The Return

 

In the 1 ++ month since I last wrote a blog entry,  a lot has happened. Not much has changed, but a lot of exciting things have taken place in my life.

The main one is that I returned to Norway for a quick visit. That’s the first time I’ve seen my family and friends in a year and a half, so that was quite exhilarating.

I was hoping for three weeks of sun, barbecues, swimming in the ocean and hanging out with friends all day long but, alas, I must have forgotten that I was going back to a Norwegian summer. That means max. 15 degrees Celsius and rain. Bucketloads of rain. Overall I got to experience roughly 3 whole days of sunny weather and temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius. But at least I got to see my friends and family.

Oh, and the day before I returned to Norway was the date of my boyfriend and mine’s 6-month anniversary, and we celebrated it with a romantic dinner at night. It was really sad having to leave the next day, but at least I got to spend that important milestone with him, which I’m thankful for.

I returned to NZ on July 12, two days after the uni holidays had ended, so it was straight back to uni for me – I even missed out on a few lectures. But now, a week and a day later, I’ve gotten back into the normal routine of going to uni, studying, hanging out with people whenever I can and, best of all – today I’m seeing my boyfriend again, for the first time in over a month! Ever since I woke up this morning I’ve had butterflies in my stomach at the thought of seeing him again tonight (at 8pm), and they are not getting quieter as the hour approaches; on the contrary!

I’m actually in a literature lecture atm, but I can’t concentrate, so I figured I might as well update my blog.

It’s good to return, no matter where to. The very word implies roots, which, whether I like it or not, I have. In different places. Family, friends and my childhood roots me to Norway. More friends, education, and the love of my life roots me to New Zealand. So travelling between the two places is not like travelling to ‘another’ place, it is always a return, to a place I call home.

The Countdown Is On

In exactly one month I will be flying out of Wellington, headed for Norway and three weeks of summer and seeing family and friends.

At the moment I’m trying to finish (lies – start) my final assignments for this trimester. I’ve got three essays due to be handed in on the 13th, 14th, and 16th of June. They all have to be between 2000 and 3000 words.

As for what I’ve been doing lately, I’ve got three words to sum it up: uni, boyfriend, parties. I’ve spent far too many days (and nights) in the library so far this year, writing essay after essay, doing research and drinking coffee. When I’ve had a day or two off I’ve escaped to Christchurch to be with Nathan, or he has come to Wellington for the weekend to see me. This long-distance thing is really working quite well (apart from the economical side of it, naturally. But it’s all worth it). Thursday last week I jumped on a plane and flew down to spend the weekend (as well as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) with my man, because he got some days off work due to a back injury, so I wanted to be there for him and keep him company. Plus it was his birthday last Monday (he turned 22), so of course I wanted to be there for that.

Nathan and me at my flatmate's 21st

I had just come home from university last Thursday and looked up flights to Christchurch, and there happened to be a really cheap flight that afternoon, and a cheap return flight for Wednesday (yesterday), so I quickly threw some things into my suitcase and got a taxi out to the airport, and an hour or so later I was in his arms at Chch airport.

For once I was a bad student (but a good girlfriend); I missed out on all my lectures this week as well as two out of my three tutorials. Oh dear. Thank god for Blackboard.

I took Nathan out for dinner on Sunday night because he had to go to work on Monday, but on Monday night we went to the movies, so at least he got to do something fun on his birthday. Then on Tuesday night we went to his auntie and uncle’s place for dinner, which was great, and on Wednesday night (our 5-month anniversary, incidentally), I flew back to Wellington.

This Sunday he will fly to Wellington to do a course just outside the city, so he will (hopefully) get a chance to come and visit me every weekend. After his course is finished he has a week off work, and that’s the week before I fly back to Norway (and the week when all my assignments are due), so it’ll be great to have him around then.

As for the parties I’ve been to lately… Well, most of them have been held at the house where I live. We had our awesome flat warming, and so far we’ve had two 21sts, and the party for the second one is actually tomorrow. It’s got a 1950s theme, so I went and bought a dress for that today.

My flatmate's 21st (Hollywood themed)

So much is happening right now, and I love it. This year has been amazing in almost every aspect so far, and when I get back from Norway I will seriously start looking for a part-time job. Also, in one month’s time, when I’ve handed in my three assignments, I’m halfway through my bachelor’s degree. Fancy that, huh.

Me dressed up as a gypsy at our flat warming (circus themed)

1/3 down

I have officially (and hopefully successfully/satisfactorily) completed my first year at university.

I spent nearly 6 hours on campus today. I sincerely hope that that’s not going to happen again fot at least another 3 months or so. I went to the library at noon to do some last-minute cramming with some friends, and we spent the next couple of hours having an awful good time, considering we were about to sit an exam. Which I reckon was the best preparation anyone could’ve asked for. It was also quite entertaining to watch as we one by one (myself included) took turns studying our notes for a few minutes before throwing our arms up into the air and declaring to the library at large that it was hopeless and that we would just have to make it up as we went along.

At 2.30pm the exam began. At 4pm, halfway through, two of my friends were done, and left. Half an hour later another one left, and I was the only one still sitting there out of our wee study group. I finally finished about 10 minutes before the time was up, and when it’s 15 minutes to go no one is allowed to leave, so I was forced to stay for an extra 10 minutes and had a quick second glance at what I’d written. Which, in hindsight, I suppose might have been a good thing.

When I was allowed to leave though, at 5.30pm, I was so happy I could have kissed everyone in my path (of course, I didn’t). Once outside, I sat straight down and felt the warm sun on my face and the wind in my hair, and I just couldn’t stop smiling. Free at last.

So I went home, got changed and went to the liquor store. Obviously. On my wee shopping list I had written ‘gin, lemons, and lemonade’. You smiling now? I know I am.

On my way back from the supermarket in town I stopped at a red light. (Everyone knows I’m a sworn pedestrian right? Good.) While I was standing there the cars coming from my right were turning into the road on my left-hand side, and when the second car was going slowly past, I accidentally caught the driver’s eye, and he stared at me, transfixed, and I stared back, and I saw him, quite clearly, utter the words ‘Fuck me’. Now how is one actually supposed to react to that?

If this was any other day, I would have been furious at being objectified like that, and probably felt compelled to give him the finger, but instead I just tilted my head a little and smiled resignedly at him while barely shaking my head. I saw him repeat the words, never breaking eye contact with me, and that, I must say, made me feel a little angry afterwards. Does it mean that he has absolutely no respect for women? This is where I’d like some opinions, please. Is it appropriate to feel flattered? Upset? Compelled to chase after the car, tear open his door and threaten to send your (imagined) boyfriend after him? Like I said: If this had happened on pretty much any other day, I would have hated it.

But at the time I’d just come out of a 3 hour long exam, my last one this year; I was carrying a newly purchased bottle of gin in my bag and the sun was shining. Let’s face it; I was happy to the point where I could have been walking through a blizzard and a wee sun still would have been shining above my head. Living in perfect bliss.

But yeah, curious though. How normal is it for a guy to be that “rude” to someone they see? And how should I feel about it?

 

And tonight? I’m going out to celebrate with friends, of course. It’s not every day you finish your first year at university.

Fasting

Sick of living off mainly unhealthy food while studying, and without getting any exercise done due to time constraints, I decided to more or less abstain from food. It’s surprisingly easy. I just stay in bed most of the time, reading and taking notes, and have a few cups of coffee throughout the day. I usually have a couple of pieces of fruit as well. Then at night I have dinner before I go to bed. Simple, really.

Furthermore, “fasting” seems to make my mind more alert, for some reason. I can see everything more clearly now… And it’s so easy to buy healthy food. I went to buy some groceries today, stopping by the supermarket first, and I didn’t even feel tempted to buy any lollies/chocolate/chips; only picked up what I was after, went to the fruit and vege market and bought loads of apples, bananas, pears, carrots and other stuff to munch on.

Also, I didn’t get much sleep last night. Strangely I don’t feel or look tired today, but I think it’s affecting me in other ways, because I’m really pissed off with my flatmates who kept me awake for most of the night by having showers at 2am, slamming the doors, as well as having people come and go at the most incredible times (basically all night long), whom they then proceeded to have loud conversations with outside my room. Thanks, guys. Do it again and I’ll kill you. That’s roughly 4 hours of sleep in total for me over the past 48 hours. No wonder I’m feeling just a little tense.

Other than that, I’m more than ready to farewell October and welcome November, and with it, summer and four months of holidays, and all the time in the world to do all the things I want to get done in the near future. (Ooo, I just had an idea. I’ll write a list of what I’m planning on achieving over the summer holidays, and post it here.) Only three more days of studying ‘till I’m freeee! And no longer a first year university student!

Carlson, Brady, Lessing, Stalnaker, Armstrong, Mill, Feinberg, Montague, Neill, Carroll, Hume…

In case Mill didn’t give it away; these are some of the philosophers whose ramblings I’m reading at the moment.

You might detect a slight resentment in that sentence. Allow me to say that you are correct if you think you do.

I wonder how I’m going to feel when I wake up tomorrow morning. Considering I only read one philosophical essay yesterday (John Stuart Mill’s “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion”), I was surprised to discover this morning the instant I tried to sit up in bed that I felt like I’d been poisoned or exposed to some other evil; the world was spinning faster than it has ever done while I’ve been under the influence of alcohol, and when I finally managed to stand up I crashed into every bit of furniture in my room in my attempt to get to the bathroom. (And of course I will attribute this weird physical state to having read philosophy.) As I stumblingly found my way back to bed, I was determined not to let the swaying sensation keep me from studying harder than ever before for my philosophy exam (which is next Wednesday), so I fell back into bed, pulled the covers up to my chin, picked up the course reader and continued reading (Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s “A Propaganda Model” this time – it’s not even a proper philosophical essay, just a bunch of numbers). My attempt was stymied, however, by a sudden attack of drowsiness – so I dozed off for a couple of hours, and when I finally woke with a jolt it was past midday. Sigh.

Anyway, the instant I awoke I continued my perusal, and I just kept reading and reading and reading throughout the day. I didn’t even stop for the customary meal breaks, meaning I read all day without a single bite of food – unless you count three cups of coffee with a ton of sugar as a nutritional substitute. I didn’t take a break until 7.30pm, when I went to the local fish ‘n chips shop and bought a hot-dog and some chips to take home. (Unfortunately it takes just long enough for the food to be prepared for me to walk down the road to the liquor store and buy a bottle of wine and walk back up to the fish ‘n chips shop in time to pick up the yumminess.) So I got home, and read another essay on freedom of speech and the free press. Damnit, I actually decided today (I swear it was peer pressure – those bloody philosophers) that I’m going to spend a couple of years as a journalist. I suppose that’s what I’ll do to pay back my student loan once I’m back in Norway after I’ve been deported…

Guess what, I’ve decided to join Victoria’s student magazine, Salient. It totally kicks ass, and I feel way more confident writing in English for a larger audience now (I mean, I got an A+ on an English essay this year – not to sing my own praises or anything) than I did at the start of the year. That’s going to help me get a job at a newspaper or magazine at some later point in life, I suppose. Plus, I love to write, so why not?

But I digress. Back to philosophy readings. My brain has turned to custard. Information overload. On several occasions today I found myself laughing at something the philosopher wrote (Feinberg is exceptionally funny), and now I’m worried about my sanity. Is the philosopher actually funny, or am I completely missing the point? Also, what I fear now is how I’m going to feel tomorrow morning, considering the amount of philosophical texts I’ve read over the past two days increased by 400% in a single day. If reading one essay makes me feel like I’ve been on a sea voyage for the last four months and only reached land yesterday, I’m scared to think what effect reading so many more essays today will have on me tomorrow…

But even all this mad studying has its silver linings. It allows me to crawl into my own world of solitude without feeling asocial. Yesterday I did what I said I’d do a couple of days ago; I packed up my philosophy course book and my notes, and went to the Wellington Botanic Gardens, where I have found ‘my’ spot, which is rarely disturbed by other people, plus it’s relatively sheltered from the wind but gets all-day sun. So I went there and lay in the sun for a couple of hours while going over my notes. Sa-weet as. Turns out tanning and studying aren’t as mutually exclusive as previously thought.

All the thinking has also stirred my brain from its slumber, and last night, while I was trying to go to sleep, I had the most important epiphany of my life. I suddenly had a pre-conceived idea for a short film in my head, and I knew straight away that that’s going to be my debut. It just clicked instantly – it is my film, my idea, which no one else has come up with, and which no one else is likely to copy, in fact. I’m so looking forward to the time after my exam next week, when I can finally sit down and write it out, and even create a storyboard; I know exactly how it’s going to look. What’s so brilliant about it is that it’s so simple; I can probably make it without any funding whatsoever, which means that it’s the best kind of short film to be making as my first. I’m so excited!

PS. Facebook, consider yourself no longer part of my life. This separation is good for us.

Chocomania

 

Every woman knows that it’s her very own best friend and worst enemy – the chocolate bar.

I confess that I’m a huge fan of these blocks of divine goodness, and I don’t care how “bad” they are for you – I eat my fair share of chocolate, and as long as it’s just every now and then, and I don’t indulge in every other unhealthy food that money can buy, I don’t see a problem with that. I’m also very active, so a bit of chocolate just keeps me from becoming too skinny (although my clothes are telling me that that has already happened – either that, or all my clothes have suddenly expanded two sizes).

 

If you ask me, the best accompaniment to chocolate is, first and foremost, coffee. As I have recently purchased an espresso machine, I can now make those delicious coffees you normally get at cafès in the comfort of my own kitchen, which has infinitely improved my daily life. A good book and some instrumental background music really tops it off. For however long those “ingredients” last, I’m in my own personal heaven.

I’m all set to write an(other) A+ essay, with these things at hand. (There will be no dinner tonight, by the way.)

Break on a budget

 

So.

 

I’m on holiday.

 

It’s the semester break. As I’m not doing any courses over summer this means that the first half of my first year as a university student is over. I had my only exam on 15 June, and since then I haven’t been doing much. Unless you count the flat rental company business, but that’s just something I got involved with to avoid dying of boredom. (OK that last bit was a lie, but sometimes I think to myself that considering that it’s me we’re talking about, it might as well have been true.)

Unlike many of my fellow students, I have already had a two-week break, and I know I shouldn’t be complaining at all, thinking about all those poor students who had their exam(s) only yesterday and will only get a two-week break in total. I get four weeks.

When my break started I was really excited about it. Really. I was supposed to be moving to Mt Victoria, spend lots of time outside and explore Wellington and hang out with people. So far I’ve accomplished two out of four things: I’ve been spending a lot of time outside, walking all around Wellington. However, after I’d walked around Central Wellington a couple of times, I realised how bad it was for my wallet, as it is so easy to fall into the trap of buying coffee/lunch/a snack at one of the hundreds of cafès while wandering about. So I decided to approach the idea in a different way. It was time to go back to being a tourist.

The first thing that came to my mind was that I still hadn’t seen the famous location used in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where the four hobbits tumble down a hill and land on a forest path. It is conveniently located in the forest on Mt Victoria, so on a rainy and cold day I defiantly put on some warm clothes, packed a minimal lunch and set off. I despise looking like a tourist, but there’s no denying I must have strongly resembled one, when I made my way past Cuba Street and Courtenay Place dressed in wind-proof trousers and jacket, carrying a light backpack .

I eventually found the location in the forest (I think), snapped a few photos and started making my way back. Of course, it had been raining all the time, but as I was halfway home it stopped, and we didn’t get any more rain that day. It makes sense.

After that wee excursion, I have stuck to wandering about the city itself, mainly because I can’t think of any other ‘nature’ tracks around this area. So I’ve walked along the waterfront a couple of times, strutted through Lambton Quay and up and down The Terrace on several occasions, walked down Willis St (pretty much all of it), sat in Courtenay Place looking for Sir Ian McKellen and otherwise explored more or less every side street in the CBD. All the while trying not to be lured into spending all my money on the fantastic winter sale bargains.

Of course, it’s impossible not to buy anything when the shops sell most things for under half price, but after I went completely crazy once or twice, I decided that it was about time I imposed some ‘safety measures’ on my spending to avoid going broke. So what did I do? Well, for starters, I bought a ten-pack of noodles. That’s food for a week. Then I went and bought a pair of shoes. I think I’m pretty good at getting my priorities right.

I also decided that I’m not allowed to spend more than about $10-15 each day, and if I spend more than that in one day, it means that I don’t get to spend anything the next day. This seems to be working fairly well. Because I try not to spend any money, I spend a lot of time checking out various shops and supermarkets to compare prices on things I want and/or need. I’ve recently decided to make vegetable soup/stew a weekly meal (after I’ve killed the ten noodle packs, mind), so I wanted to compare prices of the various ingredients. First I went to New World, then I went to a place I’ve never been to before, which turned out to be an Asian supermarket. When I had walked past the fruit and vegetables that were placed at the front of the shop, it was like entering another world. I don’t think I would have been able to name or even identify a single product beyond the fruit stalls. It was glorious – so many weird things, it was simply amazing. Anyway, the Asian supermarket won – their prices were way lower than New World’s, thankfully. My wallet let out a sigh of relief.

So far I’ve been doing most things by myself. No, wait. Everything. I’ve been waiting for a couple of people to be in touch, and I’ve tried to arrange things with others, but no one seems to be keen, or they are busy. Hmph. But this Sunday I’m going to meet some of the All Whites players with a friend from Dunedin who’s in Wellington for the week. Yay, human contact at last.

Today was a wee cracker of a day in Wellington. Absolutely gorgeous. I spent about three hours walking around the city, and bought a loaf of white bread, European style, and some ham, and then I treated myself to a mochaccino at my favourite cafè in Lambton Quay. When I got home I made a late lunch, and I enjoyed every last crumble of it.

Now I’m just going to let some photos sum up the past week, as this blog entry is getting a wee bit long.

 

Hibern… Zzzzz

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Study week? Not good.

As of today, I have not been outside my flat for 3 whole days. It might not seem that long to you, but to me it’s like I’ve been inside for three months instead of three days. I think I might be losing my mind, wandering about the tiny space of the apartment singing at the top of my voice and probably scaring the neighbours. Not to mention that daylight hurts my eyes more than sunlight hurts the skin of those good old-fashioned vampires that don’t sparkle. My curtains remain closed throughout the day, and all I do is sit on my bed with a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate with my eyes glued to the computer screen.

I think it might have been on Saturday that I was starting to wonder why my eyes were so red and sore, and I just felt like sleeping all the time. After two more days of the same agony I was getting severely frustrated with this problem, because it just gave me another reason to ignore what I was supposed to be doing, which was to study for my exam and to write an essay. That evening I had a minor epiphany. I just need to mention at this point that it had been raining for a good week or so when this happened, and all of a sudden I realised that, 'Hello, I’m allergic to dust mites', and the allergy is only really a hassle during the winter months and when the humidity is extra high. So, problem solved. I downed one of my allergy pills and, just like that, my vision improved and I could stay awake for a whole day again. Sweet as.

But being able to stay awake was also a bad thing. You see, I stay up really late every night, attempting to work on my essay after I’ve spent most of the day putting it off and then, when it’s really time to go to sleep, I feel bad about not having done anything that day, and write a couple of words on my essay draft before going to bed. And when I’m finally under the sheets, I open Harry Potter and begin to read. Good idea, right? To try to right my wrongs I’ve been setting my alarm to 9am every morning, only to hit the snooze button innumerable times before finally turning it off, and then waking up much later on just to discover that it’s half past 11. This has been happening every day for about a week now, and this morning I surpassed myself. I was all set to have an early rise, but then the same thing happened: snooze x infinite, turn it off, go back to sleep, wake up – ten to twelve?!? Whoa… I then had a thought that it was lucky that my meeting with the people who run the flat I’m moving to in just over a week’s time is tomorrow and not today, because I wouldn’t be able to even get down to their offices in ten minutes, let alone get dressed and presentable first. I then proceeded to get up, make coffee and settle down with my computer, when my cellphone rang… I quickly recognised the number – it was the rental company. I looked at the time and saw that it was 12.20pm, then tentatively picked up the phone and answered it. After the hello’s, the guy at the other end reminded me of a meeting that was scheduled for today at noon about the room at 9 Vogel St, and my heart sank. I was pretty confident that he said Thursday when we scheduled the meeting last week, but I just apologised and told him that I had put the meeting down on Thursday for some reason… So he asked me if I was available at the same time tomorrow, which of course I am, because that’s when I imagined the meeting to be in the first place. Phew, is all I can say. Although I’m still rather embarrassed and feel stupid for making such a blatant mistake.

So what I seem to be doing during study week is sleep and eat. Whenever I attempt to do something productive, my eyelids grow heavy and not even all the coffee in Wellington would be able to keep me on the right track. And now I’m just dying to go for a run or a walk, but I know that if I leave the flat I will easily stay outside for several hours and waste away another day. But today I WILL work on my essay. I can feel it. Maybe it’s the sun that does it. We’ve had sh*t weather for ages now, and seeing some blue sky really motivates me, for some reason. So off I go, to write my last Media101 essay.

It’s going to be awesome.

Standing tall

I. Love. Wellington.

I won’t venture to tell you the entire tale about last weekend. It’s too grand to be put on my blog. On any blog.

I will, however, say something about it.

There I was, sitting by the bar at Public, my favourite place to hang out on a Saturday night. That place always comes with some good stories. The first time I met two lovely women from Auckland, whom I’ve been invited to stay with if I visit Auckland some time. This time I got dragged over to a table surrounded by basketball players. I was introduced to all of them, and I can honestly say it was some of the best company I’ve had for a while. They were all so tall, I felt tiny for pretty much the first time in my life! When they said they were a basketball team from Hamilton I pictured a group of amateurs. Silly me. Last night (Sunday night) I decided to do some research about the team, and it turned out that the Waikato Pistons (which is the name of the team) are the best team in the basketball league (or whatever it’s called), and that several of the players have played for the Tall Blacks, New Zealand’s national basketball team, and/or famous teams overseas. I was a little bit wow-ed. I’m glad I didn’t realise this on Saturday night. Tipsy as I was, I probably would have been a little starstruck. I know, how lame. So I’ve just figured out that when I’m a famous director I just have to be a little tipsy whenever I’m around all those big names, and I won’t be intimidated. Awesome.

Anyway, it was a night to remember. That’s for sure; I got home at 7 o’clock. In the morning.

I swear everything is still happening in slow motion. Still slightly hungover? That’s a possibility. Also, I’m still waiting for my voice to recover. Having to talk over the music for 5+ hours sort of killed it; not to mention that having to talk even louder in order for those tall guys to hear it way up there was a bit of a mission.

Thankfully I had the best Sunday possible, in Tawa, with the best company.

I wonder if I have time for another coffee or two, or three (or four?) before heading over to uni. Or maybe I should just buy a red bull. Yeah, that sounds better. I’ve also got a bottle of Coke. I better get ready. I just got out of the shower (aaah!) - I’ve had such a lazy morning; I got out of bed at 10.30 am. But I guess I needed that sleep, having suffered from sleep deprivation all yesterday (I got 4 hours of sleep Saturday night). It’s going to take me the rest of the month to recover from the weekend. Haha. I’m sure you all got that.

I better go.

Caught in my immobile flight

Oh, the choices I have to make…

I’m currently sitting in my flat, trying to write a really important essay about Atonement, but my motivation is hiding (I think it might be hibernating) somewhere, so instead I’m just wasting time and playing around with everything that I shouldn’t be doing at the moment, like updating my blog, taking photos and listening to music (some music from The Lord of the Rings just started playing, so now I want to watch that). As you can tell, I’m also keen to read Harry Potter rather than write about that other friggin book. Besides, it’s so unbelievably cold in my flat at the moment; I think that’s why my brain has shut down. I’m unconsciously trying to conserve energy to heat up my body. I’ve put on three layers of clothes, slippers, gloves, a scarf and my bath robe, I’ve had a cup of tea and held my hands under boiling water, and I’m still freezing cold. Good to know that winter is just getting started…

To be quite honest, writing this blog entry has revived some of my brain, probably because I love to write when it’s not for something that someone else is telling me to do – I should get back to my essay while it lasts.

Growing Wings

I have now lived in Wellington for more than four months, and needless to say things are only getting better. Which is something you should all be able to tell from my blog, and the fact that I don’t update it nearly as often as I would if things were not that good.

I feel like I’ve managed to settle in nicely, but of course, me being me, that is exactly what makes me want to “break free” again, so my latest idea is to move. To another part of Wellington. The reasons for this decision are many and, let’s say, occasionally on the strange side of the fence (one of the reasons involves a broccoli. Enough said?).

It didn’t take me long to decide where I want to move to. When I first arrived in Wellington I wanted a place close to uni, because I imagined that I would be spending most of my time there, but now I have seen what it’s really like. Mt Victoria is not that close to the university (see picture), but buses run on a daily basis back and forth between Mt Vic and uni, so no worries there. Besides, I’m planning on getting a job soon, and Mt Vic is much closer to the places in the city where I could see myself getting a job, which means that I’ll be able to work in the weekends without having to get my driver’s license and a car first to be able to get to and from work.

I sent a text to a guy this morning, about a room that is available in a 5 bedroom house on Mt Vic, which I really want to get. The rent is the same as I’m paying now, so that would be perfect. I just hope he’ll text me back soon…

It would be so cool to actually live with other students, in a proper house, with two (2!) bathrooms, a back yard with a deck and a bbq… That’s how I imagined living as a student to be like, so please, please, please text me back and say that I can have the room.

Standing ovation

I think I’m finally getting the hang of this. Writing essays, I mean. My English essay on the gothic genre is due in tomorrow, and seeing as it’s not my favourite course (that’s an understatement, by the way), I decided it’d be best to start  writing it early so that I could go back to it and make changes after I’d had some time to re-consider. So I finished a rough draft about a week ago, but I had written heaps more on it before that, the only problem was that I didn’t really know in what direction I was going, so I wrote lots of random things that didn’t make much sense, so when I had completed the draft I had written more than 3,500 words, and the essay itself is only supposed to be 1,500 words… Then the plan was to develop that draft throughout the rest of the week, but it never happened (to my defense; I was concentrating on my media essay which was due in two days ago, and which was way more important to me). So today, after several internal discussions, the good person sitting on my shoulder beat the person sitting on my other shoulder, and I went to the library at 2 pm, only knowing that I had to stay there until the essay was finished. Once I started writing, the words just came flowing to me, and the essay had been completely re-drafted and re-written within the next 3-4 hours, and by the end of that time I was so pleased with it (and had half a dozen epiphanies about the text I was writing about) that I just plotted down my references, saved the document and went home. Seriously, it’s getting so easy to write an essay now, I love it. I have to applaud my accomplishments.

*Clapping.*

Thank you, thank you very much.

This is where I belong

I have never felt more at home in Wellington than I do right this moment. “Why?” do you ask. Because it’s raining.

Not like, drizzling. It’s actually raining. Properly. The best part is that it’s still incredibly warm (we’ve had 20 degrees today) and hardly any wind; so big, heavy raindrops are falling almost vertically, with an occasional warm gust of wind just to make you smile. And such great timing! I didn’t have my first tutorial until 3pm, so I had the entire morning and most of the afternoon to just do my own thing, so this morning I put on a pair of shorts and went into town to do my grocery shopping. However, even shorts were too warm, but I mean, I saw people wearing large coats, boots, scarves, hats and so on, so I guess I’d look even more ridiculous if I’d taken my light jacket off and walked around in a T-shirt and shorts when apparently, it’s almost winter. I walked past a shoe shop with a big sign in the window which said: ‘Weeeeee! Winter is here!’ I just smiled at it and kept walking.

Then when I was walking to university I felt a raindrop land on my head, and a minute later I’d walked straight into a shower, but once you manage to get inside a building you’re pretty safe, because you can walk between all the buildings without having to go outside. It kept raining during my tutorial and the lecture I had straight afterwards, and then I was off home. I was lucky, though, because the rain came at a slight angle and hit me on the back, which makes it more pleasant than annoying. Before I was halfway home (it only takes about 5 minutes for me to walk home) I was contemplating just staying outside to play in the puddles and get soaked to the skin, but then I decided against it just because I started thinking about the song ‘Bowl of Oranges’ by Bright Eyes, which begins with the words ‘The rain, it started tapping on the window near my bed’ and this made me want to play it in my room, so I went home.

Oh and lest not forget: I got a test we had before the Easter break back today, and I got an A-. It made my day.

(Completely intentional blurred movement by the way…)

Back to varsity

After two very long weeks of holidays today was finally the day when I got to go back to university. Yes, I really am this enthusiastic about studying. It was great seeing some familiar faces again and asking people how their holiday had been. Before my first lecture one of the girls I know told me that I should do something (I happened to tell her that I’d been looking forward to going back to uni), and mentioned tramping clubs. I didn’t know that such a thing even existed, but apparently Victoria University has one, and I am definitely interested in signing up for it. They arrange weekend tramping trips all over the country, which sounds totally awesome. I get to go tramping, see more of the country and meet new people at the same time! I couldn’t ask for anything better.
VUW tramping club – the tramping club’s web site. I’m so tempted to sign up!

The Miracle

Guess who’s got a ‘coffee date’ tomorrow at 1pm? With a boy? You’re right, that’d be me. And I’m so excited it’s ridiculous. It’s amazing what a brief night out on the town can bring you. Finally, a decent bloke who was kind, interesting, funny, etc, and he invited me out for a coffee. It’s been a long time since I was this excited about a Tuesday.

Hurry up, Monday, go away.

Coffee break

After a long morning of studying (OK, I made that sound worse than it actually was – I’ve been reading a detective novel for one of my courses. It was fun and work at the same time.), I finally have time for a break, consisting of afternoon coffee and a bite of chocolate. I’m not complaining.

Mission Impossible I

Aaaah, you know that feeling when you finally get to sit down on a Friday night, put your feet up, and just relax? That’s the feeling I’ve got right this moment.

Yes, it’s been a hectic week so far, but the last 24 hours were by far the worst. Remember last time I had an assignment to write? I started writing it at 11pm the day before it was due, and it worked. I got it done by 3am, and when they gave us the marked assignments back on Tuesday, I found that I’d gotten an A-! That pleasant surprise aside, let’s return to the second essay I had to write. It was for the same course, which I feel I’ve got the hang of, more or less. Unfortunately for me, this second exercise was more demanding than the first one’d been… I sat down with my notes, books and cup of coffee before 8pm (or 20:00) the day before it was due, so I felt confident that I’d have finished writing the essay by 3am this time as well. However, the more I studied the essay question, the passage in the book we were supposed to analyse and the terms we had to apply, the more I despaired, and the easier I got destracted. But as usual, after I’d scribbled down some rubbish in the first paragraph, the sentences started flowing more freely, and this would soon prove to become my next big problem. The essay was supposed to be about 600 words long, and at a point where I wasn’t even close to finishing, I had written close to 1100 words… So I just pinned down my remaining arguments and then started trimming the text (more like butchering it, in fact). When I felt confident that I wouldn’t get penalised anymore, I shut the computer down and went to bed. This was just before 6am, and I think my flatmate got up right after I’d turned my light off.

I woke up at 11am this morning, feeling rather rested, so I got up and had breakfast and all those things. Then I looked over my essay again and managed to make it about three words shorter, so the final count was 706 words… Desperate to get rid of the essay I went quite early to uni and handed it in before 3:30, when the deadline was 5pm. Mission accomplished!

I then went into town and treated myself to a frappucino (it has been such a lovely day here!) and went to the supermarket and got some groceries and loads of coffee (I have to write another essay during the weekend).

So after a long week where I’ve been stressing every single day about these essays, I am now one down and one step closer to the Easter break! When I got back from the supermarket I cooked tea, a stir-fry which I’ve been craving for ages. I opened a bottle of wine, a rosé, which I just got from the supermarket as well, and enjoyed my dinner while listening to music. The perfect Friday night, if you ask me.