Introducing our New Scholar at-Large

Welcome Mary Coffman, a Durham native who will be living in Argentina!

Mary Coffman grew up in Durham, North Carolina back when the downtown still smelled like sweet tobacco. She then went on to study English and Spanish at Kenyon College in Ohio. After traveling to Peru and living in Spain, Mary moved to Costa Rica where she taught English to international students. She then spent half-a-year traveling through South America, staying with friends and families, and learning about the sources of our resources. In 2008, Mary worked as a Case Manager with Catholic Charities at Centro la Comunidad in Burlington, NC. She will be working towards an MA in International Relations at the University of Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina for 2009 and half of 2010.

To share Mary's experiences and read about her adventures, please follow along on this blog and check back often. To ask Mary a question about life and school in Argentina please send an email to Julie at World View (kinnaird@unc.edu). You can also post any comments, using the "comment" function after each post.

Resources and links for teaching and learning more about Argentina are posted on the right hand side of the blog. We will update and add to these resources regularly!

We look forward to learning more about Argentina! Welcome Mary!

Thank you Sarah!

World View would like to thank Sarah for all of her amazing posts to the World View-Rotary Scholar at-Large Blog. Sarah's contributions were numerous and we all gained from her adventures, experiences, and insights learned while living, studying, and working in New Zealand.
Sarah will continue to post occasionally as she continues to live in work in Dunedin, NZ. Best wishes and thank you again Sarah!

Happy Holidays

Happy holidaaaaaays...happy holidaaaaaays....Hey everyone, long time no chat. Before I jump in and answer the very last question in the first round of "Ask Sarah" I thought I'd give you a quick update as far as what's going on with me these days.

First, I officially completed my studies at the University of Otago. All in all, I'd have to say returning to school and switching back into student mode after two years of official adult-dom was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. While the extra free time and generally low responsibility level was great, the inconsistent schedule, essays, exams, and rowdy freshman got a bit draining. Nonetheless I gave it my best and finished with a pretty darn good grade report.

Second, I decided I am not ready to say goodbye to the land o' Kiwi, and have managed to secure both a work permit and a job. While I will always love the States, I feel I've made a real connection with the Kiwi lifestyle, and have managed to carve a space and path for myself that deserves seeing out. While I'm actually back home in South Carolina at present for the holidays, shortly after New Years I'll plant my fanny once again in that narrow, uncomfortable plane seat and make the 30+ hour trek back across the planet to return to Dunedin. So far it's slightly surreal to be surrounded by twangin' Southerners, but being reunited with my family and sharing in the holiday spirit has been wonderful.

Now that that is out of the way, I'll get on to more pressing matters: (drumroll please) the FINAL reader question:

Ask Sarah v 7.0
Are there any attempts at controlling the sheep population? Are they owned by anyone or managed by the government in any way?

From Mary Dyer, Principal, Hunters Creek Elementary

Amazingly Insightful Answer:
Congrats Mary, you get a special prize for being the official final question asker. It should arrive in 8 to 10 business days. Hopefully you'll have room for in your yard for a sheep.

As far as the sheep go, I feel I should clarify a bit. Yes there are tons of them. That being said, they aren't wild sheep. Those millions of animals all have their own respective homes, whether it's a small family farm or large international argriculture company. While I'm sure the occaisional one or two get loose and head for greener pastures, there aren't roving bands of ferral sheep clogging up roadways and destroying gardens. The sheep industry is tightly regulated by both the business and government sectors.

On that note, I recently found out that the dairy industry is actually usurping the agricultural sector and dethroning the poor sheep as king of business. I'll have to get back to you about why exactly that is though... It may be quite interesting to see who wins the ruminant mammal battle for best pasture space in the coming years!

And with that, in the words of that pentagon of articulation, Porky Pig, ehbehdee-ehbehdee-ehbehdee-That's all folks! Happy Holidays, and see you again in the New Year!

Ask Sarah v 6.0

My travels have led me to central Europe, about 15 years ago. As a history major before becoming a teacher and administrator, I was intrigued by what I found historically in Vienna, Graz, Munich, and Rothenberg.

My question for you is whether you have had the opportunity to visit ancient sites in New Zealand and what types of places they are. I know very little of this beautiful country, but would like to take this opportunity to hear from someone who is spending so much time there.

Any cool locale's description and maybe a picture would be great.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

J A Shannon, Principal
Dixon High School

Amazingly Insightful Answer 6:

I too got to spend three amazing months touring around Europe. My junior year of college I spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. When I wasn't packing on the pounds via mass consumption of pasta and gelato, I got to make the rounds to a number of the surrounding countries and see a really good cross section of all that area of the world has to offer.

As far as interesting "ancient sites" in New Zealand, they are actually few and far between in the techincal sense. Not much here qualifies as "ancient" seeing as the country is barely 250 years old. Ancient churchs, relics, etc. just aren't to be found. Really the only window into the past here is the land itself.

On a random note not necessarily related to history, there are absolutely no native mammals to New Zealand. All the sheep, possums, cows, etc. were brought over by the settlers in the 1800's. Before that the land was ruled by birds, as they were the only creatures that could get to the land mass once it broke off from Gondwana way back in the day. The cool thing is, the birds developed their own food chain/system of predators and dominant species equivalent to the mammal food chain. Also, as the Kiwis like to tell me, there is nothing in the entire country that can hurt you. No snakes, no bears, no poinsonous spiders, nothing. The worst you have to worry about are the annoying sandflies, which are about on par with mosquitoes (only without West Nile or Malaria). Kinda throws it in the face of Australia, which is lucky enough to house 8 of the ten deadliest snakes species, tons of sharks, crocodiles, several species of killer spiders, and one of the deadliest animals on the face of the planet, the box jellyfish (Go here to see the full list of nasty critters Aussies have to deal with: http://www.yesaustralia.com/Curiosidades-animaising.htm)

Now let's see...cool NZ locales...hmmm...how about the ENTIRE COUNTRY. The natural landscape is unlike that anywhere else on earth. The amazing, infinite variety of beauty is truly indescribable. And while I'm not professional photographer, I'll do my best to give you a glimpse. Enjoy!