i already forget how i used to feel about you

ok where do i start. im in windy wellington (and its called that for a reason, was really nearly swept off my feet today.)

ok let's start saturday. i dun normally blog abt my day to day events but i really dunno how to update everyone cept thru this.

Saturday
Flight sq285. all my favourite ppl came down to send me off and i was really so super touched. thank you ALL!!!!!!! and to my frens who cried.. ILL BE BACK SOONER THAN YOU THINK!! maybe even nov. see how yea? By the time i entered the gate it was like last call alr so we really had to run to the gate which was no where near the gate at all. And they made me remove my boots at the checkpoint which delayed us further.

I took first class which was like the shiokest of shiok. my dad says that this first class is different from the other first class. once you tried this first class you won't want any other first class. personal tv (not lcd screen. TV.), own writing table with writing materials, quality pyjamas, fully reclinable leather seats, everything has the "F" on it so that was pretty cool. Yea it was really pretty atas. felt like a queen.. haha ok im exaggerating. not much diff from raffles class actually. i havent taken first in a long time because they're phasing it out. so yea its roomier with more compartments to store stuff but ok la. raffles is comfy too. i mean its really posh and all but honestly, paying 10K+++ for it is a bit siao. service wasnt impeccable so i guess it wasnt all that wonderful. it was good but not GREAT. so yea.. my parents and i werent too impressed by that flight.

i was SO exhausted because i hadnt slept for nearly 48hrs. ok maybe i had 1 or 2 naps of an hr each but thats really it. i slept the entire flight cept for meals. managed to watch 1.5 movies. Wish I could finish She's The Man but didnt manage to. They had really good movies like le enfant and lotsa korean shows and V for Vendetta etc but i was KO from the moment I boarded.

Some ppl are going to think im filthy rich and spoilt at this point of time. WHAT? SHE FLEW FIRST CLASS? AND HER PARENTS FLEW DOWN WITH HER JUST TO SETTLE HER DOWN. AND THEY FLEW FIRST CLASS TOO? WASSUP WITH THAT? ok guys, my dad works for sia. we get it free. if we didnt i think ill be taking like brunei airlines or sth.

Sunday
reached auckland.

ran into this hk couple who didnt know a word of english at all. they didnt fill up their immigration form and they didnt even know what an airticket was. so my parents were roped in to help them. luckily they know cantonese or i think the couple wld be squatting in some auckland detention centre or sth. later they refused to wait for us while we claimed damages for our luggage (a handle came off). they had food with them and they didnt know how to speak english or where to go. maybe they really are at the detention centre. hmm.

i had a bottle of chilli with me so i declared it. Because of that one little bottle of chilli i had to let them inspect all my bags which is a whopping XXkg. (shall not scare ppl with how much i brought but in my own defense, if you had 120kg you would bring all this too!) later they detected methanine (what's that?) among my bags. i didnt even know they passed my bags through a scanner or sth or that they ran tests on my bags. so anyway we had to check everything all over again for any drugs. they couldnt find any so they had to let us pass. that entire inspection took 2hrs! so even though we landed an hr early, we departed an hr later den expected. so anyhow the inspection was really strict. insanely i would say. the officer next to us was examining every page of a notebook, scanning thru the contents and shaking notebooks and all.

i think it's cos the bags belonged to an indian. they are so racist here! i jsut stepped out of immigration, got a trolley and IMMEDIATELY got stopped by an officer demanding to see my passport. HELLO? i just crossed immigration. you saw the guy checking my passport. do i look like an illegal immigrant to you? and they are really rude just cos we're chinese. "what are you doing in new zealand? why new zealand? show me your money. show me proof that you're enrolled in a university. where are you staying? show me proof. what's in your bags? (oh please i just went through a 2hr check!) what are you studying? Are you sure? (what do you mean are you sure? of cos im sure of what im studying.) why are you in auckland when you are studying in wellington?" they even doubted whether my passport was real. any more reason to doubt that the illiterate (cant even read chinese characters) and non-english speaking couple is detained?

I thot it was really warm at first.. was walking arnd in spag strap and jeans haha but omg as we travelled down, on came the layers as well.. haha. prices are SO HIGH!!! our first bottle of water (1.5l) was $3.50!!!! gdness. ok compared to elvin who got his 600ml for $5, i guess we're lucky. sigh. nz is madness.

Monday
Continued travelling down towards Wellington. Lake Tapoe is breathtaking to say the least. It's 1 and 1/3 the size of Singapore. Biggest lake in the North Island. Imagine snowcapped mountains glowing pink from the sunrise. The foliage of dark green amidst hues of purple and red and grey. the vastness of the huge lake. And incredible depths created by the shadows cast by the mountains. Clouds that hover over the horizon in a single layer. they arent separated but just a long long line of dreamy mist. As we drove, my dad was giving us geog lessons. did u know auckland was born out of volcanoes? And that there are 3 types of volcanoes? Not the active dormant blah blah.. but the shapes of volcanoes and how they're formed. He was trying to explain it to my mom and me but we're no geog students. so its like talking over the head.

Reached Wellington at abt 1.30. The apartment's great. small but cosy. unlike pgp which SUCKSSSS. Waited for elvin but he didnt turn up. thot he didnt want to come after all. its just amazing how expensive this place is. maggi mee's like 60c per packet. 1/3 of a brocolli at $4, cauliflower at $5. tomatoes at $1 each. BEANSPROUTS AT $5. COME ON MAN. DAU GE LEHHHH... in elvin's (guy from law also on exchange to wellie for a sem) words, "its disgusting"

tuesday
met elvin and joanne. (joanne's from architecture.) poor things. their flight got cancelled at auckland because of bad weather and they had to rebook everything and compete with everyone at the airport because the entire airport was closed. this was why he was so late. He arrived to find me missing because I went to stay at my parent's hotel for the night. so poor guy was stuck home with no one around in freezing temperatures and running a degree of 37degrees.

ok it was more than cold. According to elvin's sources (i.e. manager at bank who liked him so much she gave him tax rate of only 15% instead of 39% like the guy who handled my accounts) the winter's the coldest since 1972. He was freezing because he wasnt wearing enough clothes. Can you believe this guy brought berms and tshirts? the winds are so strong you can literally feel yourself blown away and im really not kidding.

we drove off to get our bank accounts settled, sim cards settled, groceries done.. we had to drive to a nearby town (ok not near, half an hrs drive) to get groceries cos it's just too expensive to buy in the cbd area. which was ok since my dad was around to drive us and all. bought ALOT of food. now i have $200 cash to last me for a wk. that's about 6,7 meals? and im talking stuff like fishball noodles only.

my parents left for the hotel and i wun be seeing them anymore till nov/dec. which sucks. miss them already. did i mention what a help they have been? they're so sweet. i dunno what i would have done without them. all the bank accounts rubbish, i would never have known what to do if not for my dad. there are so many different accounts and interest rates and tax rates and fixed deposits and perks and charges and goodness knows what else. thank God for my dad. and his wallet of course. :) if not for my mom, i wouldn't know that $1 for a tomato is expensive, that Singapore sells it for abt 20c only. I wouldnt know that you cant keep defrosting meat cos they will go bad. that you cant freeze fresh meat and expect them to last a few months. that i need 36 rolls of toilet paper and 10kg of rice to last me till nov. I really wouldnt know what's expensive and what's not. Even if you told me that rice at $50 was cheap I would have bought the story. so my parents have been a real real help and driving really helped since it allowed us to travel out of wellington city into the suburbs.

this trip is costing a lot of money. it's even more expensive to live here than in US. at least in US the portions are HUGE so you can share. and tax rates are not 12.5%!! this is costing my dad so much money. i feel so terribly guilty and grateful to my parents. It's not that they cannot afford it but it is a lot of money and they have to tighten their belts back home for my sake and i just feel bad about it.

anyway, after they left, i set up my internet, tried to settle down in the apartment and found to my dismay that my simcard was spoilt. im sorry for those i havent contacted because i have NO AUTOROAM and NO SIM CARD. it was freezing cold (remember coldest winter since 1972?) and for some reason they didnt turn on the heater so i was huddled in a corner in my room trying to keep warm, hugging and rubbing my toes to keep warm. really really cold at night esp since it rained thru the night.

Wednesday (today)
supposed to have orientation at 9am. but when we went down there was no one. maybe we should have gone half an hr earlier. oh wells. we'll jsut flounder and die when school starts then. weathe's a lil too gloomy and wet to go out. not to mention cold and windy. bad combi. :(

so i hear that germany's outta the world cup since italy scored twice in the last 2 min. well. what a pity because i left when it was 80 sth minutes into the game. if i had stayed another half an hr i would have caught the whole big hooha.

so thats it. a brief summary of my time in nz so far.