Our Trip Away to Napier

This was the first trip we've had away since we started our term. This time, we could just enjoy the scenery...we didn't have conference gear or work to bring with us. We shared our time with our driver Chris and Ray, my best friend JP's boyfriend. Even though it was just Nikita, Kristi and me with the guys, we still kept up with what was happening on a trip taking place simultaneous to our own in the Coromandel by Simone, Ozge, Tee and another Chris.

It's amazing how New Zealand looks just like it is in the books, brochures and post cards. Sometimes we found ourselves driving past scenery that could be a country calendar photo and we'd just laugh, but deep down inside appreciating the beauty of the land and sea around us.

Here is a photo slide to describe the entire trip.


And farewell, Chris!! Have fun in Melbourne.

Learning new skills...

In the summer of 2001, I began teaching myself how to read and write Chinese... I got books, I read magazines, I read subtitles, I practiced in my exercise book. I even bought a little white board and marker so I could practice my characters on a large surface - wipe them out and start again.

I stopped after my grandma had a stroke; that summer I spent at the hospital beside her, bringing her congee everyday and helping her eat.

In the following 5 years I never picked up my pencil to practice again. But I really want to continue. I know I will be able to do it. But I'm an aural learner, I need to find someone who can read out the characters to me...

Of moon cakes and NZ movies

The other night we had a moon cake party. Yes, you read it correctly. It was all about moon cakes! I missed being home with mum and dad... it was strange, I never felt such an urge to go home and have dinner with them before. Anyway, we invited people over and watched the sky the entire day to see if the clouds would move so we could moon gaze - Nikita got very excited. I cooked green bean dessert for three hours... but it still needed more time, d'oh!

The moon cakes were brilliant. Chris and Gilly made a fantastic effort to find moon cakes in Wellington... they said they took the whole day and drove all around town. Well done, guys :) They even came in a pretty bag and shiny tin - the moon cakes, not Chris and Gilly. We also had Anupa and Hamil put in effort to provide some type of cake. So we had some variations... ;) mud cake and fairy cake. Close enough!

We ended the moon cake party with a movie called Sione's Wedding: a Samoan family in New Zealand organising a wedding for one of their sons but there are trouble makers that need to be taken care of first. The NZ movie was absolutely hilarious and very Kiwi... the slang, the costumes, the actors, the culture of Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand (South Auckland has the largest Polynesian population in the world); we don't see much of that here in Wellington.

The entire evening was great... even though Simone and Kristi didn't like moon cake, Nikita ate enough for both of them! I really enjoyed sharing little parts of mine and Nikita's cultural traditions and hopefully everyone got to learn a little bit more about Chinese and Kiwi culture.

The next parties? Austrian, Indonesian and Estonian festivals and holidays of course! Stay tuned for the dates :)

Find the words

Jingwei once said that it's usually hard to find time to write down all the experiences that you're having when you are going through them. That's true because in a typical week you will probably go through a dozen things and you won't be able to write it all down!

I am not only finding it difficult to find the time, I am also finding it hard to put into words all that I'm going through.

Day-to-day life is just not normal. I tried to describe it to my friend who is not in AIESEC yesterday what I was going through and even though she is working in a professional environment, my problems baffled her.

Life less is not ordinary.

But I am really enjoying the conversations I have with my team. I am learning the most from them this year.