Are Angels OK?

This week was my last week of classes for this semester. Two of those classes (or 'papers', as they call them here...it's so confusing) are year-long, so I'll still have them next semester. Now it's just gearing up for the two papers (essays) and exam I have in the next few weeks.

Had some social fun this week with a girl I met in my NZ Children's Literature class named Anna. She's from Christchurch, and an all-around swell gal. On Tuesday night she invited me to a place called Havana, which is the cutest little bar you've ever seen, tucked away on a dark little sidestreet.

(The photo doesn't do it justice)

We met up with her friends and listened to an awesome Cuban guitarist (and I thought I was the only one far from home!).

Last night was even cooler. After a full-on academic day, I joined my NZ Children's Lit lecturer and 11 other tutorial-members at the local arthouse cinema for a symposium between NZ writers and physicists called "Are Angels OK?". Essentially, this was a launch for the book by the same name, and the idea is fascinating. From the website:

"Ten New Zealand writers reexamine the laws of physics, encountering the sandpile phenomena, entropy, and the untimely death of Schrodinger’s Cat along the way. This new anthology from Victoria University Press includes writing from Catherine Chidgey, Glenn Colquhoun, Dylan Horrocks, Witi Ihimaera, Lloyd Jones, Elizabeth Knox, Margaret Mahy, Vincent O’Sullivan, Chris Price, and Jo Randerson. You can see all ten writers – as well as project directors Bill Manhire and Paul Callaghan – at this special one-off event chaired by Kim Hill and find out, over a complimentary glass of wine, why our writers and scientists do indeed live in parallel universes."

It was amazing for me, not only for the subject matter (that more often than not went right over my head) but for the writers in attendance. Witi Ihimaera (Whale Rider, Bulibasha, The Matriarch and one of the foremost Maori authors in New Zealand) and Elizabeth Knox (The Vintner's Luck), are two authors whose work I have been reading hungrily during my time in NYC. Margaret Mahy is one of the writers we've studied in my NZ Children's Lit class, and I'll be studying Vincent O'Sullivan's Shuriken in next semester's Drama and Theatre in Aotearoa New Zealand class. It was so exciting to be there and to listen to them speak. The physicists were actually pretty cool too. One, in particular, turns out to be a genius of a poet. Can't wait to get the book!

Afterwards, we all went to a Japanese restaurant called Kazu, and had a great meal and conversation.

Four months on...and I'm starting to feel like I've arrived. :)