Best. Job. Ever.

So I've now been here at the Edward Percival University of Canterbury Field Station (what a mouthful) for a full two weeks and I'm loving it! I actually get paid to wander through the bush everyday and watch birds. Dream job.Over the last two weeks I've learnt to catch and band birds, and extract their preen waxes for lab analyses and experiments, and Jim (supervisor) will be returning at the end of the week to teach us 'mist netting' as another way to catch birds.

The work is going relatively well so far, although it's proving to be much more challenging than I first anticipated. This being said, I still haven't even started the main experiments yet!

In other news, Goose is currently starting his first day at a new job! He was offered this job in Auckland for a company called 'At Height', who are contracted out to clean or maintain tall buildings. He drove to Kaikoura on Thursday, stayed the night and came out into the field with me the next

morning. We then had lunch, napped and he left for Picton that afternoon. It was amazing to see him as I miss him heaps. Hopefully though, this means I'll be moving back up north after the scholarship is over and will get to be a whole lot closer to my family again (and all the fruit that stunning island has falling off it's trees!!).

For now though, I'm just trying to concentrate on this work. That's not being made easy by the absolutely shit forecast (for a whole week) here though!

I'm super anxious about results too (4 days away) and then excited to be able to go back to Christchurch (never thought I'd say that ...) and see my parents and graduate! Yay! After that, it's only a week or two until xmas, and probably the end of my work here, and Goose will be back for a whole 3 weeks!! Cannot wait to hang out with my man again ... properly!

So to conclude: rain go away, results be good, graduation be sunny and christmas be amazing.

What to do ... what to do.

So after the elation of having all this newfound free time, I'm now absolutely bored out of my mind. After the last exam, I got a few things done, took some time to watch movies etc, and went to Geraldine for a week. This was ok, but I sort of feel a bit trapped at Goose's parent's place sometimes. Towards the end of last week, we got out of the house and went tramping up Forest Creek (South Canterbury). We walked in Friday morning, and after 7 hours in the amazingweather, found a good place to camp. That night we went for a wee mish up behind our campsite and Goose took a shot at a tahr, but we think he spazzed hardcore and threw himself off the cliff. The next day we woke up bright and early to go on a day mission, but I got about 50m and my achilles decided it wasn't going to co-operate, so Goose went by himself. That night he missioned up this ridiculous scree face and finally shot one. The next day we packed up and left early. It only took us 4 1/2 hours to get out, but it was a loooong 4 1/2 hours in the hot sun! Overall it was a good weekend out and about and really woke me up to the fact that I need to get fit!

So came back to Christchurch and realised my WOF had run out, so took my car up the road to get the check. Turned out I needed $550-600 to replace the shocks and get my WOF!! After stressing for hours and ringing around every shock mechanic in the phone book, Goose called and told me he'd do it for me! Lifesaver! So now it will only cost me $300 + gas to geraldine + a lifetime of him guilt-tripping me into scratching his back.

To top this post off, this morning I went and saw Jim (my scholarship supervisor) and I finally found out I'm off to Kaikoura on Monday next week! Yay! Let the research begin! I do still have to entertain myself for the rest of the week somehow ... but I'm not going to complain about having nothing to do anymore, I bet I'll be wishing I was back here when I'm out in the bush everyday. Things are looking up! Fingers crossed this shock replacement goes well ......

Student life is over!

I had my last exam today! It was the best feeling in the whole wide world. Ever.

Seriously though, that last morning of study was the longest morning of my life. I had to keep stopping myself from thinking about the joy I would be thinking at 5.30pm, and about all the things I was totally free to do the next day.

The exam went a bit better than I expected it to, a couple of the questions were really easy, and I think the one's that weren't super easy, I dealt with them as best I could with the amount of study I had done. I guess we'll just have to wait until December 4th to find out exactly how well I handled it!

It only hit me the amount of freedom I have after I finished watching shortland street and didn't have to go rushing straight back to the library or worry what lecture I was up to in the study plan. So I got pizza, took Matty to the supermarket, laid around, gave my room the best damned clean it's ever had and listened to music. I've missed my music sooo much since study began!

Tomorrow the plan is to sleep in! Well for a bit anyway, then I'm going to try and get into hornby to this shop that apparently has a bunch of Metallica t-shirts, so I'm hoping I'll find some girls stuff in there, cos they only seem to make them for guys! Grrr. Then do some retail therapy, get a frozen yoghurt or two, do some research on my beloved robins and pack to go to Geraldine and see my Goosey! It's been WAY too long since I've seen that guy.

On another note, I have four ducks living at Goose's parents place. They're not even a year old, and two of them are sitting on nests already! I don't believe any of them will actually hatch ducklings as they're all different species, but it's so cool to see my wee duckies all grown up and being parents! I get to see them tomorrow too, can't wait!

Time to sort out my desk, then I think I might have a wee squiz at some robin papers, then a trashy mag, THEN start my new book, Tandia by Bryce Courtenay, and then maybe I'll get some shuteye. Maybe. :)