal is that Joshua would be allowed to bring onboard several associates, and that they be unharrassed and unquestioned in their strange behavior. And it is strange: they have a tendency to talk in strange tongues, drink a horrible-tasting liquor, and never come out into the sun. Meanwhile, down in New Orleans a mysterious but evil creature named Damon Julian and his brood of followers are attempting to figure out where to go.
This is a pretty good vampire novel. Granted, I haven't read many vampire novels, but this one seemed to be pretty absent of the cliches of the genre. The vampires themselves are interesting, being living beings who are an entirely different species from humanity, with their own culture and behaviors. I also liked how Martin seemed to be as passionate about the workings of a Mississippi River steamship in the years before the Civil War as about the vampires. The setting is also perfect: characters are racist and mean, and the condition of white humans to black slaves is adressed and even used as a metaphor in the story (although perhaps a few too many times).
Really, the one problem I had with the story was how it constantly seemed to be about to resolve, with the protagonists defeating the evil Damon Julian, only to have that be yanked out of their grasp. It got a little exhasperating after awhile, and made it ahard to get enthusiastic about the heroes' plans.
All in all, however, it was a good and fine book, one that was well-written, interesting, and with interesting characters. I reccomend it.
This is a pretty good vampire novel. Granted, I haven't read many vampire novels, but this one seemed to be pretty absent of the cliches of the genre. The vampires themselves are interesting, being living beings who are an entirely different species from humanity, with their own culture and behaviors. I also liked how Martin seemed to be as passionate about the workings of a Mississippi River steamship in the years before the Civil War as about the vampires. The setting is also perfect: characters are racist and mean, and the condition of white humans to black slaves is adressed and even used as a metaphor in the story (although perhaps a few too many times).
Really, the one problem I had with the story was how it constantly seemed to be about to resolve, with the protagonists defeating the evil Damon Julian, only to have that be yanked out of their grasp. It got a little exhasperating after awhile, and made it ahard to get enthusiastic about the heroes' plans.
All in all, however, it was a good and fine book, one that was well-written, interesting, and with interesting characters. I reccomend it.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Adventuring in Akaroa
So last Friday I decided to go to a place that was fairly nearby to Christchurch, but that I had never been to, mostly because I was never quite sure how one gets there. This was Akaroa, a town just south and east of Christchurch. I was initially debating between staying overnight there or just doing a daytrip. However, when I found a nice little daytour I decided to just go for the day.
We left from the Cathedral Square and drove out of town. On the way out I saw a used book store "specializing in Science Fiction." Oh course I went there the next day. Anyways, the driver told us lots of little facts about all of the towns and beaches we drove past. We stopped at a place called Little River to browse through a craft co-op, which had all kinds of locally produced art and crafts, as well as tourist stuff. After that we stopped a few times to take pictures of the landscape (which was really beautiful). As we drove into Akaroa, the driver gave us the history of the town. It was initially organized by a French whaler named Jean Langlois, who wanted to create a French settlement there. But the Brits got wise, and raised the Union Jack over the area just before the French settlers got there. But the French were allowed to settle there anyways, just under British authority.
The first place I went in Akaroa was the museum, which had outside it a sign with testimonials supposedly from former visitors. One of them, which I found amusing, claimed the Akaroa Museum was "better than Te Papa" (which, for those who've been following my blog will realize, is the National Museum of New Zealand and about ten times as big). It was a nice museum however, with a video on the history of Akaroa, a whole lot of artifacts from the Maori and French periods, a model French house, and an exhibit on the captain of the Endeavour, whose name escapes me, who was from Akaroa.
After the museum I wandered up and down the waterfront snapping pictures. At one point I saw what I thought were ducks or seagulls swimming around in the bay. When I got a little closer, I discovered that in fact they weren't ducks: they were geese! That was really cool.
A lot of the people on the bus planned tours to go see dolphins once they got to Akaroa. I unfortunately did not plan ahead so I could only meander about the docks. But it gave me more time to wander around. I got lunch at a famous fish and chip place: it was quite good, and like always they gave me enough chips for four people. I found it amusing how so many of the signs were in French, even though probably no one in Akaroa is a native speaker. People just showing their cultural heritage, I guess.
On the ride back we stopped at one place, a cheese factory. It was all right, and I even sampled the cheeses, but it was nothing special. After that it was basically a straight shot home, and even though I got a little nauseous, it was a fairly pleasant ride back.
Next I have a book review, and in a few days I'm going to Australia for 4 days! I'll be sure to update people about that.
We left from the Cathedral Square and drove out of town. On the way out I saw a used book store "specializing in Science Fiction." Oh course I went there the next day. Anyways, the driver told us lots of little facts about all of the towns and beaches we drove past. We stopped at a place called Little River to browse through a craft co-op, which had all kinds of locally produced art and crafts, as well as tourist stuff. After that we stopped a few times to take pictures of the landscape (which was really beautiful). As we drove into Akaroa, the driver gave us the history of the town. It was initially organized by a French whaler named Jean Langlois, who wanted to create a French settlement there. But the Brits got wise, and raised the Union Jack over the area just before the French settlers got there. But the French were allowed to settle there anyways, just under British authority.
The first place I went in Akaroa was the museum, which had outside it a sign with testimonials supposedly from former visitors. One of them, which I found amusing, claimed the Akaroa Museum was "better than Te Papa" (which, for those who've been following my blog will realize, is the National Museum of New Zealand and about ten times as big). It was a nice museum however, with a video on the history of Akaroa, a whole lot of artifacts from the Maori and French periods, a model French house, and an exhibit on the captain of the Endeavour, whose name escapes me, who was from Akaroa.
After the museum I wandered up and down the waterfront snapping pictures. At one point I saw what I thought were ducks or seagulls swimming around in the bay. When I got a little closer, I discovered that in fact they weren't ducks: they were geese! That was really cool.
A lot of the people on the bus planned tours to go see dolphins once they got to Akaroa. I unfortunately did not plan ahead so I could only meander about the docks. But it gave me more time to wander around. I got lunch at a famous fish and chip place: it was quite good, and like always they gave me enough chips for four people. I found it amusing how so many of the signs were in French, even though probably no one in Akaroa is a native speaker. People just showing their cultural heritage, I guess.
On the ride back we stopped at one place, a cheese factory. It was all right, and I even sampled the cheeses, but it was nothing special. After that it was basically a straight shot home, and even though I got a little nauseous, it was a fairly pleasant ride back.
Next I have a book review, and in a few days I'm going to Australia for 4 days! I'll be sure to update people about that.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Night out with IES
So Tuesday last week was the last official event of IES (there's this afternoon tea thing, but that's unofficial I think), which was our night out having dinner on the tram. We started out with a session where Eunice informed us about the process of going back, informing us about reverse culture shock, homesickness for New Zealand, and apathy of the people around us towards our experience abroad. I hope that that won't happen too much to me: I assume I may be somewhat upset that people might not be as interested in my experiences as I am, but I doubt that reverse culture shock will effect me too much (maybe a little, I will miss Christchurch).
After that we took shuttles downtown to the tram station, and got on the train. I ended up sitting with a guy named Jai, whom I hadn't really interacted with much on my trip, but who turned out to be really interesting. We talked about science fiction and Indian food a lot. The meal was delicious: it was a set 3-course meal where you could pick one of two or three options for each plate. I had BBQ chicken skewers for my appetizer, sesame salmon for my main course, and a really delicious chocolate cake with cinnamon cream and orange sauce for my dessert. It was really delicious. Going around on the train was nice, but the circuit we went on wasn't that big, so we ended up seeing the same things over and over again. But all in all it was a great experience
After that we took shuttles downtown to the tram station, and got on the train. I ended up sitting with a guy named Jai, whom I hadn't really interacted with much on my trip, but who turned out to be really interesting. We talked about science fiction and Indian food a lot. The meal was delicious: it was a set 3-course meal where you could pick one of two or three options for each plate. I had BBQ chicken skewers for my appetizer, sesame salmon for my main course, and a really delicious chocolate cake with cinnamon cream and orange sauce for my dessert. It was really delicious. Going around on the train was nice, but the circuit we went on wasn't that big, so we ended up seeing the same things over and over again. But all in all it was a great experience
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Review: Firebirds
Firebird is a publishing division of Penguin Books specifically targeted towards teenagers, and "Firebirds" is a short story collection with material from various writers whose books are published by Firebird. I quite like pretty much all of the stories included inside, and I surprised myself with how fast I ended up reading the book. I shall give brief comments on each of the books.
The book starts out with "Cotillion," by Delia Sherman, and it deals with a young college girl who must deal with an old folk ballad coming true in 1969 New York. I really liked this story, told in an incredibly readable voice and including a lot of detail about 1969 Greenwich Village, which could have easily been the realm of Faerie in disguise, and also the information of the Renaissance- and Medieval-era ballads, music, and dancing which are a big part of the plot.
"The Baby in the Night-Deposit Box" by Megan Whalen Turner is the story of a baby left in the night-deposit box at a bank, and her life as she grows up being raised by the institution, despite the meddling of a sinister Child Protective Services agent who wishes to steal her away. A very funny story, and one that slowly but surely reveals its fairy tale roots, this was probably my favorite story in the book.
"Beauty" by Sherwood Smith is a further story in the same world as some of Smith's novels. I hadn't read the novels, nevertheless I was able to follow the story fairly well. It deals with an unattractive princess, frustrated at the beauty of all those around her, who is kidnapped by a villanous man who attempted to kill her parents twenty years ago and who was turned into a tree for his trouble. Much of the story is merely their conversations back and forth, and it really helps develop these two characters remarkably well.
"Mariposa" by Nancy Springer is the story of a woman, about to be married, who learns that she lost her soul sometime in early adolescence. So she goes home to find it. The metaphor about conformity is obvious, and I didn't particularly like this story, although it is by no means bad.
"Max Mondrosch" by Lloyd Alexander is a weird, farcical horror story of the titular young man who is constantly attempting to get a job, but is constantly being refused for various nonsensical reasons. It is both funny and terrifing, and it really identifies with the terror of being unemployed.
"The Fall of Ys" by Meredith Ann Pierce is a retelling of a Celtic myth about a man who built a city on an island in the sea, and his promise to give his daughter to the priestesses of the goddess of the sea. This was well-written, but I disliked how the deck seemed stacked against poor King Gralon.It seemed a bit of a self-consciously feminist story as well: Gralon is basically a villain because he is a misogynist.
"Medusa" by Micheal Cadnum is a retelling of the classic Greek myth. In this story the beautiful Medusa falls victim to the petty goddess Athena, who transforms her into a monster. But Medusa is not defeated, and in the end she is even somewhat triumphant, altthough how is a slightly more complicated question. I thought this story was good, although it wasn't my favorite.
"The Black Fox" is a comic written by Emma Bull and drawn by Charles Vess, based on the folk song by Graham Pratt. It's an amusing story of a bunch of English fox hunters who chase after a small black fox who is not what he appears to be. It's an interesting piece of fantasy, almost like a folktale even. I really liked it.
"Byndley" by Patricia A. McKillip deals with the story of the wizard Reck, who was kidnapped to Faerie when he was young and managed to escape, taking with him a magical item. However, now he is older and he is on a mission to return it to Faerie where it belongs. In the town of Byndley, supposedly near the border of Faerie, he meets some kindly villagers who ask for his story, which he tells. This is a very quiet but very beautiful story, and I enjoyed it immensely.
"The Lady of the Ice Garden" by Kara Dalkey is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen," reset in feudal Japan. It tells the tale of a young woman who chases after her childhood friend, who has disappeared without a trace. She is helped and hindered by all kinds of people and supernatural creatures, until she finally finds the Lady of the Ice Garden, who has her friend. It's a good story, and I liked the characters and episodes a lot, but it seems to be somewhat artificially dark in tone, which I didn't like so much.
"Hope Chest" by Garth Nix takes place in another world which resembles somewhat an alternate history United States around the 1930s. A young baby girl is discovered at the train station sitting on a locked chest which no one can open. She grows up in her hometown, but as things get worse she needs to use what's in the chest to protect her hometown and the world from evil. I liked the earlier passages of this story, but it got very dark and violent all of a sudden, with really no explanation. The story also had several mysteries which were never explained, which drove me a bit mad.
"Chasing the Wind" by Elizabeth E. Wein is not very fantastical, but it is quite good. It's the story of a teenaged girl traveling by plane across Kenya just before its liberation. There were lots of beautifully described scenes, and it leaves some parts of the story up to interpretation, which works well here.
"Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones is a delightful story about a young wizard living with his aunt who saves a drowning kitten named Turandot (or "Little Dot") and adopts her, as well as several other cats, and their relations with each other. When the young man gets a cat-hating girlfriend things get complicated. A very funny and entertaing stories especially good for cat lovers.
"Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer is an odd story of a family camp out near a mysterious rock with the words of the title carved into it. Things get strange as the landscape seems to react to the narrator's mentally retarded sister, who seems to respond to the rock as well. It was an odd story, but I liked it, although I would have wished it explained more.
"Flotsam" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman deals with a teenage girl who discovers an odd young man on a basketball court and brings him home. This story used the backgrounds of the characters very well, as what happened to them before this story effects their behavior during the story. It's a beautifully constructed story of injury and healing, and I really liked it.
"The Flying Woman" by Laurel Winter starts with a brother and sister who are marooned on an island for practicing witchcraft. They are joined by a flying woman ho washes ashore and who they nurse back to health but who doesn't seem to keep on living. Again, an odd story, and I didn't really like the characters except Dannilla, the sister and the narrator. The description of the island and the background to the world it takes place in are well-done though.
All in all, it was a great collection, although I question whether some of the stories were truly targeted towards teenagers. I quite enjoyed it all in all, and I'm glad I read it.
The book starts out with "Cotillion," by Delia Sherman, and it deals with a young college girl who must deal with an old folk ballad coming true in 1969 New York. I really liked this story, told in an incredibly readable voice and including a lot of detail about 1969 Greenwich Village, which could have easily been the realm of Faerie in disguise, and also the information of the Renaissance- and Medieval-era ballads, music, and dancing which are a big part of the plot.
"The Baby in the Night-Deposit Box" by Megan Whalen Turner is the story of a baby left in the night-deposit box at a bank, and her life as she grows up being raised by the institution, despite the meddling of a sinister Child Protective Services agent who wishes to steal her away. A very funny story, and one that slowly but surely reveals its fairy tale roots, this was probably my favorite story in the book.
"Beauty" by Sherwood Smith is a further story in the same world as some of Smith's novels. I hadn't read the novels, nevertheless I was able to follow the story fairly well. It deals with an unattractive princess, frustrated at the beauty of all those around her, who is kidnapped by a villanous man who attempted to kill her parents twenty years ago and who was turned into a tree for his trouble. Much of the story is merely their conversations back and forth, and it really helps develop these two characters remarkably well.
"Mariposa" by Nancy Springer is the story of a woman, about to be married, who learns that she lost her soul sometime in early adolescence. So she goes home to find it. The metaphor about conformity is obvious, and I didn't particularly like this story, although it is by no means bad.
"Max Mondrosch" by Lloyd Alexander is a weird, farcical horror story of the titular young man who is constantly attempting to get a job, but is constantly being refused for various nonsensical reasons. It is both funny and terrifing, and it really identifies with the terror of being unemployed.
"The Fall of Ys" by Meredith Ann Pierce is a retelling of a Celtic myth about a man who built a city on an island in the sea, and his promise to give his daughter to the priestesses of the goddess of the sea. This was well-written, but I disliked how the deck seemed stacked against poor King Gralon.It seemed a bit of a self-consciously feminist story as well: Gralon is basically a villain because he is a misogynist.
"Medusa" by Micheal Cadnum is a retelling of the classic Greek myth. In this story the beautiful Medusa falls victim to the petty goddess Athena, who transforms her into a monster. But Medusa is not defeated, and in the end she is even somewhat triumphant, altthough how is a slightly more complicated question. I thought this story was good, although it wasn't my favorite.
"The Black Fox" is a comic written by Emma Bull and drawn by Charles Vess, based on the folk song by Graham Pratt. It's an amusing story of a bunch of English fox hunters who chase after a small black fox who is not what he appears to be. It's an interesting piece of fantasy, almost like a folktale even. I really liked it.
"Byndley" by Patricia A. McKillip deals with the story of the wizard Reck, who was kidnapped to Faerie when he was young and managed to escape, taking with him a magical item. However, now he is older and he is on a mission to return it to Faerie where it belongs. In the town of Byndley, supposedly near the border of Faerie, he meets some kindly villagers who ask for his story, which he tells. This is a very quiet but very beautiful story, and I enjoyed it immensely.
"The Lady of the Ice Garden" by Kara Dalkey is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen," reset in feudal Japan. It tells the tale of a young woman who chases after her childhood friend, who has disappeared without a trace. She is helped and hindered by all kinds of people and supernatural creatures, until she finally finds the Lady of the Ice Garden, who has her friend. It's a good story, and I liked the characters and episodes a lot, but it seems to be somewhat artificially dark in tone, which I didn't like so much.
"Hope Chest" by Garth Nix takes place in another world which resembles somewhat an alternate history United States around the 1930s. A young baby girl is discovered at the train station sitting on a locked chest which no one can open. She grows up in her hometown, but as things get worse she needs to use what's in the chest to protect her hometown and the world from evil. I liked the earlier passages of this story, but it got very dark and violent all of a sudden, with really no explanation. The story also had several mysteries which were never explained, which drove me a bit mad.
"Chasing the Wind" by Elizabeth E. Wein is not very fantastical, but it is quite good. It's the story of a teenaged girl traveling by plane across Kenya just before its liberation. There were lots of beautifully described scenes, and it leaves some parts of the story up to interpretation, which works well here.
"Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones is a delightful story about a young wizard living with his aunt who saves a drowning kitten named Turandot (or "Little Dot") and adopts her, as well as several other cats, and their relations with each other. When the young man gets a cat-hating girlfriend things get complicated. A very funny and entertaing stories especially good for cat lovers.
"Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer is an odd story of a family camp out near a mysterious rock with the words of the title carved into it. Things get strange as the landscape seems to react to the narrator's mentally retarded sister, who seems to respond to the rock as well. It was an odd story, but I liked it, although I would have wished it explained more.
"Flotsam" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman deals with a teenage girl who discovers an odd young man on a basketball court and brings him home. This story used the backgrounds of the characters very well, as what happened to them before this story effects their behavior during the story. It's a beautifully constructed story of injury and healing, and I really liked it.
"The Flying Woman" by Laurel Winter starts with a brother and sister who are marooned on an island for practicing witchcraft. They are joined by a flying woman ho washes ashore and who they nurse back to health but who doesn't seem to keep on living. Again, an odd story, and I didn't really like the characters except Dannilla, the sister and the narrator. The description of the island and the background to the world it takes place in are well-done though.
All in all, it was a great collection, although I question whether some of the stories were truly targeted towards teenagers. I quite enjoyed it all in all, and I'm glad I read it.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Review: Favorite Folktales from Around the World
Reading mythology was what really got me into fantasy. It was fun reading all these different and unique stories. I don't read much mythology any more, but recently I picked this book off my bookshelf, edited by fantasy author and folklorist Jane Yolen. This collects a wide variety of stories from around the world, organized in 13 sections based on subject matter, for instance Death, Telling Tales, Shapshifters, and others. Yolen did her best to avoid the most well-known folktales and instead going for more obscure variants. Instead of the Frog Prince, we have the story of the Toad Bridegroom from Korea, which has a similar structure but is a very different story. Several of the stories are also similar to each other. For instance, the Italian story of Catherine the Sly Country Lass and the Russian tale of the Clever Little Girl involve several similar situations, but each manages to give a unique twist to what happens. Yolen has also tried her best to capture the unique flow of various storytellers who tell their story. In some cases this makes the stories a bit hard to understand, but generally it makes each story seem real, like something someone would tell their kids or friends or to entertain the patrons of some inn on a rainy and windy night. I also liked that the stories come from a diverse background (although there are a lot of European folktales, and I wish there was at least one Maori story included), although with some stories (particularly the Yakuts story "The Little Old Woman with Five Cows") where the cultural gap is too wide for me to really understand it.
I particularly like the short, punchy stories, the ones little more than clever riddles or jokes. They were often funny or wise or just plain fun to read. The longer more heroic stories were also cool though, and they really captured my interest and attention.
All in all, I really liked this collection. It makes me want to read more collections of folktales and mythology. I'm definitely going to keep it so I can eventually read it to my children.
Next post: Firebirds, a short story collection for "young adults"
I particularly like the short, punchy stories, the ones little more than clever riddles or jokes. They were often funny or wise or just plain fun to read. The longer more heroic stories were also cool though, and they really captured my interest and attention.
All in all, I really liked this collection. It makes me want to read more collections of folktales and mythology. I'm definitely going to keep it so I can eventually read it to my children.
Next post: Firebirds, a short story collection for "young adults"
Friday, May 15, 2009
Dunedin
So last weekend I went to Dunedin. I got up really early (a lot earlier than it turned out I needed to) and got down to the Intercity Bus Station. The bus ride was nice and fairly uneventful. We got in early and I waited about 10 minutes or so for Dennis, one of my hosts in Dunedin. He was a Maori guy who has worked as a music therapist working with a lot of kids, often using traditional Maori song and dance, such as the haka. He was a really cool and chill guy. We hung out on the University of Otago campus (which reminded me of OSU's campus in a weird way) until his wife, Viktoria, my other host, was done with her lectures. Then we went out to a Japanese restaurant, which was alright (perhaps not as quite as good as Aomatsu back in old Corvallis--I think I've been getting slowly but increasingly homseick for home over the past few weeks). We went back to their house in Brighton (a few minutes outside Dunedin), and watched TV through the static. Dunedin was noticeably colder than Christchurch, making me grateful for the heater in my room. The next day, Dennis and I went out to the Dunedin Farmer's Market (I've got to one of those whenever i get the oppurtunity, now don't I?), where we got, amongst other things, purple carrots. Apparently they're a heritage breed or something. Once we got back, Viktoria and I went out to the Otago peninsula and walked around various locations on the beaches looking for animals. We saw seals, shags, some other sea birds, and sea lions (those last on the beach at Sandfly Bay, which we were able to get surprisingly close to, which was I think my high point for the trip). We also saw what was probably a penguin, but it was kinda far away, and it didn't want to get out of the water. I did see its tracks though. That night we watched Back to the Future 3, a pretty fun movie all around. The next day, Viktoria drove me into town and dropped me off at the Otago Museum. They had a pretty good exhibit on Pacific Cultures. It was cool to see Rarotongan stuff and go "hey, I've been there." I also have a desire to visit somewhere in Melanesia now. There was also the Animal Attic, which had a lot of stuffed animals. After that I walked over to the bus stop, and because I still had some time, I walked a little farther to find food, which I did in a Vietnamese restaurant where I got takeaway pho, which was nice in the cold weather. The bus back to Christchurch was a double-decker (something I'd never seen before in an intercity transit bus), and I decided to sit on the top. It was similarly uneventful. I had a bit of excitement where I was unsure whether or not a particular stop on Christchurch was the best one for me, but it turned out that my gamble paid off, because it was only about a 5-10 minute walk to my flat. All in all it was a fun trip, and Viktoria and Dennis (and Teisia, their very cute baby) were very nice. Also during this trip I finished up my book of folktales and started Firebirds, which I finished today. I shall write reviews of them soon. Anyways, Ta!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Review: Night Watch
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko is a fun read, fast paced and written in a style that makes you want to keep reading. I liked it quite a lot. In the world of this story, there is an enternal battle occuring between the forces of Light and Darkness. However, some time before the story opened, the two sides realized that their struggle would never end, and so drew up a treaty between them. This treaty created a balance between the two sides, with two police forces to ensure the balance is maintained. The Night Watch are Light Others who police the darkness, while the Day Watch are Dark Others who police the light. To perform acts of either light or darkness requires licenses from the opposing side, so vampires for instance require licenses from the Night Watch to hunt humans.
THe hero of Night Watch is Anton Gorodetsky, a mid-level Night Watch member who as the novel is opening is being transferred from analysis to field work. In the first story in the book (the novel is made up of three interconnected novellas), Anton has been given the assignment to track down and detain two vampires that have been killing without a license. While traveling through the subway system he encounters a woman with a black vortex over her head, meaning that someone has cursed her. What is surprising is that her black vortex is much bigger than it should be, and when her curse kills her, it could quite possibly kill everyone in Moscow as well. However, Anton cannot do anything about it, and continues to pursue the vampires, stopping them from killing a boy named Egor and killing one of them. The rest of the novella deals with hunting down the other vampire, protecting Egor (who is an Other who has not yet picked a side) and dealing with Svetlana, the woman with the curse over her head.
The second section deals with a Light Other who has not been initiated into the Light named Maxim. Despite knowing nothing about either the Light or the Darkness, he has discovered his own powers and uses them to kill low level Dark Ones he encounters. Unfortunately this causes trouble for the Night Watch and more specifically for Anton, as the Day Watch seems to be attempting to frame him for the killings. This section seems to undercut reader's assumptions about the struggle between the Light and the Darkness, for instance by demonstrating why killing random Dark Ones can cause more evil than good.
The third section deals with a dangerous gambit by the Night Watch to turn humanity towards the Light. However, Anton opposes it, reflecting back on other attempts to turn humanity towards good that were corrupted by the Dark Ones into great forces for evil-including communism and Nazism. The story ends on an ambiguous note.
I quite liked the characters in the book, particularly the Night Watch. The weird rivalry between Semyon and Ilya, Anton's no-nonsense partner Olga (who spends quite a lot of the first section as an owl), Anton's boss Gesar who has plans within plans, and Anton himself, who is eternally attempting to figure out what's going on. They seem like an odd sort of family, connected together by their love for each other. The Dark Ones are also interesting, although we only really get to meet three in this book, the Day Watch witch Alisa, the head of the Day Watch Zabulon, and Anton's neighbor Kostya, who's a vampire. With Kostya we are introduced to one of the themes of the novel: that there is not that much inherent difference between the Light Ones and the Dark Ones. The main difference is that the Dark Ones are mainly concerned with themselves, while the Light Ones are concerned with others. This however leads to troubling issues, as for instance the plots of the Light can easily sacrifice pawns in order to save greater numbers of people.
The plots of the three stories in Night Watch are a little confusing, particularly the second and third parts. In the second part the reader is led to believe one thing, but at the end there is a twist which reveals that in fact something else has been going on. The problem is that this twist is revealed in the very last line of the second section, and in the third section Lukyanenko neglects to provide much in the way of any more information to make that twist make sense. The ending to the third section is a little better, but we are still shown acts without properly being told what they mean. One side wins at the end of the third section, but I don't know how or why. It also bothered me a bit that it seems that the Light and the Darkness are rather unfairly balanced: it seems that the Darkness is rather heavily favored. Apparently humanity tends more towards the Darkness, and the Dark Ones throughly abuse this. Light Ones are also handicapped by the fact that to use their power risks it being corrupted to serve the darkness: killing a Dark One can lead to anguish that overwhelms any good from keeping them from doing evil, and to gather power to do something good Light Ones apparently have to take happiness from humanity. This is a rather dark way of looking at the world, and also makes it harder to understand why Light and Darkness are at a stalemate if Light is inhibited and Darkness is not. Perhaps when I read the sequel, Dark Watch, it will make more sense.
All in all this was a good and fun book, and I recommend reading it. I'm definitely going to read the next books in the series as soon as I can.
THe hero of Night Watch is Anton Gorodetsky, a mid-level Night Watch member who as the novel is opening is being transferred from analysis to field work. In the first story in the book (the novel is made up of three interconnected novellas), Anton has been given the assignment to track down and detain two vampires that have been killing without a license. While traveling through the subway system he encounters a woman with a black vortex over her head, meaning that someone has cursed her. What is surprising is that her black vortex is much bigger than it should be, and when her curse kills her, it could quite possibly kill everyone in Moscow as well. However, Anton cannot do anything about it, and continues to pursue the vampires, stopping them from killing a boy named Egor and killing one of them. The rest of the novella deals with hunting down the other vampire, protecting Egor (who is an Other who has not yet picked a side) and dealing with Svetlana, the woman with the curse over her head.
The second section deals with a Light Other who has not been initiated into the Light named Maxim. Despite knowing nothing about either the Light or the Darkness, he has discovered his own powers and uses them to kill low level Dark Ones he encounters. Unfortunately this causes trouble for the Night Watch and more specifically for Anton, as the Day Watch seems to be attempting to frame him for the killings. This section seems to undercut reader's assumptions about the struggle between the Light and the Darkness, for instance by demonstrating why killing random Dark Ones can cause more evil than good.
The third section deals with a dangerous gambit by the Night Watch to turn humanity towards the Light. However, Anton opposes it, reflecting back on other attempts to turn humanity towards good that were corrupted by the Dark Ones into great forces for evil-including communism and Nazism. The story ends on an ambiguous note.
I quite liked the characters in the book, particularly the Night Watch. The weird rivalry between Semyon and Ilya, Anton's no-nonsense partner Olga (who spends quite a lot of the first section as an owl), Anton's boss Gesar who has plans within plans, and Anton himself, who is eternally attempting to figure out what's going on. They seem like an odd sort of family, connected together by their love for each other. The Dark Ones are also interesting, although we only really get to meet three in this book, the Day Watch witch Alisa, the head of the Day Watch Zabulon, and Anton's neighbor Kostya, who's a vampire. With Kostya we are introduced to one of the themes of the novel: that there is not that much inherent difference between the Light Ones and the Dark Ones. The main difference is that the Dark Ones are mainly concerned with themselves, while the Light Ones are concerned with others. This however leads to troubling issues, as for instance the plots of the Light can easily sacrifice pawns in order to save greater numbers of people.
The plots of the three stories in Night Watch are a little confusing, particularly the second and third parts. In the second part the reader is led to believe one thing, but at the end there is a twist which reveals that in fact something else has been going on. The problem is that this twist is revealed in the very last line of the second section, and in the third section Lukyanenko neglects to provide much in the way of any more information to make that twist make sense. The ending to the third section is a little better, but we are still shown acts without properly being told what they mean. One side wins at the end of the third section, but I don't know how or why. It also bothered me a bit that it seems that the Light and the Darkness are rather unfairly balanced: it seems that the Darkness is rather heavily favored. Apparently humanity tends more towards the Darkness, and the Dark Ones throughly abuse this. Light Ones are also handicapped by the fact that to use their power risks it being corrupted to serve the darkness: killing a Dark One can lead to anguish that overwhelms any good from keeping them from doing evil, and to gather power to do something good Light Ones apparently have to take happiness from humanity. This is a rather dark way of looking at the world, and also makes it harder to understand why Light and Darkness are at a stalemate if Light is inhibited and Darkness is not. Perhaps when I read the sequel, Dark Watch, it will make more sense.
All in all this was a good and fun book, and I recommend reading it. I'm definitely going to read the next books in the series as soon as I can.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Review: The Magus
SO I'm back in Christchurch. Was a pretty uneventful flight, and I saw a good movie called Dean Spanley that I highly recommend.
But the main purpose of this post is to write about the most recent book I read, The Magus by John Fowles. This is the story of an Englishman named Nicholas Urfe who is hired to teach English at a private boarding school on an Greek Island. There he meets a mysterious Greek millionare named Conchis, who invites Nicholas to his house every weekend in order to first recount his life story, and later to mess with Nicolas' head, apparently merely for kicks. Things get more complicated as Nicholas descends further and further into Conchis' world, encounters several characters whose roles and identities constantly shift and attempts his best to figure out what's going on and why. About 3/4 of the way through the book, things finally come to a breaking point, Nicholas is kidnapped by Conchis and his allies, and is put on trial for being....I'm not even sure what. Anyways, he apparently fails his trial, and is summarily thrown off the island and spends the last quarter of the book trying to figure out what was the meaning of everything that happened.
This was an interesting book, in that it is very clear that John Fowles is a very good writer, and I loved his prose. However, the plot of the book is incredibly unsatisfying, and I had a general dislike of most of the characters as well.
The pacing of the plot is very odd. The first quarter or so of the book doesn't even take place in Greece and deals mostly with Nicholas' relationship with an Australian flight attendant named Alison, which later turns out to be important, but still seems like an entirely different book from the rest of the story. The last quarter of the book is about Nicholas attempting madly to figure out what the hell was going on in the previous sections of the book, and trying to find some sort of closure, which never happens. Essentially, Fowles needed here to say definitively to say whether Conchis and the various characters who assisted him were right or wrong in what they did, and this never happens. What we essentially get is Nicholas attempting to figure out what Conchis and his allies want from him so that he can get an explanation of why they did what they did, and being constantly rebuffed. When he eventually finds someone who'll actually talk to him, they still refuse to explain anything, and basically maintain that Nicholas does not deserve any sort of explanation. The entire story ends inconclusively.
Another thing that bothered me were the characters. Nicholas is essentially the protagonist by default, as he's a bit of a cad, somewhat emotionally immature, and a tad too self-justifying to make him sympathetic. Pretty much the only thing that makes him sympathetic is that he, like the reader, has no idea what's going on and that, in the last quarter of the book, is the injured party. Almost all of the other characters turn out to be agents of Conchis, and to a person they are all self-righteous, hypocritical, and unsympathetic monsters. At various times it is implied that they did what they did to either force enlightenment upon Nicholas or force him to become a more emotionally mature person, but that's essentially hooey. They hold over Nicholas that they know what's going on, and what principles we get of their philosophy (essentially, being emotionally honest with others) are hard to swallow given that they don't follow them with regards to Nicholas: they lie to him over and over again, emotionally manipulate him with casual cruelty, and treat Nicholas as essentially a test subject in an experiment. It is possible that Fowles was intending for them to turn out to be right, but as the story is they seem to do what they do for kicks, not for any higher purpose they might profess.
In summary, this was a frustrating novel that had weird pacing, no plot resolution, unsympathetic characters, and a weird sense of self-righteousness that was merely irritating. There were good parts about it (the writing, as mentioned above, and Nicholas' relationships with his socialist landlady Kemp and a young Scottish girl named Jojo, which were beautifully done and come way to late into the novel to redeem it), but all in all it was not a good book.
Next up is Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, which I'm almost done with and which I'm really liking.
But the main purpose of this post is to write about the most recent book I read, The Magus by John Fowles. This is the story of an Englishman named Nicholas Urfe who is hired to teach English at a private boarding school on an Greek Island. There he meets a mysterious Greek millionare named Conchis, who invites Nicholas to his house every weekend in order to first recount his life story, and later to mess with Nicolas' head, apparently merely for kicks. Things get more complicated as Nicholas descends further and further into Conchis' world, encounters several characters whose roles and identities constantly shift and attempts his best to figure out what's going on and why. About 3/4 of the way through the book, things finally come to a breaking point, Nicholas is kidnapped by Conchis and his allies, and is put on trial for being....I'm not even sure what. Anyways, he apparently fails his trial, and is summarily thrown off the island and spends the last quarter of the book trying to figure out what was the meaning of everything that happened.
This was an interesting book, in that it is very clear that John Fowles is a very good writer, and I loved his prose. However, the plot of the book is incredibly unsatisfying, and I had a general dislike of most of the characters as well.
The pacing of the plot is very odd. The first quarter or so of the book doesn't even take place in Greece and deals mostly with Nicholas' relationship with an Australian flight attendant named Alison, which later turns out to be important, but still seems like an entirely different book from the rest of the story. The last quarter of the book is about Nicholas attempting madly to figure out what the hell was going on in the previous sections of the book, and trying to find some sort of closure, which never happens. Essentially, Fowles needed here to say definitively to say whether Conchis and the various characters who assisted him were right or wrong in what they did, and this never happens. What we essentially get is Nicholas attempting to figure out what Conchis and his allies want from him so that he can get an explanation of why they did what they did, and being constantly rebuffed. When he eventually finds someone who'll actually talk to him, they still refuse to explain anything, and basically maintain that Nicholas does not deserve any sort of explanation. The entire story ends inconclusively.
Another thing that bothered me were the characters. Nicholas is essentially the protagonist by default, as he's a bit of a cad, somewhat emotionally immature, and a tad too self-justifying to make him sympathetic. Pretty much the only thing that makes him sympathetic is that he, like the reader, has no idea what's going on and that, in the last quarter of the book, is the injured party. Almost all of the other characters turn out to be agents of Conchis, and to a person they are all self-righteous, hypocritical, and unsympathetic monsters. At various times it is implied that they did what they did to either force enlightenment upon Nicholas or force him to become a more emotionally mature person, but that's essentially hooey. They hold over Nicholas that they know what's going on, and what principles we get of their philosophy (essentially, being emotionally honest with others) are hard to swallow given that they don't follow them with regards to Nicholas: they lie to him over and over again, emotionally manipulate him with casual cruelty, and treat Nicholas as essentially a test subject in an experiment. It is possible that Fowles was intending for them to turn out to be right, but as the story is they seem to do what they do for kicks, not for any higher purpose they might profess.
In summary, this was a frustrating novel that had weird pacing, no plot resolution, unsympathetic characters, and a weird sense of self-righteousness that was merely irritating. There were good parts about it (the writing, as mentioned above, and Nicholas' relationships with his socialist landlady Kemp and a young Scottish girl named Jojo, which were beautifully done and come way to late into the novel to redeem it), but all in all it was not a good book.
Next up is Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, which I'm almost done with and which I'm really liking.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Last day in Rarotonga
Back to good ol' NZ tonight really late at night.
So the night of the Cross-Island walk we went to this Progressive Dinner, where we ate at one family's house for appetizers, then another for the main course, and a final family's house for dessert. All of the food was good and tasty and I quite enjoyed it. The guy at the first house showed us his garden, which had all kinds of fruit and vegetables, including starfruit, papayas, hot peppers (I tried one and it nearly burnt my mouth. I feel sory and impressed by the guy who ate a whole one), and pinapples (which apparently grow out of the ground). All in all, a good evening.
The next morning, we had a lecture on the Cook Islands economy. It's not doing well, because there are so few people, so many people just leave for New Zealand, and there's so little land. The country survives entirely on tourism, which is also not doing so well, because it's mostly New Zealanders, who are apparently a lot more frugal than Americans.
After that we went to a nearby school. The kids danced for us, and then we were split up into groups. I don't know what the girls did, but us guys were taught by the kids how to play their drums. It took me awhile to pick up the rhythym, but it was fun. after that were visits to the classrooms and a light lunch. one of the teachers then asked the group if we wanted to play with the 1st years. I jumped at the chance. We played duck duck goose, which the kids seemed to really enjoy. When one of the kids picked me as the goose, he (I suppose expecting that I would be a lot faster than him) took off, running offaround one of the school buildngs. My group eneded up playing a lot of different games, most of which were quickly discarded as the kids got more rambunctious.
Then we went on a tour of the small plantations around the island. and small is the key word here: most of the places we saw were probably less than an acre. We saw noni (a fruit which smells and tastes like bleu cheese, and which is added to some health drinks), coconuts, bananas, papayas, and rock melons. I even got to help plant a new banana tree! Except for the part where I fell in a hidden hole over by the rock melon patch, it all went well.
THat night we went back to our hotel and had a talk with Nan Hauser, who's an American/Swiss/Bahamanian whale researcher who lives here. She showed us some of the footage she'd gotten from her studies of humpback whales, including times when whales almost destroyed her boats and interesting whale songs. She really was a cool lady. Many of my fellow IESers want to come back here to be her research assistants.
We went with Nan to this cool restaurant called Cafe Ariki. I ended up sitting with a good mix of people, and we talked all night about all kinds of geeky stuff. I was a little disappointed in my chicken snitzel, but all in all it was a good night. We closed it out with coconut ice cream that Eunice had bought for us.
Today we went to another school. We helped the kids clean up garbage and overturn possible mosquito breeding grounds, as well as remove some plants. It was actually kind of fun, although tiring. Then the kids had snack time (we didn't, which made me sad), then playtime. after playtime we had harder work, where we split up into two groups. Unfortunately I arrived and went with the wrong group, the one that was clearing the beach of weeds and rocks, as opposed to the one that was organizing raffle tickets inside in the shade.It was even harder work, but we accomplished a lot. After that the principal showed us how to hook coconuts out of a tree and we got to try our hand at husking them. I didn't get to go for very long, but i ended up being better than I expected.
Now it's free time. I think I shall meander about town and then go back to the hotel to rest and pack my stuff. I'll update my blog again when I get back to New Zealand.
So the night of the Cross-Island walk we went to this Progressive Dinner, where we ate at one family's house for appetizers, then another for the main course, and a final family's house for dessert. All of the food was good and tasty and I quite enjoyed it. The guy at the first house showed us his garden, which had all kinds of fruit and vegetables, including starfruit, papayas, hot peppers (I tried one and it nearly burnt my mouth. I feel sory and impressed by the guy who ate a whole one), and pinapples (which apparently grow out of the ground). All in all, a good evening.
The next morning, we had a lecture on the Cook Islands economy. It's not doing well, because there are so few people, so many people just leave for New Zealand, and there's so little land. The country survives entirely on tourism, which is also not doing so well, because it's mostly New Zealanders, who are apparently a lot more frugal than Americans.
After that we went to a nearby school. The kids danced for us, and then we were split up into groups. I don't know what the girls did, but us guys were taught by the kids how to play their drums. It took me awhile to pick up the rhythym, but it was fun. after that were visits to the classrooms and a light lunch. one of the teachers then asked the group if we wanted to play with the 1st years. I jumped at the chance. We played duck duck goose, which the kids seemed to really enjoy. When one of the kids picked me as the goose, he (I suppose expecting that I would be a lot faster than him) took off, running offaround one of the school buildngs. My group eneded up playing a lot of different games, most of which were quickly discarded as the kids got more rambunctious.
Then we went on a tour of the small plantations around the island. and small is the key word here: most of the places we saw were probably less than an acre. We saw noni (a fruit which smells and tastes like bleu cheese, and which is added to some health drinks), coconuts, bananas, papayas, and rock melons. I even got to help plant a new banana tree! Except for the part where I fell in a hidden hole over by the rock melon patch, it all went well.
THat night we went back to our hotel and had a talk with Nan Hauser, who's an American/Swiss/Bahamanian whale researcher who lives here. She showed us some of the footage she'd gotten from her studies of humpback whales, including times when whales almost destroyed her boats and interesting whale songs. She really was a cool lady. Many of my fellow IESers want to come back here to be her research assistants.
We went with Nan to this cool restaurant called Cafe Ariki. I ended up sitting with a good mix of people, and we talked all night about all kinds of geeky stuff. I was a little disappointed in my chicken snitzel, but all in all it was a good night. We closed it out with coconut ice cream that Eunice had bought for us.
Today we went to another school. We helped the kids clean up garbage and overturn possible mosquito breeding grounds, as well as remove some plants. It was actually kind of fun, although tiring. Then the kids had snack time (we didn't, which made me sad), then playtime. after playtime we had harder work, where we split up into two groups. Unfortunately I arrived and went with the wrong group, the one that was clearing the beach of weeds and rocks, as opposed to the one that was organizing raffle tickets inside in the shade.It was even harder work, but we accomplished a lot. After that the principal showed us how to hook coconuts out of a tree and we got to try our hand at husking them. I didn't get to go for very long, but i ended up being better than I expected.
Now it's free time. I think I shall meander about town and then go back to the hotel to rest and pack my stuff. I'll update my blog again when I get back to New Zealand.
Monday, April 20, 2009
the Cross-Island Walk
This was probably my least favorite part of the trip so far. I was expecting a hike on relatively flat and well-defined trail; and what I got was a path that was almost vertical both ways and lots of slippery tree roots on an extremely narrow and ill-defined path with long drops really close by. Evety time the trail got worse, I got angrier. Really, I was feeling a kind of existential rage that no one else seemed phased by this ordeal. To them it was just a walk in the woods. Right now I'm feeling better but while I was doing it I was completely miserable. I didn't even really get to appreciate the jungle around me because I was too worried about falling and too busy hoping and wishing that we'd get to the end already. At the end everyone got into this big pool and swum around. I got in about to my waist (in my clothes too), but found it too cold to continue. After that we went to the prison on the island, which is apparently the cheapest place on the island to buy ukeleles (I don't know why). When we gopt back to our hotel there were cookies for us. I survived the ordeal, and in retrospect it wasn't that terrible, but this hasn't been a fun day so far.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Market fun
So yesterday we got up really early in order to go to market. That said, a lot of us took a while to actually get there. It was pretty cool: there were dancers and music there, and lots of vendors. I got myself some t-shirts (I had forgotten to bring enough wioth me thru a brain fart), as well as a gift for Elana for her birthday which I think I'll end up posting from New Zealand, and a souvenier of Rarotonga for myself. This happened to be a small carving of the local god, Tangaroa, who is a bit lewd (he has no pants and is rather...well-endowed). Lewdness and idolatry aside, it is a uniquely Rarotongan piece of art, and I think it's a cool souvenier.
I also bought myself some chicken curry for lunch. Unfortunately, I had to wait to eat it, as we had another activity happening: this happened to be going to a taro patch to plant taro. It turned oput it was only a tiny part of the patch, but it was still muddy work. First we had to turn over the soil and make sure there weren't any holes for weeds to grow up in, then some people hadf to wade out into the bog around the patch to stake down a tarp to further prevent weeds from sprouting (this was the muddiest part of the activity,and one I did not participate in), then coconut palm leaves were put over the tarp (again, this kep weeds from sprouting). Finally, we got this huge heavy pounder thing to punch holes in the tarp and dirt to put the taro shoots in. There was also a coconut husking competition. Apparently some of the people that did it were hitting their coconuts in the wrong place, as one of the shapr sticks that you use to husk got blunted so it couldn't be used. The taro farmer who was showing us what to do also demonstrated that yes, you can in fact husk a coconut with your teeth.
The next activity was an arts and crafts one. First of all we made tie dye (fold fold dye, as nothing was actually tied) sarongs that all, miraculously, turned out beautifully. I rather liked mine, which I took pictures of and shall post when I get back to NZ. The next activity was weaving coconut palms into plates. I understood the fundamentals, but a small girl basically redid my plate after I did it. The girls then made headresses out of banana leaves, while us guys made these warrior streamers that one puts over one's shoulders. Then the girls and the guys were taught different hakas. I was kinda shy, but retrospectively I enjoyed learning the haka and how to dance like a Cook Islander, altho I still haven't mastered it (you need to both wiggle your knees and move your legs at the same time, while also moving your hands. It was TOUGH, and I kept getting embarrased.)
The next activity was easier and more pleasant. We went out to the beach, put our sarongs in the salt water (this would fix the colors apparently) and then played in the water. A lot of people did canoe paddling, but I wasn;t interested in that (althoough apparently they found some octopuses and played with them, and I regret missing that). The lagoon we were in had a serious current and I had to paddle to stay in one place. Although I missed out on the octopuses, I did get to play with sea cucumbers, so that was fun. At the end of the time a bucnhof us made a really elaborate and cool sand castle. Eunice accidentally gave us a lot of volunteers when she said that everyone that wasn't doing the sandcastle had to help put up the boats, and suddenly we had more volunteers than we could use.
That night we had a dinner prepared by the people who had showed us the arts and crafts. We used the plates we had made, watched the Cook Islanders show off their dances, and then we showed them our dances. Then there was a dance competition where the best girl and guy in the IES group got a CD. I, inevitably didn't win. It was still fun to watch tho.
Today we went to the Sunday service at the local Cook Island Christian Church. It was nice to see all the colorful hats and shirts that the churchgoers were wearing, but it was hot, the entire service was in Cook Island Maori, and I wasn't Christian, so I spent most of it kinda bored.
This afternoon we have free time. A lot of people are biking around the island, but I think I'll just walk through town and then vback. I think I'll try to get a picture of Parliament.
Tomorrow we go on the Cross Island Walk, and hopefully I'll be able to get away during our free time aftert that to update the blog on that. Hopefully it'll be exciting.
Anyways, hope all my readers are well, and hopefully more tomorrow.
I also bought myself some chicken curry for lunch. Unfortunately, I had to wait to eat it, as we had another activity happening: this happened to be going to a taro patch to plant taro. It turned oput it was only a tiny part of the patch, but it was still muddy work. First we had to turn over the soil and make sure there weren't any holes for weeds to grow up in, then some people hadf to wade out into the bog around the patch to stake down a tarp to further prevent weeds from sprouting (this was the muddiest part of the activity,and one I did not participate in), then coconut palm leaves were put over the tarp (again, this kep weeds from sprouting). Finally, we got this huge heavy pounder thing to punch holes in the tarp and dirt to put the taro shoots in. There was also a coconut husking competition. Apparently some of the people that did it were hitting their coconuts in the wrong place, as one of the shapr sticks that you use to husk got blunted so it couldn't be used. The taro farmer who was showing us what to do also demonstrated that yes, you can in fact husk a coconut with your teeth.
The next activity was an arts and crafts one. First of all we made tie dye (fold fold dye, as nothing was actually tied) sarongs that all, miraculously, turned out beautifully. I rather liked mine, which I took pictures of and shall post when I get back to NZ. The next activity was weaving coconut palms into plates. I understood the fundamentals, but a small girl basically redid my plate after I did it. The girls then made headresses out of banana leaves, while us guys made these warrior streamers that one puts over one's shoulders. Then the girls and the guys were taught different hakas. I was kinda shy, but retrospectively I enjoyed learning the haka and how to dance like a Cook Islander, altho I still haven't mastered it (you need to both wiggle your knees and move your legs at the same time, while also moving your hands. It was TOUGH, and I kept getting embarrased.)
The next activity was easier and more pleasant. We went out to the beach, put our sarongs in the salt water (this would fix the colors apparently) and then played in the water. A lot of people did canoe paddling, but I wasn;t interested in that (althoough apparently they found some octopuses and played with them, and I regret missing that). The lagoon we were in had a serious current and I had to paddle to stay in one place. Although I missed out on the octopuses, I did get to play with sea cucumbers, so that was fun. At the end of the time a bucnhof us made a really elaborate and cool sand castle. Eunice accidentally gave us a lot of volunteers when she said that everyone that wasn't doing the sandcastle had to help put up the boats, and suddenly we had more volunteers than we could use.
That night we had a dinner prepared by the people who had showed us the arts and crafts. We used the plates we had made, watched the Cook Islanders show off their dances, and then we showed them our dances. Then there was a dance competition where the best girl and guy in the IES group got a CD. I, inevitably didn't win. It was still fun to watch tho.
Today we went to the Sunday service at the local Cook Island Christian Church. It was nice to see all the colorful hats and shirts that the churchgoers were wearing, but it was hot, the entire service was in Cook Island Maori, and I wasn't Christian, so I spent most of it kinda bored.
This afternoon we have free time. A lot of people are biking around the island, but I think I'll just walk through town and then vback. I think I'll try to get a picture of Parliament.
Tomorrow we go on the Cross Island Walk, and hopefully I'll be able to get away during our free time aftert that to update the blog on that. Hopefully it'll be exciting.
Anyways, hope all my readers are well, and hopefully more tomorrow.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Cook ISlands G-String
so here I am in the Cook ISlands at an internet cafe. I hope I'll be able to do more in the comng days butr right now we're pretty busy dfoing stuff. Anyways,m here's what's happened over the past two days here
The flight from Christchurch to Auckland and from Auckland to Rarotonga were uneventful. I did accidentally cause a minor panic when I speculated whether or not OSU Federal was ging to remember that I had said I was going to be in the Cook Islands, and everyone else re3alized they hadn't even done that. But I think that all will work out, and hopefully I will be able to live on the money I gpot out of an ATYM in New Zealand. On the flight to Rarotonga I saw Quantum of Solace, a movie that was merely OK. I actyually had a hard time figuirng out what was going on.
Customs in Rarotonga went pretty smoothly, except for when one of the cops walked up to Ryan and asked him to put somnething in his pocket for a sniffer dog to rfind, for training. The first attempt didn'ty work beczause everyone around Ryan took theior cameras out, cluing the dog in, but attempt n. 2 worked well. After that we went to our hotel, settled in, and then went back out for dinner. This turned out to be at a seaside pub run by a white Hawaiian and a white New Zealander, where we had really tasty barbeque food. Thew teriyaki steak was especially good. That night a bunch of us ended up watching the Mr. Bean movie in the lounge, which was fun. I do prefer Blackadder for Rowan Atkinson roles.
First thing today we had a lecture on the history and politics of the Cook Islands by a former Minister of Justice and MP. Apparently all the Cook Islands has a smaller population than Corvallis, and a lot of MP's constiuencies are very small and made up of big families. Because of that, folks have to be careful what they do or else they can be voted out by a tiny amount of votes!
Then we went on a cruise! We wnet out in this little glass bottom boats to near a reef, where we did snorkeling. I ws initially wary, and also flet that i wouldn't be able to see anything given that the goggles on the snorkles were non-corrective, but I eventually di it and it ws a lot of fun. I saw a lot of fish and enjoyed myself, even though I had to get out to wipe my eyes a few times. As snorkle time was ending, some pople swam under the boat and did flips and stuff. I took pictures and winced in admiration.
Lunch was, again, grilled food, which was quite tasty. The most delicvious iten this time was some girlled bananas. After that was a show where the boat crew showed us how to shuck coconuts, as well as how to put on women's and men's sarongs. I was picked for the men;s part, wherew thye gave me what they called "The Cook Island G-String." They tyhen tied a rock to the bottom of my sarong thing, and, along with the other guy they'd picked, I was in structed to do a throughly lewd dance. I felt very shy but I got through it.
After that, we came back to the hotel and got a lecture on migration and ancient seafaring techniques. It was interesting, but i kept (to my embarrasment) falling asleep (I don;t know why). After that we went to these people's house, where they fed us a feast. Apparently these guys are going to teach us how to paddle canoes later on this week. Again, delicious (altho I didn't really like the coconut drink that was an option), and eaten in traditional Raro style ie with the fingers. I liked the curry chicked and the taro, which i dipped in the curry sauce.
So tomorrow we're going to market where I think I'll buy souveniers. Hopefully also I'll be able to get on another computer (I think we've got some spare time) and update my blog again. On Sunday we got to Church and Monday we walk across the island. This is fun and exciting and strange, and I'm quite enjoying it.
The flight from Christchurch to Auckland and from Auckland to Rarotonga were uneventful. I did accidentally cause a minor panic when I speculated whether or not OSU Federal was ging to remember that I had said I was going to be in the Cook Islands, and everyone else re3alized they hadn't even done that. But I think that all will work out, and hopefully I will be able to live on the money I gpot out of an ATYM in New Zealand. On the flight to Rarotonga I saw Quantum of Solace, a movie that was merely OK. I actyually had a hard time figuirng out what was going on.
Customs in Rarotonga went pretty smoothly, except for when one of the cops walked up to Ryan and asked him to put somnething in his pocket for a sniffer dog to rfind, for training. The first attempt didn'ty work beczause everyone around Ryan took theior cameras out, cluing the dog in, but attempt n. 2 worked well. After that we went to our hotel, settled in, and then went back out for dinner. This turned out to be at a seaside pub run by a white Hawaiian and a white New Zealander, where we had really tasty barbeque food. Thew teriyaki steak was especially good. That night a bunch of us ended up watching the Mr. Bean movie in the lounge, which was fun. I do prefer Blackadder for Rowan Atkinson roles.
First thing today we had a lecture on the history and politics of the Cook Islands by a former Minister of Justice and MP. Apparently all the Cook Islands has a smaller population than Corvallis, and a lot of MP's constiuencies are very small and made up of big families. Because of that, folks have to be careful what they do or else they can be voted out by a tiny amount of votes!
Then we went on a cruise! We wnet out in this little glass bottom boats to near a reef, where we did snorkeling. I ws initially wary, and also flet that i wouldn't be able to see anything given that the goggles on the snorkles were non-corrective, but I eventually di it and it ws a lot of fun. I saw a lot of fish and enjoyed myself, even though I had to get out to wipe my eyes a few times. As snorkle time was ending, some pople swam under the boat and did flips and stuff. I took pictures and winced in admiration.
Lunch was, again, grilled food, which was quite tasty. The most delicvious iten this time was some girlled bananas. After that was a show where the boat crew showed us how to shuck coconuts, as well as how to put on women's and men's sarongs. I was picked for the men;s part, wherew thye gave me what they called "The Cook Island G-String." They tyhen tied a rock to the bottom of my sarong thing, and, along with the other guy they'd picked, I was in structed to do a throughly lewd dance. I felt very shy but I got through it.
After that, we came back to the hotel and got a lecture on migration and ancient seafaring techniques. It was interesting, but i kept (to my embarrasment) falling asleep (I don;t know why). After that we went to these people's house, where they fed us a feast. Apparently these guys are going to teach us how to paddle canoes later on this week. Again, delicious (altho I didn't really like the coconut drink that was an option), and eaten in traditional Raro style ie with the fingers. I liked the curry chicked and the taro, which i dipped in the curry sauce.
So tomorrow we're going to market where I think I'll buy souveniers. Hopefully also I'll be able to get on another computer (I think we've got some spare time) and update my blog again. On Sunday we got to Church and Monday we walk across the island. This is fun and exciting and strange, and I'm quite enjoying it.
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