Familar Faces

Yesterday must've been the best chemistry lecture we've had so far! We had two experiments in one lecture, all in the new business school lecture theatre! The first one was this balloon that exploded in a huge flame, and the second was this liquid that could change colours at different time periods on its own! (with a little help) The day before that we distilled wine in the chemistry lab. I really like chem lab a lot more than biosci lab! I don't know if it's just the people but the guys (and girl) I hang out with in the lab are pretty fun! I ended up burning myself twice. I tried picking up a bunsen while it was burning! How could I not know it would be hot! It's funny that we weren't allowed to light our own bunsens even though at high school we could light them whenever we wanted!

 

Anyway back to yesterday..I caught the late bus into the city and I sat next to this Rutherford guy right at the back. He asked me if I was Calum, the Head Boy from last year! That was amazing someone remembered me! We then had a little conversation with him telling me aaaaall about the little 'incident' that happened after school yetserday.

 

Well I ran to chemistry as soon as I got off the bus. Biosci afterwards was a big letdown after such a cool chemistry lecture. Sooo boring it was just a review lecture. Population health over at Tamaki was no better! I missed the first bus back into the city as I thought I could try catch the public bus back into the city but I found out I was thinking of the wrong bus stop! So I ended up having to wait another hour for the next bus to come.

 

Back in the city I ended up going to the library to try study but it was soooo hot! I ended up falling alsleep for the first hour before trying to study for the other two. After that I went down to the Info Commons to meet up with my scholarship mentor, until I realised I had been waiting at the wrong place and that I was supposed to be at Grafton! Fortunately he decided to come into the city. I had a little chat with him, expressing my concern over my preparation for the biosci exam (I'm really worried about it!).

 

I walked all the way back to Britomart, did a bit of shopping for lollies (I'm giving them a go to see if they can stop me from falling asleep!) before catching the bus to Rutherford College to watch the Studio Show.

 

I love going back to that school! It's so cool catching up with people you know and haven't seen in ages! The first person I saw there was Amber who's now at performing arts school and is going to become a drama teacher! I then caught up with all the prefects who were at door sales before going in. My mum and I had really bad seats at the side! Apparently they were the last seats to be sold so I guess we've got to be thankful!

 

The show was pretty good. I couldn't hear some of the drama, but the dancing was good and Aonghas was well....nah he was good. I liked the Korean Drum Group! It's great seeing another cultural group at our school! I was trying to get the twins to organise something like that at school last year but fortunately Ms Gerzic (ESOL) teacher got it up and running!

 

I caught up with Paul, Sue's brother (this Korean girl at Rutherford), and had a chat to him during the mid-break. The next half consisted mostly of drama and a bit of singing. Ruth at her usual best! The last few performances were dance performances which were impressive too!

 

Afterwards I caught up with the village...or are they transition...girls like AONE!!!!...and the others... lol nah there was Angie, Jenna, Phoebe and her cousin. The others left while I had a little catch-up with Phoebe. She was telling me all this stuff and then told me to try practise my Cantonese with her cousin while she was on the phone to her parents. I think her cousin thinks I'm a little weird! I tried asking her if she liked going to the toilet, or if she liked sleeping in Cantonese (well hey my vocabulary is limited!) but I don't think she seemed to understand me!

 

They went off soon and so I talked to Chen, Aaron and Paul for a little while before along came Sophie and Becky, those two year eleven girls who somehow know me all of a sudden! They originally wanted to see the show but they missed out because the tickets ran out! How sad!!!!

Mastering the Umbrella

Aren't umbrellas so difficult, especially when you've got a drink bottle, bus card and cellphone to hold on to all at the same time! These past few days have been really rainy and so I've had to bring the brolly to uni, and it is so much more than holding it above your head! You've got to determine which direction the wind is blowing from and ensure your umbrella is facing towards the wind so it doesn't blow inside out.

 

The Umbrella-Blowing-Inside-Out Count So Far (since Wednesday): 12

 

(No I have nothing better to think about as I struggle through the rain than to count the number of times it happens to me!)

The Pressure!

Today was the first time I had an assignment due for university! While fortunately for science I haven't had any essay assignments, unfortunately I have a couple for Population Health, and that is doubly booooring! The assignment that was due today required me to answer all these questions about primary health care using techniques such as direct quoting, referencing and paraphrasing....yawn...

I was going to try complete it early early, but I ended up completing it over the weekend, having only a couple days to review it and try to cut back on the number of words. What has really been frustrating though is that I thought we'd learn how to structure our answers etcetc in our Population Health tutorials, but instead we just have a look at the content instead! If we want to learn more about writing skills, we have to pay $10 to attend some of the workshops run by the Student Learning Centre!

Well anyway today after double-checking my assignment I caught the bus into the city by half past eight, catching up with ex-Head Girl Jessica along the way! I then caught up with Richard, jumped on another bus and went on to Tamaki. Lucky me I found a dollar on the ground when I got off the bus! The lecture was sorta boring as usual, as was the tutorial.

I had to stay on for another two hours to attend the other Population Health workshop which was two hours where we discussed immunisation and various epidemiological studies. Our last task was to get into a group to design a poster aimed at a common misconception parents had on immunisation. Our group was funny but slow! We decided to aim at the misconception that measles wasn't that serious by designing a poster based on DO YOU WANT TO GAMBLE YOUR CHILD'S LIFE? with this roulette table in the middle. Our team spent so long discussing it and then with one and a half minutes left the girl who was drawing the poster was trying to make the roulette table as neat as could be, that by the time the tutor came along to grab our posters and put them to the vote to see which was best, ours consisted of only a circle in the middle of it which looked like a doughnut! Fortunately we didn't do the YEAH RIGHT advert as two other groups came up with that one!

Finally after the workshop I ducked into the computer lab to double-check my assignment before handing it in. I was sitting next to this Hong Kong girl who happens to be in nearly all my classes and so we got talking about stuff. We both submitted our assignments in (phew!) and then went to catch the bus but we had missed it! So we ended up having to wait around at the dead Tamaki campus for another hour before the next bus came.

At least I've got that assignment out of the way! Now I've just got to get through chemistry lab tomorrow (we're distilling wine oh yay!!), the chemistry test on Monday, the biosci test on Wednesday and the population health test on Thursday and then I've got the holidays to relax! (unlike those lucky commerce students who have most of their tests the first week back right? And I thought I had it bad!! :D OK maybe I do in a way...)

Oh yeah I didn't realise that I haven't been sending too many texts this month...certain people haven't been texting much! Or maybe it's just uni...well now I've got about 300 texts to send in the next three days, so if any of you are bored feel free to text me and I can guarantee you a reply! As they say, the poor people in Africa don't get much opportunity if any to text, so I'm trying not to waste mine! ;)

Ahhhh Yes....

So in the past week I met an old friend, found something...odd about another, missed the bus and my lecture, attended someone's lecture...

I met Alice again last Monday! Yeah not that surprising seeing as I always meet her, and we just hung out till she had to go to her statistics lecture. Because my lecture was right after her's and in the same lecture theatre, she told me to come to her lecture, so...I did! I was waiting in the foyer with her to go in when I saw the whole ex-Rutherford contingent come along like Jane, Glen and Ellyce, and tried to hide from them (well I wasn't supposed to be there!) Even though normal distribution is so interesting, I dosed off a little and didn't really listen much. When it came to my lecture I convinced Alice to attend my lecture! (Just wanted to see if she'd fall asleep!) Well she didn't, but neither did I which was good!

On Wednesday I was going to meet up with Diane for lunch, and so I was going to catch the bus back from Tamaki where I had population health, but typical me missed the bus and after desperately trying to find a way of getting back to the city before 1pm so I wouldn't keep her waiting, I ended up keeping her waiting and arriving an hour late! We caught up down Queen St and went to Nando's for lunch, which was cool. She couldn't finish her lunch. After pretending to chuck her Coke bottle at me she opened it and spilled it on her pants which was funny! After opening my bottle of L&P I thought mine wouldn't fizz all over the place, but then suddenly it just went BLAHH all over the place. We then tried tossing salt in each other's mouths before I caught the bus with her to her old school so she could try get some references from her teachers. Man Mt Roskill Grammar School is HUGE! Unfortunately none of her teachers were there. We parted ways as Diane went home.

On Friday I found out my friend is....likes....other..sorts of people! OK well I don't know if that's true or not but that's just what my other friend told me which caught me by surprise! Now I don't have anything against those sorts of people with different lifestyles (well i don't think I do anyway!) it's just it's never happened to anyone I know! Anyway I'm treating it like I don't know anything because I don't even know if it's true or not!

Saturday consisted of music teaching and music lessons. My students were teasing me so I teased them back! Nah it wasn't that bad but they weren't as distracted as the other week! Accordion lessons was...OK...Roseanne this good North Shore accordionist saw me reading my BIOSCI book and started talking to me about it which was cool of her! Jessica (accordion arch-nemesis) came over and joined in. Once Roseanne left I got talking with Jessica about all these Rangitoto College people I've met at uni. I ask them all if they know Jessica (good conversation starter!) and funnily enough they do! Then her mum broke up our conversation..

Sunday - Church....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........Sunday School.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz......Jennifer didn't come (but that's probably because her dad's in hospital after having an operation), nor did Angie AGAIN (hhmmm starting on an accounting assessment huh?? lol) so it was just Hamish and me, the three brother and sisters and a few other oldems. We went to Westcity after church where we met Jason's (an old primary school friend) mum and right on the other side of the couch..Gwen! It was good seeing her again and catching up with her. Man I still miss those guys!

Yesterday - I missed the bus to uni and had to catch the later one, which got me into the city too late for my chemistry lecture! I ended up not going to it and just using the time to do some stuff on the library computers and grabbing my free mp3 player from National Bank (finally!!!!) I did attend the BIOSCI lecture afterwards, and after a week of not understanding anything (which I should've remembered from yr 12 biology!!) I actually understood this lecture! With tests on next week, this week is going to be full-on studying!! I managed to jump in to Sarena and Estee's chemistry lecture, even though I got an email from the chemistry lady not too long before reminding us to ATTEND THE RIGHT LECTURE! OK maybe just this once...Although if I attend lectures with them I won't have to wake up as early...

Anyway after the lecture I went into the library to read up on BIOSCI, ATP and all that. I ended up doing an hour of sleep before I started my several hours of study, before heading off to Britomart to catch the bus. I arrived early so I went to the train station to do some reading, and when I got up guess who I came across...Zippo! She had just finished her course for the day. We walked back to the bus stop when guess who we came across...my dad!!! Zippo caught another bus back home while my dad and I caught another bus back to our home.

Makeshift Recipient

Rutherford College, my old school, were to have their Scholars Assembly on Friday afternoon for those students who did well in the NCEA externals. Aonghas got an invitation, but I didn't, so I thought that was the end of that. I was thinking about whether I should go and support Aonghas at the assembly though, and also meet my friends at the same time! My mum kept trying to dissuade me from going though, as she thought I'd embarrass myself, having to watch all my fellow students go up for awards while I couldn't achieve anything! She made a valid point, so I decided maybe I'll just give this one a miss!

It wasn't till a couple days before Friday when Aonghas told me that Ms Heath asked if I could attend the assembly to accept an award on behalf of Hyun, who couldn't make it as he's in Korea. My mum still wasn't too keen, but it turns out that she thought I'd have to miss classes! I ended up deciding to go ahead with it, and so I planned on going to the earlier lecture on Friday so I could catch the bus to Te Atatu Peninsula in time.

I woke up late that morning and caught the late bus into the city, only just getting to my chemistry lecture on time! It was fun as the lecturer did a chemical demonstration, which he probably wasn't allowed to in the new business school lecture theatre! Biosci was...well biosci. However I made this new friend called Nigel from Royal Oak. After that I caught the bus to Tamaki. Catching the bus to Tamaki is always interesting, as you get to a spare seat first and leave the other one free, so you never know who's going to sit next to you! This time I had this Malaysian girl who used to Rangitoto College sit next to me. I got talking to her till we got to Tamaki.

The population health lecture must have been one of the most boring lectures I've attended so far! I got texts from other people in the lecture theatre who were so bored they needed to text to keep them awake! As soon as I got out I jumped back on the bus, and this time I had some Korean guy sit next to me! He turned out to be a 3rd year biology student.

I caught the public bus back to Te Atatu Peninsula with who else but Larry! I haven't really talked to him much before but I had a good conversation with him on the bus!

It started raining when I got off, and so I dashed into the school office as fast as I could. It was weird seeing the new reception with a new receptionist who obviously didn't know me! I asked for Ms Heath (assistant principal) and she came out and stared at my clothes with a horrified look! I managed to borrow her phone and tried to ask my mum to bring some clothes to school for me to get changed in, while Ms Heath was laughing at me trying to communicate to my mum!

While I was waiting for my mum, I decided to visit some friends, so I walked through the school over to the accounting room to pop by and say hi to Gwen, Alex, Angie, Melissa and them. It felt weird walking through the school being the only one not wearing uniform! A few of the senior students came over to catch up with me which was cool! Anyway I caught up with the young enterprise people in the accounting room. They looked really cool in their uniforms with their ties, jumpers and everything!, like Britney Spears'! I couldn't hang with them for too long before I had to go looking for my mum.

Finally I found her at the back gate with my change of clothes. I went into the village to get changed, catching up with Chelsey, Ethan and Ari. My mum brought me this striped purple shirt she bought on discount at Cotton On, and some black pants. They looked like pyjamas! Anyway it'd have to do! The bell had just rung so I had to rush over to the hall!

The assembly was pretty standard Rutherford College formal assembly. The jazz band played as the guests walked up the aisle and sat on stage. Mr Moore the principal gave a speech, before the awards presentation commenced. It started off with the year 12's. John Kingi came 3rd, Aonghas came 2nd and Rose came 1st (based on NCEA external results). They each received a scholars tie (looks neat!), a certificate and a cheque. For year 13's Michaela came 3rd, Cameron came 2nd and Chen predictably came 1st. Next the ex-students who got scholarship in their exams each received a tie and certificate (woooo go Jane, Patrick, David and Pita (who couldn't make it!)). Finally the awards for top ex-students were awarded. Jane came 3rd, Heather (represented by her mum) came 2nd, and Hyun came 1st. Mr Moore started reading Hyun's blurb out while I was still sitting down on my seat. Ms Heath thought he had forgotten to call me up to the stage and started signalling me to come up, so I popped up on stage! Later on Mr Moore assured me he hadn't forgotten about me!

It was a little weird standing there on the middle of the stage while Hyun's achievements were being read out! After a short while of staring out the window (I try to avoid eye contact when I have nothing better to do on stage!) Mrs Taylor presented me with Hyun's prizes and I took my seat at the back with the other recipients. It's now my job to send it all to Hyun!

All the award winners and parents were invited to a small afternoon tea in the staffroom afterwards. It was funny. The prize-winners were being congratulated. I got a few congratulations (which I said I'd pass on to Hyun! I had to remind a few people that I was being Hyun for that day!) and one of them saying I just wanted any excuse to get up on stage!!

I managed to catch up with Jane who I hadn't seen since university started a couple weeks ago! I've got to catch up with her again sometime! Mr Jameson my old intermediate school principal was there too. He's retiring in June, which is sad as he was a tough but fair and good principal. Good to see he still remembers me after about five years!

When it was all over Aonghas and I made our way back to the car waiting for our mum when these two girls came up to me and started talking to me! I initially thought they were talking to Aonghas when they started talking to me! They were these Asian girls called Sophie and Becky. They asked me if I remembered them. I just told them I remembered Sophie as chocolate girl (she kept selling me chocolate last year!) and Becky as chocolate girl's friend! Anyway that was interesting as I've never really talked to them before!

So yeah it's been an interesting day/weekend. I also heard some stuff go down with a couple of my friends which was a little sad to hear, but I suppose I'm used to this now! I think I can recall several occasions when I've been friends with people on both sides! I won't say anything as it isn't really my business and I don't want to make things worse...or spread stuff (see how I can keep my mouth shut Stephen! ;) ) but let's hope the wounds inflicted aren't fatal!

God's Work?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE!!!

At Sunday School last Sunday (obviously) we went around the group to see if anyone had any prayer requests. I asked them to pray for me to pay attention in class and study hard. When asked if there was any specific reason...because it was BOOOOORRRING!!!!

So on Monday I woke up wide awake, got on the bus and went to uni. Now here's the miraculous part - I stayed awake right through the whole entire chemistry lecture!!! WOOOO YEAH! The next miraculous part? I stayed awake throughout the whole entire Biosci lecture! Double WOOOO! OK I slightly (just slightly!!) started to slide in population health, but I mean who doesn't??!! Anyway I stayed on at university to study right up till 7pm at night without falling asleep, and managed to memorise all sorts of big words like peritoneal cavity, laparotomy and ectopic pregnancy! Yay now I can speak like a pro!

There was a fire drill for a moment which temporarily halted my studying. Everyone had to evacuate the library. I spent my time trying to see if I could spot the fire, but fortunately there was none and we were soon let back in. When I caught the bus late at night there was a fire in a building near Sky City though which required the firefighters to climb up one of those ladders and even block off a whole road!

Yesterday I had a three hour session for Biosci where we were looking at slides of Rat duodenum, trachea and oesophagus under a microscope. We then got tested on our drawings. Thank goodness I got the trachea which only required me to name three main parts! I'll probably come away with a low mark nonetheless for shocking drawing! In the next lab we'll be making a model of a human embryo so that's something I'll be able to put on the mantle at home! Some people have told me that it's really hard though (they mark you on your model!) and that heaps of people failed it!

Today I spent the day over at Tamaki for my population health lectures and tutorials. The lecture was....yeah OK...it was my first population health 111 tutorial though, which lasted for two hours. I sat at a table with a few girls and got to know them, although I only know one of their names...the one with the normal name....(yeah I feel bad!). Anyway we were learning about mortality rates, which involved us filling in a death certificate! It was funny because we had this Chinese guy as our tutor and he was crazy! (in a good sort of way!)

Now here's the weirdest thing that has happened to me all week! I was sitting in the library today trying to study chemistry, when I must've dozed off. I woke up slightly to notice someone standing next to me thinking it was probably a friend wanting to say hi. Instead it was a security guard! She told me I wasn't allowed to sleep in the library! Since when was it against the rules to fall asleep in the library??!! She added that the building opposite to where I was sitting (which we could see through the window) was where her bosses worked and they could probably see me, and so she advised me to move somewhere else! That was so odd! I went up to the next level to find a spot to study (I like studying in corners and behind walls!) and I was so scared of falling asleep I didn't do so for the rest of the night!

Maybe God is just trying to help me focus on study?

Realisations

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID (for yesterday) and YAY FOR 600th POST!

Yesterday night we tried making our way to the Auckland Domain to watch the fireworks as part of the Auckland Festival 07. Once again though we couldn't find parking, got stuck in traffic, and had to watch most of it from the car!

I could say that we only realised how people walking in the middle of the street with a total disregard for traffic can be really frustrating especially when you're in a hurry! We were driving all around the back streets around the Domain, past an ambulance attending to some side street accident, blocked off roads and everything else. When we saw the fireworks shoot into the sky we decided we'd try get stuck in traffic down a road closest to the Domain so we could just sit there and watch the fireworks from the car! We ended up finding a little space by the exit of the Auckland Unversity Grafton Campus. Well other cars had already blocked off the exit so we thought we'd just park our car there, cross the road to watch was much as we can and then quickly make our way back to the car before it got towed away!

The number of people there was massive! There must've been so many more people than at Christmas in the Park or the Starlight Symphony! As soon as the fireworks were over we dashed across the road and back into the car and started moving. We didn't get very far though. All the people poured into the streets and we were surrounded by people! We couldn't even see the cars ahead of us and behind us because of the sheer number of people everywhere! We weren't moving any faster than the people, and so random people would come up to our window and say hi to us or wave to us! Finally we took a turn into a side street and lost the huge crowd!

We were at an intersection where this Chinese guy started reversing for no reason. We were on the other side of the road watching this. Everyone started honking their horns at him, so Aonghas thought he'd just have a little fun and join in by honking the horn too!

Today Aonghas was so tired he decided he wouldn't come to church with us and instead would drive himself to Sunday School. Church was boring. Angie didn't turn up AGAIN (thank goodness she got txt again!). While having lunch Aonghas's work kept ringing several times, which led me to wonder if Aonghas had actually gone to work after Sunday School or not! I brought this to my mum's attention, we drove back home and found Aonghas still sleeping and half an hour late for work!

I had to return a book to the library this afternoon when I met Nick's mum and his sister Olivia. I talked to his mum for a while, who said it looked like I had lost some weight! This isn't the first time someone has thought I've lost some weight! Last weekend at the barbeque Zippo's mum thought I looked as though I had lost a bit of weight, and so does my mum. I've actually lost about 5kg in the past while! I'm not too sure what has caused this, but it may possibly be due to having braces, as I've had to watch what I can and can't eat. I don't know if this is a good thing or not, losing weight and being skinny!!

I only realised tonight that we're already half way through what I guess you could consider our 'first term' of university! There's only three weeks to go till mid-semester break (oh and Gwen's birthday don't forget that! Y'all better start buying presents!) and I've got tests just before then which means I've got to get cracking!!!! So I'm off to bed for an early start tomorrow morning!

Amazing Discoveries

I'm starting to get into a regular routine now which is making uni slightly better! I didn't have any labs this week which meant I finished on most days by 2pm. Yesterday there was a technical problem during the Population Health lecture, as we kept hearing this woman's voice coming from the speakers, and so they had to cancel the lecture! I spent the extra time walking down to McDonald's to buy an ice-cream cone!

On Saturday the day after Friday's Lantern Festival, I went to the Lantern Festival again, but this time with family. I met up with Shiu Tai, Persia, Mia and Nikki, who I haven't seen for a while! It wasn't long as the wave of people were separating me from them. Aonghas also met a few of his friends amongst the packed crowd! We heard that Angie was selling food at one of the food stalls so we tried looking for her and came across Melissa and her friend. We got talking for a while before resuming our search. We gave up though. She didn't turn up to church the next day either which means it's been several weeks since I've last seen her! Anyway we rejoined our parents who were watching the performances at the main stage. I had wanted to watch Richard, my new friend perform the violin earlier in the day but my family couldn't get ready in time!

The next day we had a barbeque at the neighbours'. Zippo was there with her boyfriend Gabe, and so were Esther and Julia, and the rest of the kids. We all got talking while having a feed, and later that night when it was just Szelin, Esther, Julia, me and Aonghas, we had some good conversation! I found out a lot about Esther and Julia that I didn't know before!

Earlier in the week I had a little freak-out when I wasn't getting anything in biosci. I came home and had a discussion with my parents who told me loud and clearly they never forced me to choose Health Science (yeah right!!) and that it wasn't too late to change to law (my real passion!). I was seriously considering it, but the next day we had a different lecturer for biosci and a new topic - human embryology, which I actually got! I decided I'd just keep with Health Science, as I'm not one to quit something I've already started!!

It was Wednesday when I realised that maybe Health Science isn't such a dead-end degree afterall and that maybe medicine may not necessarily be my thing! The lecturer basically told us that most of us wouldn't get in, and then went on to tell us about the different positions in the health sector which could provide just as much fulfilment as being a doctor, and that made me realise that maybe my future could belong in public health policy, or maybe even in politics!

I got to sleep in a bit on Wednesday morning, and so I caught the later bus, which was filled with Rangeview and Rutherford students. What amazed me was how some students caught the bus at one end of Te Atatu Rd (my stop) and then just got off at the other end! I'm sure they would've had plenty of time to walk! Oh well...

I always look forward to Wednesdays and Fridays, as I usually get to Tamaki early to hang out with the group - Richard the violin virtuoso, Melissa the cycling champ, George...the random girl and Michael the German! We were talking on the bus about what girls look at first in a guy, and Melissa said eyes!! I really don't get what is with girls and eyes!! We had our first tutorial for population health that day as well. Both Michael and Melissa were in my tutorial class but I sat with some other people and got to know these girls Brior, Susan and Candy! Our teacher Dee, an Iraqi with an American accent is pretty cool. She let us talk, eat and drink in class!

Later that same day there was a KiwiAsian Club intro meeting back in the city. I was originally going to go with Shen but he went to an earlier meeting, so instead I went with Melissa and Kat. It was the first time I had seen Kat in a while! I was hoping there'd be quite a few hot girls but ...well not that time! After the meeting I hung out with Kat and her friend, going shopping for some stuff she needed. We went over to AUT to check out their supply stores and came across Perry and Larry! Perry was in the same class as Kat back at Rangeview, but amazingly they didn't recognise each other! Guess who came around the corner at that moment? Their old teacher's (at Rangeview) son!!

We took a short detour to Jay-Jay's to help Kat find this top she was looking for. Originally I kept my distance from the girls' clothes section (once I realised they were girls' clothes!) but then I decided to help. That was interesting!

I was sitting on the bus on Thursday morning when I got a text from 'Secret Admirer'. You may remember I got a text from some mysterious person who kept telling me SHE LOVED ME. Well I got a random text from this person that morning, and through a bit of investigative work uncovered the person's identity! It turns out the person has a sister who knows a certain person who used to work at a certain fish shop...

After walking around the city a bit you start to notice just how many people are holding hands with each other, showing public displays of affection and so on. It's sickening! I'm starting to resent those people! Nah just joking but yeah yay!!!! (individually) for Julie and Alice! I met Julie as she was walking up Queen St with someone! Woo go her! And you too Alice!

Today I was to meet up with my scholarship mentor but my bus was late and so we had to postpone it till next week but at least he helped me borrow this book from the medical library which means I don't have to spend over $100 on the book! I thought I'd try meeting some more people today so I started talking to these people who sat next to me on the bus. The first guy I met was from Malaysia who got a scholarship to study in New Zealand, while I mistakenly took the girl next to me (on the bus ride back) to be a first year student, when she was actually a German student studying 4th year!

Almost a Perfect Day!

I was really looking forward to this day! I was going to finish uni by midday, so there wasn't much to have to get through before I'd be able to start enjoying the weekends!!!

I went through the chemistry and biosci lectures as usual. I slightly fell asleep during biosci, as I probably didn't understand as much as I should've! I probably should've been awake anyway though! After the lecture I caught the bus to Tamaki where I caught up with Richard and Michael (this German guy!), and then we joined Melissa and Georgina. We talked for a while and shared contacts with each other before heading into the lecture theatre.

The first half of the lecture was boring and I fell asleep slightly, but then when the Australian lecturer played the Population Health version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire it started to get interesting! Richard was picked to answer the question and managed to get it right before falling at the next question.

As soon as the lecture was over we all rushed to the bus. I grabbed a seat with Richard and went back into the city. We then walked to his bus stop and talked for a while. Once he caught his bus I went back to the city campus to muck around a bit and see if I could have any luck finding my friends.

I have a new time-killer: playing with the ATM machines!! :D I walked all the way down to the Kiwibank ATM to see if I had gotten my student allowance but...nope I hadn't. So I started walking back before deciding it's about time I topped up and get some credit again!

I was walking back to campus waiting for Diane to arrive in the city (I was going to try meet up with her!) when I came across Alice AGAIN! It was like the fifth time this week I came across her! Anyway she had just finished her classes and I had nothing to do so we walked down the closed off street checking out all the food stalls at the Lantern Festival. I came across the KiwiAsian Club's food stall and asked if members got discounts, but they told us the money was going towards us members anyway! I told them that I already paid my $8 membership fee before they corrected me saying it was $7!

When she heard that I hadn't been into the city that often, she decided to take me down to the shop that sells Pearl Milk Tea. We ended up getting tea, but not milk tea. We did get the pearls though! I got mango flavour while she got passionfruit flavour. She then took me to the games arcade where she introduced me to those dancing game machine thingies! We were going to compete against each other, like master vs newbie but these Asians (and one white guy) were hogging the best machine. We're going to compete next time! By that time Gwen, Alex, Tasha and Zahir had arrived in the city and were at Wendy's having dinner, so I went there with Alice and introduced her to them. We talked for a while before Alice had to go catch her bus.

I then ordered a burger combo with the biggie, which turned out to be too much for me to take! I forgot I still had my tea with the pearls to drink!! We walked up to Albert Park where the festival was being held and checked out the food stalls before I had to rush off to the library toilets to take care of business... I rejoined them again before we went into the park to check out the lanterns. We came across Dickson, my old intermediate school friend!!! That was cool! He's at AUT now. I've got to catch up with him again sometime!

Eventually at night the lanterns were switched on and Phoebe and Lisa joined us. We had all bought these lanterns with real candles inside them! I was being super careful not to set the lantern on fire!

Alex, Gwen, Zahir, Tasha and I eventually found our way to the karaoke stage to watch a few performances. I have no idea where the other two went. Anyway they tried challenging me to get up on stage to sing, so I thought, why not! I might as well! No one will know me anyway! So with Gwen's help, I selected a song and after a long wait, Calum Anderson from West Auckland got up on stage to sing Sometimes by Britney Spears!

I announced that it was dedicated to Britney during a tough time which would hopefully make her normal again...as well as the freaks sitting down there (yes you lovely freaks!) and funnily enough everyone started cheering! I started singing, which sounded really bad and low, especially the BABY part! I couldn't see the audience too well but when I started swaying some people started doing it too! I didn't really sing too well in time but at least I wasn't booed off the stage! I had some guys come up to me afterwards congratulating me for having the balls to do that, and I told them I was doing it for Britney!! :D

After that we started to leave, and walked down Queen Street where Zahir was walking into people! We eventually got to the bus stop where we caught up with Phoebe and Lisa again.

We all sat at the back and were definitely the noisy group! I talked mostly to Gwen, but because Phoebe had hardly said anything to me all night I thought I'd say Hi to her, but she didn't say anything back until Lisa tapped her on the shoulder! That was probably the lowest point of the day because I was kinda expecting her not to talk to me for some reason since it always happens!

Zahir, Gwen and I got off the bus at the same time though and walked to her house where Aonghas and my dad were waiting for us and took Zahir and me home.

Overall though it was the best day of all this week! Even though it's been less than a month since I've seen those guys I've missed them soooo much and it was great hanging out and talking with them (well most of them anyway!), as well as Alice too! I didn't manage to catch up with Diane but I'll have to do that sometime next week!

First Week Is Over...

I've been so exhausted from the first week of uni that I haven't had time to post! It's been an up-and-down week as well, so here it goes!

Monday:

I had to wake up at 5.45am just to catch the 6.30am bus into the city! I thought my first chemistry lecture was in the new Business School building, but when I got in the theatre and sat down, I saw someone with an economics folder and started to freak out! With about twenty minutes before the lecture was due to start I had no idea who to ask, but to go to the chemistry building and find out where the lecture was supposed to be! This lady there was handing out maps with directions on how to get to the new Business School building though! This is where I met Kevin, this Malaysian guy from Howick College. We ended up talking along the way, getting to know each other. I sat with him during my lectures.

There were too many students for my second lecture (BIOSCI107) so they had to have an overflow lecture theatre with the lecturer being telecast. I ended up in that room! Afterwards I had about three hours to kill so I walked around the quad with Hamish, checking out all the different clubs. I caught up with Estee and Allen, my old intermediate school friend! I went over to the Young Labour stand to discuss politics with them, and then afterwards went to talk to the guys at the Young Nationals. When they tried to sign me up though I told them my name was on the mailing list for Young Labours, and so the guy walked over to them to ask!! I felt a bit guilty so I jumped behind the tent! I also joined the Hong Kong Students Society despite not being from Hong Kong! AND I also caught up with Alice again! I was so exhausted after the first day I fell asleep on the bus and didn't wait for too long before going to sleep once I got home!

Tuesday:

This wasn't such a great day. Same old lectures. I tried to talk to a few people I was sitting next to, but they seemed disinterested and the conversation died down very very quickly! Things weren't looking too great and I was starting not to enjoy uni again. It just felt as though everyone was taking things seriously, and no one could or would joke about anything! I couldn't find anyone during lunch and so I ended up just sitting in the library studying/sleeping. It's really hard finding your friends when you don't have any credit! I had BIOSCI lab for three hours towards the end of the day, playing with microscopes though and that's where I met my partner Mohammad who's pretty cool! We finished the lab with a 10-question multi-choice quiz which thankfully doesn't count towards our final grade! PHEW I had this weird dream that night. I was in Ms Heath's (Rutherford teacher) class (it must've been from chatting to Phoebe about her!) and she was telling off this girl for bringing a baby chick to class. The girl then questioned why I was allowed to bring my cat to class, and I replied that nobody noticed anyway because I was invisible :S I don't know what that's supposed to mean...

Wednesday:

I actually got to sleep in an hour later since I didn't have to be in the city (or Tamaki) till 10.30am, but my dad still insisted on me catching the early bus. I ended up with an hour to kill and decided to try study in the library. I caught the 9am bus and met Melissa who sat next to me! I found out that we have many similarities! When we got off half an hour later I met her friends and we sat at a picnic table, and were joined by another guy called Richard. It's amazing what these people have achieved though! Melissa was deputy Head Girl of Auckland Girls Grammar, at one stage the 3rd best cyclist in NZ and was planning on competing in the Beijing Olympics (now it'll be the London Olympics). Her coach is also Sarah Ulmer's dad! Richard on the other hand is pretty much a violin virtuoso! He also remembered me after I asked him if he knew Jessica Chen (Rangitoto College schoolmates) and then he realised I was the accordionist who competed against him for the Knights Templar Music Scholarship several years ago! He also performed at the Starlight Symphony last year and has performed in many other big events with various symphony orchestras! What was great about Wednesday was that I only had one lecture and then I was done! I caught the bus back to Tamaki with Richard, then the free bus to his bus stop. It was raining heavily then, so I caught the bus all the way to Downtown where I was going to try buy my chemistry goggles. They didn't have any so I tried rushing back to the university to get to the Scholars Luncheon, or so I thought! I wasn't too sure where the Vice-Chancellors Suite was, and so I was looking all around the place in the rain! After I finally found it, I went inside this grand building, but no one was there! I stood there for a while before texting my mentor Aritra who told me it was actually the same date but next month! I also came across Sarena and Ellyce too, the first time I saw them!

Thursday:

I thought that since good and bad days will alternate, Thursday would turn out to be a bad day. It wasn't though! I had a second good night's sleep and so I wasn't too tired on the bus. I sat with Richard in CHEM class. I had all my usual lectures, although because I only discovered I had a pre-lab assignment the night before which was due on that day, I had to rush through it in the library during my break! Once again I couldn't find my friends since I didn't know where they were, so I just sat at Albert Park to eat my lunch while watching the Maori guys putting up the lanterns for the lantern festival. I had chemistry lab for the last few hours of the day. I met Jarrod from Birkenhead College who was cool as a partner, and what's her name (this girl!) from the other side of the bench! It's really weird in the labs, as it is compulsory for everyone to wear a white labcoat as well as protective goggles! Anyway we did some chemical tests, separating mixtures of chemicals. I was a bit of a clutz spilling leaf extract first on my hand before spilling cyclohexane on my hand! Even though the bottle said to avoid having contact with your skin, I didn't notice till after a while and then I asked my supervisor what would happen, but he reassured me he always did that!

Hamish wanted to stay in the library for a while to use the computers so I just mucked around and hung out with Estee before we decided to go. The bus wouldn't come for another hour though, so Hamish and I just wandered the streets. I thought shops were supposed to be open late on a Thursday, but apparently not in town! We had to gawk at all the cellphones and cameras for sale through barred windows! We finally managed to get home by 8pm and I ended up talking to Gwen on the phone for a few hours (for the first time ever!) after she wanted to sort out some stuff.