I shouldn't be saying this as it might still be a bit premature (I haven't signed a contract yet) but today I got an email informing me that a pharmacy would like to offer me an intern position at their pharmacy for next year!
Last weekend at the university Courses and Careers Day I got told by my friend she had been shortlisted and given a second interview at two pharmacies I had also had interviews at, which was a bit of a confidence killer, as it obviously meant I hadn't been shortlisted and they weren't interested in me.
However, I'm extremely happy about the pharmacy I've been given an internship at, as I won't have to work late nights, public holidays and weekends which means I can continue to teach music on Saturday mornings!
As Hannah Montana says, it's the best of both worlds!
All I've got to do now is make sure I pass all my exams!
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
An EPIC Race
Today was our Dessert Club's annual Amazing Race competition, only this time it was renamed the EPIC Race!
It was originally going to be held on Saturday but got postponed.
I hadn't been able to attend the meeting the day before to finalise everything, so when I got in to the city in the morning I didn't really know what was going on. I was asked to go down to the Britomart Train Station to stick clues under seats.
When I got there, I realised the seats by the cafe where they wanted me to stick clues was quite exposed! I tried asking one of the cafe staff members, who initially said it was fine. When I started though he thought maybe...it wouldn't be such a great idea, seeing as there would be heaps of customers during lunch time.
I then went over to ask the security guard supervisor if it was OK for me to hide clues around Britomart, and he radioed head office to ask, but they said no. He then went on to give me alternative ideas, such as having someone handing out clues themselves at Britomart. He was really friendly!
I tried calling the other committee members and they asked me to stay down in Britomart to hand out the clues. So....I spent the next couple of hours wandering around Britomart, looking up at the electronic timetables, reading timetables, watching TV...It was all really boring, especially since the first team didn't arrive till an hour later and I just happened to be sitting outside the main entrance.
They seemed quite annoyed! I think they had spent a long, long time looking all around Britomart for me! They quickly got over it after I told them they were the first team to arrive though!
I was down near the platform when the second team found me. One guy approached me and asked
'Hey sorry this is a bit random but are you from the Dessert Club?'
I had to go off to my research dissertation project meeting at around midday, and after went back to my EPIC Race duties at Britomart.
I sat there for ages doing nothing. I was thinking that this must've been the most boring station! I eventually received a text from the club president telling me some teams were finding it hard to find me! I told her I was right by the entrance!
It was not long before one team came over and asked if I was from the Dessert Club. When I said yes, I got a big
'FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF#$*K!!!!'
They had spent over an hour looking for me! Another team nearby saw and came over as well.
I didn't see any other team come by for the next two hours! By 5pm all teams were told to return to Level 0 of the Information Commons. When I got there, it turned out only four teams arrived back! No team had completed all the challenges either! We awarded the prizes and finished with some fish and chips.
Talk about an EPIC race!
It was originally going to be held on Saturday but got postponed.
I hadn't been able to attend the meeting the day before to finalise everything, so when I got in to the city in the morning I didn't really know what was going on. I was asked to go down to the Britomart Train Station to stick clues under seats.
When I got there, I realised the seats by the cafe where they wanted me to stick clues was quite exposed! I tried asking one of the cafe staff members, who initially said it was fine. When I started though he thought maybe...it wouldn't be such a great idea, seeing as there would be heaps of customers during lunch time.
I then went over to ask the security guard supervisor if it was OK for me to hide clues around Britomart, and he radioed head office to ask, but they said no. He then went on to give me alternative ideas, such as having someone handing out clues themselves at Britomart. He was really friendly!
I tried calling the other committee members and they asked me to stay down in Britomart to hand out the clues. So....I spent the next couple of hours wandering around Britomart, looking up at the electronic timetables, reading timetables, watching TV...It was all really boring, especially since the first team didn't arrive till an hour later and I just happened to be sitting outside the main entrance.
They seemed quite annoyed! I think they had spent a long, long time looking all around Britomart for me! They quickly got over it after I told them they were the first team to arrive though!
I was down near the platform when the second team found me. One guy approached me and asked
'Hey sorry this is a bit random but are you from the Dessert Club?'
I had to go off to my research dissertation project meeting at around midday, and after went back to my EPIC Race duties at Britomart.
I sat there for ages doing nothing. I was thinking that this must've been the most boring station! I eventually received a text from the club president telling me some teams were finding it hard to find me! I told her I was right by the entrance!
It was not long before one team came over and asked if I was from the Dessert Club. When I said yes, I got a big
'FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF#$*K!!!!'
They had spent over an hour looking for me! Another team nearby saw and came over as well.
I didn't see any other team come by for the next two hours! By 5pm all teams were told to return to Level 0 of the Information Commons. When I got there, it turned out only four teams arrived back! No team had completed all the challenges either! We awarded the prizes and finished with some fish and chips.
Talk about an EPIC race!
Sunday, 29 August 2010
The Wedding We Never Witnessed
Today, Rayson and May, two people from our church were to get married over in Hong Kong. Because all of us back in New Zealand wouldn't be able to make it, Rayson had set up a live stream so we could all watch it.
At church in the morning, we all had a discussion about who was going to watch it, what time it would be taking place and whose house we'd go to watch it. We finally decided we'd go to the Chins' house!
Aonghas and I (Hamish stayed home because of an assignment due the next day) picked up Jenny and then went over to their house. We were slightly late because picking up Jenny was a last minute thing. Claire got the laptop connected to the TV but...the live stream wouldn't work! We tried and tried again but it still wouldn't work! On (our youth group leader) and Hamish sent me texts asking if I could get it to work as well!
We ended up just spending the night eating chips, burnt popcorn and watching the beginning of Shutter Island before we had to go and drop Jenny off!
We didn't get to watch the wedding in the end but we're sure it was a good day for Rayson and May. Congratulations to the both of you!
At church in the morning, we all had a discussion about who was going to watch it, what time it would be taking place and whose house we'd go to watch it. We finally decided we'd go to the Chins' house!
Aonghas and I (Hamish stayed home because of an assignment due the next day) picked up Jenny and then went over to their house. We were slightly late because picking up Jenny was a last minute thing. Claire got the laptop connected to the TV but...the live stream wouldn't work! We tried and tried again but it still wouldn't work! On (our youth group leader) and Hamish sent me texts asking if I could get it to work as well!
We ended up just spending the night eating chips, burnt popcorn and watching the beginning of Shutter Island before we had to go and drop Jenny off!
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Spreading the UoA Word!
This morning I had to wake up extremely early to get to uni at 7am as it was the Courses and Careers Day (sort of like a uni open day) and I was helping out as a student ambassador. I had originally planned to catch a 5.50am bus as it was the only one that would get me into town on time, but I missed it so my dad had to drive me into the city. I managed to get into the city by 6.20am though, which was extremely early! It was raining quite a bit though so I just slept in the car for a while before going in.
I was the first to get to the meeting area, and eventually people started arriving. We soon found out that we had to meet up in the Clock Tower though.
We were all briefed on what we had to do, and were given our blue Student Ambassador t-shirts. We were also provided breakfast which consisted of muffins, fruit, muesli bars and juice.
By 9am, we had to carry our equipment out and set up our stalls. Once again I was stationed outside the Clock Tower which wasn't exactly the most exciting stall to be at since most of the activity would be happening around the Quad and the Business School! I saw Grace, her brother Sam and their friends just as I came out though.
Right at the beginning though when all the buses arrived with school students from in and out of Auckland, we had heaps of people to take on tour. I'm sure I had about 30 people in my group! As I took them around the uni, I tried to get to know them a bit better by asking questions such as
"So where are you guys from?"
"Do any of you have any idea what you want to study next year?"
"Do any of you have any questions?"
No one would say anything though! I just had to carry on with the tour. I lost quite a few people...actually almost everyone along the way and ended up with maybe only four people left in the tour group!
I had to look after the stall and go inside the Clock Tower to make sure people there were OK before I had to take my next tour. I had a smaller group, but one mum did ask me a lot of questions which was quite good!. I like answering questions!
After I got back, I had a chance to take my half hour lunch break. We got supplied lunch which consisted of sandwiches and chips. I then went over to the Business School to check out the Medicine and Pharmacy School stands, while meeting Cleo and Sam along the way.
I was originally going to pretend to be a prospective student, but the pharmacy students seemed to know me! I was then going to try the Medicine stand, but it was my friend Chen who was there! It was cool seeing a lot of friends helping out. I also saw my friend Ji Eun helping out at the Audiology stand!
I had to go back to the Clock Tower after lunch and was asked to look after one of the lecture theatres downstairs to make sure aisles weren't blocked, they weren't over capacity and to do a head count.
I got there just in time for the last lecture on archeology, something to do with ancient Egypt. I didn't think it would be that popular, but after the previous philosophy lecture finished early, people started filing in till the lecture theatre was completely filled 10 minutes before the lecture was due to commence! I had to tell the lecturer that I'd have to stop people coming in, and stood at the door turning people away.
There were at least 30-40 people waiting outside wanting to come in, and even after I told them they couldn't they just continued to hang around! One lady was quite disgruntled! I felt like a bouncer!
The Courses and Careers Day was almost over, and all the students who had come in on buses (especially those from out of Auckland) had to make their way back to their buses. Princes St had been completely closed and lined up with buses.
I decided to wait outside the West Auckland bus to help students on. Buses started to leave though, and there was one student who came running down to the West Auckland bus I was by only to find out he was supposed to catch the West Auckland bus at the other end of the road! I think he ended up missing his bus. I think a few students from Tauranga missed their bus as well!
Before I could go home, a few of us guys had to help fold and put some tables into storage over in the Architecture building.
It was such a tiring day but it was still quite fun!
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Festival Full of Music
This week has been the KBB Auckland Secondary Schools Orchestra and Band Festival, which is the musical highlight of the year for me (or at least one of them!). I was originally planning on skipping all non-essential classes, but in the end I managed to fit in classes with performance times, but only just!
The first day of performances was on Tuesday and Rebecca, one of the girls from my youth group was due to perform with her school concert band at 11.30. My class finished at 11am, so I thought I'd have time to walk down to the Town Hall from Grafton. However, our lecturer was having technical problems with his powerpoint presentation and so it was delayed by half an hour! I was thinking of just leaving early and skipping the lecture, but just as I was about to, the lecturer decided to start! I was trapped! I ended up playing Naughts and Crosses with a friend while waiting for the lecture to finish.
Fortunately he sped up towards the end and finished slightly after 11. I rushed out of the lecture theatre to catch the bus. I thought this would take less time, but every traffic light we approached seemed to turn red! I ended up getting off at a bus stop which was not that close to the Town Hall at all! I could've walked there in a shorter amount of time!
Anyway, I luckily got there just in time to witness Rebecca's performance! Her school's band, the Westlake Girls High Concert Band performed a Lord of the Rings suite as well as a couple other pieces. I really enjoyed their performance!
After their performance, Rebecca and her group came back into the hall to watch the rest of the performances in that session, and I managed to say hi to her since I was sitting in the row right behind her! I then met one of the viola players in the Auckland Symphony Orchestra who had come to watch her daughter play as part of the same group!
I watched a few more of the performances which were really entertaining. I have a whole new admiration for brass instruments! I couldn't stay for long before I had to rush off to meet up with Angie for lunch. She just bought sushi from the Quad while I bought a few things from that Asian bakery and we just had lunch by that waterfall outside the art gallery.
Once she went back to class, I went back to the Town Hall to watch a few more performances before having to go home to deliver newspapers all on my own!
You can check out some of the highlights of the performances I got to watch below.
The first day of performances was on Tuesday and Rebecca, one of the girls from my youth group was due to perform with her school concert band at 11.30. My class finished at 11am, so I thought I'd have time to walk down to the Town Hall from Grafton. However, our lecturer was having technical problems with his powerpoint presentation and so it was delayed by half an hour! I was thinking of just leaving early and skipping the lecture, but just as I was about to, the lecturer decided to start! I was trapped! I ended up playing Naughts and Crosses with a friend while waiting for the lecture to finish.
Fortunately he sped up towards the end and finished slightly after 11. I rushed out of the lecture theatre to catch the bus. I thought this would take less time, but every traffic light we approached seemed to turn red! I ended up getting off at a bus stop which was not that close to the Town Hall at all! I could've walked there in a shorter amount of time!
Anyway, I luckily got there just in time to witness Rebecca's performance! Her school's band, the Westlake Girls High Concert Band performed a Lord of the Rings suite as well as a couple other pieces. I really enjoyed their performance!
After their performance, Rebecca and her group came back into the hall to watch the rest of the performances in that session, and I managed to say hi to her since I was sitting in the row right behind her! I then met one of the viola players in the Auckland Symphony Orchestra who had come to watch her daughter play as part of the same group!
I watched a few more of the performances which were really entertaining. I have a whole new admiration for brass instruments! I couldn't stay for long before I had to rush off to meet up with Angie for lunch. She just bought sushi from the Quad while I bought a few things from that Asian bakery and we just had lunch by that waterfall outside the art gallery.
Once she went back to class, I went back to the Town Hall to watch a few more performances before having to go home to deliver newspapers all on my own!
You can check out some of the highlights of the performances I got to watch below.
I didn't get to watch too many performances on Wednesday, as I had a workshop on sunscreen and travel medicines at 8.30 in the morning (in which I had to do a roleplay in front of the class as a pharmacist for the first time!) and then another stressful dispensing lab in the afternoon.
The pharmacy dodgeball competition was on at night, and I was originally thinking of participating in it since I hadn't participated in any pharmacy sports events during my time at uni. However, there was also a Dessert Club meeting and of course the KBB Music Festival all on at the same time! Oh...and I almost forgot the most important of all - a job interview in the afternoon before all that!
The interview wasn't too bad, in that the lady interviewing me acknowledged that I didn't have as much experience as other applicants, but asked me what I could bring to the pharmacy. She also asked me what my dream job was, to which I replied
"Prime Minister!"
She probably thought I was joking. Whether I was or not...I'm still not too sure myself!
After the interview, I went to the library to try do some study since I had a small test the next day, but kept falling asleep at the computer! I ended up deciding I would go to the KBB Music Festival first, then drop by to check out the dodgeball competition, then finish off the night at the Dessert Club meeting!
I watched a few of the bands at the KBB Music Festival before I went back up to the gym, but the door was locked! OK I could've made more of an effort, but it was rainy and I was tired so I just went straight to the Dessert Club meeting.
Thursday was the big day - the day the orchestras would be performing! I had a class and a small test in the morning, but straight after, I skipped an extra class on gout to go watch some of the orchestras perform. I'm forever amazed at just how large and good these high school orchestras can be! When I was back at Rutherford, our orchestra was no bigger than 20-30 people! These school orchestras were almost symphony-sized, while some actually were symphony orchestras!
I caught up with Aonghas during lunch and went off to buy an SD-card for our dSLR, as I realised I had forgotten to put one in.
We got back for the afternoon session to watch Cleo and her school orchestra the Epsom Symphonia perform. I was supposed to meet my friend Scholastica but she missed the performance, but Jenny, the former concert master and also from our youth group made it. The orchestra was pretty good. Cleo plays the big bass drum which is pretty cool!
Her school's performance was supposed to finish by 2.45pm which would have given me enough time to get back up to Grafton for a workshop on wound care, but it lasted a bit longer than planned, and I had to run all the way back up to Grafton, arriving about 10 minutes late!
The professor taking the workshop didn't seem to mind or notice though, which was really good. He was showing us all these different types of bandages, plasters, hydrogels and all sorts of tools to manage wounds. He even demonstrated some of them on us! Because I was sitting at one end of the room, he would often demonstrate on us, including wrapping this clingy type of material around my wrist to show how it's much better than that white material-like stuff!
After the workshop, I headed back into the city just in time for the second half of the evening session, when all the big guns would be playing like Westlake Symphony, and Macleans Symphony!
They didn't fail to impress! Westlake Symphony Orchestra even brought a combined choir as well!
To finish off the night, Burger King! What a week. I've been musically inspired!
Check out the highlights from Thursday below:
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