Habit breaking

For this week we were meant to work on breaking a habit that’s been sticking around a bit too long. My habit to break is my obsessive apologizing. I have a huge cognitive dissonance between the actions I take to be more environmentally friendly and feeling unable to encourage my friends to do the same. It seems crazy that I can’t tell my friends to turn the lights off when they leave a room without having a huge internal debate about it for two days before I bring it up and then apologize for saying anything immediately afterward.
I had a huge heart-to-heart with one of my housemates about this fear that I’ve had – this inexplicable desire not to ruffle feathers or offend. I feel like usually people would be inclined to call me quite forward (too forward?) with my thoughts and beliefs on a given topic but when it comes to something as intimate as my personal practices and beliefs about something that’s as close to my identity as environmental practices I become more recluse and quiet. I realize that this may seem extremely counter-intuitive – that the things I’m most passionate are the ones that are harder for me to express. What I’ve come to realize, however, is that when I’m around friends who are as conscious about environmentalism and their choices as I myself am I’m much more comfortable. I feel as though maybe I come across as lecturing or patronizing when I bring up a conversation about environmental choices unprovoked by those I’m talking to. The last thing I want to do is make others feel guilty about the lives they lead as I feel that makes people more defensive and less likely to be open about discussing or changing their habits.
These are all the things I discussed with my housemate. I found it helpful to delve into the root source of my discomfort and figure out why I apologize so often (or one of the more cognizant reasons, at least).
So this week, in keeping with my efforts to stop apologizing for my green ways and to encourage myself to be more vocal about such things I started leaving little Post-It notes around my room and house reminding myself of my efforts with “I’m NOT sorry” and “Step Up” (as in take the initiative on the environmental front…).
I think that this type of effort is consistent with the idea of positive reinforcement: presenting myself with a stimulus – reminders of what action I want to emulate to increase the future strength of the response. I also told my housemates that they can hit, bump, nudge, shout, or spray me with water anytime they hear me apologizing unnecessarily or for something having to do with my eating habits. This falls into the category of positive punishment – presenting an unpleasant stimulus after apologizing to decrease the frequency of future apologies.
So far I’ve found that there’s been moderate improvement. I’m a lot better when it comes to my apologies about my food purchases and habits but I still apologies a lot unnecessarily out of context with environmental goals. It got to the point where my clothes have been slightly damp all week (my housemates LOVE this game…me, not so much). I’m hoping, however, that in the weeks to come my efforts improve.

Waste is bad...even in cyberspace

Since this blog was already in existence (if you can call 4 blog entries an existence...)I decided to convert it to my "Eco Blog" to conserve internet energy...or out of sheer laziness and my inability to keep my bookmarks organized...

Gotta say, I'm not a huge fan of the blog shindig--sending my wild and crazy thoughts into the "great abyss" always seemed a bit pointless but that might also be because I'm terrible at keeping any of these journaling habits. My mum and I both have at least a dozen half started journals kicking around somewhere or another.

So! On to eco-blogging! I was meant to introduce my "eco-self" to people this week. My house nicknamed this "eco-bitch"--the annoying one harassing everyone about leaving all the lights on after a late night out and not running the dishwasher until it's full yadayadayada. Truthfully no one was really surprised. One of my friends asked "How is this different from your normal self???" Valid question. Another housemate was please that we'd be saving tons of money this year and that she wouldn't have to be the one to do all the nagging. Honestly, everyone's been pretty chill with it. More so than my Dad was when I was home and harassing him about putting plastics in the recycling even though it was aaaaaaall the way outside (he'd just harassed me back about being hypocritical...sadly, I'm sure he has a valid point...he usually does).

I was also meant to come up with a habit to break over the semester--something eco-related. My goal had been to stop apologizing--it HAS been my goal since the age of 10. My old high school soccer coach used to make me stay after practice and run a wind-sprint for every apology I made during practice. It helped a little but I think I still had to run after every practice... My house came up with the idea of a quarter jar but I'd never have enough cash on me to do that and then I'm just owing myself money and what's the point in that? Plus I use all my quarters for laundry. Someone suggested they get to hit me every time I say sorry but I have a feeling people would start calling abuse hotlines pretty quickly.

So! the habit I'm going to break? I think it's going to be an apology hybrid. I doubt I'm ever going to stop apologizing but I figure I can do my best to cut out certain apologies. The goal is to stop apologizing for my food choices and asking questions about where my food comes from. I wont apologize for taking half a year in the grocery store because I have to check where EVERY item in my cart came from to make sure it's local. I'm not going to apologize to the fish monger for asking what fish is most sustainable and being the brat at the counter with all the questions about dye in the salmon. And I'm going to get my crap together about my food education. I want to know what I should buy organic and what's a bit excessive (I'm still a poor college kid on a budget, after all). I want to make sure I'm not keeping those "organic" mega-farms in business and squashing out the local guys. I want to make sure I'm buying local when it counts and not being stupid about it. I want to have legit points to argue when someone asks "does it really matter THAT much?!?!???" Sure it's a hassle and sure everyone shopping with me is going to want to punch me in the mouth after every food run but I'm still going to do it...and I wont apologize (or maybe all my food money will just wind up in the "sorry jar").

Alex=World's Biggest Slacker

...either that or I'm just really bad at updating this blog.

Lots has happened since school ended and right now I'm in Sydney having a GREAT time! It's really strange to be in a city with over a few thousand and I feel like a true country bumpkin as I get josstled around the Sydney streets. The weather's been so-so but it hasn't rained...yet and I should proabably enjoy the cloud cover while it lasts.

So here's a quick update on what DID happen:
Kayaking through the Abel Tasman National Park near Nelson, NZ (top of the South Island)
Tramping (not hiking) the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds (drinking large quantities of local wine is compulsory)
Swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura (and seeing a sperm and humpback whale)...yes, I'm bragging now

Here's what WILL happen (as long as everything goes as planned:
Sydney-->Sailing the Whitsundays and out to the Barrier Reef (yippee!)-->Port Douglas to see more of the Reef and the rainforest-->Ayers Rock and true Aussie Outback (aka tourist central)-->back to Auckland-->fly fishing in Queenstown w/ Dad-->Auckland for Xmas/New Year's with the family

Sure hope y'all enjoyed hearing my itinerary! Hope everyone's well!
xoxo

Summer '08 Part II

Summer 2008 Kiwi style--let the debauchery commence....



Updates from the last month will hopefully be coming up soon (anything to put off packing)

The weather stinks. Almost as bad as my flatmate does...

I know—I’m terrible at updates. But this time I have an excuse! I’m in the throes of exams right now (and probably should be studying instead of updating a blog but no matter). I just wanted to gripe quickly about Wellington’s weather forecast for the next few days. Keep in mind that the end of October is equivalent to our end of April: this is does not look like late spring to me!!!

Yup, that’s all I got. Keep it safe out there.

Spontaneity...and backtracking to talk about it

Sorry for being such a slacker with this blog. I really have no excuse since little of anything was done between my last post and now. I’m going to be playing catch up for the next few weeks but I thought I’d do my best to fill y’all in on what’s going on down here and give some highlights from the past few weeks.

Last weekend’s theme was Spontaneity. I had a fantastic weekend living on a whim which is something I don’t have (or feel I have) the luxury of doing back home and it was really nice to just throw my hands up and let the winds take me where they pleased. I’m now a big believer in the “Just Say Yes” rule that someone suggested to me before I came down here. Making myself say yes felt a teensy bit rebellious (which probably says a lot about the way I normally live my life) and was quite liberating. Don’t worry, Mum, I’m not saying that I’m saying yes to heroine or trying to outrun avalanches but it’s really nice every once and a while to step outside of the monotony of your every day routine and have a look around at all the things you’ve been missing.

So last Friday I met up with a few friends from my American Foreign Policy class to divvy up readings and start reviewing (or at least talk about reviewing…) for our final exam which is fast approaching. After about 5 minutes of discussing that we turned our attention to more interesting things such as travel and local goings-ons. In addition to getting a few good tips for my travels that are coming up in November I got invited along to a Black Seeds concert. The Black Seeds are a local Wellington band that sound like a reggae-soul mix of Ben Harper, Citizen Cope, and a steel band. One of the guys from Flight of the Concords is in the band but was in NYC for the Grammy’s or filming or something as equally as socialite-ish and so sadly wasn’t playing. It was a fantastic concert, though, and held in the Town Hall which had gorgeous façades and wood floors. I found it a bit odd that it would be a venue for a concert whose main draw seemed to be inebriated hipsters who were more than happy to hotbox the beautiful building. But I guess Kiwi’s are called laid back for a reason and no one really seemed to mind too much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEkvMR2Zjqo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftDw_rRL11E&feature=related

After the concert we headed over to JJ Murphey’s, an Irish pub on Cuba Street which parallels my street (Willis) down to the waterfront and is one of the more quirky and fun areas of the city. JJ’s usually has a good cover band playing and is always a fun place to hang out. We met up with Ally and Kailah and played a few rounds of pool and had a relatively laid back night that ran quite a bit into the early morning. So later on that morning I met up with Ally, Kailah, and Mary who had rented a car and we skipped town for a bit of a girl’s weekend up in Wairapa which, from the way I understand it, is the greater Wellington region. We hit a ton of cute towns on the way up that Saturday afternoon and had a really nice time poking around shops and seeing somewhere outside of our normal stomping ground.

Mary, Kailah, Ally, and me


There’s a chocolate shop in Wellington that I’ve probably told most of you about already. It’s called Schoc (pronounced Chalk) and could give Jacques Torres a run for his money (if you don’t know who Jacques Torres is well, shame on you! We’re clearly not close enough friends and you should go do a Google search or start watching more Food Network). So I first discovered Schoc early in the term with Ally when we went for a Sunday afternoon hot chocolate. They do amazing twists on Mexican hot chocolate with delicious combinations of spices. For the hot chocolate they basically pour hot milk over a block of creamy chocolate and give you a spoon/straw so you can get the divine goodness that’s at the bottom of your glass. In case you can’t tell from the description I’m giving I think this place is God’s gift to mankind and I’m sorry that everyone has not had the life changing experience that I’ve had.



So the point of this is that there was a Schoc store in one of the towns we passed through. And yes, before you even ask, of course we stopped, and of course we bought truffles, and of course they were delicious. I’ve decided that my time studying Political and Environmental Sciences at college has been completely pointless and my true calling is as a chocolatier. Sorry for all the hassle, Mum and Dad, but at least this way you’ll be able to taste the sweet joy of my education and I’m sure I’d be able to pilfer a few extra copper pots from pastry school, Dad!

As workplaces go, this trumps having a cubicle with fuzzy walls any day of the week


We also made a wee stop-off at New Zealand’s Stonehenge replication which unfortunately (or quite possible fortunately) wasn’t doing any tours but we got to see some cute farm animals on the road out and I’m fairly confident I found where Loopy Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter book lives.


That night we stayed in Martinbourgh. I’m pretty confident that this is the town that Pottery Barn built it was just so darn cute. The Wairapa (Masterton and Martinbourgh, in particular) are known for its wines and produces some of the best Pinot Noir’s in the country. So, purely for cultural appreciation, a wine tasting was in order. As diligent students of New Zealand culture we got up early the next morning in search of a vineyard offering up scrumptious wine tastings to wash our breakfasts down with. After a relaxed Sunday morning breakfast and a final poke round the town we sniffed out a really nice vineyard and had a delightful wine tasting. The guy who served us was really friendly and was explaining the different harvesting procedures they use to get different wines and textures. Being the botany dweeb that I am I found it all fascinating—the taste of the wine varies depending on how much morning and afternoon sun the grapes receive and how long the grapes are left on the vine. It got me thinking that I might want to Wwoof on a vineyard to learn a bit more about the process.

The city square--this picture doesn't do justice to how cute the town was
After our morning drinks we got back in the car (Ally was a very good designated driver) and drove out to Cape Palliser where there are some phenomenal pillars that formed out of the cliffs. The bluffs are really just soft sand and silt and when it rains they erode and interesting patterns leaving these breathtaking pillars standing.


Well folks, that’s about all I have for today. Well, no, that’s a lie. I have much more but should probably get going on some school work since that’s what I’m actually meant to be getting an education doing down here.

Lots of love to everyone back home.

Sunshine at long last!!!

Well, you can tell that I’ve been away from Southern California for far too long when I get so excited that I devout an entire post to the weather, and the sun in particular. But today was just too fantastic to NOT write about it. It was the first “spring is in the air” day but it really could have been early summer. It was just fantastic—sunny and warm from beginning to end. I have discovered (maybe relearned would be a better word) in a very brutal way that wearing a flowy skirt in a windy city is never a good idea no matter how nice it is. Jeans should always be worn, or if a skirt is absolutely crucial then tights are too. That’s my contribution to the Southern Hemisphere’s Vogue for spring ‘08.

In celebration of the beautiful weather I went on a run around the city—my first outdoors run in an embarrassingly long time. I went around Oriental Parade (Kiwi’s aren’t huge fans of political correctness) where there’s a big walkway along the side of a manmade beach to one side of the harbour. It’s a really pretty part of the city and is easier to navigate then the rest of the city which is usually clogged with pedestrian rush hour traffic (bike lanes are a rarity in downtown Wellington). There’s this “geyser” in the beach part of Oriental Bay that sprays water into the air—it’s really just a salt water fountain and probably isn’t the most energy or cost efficient option for the city but it’s cool to look at. The houses in the area aren’t what you’d call eye sores either. There are two fantastic swing parks on this side of town (yes, I’ve been on both and can personally attest to their high quality).




*That's Te Papa (NZ national museum) on the right, Oriental Bay to the left/in the background, and Mount Victoria.

I also thought I should explain the name of this blog since it may seem a bit odd. Coming from a British family I already know a few of the words and terms for things down here and coincidentally don’t get mocked nearly as often for little colloquialisms like I do back in the States. People here know how to properly pronounce words like “scone” “where” “what” and no one finds it odd when I say “he/she’s called….” instead of “he/she’s named….” or pronounce “strawberry” properly. You wouldn’t think things like these would make much of a difference unless people pointed them out to you for the better part of 20 years. Two of the words that I didn’t know were gumboots and jandals. Gumboots are Wellingtons or rainboots and jandals refer to flip-flops or sandals. The term came from “Japanese sandal” and was eventually abbreviated to jandal (see, not very pc). When I first came down here I actually didn’t know what a jandal was and thought it was a bad work or at least a little bit scandalous. Nope, turns out it’s just a flip flop. Coming from SoCal I proudly were flops as much as possible and they develop their own character (my mum’s word for character is smell) and if you haven’t seen my favourite pair of wellys well, you should. Then you might understand why I’m still 6 years old at heart. Anywho, I decided to name the blog after my favourite types of foot apparel. Aren’t you glad you didn’t ask?



Speaking of footwear people down here regularly go without. It’s completely common for a quarter of my class to show up to lectures barefoot (and we’re talking political science classes here, not “How to be a Hippie 101”). Please appreciate that Victoria University is in a city school and that I’ve seen more grass in the tiny backyards of cookie cutter suburbia. In other words there’s lots of concrete. Enough that you’d think it would be sore to go around barefoot all day but everyone seems pretty a-ok with the whole thing and I must admit, I’ve nearly stopped noticing…well, at least my jaw doesn’t drop open like it did the first few times in lecture.

Well, I’ve probably bored you all enough and should probably stop writing. Hope everyone’s safe and sound back in the Northern Hemisphere. Lots of love!