Here's An Idea

Here's an idea:

Some sort of device that you hook up to both your iPod and your pulse and you enter all of your physical information and what activity you are doing. Then, your music will only play at the correct speed according to your pulse or speed or distance covered or whatever. So if it calculates that you are going too slow, then your music will play like this:

nnnnnnnnnnnevvvvvvverrrrrrrr miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnd i'llllllllllllllllllllllllllll ffffffffffiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddd sssssssssommmmmmmmmmmmmeonnnnnnnnnnnne lllllllllllllllllllllllike yoooooooooooooooooooooou

But if you are going too fast for your level then it'll be like this:

BUTISETFIRE2THERAINWTCHDITBRNASITCHEDURFACE

So you have to do it just right.

And that is how I am going to become a millionaire.

Not Knowing Is the Fun Bit

This whole “summer job” deal is, to be honest, a new concept to me. During high school, I saw my involvement in non-academics as my job, as I committed as much (or perhaps more) time and energy to them as I would a paying part-time stint at the local grocery store, Tim Horton’s, or restaurant. This involvement paid off in the end, but it certainly left the notion of working in the summer months one to be discovered after my first year of university. If you’ve read the 2012 entries in this blog, you will know that I spent last summer working in India, England, and Germany. So, as I take on this second experience this summer, I only have my India adventure with which to compare working at the Royal Society of New Zealand. Here are some of the similarities and differences I have drawn between the two. India is in orange, New Zealand is in green.

Time taken to walk to work: twenty-five seconds

Time taken to walk to work: twenty-five minutes

Work building: open-air rehearsal hall

Work building: earthquake-proof office building

My day is spent: sitting

My day is spent: sitting

While I am sitting, I am: watching Shakespeare in Persian

While I am sitting, I am: researching academic journal articles on green technologies (for example)

At work, I wear: t-shirt, shorts, sandals

At work, I wear: shirt, pants, shoes

Percentage of coworkers who speak English: 33%

Percentage of coworkers who speak English: 100%

Number of coworkers with a doctorate degree: 11

Number of coworkers from a country with the 7^th lowest life expectancy: 12

I drink: tea

I drink: tea

My ability to understand what everyone is talking about: low

My ability to understand what everyone is talking about: low

My interest in what I am doing: high

My interest in what I am doing: high?

The last comparison is sort of the point of this post, and the question mark is not an unedited piece of punctuation. One of the wonderful reasons I am able to work in New Zealand is that I received a grant, to keep the explanation short, that partially covers travel and living expenses. This applies for my three years of university, however, each summer has a different “theme.” This one happens to be public policy.

There is definitely a Devon that everybody knows who is wildly interested in politics… but do they see him working in public policy? Probably not. They probably see him in a theatre somewhere. Now, as he slips out of this highly annoying third person narration, one might be confused when s/he hears that I am working in an office building… with an organization that deals primarily with science and technology… much less in the external affairs (what does that even mean, s/he thinks) sector. On paper, this job sounds a lot less exciting or diverse than, say, travelling to India to work with an Afghan theatre troupe and then touring Europe with them. But I’m ok with that, because it is a completely different, sort of incomparable experience. Ironic, I know, because I just made ten comparisons above, but that’s the delicious paradox of it all. I’m ok sitting in an office doing “academic” (and I use quotations deliberately in acknowledging the loose definition of the word) work that may never directly contribute to my eventual career(s). I think what matters is that I go into everything I do with a positive energy and that I focus on staying happy throughout… because once you are unhappy, then you have a problem.

And so I head into week 2/12 of my grand policy adventure, prepared to give it my all even when I’m not sure how much I have to give. But not knowing is the fun bit because it means that there’s a chance to surprise yourself.

My First Week at Work

Ok, time to talk business.

Since you have invested in reading this blog, I’ll just be straight up with you about the content. The main reason I am in New Zealand for these three months is to work at the Royal Society of New Zealand. Here’s the spiel I gave people who asked what I was going to be doing before I got here:

“The Royal Society of New Zealand is a non-governmental organization and their external affairs sector, with which I will be working as a policy intern, provides expert advice on science, technologies, and the humanities to members of the New Zealand legislature so that they can make informed policy decisions on these topics.”

I slowly watched people’s eyes glaze over as I droned on about this, and frankly, I think I would too if I heard it from someone. However, I swear there’s a lot more to the job! … all which will be revealed to you within the next eleven weeks as I take on projects at the office, all with the goal of hopefully influencing policy in one way or another. I am sure I will, but my contributions might be less obvious than the more-apparent members of parliament.

But enough of that! Part of the fun is that this is the first time I will have ever worked in an office! So that, of course, comes with so much fun awkwardness and unfamiliarity to provide at least eleven weeks of entertainment to an outside viewer. Here’s how my first day of work on Monday went down.

First of all, it was pouring. And I mean POURING. The streets of Wellington were flooding. Luckily, most of the twenty-five minute walk to work through the downtown and up to a small suburb of the city called Thorndon is sheltered under storefront overhang, but the five minutes that I had to walk without any overhead protection was enough to soak me through to my underwear. So I arrive at the office, drenched, and politely tell the receptionist, “I’m Devon Jackson, I’ll be interning with the Society for the next twelve weeks.” [no answer] “Sorry that I brought the Great Lakes with me.” [polite laugh] “Is there a washroom I can clean up in?” [Devon proceeds to wring out his socks] Luckily, I was wearing black pants so I didn’t look too wet… only my spirit.

Things perked up though, as I was shown around the beautifully modern and earthquake-proofed building that now houses the offices of the Royal Society of New Zealand. My boss showed me around and introduced me to everyone on all three floors of the office, then I went to my desk and started up my computer as I was assisted in connecting to the network. So that let to FUN computer times. Here are three slightly embarrassing things that occurred with the start-up of my computer:

1. My log-in screen picture is of Meryl Streep. So much for letting the cat out of the bag subtly.
2. My DVD player on the computer starts up automatically and blasts the end credits of Arrested Development, which my sister and I had been watching the night before, throughout the entire floor. 
3. While connecting to the network, the three coworkers of mine huddled around my computer see that my default computer name isn’t something standard like “Devon Jackson’s PC” or “My Computer,” but rather (in all caps) “TALLULAH.” Poor Tallulah.

After all that, I was basically debriefed on what everyone on the policy team does and then I got started on my first project. The Society is writing an “emerging issues” paper on promising green technologies, so I produced a literature review… basically sifting through hundreds of academic journal articles, figuring out which ones would best help answer the scope of the paper. And boy does this type of literature review take time. I won’t go into detail on the intricacies of literature review-making, but all I can say is that I was concurrently thorough and concise. It’s a difficult task. Anyway, I worked on that all week. Literally, all week. It was a little tedious, but interesting at the same time. And you sort of find out ways to make the work interesting/bearable. Here are my top three tips for making an academic journal article compilation bearable:

1. Drink a cup of tea as you sift through journals on green technologies and renewable energy policies and marginal abatement cost curves and societal challenges to technology uptake and so on and so forth. Reward yourself with a sip everyone once in a while. (Banana chips also work as a reward)
2. If you come across something that you don’t know, look it up! Wikipedia is a great tool for base-learning, and learning is fun! A lot of stuff is really cool and we just don’t know that it is cool because, well, we’re oblivious to stuff’s existence! (Ok, that last sentence was a stretch but I’m tired)

That’s it, actually. Tea and Wikipedia.

I’ll comment more on workplace dynamic and the actual building and Wellington itself later… but for now I must get some sleep because tomorrow we are rising early to visit the Academy-Award winning Weta Workshop! I feel like I’ve been there already from the special features on the Lord of the Rings DVDs, but I’ll gladly visit in person.

Here’s a reward for reaching the end of this very verbose post. Surprise: it’s a picture of me in front of my work (the weekend before work started though, I didn’t go in a t-shirt and jeans).

SURPRISE! Here's another one of me in front of a sign of a street we stayed on. There are actually a lot of Devon Streets in New Zealand; I've had a large influence on the country already.

Photos from the South Island

I do apologize for the lack of posts recently, I am afraid I have been quite tired/busy these past couple days to update everyone on the great Kiwi adventure. So, as I sit in our apartment living room watching a show about people driving on dangerous roads around the world (aptly titled “Dangerous Roads”), I am going to put together a blog post made up mainly of pictures from the rest of our time on the South Island. Emily is editing her wonderful pictures and panoramas (because really, what other way is there to capture a New Zealand landscape?), so I will take advantage of her storytelling skills in this post.

I have started work here in New Zealand, but I want to wait until I’ve finished a full week in the office so that I have something to write about workwise. You’ll just have to go without my witty commentary and musing about life for now (I was so much keener on being witty – or me thinking I was being witty – last summer, wasn’t I?) and enjoy the vistas of the Antipodes. Click on any of the photographs if you want to see them in their original-size glory.

This is a panorama of Milford Sound. I know you've already seen pictures of it, but I just wanted to show you this one as well.

And you've also seen this view of the Southern Alps, but again... a panorama this time.

This is up the coastline of Abel Tasman National Park from a boat.

Same as above.

After we landed on the beach ready to start our 12.0km hike along the coast.

View from a highpoint of our tramp.

Adele Island. Bird sanctuary. First European to reach New Zealand got moored out there, skirmished with the Maori, then peaced out. Europeans didn't return for about two hundred years.

Still in Abel Tasman. This reminded me of "don't... follow... the light!" Anyone?

So photogenic.

Photo of the front yard of the hippy-ish hostel we stayed at.

Last view of the South Island on the ferry to the North Island.

That's all for now. Coming soon... Wellington Wine Wednesdays, my first week of work, and Weta Workshop! SO MANY Ws!

Welcome to Wellington

One of the big things that happened between last time we spoke was a hike along the Abel Tasman Coastline Trail in Abel Tasman National Park. The day started out with a cruise along and below crystal blue water and sky, respectively. This was followed by a twelve kilometre tramp along the coastline, made up of forest, beaches, hills, and cliffs. We had an absolutely lovely day doing that, especially because the weather cooperated so wonderfully – you see, the day was sandwiched between several days worth of rain and cold.

I will upload some pictures of the gorgeous trail walk in an upcoming post (read: when Emily has uploaded the pictures). But now, after a three hour ferry ride from the north of the South Island, we have reached Wellington (situated at the southern tip of the North Island). This is home for the next twelve weeks, serving as a base camp after the days I spend interning at the Royal Society of New Zealand and for the weekend outings that will take us to farther reaches of this country. More specifically, we are in an apartment two streets away from Cuba Street, which is essentially the nightlife street of Wellington. This is so good because I am really into the nightlife scene (note: I am not. However, New Zealand is known for its spectacular wines, so I am thinking of starting a tradition on the blog called “Wellington Wine Wednesdays” in which I review a New Zealand wine… depending on how much I like the wine, I may be more inclined to join the nightlife of the city).

The apartment – photos, again, to come at a later time after we have settled in – feels comfortable and safe. Though I think I am going to need some adjusting to living the city life. You see, Wellington, with its urban population of nearly 400,000, is the biggest city I have ever lived in. You actually have to crane your neck to look up at some of the buildings! For those of you have lived in Toronto, or… Toronto (which is the only big city in Canada right?), you may be thinking, “Oh Devon, you naïve boy!” But yeah, that’s the word I am going to use right now too because I think I am going to have some adjusting to do. For example, I’ll need to learn how to go to sleep to the sounds of passing vehicles, not crickets or toots of a train. Also, I will need to adjust to being one of those people actually walking to work instead of one of those people watching people walk to work. I mean this more in the sense of “I come to big cities for leisure” and less in the sense of “I’m lazy/have a skewed sense of fun and literally watch people walk to work.”

I’ll be sure to get some pictures of Wellington before I feel like too much of a local and start feeling silly taking photographs. You see, I’m a cultural chameleon. Not. However, I do find myself trying to say things like “thanks” and “excuse me” in a Kiwi accent so that I don’t stick out as a Canadian that much. Whatever though, I’m just going to embrace my status as a foreigner and pretend to be a student of the Earth, living, studying, working, eating, breathing internationally. Okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about anymore, I must be tired. This past week has been sort of a “wake up at 6am and start the day, 2pm is time for a wind-down with tea, 6pm I’m tucked beneath the covers” week. 

Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating with 6pm bedtime, but the point I am trying to make is that it will be nice to get into a bit of a routine.

Alright, it’s 7pm, time to hit the hay.

Haere Mai!

Ever since hearing this phrase upon arrival in New Zealand, I’ve been using it as a synonym of YOLO when I do something that could be preceded with “When in New Zealand…” I have since discovered that it simply means “welcome” in Maori, but I have redefined it for myself. I hope this isn’t culturally insensitive, but I like to think of it as somewhat correct. For example, a couple of days ago my sister and I decided to climb a mountain. Haere Mai! Welcome to New Zealand. Where the land will make you want to do things you wouldn’t necessarily do anywhere else.

In short, I’m spending my time in New Zealand as a policy intern in the country’s capital, Wellington. But before my position there begins, my sister and I decided to do a bit of a vacation on the South Island. Here’s a map to put things into perspective.

So our first stop is Queenstown, near the south of the South Island. Here are some highlights of our stay in and around Queenstown:

1) Showering after 25 hours spent on either a plane or in a terminal
2) Sort of climbing Ben Lomond (a mountain)
3) Hills, hills everywhere
4) Milford Sound

I don’t have a picture of me in the shower, but imagine me covered in butter and then being hosed off. Actually wait, don’t imagine that because just no. But honestly, I was feeling so greasy after that little journey across some of Canada and the Pacific Ocean and the length of New Zealand. I do, however, have pictures of the other three highlights from our first four days in Aotearoa.

Emily and I decided to go for a little jaunt up THIS mountain (yeah that big one in the distance).

 It’s called Ben Lomond and it is 1,748m high. We understood the time commitment before we started climbing, but I don’t think we understood how steady the incline would be. And I’m not sure if we factored in that this was our first full day in New Zealand and we were still probably pretty jet lagged. Anyway, that’s where we aimed to climb to.

Here is a picture of me looking majestic with the mountain backdrop.

so majestic

Anyway, we got up to the saddle (a flat part of the tramp, which is the Kiwi word for hike, between the main walk and the steeper climb to the summit) where we got a gorgeous view of the Southern Alps. It was terribly windy up there, but it was so beautiful and worth it. It was nice to just look at them. Here’s a picture of Em and I, so carefully composed (i.e. camera on self-timer of a lovely makeshift backpack tripod).

The next day we headed off to the west coast of New Zealand toward the Tasman Sea to visit Milford Sound (it’s actually a fjord but I won’t give you a geography lesson right now). In short, it’s this gorgeous inlet with steep hills formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Milford area was where scenes in The Lord of the Rings around Fangorn Forest were filmed. Note: I will be referring to a lot of places we go as “that place in LOTR.” It is also one of the rainiest places in New Zealand, so we got a cloudy day but the rain held off for our actual boat tour of the fjord. Luckily, it had been raining earlier so hundreds of waterfalls had essentially sprung out of the hillsides – it was quite gorgeous. Below are a couple pictures of Milford Sound.

And our last pictures for this post is of Lake Wakatipu, the body of water around Queenstown – the longest lake in New Zealand and one of two in the world that has a tide! Apparently scientists say that the 200mm rise and fall of the water every three hours has to do with air pressure between two mountain ranges (like the other tide lake, Lake Geneva), but Maori legend has it that there is a giant at the bottom of the lake whose heart beats every three hours, causing the tide. Anyway, it’s surrounded by hills and hills so it is quite a spectacular place to be.

We have been travelling all day via plane up to Nelson for our next couple of days, so I am afraid that I will have to sign off for now. I’ll be able to give a little more insight on my feelings about this wonderful country (I assure you, they are all positive) later on this week when we settle in for our twelve-week stay in Wellington. But for now, you’ll just have to grin and bear the “travel blog” style for another few days. We’ve got an eight kilometre walk in Abel Tasman National Park tomorrow so we must get some sleep… you can Google image pictures or wait for tomorrow, for I am sure my sister will be able to produce some more gorgeous photographs for you to enjoy.

I would post more photos, but these image files are huge and the postively glacial New Zealand internet doesn't help the process.

Haere Mai!

Oh, Good Lord That's Moist

About a year ago I was sitting in my room trying to pack my bag for a flight that goes halfway around the world the next day. Whaddya know, I’m here again. I’m happy that you have decided to join me on my blog as I make a little jaunt over to New Zealand for the next three months. In the interest of saving time to allow me to lessen the weight of my suitcase, here are some preplanned gifs (because gifs never die) surrounding the topic of Devon in the land of the long white cloud.

Me a couple of weeks ago

My sister waking me up this morning

As I realize that I leave tomorrow

Me as my mom tells me to finish packing

When I tell her that I already have

When she finds out that I lied

Tonight as I get really excited because I am leaving tomorrow

Me with all the plane tickets for the million flights

Eating my last meal made at home

As we pull out of the driveway tomorrow for the airport

As I make my way through the airport to the gate

As I am waiting for the plane to take off

I asked dear blog readers last year to please wish my buttocks luck as I flew to Dubai and then to India, but please wish me even more luck as I board a five hour flight to Vancouver and then a fourteen hour flight to Auckland and then a two hour flight to Queenstown. At that time, with much anticipation, I will begin my Kiwi adventure. Confused? More to come.

PS - Did I mention that my sister, Emily, and I are going together? Oh yes. And with that note, a final gif.