After a long silence, I decided to write a new blog, just to let you all know that I'm still alive ;) I have worked hard on my Master's thesis over the past weeks, and the first draft is now finished! I'm just waiting now for the comments of my second supervisor (my first supervisor already approved it), and then I'll be done! :) Which also means that I'll have more time to do other stuff around here, because I haven't done much the past couple of weeks (hence the lack of blogs, I didn't really have anything to say). To celebrate my freedom the sun came out in Dunedin this week, which was a very pleasant surprise after weeks of cold and rain. I went for a walk in the botanical gardens (which is more ... read more

Last week Emma came to visit me! We had an awesome time, of course I first showed her all the good stuff in Dunedin - the Octagon, university terrain, botanic gardens and Baldwin street. We also went horse riding with the same organisation I had been with before, only this time we did a beach ride. It was incredible, the weather was amazing, the sights were absolutely stunning and the horses were very beautiful and very very quick! We did what every little girl who starts horse riding dreams of: we galloped on an empty, gorgeous beach, only the two of us. It was just awesome... Right after we got back from this amazing experience, we had a quick shower and were on the road again, this time to Queenstown! Sam, Sayaka (my flatmates), Emma and ... read more

After leaving Queenstown, we drove to Fox Glacier. It was again a beautiful drive, first through the sunny hills and plains between Queenstown and Wanaka, and then through the impressive rainforest… in the rain! We took some breaks from driving, Michiel and I went to look at the sea and got very wet and cold (the waves were a little higher and faster than we had expected…) but it was a lot of fun. When we arrived in Fox Glacier it was still raining however, so we were afraid that the heli-hike to the Franz Josef glacier the next day would be cancelled. But lucky as we were, the weather cleared the next day (allegedly we were in the only dry place in New Zealand at that moment), so Michiel and I could go onto the ... read more

As promised, the continuation of the blog I wrote last night. Last week my flatmates and I went out a couple of times for cocktails, and one time for Chinese New Year’s on the 6th of February. Coincidentally, it was also Waitangi Day, the national (but in reality Maori) holiday. The Octagon in the centre of town was closed for traffic and there was a stage and some stands for Chinese New Year’s, but it wasn’t that interesting to be honest… So we just went to Toast, our by now favourite cocktail bar! Sam and I also went shopping, which was very nice, although I of course bought too much... And last Saturday, Sayaka and I went out to go dancing, and we had a lot of fun (see pictures)! Deryn and I also moved to ... read more

My research proposal is almost finished! I have been working on it over the past week, and now I only need to make the last adjustments before I can send it in to my Maastricht supervisor. It is already 34 (!) pages long, but that’s mainly because of all the appendices with questionnaires etc. But still, it’s kind of long for a research proposal… Ah well, means less work for me later on when I am going to do the literature review for my Masters’ thesis. After I have made the final adjustments (hopefully tomorrow) I don’t really have a lot to do anymore until data collection (which starts in the beginning of March)… So I can just relax and enjoy the weather the coming weeks, which I really don’t mind! Of course there was also ... read more