Sono a Milano: Getting There

Sono a Milano: Getting There

Ok as anyone can tell I've totally given up ever blogging about my North Island trip so if anyone is actually interested to know, I'd be most willing to talk about it. For now the "hot" topic would have to be my last 3 days in Milan so far...

Ok starting from the beginning, I was totally freaking out before my flight to Milan (and it was fully justified) but nonetheless I got on the plane where I was supposed to make a stopover for 4hrs in Frankfurt. Anyway my seatmate was this German guy who was heading back to Germany to take up a job as brand manager for Unilever after graduating not too long ago from a uni in Australia and he majored in marketing too, so it was really interesting talking to him (and he was kinda cute too, but that's besides the point). Unfortunately, after we landed and we parted in the airport I realised I don't know his name...he asked for my email address though and so I gave it to him and my name, hopefully he'll email some time. The Frankfurt airport is confusing and huge and not very convenient...I ended up missing my flight coz they changed the boarding gate and I didn't hear the announcement coz there was so many gate changes it wasn't funny. So I was waiting at the wrong boarding gate and when I finally realised something was "off" and I asked about it, I'd already missed my flight...so much for a good start. I shall blame it on fatigue from the horribly long flight and the fact that it was 5.30 in the morning... Luckily, they managed to get me on another flight, except that it was 4 hours later. Well in any case a much later flight is better than no flight at all. It also saved me the problem of wondering what to do when I arrived in Milan coz with my original flight I would arrive in Milan at about 10am and I could only check into the backpackers at 2pm...although it took me so long to get there it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Anyway, I got to Milan and I discovered that it's really hard getting around when u only speak sparse italian and understand even less! I think I wandered around the airport for awhile trying to read the signs to find out how I'd get to the city...and I think I annoyed the person at the info counter asking her heaps of questions. I finally managed to get on the right bus though which took me to Station Centrale. Then came the horrible process of lugging my luggage (36kg in total) around the station, looking for the metro! It was awful coz they had no elevators and I had to lug my stuff up the escalators to enquire at the info counter which was on the 2nd floor. If that wasn't bad enough, when I did find the metro, to my horror there were only stairs and no elevators OR escalators!!! I ended up having to carry my stuff down 2 flights of stairs. Thankfully there was this nice italian guy who helped me carry my suitcase down after seeing me struggling with it. Unfortunately he spoke only italian and so he couldn't help me figure out how to buy a ticket for the metro and I ended up having to ask one of the station staff, who thankfully spoke some english. When I got to my stop, the darn station had no escalators or elevators and I ended up having to carry my luggage UP the stairs this time...which was worse of course and there wasn't anyone to help.

By the time I reached the backpackers I was truly exhausted, plus the temperature was pretty much like Singapore's...but less humid. Then I was trying to use the phone to call my mum when I met this other italian guy (who is now becoming somewhat of a pain...but that's another story) and ended up having dinner with him, having a conversation through my trusty italian-english dictionary (because of course he spoke only italian). Ok this has been a really long entry so I guess I'll leave everything else for parts 2, 3, 4.... 8p

Back to the Real World

Back to the Real World

I returned to Dunedin this afternoon from my all too short holiday around the North Island...and yes it's back to the real world of having to deal with whatever life throws at you and important stuff...like finding a flat for next year. The weather even changed accordingly to fit the situation and mark the end of my break from reality coz I left sunny Auckland and as we flew down South the weather gradually turned bad (It was all rainy and foggy in Dunedin). Still perhaps it's good that my trip has ended otherwise the big hole in my bank account may be even bigger. Ouch!

It was a great trip though....also made interesting by a certain travel companion and details of the trip will be posted in several installments over the next couple of days. I reckon my travel companion will probably give his version of events (although his blog is dreadfully outdated and perhaps there may be a chance that he won't which would be nice ;p) but as always one should note that his version would be skewed towards preserving his "decent" image...

Going Nuts

Going Nuts

It suddenly hit me today that I really don't have much time left before I've to hop onto planes and zip here and there. At the same time I realised that I've got so much I need to do before I zip off. I finally overcame inertia today to actually start packing. I've got heaps and heaps and heaps of stuff and packing is such a major headache. I hate packing...plus I'm shifting flats next year (I don't even know where!) so I've to pack for my upcoming trip around the North Island (RJ I'm totally blaming you for the extra headache), pack for Milan and pack for storage.

Aside from packing there's the whole matter for foreign currency. My parents have been trying to transfer euros into my euro account and there are all these complicated forms to fill in with details you don't have...makes the whole thing so darn complicated. All these silly rules and forms and paperwork...designed juz to make you wanna scream. What's wrong with these banks? I just want my money!!! Why in the world do different countries wanna have different currencies anyway? I swear they do it just to make life difficult and foreigners miserable (especially foreigners with parents who keep texting and calling the whole day regarding one matter or another about the whole money-transfer-currency-conversion-form-filling-in thing). Honestly I'm going nuts! Life would be waaaay simpler if the world ran on 1 common currency.

Daniel Carter Rocks!!

Daniel Carter Rocks!!

Today was Test 2 in the All Blacks vs the British Irish Lions series. The score: 48-18 to the All Blacks (of course!) Since we totally trashed the Lions in last week's test as well, this means we've won the series and don't exactly need to win the last test. Still, it'll be nice to win all 3 tests. Carter was the star of tonight's game. He was so totally awesome!! I've never seen him play like he did tonight. He scored 2 tries and converted every single try save 1 and didn't miss a single penalty...even the ones from the corner! 33 out of the 48 points we got were scored by Carter.

Tonight's game was way more physical than the last test though. The Lions are a nasty lot, kept rucking during tackles i.e. stomping on the All Blacks which is illegal. Last week they deliberately stomped on poor Chris Jack and kicked him too. Tonight, Bryon's face and arm got stomped on. The referees had to break up more fights this time coz de Lions kept picking fights. I think the referee should have given the ruckers and troublemakers a yellow card since they were deliberately trying to injure our players. At least this time the Lions didn't bite our players. Last week one of the Lions literally bit Chris Jack. He was banned from the series of course after that...

Prince William flew down to NZ yesterday to support the Lions in today's and next week's test. His arrival was such a secret that the airport staff didn't even know he was arriving (only the higher powers knew) and the passengers who were on the same plane he was on didn't even realise they were travelling with royalty! The cameras briefly showed Prince William in the spectator stands as they showed other spectators. The commentators didn't even mention him and spectators didn't even bother about him. Clearly, rugby beat royalty hands down. Lol, I would say that Carter was more of a royalty than Prince William... It's a pity though that William came all this way to see the Lions eat dust. Muahahaha

Skating Competition

Skating Competition

My week of non-stop skating is finally over...wow now my blisters can rest!! I've got this huge blister on my left heel and another on my right ankle. Skating with blisters today was agony and I consider it an achievement to have managed to skate properly with the humongous blisters! My left one hurt when I was spinning, the right one hurt when I was landing my jumps... Plus, yesterday when I got in some last minute practice, I fell during the program and hit my knees really hard. It hurt so bad I couldn't move, much less breathe. Needless to say, walking was out of the question. I've never cried from falling in skating, but this time it hurt so bad I did a bit. After all, rebruising my bruises for the 4th time does hurt and my knees now look ghastly.

I was kinda worried that my injury yesterday would make me unable to skate today, but surprisingly I managed to land all of my jumps! Wasn't too sure I could coz during the 6 min warm up I fell while doing the salchow. I did travel while spinning and I kinda mucked up my footwork a little, but it was alright and I managed to finish on time. I came in first in my category although there were only 2 of us in the category...so that wasn't much of a competition. It was all over really really quick...much to my surprise. Anyway I'm glad that's over and my feet can rest and I can break in my skates properly...well till Friday that is.

Back to the Land of the Living!!!!

Back to the Land of the Living!!!!

Exams are OVER!!!!!!!! Yay!!!! So once again I'm back to the land of the living...and I shall worry and stress over my results later. In the meantime, I've got the skating competition to prepare for *panic* and my old skating boots broken down on the right such that when I land after a jump it can't support my ankle so it hurts. Anyway, I had to switch to my new boots, which is potentially disastrous coz I need time to break them in....time I don't have!! Boots usually take a few weeks to break in and I've only got 1 week! I've taken to wearing them around the flat to try and speed up the breaking in process...although I look rather silly.

Funny how you have a tendency to forget that breaking in new boots is always a painful process....still, without them broken in I can't do anything!! I'm sporting this massive bruise that covers almost my whole knee coz I fell while attempting a waltz jump in boot that haven't been broken. It's pathetic....since it's such an easy, no-brainer jump...which only goes to show how awful it would be if I didn't have them sufficiently broken in by competition day. Then I got my blades sharpened and now they're so sharp they're grabbing the ice. While that's fantastic for my edges (I skate great edges now!!) it also means I CAN'T stop...coz I can't turn the blade. My coach suggeested using a piece of wood to dull the edges to skatability which I need to do sometime...probably today.

I can't believe that this is the end of my year in Otago...it went so fast!! Hopefully my semester in Milan won't go as quick...it'll be such a waste otherwise! I haven't really thought about what I'm gonna do for the rest of the holiday...I'll need to pack up my room and clean the flat (coz nobody seems to bother) I'm thinking of getting a short term job...but my plan for the rest of the week goes something like Thursday: skate, Friday: skate, Saturday: skate, Sunday: skate (competition).

Snowed In

Snowed In

It's been snowing on and off since early in the morning today. I was about to leave for my last lecture of the semester when it started snowing really heavily...prob more so since I'm on higher ground. Needless to say I didn't go for my lecture...who wants to walk in heavy snow? I kinda feel bad for missing the lecture...especially since I'm not doing tremendously well in all my 3rd year papers. Sigh

Ok I'm gonna have to start pulling 7 to 12s...or maybe 8 to 12s...ugh! I'm gonna be disappearing for awhile...so if anyone is wondering, I'm gonna be freezing in my room trying to study....

Rugby Super 12

Rugby Super 12

I didn't have the time to make a post on the Super 12 after the finals last Saturday, so I thought I'd just say something now.

The Crusaders WON the Super 12!!! Now the cup is back in NZ...where it belongs really. I only caught the 2nd half of the game, having decided to compromise between studying and watching the finals. I must say that it was a well deserved win...considering the fact that the South African referee was so biased towards Australia! It was soooo annoying how he kept giving the Warratahs the ball even though in some cases the Crusaders didn't actually do anything wrong. Like for example, when Chris Jack tackled a Warratah and pushed him out the boundary, the blasted referee blew the whistle and called for a scrum and gave it to the Warratahs. Geez come on it's rugby you're supposed to tackle and the tackle was perfectly legal too!! Every time the referee blew the whistle, it was to give the ball to the Warratahs...all the way till the 65th minute when he finally decided to be fair! Most of the S. African referees are biased towards Australia though...like honestly biased.

The sad thing though is that Justin Marshall is leaving the Crusaders and the All Blacks to go play for England....he's gonna play for Leeds (traitor!) and Andrew Merton is leaving too (dunno where he's going but he's going). Not too sure if Merton is leaving the All Blacks as well...I wonder though what his dad would think since Merton is "genuine All Black stock" so to speak. Dad was an All Black, granddad was an All Black....

Freedom

Freedom

Finally I get a break...well sorta... Just ended the last of my internal assessments today, which I've been stressing over for the past week. Things are looking good, especially since this week is the last week of lectures. Of course, I've conveniently forgotten that it's coz exams are around the corner and I really should be studying for them, but hey I do think I deserve a break after the last couple of weeks of one internal after the other!!

I must confess though that the last week I haven't been studying as hard as I should have...coz I ended up shopping....online. Yeah, I've discovered the joys of a credit card and ebay. Auctions are pretty exciting and there's so much you can get for a steal, especially in the skating department. Ok, my shopping has all been skating stuff and I ended up purchasing a new pair of skate boots for US$42.50 and they retail for US$355+ in US. They're also new and were a really really good deal! Gosh, I never expected to find such a good deal...even though the postage for US to NZ is costing me US$48.50. Still, I'm getting it for about a quarter of the price. Needless to say, skate boots like these would cost me over $500 here in NZ. It's costing me even less than what I paid for my current pair!! I think I probably won't use them till I attain a higher level though coz they were made for advanced skating and it's kinda a waste to not maximise their potential. I've also got myself a skating dress online and well, although it wasn't as much of a good deal as the skates, it beats paying $70+ to get one here. I'm still looking at skating dresses though...maybe if I get a better deal I could sell the ones I don't want here. That's the joy of the internet, ebay and a paypal account plus the freedom of a credit card 8)!

Fog of Mourning

Fog of Mourning

Weather was awful today...I've never seen fog this thick around here before. I woke up this morning and I thought my window totally fogged up coz I could see about as far as 15m and what was within 15m wasn't too clear. Then I realised tt it was the fog...and although it looked pretty gastly outside, it was quite warm really although such thick fog didn't seem like a good thing. Probably the only thing not so good about fog is that it makes jay walking way more dangerous...as I found out today while walking to church. All u see is this white/gray area down de road and u can't quite see vehicle headlights...till they're kinda near.

It's half past 11 now at night and the fog still hasn't quite cleared...which is fine by me coz it is suited for death and mourning. Sorry for the bleak outlook but I just found out a family friend passed away. He was the priest who baptised me...and I guess I thought he'd always be around. You never fully appreciate someone until that person is gone. Funny how despite it happening over and over, the message to treasure your relationships with those around you never fully sinks in...well it seems like it for me at least.

And here's where you observe a minute of silence in respect of those it have passed away and pray that God grants them eternal rest. May you rest in peace Father Luke.

Testimonies

Testimonies

It's been a really awful week...third year at Uni is just baaaad...what with all the assignments piling up and deadlines to meet. Anyway I thought I'd just share some testimonial humour my lecturer shared with us today in psyc since we're doing stuff on human factors and all...

Here's some true testimonies given by people who have been involved in accidents (most of them pertain to driving since we were studying driving):

"I turned into wrong driveway to a house I thought was mine and hit a tree that I didn't have."

"I thought the window was down, but when I stuck my head out I realised that it wasn't." (ouch!)

"I hit the lamp post because I was trying to avoid the invisible truck that nearly hit me." (my advice: see a psychiatrist for that hallucination problem)

"The pedestrain didn't know which way to run so I just ran him over."

"I hit the lamp post because it was obstructed by humans."

"I ran into the stationary tree that was coming at me from the opposite direction."

Celebrations!!!

Celebrations!!!

Today is a day for celebrations because of 2 things mostly. Firstly, in the Rugby Super 12, the Crusaders beat the Highlanders 27 to 13. It's quite odd really that I'm a Crusaders supporter, considering that the Crusaders are the Christchurch team and the Highlanders are the Otago team. I suppose it's coz my sister is an avid Crusaders fan since Justin Marshall plays for the Crusaders, and also coz the Crusaders are a good team (they have quite a few good All Blacks members). Anyway they were playing on Highlander home ground...which is in the Carisbrook stadium here in Dunedin, but the game didn't go very fast coz it was raining (as it usually is in Dunedin) which made the ground slippery and all.

Second event for celebration: I got the Westpac Travelling scholarship I applied for for my exchange program!!!! It's NZ$2000, but that together with the NZ$1000 travel grant pays for my plane ticket which is fantastic. I'm currently also applying for another scholarship although this one is harder because there's an interview process as well. Still, no harm trying aye? I'm estatic as it is though that I got this scholarship...free cash is always a good thing! 8) 8) 8)

Quakes

Quakes

At 3.40am this morning my sister burst into my room in panic, saying that our house was gonna collapse coz her room was shaking. Half-conscious and none too pleased about being so rudely awaken, I flopped over and told her that she was dreaming and could she please shut my door and let me sleep.

Turns out that no she wasn't dreaming...her room was shaking because of the earthquakes that occurred around 3.35am near Haast. It was only 6 on the Richter scale though and the second one was 5.7, but because they were shallow, we felt them strong enough to be noticeable here...or should I say some of us did (I was out like a light). Apparently the quakes could be felt as far away as Christchurch, according to the newspapers.

Seems like earthquakes are pretty common here...small ones at least. I'm not quite sure I'd like to be around when the big ones hit! Anyway this morning's quakes weren't anything to freak out about...people are scarier than nature really. This point was further emphasized when on my way home today I walked past these two guys and suddenly one of them leaned over and yelled into my face "F****** asians!" Like, wtf?!! What's his problem? Anyway to say I didn't feel one iota of fear would be a blatant lie...duh it's two of them and one of me and both are bigger than me...

I congratulate myself on not making any response whatsoever or showing any reaction to what he yelled...I carried on walking like I didn't hear him...although he pissed me off majorly. Geez! I suppose though that de world is full of bigotted, narrow-minded asses like him so not much one can do about that! I just pity his narrow-mind and pea brain. Still, people are ultimately scarier that nature...you just have to agree!!

Travelling Woes

Travelling Woes

The worst part of travelling has gotta be making the travel arrangements. It's such a headache with so many different options...each with their own problems. I spent an hour with the travel agent the other day discussing several options and it does seem like my time stopping over in Singapore is gonna be cut down by lots. If I managed to get the option I'm aiming for (the most economical!!), I'd be spending less than a week in Singapore on the way to Milan and say 2 or 3 days on the way back!!

On the other hand, whether or not I can get a flight is another thing entirely. It seems like the whole world is travelling to Milan on the dates I wanna travel on! It's crazy!!! I'm now currently on the waiting list for 6 flights (to Rome rather than Milan funnily enough...and then I've gotta deal with trains buses and metros...) and my travel agent also booked me into one which had seats but is the most expensive outta all the options...and that's not even counting the tax!

Taxes...yeah that's another thing I've got issues with. You look at the cost of the flight and then when you manage to convince yourself it isn't entirely too high a price...wham! You get told, "Well actually there are taxes on top of that. Taxes would amount to another $350". Geez! Another $350 does actually make a difference you know? That's like more than a month's rent in NZ and about 2 weeks of rent in Milan!!

Sigh...dealing with airlines is such a headache. Will someone hurry up and invent that teleporting machine please?

Funny Age

Funny Age

It can get quite annoying when people think you're way younger than you really are. I recall trips in the taxi during my secondary school years whereby the drivers ask, "So, it's PSLE this year huh?" or something along those lines (For those who don't know, PSLE stands for Primary School Leaving Examination). On the rare occasion though, it can be quite funny...like Monday when I went for a skate practice.

I was as usual trying to work on that darn one-foot spin (which I still can't do properly) and as usual there are these kids who come up to talk. Anyway there was this boy...teenager say 14 or 15? He was trying to learn hockey stops and all on his own and I don't recall how, but we started talking and like we'd talk off and on... There were these two other girls...probably about 12 and they came up to ask me to do certain stuff (yeah I somehow end up entertaining kids too) and tell me I'm really good (although as usual I try and tell them the truth...that I'm really bad, but they never listen). So they skate around and come up to talk to me occasionally as well.

Ok here comes the hilarious part:
I had just finished another of those off-on conversations with that boy when the two girls come up to me and ask, "Do you know that boy?", 'that boy' being the one I'd been speaking to on and off. I told her I'd just met him today. The next question took me completely by surprise. She asked, "Do you like that boy?" (it was obvious she meant 'like' as in 'interested romantically' or something to that effect). Honestly I was kinda speechless for awhile (like duh! I'm like at least 5 years older than him and he's so obviously a kid). Then I laughed and told her, "He's too young for me! I'm gonna be 20 this year."

Oops, I lied, THIS is de really hilarious part. It was the shock on their faces after I told them how old I was. The girl who asked me even gasped and covered her mouth in shock. I really couldn't stop laughing, although I guess she must have been pretty embarassed, but hey! You don't go asking someone you'd only just met a question like that without setting yourself up for trouble. I asked her how old she thought I was...and she said "I thought you were like 14 or something!" Anyway she skated up to the boy and told him (I did see them speak to him once before earlier, but they don't know him). Then he came up to me and asked, "You talk to other skaters because you can learn stuff from them aye?" I said yes of course. It felt kinda like he was trying to show the girls that talking to me didn't mean that he liked me, but it seemed to me that the girls clearly had gotten the wrong idea.

Actually I was gonna ask the girl if she liked him, because why else would she ask me a question like that? But then I figured she'd already been embarassed enough. I don't blame her if she did have a crush on him though, coz he looked like one of those guys who'd grow up to be a looker. Now if he had an older brother my age...........lol the brother would probably already have a girlfriend! 8p

Skating Social Perks

Skating Social Perks

Figure-skating isn't exactly the most social of all sports. You skate solo and learn solo from your coach, at different times from others, learn at different paces, do different things...so practice is pretty much a solo thing as well.

While in Singapore, you'd be pretty unlikely to meet anyone on ice (which doesn't say very much for friendliness of people there), it's great here in Dunedin. Since getting back on ice, I've met quite a lot of people, mostly during public skate sessions. Seems like if you can skate resonably, people like to come up to you to get to know you. Strange huh? As far as I can recall, I've met someone every single public skate session I've been down to, and these people I've gotten to know range from 6 to 50+ years.

Like today, I met this guy, Keith, who does figure-skating as well. From what I gathered he used to be really good, but he stopped skating for ages and only recently started again. He's looking for a skating partner to do skate-dancing and he wants to eventually enter the NZ Championships. He asked me to consider becoming his partner and I'm actually thinking maybe I'd give it a go. Doing tango and the likes of it on ice sounds fun....not too sure about his ambition to get into the NZ Championships though...I'm not quite up to scratch! Also, there's a category problem. He's 50+ and that puts him in the Masters Category which is for those 25 and above, while I'm neither here nor there really... Anyway Deanna's coaching him as well so I might just ask her about it.

Aside from meeting people, another good thing about skating during public sessions is that people give you a space...I usually use the centre of the rink. So more or less you have an area that is "yours"...most of the time anyway (the hockey skaters barge in and charge everywhere). Of course, you have the occasional poor unfortunate soul who falls into your space.

A third controversial "perk" would probably be that the kids worship you. They actually come up and go "Wow! You're really good." While I must say that it's flattering, it is kinda embarassing at the same time...that is if you aren't really that good, comme moi! Then there are those who ask if you can teach them stuff...the most popular of all being how to spin (why am I not surprised?). I do try to teach them, but it's kinda hard when they aren't too stable skating forward in the first place...and most can't stop. It's like teaching a horse to jump when it can't even walk (Ok that's a lousy analogy, but I'm quite brain dead from tiredness). Still, whatever makes them happy, although I don't quite know what to say when they attempt to do what I demonstrate and can't do it and then laugh (or scream...a rather horrifying experience for my ears which I hope never to repeat) saying "I can't do it!" Well...duh...

Despite all the "perks" and the social bits of a not-very-social sport, I must say that nothing can really beat being on ice...alone...with the whole rink to yourself. It's like a whole different (albeit anti-social) world...you juz gotta love it. 8)

Deformities

Deformities

Today I found out why I've been having so much trouble skating on my left outside-edge. It's coz my leg is munted...or rather my ankle is. Apparently my ankle is crooked and somehow I can't lean in to my left on that foot. *sob*

According to my coach it is quite "bizzare" and she recommended that I see this pilates guy who can find out which muscles I'm not using and then work out a training program or something. It would however cost me about $200 to try and correct it and when I last checked my bank account, it was under $20. Yes, under $20!!! I can't believe it myself....I've to wait till Thursday when the NZ govt once again hands me my weekly allowance. It's so sad, I can't even pay the electricity bill till then!

Anyway, financial problems aside, I wonder if I can practice enough to accommodate for the munted ankle... The weird thing is that I walk on the outside edge of my shoe. We looked at my shoes today and it wasn't worn on the inside while the outside edge was falling apart. I don't recall ever walking that way though, but walking around today I've consciously been trying to walk more on the inside edge.

The Dunedin skating club is holding its annual club competition and the coach has asked if I wanted to take part, which would give me something to work towards and we could work out a program. I'm supposed to select music...I'm not too sure what kind of music I should pick though although I'm quite in favour of the opening of 'Carmen' by Bizet and some of Strauss's waltzes... But I'm gonna have to really work on that darn outside-edge. It's screwing up my footwork!!! I've decided that I will somehow do it....or die trying...probably will die anyway, from all the bruises.

Myriad of Faces

Myriad of Faces

My social psychology lecture today struck a chord. The lecturer was talking about selves and the self concept and how we are different people in different situations. The funny thing was that I was just thinking about it the other day, during one of the times when I randomly think about the more philosophical aspects of life.

Anyway, I digress. Reflecting on the whole issue about different selves, I suppose I've got many selves and sort of multiple personalities, as do most people (just to assure you I'm not crazy!). I reckon it'll be interesting to be able to be in the mind of someone else for awhile just to find out how they view me, be it positive or negative, although certainly I'd rather a positive view!

While I am aware that I do have different faces, I've never actively considered when I put on different masks. Masks. Are they really? Or are they a part of me? Sometimes you put on a 'mask' and you feel like you are wearing one, yet if you can put it on, is it not you? The lecturer mentioned the 'actual self', that being what you truly are. I wonder though, how many people actually know what or who they truly are, considering how complex the self is. It's a connundrum I suppose...although it makes you wonder what happens if you finally figure it all out? Perhaps by then you'd be at the end of life's road.

In the meantime, I guess it's way easier to focus on the simpler stuff in life, like getting over with the next assignment. And we continue shifting in and out of differnt selves, putting on the various faces the situation calls for. The show must go on after all.

Time Tunnels

Time Tunnels

It's rather scary sometimes just how fast time passes. It only seems like such a short while ago that I began uni life. Once in awhile I get that feeling of astonishment that hey I'm an undergrad already! It's like things have shifted and moved so far ahead without you noticing and when you finally stop and take a look around it's strange how much has changed, as if you've fallen through a time tunnel into another reality. Have you ever felt that way?

I mean I never would have thought that I'd actually be here in NZ, living on my own, setting up my own home and all. I never thought that I'd actually grow up this much and become this independent. Its not that I'd never considered the possibility. It was just distant. But here I am and looking back, the difficulty of leaving all I've previously known and moving to a new continent is a distant memory. I can't quite imagine going back to my old life. It's like I'm a totally new person.

It makes me wonder though what would happen in the future which is likely to come straight at you without you realising it. Right now as a student I can honestly say that I can't fathom not being a student. The 'real' world out there seems scary. I'm gonna be graduating in 2 years...and then what next? It doesn't feel like even with all this education I have the skills to be able to go out there, into the 'real' world, and get a job based on my degree. I don't feel I'm anywhere prepared for that!! Not for doing something on a higher level...despite all the goals and dreams.

I guess I'll learn to jump that hurdle when I get to it. Right now the upcoming hurdle would be jumping another continent...onto Europe - Italy, which is more challenging, considering it's not an English-speaking country... Or maybe it's wiser if I just ended here and concentrated on jumping the minor hurdle in the form of an upcoming test for one of my psyc papers next week...8p

Connected

Connected

It's funny how much we tend to take things for granted and you never realise how much you miss something until you no longer have it. I've also just realised how much I've come to rely on technology. It's all good and well to say that 'sure I can live without the internet, the tv, the cellphone' while you still have them, but when push comes to shove, you find it's like missing a limb.

The phone company finally connected me to broadband today. It's great, like I've finally got an arm back coz it means I can now work at night and access online journal articles from home. It also means I can once again socialise in the cyber world with those miles away. I think I appreciate having the internet a lot more after not having the convenience of it 24 hours a day for 3 months. I'm quite certain though that I can't quite live without it.

Another can't-live-without piece of technology would be the cellphone. I really felt quite uncomfortable not having it. It was not very pleasant to realise after I came down to campus that I'd left it at home. My phone is like a secretary of sorts and a form of social connection. Without it, there's this feeling of loss and disconnection from the rest of the world (ok maybe I'm stretching it slightly but you get the idea)...

Bottom line is, technology pretty much runs our lives...or mine at least...even when you don't want it to! So much for total independence... 8p

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!!!

First Day

First Day

Semester has officially begun, with cold weather to suit the end-of-holiday mood. Well, sort of. There are so many people crawling all over campus now and I've just had my first lecture of the year for my psyc paper in forensic and applied psychology. The lecturer informed us that there were way too many of us taking that paper (190 of us) for a 3rd year paper. They like to keep 3rd year classes small so they can give you more attention. Anyway, she said that she's gonna try and scare as many people into dropping the paper as possble...not a very good start for the year.

After attending that lecture, I must admit that I'm a little afraid that I've "bitten off more than I can chew" as the expression goes, what with taking 3 3rd year papers and doing 3rd year psyc before 2nd year. I calculated my expected workload and I'm gonna have to put in about 7 hrs of study per day, not including lectures and labs and tutorials. It's horrifying!

Aside from that, it also dawned on me recently that I'm gonna be taking the same 2nd year psyc paper as my sister next year coz I'm doing 2nd year psyc in my 3rd year and she'll be a 2nd year then. Argh!!! Thankfully I'm only doing 1 paper though and hopefully we won't have the same lab. I can juz imagine what lectures would be like... *shudder*

I hope the day gets better coz things aren't quite on a positive start. I'm also starting to hate the weatherman....he keeps predicting bad weather.

2nd Year

2nd Year

I had my prelim lectures today, which consist of introductions to the lecturers and telling you what's gonna happen in the paper. I can't believe classes start on Monday. Summer vacation is over!!!! I wish it went for longer especially since I only finished summer school exams 2 days ago.

Anyway, it's nice being a 2nd year. You see all these 1st years walking around (some looking kinda lost) on campus. Haha. Ok I'm really not that mean, especially since I'm volunteering with the student support program to mentor a first year. I hope I get a nice mentee who wouldn't have too many problems!!

I got my timetable today too...it sucks. Honestly, I hate my timetable this year. They didn't have the decency to clump classes together, but rather distributed it throughout the day...which means I don't end early. I've also currently got a 3 hour lab from 4pm to 7pm on Tuesday. It's a problem especially coz that clashes with the figure-skating classes I intend to take now that the ice-rink in Dunedin has reopened. There are several other lab times but unfortunately the only other option I can make would be 6pm to 9pm Thursdays, which stink for 2 main reasons. 1) It's so late!!! and 2) It's on Thursday. Reason 1 is not too bad, Reason 2 on the other hand really does need further consideration. Why? Coz of datelines for lab reports. The dateline don't change regardless of when your lab is on and you can't do a lab report first without doing the lab now can you? So if your lab's on Thursday, you've basically got less days to work on the report.....which sucks..

The only passably good day I have is Friday...I end classes at 1pm and I've only got 2 classes. Looking at my timetable, I forsee myself having no life whatsoever this semester...sigh. Not much I can really do though so I guess I'm gonna do all my partying this weekend. We're having a flat party tonight and gonna go clubbing tomorrow night and then it's back to classes. I'm not looking forward to it (well kind of, maybe).

Course Disapproval

Course Disapproval

I really didn't know what in the world I was getting into when I decided last year that I'll do a combined honours degree in psyc and marketing. It really hasn't been easy to get the required approval for doing that degree and well, I'm what they call a "problem child".

I have mentioned earlier of all the red tape and stuff I needed to cut through. You'd think after all that trouble and getting a signed approval paper (though not official) things would go smooth. Yeah. Right.

I did my course approval process Tues....started off thinking things wouldn't go too bad until I went to the psyc department to try and get my papers approved... The very first thing they said when I told them I'm doing a combined honours in marketing and psyc was, "No you can't do that!" You would think that after hearing the same lines so many times since last year, I'd be immune to it. Or so I thought. Anyway then came a 1/2 hr of checking with those higher up if it was possible and after much debate, they signed me in...with a whole lot of surprise that I could actually do a combined honours cross faculty. Of course I could have told them that, but they didn't really believe me when I said I'd already seen the people higher up and gained approval.

Ok so maybe a small hiccup and things would go smoothly. Haha, wrong again. When I went to submit the form to complete course approval, the computer refused to register me and the girl doing it had to call for help. The first thing said when the administrative officer saw my combined honours degree form was...not too hard to guess...."No you can't do that!" Honestly, I was ready to cry. I mean how many rejections can a person handle? Well, it all got sorted out eventually when she made phonecalls and checked with people higher up and stuff. But the computer still wouldn't accept it so they had to do it manually later on.

Sigh...the only good thing is that I'm probably gonna be the only person graduating with a combined honours in marketing and psyc coz from all looks, nobody has done it before. At least that's what they keep telling me....

Exams

Exams

I've got an exam today! ARGH!!! Ok actually it's french so it isn't too bad...I think. Marketing is on Wed & that's one nasty paper. So dead so dead so dead.

One piece of good news in the week...I've finally got all my furniture installed in my room!! Got my new mattress too!! Say goodbye to backaches from a way-too-thin-you-can-feel-the-bed-slats mattress. Got my dresser which has a humongous mirror...a gigantic step up from de tiny make-up mirror I was using b4! It's a really pretty dresser....if only it wasn't bright orange. When I say bright orange I really mean bright bright orange. I'll take photos of my room after exams & post them here...I'm rather happy with my room.

ARGH!! Exams!! Ok I'd better go study....

Examen Oral de Français

Examen Oral de Français

Aujourd'hui matin, j'ai un examen oral de français. Cet examen a été quinze minutes et il a allé très rapide. Il n'a pas été très difficile. Ma professeur de français s'est renseignée sur ma famille et l'avenir, ce qui été un peu difficile mais j'espère je ferai bien! L'examen final français vient, donc je pratique parle en français. Désolé pour mon français mal...

Ouch!

Ouch!

I spent almost $300 today purchasing a new mattress for my bed...it's a nice spring mattress, but there's now a hold in my pocket which hurts. I wonder if I could have gotten somthing cheaper. Argh! Why are beds so expensive here? My furniture all in all has cost me just about $600...everything is 2nd hand aside from the mattress. I'm quite happy with all the stuff I've got although my account is being bled dry.

I've also just realised that technically I'm no longer being supported by my parents. Gosh, I feel so old... My tuition fees and textbooks are being paid for by the student loan I applied for from the NZ govt & the govt also gives me $160 per week (which thankfully I don't have to return!!) for living expenses. It's enough to pay for rent, food, electricity with a bit to save. I can see why there's no way you can't survive in NZ coz as long as you get about $160 per week of income, you'd be sweet. Obviously though, you're gonna have to do without extravagant luxuries, but it's possible.

I was thinking of getting a job though, but I've yet to find one that suits me...I need a solely weekend job although I wonder if I would be too busy when semester starts to juggle study and a job. Wonder if I could get a part-time job in Milan...it'll be good to earn in euros considering that living costs are really high there. I just might have to borrow $$ from my dad...eeps...so much for independence.

Trash Day

Trash Day

It's a deceptively warm day today (i.e. it looks warm but it's cold) & it's also trash day. You can tell some of what the occupants of a flat are like juz by looking at their trash...or rather what they dump in their recycling bins. Like you know who are the party people...highly likely students, coz they'd have heaps and heaps of beer bottles in their recycling bin. You also know which is their favourite brew... As each flat is only given 1 recycling bin, those with more than 1 stole bins from the neighbours. Actually ours got stolen by someone & we took someone else's & labelled it ours with a permanent marker.

I had to get up pretty early this morning to take out the trash before collection time and it's not because we forgot to put it out last night. We found out the hard way that if you put your trash out the night before, some miscreant come during the night and rips a hole at the bottom of your trash bag to look for food, then your trash doesn't get collected. The city council is pretty fussy about how your trash is presented for collection. They don't collect it unless it's properly tied up in one of the council trash bags you purchase for about $1 per bag at the supermarkets. Beside this, the bag can't have a hole, if it does they don't collect it. If it's not tied, they won't collect it.

The previous 2 weeks we ended up having to use another bag to put the trash in because of the hole...which meant we ran outta trash bags fast. So I guess our choices are to wake up early or to pay (in trash bags) for extra sleep!! Now, if I had a gun and caught that animal who has been making those holes....

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Once again it's the florists and gift store proprietors' favourite time of the year. It's horrendous how much they're charging for flowers and gifts. I walked past this florist yesterday and 2 roses cost a whooping $25!!! Do you know how many meals you could buy for that amount?

My flatmate basically went crazy...she went all out to make this choc, lolly, biscuit house for her bf and was up till like 5am for a couple of days making it. She also spent alot of money on it. The result looks fantastic, but unfortunately it can't be eaten despite being made out of edibles...coz well, she used superglue. But anyway, I think she'll be pretty glad that vday has finally arrived and all considering the amount of time and money she threw into making the perfect present. In any case, we won't be seeing her around the flat till really late tonight.

This is a perfect time to spend with friends and all for those who are single, I reckon. Unfortunately for me, I'm gonna be spending time with the textbooks...or rather lecture notes since I have no textbooks for marketing, what with the exams being next week and all.

People are starting to return from the summer break and it's kinda weird seeing so many people around campus now and the computer labs pretty much filled. I really need to get that internet connection so I dun have to rely so much on the filled computer labs!!!

Degrees & Red Tape

Degrees & Red Tape

It's another nasty dreary rainy cold day...and exams are in 2 weeks...well less than that. I wonder if they'll kick me out of the honours program if I don't do well in my marketing 202 paper. That would be a disaster considering all de trouble I went through to settle and get approval for my degree. The uni is pretty flexible especially since I wanna do a combined honours but there's alot of red tape and paper work to go through. I've had to see alot of 'high-ranking' people in both the departments of psychology and marketing and have spent hours talking with them...

Lots of stuff can go wrong with a complicated degree that requires special permission for practically every paper. I wonder sometimes why I'm making life difficult for myself...like why don't I just do an ordinary degree? I start panicking every time something goes wrong...I think my lifespan has been shortened by quite a bit since.

Life-shortening Experience 1
Last year I emailed the psyc HOD to ask for special permission to do 3rd year psyc this year and do 2nd year psyc next year instead coz I wanted to go on exchange in 2nd semester and so I couldn't take psyc papers in 2nd semester. Anyway I mentioned I intended to do a combined honours degree in marketing and psyc. To my horror, he emailed back saying I couldn't do a combined honours degree in marketing and psyc coz it was 2 different faculties and u can only do a combined honours within the same faculty. Well if you had planned out your entire degree and took papers towards that degree you would have panicked like I did after being told that you can't do that degree. I emailed him to explain my "special situation" and arranged to see him and we managed to work something out so all was good on the condition that I maintain my grades and get admitted into the honours program for both marketing and psyc.

Life-shortening Experience 2
As I said my degree was conditional on my getting into honours for both marketing and psyc. So when I got an invitation to apply for psyc but not for marketing I panicked. I emailed the marketing department and asked why I didn't qualify. Anyway it was some time before they emailed me back to say that I did meet the criteria and they didn't know why I didn't receive an invitation, but I could download it off de school of business website and post it. So I did.

Life-shortening Experience 3
I wanted to do a combined honours with psyc as a science subject rather than an arts subject. However, this year the honours coordinator for psyc send me a letter saying that I've got into honours, but it would be under arts coz I didn't have enough points worth of science papers. Yep it's true I didn't have enough, but there was no way I could have had more science points given that I had to do marketing papers as well and I was taking the maximum course load. I emailed the honours coordinator to ask how I could get into the science honours roll and she had to check with the head of science faculty to see if they could make a special exception. And they did, but it took some time.

I am hoping that all will go smoothly from now, but it prob won't. I, however, now know why so many people choose to do med, or dentistry or pharmacy...it's easy...you have your whole degree planned out for you...

Oh wait! There's a moral to the story...and the moral is: Email is the most wonderful invention for helping to ease life-shortening experiences pertaining to complicated degrees. 8p

Happy New Year Zzzz...

Happy New Year Zzzz...

I am sorely in need of sleep. Last night I couldn't get to sleep till 2am despite not sleeping the whole night before. I was lying in bed trying to sleep and counted de number of hours I've been awake...and de lucky number was 41.

For those who are wondering why in the world I didn't sleep, blame the marketing department and the fact that I don't have a printer at home. My assignment was due this morning, but I had to finish it by yesterday morning so I could print it out before my classes and drop it off on time...wouldn't have had time to print it out and get it in this morning otherwise.

Ok, so maybe it was my fault too for procrastinating. But well the assignment was soooo boring and I believe it took me far longer to complete than the other coz I had to draw like 7 charts and even with Photoshop's ability to record actions it took hours. I think I spent on average about 3 hours per chart and I've not even counted the writing of the report!! I hope I made some sense in it coz you never know what weird stuff you might end up writing when your brain is fried.

The funny thing was that despite not having slept for so long, I was kinda perky albeit a little lightheaded de whole day. I stayed awake during both my lectures (had 4 hrs worth) and I think I even did retain some of de lecture material. I was quite amazed since the previous times when I pulled all-nighters to complete assignments (marketing of course!) I was zombified the next day. Strange...

Anyway it was CNY yesterday and there wasn't anything special really. It was juz another ordinary day here in Dunedin...aside from the fact that the weather has turned foul again. But well Happy New Year to those who had a celebration. I'm hoping that they celebrate CNY properly with all de foodstuffs in Milan next year, otherwise 3 years without CNY food is quite terrible to comtemplate...

Flood

Flood

We had a really heavy downpour which went on for quite some time yesterday. Actually it should probably be called a storm. The glass roof of the commerce building where I had my marketing lecture leaks like crazy...so when it rained yesterday you basically needed an umbrella just to cross inside the building!! The leaks were so bad, at one part a mini-waterfall had been established coz the water was coming through as if someone was standing on de roof pouring buckets of water down. It was that bad. We also literally had rapids (no kidding) down the wide flight of stairs between the third (on ground level) and second floor. Honestly I've never seen anything like that before...within a building too!! They had to shut off that entrance coz there was way too much water at the steps and gushing from the "waterfall" near the entrance. I doubt any sane person would actually want to use that exit anyway coz there's no way you could have stayed dry.

This morning a lot of shops have closed for the day (possibly the week)coz it flooded pretty bad in town yesterday. Quite a few of them are also offering jobs for helping to shift stuff and dry out de carpet etc. Lectures and tutes held in the commerce building have been moved to other parts of de uni for de week coz the building got flooded...surprise surprise. The ironic thing is that the commerce building is one of the most modern buidings (and ugliest) on campus. Doesn't say much about modern architecture aye? Especially when the 136 year old buildings are still solid and don't leak. The commerce building is famous for leakages and broken limbs (from people falling down de stairs which gets very slippery when wet...a leaking roof doesn't help keep it dry in de building)....it's a pretty dangerous place. Too bad though that rain doesn't cancel anything....I dun suppose you could get rained in...unlike snow... 8p

Thin Walls & Flatmates

Thin Walls & Flatmates

It's amazing how thin the walls in my flat are. You can hear everthing going on in de adjoining rooms. My room is beside de bathroom and I can hear everything anyone does in there...pretty much. It's not very pleasant really coz it means that if one of my flatmates chooses to take a shower at half past 7 in de morning I get woken up by de sound of de shower...which has happened a couple of times.

I suppose it's worse for my sister though coz her room adjoins my other flatmate's room and her brother moved in with us over the weekend and is sharing her room till the end of the year. Basically my sister is kept awake by the conversation between de 2 of them in de next room should they decide to talk while she's trying to sleep.

All in all though I suppose it isn't so bad. Could be worse, like if you had a sexually active flatmate...and paper thin walls. Last year, one of my flatmates flatted out with a sexually active friend. Let's just say she heard lots of stuff through her walls that she really didn't wanna hear and heard enough to know that her flatmate wasn't getting much sleep.

Anyway, Peter arrived this morning so de flat is full now. It's gonna be interesting with so many people in de flat. He didn't cut his hair and with his beret-cap and his red hair, I told him he looked like a typical English kid...except you can't really call him a kid at 1.8++m. But he looked like an English newspaper boy...all that was missing was a bicycle. He doesn't intend to cut his hair throughout the year...I really wonder how that would turn out...I might make him cut it if it looks too horrendous, but we'll see...

Furniture

Furniture

Weather seems to be pretty crazy lately. It was really foggy all over the whole of yesterday, not juz up in the hills where I am, but also in town which is at de very bottom. You can juz see the fog swirling about and it's kinda depressing.

Anyway, got my furniture yesterday thanks to my sister's homestay, or should I say, ex-homestay parent. She really a darling, borrowed the yewt from her workplace to drive down and help move all our furniture...well what we bought anyway. Then came the arduous process of carting all the furniture pieces up the stairs to my room and then re-assembling them. Had some trouble with the screws on the bed coz some screws got mixed up with those my sister had, resulting in missing screws for mine. The bed was relatively easy to assemble though. It was my desk that gave quite a bit of problem...mainly coz de pieces were heavy and there are some weird cams that don't tighten very well. I also didn't have a big enough screwdriver but thankfully de screws mostly needed an Alan Key so it wasn't too bad.

My room now ooks a whole lot better, aside from de fact that I have to get a new mattress for de bed coz the one that came with it was far too thin. But the room's a whole lot neater with furniture in. Now I'll juz have to go about procuring a dresser, some drawers and a bookshelf for myself and then ask my sister's homestay parent for help...again. Oh well, it's fortunate we know some nice people who can drive stuff that can carry furniture.

Ugh!

Ugh!

Juz got my marketing assignment yesterday. Whoopee...another 10 page report, another 1 week dateline. Isn't it juz fantastic? This one's harder (why am I not surprised)...it's some research thing where we need to come up with de research ourselves from de case. Gave us like 3 pages of stuff...bah!

On top of that, my furniture is ready to be moved in today. Guess when I got notice? TODAY. Great! Brilliant! What in de world do they expect me to do on such a short notice? I need to go rent a trailer, get someone to drive, people to help carry de furniture etc. Sounds like I've got it all worked out aye? Yeah right. These things need time and I can't quite go out and settle all this when I've got classes till 6pm. Argh!! Stupid stupid people.....

No Life!!!

No Life!!!

Last night it occurred to my flatmates and I that we were really in a pathetic state of having nothing better to do. The days have been consumed by work, but at night there isn't much to do unless you go out clubbing and stuff (which is more appealing now that smoking in clubs has been banned. In any case, we're not really party people so mostly nights are spent sitting around in the kitchen after dinner talking about random stuff and laughing our heads off. There's this chair in the kitchen we're convinced has something in it. The pattern has been that whoever sits in that chair becomes crazy...

Anyway, the night before, 3 of us were sitting in front of the tv watching Extreme Makeovers: Home Edition with our dinner on our laps....and crying over the programme coz it was so touching. My sister was crying so hard she couldn't eat. We used up like 50 pieces of tissue.... Last night we sat in the kitchen for hours practicing tying a knot with the cherry stalk in our mouths. We had a whole bagful of cherries (most of which were stalkless as of this morning) and pawed through the bag looking for longer stalks to use. The result? Yep managed to get the stalks in knots although the stalks came out black from being mangled rather than the green they originally were. One of my flatmates also accidentally chewed a stalk into half. Well now that makes for a very interesting night huh? Sigh....

Mousetraps

Mousetraps

My marketing tute last week was rather...interesting. Basically we learnt all about mousetraps and we were supposed to design a better mousetrap than all those currently out in the market. I don't suppose mousetraps are very common in Singapore are they? I don't recall seeing one in the supermarkets...

Anyway, it's rather cruel and gruesome really how people kill mice. Mostly the traps work to crush their skulls and it's all bloody and stuff. That's for the standard mousetrap anyway. Newer ones promise you don't see the dead mouse staring at you and you can remove it without touching it. I suppose if the mouse stares at you you'd feel guilty about killing it (and so horribly too!!). Mind you, I like mice. I think they're cute, but I guess not everyone would share the same sentiments...like my flatmate. She's terrified of mice.

The mousetraps I've seen are painful....especially if your finger springs the trap. I wouldn't know first-hand how that would feel but my pen cap flew across the room when I used my pen to poke at the trap. One of the interesting ablbeit most cruel ones (in my opinion) was this spider-looking thing which "strangled" the mice apparently and allows you to catch more than one in the trap. It operates on the rationale that when the mouse sticks its head in one of the holes and springs the trap (which doesn't kill it instantly, but rather strangles it slowly), other mice seeing it still alive and it's head in the hole for a long time would go check out what that mouse was looking at or eating and thus get trapped in the other holes. I dunno if it works but the mere idea of it is cruel.

As for designing a better mousetrap, well, I'd like to say that my design is more humanitarian....or 'mousitarian' ensuring the mouse dies instantly. Whether or not it really does work, I wouldn't have a clue nor would I like to try really. As I said before, I like mice.

Finished!!!

Finished!!!

Finally, FINALLY my marketing assignment is done & I can now breathe properly and sleep properly for a couple of days...until the next one. The silly lecturer had us do a 10 page report on how you would go about re-branding a wine endorsement system. He keeps giving us products we know nothing about...$%*!#@$^!!! PLUS 10 pages isn't enough for the amount of detail he wanted from us and how in the world do you fit basically info from all the other sections and more into 1 page...which was supposed to be a graphic design brief. Sheesh! Ok I guess most wouldn't get what I'm ranting about but in short, the assignment sucked.

It was quite "funny" (if you can call it that) yesterday at around 2am when we decided that our flat should be called House of the Dead. Why? 3 of us - Lucy, my sister and I were zombified, & brain-dead from being overworked. They were studying for an exam, which was this morning, & I was working on that assignment of course(what else could I be doing?). The rabbit was de only one who was well-rested....lazy b******d....

On the upside, once again it's a nice summery day with sky so blue it hurts your eyes and not a cloud in the sky...yada yada... I think we're having a delayed summer. While the warmth is nice, I must say though that summer really eats up your time. Sun sets at like 9pm and so it's nice and bright outside and you THINK you have alot of time. Before you know it de time has gone and you dun have much of the day left...a very dangerous thing if you have assignments...

Anyway I'm hungry...or as de French would say j'ai faim and I've to go print that assignment, so salut for now...

French

French

I have still yet to get internet connection in my flat, which is proving to be quite a pain coz I like working at night & now I've to go down to campus early in the mornings to use the internet for my assignments. Argh!

Well the good news is that we're finally having summer...the bright sun, wear sunglasses kinda summer plus it's warm too!! It kinda sucks that I've to be indoors in classes though when it's nice & warm outside. We did have French class out in de sun one time though coz we were telling our French lecturer/tutor that it was so nice and bright and sunny outside we wanted to go out. So we finished de lesson on de sunny steps of the Central Library.

Oh, there's this cute Russian guy in my French class...from St Petersburg...for anyone interested to know. Never spoke to him but he's nice to look at. lol There are heaps of asians in the class though, and random personality types. It's pretty interesting watching people. Like there's this guy who's a musician and he come to class wearing really weird clothes. Looks like something he made himself. One time he came wearing a red thing (I can't quite call it a shirt coz it really wasn't one but it functioned the same way a shirt does...somewhat) and then there were scraps of tattered black cloth safety pinned all over. There were many many many safety pins and I suppose I could have counted them if I'd bothered. Anyway the whole get-up looked pretty strange but I suppose that suits him. It's probably some kind of artistic expression...

Summer

Summer

Haven't exactly been updating my blog very much since I've been back in NZ. A good reason would be that we've yet to get internet connection in my flat. Aside from the lack of technology within the flat, I've yet to obtain furniture for my room. Currently I'm sleeping on de sofa-mattress thingy that de previous tenants left us & I'm working off de floor...well once I went downstairs to de kitchen to do my work but it gets kinda cold downstairs coz de kitchen is so big.

Undeterred by the fact that I don't have a bed, I went our yesterday to The Warehouse & bought over $100 worth of stuff for my room, de bulk of which was bedding stuff like sheets & a duvet & duvet covers & all. I still wanna get another set of sheets though...looking for lime green sheets which The Warehouse had but wasn't in a set, which would cost more coz it's like $9 for a flat sheet, $9 for a fitted sheet & $7 for a pillowcase. Anyway all de bedding stuff is still in it's packaging in a corner of my room. Oh & I got this really nice rug...it's fuzzy & it's blue & lime green...

My sister finally decided to move in with us...(her rabbit moved in a couple of days before she did) & so now de TV gets used alot. She has also planned all our lunches for de whole of this week & refuses to allow me to touch anything to make dinner!!! Coz it would muck up her plans....nevermind that we've got enough food for like 2 weeks.

Speaking of food & the rabbit, de rabbit is nasty & violent. Sure it looks cute & sweet & innocent but it's evil. It bit my other flatmate, Lucy & scratched me pretty badly when we tried to catch it to put it back into it's hutch. After which, Lucy & I were more than happy to have rabbit stew. The rabbit is a good weed-killer though, it seems to like eating de weeds that grow among our herb patch (we've got mint, chives & some other herb...). Some of de weeds actually come from de garden next door & next door is still empty. I planted lettuce & an assortment of flowers de other day so until they start sprouting we don't have to keep de rabbit away from them yet.

Well, I've gotta go make a couple of phonecalls & stuff now...de list of things I've to do is still endless & I've a French test today that I hopefully won't screw up so I'll juz end here for now.

The True Story Part II

The True Story Part II

And the story continues...

So we headed to the 32 bus stop from Parkway to get to Siglap. Along the way Mr Teo bought a bag of guavas...coz he believes strongly in healthy eating. Anyway it wasn't long before de bus arrived & we boarded it, with Mr Teo claiming that he was a model citizen all the while eating his guavas in the bus!! I kindly pointed out the fact that model citizens obey the "No Eating & Drinking" signs posted in the public bus (coz we know Mr Teo's command of the English language is weak & I'm positively sure that he doesn't comprehend the meaning of 'model citizen'). Mr Teo however showed no inclination to stop eating (coz as I mentioned earlier his English isn't very good & thus he probably didn't have a clue of what I was trying to say in ENGLISH)...he pointed out that de bus driver couldn't see him so it was ok. Following that logic, if you kill someone & noone sees you, guess what? It's ok. Now if anyone wants to kill Mr Teo I'm sure everyone would say they didn't see anything...so then it would be ok (Therefore Mr Teo is free for anyone who wants to kill).

Arriving at Siglap, we proceeded to the Cheesecake Cafe for dessert. Surprisingly Mr Teo was more than willing to indulge in cheesecake which is *gasp* not healthy food! He made a weak attempt to protect his waistline (under the guise of protecting mine...it was a very poor guise) by saying he wouldn't order a chocolate cheesecake & go for peach instead. If anyone is wondering why this is considered a weak protection it's coz cheesecakes are fattening anyway...a bit of chocolate really doesn't make much of a difference. In line with his newly acquired "pot-bellied, lecherous uncle" status, Mr Teo also ordered himself a pot of tea & some warm water...all that was missing was the hairy mole on his cheek & the newspaper.

I can't quite recall what our conversation was but I do recall Mr Teo did make an attempt to talk about expanding wasitlines & exercise & healthy diets...for awhile. If there was any intelligent conversation....it was on my part. lol Well we kinda juz sat there talking till we got smoked out literarily by this couple sitting beside us who also happened to have a taste for snails. I shan't give my view on that coz then I'd never finish writing this, but to summarize it....ugh! Mr Teo has eaten snails before though & in a rare moment we actually came to an agreement that snails are icky & overpriced.

Anyway after we got smoked out Mr Teo suggested a walk so we kinda started heading in de direction of my place & we were walking along Frankel Ave when he suggested going by de Siglap connector. He said there was a road joining Frankel to de Siglap connector. Well one would expect that Mr Teo, having haunted de area for such a long time would know de way & all, which perfectly justifies me following him. BIG mistake on my part (n anyone else's who chooses to follow him). We ended up walking along Dunbar St (is tt the right street name?) and hit a dead end. Basically we were lost. Mr Teo however refused to admit it he was very sure there was a road somewhere...what's with guys & their egos anyway when they refuse to admit that they are lost?

So we walked n walked up n down, mostly up n then...voila! We were a few metres away from the Cheesecake Cafe thanks to Mr Teo's superb navigational skills. Well of course then we knew where de Siglap connector was n if he didn't know, I did. Thankfully de Siglap connector is fairly idiot-proof, as long as one can walk in a straight line.

Along de way back, Mr Teo had my umbrella n was swinging it about happily. Thereafter he said he really liked my umbrella coz it made a good sword. He then proceeded to show me de various ways de umbrella could be swung out...just like a sword!! Oh we also passed the "road" that Mr Teo was positively sure led to de Siglap connector. Turn out it was more of a dark, creepy little narrow path between 2 houses that kinda went around de canal n stuff. I must mention here that I've observed that every time I've been out with him, he never fails to point out to me a dark place where it's "good to take a walk". Translation: It's a good place where you could "hairy hands and hairy legs (mao shou mao jiao)". So you can see juz how decent Mr Teo is.

After walking off my cheesecake, dinner, lunch & de previous day's dinner, we finally arrived at my place whereby Mr Teo debated on whether he should take the bus or walk back from where we came from. I did offer him my umbrella which he now thought of as his trusty sword as he mentioned he might meet a couple of boogiemen along de way, but he declined asking me to look after it for him instead. Well you know how to deal with delusional people...juz smile n nod. So I did.

My account of New Year's Eve ends here as Mr Teo would have filled in de rest on his escapedes with Bangladeshis n all.

Disclaimmer: No animals were injured in de process of writing this piece, although a certain ego may have been bruised. Please consume this with a pinch of salt...he really isn't too bad.

The True Story Part I

The True Story Part I

Here's the long story of what really happened New Year's Eve:

Renjun arranged to meet me at 5pm in Parkway coz he had an appointment with exterminators. I was late though...I'm quite sure tt de bus companies in Singapore have something against me coz 15 refused to show up despite the long waiting time & finally when it DID show there were (surprise surprise) 2 of them. Grrr.... Mr Teo however told me not to worry. He was at de MPH recent releases section attempting to acquire some knowledge & culture (well he didn't say tt EXACTLY....I merely helped to interpret his txt to me...but knowledge n culture were his own words!). So being a kind soul & totally sympathising with Mr Teo's desire to TRY n acquire knowledge & culture I was late. (Warning: I am not condoning the act of not being punctual. However in this case or any cases with Mr Teo involved, it's ok to be late...but not too late coz he needs supervision.)

Anyway met him at MPH & he passed me a card...where de envelope looked like he'd sealed it...changed his mind abt something, ripped it open again & then finally resealed it. lol but it was de thought tt counts so tt didn't really bother me, although Mr Teo hastily assured me tt it wasn't a recycled envelope...not tt I had even thought of tt!!

Decided to grab dinner at Delifrance b4 playing pool. Over dinner Mr Teo regale me with tales of The Exterminators. Apparently they started to fumigate outside without informing him & so de windows were still open n fumes started getting into de place. If you ask me I think they were meant to fumigate him....after all they're pest control aren't they? But that's besides the point... I then attempted to have an intelligent conversation on business & marketing with Mr Teo, unfortunately de conversation was one-sided simply coz Mr Teo's knowledge of such stuff is...well...erm...ok u get de picture.

Headed to play pool afterwards or at least tried to for awhile. Why tried to? Because Mr Teo having a very deprived childhood, decided tt he wanted to play with elevators for awhile...all under the guise of looking for the pool place. He thought de 7th floor was a good place to start & a peek around de corner reveal tt *gasp* de pool place wasn't there!!! So he led me to de elevator to try de 9th floor this time...which of course wasn't de correct floor (coz we know Mr Teo usually takes more than juz 2 tries to get things right). It was then to de 4th floor which wasn't de right one either & then Mr Teo hit on de supremely "brilliant" idea to go back to de 1st floor so he could count which floor de place was on. And so he did....nevermind tt he looked very ridiculous standing in de middle of de McDonald's area counting floors. It kinda took him awhile to count to 5 as well but I shan't elaborate overly on tt coz de story's already pretty long.

Well playing pool with Mr Teo was interesting....at least my skill level wasn't too far from his so I didn't really get trashed. However Mr Teo (being who he is) somehow managed to come up with all sorts of very interesting poses while playing. His favourite I believe was a pose with one leg up on de table much like a dog about to do it's business. I've taken pictures of course...all's left is to convince Mr Teo to publish them (I'm not gonna even try!). Mr Teo also had a slight problem with arranging de balls within de triangle, although tt's ok....since I cldn't break for nuts.

By the time we left de pool place to head to Siglap's Cheesecake Cafe, it was pouring again...which wasn't surprising seeing as to how it HAD been pouring de whole day. I had an umbrella so de fact tt it was raining didn't disturb me. Guess WHO didn't bring an umbrella even when he knew it had been raining de whole day? No points for correct guesses coz if u didn't get it right, u're even more pathetic than he is. lol Well, not only did someone not bring an umbrella but tt someone also had de cheek to complain tt mine was too small!!! Sure ok if it's too small well it was meant for one....ME!!!

Ok shall end Part I here in Parkway n continue Part II later!

Ugh...Packing

Ugh...Packing

Packing has never been one of my favourite activities. But I'm glad to say that I manged to be disciplined enuff to spend de afternoon packing. I've packed like about a third of what I need to bring over...mostly clothes. I can't believe just how much clothes I've got!!! Rolling everything up helps save space in the suitcase but still I can't quite do anything about the fact tt they DO weigh something.

Well I still need to pack utensils & stuff for my flat...like bedding stuff. Oh and shoes n bags!! It's ironic that I'm worrying about packing bedding stuff considering I dun even have a bed in my flat. Gonna be spending a couple of nitez on the floor...or on de couch which de previous tenants kindly left behind...until I buy a bed along with the rest of de furniture for my room.

Still can't quite believe I'm going back in a few days time as a 2nd year!!! Hmm it'll be a really busy year and I've got mixed feelings about beginning juz thinking of the workload! Holidays are only missed when you actually are at de end of it...coz I was really bored in the 1st couple of days back. Dunno when I'll be back this time when I leave...another 3 or 4 years maybe?

New Year's Eve Entertainment

New Year's Eve Entertainment

So it's another new year... At least my New Year's Eve wasn't that boring. Had a very entertaining evening with a certain delusional "knight-in-shining-armour" who got us lost....or rather made us walk a whole long way around and hit dead ends ("coz the Siglap Connector IS this way. Trust Me. Relax.") But that's ok he says....walking is GOOD for you. All along the way he swings the umbrella...thinks it is a sword...brandishes it about...so on and so forth.

But I muz say he has certainly given me lots to blackmail him with. I should prob make this short...and then edit it at a later time. Coz I'll be seeing him again one more time...where there's this slight chance I may get killed. So I'll write again of this when I'm miles away!! (One of the great things abt studying overseas!!!)