Harry Potter fever...

...feelings... emotions...
Once again it is the end of another week. So tired, especially after Wednesday, having 7 hours of classes straight! Have dance class afterwards also!! The bio labs can get very dull at times because we keep having to wait for things to set/dissolve/mix/cool etc. This week we did gel electrophoresis and we had to wait for a whole hour for the DNA in the gel to migrate! The sad thing at the end was that mine and my partners gel didn't work!! Grrr. Was a bit depressing, we spent so long preparing it! Have two tests next week, one for english and another for genetics, so spent all day today reading poetry and the play 'Twelfth Night'. The play is actually more clearly understandable now that I read it the second time! Not really sure how else to study for english, it's all about understanding the text and knowing how to analyse and give your opinion on it... also started to study genetics but got tired so will continue tomorrow... Have to write up some things for my lab as well, will do that too! Luckily that's not due till Wednesday.

Third week into the term I realise that my weeks feel so peaceful now without having chemistry to study for, and I'm finding that I have plenty more time on my hands to do things besides study (reading, internet...!!) I always knew that chemistry is a very time consuming subject but never realized it was to such an extent! (no more getting up at 5am to do chemistry!!!)

Speaking of things, the final Harry Potter book came out last weekend 21st July!! Spent all weekend reading it!! (didn't even have time to go on the internet!!) It was so depressing and tragic in some parts that I cried, so sad, and several of the characters that I liked died (not Hermione or Harry or Ron though, luckily!!). My favourite part was probably the ending when it talks about Harry, Ron and Hermione being all grown up and sending their kids to Hogwarts! Good book overall, although I would have preferred it to be a bit more positive, but hey!

Harry from 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'! My favourite Harry Potter book and movie! Haven't seen the movie for ages, will watch again when I have some time...

Hermione...

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. So sad that it's the final Harry Potter book, would have liked to read more! Wish J.K. Rowling would write more... cry... :(

Harry...

Hermione picture from Linda's magazine (now stuck on my door)

One of the posters on my wardrobe door. One of my favourite photos from the first movie!!

Started to re-read the first Harry Potter book! Have read it about a million times before, but hey, it is my favourite Harry Potter book!! Never get bored reading it! (also really like the 2nd and 3rd book!). As I noticed, the first 3 Harry Potter books are quite positive, but then after the 3rd book they start to get more and more dramatic and tragic (ie. characters getting killed). Was so depressed when Dumbledore died in the 6th book... (he is my other favourite character along with Hermione)

Decided to re-decorate my wardrobe door. Normally I don't like to change things in my room, prefer things to stay the same for ages, (notice my Otago hands on science poster on the door from 2005!) but now that I've caught the Harry Potter fever all over again after watching the 5th movie and reading the final book, (I have had Harry Potter fever several times before!!) I decided to give my wardrobe door a new look...

...so I found all my Harry Potter posters and postcards and Linda the future interior designer made me a collage on my wardrobe door!!

A horse mold that I made using Linda's plaster horse making kit that she got for her birthday, and spray painted it with gold paint so it looks like it's made of metallic stuff. Just felt like doing something random (not recently, about a month ago).

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

Life is a mixture of sunshine and rain,
Good things and bad things, pleasure and pain,
We can't have all sunshine, but it's certainly true
There is never a cloud the sun doesn't shine through...
So always remember that whatever betide you
The power of God is always beside you,
And if friends disappoint you and plans go astray
And nothing works out in just the right way,
And you feel you have failed in achieving your goal,
And that life wrongly placed you in an unfitting role,
Take heart and stand tall and think who you are,
For God is your father and no one can bar
Or keep you from reaching your desired success,
Or withhold the joy which is yours to possess...
For with God on your side it matters not who
Is working to keep life's good things from you
For you need nothing more than God's guidance and love
To ensure you the things you are mostly worth of...
So trust in His wisdom and follow His ways,
And not be concerned with the world's empty praise,
But seek first His Kingdom and you will possess
The world's greatest riches which is true happiness!!!
-(Author Unknown)

My thoughts and I...

End of the week once again. Weeks are just flying by! Can't believe two weeks of classes are already over! Yerday it was my friend Selene's birthday, so I gave her a call in England. Haven't heard her voice for a long time, and talking to her bought tears to my eyes. Felt sad afterwards, so went to listen to some music (yes I still love Asian music!). Still feeling gloomy though. Sigh. Me and Selene at my 19th birthday, before she moved away...

Also tired because it's the end of the week and yesterday (Wednesday) I had classes from 9am till almost 5pm -straight through! No breaks etc!! Have to have lunch during my english tutorial! I don't like to eat during class, feel rude, but hey what can I do? Have to have lunch sometime. Apologized to the tutorial teacher afterwards.

My study space...

Going to do a lot of study in the weekend, have to read up my notes for genetics and marine bio.
Started studying Shakespear's 'Twelfth Night' in English. I attempted to read the play, ended up with a headache! Such a difficult style of writing to understand! Luckily I got some plot summeries of the play from the library so that should be helpful. We are also watching a video of the play during class time so that's great too!

Our friends recently got back from a trip to Paris!

Lindale

Last weekend me and my family went to Lindale.

The view from the lookout on the way to Lindale. So beautiful!

Lindale is a tourist complex. It consists of a row of shops selling things that symbolize New Zealand. There is a honey shop, woodcraft shop, art gallery and general suvinir shops There are cafes there and also a farm walk that you can go on to see NZ farm animals like sheep, emus, lamas, peacocks etc.
We have been to Lindale several times, but you can never get bored going there again and again!

Various honey brews at the honey shop. The honey shop is a favourite because you get to try different flavours of honey! My favourite is honey made from Pahutikawa flowers!

The honey shop at Lindale had a beehive inside! It is behind glass (luckily!!) and you can observe the bees working. It's pretty amazing!

The candy shop at Lindale. Very sweet!! Another great place to visit besides the honey shop!Mmmm.

The begining of a new term...

Me, Myself and I...

I can't believe the first week of uni this term is over!

I have just finished my first week at uni and so far so good! I really like all my subjects, and marine bio is very interesting indeed! We are learning about esteries which are places where rivers fall into the open ocean, and about the underwater life that lives there! So great! English is very interesting also! We are learning about the different types of poetry such as ballards and sonnets. We will soon be studying shakespears 'twelfth night' play and also 'Northanger Abbey' novel by Jane Austen! So far I'm loving english heaps, and the lecturers are great! I was reading 'Northanger Abbey' yesterday and mum asked me what I was doing and I'm like "I'm studying!!!" Hehehe isn't that great, I get to read classical novels and can call it 'study'!!! A nice change from reading textbooks!!

Hehehehe! It's study for english!! So happy!! I even have my friend Sophia from Korea who is in my english class. We were so surprised to see each other! I'm very glad that she is in my class!

At the moment reading Sherlock Holmes Mysteries in Russian!
Recently recieved my ordered book from America! The complete novel by

Connan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries! (in English!!)

Bio lab was fine, not too long and my new lab partner is nice (I only met her when I came into the lab and did't have a partner and neither did she) so that's fine. My lab partner from last term no longer does the bio lab course. Genetics is good so far too, haven't done any proper genetics since yr12, so it feels great to do it again! I almost forgot how much I loved genetics! It has always been my favourite topic in biology.

My days turned out quite short too, like on monday I have classes at 9am, 11am and 12mid and then I go home. Tuesday is my day off, Wednesday is my only long day because I have my bio lab, but normally it doesn't last for the whole 4 hours. Thursday I only have 2 classes and go home at 12. Friday I don't go in at all. That means that I have plenty of time to do independent study, which I really like to do!

I think this term I will enjoy my courses way more than the last so that should go well! Last term they were quite monotonous, but this term they are all indeed very different! Variation is good!! I realised that I'm terrible at specializing at something since I want to learn about EVERYTHING, and not just particular areas (ie last term all my papers were related to molecular bio! ugh!)!!!

Our cat Misty and Jerry the bear

On Wednesday 11th June, me and my family went to see 'Harry Potter and the order of Phoenix'!! It was amazing!! I loved it sooo much! I think it is my favourite Harry Potter movie next to 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'!! And my favourite character is still Hermione!

Holiday time...

Holidays have been great!
Had such a good time these past few weeks with Theresa being here. Went to all the places around Wellington, such as the Botanical garden, Te papa, Lampton Quay, Cuba St, and around Lower Hutt like the library and Queensgate too, and I also showed her Sacred Heart College.
Did lots of painting also! My inspiration is back, and me and Theresa spent several days painting!(see photos that will follow) Such a nice feeling painting! One day me, Linda, Theresa and Christina spent the whole day in Wellington (approx 8 hours!) and were exhausted afterwards, so spent the next few days sitting at home and painting!

It was sad to see Theresa leave on Friday night, the house felt a bit empty afterwards. We had a great time overall!!!

Mum's friend Livia came to visit from Australia and my family went with Livia to see Shreck III at the new Sky City Cinemas in Queensgate. Personally, I don't really notice it being much different to Hoyts cinemas, except that the chairs are soft, like mini couches! As for the Shreck III movie, I concluded that Shreck II is definitely the best! Can't wait to see the Harry Potter movie next week!! :) So exciting!!

I can't believe uni starts tomorrow! Luckily my days turned out to be quite short according to my timetable, with the exception of Wednesday when I finish at 5pm (bio lab, 4 hours!!). And I have Tuesday and Friday off!! I'm so excited about my english paper for this term, I'm already half way through the first novel that we will study which is 'Nothaway Abbey' by Jane Austen!
A nice novel written in old English style, so a bit hard to get into at first but once past the first few chapters, all is well!!!

Today I finally had the courage to look at my exam results (they have been out for the past 2 weeks but I was too scared to look) and found that I passed all my subjects!!! Yeeehhaaaa!!!!!!! I was soooooo scared I wouldn't pass something!! (like chemistry for example, but I actually got a B for it!!!! It took me a few hours to get over that surprise!) What a relief!

Have also been doing a lot of reading throughout the holidays, and and hope to continue it being that way throughout the term. Like, at the moment I am reading 4 books relatively at the same time!!

Me and Theresa at the cable car museum (located in Botanical Gardens)

An acrylic painting on a wooden sheet by me and Theresa for the living room, titled 'Music for the Soul'.

My latest acrylic on canvas painting, based on Hermione from the latest Harry Potter movie that's coming out next week!

Linda, what a gigantic $5 bill you have there!

The banana in the parliament grounds...or is it a fallen crescent moon?? Whatever it is, take your pick! Christina, me and Linda are here too!

Wellington Parliament...have live in the Wellington region for 13 years but this is the first ever photo taken by me of the parliament.... somewhere in the picture there is Linda, Theresa and Christina...

Theresa, Linda and me mucking around at the photo computer at Te Papa. So... like our now look?

Me and Theresa at Te Papa

Linda at Te Papa. Linda's opinion of fish is.... take a wild guess!

Linda and Theresa created their own Frankenstein!

Me and Theresa at Te Papa in the nature area. Those fish are so cute!!