Why New Haven?

Thought I would take this opportunity to explain what I'm actually doing in the marvellous hamlethood of New Haven. The number of times people have asked me "so... why New Haven??" with a very confused look on their face is too many to count- to give a bit of perspective to Kiwis, a very well travelled local described it to me as "the Palmerston North of Conneticut". Conneticut is perhaps the equivalent of Clevedon crossed with Wairoa. yea.. it still confuses me too.

So... here it is.

About 18months ago, I became aware of an organisation called Unite for Sight, who provide eye-care surgeries for communities around the globe, particularly in Ghana. What is unique about this particular organisation is that they also do a lot of research in global health practice and implementation on a wider scale. They run a Global Health and Innovation Conference every year which over 2,000 people attend at Yale University, and are based in New Haven

It's an area that interested me, and over about a year's worth of email correspondance, I decided to come over and work in their head office for a few months. I had been looking to go on a bit of an adventure, and figuring that I didn't know a single person on the entire American continent was even more of a reason to go, I traded in a beautiful NZ summer for New England winter.

The area I am currently focusing on is Health Related technologies- I spend my days going through case studies, evaluating research that has been done into the development and implementation of effective designing for health. I think its cool.

If this sounds at all interesting to any of you folks, here are a few links which you may (or may not) like to follow. Your choice.

Unite for Sight
Millenium Village Project
Medic Mobile
ColaLife A really interesting example of combining coke and medicine

This next video is so worth watching if you have a spare 15mins- sums everything up perfectly. I can't work out how to embed it, but the link should work...

Kevin Starr- IIT Design Research Conference

Just a bit of a disclaimer thing (in italics to prove its officialness!)
anything I'm writing in this blog is my own personal opinion, and in no way represents the views of any organisation, company, individual, animal, material, plant... I'm only 20yo people- 50% of the stuff I write makes no sense whatsoever, and the other half is rubbish. Enjoyable rubbish i hope, but rubbish nonetheless.

Norwottuck Rail Trail

So I somehow stumbled accros this in my wanderings at Amherst. It's an awesome example of a multi-use road for bikes/skis/walkers/anything except a car. Went straight out of town into some conservation wetland- it seems a lot of the Conneticut, Massachussets area is swamp. Managed to see some wildlife and then had a conversation with two lovely older ladies who informed me that I was going the wrong way, and then proceeded to walk that way themselves. I took their word for it though, and ran back the way I had come, by this stage the water was turning to ice and I couldn't feel my nose, so the central heating back in the hostel was appealing.

It has it's own numbered exits!!!

And street signs!!

Imagine if we could all just get around using trails like this- commute to work through beautiful land every day. There seems to be quite a few old railway paths like this one around- in New Haven we have our own converted canal, 84 miles long which takes to you to Northampton, MA (right by Amherst!)

The Farmington Canal Trail
 - would be fun to do the whole length in summer sometime

The Year in Lego

I'm not one to post up ridiculous links for y'all, b/c lets be honest I figure I've already taken up enough of your bandwidth with this blog thing, but this is pretty cool

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/dec/13/2011-lego-year-news-pictures#/?picture=383194304&index=0

I particularly like Barack Obama. You can feel the Lego tension.

College Life

Have just spent the weekend back in Massachussets- this time to properly see S for two days and experience the wonder that American's call The College Experience. Amherst is a small liberal arts college, and shares its town (Amherst) with another university/college UMass at Amherst. So pretty much its a cute little town full of students and academics, with lots of good places to eat and really beautiful countryside surrounding it. Amherst campus itself is really pretty, and up on a hill looking down on forests and fields.

 Freshers Quad- all the freshman's dorms are around here. Interesting how everyone has a roomate, it's a pretty intense relationship when you live 2m away from another individual for the whole year. Luckily it seems to work out in most cases, but man would it cause havoc if you didnt get along.

View down from the fields, think we came accross at athletics session. Heaps of sports on campus, there were gangs of sportsgirls/ guys all over the place. Most impressive gym I've ever seen! Would sure make sure you weren't wimping out on the exercise- how could you when you have to walk through pillars to get there.

The campus was getting into Christmas big-time, and I was lucky enough to get to see S's a cappella group perform on Friday night, American christmas carol singing in the morning and Eggnog! mmm...

I went for a run about 3 in the afternoon- by the time I had turned around to come back the water was freezing in the stream besides me and I couldn't feel my face. Very cold! Discovered a really interesting rail trail which I'll talk more about later, connecting Northampton and Amherst. Lots of people out until it started getting dark and you had to retreat. I really want to learn to rollerski.

Have several more posts to put up this week when I get some more time, and have prioritised my life correctly. I need to go buy vegetables. I need to wash my orienteering shoes.  I should probably enrol myself for uni next year.

Pre-xmas the plans are to get to New York (somehow), go to a farmers market, go skiing, go to theater, send letters home, buy warmer clothes for the snow, go the Swedish xmas party! go to work xmas party, go to yale xmas party, watch The Room, learn to make eggnog, finish my book, go buy more books, regret buying books b/c they are an entirely impractical thing to carry home. Actually sort out what I'm doing for xmas so I'm not sitting by myself cat-sitting and reading books.  SNOW!!! (please)

Have just moved apartments which should make life so much easier (having the 3rd taxi driver announce to me that I was going to be mugged in the ex-neighbourhood was enough. Although hilarious, I should do a post on some of the conversations I have had with taxi drivers here).

These were taken at 4 in the afternoon

Power Food

In honour of another awesome weekend orienteering (this time in Massachusetts/ upper Conneticut), I give you one of America's greateast inventions...

Didn't really take many photos of the terrain on this trip, but suffice to say it was prickly enough to cause pain, and spiky enough to draw blood so that I felt like a proper orienteer again . Also discovered the wonders of Boggle, Pecan Pie and got to see one of my favourite people in the whole world again which was wonderful. Sunni times :)

Countdown to Christmas

Christmas Time!!!

Yep it is definitely Christmas time.  All the shops have jingle songs (I'm considering an investment in earplugs), the T.V ads seem to incorporate elves into everything and so many neighbourhoods go all out on the decorations. My theory is, that because it gets dark so early, everyone actually gets to see the lights all lit up on the way home, so its totally worth the days some people must spend assembling their masterpieces. Which would explain why no one can really be bothered in mid-summer NZ, b/c by the time its dark, we are all at home anyway. 

It's pretty cool having your way home lit up by fairy lights.

We left work on Thursday to discover the New Haven Green (which is a big open space in the center of town) had been transformed into a carnival for kids, parents and any random who wanted to join in (me).  I got a few odd looks taking photos by myself- I really needed a small child to legitimise my presence there.

The whole place had been floodlit, and a christmas tree had been set up. There was also a camel. I'm not really sure how he got there, and actually what he had to do with anything, but he was definitely a hit.

I couldn't get my camera onto the right setting to take the photos with the floodlights, so they are pretty bad but you all get the idea.

Just one example of house art. The cars wouldnt get out of my way!!

Not what I was expected to see in East Coast USA

US Flag in center of town

The perils of being a bike in New Haven

If his owner really loved him.... .

he would have bought the Kryptonite Kryptolok Series 2 U plus Chain!!

Excessive? Maybe. Essential? Absolutely.
Apparently only 5% of bikes will be stolen with this lock (or so the bike store guru proudly told me).
Reassuring.
I figured, if nothing else, I could always use it as a weapon.

The hood

Figuring most of the muggers/ gangsters would be home with their Mama's eating turkey, I took the opportunity over Thanksgiving to have a proper look around my current neighbourhood. Beautiful weather brought all the familes with their kiddies and Latino nanas out, and it certainly felt a lot more friendly than I had seen over the last few days :)

New Haven is "special" in its ability to turn from centuries old wealth (think YALE) into a ghetto (think armed neighbourhood patrols) within one block- extreme streets have a "good" and "bad" side to walk on. Kids are growing up 2mins from Yale knowing that they are never expected to be the ones studying there- closest they get to the lecture theaters would to clean up all the rubbish after the students leave. Not for me as a visitor to judge, but seriously Yale. Don't pretend your neighbours don't exist.

Apparently its improving- a lot of community based organisation are trying to improve nieghbourhood environments with charter schools and street cameras/ patrols. My neighbourhood is interesting- a historic trust has done up a whole lot of these huge old colonial homes, and leased them to low income families. looks all well- till you learn there are probably about 25 people living in each of these homes. Being told I shouldn't go outside if I didnt want to be shot was an interesting introduction to this country, but getting my head around some of the differences in life here. its pretty tough for everyone.

Certainly cause for hope though- I reckon this is an area on the way up. just needs some time. People are real friendly, you always make friends at the bus stop!

A few pics of the hood :)

Orienteering US style

Within a few days of arriving in New Haven, I had heard rumours of a possible gathering of orienteers post-Thanksgiving to do some training near Peekshill, NY state. A 2hr train ride sounded perfectly acceptable to me, particularly after my apartments plumbing decided to have a tantrum and flood the bathroom at 11pm at night.  So, next morning saw me migrating up the Hudson Valley, and after a few wrong turns (including trying to break into the wrong house with the neighbours yelling instructions at me in Spanish), I turned up at the doorstep of a group of strangers who immediately accepted the lost Kiwi. I had made the assumption that anyone who runs round forest maps in their spare time is totally legit, and unlikely to be an axe-murderer, and was subsequently rewarded with an awesome weekend of o, banter and Mexican food. After a pretty difficult first week, my faith in the US was certainly restored

Complex two days of training on rocky state forest. So beautiful- its a winter wilderness where all the leaves have just fallen off the trees, minimal daylight (dark by 4!), around stunning lakes and just a blanket of trees in every direction. wish i could have taken my camera with me training, some of the terrain was just incredible. 

We trained on Blue Mountain map, and in the Harriman State Park, near Poughkeepsie- a state wilderness area, the photos dont do it justice as they are all just taken at the lake level.

3.30 in the afternnoon

The orienteers campsite, recovering between sessions in the cold amongst visitors to the park. Yes one of our number is in a sleeping bag. He's Irish.

Thanksgiving Guilt

In honor of Thanksgiving- we have the first of a series of American food joints. Believe it or not, these are all right next to each other. 2km of fast food options the whole way into town. 

My first meal on arriving in New York may have been MacDonalds. And it may have been awesome. Particularly after an 8hr flight in which we weren't fed a crumb. My neighbours chicken and cranberry sandwich, which she had cleverly brought with her, was taunting me all the way from the West to East Coast. Local knowledge...

Democracy

I may have missed Occupy New York- but here we have it- Occupy New Haven
Kiwi occupiers take note- its freezing here- you have it easy!

Blogging

The 16hrs of darkness a day has finally persuaded me to jump on this blogging train. Pictures of my new home for the next two months, New Haven- CT and the surrounding land of America. Will include anything vaguely interesting, amusing, pretty, confusing, disturbing and the odd picture of American food magic.

The U.N Headquarters New York. One building big enough to fit the whole world.