Drowning

Drowning

Classes have begun again and it's back to trying to keep afloat of all the assignments. I must say though that I feel like I'm gonna drown. This negativity is probably brought on by the fact that I've caught the cold that's been going around campus and my flat. Now everyone in my flat is down with something, which is awful coz I really need to be working at 100% level to complete assignments and stuff. You tend to wanna stay in bed when you're down with something...not good. I had a hard time getting up this morning to go for my skating lesson. I was tempted to call my coach and cancel but I figured that I probably should go coz I didn't skate the whole week. It wasn't so bad though today coz I'm spending time working on spins (back-spin and 1 foot spin) so didn't really get too bruised!

In any case I think I had a very unproductive Easter break, although I did complete like half my assignment (which is definitely not good enough and needs another drafting desperately). I'm behind schedule (as usual) and I can't seem to get through a chapter on child development(I've a test real soon) without falling asleep! I guess I went out too much during Easter...although there was a day when I was rained in. It rained non-stop the entire day. It's amazing how much water can come from the sky coz the rain carried on to the next morning as well. Anyway, the reason why I went out alot during Easter was coz my friend came down from Auckland and so we definitely had to go out (clubbing). He was down for the whole Easter break which was good coz Auckland Uni doesn't have the same semester breaks and mid-semester breaks as Otago. I guess I shouldn't complain coz it was good to see him again and I mean geez going out is definitely more fun than studying!!

The night we went out clubbing, it was quite crazy coz the bunch of us started out dancing in a circle and now and then the better dancers in our group would go to the middle and do some moves. Then suddenly these random people started pushing their way into the middle of our circle and showing off their moves. There was this Asian guy who would breakdance really well and basically he pushed through, did his stuff and was waiting for someone to 'challenge' him.

Before we knew it, all these people had joined our circle and there was this dance battle going on. It was cool seeing all the breakdance moves, hip-hop and all, but it was rather crazy and there was tension from the competition. (What's with guys and competing anyway?) The Asian guy was going hard out on the dance floor and he and this other Indian guy (who's more into hip-hop) were battling and dissing each other with dance. I can't describe how it is to diss someone through dancing, but from watching them, you really get the meaning of how dance can speak and like 'body expressions' and all. Then people stopped dancing and everyone was just watching the battle...even the bartenders. Totally insane! The battling went on for ages and was still going on when we left.

Gosh I'm really tired....I do hope this will blow over soon (like now), otherwise it'll be really tough getting everything done on time!!

Easter Break

Easter Break

Whoopee!! We're now on Easter break so it's gonna be a long weekend. Classes don't begin again till Wednesday and since I've just had my last lecture of the day, I'm pretty much on Easter break now. Well, Easter break pretty much means you don't have to get up early and...wow you've more time to work on that pile of assignments!

Easter break is also a very good time to go skating...except that after yesterday in which I re-bruised my very big bruise and gain more big bruises (such that I was limping for the rest of the day), I've decided I'm gonna kill myself if I go skating this week. It's a pity though since I learnt 2 new jumps and I really wanna practice, but guess the dancing-skating cycle will have to be broken. I'm going out dancing tonight though...I figure dancing won't be as bad coz I've yet to fall from it!!

The major blip in my otherwise too-hectic-to-care life (I practically live in the library in the psyc journal section) is that the lousy paper-pushing people at the telephone company informed me that my application for ADSL has been rejected because the phone account number is wrong or some rubbish along those lines! I'll have to re-apply which means another 2 to 3 weeks before they'll even connect me!!! ARGH!!! I hate Telecom. It's a pity they're the major market shareholder in telephone connection in NZ and monopolize the market so I can't quite switch phone companies. $%!@^&#*!!

Self Torture

Self Torture

I've come to the conclusion that I must be a sucker for self-torture. I don't think I've ever physically demanded so much of my muscles. In simple terms, I have never exercised as much as I did in the last week in my whole life.

Ceroc on Tuesday was just the beginning & I gained muscle aches from that as mentioned previously. Wednesday was when I had skating lessons so my poor muscles had no rest. Subsequently, I gained more muscle aches in both the usual places and in the unusal places. I still don't know which muscles skating works out, aside from the obvious calf, thigh and butt muscles, but I ache all over so it must work out a whole lot of other muscles I wasn't even aware that I had!

In any case, the sane, non-masochistic individual would have decided it was time to let the muscles rest, thereby halting further exercise till the next week. Being cruel to my muscles, I however decided that Friday would be a good time to go out clubbing with my friends. I don't think I would have made such a masochistic decision, had it not been the fact that the university's annual International Dance Party was on Friday & since I didn't go last year, I thought this year would be a good time to check it out, especially while my clubbing buddy is still around (she might go to Christchurch next year for 4th year Med).

It turned out that the dance party wasn't that fantastic...they kept playing techno music which I don't quite like dancing to. Around 12.30 am we decided we had enough of dancing to techno & our party proceeded to The Cook (one of the more popular clubs) where they had good music i.e. pop, rock etc...the "in" music. We left the club at around 2.30am (I think!) which means that I'd basically been dancing continuously for more than 2 hours. My muscles & feet were protesting loudly on the way home...I recall thinking that if we didn't get a cab soon my legs would just collapse (then my flatmate would have to carry me home...if he was kind...but he didn't know that).

Anyway, if you haven't spotted the pattern already, it's dancing then skating then dancing then...guess what comes next? Yep, I just had to go for skating practice yesterday. After all, since I've been so nasty to my muscles the whole week, what's one more day? So I went skating for 3 hours & gained many bruises. I've got this gigantic one on my left knee which prevented me from bending that knee yesterday and 5 smaller ones on my right knee which are kinda scattered. That's aside from the falls that my butt and tail-bone took. I lost count of how many times I fell on ice yesterday. Besides the bruises, this morning I woke up with even more muscle aches...even in my arms. Seems like skating even works out the arms...

Tomorrow it's Ceroc again. It's gonna be a real wonderful week of my muscles. They should get use to all this activity sometime soon...one can hope can't they?

Campus Architecture

Campus Architecture

I've a lecture every week in one of the oldest lecture theatres in the uni. It reminds me of a church coz the seats are like pews exactly like they have in the old churches with no individual seat division, but there are long desks in front of each pew. It's not the most comfortable kind of seating arrangement coz the long desks in front are kinda low. The cushion of the seat also moves every time anyone in the row moves coz it's just this one long piece.

The graffiti on the desks are really interesting though. Every desk is filled with it...accumulated over the many many years. There's graffiti dating back to 1955...at least that's the oldest I've seen, but considering the uni has been around since the 1830s, maybe there's older graffiti. The desk are pretty interesting too. They've got this slot at the top for putting your pens so they don't roll off down the slanted surface of the desk and at regular intervals there are these holes. I reckon they were meant for ink bottles in the time they still used fountain pens, but I'm merely speculating.

Campus is filled with architecture from different eras, so it looks a bit strange but intersting nonetheless, like the modern architectural building (think glass and metal) is opposite the clocktower building that's old architecture (think massive stone structure and large wooden doors with a very high ceiling), which houses the international office and other uni admin offices. They're on opposite sides of the river which provides a nice contrast really. You have all these tourists who go around taking photos all the time of the buildings around campus...mainly Japanese tourists in busloads.

I wonder if the uni I'm going to in Italy will have clashing architecture too. It should be interesting going around to see all the old buildings...especially the cathedrals! Can't quite believe that I'm actually gonna be going to Italy and around Europe this year! I haven't quite planned my trip yet but I'm thinking that Chiristmas in Paris sounds nice and perhaps New Year's in Belgium or Greece...

Ceroc

Ceroc

Dance class followed by skating class the next day is a very painful thing for my muscles. Ceroc started yesterday and because it's an intermediate class we've got these dips and drops for the girls. It's fun at first but doing it about 20 times isn't very fun coz for this particular move, the Drop-Kick, we had to drop vertically on the right leg by bending it 90 degrees (like sitting) and kick the left straight up. While the guys support us from the back, the girls really have to support most of our weight on our right legs. I felt like my thigh muscle was gonna up and die and not carry me home after class.

The scary thing about doing drops and dips is that sometimes it feels like the guys are gonna drop you on the floor coz they can't support your weight...especially the skinnier ones. One of the guys I danced with had this tendency to hold you pretty far apart from him so when we did drops and dips it was very unstable coz it's hard supporting a heavy weight with your arms extended straight out away from your body...I think he almost (but thankfully didn't) dropped me once. There were better dancers though, especially the older guys who had obviously been doing ceroc dancing for awhile and they know how to hold you properly. It's most fun when you don't have to worry that the guy is gonna drop you!! At times like this though, you appreciate being small and light. My friend, who's way bigger and therefore heavier than I am, had these massive bruises under her arms from where the guys were supporting her coz they tended to grip hard to support her weight. You could even see the finger-marks where they gripped. Ouch!

On the whole though, intermediate ceroc is really cool and when you get a good partner and both of you can dance well enough it looks fantastic! The class is great...made even better because there's a pretty good-looking guy with a nice smile in the class who can actually dance well enough...well enough being that I didn't have to worry too much about being dropped on the floor. What more can a girl ask for? I'm definitely looking forward to the next class!

I have discovered from dance and skate class that I'm really really in a bad shape. I couldn't quite skate properly during my skating lesson this morning coz of my sore right thigh muscle from yesterday. It didn't help that my right leg is my jumping and landing leg either... Plus the coach decided that I needed to learn to do 'shoot-the-ducks' which is skating one one foot squatted down with your other leg extended in front of you...for preparation to learn sit-spins. But I think it seems like that's gonna be really far off though because I can't even do a basic two-foot spin properly and I can't quite do a one-foot one either. The only good thing that's improved about my spins is that I can now do at least 6 revolutions....or so I think coz it seems like I'm able to go more rounds than previously.

After skating I more or less limped off the ice and I can't really climb stairs now. It'll probably get even worse tomorrow. Anyway, this week is gonna see me in my room doing intensive exercises for skating, especially building up strength on my left leg and ankle. Apparently my left ankle is really weak. It's a good thing I'm flatting and not staying in a hall anymore coz I'm gonna look really strange doing spirals (balancing on one leg with the other extended out and raised behind) and going up and down in a shoot-the-duck position. Sigh...

Research

Research

It's been some time since I last posted something, mainly coz things have been somewhat busy. I'm currently doing research for one of my psyc papers. It's quite annoying though coz more often than not, I find the uni doesn't subscribe to that particular journal, or the journal is way too old and therefore unavailable through the many e-journal databases the uni subscribes to! Then there's the problem of not being able to find relevant research...

Anyway, things have been pretty boring aside from finally being able to see the sun and use some of my summer clothes. The only not-a-usual-happening that occurred was the other day when one of my flatmates went out for dinner. I have no idea what he was having for dinner but he mistook his own tongue for a piece of meat and chewed it so badly when he licked his lips there was blood all over his mouth. His tongue bled for 5 hours afterwards and it was all swollen and purple and he couldn't talk. Ouch! Honestly I didn't know anyone who could do what he did and not feel it. Talk about self-destructive....

My Room

My Room

I've finally remembered to post picts of my room. It's not much really, but I like it bien sur...guess it would be horrible if I didn't, considering that I spend heaps of time in it!!!

Starting with the entry to my hideout...


The first thing you see when you enter:

My bright orange dresser! (and yourself)

My wall decor...there was juz too much blank space and holes in the wallpaper...


J'aime beaucoup mon lit...c'est très confortable!


Where I study....sometimes...


The fireplace which is boarded up and is now for decorative purposes.


The entry/exit way with my many pairs of shoes.

Annoyances

Annoyances

Things haven't been quite peachy in my flat. It's tough flatting really, getting everyone to agree and do what they're supposed to do. We do get pissed off at each other from time to time coz of differences in ideas of how things should be done.

It wasn't so bad before the guys moved in with us. Guys bring trouble...and mess. The guys have this annoying tendency to leave their dishes in the sink for a really long time and us girls find that really annoying, even if they eventually do wash up if it's still there. I can't being to describe how annoying it is when you find dirty dishes in the sink left overnight, but my sister and my other flatmate can attest to that. The result? We end up washing up after them and getting all annoyed about it.

Then there's this thing about the trash. Guess what? Trash doesn't miraculously disappear. Somebody has to take it out. Turns out, that somebody has always so far been female. It amazes us girls how the guys can juz continue piling more trash on top of a full trash bin without noticing that it's full. We had this bet the other night on how long the filled trash bin would remain full if none of us girls emptied it. I think I bet on a month and Lucy bet on a week and my sister said "Within the next 24 hrs coz I'm gonna tell one of them to do it!"

We worked out a chores schedule, which I'm hoping will make things less annoying. Unfortunately, we should have been way more detailed. Today was trash day and while 1 of the guys was suppose to take out the trash, he conveniently forgot to take out the recyclables. I mean, geez! How can you forget when it's totally cluttering up the front porch?!!! We put it on both sides outside the front door and it's really hard to miss coming outta the door. Guys must not be able to see too well coz he only brought out the trash bags, leaving my sister and I to drag out the other half of the trash at 7.30 this morning.

Besides human annoyances, we've got the rabbit being annoying too. Last weekend, we let it out for some exercise and the rabbit ran into the thick bush at the back of our garden. Then it found a hole in the fence between our garden and the neighbour's. It's not too hard to figure out what happened next. Yep, the rabbit went into the neighbour's garden and was happily hopping all over the garden. We really panicked and kept calling the rabbit to try and get it back. Rabbits definitely do not understand English and since the neighbours weren't in, we couldn't quite get the rabbit back and had to wait for it to decide to come back, which it did after an hour of yelling at it.

When we finally got the rabbit back after much difficulty, the rabbit had the cheek to lie down and go to sleep!!!! $#&**@!!#!!!! Argh!!!