And it begins.

There have been so many changes in life. 

...

For those of you who aren't aware of it yet, I'm happily back at a place where I call home. 

Flying back to NZ was a tiring process. I had to transit at Singapore and Christchurch before taking another domestic flight to Dunedin with bags, cookies and everything in tow. Amused, I tried doing a calculation of how many hours of travel time I had clocked over the past few months. The answer was pretty startling, I'd say - there were definitely more than ten flights, and at least thirty hours of being on the road. Oh yes, Anne, you da traveler, so stick to dat and do what you like to do.
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Now this keychain below gave me a problem -

 They basically thought I was communicating in a secret language to other terrorists - or that I myself was a wannabe terrorist - or...I don't know, really. The keychain shaped as a gun was inappropriate (?) - or maybe they thought the keychain had secret powers. At any rate, I ended up being stranded at a side for fifteen minutes while they scrutinized me warily, consulting their senior officers for all that was worth. 

Tired from waiting, I told the officer, "You know what? You guys can have it. It's from the dollar shop anyways." 

Startled, the officer gave me this strange, weird look. Apparently if I was so willing in giving up, then that would mean I was not a potential terrorist, right? After all, the ones who acted all defensive and shit were the suspects.

So in the end, I was allowed to keep my lovely keychain. 

Drinks all around!

ANYWAY.

Living in St Margaret's College is probably one of the best things that could happen to me, ever. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I first visited it at the age of nine. Or ten, whatever - I don't remember. I was immediately captivated by those flowers, that traditional-looking structure - and of course, the wonderful lifestyle. I remember putting all these personal pleas in my application, and badabinggg, wish granted. 

People have been really friendly so far, even though the segregation between Asians and Europeans clearly still exists in a certain manner. That doesn't mean you can't get locals to be your friend, though, I've had a couple of mates pretty quickly and everything seems to be working fine. It's quite common for us to greet each other on the hallway or strike up a quick, casual conversation at the dining table. 

Which quickly led me to the fact that I was the friggin' minority in terms of coursework and shit. Everyone was a health science student, I was one of the few doing Law and Arts - majoring in English and minoring in Politics, no less. It was difficult to talk about course stuff with others since we were all involved in different things, but people were quite curious as to what my two degrees entailed. 

Looks like everyone can be pals after all. 

The Inter-College Sports Day was pretty fun, even though I did suffer a minor sunburn after that. I'll remember that tight jeans and bad UV rays are a bad combination next time.

 GO, SMC!

Then this was something interesting I found on a library book I borrowed:

 I totally laughed at "Oh Dear". Someone was obviously not a diehard fan of the USSR. Dude probably had a shitload of jokes for Commies and Albania...or whatever country he was referring to at "bugger", I have no idea. 

Then there was the all-amazing toga party, where everyone dressed up in a toga just like the Greek eras in their bedsheets. It was like, a Dunedin tradition. Freshies did that, and thousands of them gathered in the stadium.

 Then there were the catch-ups with old mates. 

This little girl clung onto me incredibly quickly. She just refused to let me go, so I was like, "Heck, I'll just carry you around then."

Another feature of St Margaret's is the formal dinners they have. I signed up for pre-dinner drinks seeing as no one on my floor was that keen on doing so, and ended up being nervous in a whole bunch of people dressed in suits and dresses.

 We also had the Amazing Race. I might have twisted/tore something in the process, seeing as how much I suffered in the days after that. All in all, though, it was great fun.

 There are a lot of serious issues that I have to write about, though. 

First off, the study issues.

Secondly...I still haven't really gotten over the death of a close friend that I have just discovered recently. No one really knows what's going on, and even I have tried my best not to think about it. But the thoughts still come dead at night, after several tiring hours of looking over books. 

I don't know how to deal with it, but somehow I will. 

Till then, it's time for a Law lecture.

Oh, hello.

People, people on the streets - and you know nothing about them. You don't know what kind of lives they lead, what kinds of hardship they face. People are fascinating. I wish I knew them more.

It's three in the morning and I'm about to fall asleep and I'm watching a hundred ways to die on Skyrim while trying my best not to laugh. I nearly fell off my chair laughing at the part with the giant cabbages and marriage. Charming. Absolutely charming. I've watched it before last year, but couldn't resist watching it again. Skyrim humor is never lost on me.

Lunar New Year has begun. 

More posts to come soon.

Anime post - because fuck it, I want to.

 SO. Because I haven't been feeling too much like my ol' self lately, I shall do a spam of an anime that I've recently taken up an interest in.

If you dislike anime, don't bother reading this - because it contains Anne's super fan-girl-ism. 

Which doesn't occur all the time - but when it does, it just does, so screw it.

Hetalia!

 Each series is only around five minutes long - which is convenient, trust me. It takes ages to load half-hour anime shows, especially with such a slow wi-fi at home. 

The other awesome thing about this series is that it personifies countries. So basically there are characters called England and America. And history is re-enacted through the funniest means that I've ever seen. I won't lie - this helped me remember history. I can list the Axis and Allies from my head now without too much trouble, and those pacts here and there - yeah, those too. 

And these characters are so lovable, since they act like what is expected out of their people. For example, America acts like the idiotic ditz who can't live without hamburgers. Germany is the serious guy who acts all military-like, and Japan is humble plus conservative. England's the one who casts magic and cooks (failing horribly at both), while raising America - before America rebelled against him and oh there we go - the revolution. Like I said, this actually helps my history.

 My favorite character has gotta be England, though. Or Arthur Kirkland - since the creator did give him a human name after all. Sigh, this fangirl-ing thing really has to stop - but ANYWAYS. In terms of personality, I feel that he resembles me the most. And that's it.

 So since I was so caught up in fangirl mode, I even went to try out the fanmade game for Hetalia - aka HetaOni. It's based off AoOni, only using the characters of Hetalia. Basically, the characters enter a haunted mansion, and they have to use all sorts of means to escape. Was it horrifying? Kinda. Nothing as bad as Amnesia, though the music was creepy and I blasted other music over the eerie din once in a while. So...yeah, there's a plot (which I totally didn't expect), some fighting, and character death. 

Yes, character death.

Which saddened me! Fuck. I get attached to...these...to these characters drawn on a piece of paper so easily! FFFFFFFFFfffu.

The graphics aren't like some sort of HD FF game - especially since its fanmade, and not an official release. Plus, the whole setup resembles Pokemon - those tiny characters, walking in a huge map, the way the battles go, etc. Now, I played it because everyone said how heart-wrenching it was. And oh, I wasn't disappointed. I basically sniffled and sobbed through the sad parts. How awfully un-Anne, but seriously! Especially since I was playing it when I was having trouble with my host family. Geez. 

Epic fangirl rant is epic, but is unfortunately ending - although I could go on and on if I have to.

And I'm moving out tomorrow. Whoots! Will blog about the whole experience when I've settled down.