After the mushroom experience we had two US scientists coming over to discuss my project and make some definite plans and decisions.
This all started out in a panic (really, how else could it have started), because one of them got somehow “stuck” in Christchurch whereas we had to get him to the institute and the holiday home near to the institute where they would be staying. To be honest, it was Ian who was in panic. For an organized person I think he gets into an awful amount of panic, but that is probably because he cannot handle chaos. So, this is another point besides my scientific expertise (haha…) where I at least complement him, because I excel in chaos. Not sure if that is something you would put on your resume though, especially since I tend to evoke chaos first and then excel in getting myself out of it again.
Anyway, someone had to drive Gary from his mystery location in ChCh to the holiday home, and Ian was about to go to this very important meeting, so he threw me some car keys and a worried look. I printed out Google directions, and went to get the car. We had parked it in its spot after coming back from the mushroom-event, but it had disappeared. Which I found a bit worrying, since I had they keys in my hands after all. It turned out to be around the corner, being cleaned by the insane vagabond whom I had seen being refused entrance onto the bus. Apparently he is our official car cleaner. So I climbed into the gigantic car and drove off our driveway on the right side of the road. Big confusion when I came to the actual road but luckily I was all alone so far. Then I managed to drive almost straight to the hidden location with 4 Google print outs on my lap and find Gary. He had been staying with friends who live on a street that according to Google maps can be accessed, but that is not true.
The next day the other scientist, Joel, had also shown up and we sat all together and discussed our ideas of “the perfect plot”. I presented my efforts of the last weeks to find such plots, we had lunch at the only vaguely decent lunch place in town, and I noticed how much more relaxed Gary and Joel were compared to Ian. More about that later.
In the afternoon I had to present myself and my previous work at our informal team meeting, and that went quite well. Gary came to me right after and said “well done Nina!” and that was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Somehow I never really had any mentor who would give any sort of feedback after any kind of presentation. Ian and Matt came around a day later with “it wasn’t bad … for a soil scientist”. I guess that was a lot of praise coming from them.
Then we set off on Sunday to see some of the possible field sites and discuss them. All of the other women in my team later asked me “How was your trip with 4 alpha males?!”. Indeed I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the 4 very knowledgeable, bearded and/or bespectacled men, but it was great fun.
It was more like a road trip than a scientific discussion excursion. Matt was constantly recalling the wildest stories of scientific and other adventures, Gary and Joel were making a lot of jokes, and Ian was stressed almost the whole time about not getting enough work done. That is why I was really happy to have some more fun loving people on board as well. In fact Gary and Joel told me not to worry about Ian’s behaviour. He is just trying to be very very good, and to be fair, I think he is, but he is soo tense about work all the time and I can’t handle that.
For my geography friends. Such beautiful landforms ...
Franz Josef Glacier in the early morning. A MAJOR tourist attraction. We were allowed this brief glimpse by Ian, who had never seen it yet (living here for 5 years now). Gary later told me "Don't be like Ian, take some holidays and experience the country"
Of course we did not find sites that even remotely came close to perfection. We started to have a bunch of silly and recurring jokes about not being able to find what we were looking for and changing our ideas of the perfect plot every few hours. We finally changed the whole sampling idea and schedule.
But it was very useful to have these discussions and I learned a lot from these days. The others learned that I like to drive fast. They let me drive the last hours, when the road was finally straight, but it was dark and we hit some dense fog. I was really being careful, but after days of Ian's driving style, a combination of supercareful and panic attacks, it probably seemed as if I was going 150 on the Autobahn...
This all started out in a panic (really, how else could it have started), because one of them got somehow “stuck” in Christchurch whereas we had to get him to the institute and the holiday home near to the institute where they would be staying. To be honest, it was Ian who was in panic. For an organized person I think he gets into an awful amount of panic, but that is probably because he cannot handle chaos. So, this is another point besides my scientific expertise (haha…) where I at least complement him, because I excel in chaos. Not sure if that is something you would put on your resume though, especially since I tend to evoke chaos first and then excel in getting myself out of it again.
Anyway, someone had to drive Gary from his mystery location in ChCh to the holiday home, and Ian was about to go to this very important meeting, so he threw me some car keys and a worried look. I printed out Google directions, and went to get the car. We had parked it in its spot after coming back from the mushroom-event, but it had disappeared. Which I found a bit worrying, since I had they keys in my hands after all. It turned out to be around the corner, being cleaned by the insane vagabond whom I had seen being refused entrance onto the bus. Apparently he is our official car cleaner. So I climbed into the gigantic car and drove off our driveway on the right side of the road. Big confusion when I came to the actual road but luckily I was all alone so far. Then I managed to drive almost straight to the hidden location with 4 Google print outs on my lap and find Gary. He had been staying with friends who live on a street that according to Google maps can be accessed, but that is not true.
The next day the other scientist, Joel, had also shown up and we sat all together and discussed our ideas of “the perfect plot”. I presented my efforts of the last weeks to find such plots, we had lunch at the only vaguely decent lunch place in town, and I noticed how much more relaxed Gary and Joel were compared to Ian. More about that later.
In the afternoon I had to present myself and my previous work at our informal team meeting, and that went quite well. Gary came to me right after and said “well done Nina!” and that was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Somehow I never really had any mentor who would give any sort of feedback after any kind of presentation. Ian and Matt came around a day later with “it wasn’t bad … for a soil scientist”. I guess that was a lot of praise coming from them.
Then we set off on Sunday to see some of the possible field sites and discuss them. All of the other women in my team later asked me “How was your trip with 4 alpha males?!”. Indeed I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the 4 very knowledgeable, bearded and/or bespectacled men, but it was great fun.
It was more like a road trip than a scientific discussion excursion. Matt was constantly recalling the wildest stories of scientific and other adventures, Gary and Joel were making a lot of jokes, and Ian was stressed almost the whole time about not getting enough work done. That is why I was really happy to have some more fun loving people on board as well. In fact Gary and Joel told me not to worry about Ian’s behaviour. He is just trying to be very very good, and to be fair, I think he is, but he is soo tense about work all the time and I can’t handle that.We ended up doing a big tour more or less circling the entire South Island. It was a lot of driving, and driving is pretty slow in NZ, but the landscapes were spectacular. We hiked up a few possible field sites and it just seems from another world. In fact we all had recently seen Avatar and that was almost how it felt deep in the forest. Magical.
For my geography friends. Such beautiful landforms ...
Franz Josef Glacier in the early morning. A MAJOR tourist attraction. We were allowed this brief glimpse by Ian, who had never seen it yet (living here for 5 years now). Gary later told me "Don't be like Ian, take some holidays and experience the country"
Of course we did not find sites that even remotely came close to perfection. We started to have a bunch of silly and recurring jokes about not being able to find what we were looking for and changing our ideas of the perfect plot every few hours. We finally changed the whole sampling idea and schedule.
But it was very useful to have these discussions and I learned a lot from these days. The others learned that I like to drive fast. They let me drive the last hours, when the road was finally straight, but it was dark and we hit some dense fog. I was really being careful, but after days of Ian's driving style, a combination of supercareful and panic attacks, it probably seemed as if I was going 150 on the Autobahn...
