Familar Faces

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Mastering the Umbrella

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

 

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

 

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

The Pressure!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ahhhh Yes....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Makeshift Recipient

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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