I've been studying real hard...honestly! Well sorta... I just had my UMAT (Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test) today in Ellerslie. Because the rules are so strict I thought I better arrive there early for a change. We got to Alexandra Racecourse and sat there in the carpark, but there was no one else! That's when I realised we were probably at the wrong racecourse! So we decided to try the other one over in Ellerslie...and yeees that's the one! All the health science, biomed and a few high school students were standing outside waiting to get in.
I went over to join my friend Henry and this other guy (his name's uncommon but I should've remembered it!!). We were waiting outside for at least half an hour with everyone crowding around the entrance. Finally when it was 1.30pm people started filing in. We had to show our admission tickets and photo ID to the registration desk and then take our seats in the main room. It took me a while to find my seat!
There was an Indian lady standing on the stage who was the 'BIG BOSS' while there were supervisors standing at the end of every row. The main supervisor lady would call out to each row to check each supervisor had followed her specific instruction:
"Supervisors hand out answer sheets....Supervisor one?"
"CHECK!"
"Supervisor two?"
"CHECK!"
And so it continued right up to supervisor fifteen...
There were three sections that we had to do separately, and we weren't allowed to go back to another section to complete once time was up for it.
Prior to the test I read that we weren't allowed stopwatches into the room so I thought I'd at least try bring a watch just in case, as I didn't know whether they would be giving any time indications. At least they warned us when there was only 10 minutes remaining in each section...except for one section....
"OK everyone time is up put your pens down"
<Everyone is in a state of confusion and panic>
"Woops sorry! I mean you have ten minutes remaining!"
Towards the end this girl in my row had a coughing fit too! Because we were in this convention room there was this kitchen behind us and I could smell something delicious being cooked! There was also a little rattling going on and then..
(a little) CRASH! (a dropped glass maybe?)
and then someone saying
"Oops!"
What about the test? Well the test wasn't too bad but because you only have about a minute and a half to answer each question and for some questions you have to read half a page of text, it meant having to work really fast! The most difficult section was the last section which involved patterns and sequences.
At the end of the test I was waiting outside with Michael my German friend, when my old intermediate school friend (who knows Alice!) Lance came up to me to say hi! WOW he has changed! He's now taller than me with longer hair and glasses! That was good catching up with him.
We finished at about 5.30pm, which was way past the time I had expected to be finished by, so I was trying to find the bus stop along Great South Road, and thanks to Alice (my guider!) I managed to find it after checking out four different bus stops! I just missed four Downtown buses along the way though... I ended up back in the city at about 6.30pm, which meant I missed out on watching the Rutherford College Advanced Debating team defeat Dio to be in the GRAND FINAL! CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS!!!!!!
Wednesday 25 July 2007
People!
I was going to have my first Health Psychology tutorial on Tuesday, and so I was going to do my best to try meet some new people. As soon as my lecture was over, I caught the bus to the medical school in Grafton. At the reception I tried swiping my card but the red light kept showing and beeping and wouldn't let me in! This other girl was having the same trouble as me! We ended up running through after someone else successfully used theirs.
I got to my tutorial class to discover I could only recognise one guy who I didn't really know from health science. It turned out that I was in a class full of pharmacy students! But that was OK though. Good to broaden my horizons! I got to know this Chinese guy Stephen who used to go to Avondale College (grrrr) and this other guy doing second year pharmacy called Lenny. I know I know why do I keep making friends with guys????? I'll try work my way around the room next week! The health science guy who I recognised but didn't know (although I think I must've talked to him once or twice before an exam) came over to me to talk for a little bit after the lecture though.
We were just learning about different research methods and guidelines for them. A little experiment to see if chocolate helped improve memory was conducted, but I think it was too inaccurate to be taken seriously!
I caught the bus back into the city with Stephen and walked with him to Sky City Metro before I had to go back into the city to sort out my student allowance. On my way back I caught up with Jacqueline who had just finished for the day! So I waited around with her till her mum came to pick her up. I then walked back to the city to sort out my allowance and then caught up with Alice in the Information Commons.
While we were talking and watching movies on her laptop, along came Hussein! We were just catching up for a little while before along came Amber from Rangeview/Rutherford! I tried to introduce them to each other and get a general conversation going amongst them without excluding anyone (sorry Alice! She was a little left out in that one!) Eventually Hussein and Amber had to go, so it was just Alice and me again.
Alice wanted to check out a few shops so we went up to the street and while we were waiting for the free bus, along came Grace, one of Diane's friends I met when I was with her, who was now at Auckland University! She still remembered me, despite not remembering my name! I introduced them to each other, when along came Amy, back from Hong Kong! We were just having a little conversation (well I was trying to get one going amongst them all) when the free bus came. It was so full though. Alice and Grace managed to squish in, but there didn't look like much space left, so I decided I would race them to Britomart.
And I beat Alice there! Grace got off at Sky City though. So Alice and I checked out a few music stores for a CD she was looking for, but when she couldn't find it we walked back up Queen St towards her bus stop. We took a slight detour to the arcade though to try out DDR (like Singstar, only dancing????). It was my first time so it was a bit of an experience! My dancing skills were shocking compared to Alice's though, and so my rating was only a measly 'C'.
After Alice caught the bus home I stayed in the city for a while to study before meeting up with Hamish to try catch a bus to Diocesan School to support Aonghas' debating team against Howick. Once again though we had trouble catching the bus as it went straight past us! Luckily my dad was giving Chen a ride there, so I texted Chen and asked him to get our dad to pick us up.
We got there only to just miss Rutherford's first speaker (Rose) speak. I think I was getting a little too into the debate when after the Howick's third speaker spoke and tried dismissing every statistic the Rutherford team put forward as 'made up', I turned to Chen and probably said a little too loud...
"OH...MY..GOSH...<ramble ramble ramble>"
I think I'll tape my mouth shut when I go to the next debate. Next debate you say? Yes because they beat Howick and are now in the semifinals! CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS!!!
I got to my tutorial class to discover I could only recognise one guy who I didn't really know from health science. It turned out that I was in a class full of pharmacy students! But that was OK though. Good to broaden my horizons! I got to know this Chinese guy Stephen who used to go to Avondale College (grrrr) and this other guy doing second year pharmacy called Lenny. I know I know why do I keep making friends with guys????? I'll try work my way around the room next week! The health science guy who I recognised but didn't know (although I think I must've talked to him once or twice before an exam) came over to me to talk for a little bit after the lecture though.
We were just learning about different research methods and guidelines for them. A little experiment to see if chocolate helped improve memory was conducted, but I think it was too inaccurate to be taken seriously!
I caught the bus back into the city with Stephen and walked with him to Sky City Metro before I had to go back into the city to sort out my student allowance. On my way back I caught up with Jacqueline who had just finished for the day! So I waited around with her till her mum came to pick her up. I then walked back to the city to sort out my allowance and then caught up with Alice in the Information Commons.
While we were talking and watching movies on her laptop, along came Hussein! We were just catching up for a little while before along came Amber from Rangeview/Rutherford! I tried to introduce them to each other and get a general conversation going amongst them without excluding anyone (sorry Alice! She was a little left out in that one!) Eventually Hussein and Amber had to go, so it was just Alice and me again.
Alice wanted to check out a few shops so we went up to the street and while we were waiting for the free bus, along came Grace, one of Diane's friends I met when I was with her, who was now at Auckland University! She still remembered me, despite not remembering my name! I introduced them to each other, when along came Amy, back from Hong Kong! We were just having a little conversation (well I was trying to get one going amongst them all) when the free bus came. It was so full though. Alice and Grace managed to squish in, but there didn't look like much space left, so I decided I would race them to Britomart.
And I beat Alice there! Grace got off at Sky City though. So Alice and I checked out a few music stores for a CD she was looking for, but when she couldn't find it we walked back up Queen St towards her bus stop. We took a slight detour to the arcade though to try out DDR (like Singstar, only dancing????). It was my first time so it was a bit of an experience! My dancing skills were shocking compared to Alice's though, and so my rating was only a measly 'C'.
After Alice caught the bus home I stayed in the city for a while to study before meeting up with Hamish to try catch a bus to Diocesan School to support Aonghas' debating team against Howick. Once again though we had trouble catching the bus as it went straight past us! Luckily my dad was giving Chen a ride there, so I texted Chen and asked him to get our dad to pick us up.
We got there only to just miss Rutherford's first speaker (Rose) speak. I think I was getting a little too into the debate when after the Howick's third speaker spoke and tried dismissing every statistic the Rutherford team put forward as 'made up', I turned to Chen and probably said a little too loud...
"OH...MY..GOSH...<ramble ramble ramble>"
I think I'll tape my mouth shut when I go to the next debate. Next debate you say? Yes because they beat Howick and are now in the semifinals! CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS!!!
Monday 23 July 2007
We're All In This Together!
So everything is getting off the ground again. Teaching recorder classes on Saturday morning (thank goodness I finally found a piece my recorder class liked - Charconne from The Fairy Queen by Purcell) and uni.
On Sunday we didn't go to church though as we had an orchestra performance in the afternoon. Fortunately the audience was big enough. We performed pieces such as Ballet Egyptian, In the Hall of the Mountain King and other pieces. After, we had some afternoon tea which got me full!
We then visited my uncle at Auckland Hospital. I'm actually not exactly too sure what he was in there for! Our cousins Janice and Korina came by not too soon after. Auckland Hospital looked like a cool place to work! Too bad I probably won't end up (working!) there.
This morning was FREEZING! My car was covered in ice, and I woke up later than usual, so I had to catch the later bus. I got dropped off at the bus stop to find all these Rutherford students. Then. along came Zahir! He looked pretty flash in his prefects uniform! The bus was supposed to come at 8am but it was 8.10am by now, so I was about to walk back home when I thought I might wait a little longer just in case. Fortunately, the bus WAS late! So I caught the bus and only missed the first few minutes of MEDSCI.
That was lucky too, because we were learning the female reproductive system today! More specifically we were learning about the whole menstrual cycle and what goes on downstairs. So now when you girls are cranky or wearing less clothes, I'll know why ;)
I got a bit of a surprise later in the day when I was catching the bus to Tamaki to find my uni friend Kevin on board! It was only just last week when my other friends and I had speculated that he might've switched course, but apparently not, he was just in London on holiday! I met this other girl Sheena from Singapore who was sitting next to Kevin who is also doing Health Science, and discovered that she is in the same MEDSCI lab class as me, so now I know at least one person who will be in my lab class (sorta...)!
After we got back into the city I walked with Kevin to his lecture before coming across Sarena and her friend, and then Nikki, and then Alice! We were all just talking about the menstrual cycle for a little while!
We then went our own ways, I walked Alice to the bus before going back to the library to study a bit more and receive texts from eeeevil girl!
On Sunday we didn't go to church though as we had an orchestra performance in the afternoon. Fortunately the audience was big enough. We performed pieces such as Ballet Egyptian, In the Hall of the Mountain King and other pieces. After, we had some afternoon tea which got me full!
We then visited my uncle at Auckland Hospital. I'm actually not exactly too sure what he was in there for! Our cousins Janice and Korina came by not too soon after. Auckland Hospital looked like a cool place to work! Too bad I probably won't end up (working!) there.
This morning was FREEZING! My car was covered in ice, and I woke up later than usual, so I had to catch the later bus. I got dropped off at the bus stop to find all these Rutherford students. Then. along came Zahir! He looked pretty flash in his prefects uniform! The bus was supposed to come at 8am but it was 8.10am by now, so I was about to walk back home when I thought I might wait a little longer just in case. Fortunately, the bus WAS late! So I caught the bus and only missed the first few minutes of MEDSCI.
That was lucky too, because we were learning the female reproductive system today! More specifically we were learning about the whole menstrual cycle and what goes on downstairs. So now when you girls are cranky or wearing less clothes, I'll know why ;)
I got a bit of a surprise later in the day when I was catching the bus to Tamaki to find my uni friend Kevin on board! It was only just last week when my other friends and I had speculated that he might've switched course, but apparently not, he was just in London on holiday! I met this other girl Sheena from Singapore who was sitting next to Kevin who is also doing Health Science, and discovered that she is in the same MEDSCI lab class as me, so now I know at least one person who will be in my lab class (sorta...)!
After we got back into the city I walked with Kevin to his lecture before coming across Sarena and her friend, and then Nikki, and then Alice! We were all just talking about the menstrual cycle for a little while!
We then went our own ways, I walked Alice to the bus before going back to the library to study a bit more and receive texts from eeeevil girl!
Sunday 22 July 2007
Not So Bad Meeting
I discovered that I have most Fridays off for the first half of this semester! So I was supposed to not have to come into university at all on Friday, but because I didn't know till the night before, I had scheduled an appointment with the guy in charge of scholarships Mr Raphson (ex-Mt Roskill Grammar principal) for Friday morning.
I managed to get into university early on Friday morning and went into the meeting expecting Mr Raphson to criticise me for my bad results. He ended up being pretty cool and not too bad! He was just checking up on me to see how I was finding university, how I was progressing and making sure I knew of the standard I had to be achieving at.
He also asked me if I had any current part-time jobs, and after I told him I taught music and that my parents were suggesting I do some volunteering, Mr Raphson told me about how some students he knew volunteered at community hospitals. This led me to think about possibly volunteering over at Starship, if they wanted my services!
After the meeting I went into the Information Commons to do a bit of study until Alice had finished all her classes and then met up with her in the Information Commons. We sat at this table where another girl Chloe was working at. Alice somehow knew her and introduced me to her. She's doing pharmacy at the moment and so we were just having a bit of a discussion about reproductive organs, periods and menopause while Alice was eating.
She left a while later (not because of our discussion of course!) and Alice and I kept talking and eating, when we realised we were both friends with this guy Lance! I knew him from intermediate school while he was Alice's childhood friend! Alice told me later that night that after she told her friend about me knowing Lance (because her friend knows Lance as well), her friend told her that her friend's friend knew me too!
I managed to get into university early on Friday morning and went into the meeting expecting Mr Raphson to criticise me for my bad results. He ended up being pretty cool and not too bad! He was just checking up on me to see how I was finding university, how I was progressing and making sure I knew of the standard I had to be achieving at.
He also asked me if I had any current part-time jobs, and after I told him I taught music and that my parents were suggesting I do some volunteering, Mr Raphson told me about how some students he knew volunteered at community hospitals. This led me to think about possibly volunteering over at Starship, if they wanted my services!
After the meeting I went into the Information Commons to do a bit of study until Alice had finished all her classes and then met up with her in the Information Commons. We sat at this table where another girl Chloe was working at. Alice somehow knew her and introduced me to her. She's doing pharmacy at the moment and so we were just having a bit of a discussion about reproductive organs, periods and menopause while Alice was eating.
She left a while later (not because of our discussion of course!) and Alice and I kept talking and eating, when we realised we were both friends with this guy Lance! I knew him from intermediate school while he was Alice's childhood friend! Alice told me later that night that after she told her friend about me knowing Lance (because her friend knows Lance as well), her friend told her that her friend's friend knew me too!
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Potty Talk
For MEDSCI we're studying about organ systems, so what better organ system to study first than the reproductive system! We're starting off with the male reproductive system, which has led our lecturer to make heaps of sexual references. Here are a few of his ...interesting...comments (not accurately quoted):
"Guys think about sex every seven seconds. Well today we're going to be thinking about it for fifty minutes...in this lecture!"
"So when you've got nothing better to do on a Friday night you can go on the net and read up on oxytocin!"
"When a boar ejaculates he releases half a litre of sperm"
"I find the female reproductive system more interesting than the male's....scientifically..."
The lecturer also used one of those long balloons to demonstrate erections!
He told us that while his colleagues tend to frown upon it, he thinks Wikipedia is a good source of information. However, I'm not too sure how comfortable some people would be with searching for penis or ejaculation or sperm on the internet just in case someone else stumbles across their history! (Better clear it guys!)
Tomorrow's topic: spermatogenesis!
"Guys think about sex every seven seconds. Well today we're going to be thinking about it for fifty minutes...in this lecture!"
"So when you've got nothing better to do on a Friday night you can go on the net and read up on oxytocin!"
"When a boar ejaculates he releases half a litre of sperm"
"I find the female reproductive system more interesting than the male's....scientifically..."
The lecturer also used one of those long balloons to demonstrate erections!
He told us that while his colleagues tend to frown upon it, he thinks Wikipedia is a good source of information. However, I'm not too sure how comfortable some people would be with searching for penis or ejaculation or sperm on the internet just in case someone else stumbles across their history! (Better clear it guys!)
Tomorrow's topic: spermatogenesis!
Take Two
And second semester has begun! My timetable for this semester isn't too bad. Besides Monday and Wednesday, I finish by midday on Tuesday and 10am on Thursday and Friday (only one hour on Friday in the morning!). My early starts aren't as bad either. I start at 9am on Mondays and Fridays, 8am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 12pm on Wednesdays!
I was talking to a few people who were telling me they get a day off those lucky people! Alice and Estee have a day off on Wednesday while Hamish has a day off on Monday. Unfortunately I don't get any days off! Or so I thought...I was waiting in line today for my course guide at Tamaki when I overheard a girl behind me saying our lecture on Fridays is actually a spare lecture spot, which means I get a three day weekend!!!! :D
I ended up choosing ECON151G (Introducing the Global Economy) as my general education paper, and so far I don't regret it! It's been very basic and easy to understand so far. Today we had this Indian lecturer who reminded me of the Economics teacher at Rutherford College Mr Calvert! On Monday the whole lecture theatre was full and I was sitting in one of the front rows by myself when this Asian guy climbed over the row of chairs and told me he thought he recognised me from somewhere. I took a stab at his name and turns out I got it right! I had sat next to him in one of the BIOSCI classes last semester! He didn't remember my name though..
I then got a txt from Patrick who told me he could see me! So now I've got someone to sit with in economics! It'll probably be a breeze for him since it's probably 5th-6th form economics.
A sad thing though was that on Monday when the lecturer wanted a show of hands to see who was studying which degree, she asked:
"Who's doing architecture? Engineering? Law? Science? OK how about we break it up. Who's doing a BSc? And who's doing Biomed?"
What about Health Science?????!!!!!!!!!
It also turns out Estee is in my MEDSCI class as well, as well as my German friend who quit Health Science! I hung out with him and my other Health Science friend Henry on Monday after the lecture until we had to go our separate ways. Sarena also has her BIOSCI lecture right before the MEDSCI lecture, so we get to see each other most mornings now!
Today I missed my Population Health lecture as I was stuck in a line waiting to buy my course guide. I ended up not bothering to go to the later lecture and instead catch the bus to go back into the city. When I got back into the city I caught up with Nick after a long time, as well as Jane! Embarrassingly I forgot Nick's girlfriend's name (memory block I swear!!!!) but now I know!
So semester two isn't too bad. I've still got quite a few Health Science friends (despite none of them being from Rutherford) doing Health Science, and hopefully will make some more!
I was talking to a few people who were telling me they get a day off those lucky people! Alice and Estee have a day off on Wednesday while Hamish has a day off on Monday. Unfortunately I don't get any days off! Or so I thought...I was waiting in line today for my course guide at Tamaki when I overheard a girl behind me saying our lecture on Fridays is actually a spare lecture spot, which means I get a three day weekend!!!! :D
I ended up choosing ECON151G (Introducing the Global Economy) as my general education paper, and so far I don't regret it! It's been very basic and easy to understand so far. Today we had this Indian lecturer who reminded me of the Economics teacher at Rutherford College Mr Calvert! On Monday the whole lecture theatre was full and I was sitting in one of the front rows by myself when this Asian guy climbed over the row of chairs and told me he thought he recognised me from somewhere. I took a stab at his name and turns out I got it right! I had sat next to him in one of the BIOSCI classes last semester! He didn't remember my name though..
I then got a txt from Patrick who told me he could see me! So now I've got someone to sit with in economics! It'll probably be a breeze for him since it's probably 5th-6th form economics.
A sad thing though was that on Monday when the lecturer wanted a show of hands to see who was studying which degree, she asked:
"Who's doing architecture? Engineering? Law? Science? OK how about we break it up. Who's doing a BSc? And who's doing Biomed?"
What about Health Science?????!!!!!!!!!
It also turns out Estee is in my MEDSCI class as well, as well as my German friend who quit Health Science! I hung out with him and my other Health Science friend Henry on Monday after the lecture until we had to go our separate ways. Sarena also has her BIOSCI lecture right before the MEDSCI lecture, so we get to see each other most mornings now!
Today I missed my Population Health lecture as I was stuck in a line waiting to buy my course guide. I ended up not bothering to go to the later lecture and instead catch the bus to go back into the city. When I got back into the city I caught up with Nick after a long time, as well as Jane! Embarrassingly I forgot Nick's girlfriend's name (memory block I swear!!!!) but now I know!
So semester two isn't too bad. I've still got quite a few Health Science friends (despite none of them being from Rutherford) doing Health Science, and hopefully will make some more!
Saturday 14 July 2007
Friday the 13th??
Friday the 13th didn't really feel like it at all! That is, nothing too bad actually happened to me on the day, or to others as it seems! Congratulations to new learners Gwen, Zahir and Diane! We welcome you to the streets!
Maybe the worst that happened to me on the day was when I was crossing the road to get to the Auckland University Medical School to buy my swipe card. I was focusing too much on the cars that I didn't see the Maori cyclist I nearly ran into, who shouted out
"OOOIII!!!! WATCH IT!! F*(&KING MORON!!"
So I stuck my foot out and knocked him off his bike. Nah of course not! It was a little embarrassing, but fortunately the cyclist kept on going and went around the corner, and I just pretended as though nothing had happened as I walked into the medical school.
While it sounds pretty cool to have a $10 swipe card to get into the medical school, it's a little underwhelming in that it looks like a white card (it's a little thicker than card though but nonetheless pretty plain!)
I went back to the city campus to get course guides for my other subjects and I suppose you could call this another instance of (mild) bad luck. You know that feeling after you browse through a course guide and realise just how difficult the course is going to be? Well that is what it was like after I looked through my MEDSCI142 course guide!
The Health Psychology course guide actually got me all excited about the course, as we'll be learning all about sleep patterns, child/adolescent development, memory loss and other interesting stuff!
Last night though when I read the announcement I got from the Philosophy department on the General Education paper I'm going to be taking, I got a little put off by the comment:
"It is recommended that students who want to obtain a satisfactory passing grade for this course should have a mastery of both written and spoken English.
I don't actually know if that warranted worrying, but the very mention of English frightens me! So I set about seeing if I could rearrange my timetable so that I could either study ASIAN140G (Asian Studies) or POLITICS107G (yeah NZ Politics). My German friend was taking Asian Studies so I was considering that, but I'm really interested in politics, so I was leaning that way too. However after my 2nd year law friend (and year 12 ball partner couldn't forget!!) Ayesha strongly recommended I not take Politics, I started fretting and started searching for another General Education paper I could take that wouldn't require too much work or essay writing. Hope was starting to fade and the likelihood of reverting to Philosophy increased, but just then I found ECON151G (Economics) - Understanding the Global Economy! Now I know I've been putting down (teasingly!) my brother Hamish for doing economics (although he has switched to Accounting and Finance now), but maybe taking this course will bridge the gap between me and Economics! Also, there is plussage and a multiple-choice/short answer exam! :D I'm just waiting on Ayesha for her opinion before I settle on my timetable, or else I will switch back!
To round off Friday the 13th, it was Diane's last day in Auckland and so while I was stuck in the car on the way home with my parents and Hamish and the radio stuck on The Breeze and its sappy music, we reminisced for a little while!
Maybe the worst that happened to me on the day was when I was crossing the road to get to the Auckland University Medical School to buy my swipe card. I was focusing too much on the cars that I didn't see the Maori cyclist I nearly ran into, who shouted out
"OOOIII!!!! WATCH IT!! F*(&KING MORON!!"
So I stuck my foot out and knocked him off his bike. Nah of course not! It was a little embarrassing, but fortunately the cyclist kept on going and went around the corner, and I just pretended as though nothing had happened as I walked into the medical school.
While it sounds pretty cool to have a $10 swipe card to get into the medical school, it's a little underwhelming in that it looks like a white card (it's a little thicker than card though but nonetheless pretty plain!)
I went back to the city campus to get course guides for my other subjects and I suppose you could call this another instance of (mild) bad luck. You know that feeling after you browse through a course guide and realise just how difficult the course is going to be? Well that is what it was like after I looked through my MEDSCI142 course guide!
The Health Psychology course guide actually got me all excited about the course, as we'll be learning all about sleep patterns, child/adolescent development, memory loss and other interesting stuff!
Last night though when I read the announcement I got from the Philosophy department on the General Education paper I'm going to be taking, I got a little put off by the comment:
"It is recommended that students who want to obtain a satisfactory passing grade for this course should have a mastery of both written and spoken English.
I don't actually know if that warranted worrying, but the very mention of English frightens me! So I set about seeing if I could rearrange my timetable so that I could either study ASIAN140G (Asian Studies) or POLITICS107G (yeah NZ Politics). My German friend was taking Asian Studies so I was considering that, but I'm really interested in politics, so I was leaning that way too. However after my 2nd year law friend (and year 12 ball partner couldn't forget!!) Ayesha strongly recommended I not take Politics, I started fretting and started searching for another General Education paper I could take that wouldn't require too much work or essay writing. Hope was starting to fade and the likelihood of reverting to Philosophy increased, but just then I found ECON151G (Economics) - Understanding the Global Economy! Now I know I've been putting down (teasingly!) my brother Hamish for doing economics (although he has switched to Accounting and Finance now), but maybe taking this course will bridge the gap between me and Economics! Also, there is plussage and a multiple-choice/short answer exam! :D I'm just waiting on Ayesha for her opinion before I settle on my timetable, or else I will switch back!
To round off Friday the 13th, it was Diane's last day in Auckland and so while I was stuck in the car on the way home with my parents and Hamish and the radio stuck on The Breeze and its sappy music, we reminisced for a little while!
Friday 13 July 2007
Friends Here There Gone...
Congratulations to Hyun and Joon for getting a scholarship at their Korean university!!! I can now proudly say I know people who got scholarships at a Korean university! :D
Besides that, I just found out my German friend from university decided to switch courses from Health Science to Sports and Exercise Science, so that's another friend in Health Science gone (to add to Heather!). I've got to check if any of my other friends will still be doing Health Science next semester!
Today is also Diane's last day in Auckland, which is so sad! I didn't even get a chance to hang out with her one more time before she left! I shouldn't be too greedy though, at least I got to spend some time with her earlier in the holidays. I'll just have to count down six weeks until she comes back up to Auckland for inter-semester break!
I had a conversation with a certain person today (NB: described as 'it' to protect identity!) which went something along the lines of
FRIEND: "Where's my love?" (Bebo luv)
ME: "Hi to you too!!"
FRIEND: "Hey"
ME: "60's quite a lot!"
FRIEND: "But I need more"
FRIEND: "If you really love me and you're my friend you would give it."
ME: "But doesn't that apply both ways?"
FRIEND: "I've given you heaps" (Even though I haven't gotten any from 'it' in ages and I've given 'it' more loves than 'it' has given me!)
ME: "But haven't I shown you friendship in many other ways?"
FRIEND: "Not in that way"
I give in and give 'it' another love.
ME: "Do I get any love?"
FRIEND: "I don't have any right now."
Hmmmm....I never knew friendships could end up relying on Bebo luv...
Besides that, I just found out my German friend from university decided to switch courses from Health Science to Sports and Exercise Science, so that's another friend in Health Science gone (to add to Heather!). I've got to check if any of my other friends will still be doing Health Science next semester!
Today is also Diane's last day in Auckland, which is so sad! I didn't even get a chance to hang out with her one more time before she left! I shouldn't be too greedy though, at least I got to spend some time with her earlier in the holidays. I'll just have to count down six weeks until she comes back up to Auckland for inter-semester break!
I had a conversation with a certain person today (NB: described as 'it' to protect identity!) which went something along the lines of
FRIEND: "Where's my love?" (Bebo luv)
ME: "Hi to you too!!"
FRIEND: "Hey"
ME: "60's quite a lot!"
FRIEND: "But I need more"
FRIEND: "If you really love me and you're my friend you would give it."
ME: "But doesn't that apply both ways?"
FRIEND: "I've given you heaps" (Even though I haven't gotten any from 'it' in ages and I've given 'it' more loves than 'it' has given me!)
ME: "But haven't I shown you friendship in many other ways?"
FRIEND: "Not in that way"
I give in and give 'it' another love.
ME: "Do I get any love?"
FRIEND: "I don't have any right now."
Hmmmm....I never knew friendships could end up relying on Bebo luv...
Natural Destruction
The weather has been pretty bad lately! A few days ago it was so bad it
- knocked out power from several areas of Auckland and other areas of NZ (how could we forget the rest of NZ!),
- blew fences over (very bad)
- blew motorcyclists off their bikes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge (hopefully not off the bridge though!)...even BADDER (OKOK worse)
- (and most importantly) blew over our basketball hoop!
There is usually a positive that comes along with every negative, and while the wind snapped our basketball hoop in half and blew it over, the positive is that it landed on the grass and not on my car! I know that would've made for a GREAT photo but I don't think that'd make up for the money spent on the car and the loss of its use!
Well my tenure as babysitter has come to an end. Wednesday was the last day I was looking after the kids. I had a near hear-attack when the eldest girl (who I ONLY let use my laptop) let me know the '3' key of the keyboard was missing! I tried to get the youngest boy to tell me where it was but he just kept laughing, thinking it was funny so I had to look for it myself and ended up finding it behind the couch. Thank goodness it snapped back on! While I was playing Go Fish with the kids my mum saw a white car come up the driveway and after a bit of investigating she found out the neighbours had arrived home a day earlier! The kids went straight back to their house with not much of a bye, except for the littlest boy who called out to me saying he was going to miss me!
It's ALL on between me and that 13-year-old girl though! After I warned her to watch her back (in the friendliest of ways! ;) ) she sent me the email which I posted a couple days ago warning me of her Super-Evilness. I let Zippo and Szelin (my neighbours who went on holiday) know of what Kar-mun (evil girl!!) did to my Bebo profile, expecting sympathy, but instead Zippo went straight to Kar-mun and started congratulating her on her good work! Szelin was a little sympathetic towards me, promising to help me create a perfect Friday the 13th for her, until tonight when she told me she wasn't going to help me because she heard I was mean to Kar-mun!!! A little bit of manipulation there!
Anyway late that night Szelin asked Aonghas and me if we wanted to go for a walk with her. It turns out she wanted us to give her company on the way back from the bus stop after her boyfriend caught the bus, so we followed behind them till we got to the third bus stop (that's after he had missed buses at the other two!). As we were walking back there were these people standing on the footpath wrapped in blankets. We figured they were either homeless, drunk, kicked out of their house or locked out of their house! They were a bit scary though!
We went back to Szelin's bedroom to talk for a while. She wasn't tired as she was still on Malaysian time, and so we just talked for several hours before I decided to sleep on her floor while Aonghas kept talking with her. Eventually it was 3am and Aonghas and I decided we better go home until we realised everyone was asleep and we didn't have a key! We were about to sleep over at the neighbours' before we decided we'd just risk waking everyone up and knock on the door at our house. We looked around our house for any sign of light inside (hoping no one mistook us for thieves!) and fortunately Hamish was still awake! So we knocked on the window and he let us in!
- knocked out power from several areas of Auckland and other areas of NZ (how could we forget the rest of NZ!),
- blew fences over (very bad)
- blew motorcyclists off their bikes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge (hopefully not off the bridge though!)...even BADDER (OKOK worse)
- (and most importantly) blew over our basketball hoop!
There is usually a positive that comes along with every negative, and while the wind snapped our basketball hoop in half and blew it over, the positive is that it landed on the grass and not on my car! I know that would've made for a GREAT photo but I don't think that'd make up for the money spent on the car and the loss of its use!
Well my tenure as babysitter has come to an end. Wednesday was the last day I was looking after the kids. I had a near hear-attack when the eldest girl (who I ONLY let use my laptop) let me know the '3' key of the keyboard was missing! I tried to get the youngest boy to tell me where it was but he just kept laughing, thinking it was funny so I had to look for it myself and ended up finding it behind the couch. Thank goodness it snapped back on! While I was playing Go Fish with the kids my mum saw a white car come up the driveway and after a bit of investigating she found out the neighbours had arrived home a day earlier! The kids went straight back to their house with not much of a bye, except for the littlest boy who called out to me saying he was going to miss me!
It's ALL on between me and that 13-year-old girl though! After I warned her to watch her back (in the friendliest of ways! ;) ) she sent me the email which I posted a couple days ago warning me of her Super-Evilness. I let Zippo and Szelin (my neighbours who went on holiday) know of what Kar-mun (evil girl!!) did to my Bebo profile, expecting sympathy, but instead Zippo went straight to Kar-mun and started congratulating her on her good work! Szelin was a little sympathetic towards me, promising to help me create a perfect Friday the 13th for her, until tonight when she told me she wasn't going to help me because she heard I was mean to Kar-mun!!! A little bit of manipulation there!
Anyway late that night Szelin asked Aonghas and me if we wanted to go for a walk with her. It turns out she wanted us to give her company on the way back from the bus stop after her boyfriend caught the bus, so we followed behind them till we got to the third bus stop (that's after he had missed buses at the other two!). As we were walking back there were these people standing on the footpath wrapped in blankets. We figured they were either homeless, drunk, kicked out of their house or locked out of their house! They were a bit scary though!
We went back to Szelin's bedroom to talk for a while. She wasn't tired as she was still on Malaysian time, and so we just talked for several hours before I decided to sleep on her floor while Aonghas kept talking with her. Eventually it was 3am and Aonghas and I decided we better go home until we realised everyone was asleep and we didn't have a key! We were about to sleep over at the neighbours' before we decided we'd just risk waking everyone up and knock on the door at our house. We looked around our house for any sign of light inside (hoping no one mistook us for thieves!) and fortunately Hamish was still awake! So we knocked on the window and he let us in!
Thursday 12 July 2007
FREE Chinese TV!!!
Good news Asians, Non-Asians, and in betweens! 24-Hour Free-to-Air Chinese TV (CTV8) is here on the 1st August on UHF62:
History in the making – the first Free-to-Air Chinese TV Channel in NZ
History in the making – the first Free-to-Air Chinese TV Channel in NZ
CTV8 (Chinese Television 8) will commence an Auckland-based, free-to-air (FTA) broadcast on UHF channel 62 from Kordia™'s Waiatarua main transmission site on 1 August 2007.
CTV8 says this is a landmark in the global television industry. After months of preparation, Auckland-based World Television (WTV) is ready to launch 24-hour, quality TV programming on CTV8; its latest commercial venture to make a mark on the local community.
CTV8 will be capable of bi-lingual broadcasting, with simulcast Mandarin and Cantonese audio feeds to satisfy the demands of a huge and diverse Chinese population.
According to the latest census statistics, Chinese people constitute 7% (100,000) of Auckland's population. Furthermore, there has been enormous interest from the non-Chinese-speaking population who are eager to learn Chinese as a second language.
The launch of CTV8 is therefore very timely in meeting this growing demand.
CTV8's programme line-up includes popular drama series; news and current affairs from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; variety shows or diverse formats; documentaries with an Asian emphasis, as well as a wide range of 'infotainment'.
With this impressive free-to-air line-up, CTV8 looks set to influence the viewing habits of local Chinese and non-Chinese alike.
CTV8 also provides a strong platform for existing and potential advertisers wanting to target the local Asian consumer demography. CTV8 offers competitive marketing and advertising rates for products and services from all over the world.
August 2007 will mark a watershed for Auckland viewers, who will be able to enjoy 24-hour, free-to-air Chinese television from the comfort of their own homes – no matter where they are.
To commemorate this landmark in New Zealand television broadcasting, special advertising rate-cards and package are available from CTV8.
ENDS
Wednesday 11 July 2007
To: Calum From: Evil She-Devil
"you better watch out cos i am super evil and you can do nothing to stop me ur just a tiny weirdo cos im gonna get you back if you do anything cos once this girl stole my home work in orimary school go i stuck glue in her hair (super glue and i will do it to you if you mess with me!)
and if you thing that you can stop me well you cant cos ive been evil from when i was 2 years old!
and i was super evil and you cant do anything note that i said anything to stop me!
if you put my pictuer in ur bebo profile than im gonna get you back hard you and i will attcack you cos i know you password! hahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaha cos i when into sign in on bebo and it showed ur password and i took it and i will strike when the time is right!
*cackle!!!*"
and if you thing that you can stop me well you cant cos ive been evil from when i was 2 years old!
and i was super evil and you cant do anything note that i said anything to stop me!
if you put my pictuer in ur bebo profile than im gonna get you back hard you and i will attcack you cos i know you password! hahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaha cos i when into sign in on bebo and it showed ur password and i took it and i will strike when the time is right!
*cackle!!!*"
Tuesday 10 July 2007
Around and Around
So despite there being some good news in that Diane got accepted into Vet School (which means she'll be leaving us waaaaaaaahhh!!!) a few other things didn't work out yesterday.
Our dryer hasn't been working for the past few days, and a few of us (excluding our parents of course!) were hoping that this was it for the dryer as I'm sure it's a lot older than us Anderson boys! Hopefully this would mean we would finally get a new replacement! I helped my dad take it down and we were preparing for its demise, when my dad started to pull it apart and play around with it. After a while he got it going again! So our dryer continues to dry! OK that isn't such a bad thing...
I got the rest of my final course grades for uni today. They're pretty average, so it's a bit disappointing. It got me thinking again about whether I really should continue in health science. I know I've been at this for several weeks now but I just don't know!!! With all these other influences like parents, scholarship restrictions and everything else I feel a bit restricted as to what I can and can't do, even though I know I shouldn't let them affect my decisions!
I've also been looking after my neighbour's dog, but all the dog food they had given me to feed him had run out by last night and I had nothing to feed the dog all day today, so I went out with my mum to buy some dog food at Countdown. Along the way we picked up one of those pre-cooked chickens. I was carrying it around the supermarket in one of those paper bags when I noticed it getting a lot hotter than usual. That's when my mum told me something was dripping! I lifted the bag to find the chicken juice had gone all over my jumper and on my arm! I rushed to the toilet to run my arm under water (unfortunately it had to be warm...no cold water) to avoid any burns.
On the way back I caught up with Toni who told me about Heather's farewell on Friday night. I regret not going now!! Apparently Heather left just yesterday and I didn't get to say goodbye to her!! Full of regret!
Our dryer hasn't been working for the past few days, and a few of us (excluding our parents of course!) were hoping that this was it for the dryer as I'm sure it's a lot older than us Anderson boys! Hopefully this would mean we would finally get a new replacement! I helped my dad take it down and we were preparing for its demise, when my dad started to pull it apart and play around with it. After a while he got it going again! So our dryer continues to dry! OK that isn't such a bad thing...
I got the rest of my final course grades for uni today. They're pretty average, so it's a bit disappointing. It got me thinking again about whether I really should continue in health science. I know I've been at this for several weeks now but I just don't know!!! With all these other influences like parents, scholarship restrictions and everything else I feel a bit restricted as to what I can and can't do, even though I know I shouldn't let them affect my decisions!
I've also been looking after my neighbour's dog, but all the dog food they had given me to feed him had run out by last night and I had nothing to feed the dog all day today, so I went out with my mum to buy some dog food at Countdown. Along the way we picked up one of those pre-cooked chickens. I was carrying it around the supermarket in one of those paper bags when I noticed it getting a lot hotter than usual. That's when my mum told me something was dripping! I lifted the bag to find the chicken juice had gone all over my jumper and on my arm! I rushed to the toilet to run my arm under water (unfortunately it had to be warm...no cold water) to avoid any burns.
On the way back I caught up with Toni who told me about Heather's farewell on Friday night. I regret not going now!! Apparently Heather left just yesterday and I didn't get to say goodbye to her!! Full of regret!
Monday 9 July 2007
Good News!
Yay!!! Congratulations to Diane! She got into Vet School down in Palmerston North! I'm so happy for her!!!! I'll go on about it a little later tonight!
Keeping on the Outter
There were several highlights of church today:
- It was the communion which meant the sermon was shorter
- Angie showed up
- Sunday school was shorter
- We had pies for lunch!
After the service Angie and I went into the Sunday school room and sat down when this other girl in our class came over and sat next to me. I stared at her for several minutes before I clicked and finally realised who she was! I then turned to Angie and whispered that I had forgotten the girl's name, and when Angie told me her name was Nancy, Nancy must have heard and scolded me for forgetting her name! I tried to assure her it was a memory block! I've had one of those at least three times now, having forgotten this other guy's name, my teacher's name and now Nancy's!.
After Sunday school we had to rush off to drop Aonghas off at work at West City. I decided to go top up my bus pass so that I wouldn't be in a rush the next time I need to catch the bus, so I wandered all the way to the dairy beside the bus stop. Along the way to the toilet (my detour) I saw Angie and Phoebe in the food court but didn't say hi to them as I thought I better not say anything to them, especially to Phoebe who hasn't been talking to me for some reason lately! I saw Angie with Howdle (Natasha right?) on Thursday night when I was sitting in that same seat in the food court eating my fries but I decided against calling out to them as I had splattered tomato sauce all over the table!
Anyway after going to the toilet I went to the dairy to find a sign on the window saying
"Sorry, be back in 10 minutes Thanx!"
So I waited for a while before deciding to head back to West City to catch up with my mum and my brother Hamish. After a while I decided to walk back with Hamish to see if the dairy owners were back. It was still closed, so Hamish and I just stood outside the dairy waiting when guess who comes along to the bus stop! Phoebe, Angie and a couple others I think...I don't know if they saw me or not but they didn't say anything to me and I didn't say anything to them. After half an hour Hamish and I agreed that the shop was closed on a Sunday (we should have reached that conclusion a whole lot earlier!) and headed back.
I've been watching the movie Hitch on TV tonight which has been interesting. A few things I picked up on:
- if the girl is fiddling with something it means she wants to kiss you
- when you go in for the kiss go in 90% of the way
- I can't remember the rest...I should have recorded the movie! Then again I've got to remember that it is all in TV land and may not necessarily work in the real world!
- It was the communion which meant the sermon was shorter
- Angie showed up
- Sunday school was shorter
- We had pies for lunch!
After the service Angie and I went into the Sunday school room and sat down when this other girl in our class came over and sat next to me. I stared at her for several minutes before I clicked and finally realised who she was! I then turned to Angie and whispered that I had forgotten the girl's name, and when Angie told me her name was Nancy, Nancy must have heard and scolded me for forgetting her name! I tried to assure her it was a memory block! I've had one of those at least three times now, having forgotten this other guy's name, my teacher's name and now Nancy's!.
After Sunday school we had to rush off to drop Aonghas off at work at West City. I decided to go top up my bus pass so that I wouldn't be in a rush the next time I need to catch the bus, so I wandered all the way to the dairy beside the bus stop. Along the way to the toilet (my detour) I saw Angie and Phoebe in the food court but didn't say hi to them as I thought I better not say anything to them, especially to Phoebe who hasn't been talking to me for some reason lately! I saw Angie with Howdle (Natasha right?) on Thursday night when I was sitting in that same seat in the food court eating my fries but I decided against calling out to them as I had splattered tomato sauce all over the table!
Anyway after going to the toilet I went to the dairy to find a sign on the window saying
"Sorry, be back in 10 minutes Thanx!"
So I waited for a while before deciding to head back to West City to catch up with my mum and my brother Hamish. After a while I decided to walk back with Hamish to see if the dairy owners were back. It was still closed, so Hamish and I just stood outside the dairy waiting when guess who comes along to the bus stop! Phoebe, Angie and a couple others I think...I don't know if they saw me or not but they didn't say anything to me and I didn't say anything to them. After half an hour Hamish and I agreed that the shop was closed on a Sunday (we should have reached that conclusion a whole lot earlier!) and headed back.
I've been watching the movie Hitch on TV tonight which has been interesting. A few things I picked up on:
- if the girl is fiddling with something it means she wants to kiss you
- when you go in for the kiss go in 90% of the way
- I can't remember the rest...I should have recorded the movie! Then again I've got to remember that it is all in TV land and may not necessarily work in the real world!
Sunday 8 July 2007
Which is it
I was invited to the city on Friday night to hang out with a group of old school friends to farewell Heather, our Head Girl of 2006 and friend of many years who is leaving for Christchurch! We were all going to hang out at some club...or bar...(I've never been before) late at night until early in the morning. That is until my mum barred me from going! Her reasons:
- the city is dangerous at night and I might get involved or mixed up with the wrong people
- the weather was bad
- no transport home (OK fair enough, the next bus home would have been at 6am but I could've shared a taxi with someone!)
After a week of begging my mum to let me go and say goodbye to Heather one last time, she still refused to let me go, right up till Friday night! So there went my first opportunity to find out what this whole clubbing thing is all about...maybe next time...
To make up for this...slightly I guess..., the next day I went to the movies to watch Fantastic Four with Shirley, this Korean girl from Rutherford. Originally her friend Jieun was going to come and Aonghas was also going to come, but then they both had to go do other things, so it was just me and Shirley.
Once again, I was late! I was waiting for Aonghas as he was planning on coming with me, but then at the last minute he thought he better attend his friend's get-together because he felt bad for her. I was supposed to meet up with Shirley at 1.30pm but she was late as well as she was walking to West City too, so we both ended up meeting each other at 2pm.
Fantastic Four wasn't too bad, and that has nothing to do with the fact Jessica Alba is in it! It was one of those usual superhero movies full of action and everything which was good.
Once the movie was over we went over to the foodcourt to talk a little bit before we went on a search through the shops for something Shirley needed. We then went to (out of all places) Whitcoulls to sit and have a chat about...stuff! We then walked home in light rain!
By the time I got home Aonghas told me my mum had gone out to look for me (she had been working all day and my dad told her that I had gone down to West City to do some shopping...). That was a little scary as I was expecting my mum to come home in a rage, but if only she had a cellphone so I could contact her and let her know! Well it turns out she went down to West City with Hamish to buy him some shoes.
My mum was tired by the time she got home and in no mood to cook, so the onus was on me to feed the family! I had to use the very little knowledge of cooking I had to whip up a little something special - toast, rice with soya sauce and pie! I also boiled some eggs but because they took nearly half an hour to boil for some reason I never got round to eating them. The verdict...my rice tasted good but I put too much soya sauce on it! I ended up being the last person at the table still eating my dinner slowly as it tasted horrible!
- the city is dangerous at night and I might get involved or mixed up with the wrong people
- the weather was bad
- no transport home (OK fair enough, the next bus home would have been at 6am but I could've shared a taxi with someone!)
After a week of begging my mum to let me go and say goodbye to Heather one last time, she still refused to let me go, right up till Friday night! So there went my first opportunity to find out what this whole clubbing thing is all about...maybe next time...
To make up for this...slightly I guess..., the next day I went to the movies to watch Fantastic Four with Shirley, this Korean girl from Rutherford. Originally her friend Jieun was going to come and Aonghas was also going to come, but then they both had to go do other things, so it was just me and Shirley.
Once again, I was late! I was waiting for Aonghas as he was planning on coming with me, but then at the last minute he thought he better attend his friend's get-together because he felt bad for her. I was supposed to meet up with Shirley at 1.30pm but she was late as well as she was walking to West City too, so we both ended up meeting each other at 2pm.
Fantastic Four wasn't too bad, and that has nothing to do with the fact Jessica Alba is in it! It was one of those usual superhero movies full of action and everything which was good.
Once the movie was over we went over to the foodcourt to talk a little bit before we went on a search through the shops for something Shirley needed. We then went to (out of all places) Whitcoulls to sit and have a chat about...stuff! We then walked home in light rain!
By the time I got home Aonghas told me my mum had gone out to look for me (she had been working all day and my dad told her that I had gone down to West City to do some shopping...). That was a little scary as I was expecting my mum to come home in a rage, but if only she had a cellphone so I could contact her and let her know! Well it turns out she went down to West City with Hamish to buy him some shoes.
My mum was tired by the time she got home and in no mood to cook, so the onus was on me to feed the family! I had to use the very little knowledge of cooking I had to whip up a little something special - toast, rice with soya sauce and pie! I also boiled some eggs but because they took nearly half an hour to boil for some reason I never got round to eating them. The verdict...my rice tasted good but I put too much soya sauce on it! I ended up being the last person at the table still eating my dinner slowly as it tasted horrible!
Saturday 7 July 2007
Evil Kids
No seriously they are cool kids, most of the time! The eldest boy-hating girl (who I thought we were making progress with) has a bit of evil in her though! I've been looking after her and her younger brothers on Wednesday and Friday during the holidays.
Wednesday wasn't too bad. After I asked the girl if she was an emo (the other girl I was looking after the week before told me she thought she was!), she started telling me all these embarrassing stories about the girl to get back at her which were amusing. The younger boys got restless pretty quickly though and so we tried putting on a few videos such as 'Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits' on for them, but they quickly lost interest. The two boys seemed to fight with each other quite a lot! But as they say, boys will be boys!
Despite having thought we had made some progress with the girl at the end of last week, Wednesday and Friday showed otherwise! She seemed really...don't know how to describe it but maybe these following scenarios might help...
Upon discovering that next Friday is Friday the 13th, I asked the girl if she ever had bad luck on Friday the 13th. She initially said she didn't believe in it, but then corrected herself:
"Oh actually, next Friday will be bad luck because I'll be stuck with you guys!"
After lunch I saw her looking at her watch and jokingly asked if she was counting down the hours till it was time for her to leave, and she said
"YEAH"
On Friday she was telling me about her friend who had come over a while ago for a barbeque that I was also at, and told me that when her friend was about to leave, her friend told her
(Referring to us) "U G L Y"
I was playing her in Monopoly on Wednesday, and things seemed to be getting better, but then again I suppose that's just because she was winning for once and I was >$21,000 in debt. On Friday we had a rematch, and it looked like it was going well for me at the beginning, but once again she managed to build hotels and she took all my money.
While I was entertaining the younger boys as well as preventing them from chucking things around the place and breaking any more things around the house such as the beloved TV, I let the girl use my laptop so she could check her Bebo profile (she refuses to add Aonghas and me!) I forgot that I was automatically logged in and so she got in and changed my profile, saying that I loved some 8 year old girl! To make things worse she looked for all the people online at the time and posted comments on their profiles telling them to check out my profile! I had a few weird reactions!
She also created a quiz with some really weird questions and asked people to do it. Some questions were like
- Am I gay?
- Am I hairy?
Fortunately those who knew me (unlike her friends!!) voted NO to both of those questions!
As soon as she went home I had to clear everything up!
When she finished causing mayhem with my Bebo profile, she joined me with the boys who were playing with the Pokemon cards (I made up a game! ;) ) Aonghas and Hamish had just come home from the doctors but were still sleeping in the car, so the girl suggested we go wake them up! I thought...no harm in that! So we went outside and surprised them, but it turned out to be a bad idea as Aonghas had an operation on his toes and so he was in quite a bit of pain. The sleeping was helping him forget about it! So I took most of the blame for that!
So now it's time for my revenge! I know her weakness is that she's scared of snails and slugs....here we come Friday the 13th! :D
Wednesday wasn't too bad. After I asked the girl if she was an emo (the other girl I was looking after the week before told me she thought she was!), she started telling me all these embarrassing stories about the girl to get back at her which were amusing. The younger boys got restless pretty quickly though and so we tried putting on a few videos such as 'Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits' on for them, but they quickly lost interest. The two boys seemed to fight with each other quite a lot! But as they say, boys will be boys!
Despite having thought we had made some progress with the girl at the end of last week, Wednesday and Friday showed otherwise! She seemed really...don't know how to describe it but maybe these following scenarios might help...
Upon discovering that next Friday is Friday the 13th, I asked the girl if she ever had bad luck on Friday the 13th. She initially said she didn't believe in it, but then corrected herself:
"Oh actually, next Friday will be bad luck because I'll be stuck with you guys!"
After lunch I saw her looking at her watch and jokingly asked if she was counting down the hours till it was time for her to leave, and she said
"YEAH"
On Friday she was telling me about her friend who had come over a while ago for a barbeque that I was also at, and told me that when her friend was about to leave, her friend told her
(Referring to us) "U G L Y"
I was playing her in Monopoly on Wednesday, and things seemed to be getting better, but then again I suppose that's just because she was winning for once and I was >$21,000 in debt. On Friday we had a rematch, and it looked like it was going well for me at the beginning, but once again she managed to build hotels and she took all my money.
While I was entertaining the younger boys as well as preventing them from chucking things around the place and breaking any more things around the house such as the beloved TV, I let the girl use my laptop so she could check her Bebo profile (she refuses to add Aonghas and me!) I forgot that I was automatically logged in and so she got in and changed my profile, saying that I loved some 8 year old girl! To make things worse she looked for all the people online at the time and posted comments on their profiles telling them to check out my profile! I had a few weird reactions!
She also created a quiz with some really weird questions and asked people to do it. Some questions were like
- Am I gay?
- Am I hairy?
Fortunately those who knew me (unlike her friends!!) voted NO to both of those questions!
As soon as she went home I had to clear everything up!
When she finished causing mayhem with my Bebo profile, she joined me with the boys who were playing with the Pokemon cards (I made up a game! ;) ) Aonghas and Hamish had just come home from the doctors but were still sleeping in the car, so the girl suggested we go wake them up! I thought...no harm in that! So we went outside and surprised them, but it turned out to be a bad idea as Aonghas had an operation on his toes and so he was in quite a bit of pain. The sleeping was helping him forget about it! So I took most of the blame for that!
So now it's time for my revenge! I know her weakness is that she's scared of snails and slugs....here we come Friday the 13th! :D
Sunday 1 July 2007
Crazy Kids!
What is it with kids and hitting older guys in the balls? Do they enjoy watching grown people fall to the ground in pain?? For the past two days I've had this problem with one particular child who's been attacking me in that region! Fortunately the littlest boy has been defending me (I haven't been using him as a human shield though...honestly!) I also got kicked in the face while trying to help the girl do cartwheels. I was supposed to catch her legs in the air but missed and it went straight in my face!
The last few days haven't been too bad with the kids. On Friday the Eurasian girl wagged school because she didn't feel like going to school on the last day so I had to try entertain both her and the little boy for most of the day until I went to Mr Jameson's farewell assembly. That's when they packed a sad because they wanted to go visit the neighbour's dog in the garage but my mum told them they'd have to wait for me to get back.
When we got home though (two hours longer than expected!) all the kids were there, and we were talking quite a lot to the eldest girl, so I guess you could consider that mission complete!
While it's a bit sad the kids have gone, some of them are coming back for the next two Wednesdays and Fridays, so we'll get to look after them again then (that's a good thing I think...). I think they're missing me already! Just have a look at some of their comments:
hahahahaha for u i wil never be crying because i will never ever miss u hahahahahahaha so same on u cry baby hahahahahhahhahahhah
see u never calum cry baby cry baby cry baby cry 
:0:0:0:0:0
and
I am bored and I hate Calum
Awwwwww how nice!
The last few days haven't been too bad with the kids. On Friday the Eurasian girl wagged school because she didn't feel like going to school on the last day so I had to try entertain both her and the little boy for most of the day until I went to Mr Jameson's farewell assembly. That's when they packed a sad because they wanted to go visit the neighbour's dog in the garage but my mum told them they'd have to wait for me to get back.
When we got home though (two hours longer than expected!) all the kids were there, and we were talking quite a lot to the eldest girl, so I guess you could consider that mission complete!
While it's a bit sad the kids have gone, some of them are coming back for the next two Wednesdays and Fridays, so we'll get to look after them again then (that's a good thing I think...). I think they're missing me already! Just have a look at some of their comments:
hahahahaha for u i wil never be crying because i will never ever miss u hahahahahahaha so same on u cry baby hahahahahhahhahahhah
see u never calum cry baby cry baby cry baby cry :0:0:0:0:0 and
I am bored and I hate Calum
Awwwwww how nice!
Farewell Mr Jameson!!
Friday marked an end of an era - Mr Jameson, principal of Rangeview Intermediate School retired! It's amazing how he was the longest serving principal in New Zealand before he retired! The assembly was held in their big new gym. Aonghas was part of the group representing Rutherford so he sat with those guys in the corner, while Hamish and I went upstairs to watch and my dad was somewhere down below.
The farewell assembly was pretty standard Rangeview stuff, starting off with the national anthem followed by prayers in both English and Maori. The rest of the programme consisted of school singing, orchestra, choir and kapa haka. The head students were wearing the new Rangeview blazers which look flash! It was also announced that the new garden at Rangeview with a sundial would be in Mr Jameson's memory. It's amazing how things are developing at Rangeview!
The assembly ended with Mr Jameson giving a speech. I was wondering if he was going to cry, but of course him being his staunch self he didn't in the end.
As soon as the assembly was over I rushed over to the Rutherford students to take a photo before going over to the basketball courts where everyone gathered for a final goodbye to Mr Jameson who was standing above on the staffroom balcony. As soon as everyone left we rushed over to Miss Rai's (the music teacher) classroom to catch up with her. On the way I caught up with my old yr 7 teacher Mrs Beaguely who still recognised me! She had kept up-to-date with all her past students' successes!
We then met up with Miss Rai in her classroom. We had a bit of a talk. Just as we were leaving we went past one wall with photos and newspaper clippings of current and past students and was surprised she still has the newspaper clipping and photo of me when I was back at Rangeview! Before leaving she also introduced us to the new principal of Rangeview who somehow recognised us as well!
We were on our way out when we walked past the hall where a function seemed to be taking place. We wanted to say goodbye to Mr Jameson so we were looking through the door to see if we could spot him when we were invited to come inside and have something to eat.
It was just lucky we were asked to come inside too! I caught up with an old intermediate school friend Kelsey (the receptionist's daughter too!), and a few other teachers as well. There was heaps of food there, and by the end of it we were given a whole plate of scones to take home!
The farewell assembly was pretty sad but it turned out to be a good catch-up and a walk through the old Rangeview memories!
The farewell assembly was pretty standard Rangeview stuff, starting off with the national anthem followed by prayers in both English and Maori. The rest of the programme consisted of school singing, orchestra, choir and kapa haka. The head students were wearing the new Rangeview blazers which look flash! It was also announced that the new garden at Rangeview with a sundial would be in Mr Jameson's memory. It's amazing how things are developing at Rangeview!
The assembly ended with Mr Jameson giving a speech. I was wondering if he was going to cry, but of course him being his staunch self he didn't in the end.
As soon as the assembly was over I rushed over to the Rutherford students to take a photo before going over to the basketball courts where everyone gathered for a final goodbye to Mr Jameson who was standing above on the staffroom balcony. As soon as everyone left we rushed over to Miss Rai's (the music teacher) classroom to catch up with her. On the way I caught up with my old yr 7 teacher Mrs Beaguely who still recognised me! She had kept up-to-date with all her past students' successes!
We then met up with Miss Rai in her classroom. We had a bit of a talk. Just as we were leaving we went past one wall with photos and newspaper clippings of current and past students and was surprised she still has the newspaper clipping and photo of me when I was back at Rangeview! Before leaving she also introduced us to the new principal of Rangeview who somehow recognised us as well!
We were on our way out when we walked past the hall where a function seemed to be taking place. We wanted to say goodbye to Mr Jameson so we were looking through the door to see if we could spot him when we were invited to come inside and have something to eat.
It was just lucky we were asked to come inside too! I caught up with an old intermediate school friend Kelsey (the receptionist's daughter too!), and a few other teachers as well. There was heaps of food there, and by the end of it we were given a whole plate of scones to take home!
The farewell assembly was pretty sad but it turned out to be a good catch-up and a walk through the old Rangeview memories!
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