Melbourne yo!

So last week I decided to head over to Melbs for a week, admittedly with my parents, for primarily a med interview at Monash (but really for the holiday =D) 

We flew out earllllllly, and trekked it all the way to the University Campus. Started to really like the campus, it's actually nice how its far away from central Melbourne, so that there would really be a university culture there. 

Melbourne is so nice. It's so arty, so friendly. It confounded me how there was constantly SO many people in the city! It's like the britomart intersection x 10 constantly ah. Did some touristy things while I was there - The NGV (National Gallery of Victoria - a name which I found conflicting... how can it be a "National" Gallery when Victoria is a state? weird) as well as much outlet shopping :) 

Full priced clothes is so expensive in Australia! Outlet shopping is the way to go. 

Even though people earn a lot more than in New Zealand, the cost of living is a lot higher! Can't survive on anything less than $10AUD per meal, unless you want to film Supersize Me 2 or something. 

Federation Square & St. Paul's Cathedral

NGV

Luna Park

State Library

On the trip, I met up with Lizzie from school and we went to Luna Park! The best thing about these amusement parks is the sheer unsafe vibe the rides give off, and also the lack of safety restrictions they must have had when they were building them. I swear if i wriggled enough I could have fallen out of the rides.

I also visited the Shrine of Remembrance, which is such an epic shrine for Australia! It was built in the year after the first world war, but now serves as place to remember all conflicts Aussie was involved in. It didn't hit me until I visited this, but the soldiers of the wars were my age. I can remember going to the Auckland museum all those years ago, when the stories told of seventeen year olds enlisting, but now it has dawned on me that I AM that age. Can you imagine what life would have been like if we were born in another time? Crazy.

Towards the end of the week, I spent an embarrassing amount of time in the State Library of Victoria, which is such an amazing building. If the library in Auckland looked like that, I'd really want to study :P It's just so... antique? It's mind boggling how people sat there so many years ago, studying different things and just in such a different world to the one we're living in today.

I kind of really like Melbourne :) Not as much as Europe, admittedly, but it's pretty great. 

Summer.

random picture that I took at Massey Library

Wow, freedom for the next 3 months? Weird.

No, what's stranger is that we now have no obligation to do anything. I can just decide to go traveling and never come back, or to give up everything and find a good bridge to live under. Obviously I won't - but the freedom to do so is there.

December the 1st was our Graduation Dinner. The last time we'd be as a year group (although only 116 out of 540 year 13's came to the dinner) It was strange, to say the least. It doesn't feel like we're never going to be together anymore. I guess it won't feel like it until we actually are too far apart, too separated by time and space. Amelia and I delivered the Valedictorian speech together. Felt so underprepared and nervous - we finished writing it that afternoon, and practiced it twice - that I didn't eat any dessert. Immediately regretted this after the speech!

There were two quotes that we used that I really like.

From Albert Einstein: "Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid.


From a Keynote Speaker at the Rotary Science & Tech Forum: "If your dreams don't scary you, then they aren't big enough."

So, into the future we venture.
But before that, interview at Monash D:

Exams?

So it's NCEA exams. Actually, it's been that way for a while. I've had 6 of them, 3 more to go. Of those 6, 4 have been my subjects, which leaves only calculus that really "counts." Did I feel stressed for these exams? Yeaaaaah. No. I've been waiting, waiting for that *moment* to kick in, but it never did.

On Saturday, I'll be a free man. No more stress until MARCH next year. Jokes, I have to prepare for my interview at Monash and deliberate whether or not I'll apply to NYUAD. Isn't it crazy how your mindset can change so drastically over a short period of time, as a result of some seemingly coincidental and perhaps not so overtly influential incidences?

Last week, after my bio exam, I went to Jason Mraz's concert. To say that it was amazing would be a cruel understatement. Not only did he play for two and a half hours of favourites, and unreleased music, he delivered uplifting messages to the audience, leaving us feeling... Happy.

He said:

"I don't have expectations. Because when expectations fail to follow through, you fail.
Instead, I have possibilities.. Because when these don't come to be... Then you are just left with... other possibilities."


After the concert, Samantha and I managed to stick around for when he came out from the stage door to meet fans and sign stuff and take photos. He did this for a legit 40 minutes, happily meeting every fan, receiving generic comments of appreciation with an amazing humility, and having cameras flashing in his face every second. All of this, even though I bet he was ridiculously tired and jetlagged.

So that was my November. Nothing exciting, nothing profound. But still all good :)


Danny.

An end. A new beginning.

It's here. The moment at which we leave the safety of obligation and regulation, and cross the threshold into the unpredictable, the unchartered, the unknown.

The last few days of school flew by in the blink of an eye. Was it really only 3 days ago that we were still actually doing work in class? The last few hours of school are forever held in my mind, in comforting detail. It is not until you think about what no longer is, that you wish it were still there. Albeit mundane and still ordinary, I wish I had appreciated it more. 

If I met my third form self, I would be in disbelief. I really travelled, I really succeeded, I really did everything that I did? Did I really do all that? 

Now, all these moments are just memories. They lie in the past, only living inside of our heads. Slowly, these too will fade, becoming obscured by new memories, new experiences. 

We've finished at Rangitoto College.

In third form, my form class filmed ourselves in our English class. This is a tradition that our teacher still carries on now. We just sat there, talked about ourselves, what we liked, what we aspired to be. 

At the start of this week, our last week, the same class met up again, to watch this video. 20/27 of us had made it to the end. So much has changed since then. How innocent and impressionable we were. We had so much to learn, so much to experience. We were our undeveloped selves. Still the younglings of the school, we were yet to form our opinions, set our goals, choose our inspirations. 

Ryan came on. I still remember that day in 5th form so clearly. The shock, the disbelief. Although I didn't have the privilege of being very close to him, I remember fragments of our encounters. When I bused home with Debbie from the city, and he pulled me aside and asked me if she were my girlfriend. When he brought fancy bluetooth headphones to school. His characteristic bandanna, his easygoing attitude. May he rest in peace.

The video rolled on, and gasps and awws echoed through E13, as our 13 year old selves popped up on stage. I mentioned my love of cheese and my desire to make money. I don't think I knew what I wanted to be back then. 

We've all gone on to be different people, going different paths, but this history pulls us together.  We'll still remember the days of Social Studies, peer support and rebellious gangsters.

So now we carry on. Time doesn't stop. It's almost cruel how paths cross and diverge so quickly. But our five years at Rangitoto remains a part of us as we venture into the world. 

End of an era. 

Rangitoto College. 

Class of 2011.

Times passing.

In the weekend just been, was the 19th Future Problem Solving National Finals.
It's been a quietly influential part of my time at High School. The annual missing of period 6 and 7, helping set up the camp, sitting our booklets with mountains of food, practicing the Dramatic presentations... Sitting anxiously for the results.

I can still remember the day I went to the meeting in S4, all that time ago. Stumbling in by myself a few minutes late, not realising that it was a team thing. Vaguely knew the people who would come to be my team, and hardly knowing what we were in for.

That year, miraculously, we made it to nationals. Thought we were awesome. Awkward. Didn't even place. We were guttered to say the least. Dramatic Presentation was a horror.

2007

nawww

Fast forward to 2008, we made it to nationals again! In the senior division, because the rest of my team are oldies. This time, we managed to place 2nd! Maybe you can see a recurrent theme in the photos - every time we went, (apart from when we evaluated) we went to the same secret garden near the mall. :)

In May/June the next year, we went to America! Did an epic tour of LA, Chicago, Michigan, Niagara Falls, New York. Pretty much an amazing experience. 

The Bean, Chicago

MSU

Didn't qualify for FPS Nationals in 2009, but Sarah, Jaz & I went as evaluators :D different experience, but it was still good coz the other team went to compete :)

Quickly came 2010 -  our year. We were the pros now. Managed to place first in the booklet, and SECOND IN THE DP. and we even enjoyed it! How far we have come since 2007...

So that's my journey with my team (highly condensed)
This year there was a new journey, this time with a new bunch of people, where I had the role of co-coach. It's almost like some bad soap opera in which all the main characters die off, and new characters replace them (but good in this case)
It was so different this year. I kept thinking back to our old days, when we explored the camp for the first time, when we thought we would win, but didn't. This people were going through it for the FIRST TIME. Everything was so familiar, the food was exactly the same.

I got acknowledged for my service to FPS over the last 5 years at prizegiving, and a lady who I didn't recognize (a coach) came up to me and said that she remembered me, when I was *this high* It's ridiculous. Crazy. I cannot believe that this chapter only has one A5 left.

Next year will be one of new beginnings. Hopefully I'll get to join something which will stay with me for my University studies, like how FPS did for high school.

My Day Out.

Performed at this Postgraduate Research Expo thing for Alex at UoA, along with some AYO'ers. The rehearsal was at 10am, and the concert at 5:30pm. This meant that I had an entire day to fill in the city.

I decided to go check out the revamped Auckland Art Gallery! How many years has this building been under wraps?! So long so that it seems like it's jumped out of nowhere. It looks almost too good to be in New Zealand. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but it was pretty great! I found it interesting how there were so many different types of works all jumbled together... They seemed to sort it by who donated it? That's how it looked to me, anyway. There was a massive range of art movements there. Saw one Dali work, and reminded me of Berlin :/ wish there were more! Bumped into Julia there and had a good old chat. 

The Art Gallery is definitely worth checking out, and it's FREE! How cool is that :)

Next up on my agenda, I headed down the Queen's Wharf. To be honest the cloud was a little bit of a disappointment... Way too touristy, and not really New Zealand-esque. Zoomed through this, and walked (very far) to Wynyard Quarter. This was a bit nicer, and had a great view of the harbour bridge! It's nice to see Auckland dressed up a little bit :)

View of Harbour bridge

View from Wynyard Quarter (I think)

Feeling hungry, I went back at got $5 kebabs at Kebabs on Queen, as recommended by Helen :) They were pretty good! :)

Bumped into Vanessa & Frances walking down Queen Street, and together we went and checked out Real Groovy. Can't believe I haven't been there before, it's pretty awesome :) Although everything is really expensive, they do have some quirky things there :P

So yeah, that was my exciting day by myself :) pretty awesome, I must say. I enjoy these days quite a bit tehe.

In other news, my sweater from One Nine Eight arrived! Wore it on tour last weekend. Loving it :)