30 June, 2009 in Holidays, School by Aonghas

Blending in at Rutherford

Today I met up with my old school friends at Rutherford! I arrived at the school just after 11am and signed the visitors’ book at the office. It just so happened to be their mufti day as well, so I didn’t look too out of place as I walked through the school at interval. It was a little unnerving at first because I didn’t know if I would recognise anyone, but I made my way to the TDI form class and was welcomed with a big “AONNNGHHHASSS!” as I walked in the door. Most things in the form class looked similar to last year, and I noticed some photos of me still on the wall which was nice to see. A couple of interesting things caught my attention however. The first was a small whiteboard behind one of the laptops with David’s name on it and read “What to Wash”, followed by a list of body parts for each day of the week. When I asked David about it, he told me that he was in fact washing those body parts each day PLUS more. That was reassuring to know. The other slightly strange object in the room was a large cardboard box with eye holes cut out on the front and the words “T.D.I Guess Who?” I managed to get a photo of me with the Guess Who box on my head – can you even tell it’s me under there? Pretty hard, I know.

A whiteboard to keep David's hygiene in check

Who's the mysterious person under the box mask?

I spent most of the day in the form class talking to whoever had study periods. Mrs Russell was trying to send an email in Gmail with an attachment file, but she kept getting a pop-up proxy box before it would freeze on her. I then found out from Chelsea that sending emails home was now restricted and they aren’t allowed to send emails home with attachments anymore?! That’s just crazy. It made me remember how much I loathed the school network last year. Thank goodness the network at Auckland Uni is nothing like that!

Chelsea, me and Gannin

Gannin, me, Ari and Clinton

Before I left Rutherford, I sat in with TDI during their form period after lunch in Room 50. It brought back a lot of memories from last year just being there, and all the things that I miss started to come back to me. It was so good to see that the love and support for one another in TDI is still very much alive; everyone still keeping themselves busy. Thank you guys for making my day and reminding me of the good ol’ days! I hope you all enjoy your ball this Friday!

19 February, 2009 in University by Aonghas

Geek Campers Reunite

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SZELIN YAP AND MICHELLE YE!
I was slightly more pushed for time this morning than I was for the last three days so I didn’t have time to eat breakfast before I left to catch the bus. Since the 7:45am only let me just make it on time to the lecture yesterday, I was a bit worried that today would be a repeat. Luckily for me though, we made it into town early at around 8:40am (although it meant I had to cut my sleep on the bus short!). When I arrived at the lecture theatre I didn’t see Luke or Marianely so I decided to find a seat myself. There was a guy sitting in the middle of the front row where we usually sit, so I sat near him in the same row. I noticed the guy glancing over at me a couple of times and I thought maybe I looked funny or maybe I had something on my face, but then he said, “Hey, did you go to the Avondale Ball? With… Serenne?” Apparently I drove this guy (his name is David) to the Avondale Ball from Serenne’s friend’s house where they had the pre-ball. Marianely and Luke arrived shortly after, so I moved over and sat next to David for the morning lecture. There were more students in the lecture today because it was the first day for the new ones since they are doing the condensed 7 Day course. When we got to the tutorial rooms, I met up with Sanna O’Connor-Morberg. I knew her from the Science and Technology Forum I went to at the beginning of last year. She told me that she is doing an Engineering/Arts degree at Auckland Uni this year, just like me. I guess I’ll be seeing more of her once uni starts.

At lunch time I left Luke and Marianely to meet up with a few peeps from the Science and Technology Forum (the same one I knew Sanna from). Apparently a couple of the students who were in the Forum camp up to Auckland to visit so they were having a little reunion thing at the food court at Planet Hollywood. When I arrived at the food court I was trying to look out for people I recognised but I wasn’t very successful at first. I didn’t want to walk up to a bunch of randoms and act as if I knew them, only to find out that they were complete strangers and that I had just made a fool of myself. Luckily I saw someone wave at me, and when I got closer (I couldn’t make out any faces from a distance) I saw Joyce, Eugene, Yvonne and Anne sitting at the table. I was pleased that they all remembered who I was! Yvonne is only up in Auckland for a short while before she is going back to study at Victoria University. Soon Josephine arrived as well, followed by Maryanne (all the way from Palmerston North!) and Julian Lees. I didn’t know initially, but I soon found out that Maryanne and Julian were a couple. I thought that was quite amazing, seeing as they lived so far away from each other for all that time. They looked very nice together though, I must say.

The tall purple stools at Giapo on Queen Street

Joyce, Eugene and Yvonne with their delicious-looking ice cream

After lunch we headed down Queen Street to the ice cream place with the tall purple stools outside, called Giapo. I’m sure I hadn’t seen that place before, but I was told that it’s been there for a while now. A couple of the girls went in to buy ice cream while the rest of us waited outside. Jin and his friend had arrived by that time too.

We walked up to Albert Park and sat in the rotunda to chill out. It was quite interesting to learn that almost everyone who was there was either studying Biomed or Engineering at uni. I couldn’t stay long to talk though because I had to get back to uni for the maths course. We had a group photo just before I left so hopefully it will be uploaded somewhere online shortly. It was a really good to catch up with them – I’m sure I’ll be seeing them around uni regularly, especially the Engineering ones!

Update: I found a photo of the group on Yvonne’s Facebook. Here we are at Albert Park:

From back left to right: Yvonne Tse, Jin's friend, me, Jin Kim, Eugene Shin. Front: Maryanne Ting, Joyce Chan, Anne Yu, Josephine Mak, Julian Lees.