Christchurch: the city under construction

It is time I start to review and organise all my pictures and videos from my trip to New Zealand (in the summer of 2015). And since I have to do that, it may well be a good time to review and write about the trip in here. It's been too long since I last wrote, and the other day I started to have problems to remember everything we did and when we did it, so that was the first alarming sign telling me "you need to write that shit down, gurl!". So yup, let's go.

Christchurch: the city under construction

In total, from all the time I spent in NZ last summer (1 month and a week, approx.), I slept 3 nights but only spent/enjoyed 2 evenings in the city, so I didn't get to know the city a lot, but I can say some things. Also, thanks to the course I took, I had the chance to visit some sites around Christchurch (also written as Chch), so yeah, it's something. Let's start with the basics (and a bit of copy-paste from the Christchurch's entry in Wikipedia):

Christchurch (Ōtautahi in Māori) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula. It is home to 381,800 residents, making it New Zealand's third most-populous urban area behind Auckland and Wellington.

Don't know if you know, but Chch was hit by three earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, the one on February 22, 2011, is considered the nation's 3rd deadliest natural disaster in history. The city collapsed due to that tremor, and this is the reason why Chch is now a city under construction, literally. You get a weird feeling when you walk around the city center. It's really sad because it reminds you of all the suffering and pain its people must have been through, and you can also perceive all the memories and history that have been lost. I was shocked when I first arrived because you could find parking places almost everywhere, I guess where there had been a building before. And now there only were huge solars destined for parking...

Christchurch cathedral (upper right image, images below)

New, nice, fun and weird experiences at swedish uni

>>> SPOILER ALERT: BOOM ! SHITTY ENGLISH AHEAD ! <<<

So... I'm just going to put together a lot of different things in one single post, which is... stuff that I did on the courses I took. I'm not going to write a lot, just post some pictures and videos that I took... which I think they make really special memories.

During my first block of courses (from september to november) I took a course called "Soils of the World", where we basically analyzed and assessed types of soils, and also learnt the typical soils that you can find around the world, according to climate conditions, etc.

So, field trips consisted basically of digging and observing the soil "wall", or just taking some soil samples here and there. Location.

One day (very very windy and cold) we went out and saw and tried how to extract sediment cores (this long piece of soil that seems a snake xD) which allows us to differentiate soil ages (every slice of different color has a different "age") and gives us information about climate and soil conditions in the past. That day was cool, in both senses. Location (somewhere around here ^^).

Excursió a Jutland: aiguamolls d'Skjern i llac Tange

Doncs de moment he sortit NOMÉS tres vegades de Copenhaguen! Això dic jo, però què estic fent? Bé, entre els diners, el temps, i que és molt difícil coincidir uns quants... Doncs l'aventura està una mica limitada, encara que no és motiu de queixa =)

La primera sortida va ser els dies 9-10 de gener (amb pluja non-stop), i vam anar a l'altra punta de Dinamarca, a Jutland, a Ringkøbing (on vam dormir) i a Skjern, en una excursió de l'assignatura Ecologia del paisatge i de la restauració (Landscape and restoration ecology). Vam anar a veure uns "aiguamolls" a Skjern que havien restaurat: eren terres agràries, però amb l'ús excessiu, el temps, etc., el sòl es va anar deteriorant i cada vegada la qualitat de la zona era pitjor. Fins que el govern fa oferir unes altres terres als amos de la zona afectada i van restaurar l'àrea i la van modificar per recuperar la qualitat del sòl, quasi tornant al seu estat "anterior o inicial" (que era maresmes amb una barreja de canya-pantans, prats, rierols serpentejants i llacs poc profunds). Total, que ara són uns "aiguamolls". He trobat una web on expliquen aquest projecte, per si a algú li interessa: web i pdf (evidentment està en anglès).