How we celebrate Thanksgiving in New Zealand

Apparently people don't actually celebrate Thanksgiving in New Zealand. Everyone follows American politics, kids wear NBA jerseys, radio stations play American bands, people watch American television, and Subway and McDonald's dominate downtown, but I guess the Americanization of New Zealand and the world stops short at imposing holidays. It's crazy Kiwis wouldn't adopt one of the best days in the American tradition.

So even though I won't be feasting on turkey this Thanksgiving, it still feels good to think about all those families sitting down to dinner in a few hours back in the US. Turkey is actually hard to come by here, so maybe I'll make myself a ham or chicken sandwich for dinner. I already had a good lunch, albeit non-turkey, at a Taiwanese restaurant near the campus. This was my first time eating in one of the many Asian establishments in town, which appear to offer the cheapest and tastiest grub. The meal was highlighed by my first ever glass of bubble tea, a chocolately cold drink with chewy balls in the bottom (made from tapioca, according to wikipedia) you suck up through a thick straw.

Our summer group is all in Dunedin now with the arrival of Jenny from Sydney on Monday. We are featured in an article in the Otago newspaper.

This week I've spent very long hours in lab as I purify the bacterial Hsp70 DnaK using three chromatography columns. I'm still learning the methods but am hoping to have some input on an independent project soon. Yesterday Sigurd showed me the X-ray crystallography machine, which I will probably not be using but was pretty cool to see. Today we also had our first lab meeting, and it seems like the lab I'm in is run very well and is quite organized, with weekly duties assigned to each member. There are also lab social events, beginning with dinner tomorrow night.

As promised, below are pictures from Dunedin and the hike up Mt. Cargill. I imagine some kid in Indonesia is enjoying my bicycle right now.