Bob's Typical Day

Earlier in this trip, my uncle Albert asked that I describe a typical workday. I’m finally getting around to putting it on the blog. The typical day I’m going to describe is a day that I’m lecturing. I’m teaching FORE 151, Introduction to Commercial Forestry (Forest Economics). I’m offering this course at double speed over 6 weeks, since I’m leaving the country before the semester is over. I teach 2 hour lectures on Tuesday and Thursday morning and I have a computer lab on Wednesday afternoons. You can look at the course website by clicking here. On the test page you can test your Forest Economics knowledge by looking at the midterm and final. You’ll note that the website is actually sitting at NC State. It was much easier to use web space I already had access to, rather than figuring out UC’s system.

I’ve made google map of the neighborhood with points of interest. It has more pictures linked to specific locations and you can zoom in to see individual buildings - click here.
I’ll leave for work around 7:30AM if I don’t go to the gym (which opens at 7), or 8:30 if I do. It’s about a 2K walk and takes a little more than 20 minutes. We mainly use the car to go to the grocery store, we can walk everywhere else. The temperature is cooling off and the leaves are starting to change so it’s really a pleasant time to walk. Though we have some dreary days, I haven’t had to use any of the parking permits I bought for rainy days when I teach. We haven’t reset our clocks for autumn here (turns out “fall” is an American term), so it’s pretty dark in these early morning pictures.

As I leave the house I’ve got a pleasant two blocks of walking through the neighborhood. Abby has school friends across the street and I've had nice coversations with the Asian lady next door. Her english isn't very good, but she wanted to apologize for the noise her son made driving his taxi into their driveway late at night. I told her that we never noticed (which is true), but 10 minutes later her son arrived. His mom told hime to come over and personally apologize. It was a little awkward, turns out he's a super clean-cut computer major and I tried to turn the conversation to his career goals rather than the engine noise associated with thenight job that funds his college education. I sheepishly accepted his apology and wished him well in school. The Asian population is the fastest growing minority in NZ and they are often maligned by the conservative political parties that want stronger immigration policy.
After a couple of blocks I get to the College of Education which is at the western edge of campus. It used to be a separate teaching college and has only recently been integrated into the university. A really nice part of the walk is Ilam field which is a huge green space set up for cricket in the spring/summer and rugby/soccer in autumn/winter. It's also popular for outdoor concerts on Friday afternoon. Abby’s school is just off to the right across Ilam Rd. at the end of the field. The main part of campus is directly across the road.
Crossing Ilam Rd., we still have to think about crossing the street, look right first then left. I’m actually pretty close to the Forestry building but I have to go around two huge science buildings (see Google map link above). As you go along this path next to a restored stream you come to an aviary with pigeons. When Karen and I were having trouble with internet access and costs on campus, we concluded that these pigeons must be the bottleneck in the offshore internet link. We’re still not sure, but they may be linked to navigation research as described here.

After the detour around Rutherford and van Haast Halls I’m in the home stretch, one more parking lot next to the Commerce Bldg before crossing Forestry Road to the Forestry Bldg. It is a very nice building with lots of trees on the outside and wood on the inside. Our office is spacious, especially considering that we are seldom both at the office at the same time. Karen's former project leader from Minnesota just arrived for a sabatical and I've had a few colleagues stop by too. It makes a routine meeting seem more important when you happen to have it on the other side of the world.

The forestry bldg. has several nice lecture halls, but mine isn’t one of them. I’m teaching a small class of 18 (17 one dropped just before the final) so I was lucky to get a classroom in the Forestry Bldg.

Since I was teaching first year students, I did some things differently. For one thing I’m grading participation and attendance. Given that New Zealand exports over half of its forest products, I’m doing a lot more on international trade. I’m learning a lot, which of course is what a sabbatical is supposed to be about.

Other than teaching, I spend the morning dealing with email from NC State. Until about 10AM I can correspond in real time (though it's a day later here). I've also used skype to talk to students at State about their work over the internet. While I'm on the teaching payroll I'm technically staff but I get to skip all of the mundane meetings and paperwork. Staff do have morning and afternoon tea, which is a great opportunity to hang around and talk to folks; usually about the U.S. presidential election or the financial crisis. Overall the School of Forestry here is about one-fourth the size of my department at State. This has its advantages and disadvantages. It does make it a great place for a sabbatical.

I leave the office to pick up Abby at Ilam School (which borders the campus) around 3:00 which takes me by Café 101 where Karen and I go for coffee (flat white) or lunch. After picking up Abby we sometimes go by the student union to get a snack before walking home.

I gave my final exam this week. My last assignment is due today (Friday). The car is for sale on TradeMe (you can see it here) , currently the high bid is $1100, we hope to get $1500. Karen and Abby are at Ilam school camp at Pudding Hill hopefully having a great time. Next week is our last week so things are getting a bit hectic. Cheers, Bob