It feels good to have finished all my taught papers (Praise God!)  It was a very rigorous A Semester and first half of B Semester for me, but it was all worth it. I enjoyed my Environmental Planning Theory class, where I learned about urban planning, Hamilton City, and global trends in public planning theory. I also learned a lot about New Zealand and the Resource Management Act 1991 in my Environmental Evaluation class. Both were Level 500 taught papers, and for an international Masters student like me, both inspired me to look at the parallels between New Zealand and the Philippines.

Those papers (one was a geography paper and the other an environmental science one) gave me perspective for my thesis topic. Finishing my classes in EnviSci and Geog sharpened my reading and research skills; I now feel that I am more ready to embark on writing my own story about mangroves in the Philippines.

What are mangroves anyway? Mangroves are lovely ecosystems occupying the fringes of fresh and salt water, usually the coasts, and are associated with trees having big prop roots and funny-looking seeds called "propagules".  Mangrove trees are endowed with amazing cells that allow them to thrive in mud and brackish (near salty) water. Mangrove forests are also nurseries for fishes and fat mudcrabs and shells. Mosquitoes inhabit them, and the smell of decaying leaves and other matter reminds you of Rotorua on a windy day. Mangroves are murky, smelly, tangly, and wet, and I am absolutely in love with them!

I have travelled all over the Philippines just to glimpse at the beauty of mangroves, and I have travelled to neighboring Malaysia and Vietnam to see how their mangrove stands compare with ours. I found Philippine mangroves incomparable to those I have seen elsewhere. I prefer the diversity of our islands' estuarine forests; we have 24 of the known 27 species all over the world, and in one stand (forest area) found in Central Philippines, 23 species were present in a 27 hectare area! 

 In Bani, Pangasinan (north Philippines). Those are Sonneratia alba trees in the background. They attract fireflies.

 While touring the Can Gio Mangroves in Can Gio region, Vietnam. Those are Rhizophora Apiculata trees, the one with the famous stilt roots.

Unfortunately, mangroves are declining in the Philippines. In 1918, there were 450,000 hectares of documented mangroves in my country. In the 1990s, there were only 128,000 hectares left. The figure is still diminishing today, so many sectors in our society are getting alarmed. Most mangrove areas are converted to shrimp or fishponds because of the high economic value given to aquaculture(read: fishponds can make an investor rich) . That is why many concerned individuals, like marine scientists and development workers, are working with local communities to stop the disappearance of mangroves from Philippine coasts.  Many international agencies fund or sponsor mangrove rehabilitation projects to prevent mangrove destruction as well.

However, the "quest for mangrove restoration" story is not as simple as it looks. Though there is an ecological need to conserve mangroves in the Philippines, Filipino communities living in the mangrove forests have other priorities too. Coastal villagers need to feed themselves first, and to earn money next. Fish is a staple food in the Filipino diet, so fish always fetches a good price in the market. The high cash value of fish (and shrimp) in local and international markets make converting the smelly mangroves into "productive" fishponds attractive to local folk. This complicates the story of the mangroves in my country, and this is what I will look at in my thesis.

It promises to be another great adventure for me then! What began as a fascination for mangrove beauty has turned into a genuine interest in the mangrove story. Fortunately, the discipline of geography is here to guide me in seeing the multiple intriguing layers found in the stories surrounding Philippine mangroves.

So here I am, I finally made it to Maastricht!! This place is just as amazing as what they say, little cobbled roads, amazing old buidlings, lots of beer drinking, amazing river and bridges!! its all just fantastic!! I spent the first couple of weeks travelling around a bit of italy, france, germany, and austria with my family! can still not comprehend how close everything is! After coming from NZ,  it was great to introduce my pasty white body to some nice tuscan sun :) was real hot!

Had a few wee dramas down in pisa, our campervan got broken into and I had everything stolen e.g.. laptop, ipod, hard drive and all the chargers to my camera and what not, was a bit of a pain and has set me back a bit but oh well, I will get over it soon hopefully haha. but other than that the trip was fantastic!! I left my parents in munich and ventured over to maastricht! I arrived here on monday and havent had a sober night here yet haha i have had to acquire a liking for beer and i think my beer belly is coming along quite nicely! There is a group here of dutch students who organise all the parties for international students, they get out of hand, the dutch know how to drink and have a good time! the first night i was here they organised a dinner, and beer rallys which was out of control haha, and then there was a pub crawl and last night there was a cantus party which was by far my favourite, theres lots of beer, and singing and good times!

All the other international students are real cool, i got lucky and have really cool people on my floor! my room is masssive!! its like 2 and a half times bigger than my room back in hamilton haha, we have a communal lounge and kitchen which is way fun good way to hang out with everyone and get to know everyone better!

Start classes on monday, the uni system seems a whole lot different to Waikato, no big lectures just all small classrooms with only about 15 people and all have to sit around and discuss everything! so wil see how that goes, sounds interesting!

anyway everything here is going real well and so much fun!! good times,

Hi all,

 

The semester break is finally here!  Unfortunately for me it started off a bit slow because I had a take home-essay to do that was due this past Tuesday. However it worked out okay because the weather wasn’t that nice and I am still waiting for my student loan to come in. its times like these that you really appreciate the generosity of your parents, for which I am very grateful.

Last semester I went down to the South Island to Abel Tasman, which was very epic, but this semester I a planning on hanging around Hamilton, catching up on some work and getting ready for the end of the year push.  There are still lots of people travelling of course, many of this semester’s exchange students in Orchard Park went to Samoa for a week, which I am sure will be epic. So far the highlights of my break include playing various pranks on some mates around residence, playing my guitar in the sun, and not having to get up for class.

Yesterday was another highlight of the break, strangely enough… I spent a solid 14 or so hours in student village turning a friends hair in to dreadlocks. I’ve never done that before, neither had he, so the experience was definitely a new one. He had bought a kit on the Internet for ‘do-it-yourself’ dreadlocks and with it came instructions. We tried finding more visual instruction (you-tube) but were not very successful… I was also under the impression that it would take no more than 6-8 hours, but really that turned out to be wishful thinking… But! I am happy to say that despite my best combing efforts, when we finished it looked like he has dreadlocks. I don’t know if they will last, but it’s awesome that we made it that far. I would have to say that pizza, some Tui, and a whole lot of scrubs an American Dad were the secret to our success…

I still have a week left of break to go, so here’s hoping the rest of it pans out as well as the first week so far!

 Ahhh, the sun! Wonderful to see you again after a long winter time!

We had a full day of sun today, 26 August, and it was a good day to be out. I was able to put out my laundry to dry, and I was able to do some spring cleaning for my room...the winter mold in the ceiling and windows had to go!

Life at Orchard Park is simple during bright sunny days, but blissful at the same time. I get to cook my own lunch (Mi Goreng instant fried noodles and leftover vegetable salad from last night), and get to do bask in the sun after. I was even able to go out for an afternoon stroll to have a glass of Chai Latte at the Station, too.

I highly recommend this Hall of Residence if you are planning to stay in University. Cheers!

On July 25, Orchard Park sponsored a snow trip to Mt. Ruapehu. I've been to Ruapehu in the summer, but I've never been during the winter; so I tagged along. For a tropical climate person, it was a great opportunity to see snow for the first time.

Seventeen of us went up Ruapehu that day. A motley crew of internationals and Kiwis, we were a jovial bunch. On the ride to Ruapehu Friday night, my Kababayan-turned-Kiwi Jan and our resident DJ Claire played Pearl Jam and Jim Morrison (The Doors)  music to keep us awake and entertained (everyone snoozed in the van). We stopped at Taupo to get some food (Pizza Hut or Burger King) around 9, and arrived at Taurangi close to 10pm. Club Habitat was good backpacker's inn ($22 worth of warm rooms, warm beds, and clean bathrooms).

Next day I woke up at 6am to find the ground covered in frost; it didn't stop me from taking my regular morning walk though. The lady at the Reception was an early bird as well, so I was able to buy myself instant coffee and a Cornetto Mint trumpet for breakfast.

Around 9am we began the drive to Ruapehu. We stopped by a ski rental shop on the way, and since I wasn't keen on skiing (I'm more of a trekker and a hiker), I had a ball posing for the camera while I held one of the rented snowboards for show.

We arrived at the mountain itself a little past noon, and everyone was enthralled at the sight of snow--and the amount of people already in the area. I found it too crowded, but some folks say that was normal this time of the year (late winter). While the rest of the Orchard Parkers went ahead to ski or snowboard or build snowmen, I went off and explored Ruapehu in snow. It was magnificent! The sky was blue (not a cloud in sight) and the snow gleamed immaculate white. I spent the first hour just marvelling at the surroundings and rolling (literally) in the snow.

I spent the entire afternoon walking on snow and watching people slide down slopes on their skis or sleds (it looked like fun!) I was content to watch families chat or sit in the sun; I even heard some families speak in Tagalog (marami palang Pilipino dito--there are a lot of Filipinos here!)

We went down the mountain a little after 5pm. Everyone was happy and contented. It was indeed a good day for everyone to see snow and to spend time in the slopes of Ruapehu.

View image of New Zealander Philip from Orchard Park and why we think he was this trip's poster boy.

View image of Cottage 25's first ever snowman.

I had two unexpected visitors who called on my cottage the past week. They were two mallard ducks who visited Orchard Park for a stroll. I christened them Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, because it appeared that they were out strolling for a date. As they waddled across from Cottages 20 and 21, I was so amused to see that Mrs. Mallard (the all-brown one) chose to stay close to trees or spring flowers on the grass. Mr. Mallard (with the green feathers on his head) appeared bored, so I watched him waddle across the walkway to our footpath. It was an amazing sight, because it was the first time I saw mallards outside the University lake!

It was a joy to see the Mallards at our front lawn. Spring holds beautiful little surprises at Orchard Park; I expect to behold some more in the coming days!

View image of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard at our front porch.

View image of Mrs. Mallard admiring the fresh spring flowers.

View image of Mr. Mallard's quizzical expression as an unexpected feathered friend joins in.

(Note on photo: this was printed on the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer last June 12, 2009 during our independence day. Photo credit goes to them.)

 I just recently re-discovered long boarding. A mate of mine brought a long board back to Uni with him after a weekend at home and it wasn’t long before we started scoping out hills to bomb. I used to rip around on my own long board back home in Canada, me and my brother actually got to the point of making a facebook group about it for our city (super cool I know), but it’s been a long time since I’ve ridden. I always see people walking around campus with them, but I actually don’t see to many people using them.

Anyways, we found some good hills the last few days. The first one is that path from management to the library. It’s fairly mellow, rarely used at night, and good for some easy carving. Then there is the road that passes by the Gateway from hillcrest, and continues down towards the village green. It’s pretty sweet, but you carry way to much speed to properly rip. Plus the road just ends in a super tight corner with speed bumps and is virtually impossible to make.

I think my favourite place so far is the road down to the Hamilton Gardens. It’s like a longer, slightly faster and wider version of the library hill. So Epic. I am definitely going to make good use of that...

The next logical step for me now is to buy a long board here, or get the one I have at home shipped over. But it’s awesome to find some kiwis that want to go cruising (I am sure there are more than those I have found so far), and it’s easier than driving somewhere to mountain bike (which can’t be done during the week). It’s also free and good exercise.

 For those who have never longboarded or don't know what it is, here are a couple pics.   

 This is a link to a really solid maker of long boards. https://www.sector9.com/ enjoy!

I happened to stumble across a few pictures of my South Island trip last semester break when I was searching for a picture of the open mic to add to my last entry. The Fat Tui is a random, small, roadside stand that happens to serve the best burgers I have ever eaten anywhere. If you ever get anywhere near New Zealand you have to eat there... The Mr. Mussels burger is especially good. Additionally, I have been told a picture is worth a thousand words, so... enjoy!

Hey!

So a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks since I wrote about my flat mate’s Birthday. Him and I, and our good friend Mr. Gray played at an open mic on July 30th at Momento Café. It was really good, there was a lot of support from Orchard Park people, which was great! The people in charge of the open mic did a great job organizing and running it as well, and things went very smoothly. There is another one this Thursday, Mr. Gray is playing again for sure, and me and Jansen may be as well (if I can finish my Torts assignment that is…). Anyone is welcome to come and check it out! There should be a lot of great talent there, at least there has been every week so far that I have gone to.  

Last weekend I took my new and epic bike down to Rotorua and did some biking there. Unfortunately it rained. A LOT! Starting about 30 minutes into the ride… Beforehand I was all stoked and bragging that mud and rain were nothing to be feared, but really, in all honesty, it got to the point of sheer, unadulterated ridiculousness. I think I ate more mud than any human being ever should, ever. There were ruts in the trails big enough that I felt at some points like I was on a train, in that it was impossible to go where I wanted to go, and I just had to follow gravity wherever the ruts took me. Usually it was into a tree or off the side of the trail…..

For the record it was still really awesome, and I got back just in time to shower, dress, and go to the inter-hall Uni Ball. I don’t think that’s its official name but I think it sounds better when it rhymes. The ball was pretty sweet too. There was bunch of free food, different rooms of music, and quite a good turnout, in my opinion.

This last Friday there was inter-hall basketball (that one kind of rhymes on its own eh?) We, OP, didn’t win, but I think it was good fun anyways. I was surprised at how many good basketball players are lurking in residence unsuspected.

Lastly, this is my final semi “free” weekend from school work, probably forever*. The next couple weeks I have a bunch of tests and assignments, then there is a couple weeks “study” break, in which I plan to spend most of my time studying. Then its basically time to prepare for finals!

Amazingly I am looking forward to it, and to seeing a New Zealand spring. I just hope my student loan comes in…..

*(October. But for dramatic effect, forever sounds way more epic)

We came across our first pretty, bright yellow and dancing daffodil yesterday afternoon during our walk on the campus. We crouched beside it to have a better look since it was the first time we were seeing a real one...unfortunately, daffodils do not grow in Mauritius.