Auckland!

The view of the Auckland Harbour Bridge from a cute, fancy looking, yet-to-open restaurant called The Wharf.

 Auckland City behind the Auckland Harbour Bridge!

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New China Town 中國城

When Mum and Dad came home one day from shopping, Dad handed me a flier and told me that a new China Town was under construction, and was due to be open in October.  At the end of September, we went to look at the progress it was under, and what we expect it to look like once is up and running. It was an exciting event, as we've never had an actual "China Town" in our area before! 

When we'd arrived, the outside  was some what of a mess. On the grass on either side of the driveway sat two large concret basins. At the front gates were two fish made out of marble, each in a wooden crate.  My dad and I speculated on whether the fish were to go on top of the basins.  "These are marble statues of LiYu" mum and dad told me.  LiYu is an Asian carp, which symbolises an elevated social status and success.

In front of both front doors, on either sides of the building sat two fierce looking lions - or so I thought.  "They aren't lions," my dad told me, "it's a Pi Xiu". Pi xiu, is a Chinese mystical hybrid that looks like a lion, but hads wings. It is said to live on land and in the sea. The symbolism of this creature is wealth, and it is said to have a great appetite for gold and silver.

 As we went inside, the workers and store owners painted, fixed, and set up their rented stalls, preparing for the soon coming opening of their stores.  We were excited to see what everything would look like once it was up and running and filled with stock!

After October, we went back to check things out, and to see if our speculations were right.  As soon as we walked in, we saw a display of wooden carvings four horses with a man in a chariot in tow, and laterns above it on the ceiling.  It was a carving of Qin Shi Huang and his bronze chariot and four horses.  Qin Shi Huang was the first emperior of China, considered to be the founder of the Qin Dynasty (246-221 BC).

The stores and stalls in China Town were a little bit disappointing.  It wasn't as we expected.  It wasnt traditional Chinese stores, it was more stores for Europeans, or European adapted Chinese styles.

 

However, I did manage to find my favorite store! The bubble tea store! I haven't tried it yet though, I hope it's good, like the ones I have in Taiwan. But for now, at least I know it's there!

On a Bad Day

I had a pretty bad day today. I was terribly tired, with the 3 assignments to hand in, 2 of which weren't done yet. Traffic on the way to uni was usually jammed, parallel parked in between two very tightly parked cars (do these people not know to either leave no gap, or enough room for one WHOLE car?!), paid 2 hours of parking ($4/hr!) for a 2 hour class which only lasted 10 minutes!

After class, i had to move my car to the $10/hr section, which was a 20 minute walk from the Uni campus, and went back up with my laptop to find somewhere to work. I won't even mention the trouble with my laptop I had that I tried to fix for almost 2 hours! At 2.15pm, I had to print all my work out and get to the other side of campus to hand my assignment in, on an already damaged foot. By the end of the day, I swear my foot was crying...

Anyway, it was a fairly horrible day for me, and I was in a very sour mood. I listened to the radio in the vain hope that a song might appear on the radio that would lighten my mood. It didn't happen. I put my iPod on and had it play my entire song list. Eventually, I'm Yours came on, and it instantly relaxed my and made me feel much better.

This is just one of those songs that, even though it doesn't make much sense, it does wonders to lift your mood, even if just for the duration of the song.

Like I said, I had a bad day. Make me feel better, leave me some comments! :P

Enjoy reading and listening :)

Nana - MichellePhan

Panic and Frustration!

Welp! It's that time of the semester again! Last couple of weeks of classes, one month before exams!  I'm piled up to my eyes with assignments! Eeep! I have two assignments due on Wednesday, a test that same night, and another assignment due Thursday afternoon! Why am I blogging you ask? Well... this is just part of my procrastination I suppose... Along with twitter, facebook, and restaurant city (now there's a game you can just sit and watch for hours on end!). 

My Wednesday morning assignment is a lab report, and to be honest, I really don't care how I do anymore... I'm just to the point where I am so confused and frustrated that I just don't care.  It's a results and discussion section of the report write up.  We never really did the experiment... the tutors did it, and they just told us about it and gave us the results. And we're suppose to write about it?  We didn't do the first few bits (introduction, methods, etc) either!

Wednesday afternoon is the Statistics assignment number 3! This one's worth 8% of the final grade.  Not much to say about that assignment... it's math.  I don't like math.  I'm not much good at it...

Now the Thursday assignment... that's one that I do have quite a bit of interest in.  Its a research/literature review on the "theraputic alliance".  Basically the relationship between a counsellor and his/her clients, and the way it affects the results.  I've done a bit of research and reading about it, and I've really found it quite interesting!  That is the one assignment that I actually want to do.  With that said, I haven't actually started writing it yet.  And it's a 2500 word essay, and it's worth 40% of the final grade! There are no exams for this paper, thats why.

*sigh* I guess I should get back to it huh...

My New Life - Pt. 1

As a child growing up in Taiwan, there were many things my brother and I were deprived of. Childhood was tough, and corporal punishment lined our everyday. As soon as we started school, we were told to be “the best”. Every day was stressful, starting school at 7.30am, and finishing each day at 5pm.

The year I turned eight, my parents decided it was time we immigrated to a new place. My brother had just finished elementary school, and I had only finished my third year. We didn’t really understand what was happening, but we packed for travel like we were told to, as excitement seeped through our every move.

I must have been asleep when we were at the airport’s check-in desk, as I don’t remember it. By the time I was conscious, we were waiting in a large room with tall glass windows, and outside sat planes bigger than I had ever imagined them. “Look! That’s the plane we’re going to be riding in!” My brother exclaimed to me enthusiastically. “Look how big it is!” My father, who was a pilot, explained to me what each of the big parts of a plane does, and my mother smiled as she watched my eyes widen with wonder.

A lady made an announcement, and we started to walk towards a tunnel. By the time we got to the end of the tunnel, I could smell the strong stench of airplane diesel. The stench slowly turned into the scent of coffee as the tunnel turned into a small room filled with seats, with tiny windows along both walls. My parents took me and my brother through each cabin, until we found our seats and put our bags away.

The flight was fairly empty. There were roughly 10 people in each cabin. My brother sat at a window seat, and I snuggled in the seat behind him, while my parents parked themselves next to us. I watched in great anticipation while the flight attendants preformed the safety procedures, and followed them as they taught me how to fasten and undo my seatbelt. “When we take off, you will feel some pressure in your ears”, my mother explained to me. “When you do, just swallow some saliva, you’ll feel a lot better”. I nodded in response. As the plane started its rolling taxi, I sat back and watched the ground pass behind us, and slowly I felt the gravity below us strengthen as we left the ground. Sure enough, my ears started to pop.

The flight was calm. My brother and I played magnetic travel board games that we had prepared for the flight, to kill the 14 hours of boredom. The flight attendant also brought us some puzzles and packs of poker cards, and my brother showed me some magic tricks. Before the landing, the flight attendant came around with a basket full of lollies for us to choose from, and told us that it was to help with the pressure in our ears when we start to descend. She was right! It did wonders! I looked out the window as we started to lower, and saw green meadows and forests, the green grass contrasted by little white dots. “Those are sheep” my mother told me. “They look like silkworms sitting on mulberry leaves!” I responded.

My New Life - Pt. 2

When we finally arrived at the airport of the new country, we were nervous, hungry and excited all at the same time! Once we were outside, we took a deep breath of fresh air. “Welcome to New Zealand!” My father smiled in content.

The taxi driver dropped us off at a large motel named The Half Moon Bay Marine Motel next to a wharf, where we dropped off our bags and made some food to eat. “So!” My father jumped up once we were done with our lunch, “Who wants to go see our house?” We all hopped into our car, which had already been parked at the motel, and a real estate agent led us to our house. My jaw dropped as soon as I saw the house. “It’s a mansion!” I gasped. “It has grass! Lots of grass! It’s a field!” The moment I got out of the car, I ran to the yard and cart wheeled on the green grass, and laid on it with my legs and arms wide spread, like I’ve seen only on television. The grass wasn’t great. It wasn’t soft, like I had imagined it would be. But that didn’t matter. The fact is it was grass. I had never seen grass. You didn’t see grass in Taiwan.

The real estate agent led us into our house. Even though the house was free of furniture, I was ecstatic! “Which is my room?” My brother and I questioned in unison. “Down the hall, second room on the left, the one next to the bathroom, that’s your room.” My mother smiled calmly to my brother. “And yours is upstairs, the one on the left”, she said to me. My brother and I sprinted to his room first, then upstairs to see mine. “Is that a farm?” My brother enquired, looking out my window. “Are those cows?” I pointed. When we were satisfied with our rooms, we went back downstairs.

Not soon after, we were on the road again. The real estate agent took us to see some schools. We drove to a primary school with a sign that said “Pigeon Mountain Primary School” at the gate, a large field in the front, a playground laid with bark, and little buildings that were classrooms. “This will be your school” my mother pointed to me. As we drove back out of the school, my brother noticed people across the street, “What are those kids doing there?” “That,” my mother answered, “will be your school. Bucklands Beach Intermediate. BBI for short.”

On the way home, my dad said that it was time we were given English names. “What name would you like?” He asked me. “I chose a name in my English class when I was in Kindergarten. Other people wanted it, but my teacher gave it to me. I think I want to keep that name. My name will be Ruby.”

That afternoon, we went back to our house. I laid a blanket on the floor in the room next to my brother’s, and took a nap. “This is my new home” I thought to myself, as I started to fall asleep. “This is my new life”. I was satisfied.

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