TheBanyanTree: To Those Down Under

[Peter Macinnis]

On 19/08/2013 07:40, TLW wrote:
> Dear Tree Folk: Because I am a silly Amurican, ignorant of the owrld
> outside our shores, and also because I haven't had lunch, I am not clear on
> whether any of our writers live in New Zealand. If you do, please let me
> know. I am considering a graduate degree at University of Canterbury. Why?
> Because I can.  :-D

I don't THINK we have any kiwis on the list, but you may wish to review 
that a little.  My daughter was at the University of Canterbury last 
year when the big earthquake struck.  It is in Christchurch, but she is 
at the University of Auckland on the North Island.

She was there to assist in giving a PhD student his viva voce/orals, and 
was glad the university is over-engineered, but they were under a table 
until it was over to avoid Falling Things.  Most of the committee 
dispersed, either to shepherd freshers away from the buildings where 
they were sheltering, or to help out at home.

The head of school looked at the rump of the committee, saw a quorum and 
declared that the orals must go ahead, as the university would be closed 
for six months.  They did, and the lad passed, giving him a brilliant CV 
item: "Can I work under pressure? I did my viva voce immediately after 
the Big One in Christchurch!"

Of course, you as a Californian may be more sanguine about shakes and 
quakes, but it took us an hour of Skype time (hooray for Skype!) to 
bring Cate back down afterwards in a debriefing/defusing session.  The 
scary bit was that she was thinking "Well, I'm on the top floor, so 
there's just one layer to swim up through."

She and her family are currently sacking York (or they may have made a 
lunge at London by now), but she could probably find some time to tell 
you about the place.  Know that there is still a lot of damage and 
destruction there, though--beyond the confines of the university.  And 
if you are near LA, it gets quite cold in the South Island.

peter

-- 
Peter Macinnis, boutique word herder & science gossip,
stand-up chameleon and part-time lay-down misère:
http://oldblockwriter.blogspot.com/