owned.

3 A.M.
4 students camping out in Business School, in a desperate attempt to study for the exams.

And then came a bet - the person who falls asleep before 6 A.M will lose.

I lost.

5 P.M.

My punishment commences.

K, the librarian made this announcement in the law library:

"Guys, sorry to interrupt. A student, Huiling Chen has a few items missing from her desk. If you see them, kindly return to her. The items are:
First, a Hello Kitty lunch box
Second, a Powerpuffs Girls USB
Third, a Transformers file with Company Law notes
Please return these items to her if found. Thanks."

Everyone was cracking up and I laughed so hard I started tearing.

Few seconds later, another announcement was made:

"If you guys didn't get her name, she is Huiling Chen. I repeat, Huiling Chen."

Few minutes later, I received a text from S:
"Omg I just heard the announcement. Your stuff got stolen?!?!"
[Seriously, I can't believe my friend thinks that I actually own those stuff.]

An hour later, yet another announcement:

"Huiling Chen, your Transformers file has been found. Please come to the loans desk and collect it. Thank you."

w.t.f.

We're only human

Recently, I've been opening up more to my friends. Its good, and less scary than I imagined it to be. I realise how important it is to talk, just for another perspective and how much difference it can make to a friendship.

Today, I'd dinner with Jn and we were talking about problems relating to relationships and faith. I reckon this is the first time we ever had a serious talk and both of us are just absolutely shocked that we each have an emo side. He thinks I'm the happiest girl and I think that he is the happiest guy around law school. Truth is, we were going through a very rough period.

Simple as it is, but I realise today - we are all humans too.

Growing Up

"Of course, one of the things about growing up is that you slowly, and belatedly, come to realise that things are never quite as black and white as they once were when you were a child shouting for your mother’s attention; that the wall we build up to keep from getting hurt might also be what’s keeping us from being loved."

The Story of my Ukulele

Introducing my very pretty pearl white Ukulele!


(I'm still thinking of a name and gender for her/him)

I actually thought of getting it after the exams so I wouldn't get too distracted by it... but obviously that didn't happen. So here is a short story about "How I met my Ukulele":

~ 9pm last night, Sean popped up on Msn. Half way through the convo, I randomly said I wanted to get a ukulele and showed him the website.
That itself tempted him to get one too. (Awesome strategy to get a free ride to the music shop)
So we decided to check it out next afternoon (today) but apparently he couldn't wait and went there in the morning. After which he picked me up and we went there again. I was obviously going to buy it and did bought it. But he got a bit concerned when he saw the foreign music notes filling the pages of the Ukulele Book for Beginners, so he decided to let me take the risk first.

We drove back to law school, abducted PY and went back to Huia because there wasn't parking at my place. And that was when we all started trying to tune the ukulele. It was so damn retarded because 3 of us spent at least an hour trying to tune those 4 strings and when we couldn't, we came up with a conclusion that they might have stringed it wrongly. So we called pitch-perfect lionel to intervene. He too, can't figure out how to tune it because none of us knew how a ukulele supposed to sound like.

Alas, we decided to drive back to the music shop for help. And that, was Sean's 3rd time in the same shop in 1 day. During the drive, Sean said I will never learn how to play it and it will end up in a corner of my room collecting dust. And he would be able to buy it off me at $20. I'm so gonna prove him wrong and learn to play a song this week!

Elated that my ukulele is finally tuned, I tried to start playing a chord or 2 from youtube/online resources. After quite awhile of struggling, I wondered why mine sounded so different from the one played on youtube, although we were playing exact same notes.

Then it occurred to me: maybe I bought a left-hand ukulele!!! So i tried playing everything in the opposite manner AND IT SOUNDED RIGHT!! Gawd... I was like... NO WAY I'M GOING BACK TO THE SAME SHOP!! So I asked Nat (who knows the piano/guitar) what the hell is wrong with my ukulele?! And she gave me that -__- look, saying in a matter-of-fact tone that I was holding my ukulele the wrong way (I was strumming with my left hand instead of right).

Epic failure.

The past couple of weeks have been awesome! Its odd how things can be so different from what I expected it to be - I thought I might go into a short depression initially.

Not that I've accomplished or did anything major last week (although I finished my 4000words opinion!!! Ok, I was severely under the word limit, I only had 3432 words, but still....)but it was a simple happy week. Gawd...I haven't felt so carefree for so long!!! Its feels so good to let go of all those struggles, burden and hurt which have been pressing me for ages!

So what I've been up to... hmm.. nothing much actually, just rushing for my conflicts opinion which almost drove me crazy. I rewrote it the day before, abandoning my 1 week long research and came up with a novel idea which either sucks real bad or might just work for Elsabe! Lets just hope, wait and see.

So after handing in the opinion, I decided to cut my hair! A friend said I always do something to my hair when I'm not feeling good (i.e. I cut my fringe/dye my hair when I'm upset). But to be more accurate, I do something to my hair whenever I'm feeling abnormal (i.e. extremely upset or extremely happy). I remembered how 5 of us went to dye our hair straight after the A levels, and gawd it was horrendous!! I decided to be adventurous this time and went into this Korean hair dresser just down the street. To my horror, she didn't understand a single word of English!! So the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hey, um... I can't decide whether I should cut my hair short or just trim it. What would you recommend?
Hairdresser: mahiceijc pewjflneijf jorejf e,mnwjfjwejop (Korean language)
Me: Huh? Sorry I don't understand Korean.
Hairdresser: Shweojfn jfeo owk fkwe lkp[wref (Korean again)
Me: Uh... sorry... I don't understand...uh this (pointing at 1 picture) or this (pointing at another)?
Hairdresser: duiwdjpof jpokfpewmf f;lnew f;wlenfewkrn fwekfwp (even more Korean)
Me: Uh...ok...nevermind... just cut (pointing to my head)
For the next 10 minutes, she was talking to me in Korean as if I understood her.
To my horror, she started cutting my fringe straight, like those dolly bangs...O.M.G. I frantically waved my arms to stop her.
Me: No no no no.... um...natural... you know? Can you make it more natural?
Hairdresser: gdewhdew kfojfnrnl dwqk dpewfne pvrmel kfpe kpewk
Me: Uh... Ahhhhhh... hmmm..... something like this... (showing her)
Hairdresser: ohhhhh.....
And you think "ohhh..." means " I understand" Yeah right. My fringe now is short and straight.

And I finally caught Ip Man 2! Awesome, as expected and story line was also expected, nothing great but the kungfu just blew me away! Good stuff.

There was a themed dinner last night, and I dressed up as a lawyer, just because I didn't have any other costumes except for a suit. During which, I got inspired to get a white ukulele! I'm definitely going to get one after the exams and learn a couple of songs so we could sing during our road trips! Its cheap ($47), small thus mobile (easy to bring along during road trips), apparently easy to learn (at most a day for a song), sounds really nice (I like how it sounds like the guitar, and that its easier to learn), and I can imagine us just playing and singing in the car/hostel/beach during trips... how chillax would that be! Ok, I know, what I say may not always materialise but I will try hard this time!

WHICH COLOUR SHOULD I GET????
(I'm pretty sure I'll go for pearl white though...)





I've already a list of songs I wanna play!
Fields of Gold, Moon River, Falling Slowly, True Colours, The Rose, etc! I'm so excited!

The law school people were hanging out late last night so I joined them at hulu cat after dinner. They are an entertaining group - watching John and Ron conversing with each other is like watching a live sitcom. 'twas a good night out.

so its Sunday again. Damn, I got so so so so so so so so so so so so so much work to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life is still beautiful

So another chapter of my life has began. =)

Last week was an emotional rollar coaster, but it has been for quite some time. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be so thats cool.

A brief update on what I've been up to this week...

Laserstrike - Gosh I totally sucked in the 1st round. I broke all the rules and attained the one and only last position out of 10 players. Although I was dressed in black and supposedly be hard to notice, everyone said they could recognise me from far because of my voice.
Lionel KEPT chasing and following me and shot me everytime I recovered. I was so irritated that I laid flat on the floor thinking that he can't shoot my front tags, only to realise he could attack me at the back too. BUT I redeemed myself by improving to the 3rd position in the 3rd round! Awesome game!

Steamboat/Drinking/Karoake - I decided to be ambitious and prepared steamboat porridge. It was super yum and we ate so much we felt like puking. At the same time, we finished 8 episodes of "How I met your mother".
Sean and friends came later for a round of drinks. Rather, a few rounds of drinks. I almost died half way through the 1st round but they tried resuscitating me to ensure I was sober enough to go for K. I concussed for awhile before getting back on my feet for K. The night felt like it would never end and I couldn't take it any longer before dozing off again during K. Its amazing how can I sleep through all that shouting, out of tune singing and screaming. Finally, the night ended.

RENT Musical - It was good, very different from the other musicals I've watched but refreshing. More rock, more contemporary, and a bit emo (or maybe I was just being really emo that night).
Here's a short synopsis of the musical: RENT tells a story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

My hair is purple - I dyed my hair dark purple!!!

Rally New Zealand - The Rally of New Zealand is the oldest WRC event to be held in the Southern Hemisphere. It is famous for its fast flowing gravel roads which carry the competitors through forests and alongside the impressive New Zealand coastline.
So I headed down to Domain to meet up with the rest for this event. I'm not a car-lovin' person so I couldn't really appreciate anything that was happening. Saw a couple of drifts, heard the loud engines, knew it was cool but just didn't quite know how to appreciate it. After which, we'd an impromptu pot luck at my place to kill time before heading down to Hulu Cat for milk tea (I spent 6hours there in a day! 3hours with Joyce in the afternoon, 3 hours with the rest at night!). We played the murderer game and I thought it was pretty fun! 'twas a good night out.

Our legen----dary ski trip - MP finally booked her tickets to NZ during July! Since I've travelled most parts of NZ a couple of times, we decided to make it a purely skiing/snowboarding trip! That means, we will be visiting all the ski fields around NZ for 3 weeks! AWESOME!!! Not as if I know how to ski or snowboard, but I better do by the end of the trip! Can't wait! And knowing Ms MP has its own awesome incentives - it comes along with a FREE NIGHT AT HILTON HOTEL! Thanks to Ms MP's corporate status =) I don't usually enjoy such luxuries during backpacking trips!

Sunday - It was so nice of Joyce to ask me for church. We chilled at her cozy house for awhile before she left to usher. I then followed her dad and sis, Grace to church. They are an awesome family, apart from their cozy house filled with warmth, the sisters are really high achievers. Elder sis is a doctor, younger sis is a soon-to-be lawyer. Most importantly, no airs and very down to earth. We went for lunch and it reminded me of the times Cheryl was here, when we'd stayovers and dinners with her family.
Grace and her dad then left and Joyce and I decided to head down to K-road to source for some gifts. Took a couple of detours but finally made it there. Iko Iko is the name of the shop and its THE shop I wanna acquire in future. They have all the vintage stuff, notebooks, folders, creatively crafted gifts, aesthetically designed stationery but exorbitant prices. Still, I immediately succumbed to temptation when I saw the magnetic poetry kit. I've been absolutely attracted to it since the last backpacking trip where it was stuck all over the backpacker's fridge. I now have them stuck all around my apartment and it is a joy to read them through the day. =)


Although significantly horrid stuff happened during the week, I try to remember that I've also been blessed with many other happy ones to pull me through. Time to be looking on the bright side.

Today is one of my saddest days.
I finally... finally let my best friend go.
Its one of the hardest thing I'd to do, but I know I have to do it.
I know I will be better after this.
I just need some time to grieve.

Please stand by me.

I feel like killin' myself.

My Soul Vacation

Its been awhile since I've a perspective and it feels good to finally have a sense of it.

In fact, its time to get my act together. (A little late, but better late than never) My lil soul vacation to the South helped quite a bit - it was simple yet soulful.

Basically, a breadcramp trail of our short backpacking trip is as follows:

Auckland > Christchurch > Hanmer Springs > Christchurch > Kaikora > Christchurch > Auckland

I was dissing Hanmer Springs throughout because of these few reasons which made me feel strikingly retarded:
1) We paid $59 for transportation costs (I find it exorbitant)
2) It was the Easter holidays (Quote random kiwi girl: I've never seen so many people in New Zealand before)!
3) Our objective was to soak in the warm thermal pools, in the middle of nature's beauty - it looks serene and tranquil in the brochures. Fact is, it was a children's playground during the hols with so much noise pollution you wonder what good is a kid for. I also got reminded of the quiet, clean and much warmer jacuzzi (with massaging effect) available for free just a couple of minutes away from my apartment - I forgo that, took a plane AND 3 hour bus ride AND paid $14 to this noisy, blistering cold and dirty place (Some hot pretty mom made her cute kid wear diapers in the pool, how is that not disgusting!?)!?
Unwilling to let that dampen my mood, I told PY - its not that bad actually. Imagine if we were here during the off-peak season, without all these children, the pools would be cleaner, it would be quiet, maybe the trees would be covered with snow, its actually quite a sight! Yup, just imagine that. So we did, and smiled to ourselves as we continued soaking in that dubious sulphur pool for the next couple of hours.

Since both of us secretly knew that our thermal pool experience wasn't exactly a success but did not want to blurt that out to spoil the anticipation of a great getaway, we somewhat came to a consensus that we would go for a trek. I wonder if both of us actually conceded that a trek would guarantee a better experience? Anyway, we felt horridly tired (I don't know from what, we just ate and soak in the pool for the day) and slept at 7pm till 8plus am (Thats what I mean by an awesome soul vacation!)

Digressing, a short anecdote. We were preparing breakfast. When it was ready and served, PY brought along 2 cups of hot tea. I wondered to myself, where did she get that? I'm pretty sure I didn't see free tea bags on the counter. But oh come on, you don't think much when you are on a holiday - when there is food, you eat. When there are drinks, you drink. When there are activities, you play. So I drank. Soon, the kitchen was cleared off people leaving us sipping our hot tea. PY turned over and turned back with a changed expression. 'OMG I STOLE SOMEONE'S TEA!!!!' Yes, she stole someone's tea. In fact, it wasn't even stealing - she blatantly took it in front of the owner's eyes. Apparently, the tea and sugar was neatly chucked to the side of the counter, inducing her to assume that it was provided by the hostel. After waiting for the true owner to finish using it, she openly took it. She still had the audacity to be sniffing through their stuff, wondering if hot chocolate or tea would be a better drink for the morning. What can I say? The owner is just so lovely to share their drinks with us, without us asking nor them questioning.

Anyway, whenever we act in a foolish manner, I'll jokingly say, 'You see, now they (the caucasians) are whispering: stupid Asians'
And I said that countless times during the trip. I.e. during the occasion where we tried to sneak sandwich bags from the kitchen thus acting suspiciously for a few minutes till we realise that there was a camera and how ridiculous we looked. 'Stupid kiasu Asians' I said, not blaming why we might be labelled the way we are by them.

Oh no, I feel so lazy to continue typing, so I shall just post some photos with captions!
We went for a trek and got lost after which. We had to run like mad women back (with my injured knee) to our hostel, grab our bags and run to the bus stop - we barely made it to the bus back to Christchurch.
I got sick and took a day off to rest in the backpackers.
Cathedral Square at Christchurch
Awww....


I AM A NATURAL FISHER-WOMAN!!!
Seriously, I never thought fishing can be THAT awesome. One of those days which I felt really happy, carefree and burdenless =)