Boy in Town

On Friday I got to go in to the city with Hamish for the first time without my parents! Yeah I know heaps of people my age have been doing that since they were how old but for me I've never really had any need to go into the city. However, that day I had to go in for my industry visit to AJ Park, this Intellectual Property law firm.

Hamish and I caught the motorway bus, which was fun! I just practised my Chinese speech while waiting to get there. We got off outside of Aotea Square and I originally thought Hamish was going to show me where the Quay Tower was, but instead he was about to walk off to university to buy his coursebooks! He told me the Quay Tower was down the other side of Queen St! So I had to walk all the way down Queen St in 15 minutes! On the way there, there were about three firetrucks (one with a cherry pick) surrounding this office building with onlookers all crowded around. I couldn't see any smoke or fire, and no time to anyway as I had to rush to the Quay Tower! I didn't want to be late as I didn't really know what to expect, and wanted to make a good impression by being early at least!

I finally made it to the Quay Tower and went up to level 14. I was greeted by the receptionist and asked to have a seat. There was already this Asian girl there reading some magazines so I assume she was the other girl from Westlake. I just sat down opposite her and grabbed a newspaper and started waving it, trying to cool myself (I was wearing 5 layers of clothing yesterday, expecting a cold day!) We didn't say much till I asked her if we were meant to bring anything and then we started a conversation before the guy from AJ Park invited us in.

We went into their boardroom and the guy went through the whole patent/copyrighting/trademarking process with us. After that we went on a tour around the level meeting the different patent attorneys. They were all really friendly and they all had their own offices or cubicles. Some had boxes of counterfeit goods!

After the tour we went down to the cafe at ground level and had a coffee. I told them I had only drunk coffee once or twice before and so I just got the same as what Jade (the Westlake girl) got. After that we went back up. It was only then that I realised I left my folder under my chair at the cafe! So I went all the way back down to retrieve it, but it wasn't there! I asked the lady at the counter and she told me security had it. That was lucky!

After a bit more explaining and learning we finished a bit earlier than we were supposed to. Since I was supposed to meet Hamish at Britomart by 5pm but Jade was going to catch her bus outside the Town Hall and there was half an hour left, I just decided to walk with her back up Queen St, and so we got to know each other a bit more. I've been working on my conversation skills! hahaha Once she caught her bus I walked back down Queen St again (three times in one day!) and met Hamish at 5.01pm which wasn't bad timing!

Our bus was going to leave at 5.15pm so I had time to go to the toilet. Now the toilet is no ordinary toilet, it's one of those automatic ones! As soon as you push the button the electric doors slide shut and music starts playing. While I was dealing with nature, there was the music playing in the background... what the world needs now, is love, sweet love...That was really cool!

I can't wait till uni now, getting to go into the city everyday and walk around and do stuff with all that freedom!