Bye bye Period Pains!

I finally got my members pack for joining the Auckland Pharmacy Students Association (APSA) today. This year each pack has a random assortment of drugs and other stuff.

In my pack I had:
- Nurofen for Period Pain
- Four condoms
- Cream for sore heels
- Immune tablets
- Paracetamol + Ibuprofen tablets
- A lolly

I don't think the Nurofen will be too helpful! I came to the conclusion that this pack was probably meant for the girl. I mean, just look at how many of the products are designed to make a girl feel good/better? :O

I had a discussion with a few people. On the condom pack it says nominal width is 56mm. That is quite wide!

Frantic Sales

Yesterday I finally attended my very first Dessert Club event of the year! OK well....I almost did! The Dessert Club was running their 'Movie Day' from 10-3pm, selling some cakes together with entry to the two movies. I promised that I would be there towards the end of the event to help with the clean-up since I had church in the morning.

As soon as Sunday School finished, my mum dropped Aonghas off at work and me at the bus stop. I realised I was at the bus stop half an hour early! While I was waiting for the bus I ate my lunch and got fooled by *someone* texting as someone else!

I soon got into the city and before I went to the business school where the Movie Day was being held, I dropped by the public library to look for some music before going on to the Dessert Club event.

I got there just as it finished! One of the club members who came out of the lecture theatre and heard me apologise for being late laughed at me, thinking I had arrived to attend the event!

The turnout turned out to be not so great so we had a whole lot of cakes left with a huge possible loss. After sitting there in the foyer thinking about what to do, we decided we'd try sell as many as we could, so we headed off to the Information Commons and walked to each table at the bottom level, asking everyone if they wanted to buy any. We had chocolate swirls and green tea swirls, as well as custard puffs. I was surprised at how popular the green tea swirls were, especially amongst Asians!

We managed to sell a box by the end of the day, before we decided to call it a night and pack the boxes away in one of the guys' cars before we all left for home.

That night I was asked to text half the club members to let them know we would be selling cheap cakes at uni since it was such short notice. I was doing it through the computer so it didn't take me as long as it would on the phone, but I still ended up texting till after 1.30am! I got a few interesting replies such as

"You're very dedicated sending txts at midnight"

and

"It must be fun sending spam txts at 1am"

I admit it's not the best thing to do, sending texts after midnight!

I joined the Dessert Club members at their makeshift stall at the bottom level of the Information Commons after my lecture today to help them sell the rest of the cakes. We didn't know if we would be in competition with any of the cafes so we tried to keep our cake sale as low key as possible. I wasn't even sure if it was possible to sell them all, but we were selling two for one after all, and surprisingly people must've checked their phones, as we managed to sell out before 4pm as we had hoped!

In the end we managed to save the day!

Now for the Not-so-Good News

Just when I do a post on good news...and then some really bad news just has to come along and ruin everything!

I came home today and my mum told me some news about one of my relatives which I couldn't believe. I don't know if I can say much about it except that it's really sad and he definitely does not deserve it.

My dad was especially upset and went over with my mum to visit my relative for a while.

Let's just say it has definitely taught me to appreciate life while you've still got it and as they say in the Vodafone ad, make the most of today.

Love is in the Air!

I am so happy for a few of my friends after this weekend! I won't mention names just in case but here are my yay's:

#1 YAY:

Let's start with Pita and Estee. They're engaged! Yay!!! They're both high school friends of mine. I still remember way back at the end of year 11 when we were in the same science class and they would bicker with each other, and then in the next year they started going out! It's cool how they've lasted for so long and are still going strong!

When they kept going out together at uni, we all knew they were made for each other and that they would go the full distance, and we talked light-heartedly about them eventually getting married. Our circle of friends also joked about who would get married first, and that Estee and Pita would be strong contenders! It looks like they're early favourites to take out that competition! 

It's quite surreal though, that you think for so long that you and your friends are still quite young, and that you don't really think of a relationship as too serious, but when they start getting married, and others graduate and go out into the real world to get a full-time job, you realise everyone is growing up! It's a little scary!

Nonetheless I'm so happy for Pita and Estee! 

#2 YAY:

While not engaged yet, Sunday marked the anniversary for one of my other friends and his girlfriend! I'm so happy for him!

#3 YAY:

One of my other good friends has finally found a boyfriend after many years and I'm very happy for her! 

Jennifer's 20th

Jennifer had a birthday party to celebrate her 20th birthday (well duuh Calum!) and so her theme was 'Cooking Mama', where everyone had to bring a plate of food to share. Us Anderson brothers can't cook of course... we're guys! Our mum did all the cooking, but we will learn...eventually!

After the morning music teaching and violin lessons, we went to West City to buy Jennifer a birthday present before we got home to prepare for the party.

The Facebook event said that the event started at 4pm, but when we arrived, the house looked quiet and empty with no cars around! We weren't too sure if we had arrived at the right time! We just decided to go in anyway. There were only a couple of Jennifer's friends there, Marco and Sarah, who we got to know a bit better. It turns out the party was actually starting at around 5pm!

We just sat around the table while Jennifer attempted to introduce us to them, but kept getting us mixed up! I kept having to remind her I was Calum! At least it helped them remember my name!

After a while, more people came and it was time to bring out the first dish! We tried each dish one at a time till there was so many people that all the dishes were just put on the table. As for our dishes...or should I say our mum's dishes, she cooked sausage rolls and some vegetables. The sausage rolls disappeared quickly!

We all just hung around and talked. I got to know this guy Alton, and also discovered that another of Jennifer's friends from engineering, Ying, had met me a year or two ago at one of the Kiwi Asian Club events! That was pretty cool!

After a while Jennifer got us all sorted into four mixed teams, and we started off with 'Oo La la, Tri-vi-ah!' which was a trivia competition between the teams. After one of our louder team mebers kept answering the questions wrongly our team lost this first round.

In the next rounds our team went head on with another team in this drinking game where two people from each team had to finish their cup of coke, only by drinking it through a straw with a hole in it. I don't think we won that!

In the next round we challenged another team in Jenga. The tower was almost collapsing when it was my turn! Fortunately I was able to pull out a piece and put it on top of the tower without it falling! The unlucky person who caused the tower to collapse was Nadine!

Our team then had two rounds of guess that song against two different teams. In the first round our team got slaughtered, mainly because one guy in the other team was able to name all the songs, both Chinese and English!

In the next round I had a bit more luck in getting in there quick, but I got a few wrong! I guessed a Michael Jackson song twice and got it wrong both times! I managed to redeem myself slightly by correctly guessing a Lion King song!

It was then time for the birthday cake! Each of Jennifer's different group of friends took photos with her and the cake before we all sang Happy Birthday to her and she cut the cake.

As we were enjoying her cake (I think the cream was taro flavour?), one of the guys chucked some of the cream at Jennifer! Aonghas, who was standing near by got caught in the crossfire and got a bit of cream on his t-shirt! What ensued was a cream fight!

Jennifer got changed and returned to start some drinking with some of the people!

By then Nadine, my brothers and I decided it was probably time to go as it was getting a little late. We all took a photo with Jennifer at the door and then it was bye-bye!

We didn't see Jennifer at church the next morning, but it sounds like she had a good time, and so did we!

A New Addition

We had our first youth group a week after the church camp on Friday night. While some couldn't make it, we had a new addition thanks to the camp...Angie!! She got to know and hang out with quite a few people at our camp, so she decided to come join our youth group.

We had an activity night in which each team assigned a president, a vice-president and a secretary. Only the president could look at a Lego model, and then had to describe it to their vice-president who would then be able to answer yes/no questions asked by other members in the team in order to replicate the model. The secretary at the end of the task would then comment on how well the team did.

I am pleased to say...our team won!  

Not Ripped to Shreds for Once!

I had the very daunting dispensing lab this afternoon. After the first dispensing lab a couple weeks ago, everyone was on edge about this one. I guess we didn't do so well in the last one because it was pretty much a surprise, so this time hopefully it'd go a lot better now that we knew the format of the lab ASSESSMENT!

In the dispensing lab we have to dispense two prescriptions. The first prescription is actually blank and we have to make a recommendation to the doctor and fill it in ourselves. That one is based on one of the cases we had to work on in the workshop the day before. Fortunately it was the same case my group worked on! 

Time management is a big thing in the dispensing lab and so as soon as we got in we had to hit the ground running! I had everything almost planned thanks to some of my pharmacy friends who helped prepare me beforehand (admittedly they're using me as a guinea pig but that's OK, I'd be clueless without them anyway!). 

For the first prescription, we were to be assessed on a roleplay consultation with a 'doctor' (actually our tutor), and then our counselling roleplay with the 'patient'. I wanted to avoid doing the doctor roleplay with the same tutor as last time because she ripped me to shreds the last time! When I saw the list of people waiting to see the other tutors though, I just thought 'what the hell' to myself and went for it! I might as well prove her wrong or suffer trying!

Last time she complained me for dithering and waffling and not getting straight to the point. Well this time I went straight for it. I was talking faster than a speeding bullet since we only got five minutes, but I tried to explain everything I had prepared, and made my recommendations, and surprisingly the tutor stopped the timer and applauded me for improving remarkably! That definitely boosted my confidence a whole lot!

From then on the dispensing lab was a much more cheerful affair! I may not have been able to say everything I wanted for the counselling roleplay, but at least I dispensed both prescriptions in time! 

After that lab I'm feeling just a teeny bit more confident about becoming a pharmacist!

Camping with the Congregation

This weekend our church had a camp at Willow Park Christian Camp, with the aim of getting the congregation to get to know each other a lot better.

Due to our flat tyre ordeal we had to pack in a rush and impressively managed to do that in just under an hour! We were supposed to have dinner before arriving there but we ended up just having a bite in the car on the way there.

Because one of the car tyres was a temporary tyre, Aonghas had to drive no faster than 80km/h, but somehow we managed to get to the camp on Buckland's Beach just in time!

Everyone else was there already of course, but at least we weren't exactly the last! We unpacked all our bags, signed in and were directed to our cabin upstairs. There were two sets of stairs opposite each other, with the girls' cabins up one set and the guys' cabins up the other. Us three Anderson brothers shared a cabin with Jireh and Andrew, two guys from our youth group, as well as two adults.

While we waited for camp to kick-off, a few of us went over to the trampolines to play on. Jireh was showing off his somersaults while I...gave up and just lay there!

The bell finally rang and that signaled the start of camp! We all filed in to the hall where we were welcomed and given the camp booklets which had the timetable and the church concert lists. It looks like most of us Oddfellows would be in the same group!

After the introductions and welcomes, we played a few ice-breakers, including one where all of us were divided into two groups by a curtain. One person in each row would sit on either side of the curtain and as soon as it dropped the people would have to try be the first to name the other. If they didn't they'd have to go up on stage for punishment. I got an easy one - Ada one of our church pastors! Those who found themselves on stage ended up having to spell their names with their backsides!

We all then got together in our concert groups to discuss what we'd do for the concert. Half of the groups were given a song to perform while the other half of the groups were told to perform a skit on a certain topic. Ours was 'welcoming new people to church'. Originally we came up with a bit of a rhyming musical where one by one, a person with a unique background/situation came to church and they'd all be welcomed in the same way.

We didn't really decide on anything before it was supper time. During supper time we just sat around trying to flick a pen like how you see Asians do it, and I showed a few people my Community Pharmacy textbook with all those gory pictures!

I was told by my youth group leader Gabrielle that I was in charge of making sure that everyone had left the room by midnight, and so as we were approaching midnight I started shepherding everyone upstairs. The older fellowship stayed downstairs a little later, and so I thought I'd just leave them there.

I didn't really get much sleep at night due to a combination of reasons. It was so uncomfortable in a sleeping bag and there were quite a few loud snorers in my room!

Aonghas and I had to wake up early so that Aonghas could drive me back to West Auckland to teach music. Before I went to teach, we went through a McDonald's drive-by for breakfast.

Teaching didn't actually go too bad, a whole lot better than the week before! All the students were attentive and followed what I taught!

At the end of lessons as I was locking up the classroom, I was drinking the remaining of my hot chocolate when I felt something hard and thought maybe it was just a clump of sugar or chocolate. I decided to spit it out on the lid, and it turned out to be...

A BLACK BEETLE!

That was going to be the last I'd go to McDonald's!...or so I thought....

We got back to camp just in time for lunch, which consisted of burgers with pork ribs, which tasted really nice!

After lunch we had some spare time where we went to the gym to play around for a while. Some of us played badminton, while others played a bit of indoor soccer, some even played on the piano and others played with the small gridiron ball.

Free time soon came to an end when the group games began! We were put into random groups and then had to compete against other groups in games such as one involving blowing flour in a plate to try find a lolly and get it to another table with only your mouth, moving as many balloons from one place to another with a partner, balloon hockey, shifting water between containers with your hands, shifting rice between containers with only your face, building the highest tower with plastic cups...you get the picture! Unfortunately our group (group 1) almost lost every game!

After the games we had more spare time where we had planned to have our inter-fellowship soccer game. The only thing was...the other fellowship never showed up! Therefore we just formed random teams and played against each other. It got a little brutal at times with several injuries! I also kicked the ball up into the balcony, but fortunately I didn't hit anyone! It was quite even at the beginning but the other team scored a few more times after a while.

We were all pretty exhausted by dinner time. There wasn't much time after before it was the evening concert! We had half an hour to prepare our group's skit. We probably only spent five minutes sorting everything out!

The evening concert got underway in the hall, with a few of the groups leading songs, getting the audiences to join in. There were also skits but they were in Mandarin so I couldn't understand much of what was going on.

We were the sixth group to perform. In our skit, I was the minister preparing for the Sunday service, when different groups of people came in and I welcomed them all the same. There was Gabrielle the loud talker on the phone, Amelia with her Atheist friend (Eva), Ben the emo, James, James and David the geeks, Rebecca, Fiona and Nadine the druggies, Hamish and Aonghas the homeless people, and Jireh the fobby Asian tourist. After that skit I had people telling me I should become a minister! I'll have to consider that...

During supper we had to sit with our game groups to get to know each other and enjoy our snacks.

After supper we were free to do anything we wanted. I was given orders to keep an eye on the Oddfellows youth group, and to ensure they went to bed as soon as the older fellowship went to bed. They stayed up for a while as they were celebrating one of their members' (Shirley) birthdays and ended up playing Uno with this machine!

Some from our youth group just sat around a table talking. I went upstairs to my room to practise a couple of children's songs I had to help Gabrielle lead at the service the next morning, when some of the younger guys came in and started sharing jokes. I have to say some of them were quite random!

We all eventually came back downstairs to play cards for a while before some of them went back upstairs and I joined the others from my youth group who were just sitting around. It was approaching 1am when the older fellowship went to their rooms upstairs. It was now up to me to try get my youth group back to their rooms! They really wanted to stay up late though and some had even suggested switching off the lights and staying downstairs all night! I really didn't want to let Gabrielle down and tried to get them back upstairs. Claire started drawing a picture of me as a 'party pooper'! I ended up making a bargain with them that they could stay up till 1am and then they'd have to go upstairs. Even at 1am they were a bit unkeen to move until they heard some random noise which scared them!

I have to say I did feel slightly hurt, as if I was being blamed for everyone not being able to stay up late, but I guess that comes with the responsibility, and hopefully they'd eventually get over it...

Once again the sleep wasn't great. It took me ages to go to sleep, and when I woke up at 5am I couldn't get back to sleep, so I went for an early shower.

We had breakfast before Jireh and I went over to the trampolines to play around. Everyone else soon followed, before I was called in to rehearse for the church service. I discovered that while I was there, everyone else had gone down to the beach without me! I was a little gutted about that!

By 10am the church service started. Some members of the congregation showed up just for the service. Besides leading a couple children's songs with actions, the service was pretty much like any other church service, except we were in a different environment.

After the service we had a big group photo out on the field before going back into the room for some group games, which involved dressing up one person in the group with random objects we had to find. We ended with a fashion show before we all went back into the hall for lunch. Our cabin group had to prepare lunch so we had to put out the plates and the cutlery.

Lunch was nice, we had corn and lasagne! I had a second serving, not realising there'd be dessert afterwards!

We had a final clean up after lunch before the final prayer and then everyone began leaving. We finally left after a while, but not before taking one final walk along the beach with Nadine and her mum.

We were so exhausted after the weekend that as soon as we got home we all went to sleep!

So Much for Choice!

Last Monday we had a long lecture/presentation where 25 different projects were presented to us 4th year pharmacy students for our PHARMACY410 research project. The idea was that each of us would rank from 1-5 the research project we preferred and let them know by the day after. They'd then try give us our most preferred one and we'd be grouped with with others who had chosen the same project. Well here's how I ranked my preferred research projects:


1. Imported prescription medicines: patterns and trends over time
2. Determining the effects of methamphetamine 'P' addiction on cognition and executive function in the human brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
3. Is the Polypill the answer for ischaemic heart disease?
4. The role of pharmacists in inhaler technique education in asthma and COPD patients admitted to Middlemore hospital.
5. An investigation into the teaching of extemporaneous compounding skills in schools of pharmacy in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom


Guess which project I got given? My last choice! If I had known I'd be given my last choice, I would've thought a bit harder about it! After a bit of thinking though I've come to the conclusion that it's not too bad though, and that at least it's not all science with big fancy words and concepts I have to learn. That will definitely make my life a lot easier!


Also on the plus side is that there are some other cool people in my group! All girls actually, so that will be interesting...


Let's hope we can get along well this year!

Blowing out the Tyre

I had to go to Piano Traders in Mt Eden today to buy a couple of music theory books for my music theory students and so I drove there with my mum beside me. Along the way there we picked Hamish up from the bus stop and Aonghas from uni. I bought the books and we were heading back home to get ready for camp when Aonghas called out that one of our tyres was flat!

I pulled the car over on the side of the road (still in Mt Eden) and sure enough it was flat, and I mean quite flat! It looks like I drove over a nail and it punctured the tyre! We had no idea what to do. We thought our tools would be in the boot but our dad must've removed them when the car got serviced.

Fortunately we were parked opposite some car electrical shop and so my mum and Aonghas went over there if they had a car jack that we could borrow to switch tyres to our spare temporary tyre.

Finally, one of the guys came over with the car jack and just changed the tyres himself! Thank you kind sir!

Aonghas drove us back to Henderson at 80km/hr (the fastest you can go on a temporary tyre) where we went to see if our family friend who fixes cars could fix the tyre for us. He was quite busy and was almost finished for the day, so it looked like we'd have to drive to camp with our temporary tyre!

STI's Anyone?

For the first two weeks of uni we've been focusing on STI's (sexually transmitted infections), and so we've been having lectures on the different infections which, while interesting, have been quite scary and a little disgusting! I never knew sex could be so dangerous. Be warned, if you and I ever get together, I'll have you tested before anything ever happens ;)

We did have one lecture on Tuesday which was quite amusing! The lecturer, who works in a sexual health clinic was telling us about all sorts of interesting things, such as MSM water sports (see if you can figure that one out!), her dealings with transexuals and the statistics and chances of getting an STI in South Auckland! She also told us how to identify sex shops disguised as hairdressers - they have their lights on at night!

A few of the Asian students in our class were slightly offended by her when she mentioned that the increase in STI rates in New Zealand was mainly due to gays and immigrants, especially those from Asia!

Anyway, all of this study of STI's came to an end today with a module exit test, which was a 10 minute 20 multiple-choice question test. I thought I was ready but I think I ended up guessing a lot!

We also had a small quiz in our Aseptic dispensing workshop that had a lot of calculations, which I admit I couldn't remember how to do! Fortunately that quiz was only worth something like 0.05%!

It looks like the real work is starting!

Another Student Life Meet-Up

Today I had a day off uni, but I came in to meet Aaron, this guy from our church who is involved with Student Life at uni. We had a bit of a chat and he showed me that same booklet the other Student Life guy showed me the week before. He was going to get me to tag along as he was going to meet up with someone, but that person never showed up so we just talked for a little bit more.

Don't Fall Asleep, Don't Fall Asleep, Don't Fa...

I was sitting right in the front row during my PHARMACY410 Research Dissertation lecture on ethics approval this morning. I'm pretty sure I didn't fall asleep...I only just had my head rested on the palm of my hand and my eyes closed for a second when I felt a piece of chalk hit my hand!

I opened my eyes immediately and the lecturer said

"Hello!"

The people around me didn't know why he did that. That's probably because I didn't fall asleep, I just had my eyes shut for a second...I'm sure!

Sadly enough this was the same lecturer as the one I had when I told the class that I saw myself leaving pharmacy in five years' time last year...

Next time though I'll probably stay away from the front row!

The Easy Part's Over...

So finally the first week of uni was over. The first week is usually the best week since most lectures are just introductory lectures that always end early!

I got home late Sunday night from the Lantern Festival to find an email telling me about a Student Ambassador meeting the next morning at 7.00am at uni! That meant I had to wake up really early and go to uni once again. I was starting to regret putting my name down for extra shifts in the first week back at uni! But I suppose it's easy money...

I got to uni very early in the morning, and we had a short meeting in one of the rooms in the Clock Tower where Tara our supervisor pretty much told us that we could work whenever we wanted that week! Cool! I decided to work for an hour before heading off to Grafton for class till midday. Then I'd come back and work another couple of hours.

This time I was stationed in the Quad. I caught up with Alex and Gwen, two of my high school friends! I admit I was chatting on the job, but they left after a short while and I was back onto it!

It was not long though till I had to go off to class. I came back later in the day and stood inside the Information Commons waiting for anyone at all to ask me for help! I felt a little stupid at times when even I didn't know where some of the rooms were! Fortunately after I had found out where one room was, I was able to help the very next person who asked me for the same room!

It was quite cool being in the city because I got to catch up and see some of my friends who I haven't seen in ages, like Eliza, my ex-pharmacy friend!

It got a little boring after a while so I took a little walk through the Quad where all the club stalls were located, including our very own Dessert Club stall! I did sneak over to the Kiwi Asian Club stall to rejoin. I didn't realise I forgot to give them the money when I left, so embarrassingly I had to return to their stall to pay them the membership fee!

I did also join the Hong Kong Students Society since one of my fellow Help Desk One Student Ambassador friends was the vice-president of the club! It's been two years since I was last a member of that club!

I tried to help out with the Dessert Club stall whenever I could as well, but I always ended up just standing around not doing much. I suppose at least I got to meet the new committee member and know them better!

I was lucky in that I got Wednesday off uni! It's been ages since I had a day off uni!

I came in to uni anyway as there was a Dessert Club meeting later in the day, so I just hung around Grafton for most of the day.

I had a near miss on Thursday. After my disastrous aseptic dispensing lab which ran overtime, I got a text from my friend Natalie who asked me to meet her so I could go together with her to the workshop. I thought she wanted to just wait outside the room till the workshop started, as I thought it would start in half an hour. When I got down there though, everyone was already in the workshop and I realised it had started at 1pm, not 1.30pm! Fortunately I had a nice tutor that day who didn't seem to mind!

On Friday morning I met up with some Student Life guy (I think I filled out one of their forms) on the steps of the Clock Tower. Because I had been sitting there waiting for him, he just sat next to me and showed me this little booklet about becoming a Christian on the steps! I had already seen the booklet before but said nothing and just went along with it. When we got to the end of the booklet there was a 'suggested' prayer, and he asked if I wanted to do it then and there! I tried to man-up and just did it, despite the people walking by!

Unfortunately the week just had to end in a not so great way with my injuries in the aseptic dispensing lab, and then the dispensing lab today where we were completely caught out by surprise when we discovered it was actually assessed! We went in not knowing we were meant to be doing or how we'd be assessed! Apparently we had to dispense two prescriptions. 

The first one was based on a care plan we did in the workshop the day before and we had to actually make recommendations to the 'doctor' and fill out the blank prescription ourselves, before going to counsel the 'patient'. We were given only five minutes for both role-plays and were being assessed on both. I was ripped to shreds in the doctor roleplay! The tutor kept hurrying me along, telling me to stop dithering. At the end the tutor said I HAD to make a decision and by then I had lost confidence! 

I didn't even start on the second prescription!

We had a half hour session afterwards where you could definitely tell everyone was really annoyed! They were complaining to the tutor, to which the tutor responded

"It was our intention to throw you all off, but you did really well!"

Yeah right!

Injuries Galore!

Today I had my very first aseptic dispensing lab. It was an introductory lab which means it really should've been easy, but not for me!

Aseptic dispensing is where you have to completely gown up to make sure you don't contaminate your product, as you'll be making sterile products such as eye drops and injections which could be fatal if not made very well!

We first were taught how to properly wash our hands with the elbow operated taps. We had to keep our hands and arms vertical to allow for all the dirty water to run off the bottom, and we had to wash our hands in yellow soap for a minimum of two minutes!

Then we had to try putting on this blue gown without touching it too much, before gloving up! I managed all of that OK.

We were then introduced to some of the equipment we'll be using for these labs this semester, and some of the techniques required, such as how to attach a needle to a syringe, which needle to use for different situations, how to insert a needle into a vial and how to draw liquid into the syringe.

FIRST ACCIDENT: We were required to open a glass ampoule, which means we have to snap open the glass lid where the ampoule is at its most vulnerable (around its narrow neck). You should be able to simply do it with your fingers, but unfortunately for me as I was opening it, I must've squeezed the lid too tightly and crushed it as I broke it open!

I originally thought I was OK, till I saw a bit of blood in my glove. My tutor plastered my thumb and I continued on. I was then given my #1 'Accident/Incident Report Form'.

Plastered thumb!

I thought that would be the only accident till...

SECOND ACCIDENT: Not too long after, I attached a needle to the syringe and was attempting to remove the lid. I was certain I had already loosened it in the packaging before I unwrapped it, but I couldn't seem to get it off! Now you're supposed to use one hand to remove the lid, but I resorted to using my other hand and ended up jabbing the pinkie finger of my other hand with the needle!

Plastered pinkie

My glove started filling with blood and the tutor came back to plaster my pinkie finger. I put my glove on but the blood kept coming out! At this point I started to feel a little faint and just gave up on trying to remain clean and leaned over the bench as the tutor bandaged me up further and I tried not to fall over!

When I started to feel a little better, I was asked if I wanted to keep going, to which I said I probably should! I was handed my #2 'Accident/Incident Report Form' and I then tried to catch up to the others.

I don't think I was the same after those incidents! I was holding onto a glass vial when it slipped out of my hands and went flying across the bench!

The two Accident/Incident Report Forms

I was also wiping a pair of tweezers with some alcohol wipes and instead of throwing the alcohol wipes onto the ground with the rest of the rubbish I chucked the tweezers away!

A Weekend of Asian Festivals

The Sunday before uni started was Asian Festival day! During the day was the Japan Festival at the ASB Showgrounds, while the Lantern Festival which had been running all weekend was to conclude that night.

After church, we (minus Aonghas who had to work) went to the Japan Festival. It wasn't too big. There were a few food stalls, and art displays, as well as some very nice motor vehicles! There was also a stage but when we were there it was mainly just martial arts.

 

While I momentarily lost my family, I caught up with Grace from my youth group! We talked for a while before she had to go rejoin her parents.

 

We didn't stay for much longer, before we decided to go to the Lantern Festival a little earlier than planned. We parked all the way in Parnell and walked to Albert Park. That's what you get for getting a free car park!

 

We wandered around the park checking out the lanterns, even though they weren't turned on. There were quite a few new lanterns this year! There was a whole stretch of lanterns related to wildlife,

 

and the fountain had two dragons with moving heads! There was also this giant lantern with Asian food! 

 

The lanterns that are there every year such as the insect band

 

and the masks hanging from the trees were there once again.

 

After checking out the stalls and the lanterns, we sat down to watch the dragon dance when Aonghas joined us. We had a bit of a feed before we headed over to the main stage, where we would remain for the rest of the night.

 

There were a few quite entertaining performances that night, including a Mongolian band which performed a few 'drinking songs' which were quite catchy and got the audience clapping to the beat. They mixed modern instruments with traditional Mongolian musical instruments.

 

There was also this other Chinese group who played traditional Chinese musical instruments but played music that sounded quite contemporary and was really catchy! 

 

Some of the local performances included some girls singing, dancing, and a few of the other overseas performances included this group who did some dancing with these really cool lanterns which glow!

 

We saw some of the performances more than once during the night but they were still cool nonetheless!

Finally the fireworks were lit as the grand finale! What was quite a shame was the fact that the stage actually obstructed the view of some of the fireworks for most of us who had been sitting in front of the stage!

 

Once the fireworks were over and everyone made their way out of the park, we took the opportunity to take some last minute pictures!

 

Hi, Can I Help You?

Last week was Orientation Week, in which I spent helping out as a Student Ambassador around uni. Okay, maybe it would be more accurate to say that I was paid to be a Student Ambassador! I had applied for the job and got it, so they would be paying me for my time! Nonetheless, it was something I'd end up enjoying at the same time!

We weren't required to come in on the first Monday, but on the very next day we were required to meet up in one of the Clock Tower lecture theatres at 7.30 in the morning! For me that meant waking up sometime around 5am and catching the 6.30 bus! I have to say I don't think I was fully awake at that time in the morning!

Fortunately we were provided with breakfast which included muffins, muesli bars and fruit drinks which managed to fill us. We were then all given our blue 'Ambassador' t-shirts and went off to set up our help desks at our spots. I was with Help Desk One, which was located outside the Clock Tower (the administration building of the university). 

Tuesday was probably the busiest day we had, because a powhiri (Maori welcome) was being held for the first year students, and a lot of them would be touring the uni with their 'Uniguides'. We had a lot of students asking us for directions to the marae. I took a couple of students all the way to the marae, which was at the other side of uni! I had nothing better to do though, and it was fun talking to students as I took them there. There was one girl who was running because she thought she was late. I tried to tell her it would be OK but she wouldn't stop running, so I had to run alongside her! There was another girl who was a bit late but I managed to get her to her introductory lecture just on time! I think we really connected...till she went to her lecture! hahaha

We spent the rest of the day at our help desk trying to hand out guides, maps and Orientation programmes to passers-by. We were told the rules (for while we were in uniform) were:

- No leaning

- No cell phones

- No sitting

- No eating

Doing this for eight hours for the next four days was definitely tiring! 

Later in the afternoon I got to take a couple of tours around the campus. I went the wrong way with the first group I took, and ended up making up a different route to the one we were told to follow. The second tour I took went a lot more smoothly. I went with Christian, another ambassador from my help desk.

The further we got into the week though, the less busy it got! The next couple of days were really dead! We mostly stood around outside, either talking to each other or watching as people set up food stalls and decorations for the Lantern Festival along Princes Street. I also resorted to counting cars passing by! 

I did get to know a few of the ambassadors though, and they were quite cool! Hopefully I'll see them around uni again sometime! One of the ambassadors working with me at the help desk also ended up discussing different girls passing by...quietly of course!

I did also get a few visits from people I knew, like Sarena from high school, Zippo my neighbour and my brother. A few people I had never met before also recognised me, such as a couple of people who recognised me from high school, and some girl who had seen me compete in past accordion competition! That was pretty cool.

On one of the days the rain poured down, which meant we had to relocate our help desk to outside the Clock Tower doors just outside on the steps! Fortunately the rain was short-lived and we soon went back outside on the footpath.

We had a bit of a battle with some of the university admin staff, who would come outside during their break and smoke right outside the building, which is of course against the university's new smoke-free policy! We were told to hand out pamphlets to those we saw who were breaking the law. Our group leader worked in the Clock Tower, and so she knew the people well. She had a little talk to them and they said they knew of the new policy, but kept on going! The next day we found a Smokefree sign that we just quietly placed at their smoking spot. I wonder if they saw that one...

On the subject of breaks, we were given two fifteen minute breaks and one half hour lunch break per day. I'd usually spend my breaks in one of the Clock Tower lecture theatres where the ambassadors used as a 'home base' just sitting down and taking a break. On Monday they actually supplied us with lunch! What a great job! 

I also increased the time I spent at the Dessert Club stall. This year we had a completely new committee with none of last year's committee members coming back...except for me. The only problem was I had never met any of these new committee members before! I managed to get to know them during my breaks though and while I was a little unsure of what was going on at first, I eventually admired all the work they had already done for the club, especially since they're quite new!

On Friday, the last day of Orientation, I was desperate to get a group photo so we tried waiting for one of the ambassadors to get back from his tour which was supposed to be 40 minutes. He ended up taking over an hour! We managed to get one in the end before I had to rush off to Grafton for my 4th Year Pharmacy Introduction Lecture, where they awarded the prizes for top student in certain subjects. Yours truly didn't get anything, nor did he deserve to!

The university had organised a Midnight Youth concert just for first year students on Friday afternoon, and Tara (who was in charge of the Student Ambassadors programme) had been using the concert as an incentive - those who worked really hard would get to 'work' at the concert and get paid for it! In the end she said she had gotten such positive feedback that all ambassadors could attend!

I rushed back to the city after my lecture in Grafton to attend the concert. While it was really really loud, there weren't as many people there as I thought! I didn't know too many of the songs Midnight Youth sang. In fact, I only knew two of them, the ones that are always played on the radio, and they were performed at the end of the concert! I just lay on the ground with some of the Student Ambassadors who were really exhausted after a long week! 

Funnily enough I saw Jenny from my youth group there! That was probably the third time I had seen Jenny around uni that week! 

As Midnight Youth performed their last song, everyone ran over to the stage and started jumping up and down and singing along. It was pretty cool! 

What wasn't too cool was the clean-up afterwards, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it'd be. The area was quite clean despite free Coke being given out at the concert!

It was a little sad being the last day we'd be working as a Student Ambassador. I did work for a bit on the following Monday, just wandering around the Quad and in the Information Commons attempting to answer people's questions. I was too busy to do any more work after that though.

I really enjoyed helping out though! It's cool when you can give advice to others.