Filming for Education New Zealand

Hi! :)

So just last week I was filming with Clemenger BBDO, making a video about a day in my life here as an international student in New Zealand, for Education New Zealand, which is a government organisation. The finished video will be uploaded online on ENZ's website, and can be used by study agents worldwide to promote New Zealand as an international study destination xD

I got to this amazing opportunity by being one of the five winners chosen from a video competition held by ENZ months before (did not expect that at all!!). We had to make a video of ourselves and the 5 things we love about living in New Zealand. I thought my video was just okay and that there would be other more spectacular, talented students who would crush me down haha. But I still remember the time the ENZ brand manager contacted me to announce that I had been chosen as one of the top 9 finalists; I was at the school cafeteria during the holidays surrounded by Japanese exchange students who had come to peruse our school's empty classrooms for their own classes during their field trip here. I literally hyperventilated, naturally drawing the attention of lunch-eaters nearby.

Filming happened on Monday last week, and the day started at 7:15am. They arrived at my door at around 7:20am, and we began filming the first scene of me walking out of my house. In the rain. :P

We walked to the bus stop and one of the camera guys filmed me while on the bus which was rather embarrassing but kind of...flattering? (Idk haha) at the same time. Other passengers nearby were grinning though haha

When we got off the bus at the Civic Theatre, we filmed some more scenes of me 'getting off the bus' and walking across crossroads in drizzle to mid-heavy rain. We had to stop and patiently wait for the weather to show mercy quite a few times that day. They gave me a delicious spinach and cheese scone! :9 After that, we invaded my school!

Equipment invasion - more stares from entering students.

 I was lucky enough to encounter my friends Sela and Teri as we entered, because we were supposed to film a scene where I would greet students as I walked in, so it was nice to actually be able to do it with people I know instead of having to do it with random students! Nevertheless, it was still awkward, but I thank you all for being professional hahaha

The scene we were to film at ACG was me in biology class, but not my usual biology class. Mr Meur wasn't my bio teacher, Lidia, my already-acquainted lab partner, wasn't even taking bio, and it wasn't my usual classroom either. Our real topic was evolution, but we were doing protozoa observation on microscopes instead (which actually beated any microscope observation we've had in these past months). Mr Meur was so good at acting natural in front of the camera that I was impressed, and it turns out that he actually had an acting background for a hilarious Just Juice commercial :O

This was taken inside the van as we were waiting for the rain to subside. Three of my friends joined me for the Albert Park and city scenes, and eventually we got really good at pretending to have real conversations and laughing like crazy on camera xD Sunshine was prevalent throughout the whole day afterwards, and we were able to film the lunch scene smoothly. While we were filming at Albert Park, we saw an Asian parent drag his baby inside a shopping trolley (the cloth kind with a flap on top that you can zip). The baby's head was peering out under the flap, which made us laugh sooo hard the crew made us think of it every time they wanted us to laugh and be happy.

The Viaduct Harbour/Wynyard Quarter area was especially fascinating to film in, and I had never been to this particular place before filming. I remember how the camera assistant joked for us to start when the bridge was vertically all the way up, and how heartbroken we were when it was revealed that we were too short to show up (Asian midget problems) behind the railing of the bridge so they had to change the angle x'D

ACG NZIC Culture Week 2014

On Thursday we wrapped up our school's three-day Culture Week event. We had daily quizzes (I won the second day's quiz about Asia and got a free drink voucher xD) and LOTS of fun and food! I volunteered for the fashion show (Wednesday last period) and the International Food Day, joining the Malaysian group. It was an amazing week and I experienced cultures that I never imagined I would be able to :') Be forewarned: This is a photo-heavy post. Photos were harvested by myself, from friends and school teachers. Enjoy! :D

That OCD-prone-people-unfriendly "w" though. Mr Meur printed and tried out four different fonts and sizes, only to return to the original one as nothing worked hahaha

The first day of the Culture Week, we had a Maori dance show (due to certain circumstances I ended up watching it twice; sitting in front row seat twice haha) performed by the Kahurangi Dance Group of Hastings. During their dance performance, called Taonga (meaning 'treasure'), they displayed a heartfelt, highly amusing, exciting show. I was in awe as the depicted the Maori culture in front of my eyes. It was hilarious seeing my friends and teachers attempt some moves as well xD

The next day we had storytelling, Japanese students teaching origami, Middle Eastern students doing henna tattoos (I got one with my name in Arabic xD), beautiful Arabic calligraphy, and song challenge. That day, on period 6, we had our international fashion show, and to our surprise -  a LOT more people came than we expected, because it was in period 6, so we'd expected that those who didn't have class would have just gone home, but I wouldn't have had it any other way :') This was one of the most amazing days of my time in ACG so far! I even got to try on a hijab for the first time!

Putra getting into character with his hijab xD

My friend Omayma at the Arabic calligraphy booth. She conjured up beautiful calligraphy of our Arabic names :')

My name in Arabic! On canvas (by Shahd), and on paper (by Omayma). Thita also wrote my name in upside-down Thai 555. Another Middle Eastern student did the henna on my arm - I still have it now, it's gotten darker - love it sooo much xx

The fashion show was especially fun to work in! We had students and teachers modelling for Fiji, Samoa, Malaysia, Indonesia (me lol), Korea, Oman, India, China (me again :P), Japan, Vietnam, Britain and of course, New Zealand! We even had someone walk in a kiwi bird suit! Haha xD

Keep scrolling for more photos of fashion and food! :)

Representing Indonesia with my friend Sela :)

 

 With my beautiful Omani and Fijian friends <3

NZ CETA Student Pursuits Competition

Hello everyone!

Thursday last week the New Zealand Commerce and Economics Teachers Association (NZ CETA) Auckland branch held a student quiz competition at the University of Auckland's Epsom campus. Groups of students from secondary schools all over Auckland participated in each of the three fields - Economics, Accounting, and Business Studies. I myself was lucky enough to have been invited to be a part of the Accounting team representing ACG NZIC :)

So as we arrived at the campus walking to building, we came across a group of school boys looking sleek and smart with the glinting-golden badge-clad green blazers. This group of male students are later to be identified as Westlake Boys High's team, and their teams would later be announced to have won first place in the Economics and Business Studies pursuits. Saint Kentigern won the Accounting pursuits. Congratulations to them!

 ACG NZIC team before the competition - all smiles ;D

There were 7 teams participating, 7 rounds in total, 7 questions each round. A whole lotta sevens, and being fond of the number 7, I had nothing to complain about that. There were trivia questions in between rounds, and for those who got them right chocolates or candies would be bestowed upon them. I attempted to answer two trivia questions and fortunately, succeeded in getting some brain sugar nibbles for the team. Thank you, Mrs Williams! I knew you were going to ask me when Luca Pacioli published that book! Shame I never got to that part Haha xD

Then came the questions. It was so, so intense. My head was literally in pain. I knew right then my sleep that night would be deep and a much-needed one. The questions kept rolling in immediate succession, and there was so little time to figure things out, calculate and write the answers on the sheet of paper given. We kept up pretty well in the first few rounds but eventually finished 5th out of 7 teams. I do believe we have worked quite well as a team, despite being strangers before its formation. I also think that we have fared quite reasonably given that we've only started studying accounting months ago, and the competition was, undeniably, of very high caliber and tough.

Borrowing the winner's trophies for a cheeky victory shot :P

Although it's been slightly more than a week since then, I . Things have been real hectic these past few weeks, and next week is the long-anticipated filming for Education New Zealand! I'll have updates on our school's AMAZING Culture Week up here soon, so stay tuned!

Thank you for reading!

アリシア

Quick Review - Meet Fresh (鮮芋仙)

How's it going everyone?

So I just wanted to do a quick review of this new oriental dessert place in Meet Fresh (鮮芋仙) which has just recently opened at 6-8 Lorne Street, Auckland. And because I just got my laptop fixed today! Finally! :'D

Seems that the oriental dessert crave wave has finally hit the shores of New Zealand. Reminds me of the times in Jakarta when young people were crazy about oriental dessert. A lot of my friends had been raving about how this place was always full (it wasn't when we came, thankfully) and so my Indo pal Adeline and I decided to give it a try after our ACG Day last Friday. This will be a short review with only 2 items, and all my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Herbal Jelly No. 5 (left) and Q mochi

HERBAL JELLY NO. 5 with HONEY BEAN

Regarding portion size, I was not disappointed - rather, I was pleasantly surprised. I'd expected it to come out as an overpriced hunk of ice with some random Q-full toppings in a tiny bowl (as with many other 'exotic' food items in NZ), but this was DEE-LICIOUS and very refreshing.

They gave us a small cup of creamer separately, so lactose-intolerant people, fret not. I loved everything in this dessert - the honey bean, the brown-colored shaved ice at the bottom, the herbal jelly (cincau/grass jelly), the brown jelly (whatever it was browned with), the pearls, and the creamer just made it all come together so delectably. Loved the taste, and the size was good :) Price was just barely acceptable at $7.5, but I'm a cheapskate so don't follow my judgement on pricing too much xD

Compared to the oriental desserts in Jakarta (Hong Tang and friends), the size of this one was bigger and overall taste was not too sweet and more refreshing. But I miss the green tea ice cream scoop and QQ balls I could have with my bowl in Jakarta :9

P.S. What's with Chinese and the letter Q? It's like they just put Q on everything to make it Chinese. Somebody please enlighten me on this :S

University of Auckland Roadshow (ACG Day)

Hello! ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ♪

With my laptop gone brain dead (entering its third week of hibernation), trying to post anything with photos on this blog has been utterly irritating to say the least. Will talk more about that at the end of this post. Apologies in advance for the crappy and messed up layout :(

Yesterday, me and my fellow ACG NZIC students from February foundation and April Fast Track were given the opportunity to attend a Course Information Day (a.k.a. The Roadshow), where we attend two faculty presentations of our choice and have some morning tea in between with some UoA freebies! :D The Roadshow is exclusively held for ACG NZIC students, so we're definitely a more privileged bunch of prospective students :')

Courses and Careers Day, the University of Auckland Open Day, was just held last week. I attended but was very late and had unfortunately missed a lot of the events and lectures :( I really regret having come so late, but I got to attend one lecture and see two of the halls of residences that I wanted to see most, so that was a very rare and fascinating experience. But this Roadshow was not a substitute of Open Day, so my message to all prospective students: ATTEND OPEN DAY EARLY AND PLAN YOUR ACTIVITIES BEFOREHAND. Don't leave behind regrets like me.

Freebies: Ingenio et Labore cloth bag (one I failed to get during Courses and Careers Day last week), UoA wristband, UoA pen, and UoA highlighter. Orange juice from morning tea.

The beautiful and modern Owen G Glenn Building, home to the Business School (my future faculty?!) *fingers crossed*

So I chose to attend the Business School and Faculty of Arts presentation. All the presentations happened at the Owen G Glenn Building. I was very, very pleased with the Business School presentation - the lecturer was engaging, easy to understand, very smiley and approachable, and she stayed back to help a horde of students full of questions, particularly those who were too shy to ask out loud during the presentation, like me :P I was able to have all my questions answered (and all these answers I liked, hehe). Plus, my friends and I agreed that the senior student who volunteered during the presentation was a wonderful eye candy :3 All this and more made me stick to my first choice of pursuing a BCom, a far detour from middle-school-to-last-year-me's initial choice of BA. I plan to talk more about how this came to happen in another post.

Then we had morning tea, where they left out plates of small pastries and crumbly cakes and cartons of Just Juice (I have yet to drink mine up to this day - still saving it for that Juice Needed moment xD). During this time, 8 of the 200 clubs at UoA set up stands around the refreshment tables, and I 

was surprised to see that a club for Indonesian students in Auckland had set up a stand! The three guys manning the stand exclaimed in joy when I said I was from Indonesia, and they all immediately stood up to introduce themselves. I promptly called in my fellow Indonesian ACG minion Adeline, and she also was surprised to see an Indonesian club. They told us that this is the first club we should join as soon as we come to Uni, haha :')

The second presentation I attended was the Faculty of Arts. Unfortunately, this presentation came behind my high expectations - mainly because of the rushed, condescending manner the lecturer talked in. It wasn't just me - my friends also agreed. That definitely put me off, because Arts is a diverse and exciting faculty that has so much to offer, but she made it seem tedious, monotonous and about as exciting as watching paint dry on a rainy day. She didn't even stay back to answer questions to students whose questions were too detailed and plentiful to ask during the session (yours truly), so my questions are left unanswered. I know it sounds harsh, but I was just really disappointed. Had this been done by a more friendly and helpful person who didn't seem like she didn't want to be there (the whole time she smiled just once, and even that was a sarcastic one), my day would have been perfect.