LOUISE

I've been working all day, and will do the same tomorrow. I really shouldn't considering most of my assignments are coming up after the break, next week that is. However, these are some things I've given some thought today:

- two customers were wearing "Ghostbusters" tees
- my boss wants me to work every weekend the coming week, even though I've specifically told him I might have to take one of these off due to exams
- he also wants me to work extra, which I would've appreciated if I actually had time for it instead of going in the opposite direction
- it is impossible to stop reading after getting started on "the girl with the dragon tattoo"
- having both the book and the second season of Lost puts me in a wierd position where I have to choose between the two
- chapter 4: sensation & perception in my 500 page psychology book doesn't really make sense at all
- my new favourite candy is dried papaya

Well. That's basically what's going on in my head right now. It just makes me sick that my day was: go to work, come home from work, make dinner, study. So now I'm supposed to study, 8 pm, when all I really need is to get some sleep. Or read my book for half an hour. What doesn't help is that it's useless trying to understand something after sunset when you're really tired and without a stash of either really strong coffee of a couple of big Red Bull cans. I wouldn't mind pulling an all nighter and getting it all done, but once again I have to get up at 7 am. Kind of a problem. What to do, what to do...

On top of it all is Angels b-day party which takes place tomorrow night. I can't miss it. I've been an anti-social, non-drinking and boring student since the beginning of this semester which makes me both sad and disappointed. There is so much more I want out of this!

Besides all of that, I'm being paranoid about people breaking into the house. It might be that the iron boost pills I'm taking to keep myself from being tired are containing something else than just iron and vitamin c, or I'm simply going mad. Might also be a side effect of reading a book about sadists, mass murderers and conspiracies. Ah well. I suppose I'll give sensation and perception a shot. Can't wait till Sunday when I have the whole day off t study, and will be able to do so all night if I wish to.

So tis is how my to-do-list for today is going:

- get to town no later than noon
- do psych experiment
- pay remaining fees
- collect my student id card
- top up my maxx card + combine register with student id card (for cheaper bus rides)
- buy a new brow pencil
- extend my NZ bank account
- finish summaries on chapter 3, 4 & 7 i psychology

As you can see I only have the summarizing left, which will take some time. Before I do that, I think I'll go for a run. I was supposed to walk into town (takes approx 1 hour) but due to rain I went there by bus, so I need to compensate for that. And I need to be in shape for the morningruns with Eirik once he gets back from Cook Islands as well.. ;)

Here are some of Erica's pics from Christchurch. Love you sis, it was nice to Skype you earlier today! xx


Cathedral Square


Sumner Beach


<3


Cathedral Square - Before the burlesque with sis


Me and my beautiful sis enjoying wine before the burlesque


Cathedral Square

Well, that's it for me. Off for a quick run now in the crappy weather. Ciao!

I just got my E-Ticket! GAAAAAAAAH! I bought my flight ticket about a week ago, but as I asked Kilroy for their cheapest ticket on a specific date I never had the chance to actually see where I'll have my intermediate landings. Well, turs out to be:

Auckland - LA
LA - London
London - Copenhagen

Yay! I wish I'd have mor than 2 hours in LA, but wtf it'll be amazing anyways! I'm soooo excited, which is wierd because I haven't really been so until now. Can't be bad aye?

I have to go meet up Chris, my flatmate, in a few minutes. He's joining me in Mission Bay tonight, and we just might get beer and play Xbox 360 aaaaaaall night. Ohyeah, nice with some company!

Jeeeeeeeeeeez can't believe I'm running out of time and will be in Sweden soon. So strange, it really doesn't make any sense at all, but on the other hand it'll be so nice to see family and friends again. I miss you!

Gosh, the last couple of days have been a wierd mixture och total stress and relaxation. A very wierd combo if you ask me. Firstly, I have a lot of things to take care of due to my laptop breaking down, so I can't use it at the moment. I'm looking for a new one, as I have to have one for my uniwork, so hopefully I can purchase a second hand mini laptop this week or next, we'll see..

However, yesterday was Easter Sunday and my day was pretty boring yet nice. I started off with a morning powerwalk to Mission Bay, ran from there to Orakei, then powerwalk back to the house. I later had breakfast and after that I took a long bath with The girl with the dragon tattoo, and after that I started to prepade home made pizza for dinner. As I was waiting for the dough to finish I played Sing Star. Yes, by myself. I figured that I like music and I like to sing, and there was nothing else better to do so I might as well play it?

I made two pizzas and had dinner while watching tv. I saw Family Guy, Bee Movie, Slumdog Millionaire and Billy Elliot. Hahaha. I also spoke to Nicole for 30 minutes which was awesome! Well, that was my Easter, 100% relaxation!

Today I got up at 7, caught the bus at 8 and once in city centre I found out I wasn't supposed to be at work until 1 pm, instead of 10 am. So I've been chillin since. Every single place in town is closed due to ANZAC day, so I'm not quite sure of what to do. The libraries are closed so I'm just looking for laptops on TradeMe hoping to find a cheap one. I think I'm going to get some breakfast as I'm starving, then read my book until it's time to get going.

Well, I better eat now, before I starv to death.

Ciao.

Working today was soooo boring, but it felt quite nice anway with some extra money! ;) My boss and two collegues came by to say hello, nice with some company. It does get quite dead working by myself for seven hours, ya know. It was too bad that I missed out on my plans, but I think I'm going to Dress Smart tomorrow to find myself a huge scarf and a pair of gloves, now that it's getting friggin' cold!! I was also thinking about getting a new pair of shoes, we'll see.

I'm gonna start studying soon. Can't believe it's 9.20 pm and I'm not getting ready for bed, haha. Last time I checked, break's all about partying all night, sleeping all day and studying when you're too hungover to do anything else? Ah, feels good to act a bit more mature to be honest.

Ciao!

You know you're old when you

- run around the whole house looking for your phone, while holding it in your hands
- go to bed at 10 in the evening
- get up at 7 in the morning and start studying, even though you decided the night before to sleep till 10 (WTF)
- talk to the cat, and not just sweet talk but just normal conversation
- dream about work, not every night but quite often

I can in all honesty say that the second morning I woke up in the house, I talked to Teddy (the cat) and he spoke back to me. I don't think that he physically spoke to me, but as I tend to hallucinate a lot when I'm tired I'm quite sure that's what happened. But I even remember his voice.. Am I going mad? I really like the cat though, it would be nice if he could speak!

Going to bed now, I'm getting up in nine hours which gives me a good amount of time to read, watch tv in the bed or whatever I feel like.

Nightey!

I can forget about tomorrow, hehe. Still going to Dress Smart, but I'll be working 10 to 5. My boss just texted me and asked if I could do tomorrow so I thought I might as well. Oh well, I still have the night to enjoy and it's only 8.50, so I'm going to make me some popcorn, watch the movie then go to bed.

xxx

From 13 April, the night when WSA celebrated "spring" break on the 12th floor, also the night when I walked all the way down Queen St, almost down to the harbour (AFTER coming home, which was quite arly anyway, 2.30ish) to buy a pie. Can't believe all convinient stores were out of steak & cheese pies.. How convinient is it to walk up and down Wakefield anyway? Haha!

I've been off from work today! Not working until Saturday, which gives me a couple of days off <3 I've spent most of the day walking. I started off when I was trying to find my way to Auckland city centre, but after 2 hours I ended up right outside my door again, haha. I also hired a bike, but had it for about 30 seconds until I realized it had no gears and I wanted to bike in hills. Bummer!

But around 2 pm I finally made my way into town. I ordered a book for my conflic resolution paper from the public library, bought a pair of harem pants (thought I'd wear either them or a maxi dress on the flight back) & twp pairs of leggings, and I activated my bus card and got some stuff from WSA out to Orakei. Tomorrow I'll go to Dress Smart to buy gloves and whatever I might need now that it's actually getting really cold.

I'll get that done early, so once I get back to Orakei I want to hire skates and skate along the coast for a couple of hours. Ahhh can't wait!! Then I'll spend the rest of the day with my studies, I suppose.

Off to make dinner now and read my book, The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson, then it's movietime at 8.30, in 45 minutes. Ciao!



Had this song on repeat all day - loving it!

I am now settled in Mission Bay, and I'll stay here for 16 days.

It is a beautiful two story house with a little garden, 15 minute walk to the beach, 60 minute walk to city centre, bath tub, Xbox 360 (!), and a beautiful ginger cat, and so on. Jeannine, the girl who lives here with her husband, took me out for lunch earlier and we had fish with mash and a glass of pinot gris. Wonderful!

This will be a wonderful break consisting studies, work, reading books and doing whatever that cross my mind.


Mission Bay

It's Tuesday night and I am sitting in my room. Window's open, full plunger of coffee, Red Hot Chili Peppers playing and wearing my grannie cardigan. Last, but not least, I'm finishing up on my essay.

I started the day with a morning run with Eirik. We met up at 8 am, walked to the Domain and ran for ourselves in our own speed, and met up a while after to stretch and walk back to WSA. When I came back I made pancakes with Chris for breakfast, and then I worked a bit on my essay. A few hours later I was so tired so I thought I might take a nap. I ended up sleeping for 2,5 hours (!) and woke up at 2.30, half an hour before my class. Haha.

Speaking of class; today was so much fun! We had a guest lecturer and did role plays in front of the whole class.  I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Yay!

Elsewise, I'll be up until I feel satisfied with my essay and that might take a while. I wanted to go for a brainstorm walk, and the one I usually do takes at least two hours, and nobody's keen to walk with me (as I need someone to brainstorm with) so I guess that's not happening. Ah well, I'll seek inspiration in music and coffee which usually works as well!  

Two days left, and then I'm leaving Auckland Central for Mission Bay. I'll stay there for 2,5 weeks, and my plan is really to spend my spare time (that is the days I'm not working) on taking long walks and reading books, doing some studies so that I have a lot done when break's over. I have so many books I want to read, most of them about mediation and persuasion, so hopefully I can get my hands on all of them. Mostly I want to read The Mediator's Handbook so fingers crossed that I can find it.. ;)

Back to work now!

So let's finish up about the weekend.

After doing the full day hike, our group divided into two cars: one that was staying, and one that was returning to Auckland. Myself, Mario, Andy, Steph and Eirik were staing, so we went to the closest, cheapest and least healthiest foodplace in "town", which was a truckstop. Fries and a cheeseburger isn't my favourite food, but after that day it was really, really good. 

After eating we moved on to find a hostel to stay at, as it was too cold to camp and a bed would be amazing for our aching bodies; we found a great one for $20 per night which is a good deal. First thing they do is to tell us they have puppies, so we spent a while cuddling with them before we made it to our room. We sat up and talked and had a beer, but I went to bed pretty early to catch up with some reading (studies) and to get my beauty sleep (hah). We all agreed on getting up no earlier than 10 the next morning, but I woke up at 7 and felt wide awake. I thought I'd might as well get up, so I parked myself in the lounge, studied, ate an apple, had six cups of coffee, and had a chat with the people there. The others woke up three hours later, and we checked out of the room.





As we were supposed to move on to Roturua straight away, we were all pretty keen to leave, but the hostel was just amazing with nice staff, a hammock, trampolin, puppies and two awesome kids that wanted to play with us, so we ended up staying for a couple of extra hours, just hanging around. We painted our mark there, had a beer and played with the two little girls who were soooo cute!


In this picture I have five (!) puppies on me. I had all seven for a while, how awesome?







It took a while to move on, but once we did we drove to some hot springs i Taupo. Well, kind of hot springs, thy mixed in a river so we just lied just where it mixed so it wasn't too hot nor too cold. The remedy for sore muscles indeed! We stayed there for a couple of hours, just relaxing, and then moved on to Roturua. We stayed for half an hour and drove on to Hamilton to grab a beer. Andy, Steph and Mario had scorpion shots (vodka shots with a real dead scorpion in each). Eirik didn't drink as he was driving, and I most definatley didn't have one. I might have done it after a few tequila shots, but never sober. We explored Victoria Street and Hood Street, the two streets that are populated with all the bars. It was dead since it was Sunday, but we had a nice time drinking beer, playing pool and discovering the statue of "Time Warp".









So this statue was rather fascinating for five students like us. There were instructions how to do the dance, and we were fooling around for quite a while before Andy yelled out that we were being filmed. There is a webpage where you can watch people do the dance 24/7, so Helge, our friend from Norway who also lives in Auckland, watched us do the dance online. Very random, but so much fun!




"Let's do the Time Warp agaaaain"


This is it for now. Will follow up with more pictures another time, maybe tomorrow. For now I'm going to bed soon, I have to get up 7 tomorrow morning. I'm going to try out a morning run with Eirik, and if any of us (that would be me, in other words) oversleeps, that person has to buy the other one a sixpack. So, morning run, this is going to be interesting. However, it'll be nice, I need to start the day off with energy as I am going to study all day, and perhaps all night as well.

Nightey xx 

The theme song of our amazing trip!

Okay.

I want to to keep in mind that I am still in some kind of chock when I'm writing this. Just one question: Do you recognise this mountain?



Yes, it is Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.

The whole adventure started off on Friday morning. Myself, Steph, Andy and Eirik left Auckland earlier than the others to find a good spot for camping etc. We left noon-ish and arrived after sunset, found ourselves a good camping spot in the middle of nowhere and made dinner, but as we realized that the others would never find us, we ended up turning back to meet up with them and find a new spot together. So we did, and the nine of us (myself, Eirik, Andy, Steph, Taylor, Steven, Jeanna, Marisa, and Mario) prepared for a rough night as it was freezing.



I didn't even bring a sleeping bag. I brought my duvet and slept in fatpants and double thick sweaters, and I was still rather cold. However, it seems to me that I was the only one who managed to sleep at all; Steph's sleepingbag is supposed to do -30 degrees, whereas she was freezing in 0-3 degrees something. We got up at 6 in the morning and left 15 minutes later as soon as the tents were packed, and I doubt that I've ever been that cold before.. And I'm from Sweden!!

We started the hike 8 in the morning. By then I had already made so many stupid mistakes:

- left my training tights in Auckland
- forgot to bring gloves and hat
- my water bottle was too small
- my shoes weren't good enough
- my sunglasses were still in the car
- etc.





I was tired before we even made it to the foot of the mountain. It looks so massive and I just didn't quite realize how hard this would actually be until I was there and a sign said "Are you sure you're in shape for this?" and listed all the things I didn't bring. However, too late to back out anway, it's Mount Doom! Before we hit the mountain, we ran over to a waterfall that was amazing! Water tasted so good!


Eirik (Norway), Marisa (Canada), Andy (USA), Steph (England), me and Mario (Germany).


"Gollum in the dead marshes". I know we're very much alike but it's actually me!


Mount Doom

So the first couple of kilometres were okay as there was a path with some steps and nice, even rocks to take breaks on. I was exhausted almost from the very beginning which witnesses of how bad shape I am in. But it was a good warm up, and it got steeper and steeper for every step we took. I ran out of water pretty quickly, and soon realized how much you actually need to keep yourself going. I still made the whole day in less than one litre, which just amazes me.


Andy and I



Well, after a while we noticed that the pathway got smaller, just as the mountain got steeper. Soon we were just making our own way in the volcanic stones. We'd stop pretty often to enjoy the view, rest out legs and then keep on going. Painful already by then, but so nice! I kept encouraging myself by thinking that my all time favourite movies were filmed right there. That's pretty cool!


Andy making his way up. This is the beginning, that seemed to be neverending.


Mario and I



A bit further up we'd start getting snow, and every now and then a snowball would come flying down. Thank god they only did that in the beginning of it rather than higher up.


Nice view!


I look like I'm about to pass out. Maybe I was, haha!


It was not until a bit up that I realised even more that i would be hard hiking in snow mith my shoes, especially if it's even several decimetres thick. I am such a newbie!




People making their way down. Or should I say sliding their way down?


A well deserved break!



So making our way up to the top took us two hours (!). By the time I was halfway I thought I'd be dead by the time I'd get there, paralysed for life, just like Barney (How I Met Your Mothe) when he's stuck on the train after running a marathon he never even trained for. That is exactley how I felt actually! To be honest, the last hour was only agony (hurting legs and feet), sunburn and desperate tries to encourage myself to go through it. I still loved it though, and in all honesty, you can't really complain about those sort of things when you turn around and all you see is mountains.


Do I look like I've given up? Haha, a bit tired! This is just a couple of metres from the top. A couple of metres from the goal of so much hard work!


Here I am, on the very top of Mount Doom, 2,291 m!


The best place I've ever had lunch in!



After a while on the top of the mountain it struck me that we really have to get down a well. How? Marisa and some of the others starts to prepare empty juice boxes and plastic bags to slide down on. My reaction was rather chocked. I guess it just never hit me before that you actually can do that down a mountain, and not only small hills as a kid. They started siding down, as for me, I got a bit behind since I was trying to walk down. It wasn't very successful so I gave it a try. As the others were ahead of me, I was just sitting there in the snow trying to figure out how to master this sliding concept, as a couple hiking up to the top asked me how I was. I said I was fine, but a bit scared. The man smiled and told me it'd be okay. I replied that I'm not really an adventurous person. He laughed and said I was, "just look where you are". Makes you think!

Anyway. Later on, scared as hell, but with the encouragement from Steven, the Canadian, I got in to it and quite liked it! To be honest, it was SO MUCH FUN! He was holding my hand, helping me down and kept telling me "it'll be fine". How cute? Thank god for heroes like him!



The picture above is Andy sliding down the snow covered part of the top of the mountain. Guessing it was 200-300 metres, and it took us 2 minutes to get down. It was probably the safest way to get down as well! I was scared and nervous in the beginning, but after I got started I figured out how to steer, slow down and stop. I was sitting on my rain jacket and just slided. I went head over heels once when I tried to stop by kicking my foot into the snow as hard as I could, but my whole leg got sucked down and I flew down and rolled a couple of metres. Hilarious! I was laughing so much!



After getting down from Mount Doom we got started on the Tongariro crossing. Yay! Can't say I was looking forward to it, but there's no denial that it was so worth it and I am so happy to actually have been there, seen it, done it. It's just something pictures can't replace. You can't even imagine what it was like, you must've been there to understand! But I guess it's like that with most things, though!


Me walking the Tongariro, leaving Mount Doom. You see the white stripes of snow going down Mount Doom? We slided down that whole way! It was like being a kid again!


I love this picture! Me enjoying the view.


The world famous lakes. They smell, but oh, they are so beautiful to look at! The water is ice cold though!


Our whole group: Taylor, Jeanna, Eirik, Andy, Mario, Steven, me, Marisa and Steph. See the lake in the background?


As we arrived to the bigger lake, Eirik and I used our backpacks as pillows, ate some food and improved our nice sunburn. I think this was two hours before we finished. That would be after about 9 hours hike.


Last stop, then about another 6 kilometres, at least, to the capark. Felt more like 600!


Oh joy!

I can't fit it all into words. I think we hiked for 11 hours in one day, whereas most of it was uphill. Never did I believe I could achieve something like that, but on the other hand; why set up limits before you even try it?

I will put up more pictures and also write about the rest of the weekend some other day. I have been working on this post for 1,5 hours now and need some sleep. This week is going to be so hard!

Nightey, hope you enjoyed reading this post! (2.30 am)

This weekend is going to be busy, but amazing!

As many assignments are due right before the mid break, every day consists of at least a few hours studying, but it feels really good and I have been so productive today working my as off on my essay in order to enjoy my weekend fully.

Tomorrow morning me and some friends will go to Tongariro to do the crossing. It is a four hour drive and need I say that I LOVE ROADTRIPS? We will start the hike on Saturday morning, and it will take 11-12 hours in total we assume. We will start around six in the morning I think, so it will be a good workout with amazing views.

On Sunday we're going to Mount Taranaki. We figured we might as well do that one too while we're in th neighborhood, hehe! We'll return to Auckland on Sunday night. My essay is due n Wednesday 2 pm, which leaves me another three days to spice up my essay, but for now it's pretty much done. Only thing I need to do now is researching to see if there's anything I've missed out on to add to it. I will have plenty of time in the car to do that.. ;)

As for tonight, I just came home from a pubquiz which my team won, and we all got free movie tickets, yay! However,  was too braindead to contribute at all so the honor goes to the other members of our Team America Sucks + 3 Europeans and 1 Canadian: Simon (Norwegian), Chris (American), Marisa (Canadian) and Helge (Norwegian).

This is how my day was spent before the quiz:

Class 9-11
Study 11-3pm
Clean apartment for an hour
More studying
Supermarket
Cook dinner

Should I add that I have consumed four (!) full plungers today (1 litre), whereas 2 coffee and 2 tea. 1 plunger is about 4 cups. That's a lot of caffeine, haha! So by the afternoon I was high on caffeine and it went downhill, and now I'm zombie. I needed it though for my studies. I found my flow today and got so much done, I feel so good about it. I do feel a bit anxious about the essay though, because it's very different from the essays I've written before. I hope that I can nail it anyway. I'll give a copy to to an American friend so that he can chainsaw it and tell me what to change. What have I done without good friends to help me with my assignments? I was lucky last semester as well to have my friends helping me to improve my work.

As for now, I'm thinking about friends from last semester.. Esme, Gretchen, Brittany, Dominik, Jonathan, Linnea, Memo, Fred, Sawa, Charlie, and everyone else. I miss you like hell! It wasn't really until the night that myself, Getchen, Jonathan, Esme, and Brittany had our last dinner out in Skytower that I realized how painful it would be to say goodbye.. We all said a couple of words of what an amzing time we had spent together, and when it was my turn I started crying. It was at that moment it struck me that friends like you don't just happen.

Friends from here still come up to me and ask me about you guys. They all say the same things: "You were always together.." "Attached to the hip.." "Do you miss them?" "Are you going to meet them again?"

It was probaly the hardest separation I've ever gone through, and as I returned to WSA in February, I walked in and thought "I'm home", but I also wondered where my whanau was. Where is my family? When can I go to 3g to hang out?

You are all so amazing and I love you to death. I wish I could talk to you every day! Even though it hurts me when we do, because it reminds me of the distance, I also feel happy. We all connected in the most amazing way, and you all changed my oerspectve of life. Sorry for sounding cheesy, but it is true.

Esme made me more sensitive and emotional. She taught me (even if I wasn't really consent) that objectivity isn't always the right answer to everything.

Gretchen has showed me what hard work really stands for and that if you really want something, you can get it as long as you work for it. She graduated from University at such a young age with no debts as she's paid for it all by herself, including one semester in NZ.

Brittany has expanded my thoughts about justice, and inspired me to continue with human rights, equality, environmental friendly development, fair trade, and so on. She is such a source of inspiration!

Jonathan has showed me how important it is to be who you are and stand up for it. To not only follow your dreams, but also your heart! 

I love you guys!


Tongariro Crossing! I remember looking at this picture with amazement in a library in Sweden long before it was even certain that I would come here, hoping to get there in time. Tomorrow, that will be another dream come true.


Mount Taranaki (or Mount Egmont in English). Will be there on Sunday!

Before I go to bed I'll have a lastlook at my essay, and then watch The book of Eli. Good night!

I am so satisfied right now! Life's good!

I am sitting in our livingroom, studying and listening to some music. Chris move out kitchen table so that we can sit by it and look out over Auckland. Our view is indeed amzing:

We can look down to the courtyard, but with our 9th floor, central Auckland apartment we can also see Albert Park, Auckland's answer to Central Park in New York, parts of the beach/harbour and the North Shore. Even the harbour beyond the North Shore. How amazing is that?

So here I'm sitting, overlooking central Auckland in the sun, drinking tea with my sunglasses on, writing my essay. The thing that takes the longest time is the reading. And it's rather boring as well, I wish we cold use books. LOVE researching books, way better!

And now I'm moving on with my life. Greetings from New Zealand, 12 pm.


Part of the view

10.42 pm.

1/3 of th essay is done so far. My goal for tonight is to finish 2/3 of it. If I do, I will reward myself with the move "The Book of Eli" which I have heard many good things about. As for now, I'm just reading articles and doing research, drinking coffee and listening to the most bizarre mix of music (Michael Jackson, Metallica, Soilwork, Miley Cyrus, Matchbox Twenty, In Flames, etc). I have a headache coming up which can't be good. Last time I had it was at work in Christchurch. Needless to say that it sucks working in a bar with live music all night with an exploding head.

I also got my pay today. Makes me happy! Planning for the weekend as well. Big plans, some adventures coming up and I am soooo exited! I also have my plans for the spring break that is coming up. Hmmm, how do you spend two weeks without uni? I have some plans and I think it'll be wonderful frankly!

Back to study now. I'll fill in on the weekend and my break some other day.

Later!

 

Heya, I just remembered that I haven't told you about my flatmates, have I?

Well, living in room 5, to the right of me, is Jonathan. He is a Swedish, 21 year old man, also known as Mushroom Man, Svampmannen, or just Mushroom. He is from Uppsala and is crazy with computers. I suspect he is one of the smartest IT people in the world, as he has developed his own computer games etc. He like to shock me with his "old gumpy man" face, he can control every single muscle in his body (think Jim Carrey times 2) and he loves coffee.

Moving on to room 3, left of me, is Christian (we just call him Chris) who I actually knew before he came to NZ. He added me to Facebook with three million questions about how everything is here and we were talking for plenty of months before he moved here. Very randomly we were placed in the same apartments and live in the rooms next to each other. Pretty crazy! He is German an he loves to do any sort of sport, especially skateboarding, and snowboarding. He is awesome!!

In room 2 lives Janell, an American girl who is so cool! She looks all cute and innocent, but she's really the devil underneath ;) Nah, not that bad, but she's so funny! She's addicted to Facebook and she showed us how to eat Tim Tams in the most amazing way ever, like a straw!

And at last, room number 1 is occupied by Pavan, an Indian guy who's more kiwi than most kiwis really. He speak with perfect kiwi accent and we rarely see him as he is always working and out doing things. Apparently he lived here last semester as well, and I can't remember seeing him even once, crazy!

That's a short description of my dear flatties. I really like them all!

Today is the D Day. The day I have been waiting for, with great fear and respect. A day I had almst forgotten would come. In September last year I finally started to see the light in the tunnel. And now, light no more. The tunnel is dark, and an ice cold breeze goes through it, makes my blood freeze.

Today is the first day of wearing the DOWN JACKET for quite a while. Autumn (or spring as it really is) has kicked in and every day is getting colder and colder. Today I went to class in tights, an AUT t-shirt, fake Uggs and my down jacket. It was depressing, but at least I didn't freeze in class..

Study now!

BTW

Even though the crapp weather brings down the mood, I found a package in my mail box today which made me so happy! <3<3

Yes! I think I've found one source of inspiraion: Moneybrother. They shall keep me company tonight!

Anyhow, 2 hours, 1 litre of coffee and 30 yawns later, I have started my writing. The essay is only 1500 words, and 327 of them are done, and I've only written introduction and parts of my first point. I will probably have to cut out parts by the time I'm done and try to concentrate the text, which is quite hard sometimes. But I feel confident about this! I am so tired and I just want to go to bed, but I'm not done and might have to stay up a couple of more hours. But you know what? I have kind of missed these all nighters!

Let me just clarify one thing: my reason for pulling an allnighter is not because the essay is due tomorrow afternoon and I started too late. I just don't feel very comfortable about sitting inside all day long writing, simply. I usually try to do my research outside, preferrably in a park or on the beach (yes I can study in places like that) and then sit inside on evenings/nights to do the writing. As I don't have class until 2 pm tomorrow, I'll have all the time in the world to sleep.

Ahhh! I feel very confident, yes!

I think it is rather funny with my blog. People often point out that I write a lot, which I do. I usually reply that I simply love to write and that I do it more for myself than for anyone else. I simply like to be able to go back and read about daily events that have happened to me. You see, even if you can't relate to most things in my blog, every single word represents a feeling I've had, and reading about it gives me a flashback about how it felt. Good or bad, everything I have experienced here is worth remebering. Please do keep in mind that even though I find it fun that people are interested enough to follow my blog, you don't have to read it if you find it too average.

I know most people probably want adventures and exiting happenings from the other side of the world, but just like you I'm human and simply can't manage to study full time, work part time and be adventurous all the time. This blog is not exclusevely about all the crazy and exiting things I experience here, but simply how life is in New Zealand. When I look back at this blog in a few years, I want to read about how I grew on a personal level, how I learned how to take care of myself, and all other personal growth that I have gone through here,amongstother things. In contrast to travels, these things are easy to forget about. "How was I like a year ago?" Do you really remember things like that? Do you ever think about it? I like to reflect on questions like that sometimes, and thanks to my blog, pictures and other things, I can.

However. Today has been quite a confusing day with some up's and down's, but turned out to be pretty good anyway. The lecture and tutorial in Conflict Resolution were really interesting, and right now I'm trying to get anywhere with my Psychology essay. Armed with sugar and caffeine, nothing can stop me from sitting by my desk all night. I will not leave until I feel like I have gotten enough done to deserve sleep and rest. I do need breaks though, and a run to the ladies' every 30 minutes due to ridiculous amounts of coffee. My French press (plunger) is on the desk waiting to be refilled this very moment.

As I am writing my essay about persuasion, I think about how one could increase their ability to convnce other people that they're right. How? It appears to me that the most crucial thing, surprise surprise, is self confidence. The more confident you are, the more convincing you become. Interesting.. Question is: Is it possible to study this without, later on, trying my best to become more persuasive? I am looking forward to see if there will be any change in how easily I can convince people of something. Well, that is what my job is all about as well. I am already getting noticable better.

But now I'm done. This might be the most boring post ever published in this blog, but that is not of my concern anyway. It is simply what is going on in my head at the moment.

If I'd put words on my current state of mind it would be: cynical, satisfied, improvement searching, critical, yet glad. 

I am also talking to myself, which I believe is an excellent way of reaching a higher quality of work.

Call me boring. Call me crazy. Call me fucked up. I am simply in my "study mood", waiting for my flow to hit me. A more cheerful post might be made later on if I manage to find my flow and write something exceptional. I might even share it with you? 


Four Coromandel farmers, and I. We played pool, drank beer and had a great time in the small community Tapu on the west coast. I noticed that three of them are look alikes, going from the left side: first guy looks like Jack Shepherd from the TV series LOST (named Matthew Fox irl), the third one looks like the guy who plays the crazy teacher in the movie The Hangover, and the fourth guy looks like Owen Wilson.

Could it have been three famous men trying to live their lives as simple farmers for a few days? You never know..


Matthew Fox


Bradley Cooper (was his name)


Owen Wilson

Hey readers, whoever you might be.

Today has been such a cosy day.. Eirik and I went to Devonport this morning, but before we stepped onto the ferry we enjoyed Italian gelato in the harbor, yum! In Devonport both of us couldn't help but notice the laid back, relaxed and absolutely touristic atmosphere. I loved it! We went to the Scandinavian store, and I bought two packages of Tyrkisk Peber (Turkish Pepper) and one bag of Ahlgrens Bilar (Ahlgren's Cars). Wonderful!

After shopping there we had brunch and a Mac's Gold before going back to stressful central Auckland. I had a job interview today. Yes, I do have a job at the moment, but I'm not closing any doors just because of that and I strongly believe that it can always get better. However, my interview was an absolute success, only thing that went wrong is that my visa expires in three months and they're looking for someone to work with them for at least 7-9 months.

Am I tempted to stay? Of course I am, this is yet another excuse for me to stay here and work for a year. Ahh, that would be amazing, to be fully honest. I'm going back there tomorrow for a second interview with the manager. The man I met today was the second manager and he told me they might hire me even if I can't stay for longer than three moths. Oh, please give me the job. It would be an amazing opportunity for me!

I guess it's a good blend of my working experience I've got here, my personality and my charm that makes employers like me. Seriously, I am really good at it, and by that I don't mean that I get jobs I don't deserve because of my charm, but that I have a very approachable personality that people can easily relate to. Something that I have developed down here, and, if I may say so, done a pretty good job as well. 

As for now, I'm in the AUT library printing out papers to study tonight. I've found it too irritating reading articles online.. Papers are better as you can bring them everywhere without having to worry about the battery charge or access to internet, so I'm just printing them out.

I'm going to finish up here and then head back home to study. A big cup of coffee, a marker and some good music and I'll be sweet as. I wish you all a good night/good day!

I got up at 7 this morning, started work at 10 and finished at 5. Got home 6 and now it's 8. I am so tired I can't even describe it. I've been working 30 hours this week, which is quite a lot combined with full time studies. I've been chilling out in the couch, eating and watching tv for two hours, and now I'm back to work... I need to finish an essay next week and I just haven't had the time this week to get started, so it seems to me that I will make a lot of coffee, find a lot of articles and start my research. Oh my, oh my. I just want to go to bed..

BUT

My goal for tonight will be to find three suitable articles for my essay and work out a mind map of content for the essay. My reward will be Scandinavian store tomorrow! Coffee and redbull will keep me focused. I hope.

Hard work work.

So as I was getting up about half an hour ago, I logged on to my laptop to check the bus schedule. To my confusion, time says 7.15, instead of 8.15. WTF? Guess I missed out on this, and just one question: How do you people know that this will happen? Because I haven't heard anything until 20 minutes ago when I woke up my flatmate to ask him.

So now I have plenty of time for breakfast, make coffee, prepare lunch and check the buses. Nice! 

So here's a late night post. I need to write off my thoughts before I go to bed. My mainstream of thoughts today has been covering the subject adulthood: is it really possible to measure how grown up you are?

My hypothesis would be that it would be hard to get scientific proof that one really is an adult, however with fulfilling some criterias (depending of course on culture, family, etc.), one could be seen as an adult or a child by people surrounding..

Am I grown up? Le's have a look at the arguments., maybe you, my readers, could help me determine what I am.

GROWN UP

- I eat extremely healthy, especially for being a uni student
- I try to plan a budget for the upcoming week so that I know approx how much I will have by the time I get my next pay check
- I often make a list before I go to bed of things I want to get done the next day
- I've spent the whole day today in an Outlet Shopping Mall without even entering a store, that must be a sign of certain adulthood and self-control?
- I've started drinking coffee again. I still surrender to my Redbull when I do my allnighters, though.
- I don't always put butter on my piece of toast
- I drink all beverages out of a glass, if not out of a bottle. I'm the only one still using glasses in my apartment. Will my flatmates recruit me to the "other side" before the end of the semester?
- I make my own lunch for classes and work
- I LOVE salad
- I drink red wine. Guess that's some kind of grown up thing to do?
- I plan to train my skills in chess so that I can win over the smart as Welsh guy who kicked my ass in it last night.

NOT SO GROWN UP

- A package of cookies doesn't last for three weeks, as it always seems to do at "grown up" people's houses. No, I usually just open it and two hours later it's gone.
- My room's a mess. In my defense, full time studies and 30 hours of work after a weekend of hitch hiking. Need I mention I haven't had time to do the laundry yet?
- I never make my bed. What's the point when I'm the only one ever to enter my room and I will be back making a mess 14-18 hours later?
- Even though it doesn't happen too often anymore, I still appreciate a night consisting a bottle of merlot, a couple of Tui beer and perhaps karaoke or clubbing in the Viaduct?
- Not doing my laundry for two weeks, only because I have $2 coins instead of $1. One machine is $3, and only the $1 coins work
- I don't go by the 3 second rule, rather the 10 second rule.. Who cares if the slice of cheese happened to touch the ground? It's not like it's going to kill me or something..
- Sometimes I float off in my head, imagining myself in the future or on a trip exploring Vietnam or the Amazons, almost like a 5 year old kid's imagining herself on an adventure
- Even though I eat healthy, there's no denying I cheat with my eating habits, sticking to quick, cheap and healthy food. I mainly live out of (per week): 30 eggs, 1 package of pasta, pasta sauce, broccoli, caluiflower, spinach, carrots, rice & soy, 1 loaf of bread
- I get cranky when my mp3 runs out of charge
- I still oversleep sometimes

Well, I guess that's it for me. Going to sleep now, I'm soooo tired! Guess I'm a wirl then (woman + girl).

Goodnight!

Fools April!

Ah well.. I've been working all day today. It i now almost 10 pm, going to bed now, will finish my book (Harry Potter) and get my hands on the second one tomorrow. Work 10-5 tomorrow, so I better get a good nights sleep. Sooo tired huh!

Nightey x

So.. I wasn't sure of how to say this.., but I have cancelled my flight. I'll be staying here in New Zealand and I don't know for how long. Sweden will have to wait.

Might be back for Christmas.