25 years and counting

- And months later I finally got it together to write another post. Things are happening down here, busy days full of studying, research, skiing, more studying, tramping, avalanche courses, research, abstract submissions, more skiing, more research, a visit from Denmark, studying, more skiing and finally some more studying and research. I guess this post will be a brief list of what has happened since May, and first of all let me apologise for the lack of photographic evidence. Unfortunately, my camera went down a mountain to end up in a stream attached to my big tramping pack without being in any sort of waterproof bag, and since then it has had a tiny drop of water stuck on the inside of the lens. Some day I might come around to making an insurance claim and buying a new camera, until then you will have to settle for my words..

In the beginning of June I went tramping in Nelson Lakes National Park on a wonderful trip to Lake Angelus and Angelus hut. The sceneries were amazing, and I am hoping to do exactly the same trip this winter only on skis! There were four of us going, two Germans, an American and myself, and we had a great trip to refuel before the exams kicked in a week later.

On the exam note, I met my usual changing mood during study weeks and exams, but as usual I made my way through with some very decent results (especially considering that I spent no more than one day preparing for my Anatomy and Physiology exam and still made a B+). The whole change of exam procedures turned out to be ok, though I still think that written, closed book exams might not always be the best way of testing if students have learnt whatever was taught in a course.

After exams came a couple of weeks of study break which I used for moving to a new apartment (much, much better than my previous room), chilling for a few days (I guess they call it nesting - basically I just enjoyed doing absolutely nothing), moving on with my research project, skiing and finally I did an introductory Avalanche Awareness Course with the local Mountain Safety Council. In many ways two very productive weeks, and the best part is that I feel so much better in my new home. Thursday in the first week of semester two I got my first visitor from Denmark. Nina stayed with me for a bit more than a week while buying a car, recovering from the worst jetlag and all the other practical stuff that needs to be taken care of when arriving in a new country to stay for 4 months. It has been absolutely wonderful to have a friendly face staying, bringing Toms Kæmpeskildpadder, proper liquorice and good rum, and now that she has moved on and is out living the skiing dream I must admit that it is very quiet being home alone. On the other hand, it is very good for my productivity, and we would probably have ended up killing each other if we were to stay in my (relatively small) place for 4 months, so I guess it serves the greater good that she is doing her thing while I am stuck in Christchurch getting brighter and brighter for each day that goes by (I really just want to go skiing these days!).

The first month of the skiing season has offered some remarkable experiences. Skiing in New Zealand is truly something different than skiing in the European Alps, and I love it here! All of the smaller ski fields are run mainly by volunteers, and the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming. The lift technology is rubbish, but then again it can all be fixed with a can of WD-40, a big hammer and a bit of duct tape. And when this all means that you can just leave your bag (including wallet, mobile phone and everything) in a lodge at the center of the area without worrying about people going through your stuff it is definitely worth it all! I have taken a beating from one of these tow rope lifts when a stitching in my tow belt ripped, but nothing too serious (and don't worry, if it keeps hurting for more than another week I might just get it checked...) - and it was not a faulty design of the lift, but rather a bad model of my personal gear that was to blame.

To do a bit of namedropping of ski fields (for those who might be interested), I have now visited Porters, Mt Cheeseman (yes, that is an actual ski field here), Broken River, Mt Hutt and Mt Olympus. A few words on each:

Mt Hutt wants to be a European ski field. Stop doing that please, it is just too small to be compared to European conditions, and the atmosphere is just as bad as in France (without the crazy ass after skiing). They have three chair lifts and a fancy chip system for the lift passes - which in my opinion is a massive overkill! Everything is groomed slopes.

Porters is semi-commercial, certainly more atmosphere than Hutt, but still not a proper club field. Has a slope with the awesome name "Big Mama", and some pretty sweet skiing (has had some of the best snow of the early season). Mainly groomed slopes, and the ski field closest to Christchurch (about 110 minutes from the time I lock my door until I have my boots on ready to go skiing). T-bars instead of rope tows.

Mt Cheeseman, Broken River and Mt Olympus are "proper" club ski fields close to Christchurch. Fantastic atmosphere, lots of ungroomed skiing and heaps of back basins waiting to be explored once I get my avalanche knowledge going (which is on my to-do list with a 4 day course over two weekends in August). Cheeseman is quite family friendly skiing, has T-bars and a quite new lodge with a decent cafeteria-thingy (sells coffee and food that can be cooked in a sandwich press or a microwave). Broken River and Olympus both have the infamous rope tows, nothing but ungroomed runs and plenty of friendly faces around. In connection to these club fields are different kinds of acommodation on (or just off) the mountain, again with just the right atmosphere and at reasonable prices as well (at least if you go for the self-catered once, 15 minutes drive from the lifts).

Access roads are a story on their own - some very well maintained (Porters and Hutt), some long, windy and quite exposed (Cheeseman), some more or less just a single vehicle track in the forest (Broken River), and finally some which are a single track, long and windy and certainly very exposed (Mt Olympus). Though Olympus seem quite close to Christchurch on a map, the time to get there is quite long because of the 49km gravel road that leads up there...


Status now is sore legs, a bruced rib or two, high spirits regarding studies (with a slight fear that it may all get horribly stressed over the next five weeks up until deadline of the report on my research) and big plans for avalanche education over two weekends in August. I have not yet decided what to do in the coming weekend, I might see if there are a tramper or two keen on some easy ski touring to get into the game before the avalanche course. Otherwise I might just go "normal" skiing or tramping.

Oh, and on the finishing note - thanks to everyone who sent me a greeting and/or a present for my birthday. It is certainly something else to celebrate such a long way from home, but on the other hand this allowed me to turn 25 without being exposed to ridiculous amounts of cinnamon. I spend the day studying and the night eating out with Eva and Nic, and had a qiuet but very good day. Upon my return to Denmark I promise to throw some kind of a massive party to celebrate all the good stuff that I miss out celebrating in style while away!

That'll be all for now, I am off to bed before another long day at the office awaits me tomorrow. But hey, I am now playing around with BlueFern, our local super computing facility, allowing me to run my simulations in up to 16 parallel processes. It still makes me smile every time I submit a job and see it done within minutes (previously I have had stuff running for 8 hours overnight) - and it will look great on my CV! This next few days I better focus on a presentation on medical imaging of ADHD I am giving on Thursday, but there will soon be time to play around with big computers again..

Comeback 18/5

Here I am again – sorry for the minor dropout over the last month or so. Things have been busy at university, in weekends and all over. But I am happy, life is good and my studies are going well.

Over the Easter break I went tramping solo for five days from Lewis Pass to Arthur’s Pass (pictures at picasaweb). A fantastic trip, lots of time for reflection and beautiful sceneries. I shared the first hut with three other people, the other three nights I had to myself (except for the one night where I had company by a mouse – it even dared crawling onto my shoulder). It reminded me that I should not be limited in doing the things I like to just because the people I would normally do these things with are far away, and so I did the day after my return to Christchurch. Sacha Vee played a fantastic double concert with Oval Office in town, which made my first encounter with the New Zealand funk music a very pleasant experience.

A few days went by, procrastinating everything possible. I did buy a car though, a 95 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon. I ended up getting an automatic, and I am slowly getting used to the lazy driving. My fingers are crossed that it will perform in the snow during winter.

The last week of my Easter break was spent white water kayaking around Murchison. This turned out to be quite an experience, both on and off the water. The instructors were absolutely fantastic, getting us newbies safely down the rapids safely. I even won a prize for having the most faith in the instructors when capsizing – if we could manage to stay in the kayaks under water, an instructor could paddle over and turn us around. And so I did on the very first day. Stayed in my kayak bottom up, probably for 30 seconds or more, while the instructors messed around before turning me around.

In the evenings, a fire was lit and for some odd reason (maybe excessive amounts of alcohol) some of the guys ended up sitting naked around the fire. I learnt that the drinking culture among some Kiwis is worse than anything I have ever seen in Denmark. I blame the goon (bag-in-box wine, which only comes in horrible quality down here). But they did have a quite funny ritual around the goon as it was passed around the fire. Before drinking (straight from the tap), you had to slap it to punish it for the hangovers it was going to give you the following day!

Back again, I had a few days to write up an assignment on “Chernobyl Today” before lectures started after the break. After a few days of frustration I managed to put it together; and (hopefully) in a decent way as well. Lectures started, and my research project started picking up speed as we realised that we had some pretty serious issues in the computer model I am working on that needed resolving. This turned into a few very interesting email correspondences, among others with one of the guys who had developed the software we are using. It is fantastic to see from the inside how the scientific community is working when you come across something you do not quite know how to tackle, and even more so to be in contact with people around the world trying to figure out the easiest (and best) way of doing something that has never been done before. Today I had an email waiting for me when I came into my office, with promises that we should have the last missing tool for my project on hand before the end of this week. At the same time, we have been approved to BlueFern, the supercomputer at the university. This should speed up my simulations quite dramatically (I had my computer running a simulation for 67 hours over the weekend, so a bit of extra speed is more than welcome), and it is another “minor” thing making the project a lot more interesting than reading for my normal courses.

The past three weekends have offered a tramp to Mt. Tinline close to the Kaikoura range, a visit at The Paddock where a shed was built for Eva’s new nursery, and another tramp to Mt. Taylor – the highest summit in the Canterbury region. Mt. Tinline was a one day trip with a huge group (22 or so), which ended up with only five of us making it to the summit (1747 m). The last bit to the top was quite gnarly, loose and exposed, but the view from the top was worth it. Pictures at picasaweb

Mt Taylor was conquered this weekend with a group of 7 really nice people, and a stunning tramp (More pictures at picasaweb). We left Christchurch Friday at 16, drove up to Lake Heron and walked along a riverbed in the dark to Double Hut. Dinner was cooked, eaten, and the beds were made. We turned in at 22, and for unknown reasons I had a bit of trouble falling asleep. Saturday morning started 7.25 where we got up, had breakfast and left our overnight gear in the hut before heading for the summit at 8.45. Ahead of us was a 1400 m climb, following a ridgeline before reaching the summit (2333 m) and going back the way we came up. The weather was great, especially after the sun broke through the thin layer of clouds around 11, and we saw no sign of the rain predicted by the forecast (another case of the weather forecast being pretty useless in NZ). We made the summit at 12.30, had lunch, took pictures and threw rocks off the top while enjoying the views to the highest peaks in the country. The descent proved a bit of a challenge to my left knee, but we made it down safely in spite of a couple of us stumbling once as the ground started moving sideways down the side of the ridge. We made it to the hut by 16, had a short afternoon tea break before packing up our overnight gear and walking out to the cars. As darkness descended upon us we managed to find the proper track to the hut, sparing us a bit of riverbed travelling, and just as head torches was needed we made it to the car park, around 18. Two hours drive later, three of us found ourselves at our local fish & chips shop, Captain Bens, after another magnificent day in the Southern Alps.

Sunday I went for the annual Ski sale, arranged by the Canterbury Snowsport Association. Some hours later I had a pair of skis and touring bindings in my room, and in a couple of weeks I will get a phone call saying that a range of touring boots are waiting for me to come have a look. Let the winter begin (in a month or so)!

Tomorrow I am going to look at an apartment – hopefully I will succeed in finding a place to stay from the end of June before I have to start studying for my exams. It looks like a decent place on the pictures available, but I will have to wait and see until tomorrow afternoon. It feels great to get started on though; it means that I will soon be out of the expensive student accommodation without proper kitchen facilities. I do not mind that.

Getting a feel for my research project 16/3

After a week and a half, today I finally managed to get a feeling of where to start on my honours-project. I have known for some days now what it is all supposed to end up with, but the starting point was somewhat blurred, perhaps because my supervisor does not really know the software that I will be working with, doing Monte Carlo simulations. I have spend around 9½ hours at uni for the past two days, but I have actually enjoyed staying late in spite of major computer issues (that I have now given up on, and written an email to the computer guy at the department). Next week I have my first mid-term test, things are getting serious now, and time management will be quite crucial for me if I want to spend a week or two off during the April break (2-25/4). It should all be possible though, and my supervisor told me today that he was confident that I would do well, especially since I am concerned about my time management. Apparently this is not a common thing to worry about after three years of tertiary studies here, which seems a bit strange to me. Who knows, maybe I am just way too serious about my studies…

I have been working on being released from my contract at the Ilam Village, since I do not see the point in staying here when I can rent a one bedroom apartment for the same amount of money as I am paying to stay here. It turns out that this is a major thing, and could cost me a penalty of up to 8 weeks rent plus $500, which would add up to something just short of $2500. I am meeting with the community manager on Thursday to figure out what options I have; he said today that it might be possible to be released by the end of the semester without having to pay the penalty. The ridiculous part of the whole thing is that every case is considered individually, and the penalty can differ with each case. I am thinking about consulting the student association to ask them whether they know of similar cases; being new to the country and the standard practice of renting property does not make it any easier to tell if I am being treated unreasonably (or even illegally), and I might just as well take advantage of the student association being present with the sole purpose of helping out students.

If I am going to stay here until the end of the semester (which will probably be the solution if the penalty really is $2500), I will see what options I have of moving to another flat. 4 flatmates is just a bit too much for me, often when I go to bed around 23.00, someone is just about to start making diner. The noise is not really keeping me awake, but it is just loud enough to irritate me anyway. Besides, it would make quite a difference being moved away from the ground floor, having to share a tiny fridge with less people, and maybe there is an opportunity of moving in with other postgraduates who are serious about their studies as well. All this is just speculations at this point, Thursday morning I will hopefully be able to make the right, informed choice on what to do.

In the weekend I went bouldering with the university climbing club. This was a slightly strange experience, and I was reminded that bouldering is not really my kind of climbing. Partying until 3 in the morning was not really my thing either this weekend, but people were nice and easy-going, and I got my introduction to the infamous Sheffield meat pies – pretty good stuff, I must say, but not something I could eat every day. After all, I do not think I will be spending much time in the climbing club, but this is perfectly fine since I have signed up for more clubs than the time allows me to get properly involved in. The really cool thing is that I can borrow climbing gear for free as a member, which pretty much justifies being a member even if I do not participate in the trips they organise.

Next weekend I will either be tramping or studying, hoping to do the other thing the following weekend. During the April break I am planning on doing a week of white water kayaking, plus a 4-5 day tramp. I am not sure yet if I will be tramping alone or with somebody, but I promise to stick to one of the great walks (or something equally busy) if I am going solo!

Adding another degree to my programme, 4/3

Big stuff is happening here in Christchurch, less than two weeks into my studies. In the beginning of this week I got the offer from the Director of the Medical Physics programme to do a Bachelor of Science with Honours (BScHons) instead of just the first part of my Masters degree that I have come here to do. After a day or two of thinking about this I accepted the offer, which basically means that I will be doing a research project in my first year, and the BScHons will provide access to doing a PhD after my first year. Whether I am going to do that or not, I have absolutely no idea at this moment, but it opens op a lot of opportunities, and if I “just” want to do the masters thesis as originally planned that is an option as well.

The one thing that required a bit of consideration before accepting the offer was that my workload will increase by 25% in the next six months. However, this increased workload will be within a project which will (hopefully) be more interesting than just doing another theoretical course, and I am absolutely thrilled about the whole thing. Some paperwork is still to be done, but I have agreed with my supervisor to start my project on Monday no matter how far the official process has gone. The rest will follow, I am sure, since I have the support of both the director of the programme (who is also my supervisor) and the head of department. I will have to change my visa and pay some extra fees when changing my degree, but there is just so much more to get out of the first year if I do make this “upgrade” – and besides, just getting the offer is quite a big deal, since only the brightest students are accepted in the honours programmes (the fact that they are slightly desperate to get more research students at the moment is something I choose not to focus too much on…). The curious thing is that my grades were not even considered before I was encouraged to make the change; however they would have prevented me from doing it if they were not at the required level.

The project I will be doing for the next six months is called “Simulation of energy selective computed tomography (CT) projection data”, and it is basically a matter of programming a virtual CT-scanner and seeing whether we are able to discriminate different kinds of tissue irradiated in this virtual scanner. It will all be linked to a PhD project, and nobody has ever published results like the ones we are hoping that I will get. Therefore I have a good chance of getting some results published, that is of course if I get some proper results, but if we did not count on this being the case, there would not be much of a point in doing the project in the first place.

Besides getting this fantastic offer, I am constantly being introduced to new people at the department. It really makes me feel welcome, that almost every time I attend something where my supervisor and somebody I don’t know are present, I am being introduced to whoever he is talking to. So far, it has all been people relevant to my programme here, but it still makes a huge difference that I am getting this introduction to people, who are all very supportive. Maybe they really are quite desperate to have people doing the research project, if not they are just exceptionally good at welcoming people from overseas and making me feel at home at the department straight away. I now have my own desk and computer at the eighth floor of the Rutherford building, sharing an office with two PhD students, one PostDoc and a Masters student who has just handed in his thesis. I sat there today reading, for the very first time, and it is quite amazing how motivating the sounds of other people working in the same room can be – I would never have stayed at the library until 5PM today, if I had not been at my desk.

Tonight we had a department barbeque, nothing big, just a small get together for students (doing at least their third year) and staff. It was really nice to go there with the people I am sharing the office with, getting to talk to them (and others from the department). It seems like the more time I spend around the department at the moment, the more confident I get that this is exactly the right place in the world for me to be at this time (which is a rather nice feeling!).

University life, 23/2

Today has been my second day of proper university life at UC. Lectures started yesterday, and I am very pleased to be back in the game again. Lecturers seems to be nice, down-to-earth people, and my courses look doable, even though anatomy, physiology and pathology might require some late evenings or early mornings to get hold off. I am expecting a slight change in my study routines, since my courses here seems less focused on equations than my undergraduate courses in Aarhus were, but I am confident that I will find a good way of absorbing knowledge here as well. This semester I will be taking the following courses:

• MDPH401 – Anatomy and Physiology
• MDPH403 – Radiation Physics
• MDPH404 – Radiation Biology and Radiation Protection
• PHYS407 – Research Tools (covering scientific writing in LaTeX and some programming in MATLAB and possibly another programme as well)
• PHYS411 – Advanced Quantum Mechanics

So far I have had introductory lectures in all courses but PHYS411 which won’t commence until 15 March, and they do a lot of mid-term tests, which will count a certain percentage of the total grade if we pass the exams. This means that there is no slacking off during term-time, but hopefully, this also allows for breaks to be spent as breaks and not as extra study time.

The director of the medical physics programme is a really nice guy, who is very helpful when it comes to very basic questions about how exams and everything works here, as well as with more specialised questions regarding the courses he is teaching. Today, he almost offered me a PhD-position if I do well at my coursework (at least he encouraged me to keep the option in mind when doing my coursework and planning the years ahead), and the whole atmosphere at the physics department is nice and relaxed, and a bit more personal than in Aarhus I must say. This might have something to do with there being quite few postgraduate students at the department, but nevertheless it is nice to feel welcome and appreciated in the corridors. I am hoping to get a desk within a few weeks, but nobody seems to be quite sure on what the department policy is on the matter, so I will just have to cross my fingers and be patient.

Another part of the university life is all the different clubs organised under the University of Canterbury Student Association (UCSA). They have such vast a variety that it is some task to choose between all the different clubs. So far, I have signed up for the UC Climbing Club, Canterbury University Tramping Club and Canterbury University Snow Sports Club, and there is a few more I would love to join, but I seriously doubt how much time I have left to dedicate to these clubs. Maybe I will just sign up for the whole lot, memberships are around $20, and then choose to put my time and effort into whichever is more fun and with the right people involved. I don’t have to make up my mind by tomorrow, but since a lot of clubs start their activities by next week, it would be a lot easier to get involved if I have decided during this week and can show up to the first meetings where there will be lots of others as new and as confused as myself.

On Friday I will donate my house-building-skills to a project called Habitat for Humanity, that is building a house on university grounds to house a family that needs housing due to economic trouble. Everything is build by volunteers, supervised by professionals, and I am certain that it will be good fun, and maybe a place to meet some cool people. Friday evening I am attending a welcome diner at “Operation Friendship”, an initiative aimed at getting international students to meet and have diner with local kiwis who have chosen to open their homes and welcome a bunch of foreign students into their house. The initiative appears to have started within local churches, but it appears to be a non-religious project that I look forward to taking part in.

Ilam Village, 12/2

A week ago I checked in at the Ilam Village, apartment no. 83 room 1. I got to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in a month, and as from today, three of my four flatmates have moved in as well. My room is probably 4.5x2 square meters, and the buildings are only a few years old, making everything quite new and not worn out like one could fear when moving in at student accommodations. All of the rooms where I live are furnished with a bed (for unknown reasons I have only been given a single when I am entitled to a King Single – big issue, which apparently takes more than a week to solve), a desk and chair, a wardrobe without doors, two pin-up boards and a bookshelf mounted over the desk. Unfortunately, my room is on the ground level, so I have quite a lot of traffic passing by during the day, but as long as I don’t have to study full days in my room I guess I will be fine.

The apartment has two bathrooms, where the showerheads are mounted in the wall only 175cm above the floor. We saw this at a few holiday parks in January as well, but I still can’t figure out why they would do such a thing. It’s not like Kiwis are particularly short, and the money saved on those 20cm of water pipes can’t be much. But with a combination of bending down and leaning against the wall, plus a bit of limbo dancing, I am able to wash my hair, and I would rather have it this way than an old, mouldy tub in a dark brown bathroom from the seventies.

Our kitchen is very sparse equipped, and this is probably the one thing that will bother me the most. We have a tiny fridge, with less than one shelf for each of the five in the apartment, and instead of a proper oven we have a microwave with a convection programme. In addition to this, there is just one plate, one glass, one cup and one set of crockery for each of us, and the utensils are pretty much non-existing. I really do not understand how they can imagine us cooking for five with two tiny pots and a small frying pan… But we will be all right, I have already talked to two of my flatmates about getting extras for the kitchen, and they are more than happy to pay their share.

The most important part, however, is that my flatmates seems to be really nice people. So far I am living with a Kiwi girl and a girl and a guy from USA, and I have no reason to believe that it will be an issue living together with them.

The last week have been spent on getting a lot of practical things sorted before international orientation and enrolment kicks off next week, and lectures begin the week after. I have gotten a mobile phone, a bike and all sorts of different stuff for my room and our kitchen. I have been to visit Eva & Nic, have had the last visitors from New Zealand Explorer before they all moved on – thanks a lot for stopping by, I will miss you guys!, and been for a few walks around the proximity of the university plus a long walk to central Christchurch. My bike will come in very handy, since it is a half day project to walk to the city centre, do whatever needs to be done there, and walk back to campus. By bike I imagine the trip can be done in 15 minutes, making it possible to go on days where I need to study as well. Besides, Christchurch is absolutely flat, and thus the perfect city to bike around. I even managed to find a bike that is neither a road or a mountain bike,  but it took some effort to find the right shop with the hybrid I was looking for.

Tomorrow I am biking to The Paddock and staying there overnight. We will be going to Aprils 21^st tomorrow night, and I am looking forward to meeting some of the people that I will be seeing from time to time at The Paddock, plus seeing a bit of the Kiwi family traditions. Sunday we are all going to the Riccarton Market before Åse & Connie drops by to see my apartment, and in the evening the village offers “speed meeting”, where it will – hopefully – be possible to get to talk to some of the others staying at the village and have a bit of fun. So far, the only introduction the village has offered was an open lunchBBQ yesterday and today, and to be honest I expected a bit more in terms of getting to know the place and people around. I guess it will all come naturally in time, but it sure would have been nice with a tour around the facilities instead of just “Welcome, here is your room and your keys, any questions?”.

When I moved in last Friday, Nic and I went for a walk around the university, and I happened to meet one of my lecturers when we were looking around at the physics department. He seemed like a really nice guy, genuinely interested in why I am here studying medical physics, and just as down-to-earth as I am used to from Aarhus University. It is a big comfort to have met one of the lecturers and seen for myself that they are relaxed and helpful, and given the fact that we are only ten people following the medical physics classes, I am sure I will get to know a few of the staff pretty well, even before I start on my thesis next year.