Mondays Suck Here Too

I set my alarm for the wrong time this morning, and ended up waking up at the same time I was supposed to be leaving. Being half an hour late to work wasn’t a great way to start the day. It both helped and hurt that there was more or less nothing to do at work. Our project is currently in a state of limbo. We spent all of last term writing a project proposal, but we haven’t yet had an opportunity to discuss the proposal with our sponsors. All we’ve had is scattered, brief conversations which have hinted that we aren’t quite on the right track. So until we have that cleared up, we can’t get started on the actual project. Instead we’ve been occupying ourselves with more research to provide a wider foundation. But there’s only so much research we can do, and only so much that will actually be useful.

It’s funny how little things can add up to mess with your mood. Between the late morning and feeling like we were wasting time that could be spent on valuable work if only we had the needed information, and staying late in spite of that to make sure I put in the full 8 hours… I was in a fairly low mood by the time I headed home, and it was made worse by the fact that it was pouring sheets of icy rain. This presented an unusual challenge; I’m used to handling bad moods by talking to friends online, but most of my friends back home were asleep, and even if they weren’t, the museum was closing and I couldn’t well sit out in the rain with my computer. Nor did I feel I knew any of my classmates well enough to express my mood to then. Better to put on a smile and get through it on my own.

I started with a peanut butter and nutella sandwich for dinner (not my normal fare, I promise, but it was warranted as a special occasion). We then had a meeting with our advisors, after which I felt more relaxed about the seeming lack of progress we’ve been making. We’ll be getting the information we need from our sponsors tomorrow, and then we’ll be able to actually get started. After spending the rest of the evening reading and doing a bit of embroidery, I felt considerably better.

Time for another museum exhibit! I mentioned last Thursday that Te Papa houses a modern Marae, a Maori meeting house. It’s worth describing in more detail. I mentioned the doors which represent the Sky Father, Ranginui. ‘Door’ is a bit of a misleading term. They make up an entire wall of the room, being probably 15’ wide and twice that tall. The stained glass designs are relatively simple, mostly geometric patterns in blues, greens, and purples. Outside the door there resides an elaborate archway, a gate, painted muted tones of red and blue-green, and covered with traditional Maori carvings. Meanwhile, the floor is covered with an elaborate tile pattern designed to represent  Papatūānuku, the Earth Mother.

Opposite the door is a stage which is completely covered in and surrounded with carvings which are meant to describe the people that belong to the iwi, tribe, that uses the Marae. Since it was made to be used by everyone, Maori and Europeans alike, the carvings reflect as much. There are fishers, missionaries, and convicts depicted in the carvings—representatives of the occupations held by those who have come to New Zealand over the last two centuries, as well as the Maori who arrived a millennium ago. Apparently the carvings were made by all sorts of people, men and women, adults and children, Maori and European, so that the Marae could truly belong to all of them. Between the doors and the stage are two rows of chairs, facing each other, where people sit for functions that take place there. What side you sit on depends on your rank and purpose for being there.

It’s hard to explain in words. I’ll take some pictures when I get the chance and add them here.