Familiar Faces All Around

Today was the official opening to Orientation Week at Auckland Uni (I think?) and they started with a Powhiri and Opening Ceremony in the morning. On the morning bus, I was pleasantly surprised to see Craig get on at Te Atatu Road. Because the bus was already quite full, I was sitting in an aisle seat next to a random guy, so Craig sat across the aisle from me next to some random lady. On the way to town, I got a text from Rose asking if I was coming into uni. Apparently she was with Chen and John Kim at the clocktower. I couldn’t go to watch the powhiri anyway, because I had my maths lecture to go to. Craig and I parted our separate ways when we reached uni and I didn’t see him for the rest of the day.

After our morning lecture, we walked past the ASB Bank spinning wheel again. It was being run by different people so I thought I would try my luck at something better than a high-five. I was feeling lucky right from the moment I touched the wheel to spin it, there was definitely a strong vibe of prize-winning running through my veins. I spun… and won… a can of Gourmet Baked Beans! I was pretty stoked with that actually, they weren’t just baked beans, they were Gourmet baked beans! It even says on the side “They’re not just beans, they’re a status symbol” and it has one of those pulley-ring things on the top so you can easily open the can. In fact, they look so good that I don’t know if I want to eat them. I’ll probably give them to Calum though, since he can’t really eat much else at the moment.

Lunch time popped up really fast today. It may have been because our morning lecture was an extended one and a half hour session, or perhaps I was just really eager to meet people I knew at lunch time. As soon as we got to the quad, the change from yesterday was immediately obvious. There were so many people everywhere. Uniguides in red t-shirts were taking groups of students on tours and the atmosphere was very lively! Rose sent me a text telling me to go to the quad, and when I first saw Rose coming up the stairs I almost didn’t recognise her! She now has a fringe and her hair looked straighter than I remembered. Chen was also with her, going along with her tour. Luke, Marianely and I decided to tag along with Rose’s tour group up the stairs to the Student Health Centre. A lady there gave a quick speech about health services at uni while she distributed paper bags with more information, a free condom and a tube of toothpaste inside. I’m sure I can put that toothpaste to good use (the condom has an expiry date of October 2010, so go figure…). While we waited inside the Kate Edgar building, quite a few people I knew walked past and stopped to say hello. I bumped into Eugene by the stairs; she was waiting for her friends to arrive. Lydia Rayner and Persis Samuel walked past just after. Other people I met today included Caleb Moses, Nancy Jiang, Cresilda Cross and a girl from Avondale College (her name was Lisa) who recognised me from the Avondale Ball.

My luck changed today with these prizes I won from ASB

Our afternoon lecture was a two-hour session today. We were taught about Echelon form and how to organise a linear equation into a matrix. It was quite interesting, despite the fact I started to feel tired by the end of it. After the lecture I walked down to ASB Bank at the Owen G. Glenn Building with Luke because he wanted to sort out internet banking for his account. After he set it up with one of the guys there, he collected his prize from the spinning wheel from this morning. He could either choose between an ASB Bank drink bottle or an elephant money box. He chose the drink bottle. I asked the ASB guy if there was any other way I could win the elephant money box (because it looked cool) and he said I could get it if I set up KiwiSaver with ASB Bank. He gave me some information about KiwiSaver and said that I could take the elephant too. Score! That pretty much made my day. After that, I walked to Sky City to catch the bus home with Calum.