Auckland Lantern Festival 2015

Hello hellooo.

So last Sunday marked the end of the Auckland Lantern Festival. I know it's a bit late (blame uni :p) but my friend said that technically the correct date of the Lantern Festival's today, so yeah :)

When we arrived, we saw this lion dance team just about to start. Ahh, the nostalgia brings me back to the days in Indonesia where amateur lion dancers would move around performing in front of restaurant windows then a representative would go inside distributing empty red packets on the tables for customers to put their donation in.

I love watching lion dance, or any form of acrobatics/contortion in general. Their agility and coordination never ceases to amaze me.

Princes St, just beside our university campus, was lined up with countless food stalls selling delicacies from all over the world. Two bummer words to say, however: NO EFTPOS.

Also, people everywhere. I had never expected that Auckland could be so crowded. You literally couldn't move on your own - you had to depend on the movement of others to shift you around the place or ya ain't going anywhere. xD

From now onwards, I shall let the photos do the talking :)

UoA & Huia Residence O-Week

Hello!

I arrived back in Auckland to start my BCom degree at the University of Auckland. Classes start tomorrow and I am nervous as.

Things will be pretty hectic from now on (it's already crazy enough now) but I will try my best to upload on YouTube as regularly as possible, so please subscribe!! Thank you so much <3 I upload videos on beauty, life, and talks about random things. I am planning to upload travel vlogs as well when I get the travel opportunity :) Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Alicia J's YouTube Channel
Okay, so orientation week has just ended for Semester One 2015, and we will have Clubs Expo next week where we start admiring the presence of the many clubs offered at the UoA.

UoA O-Week Impession:

It was different from what they show you in the promotional videos, I'll give you that. Don't expect too much - my expectations had already been calmed down by word of mouth of my friends who had attended their faculty's orientations earlier, and it was obvious that it was not as "fun-filled" as was advertised. Nevertheless the O-week for the Business School was quite well-organized and informative, so the orientation day kind of did its job anyway. Some of the lecturers had particularly interesting lectures.

The UniGuides (senior students who volunteer to help out for O-Week) were friendly and helpful, and I definitely appreciate their effort and time to guide us around campus. However, I would have liked to get my free lunch for the day as I had every right to. I understand that it was for the interest of time that we had to avoid the crowded Quad, but still... -_-

Overall, it wasn't bad but a long day, definitely. I opted to skip the Toga Party for the more calming lantern festival, which I will most likely do a separate post about.

Huia Residence O-Week Impression:

I was far from disappointed - I have made so many wonderful new friends and meet so many people from diverse backgrounds in this home of 321ish students. Love love love being here so far. <3

My Huia experience for the first week so far has been absolutely amazing. The hall had the week packed with events such as The Amazing Race (which happened before I arrived), A Night in Paris Speed Dating, Big Night In (free pancakes), Sponge Wars, Classic Kiwi Barbecque, and the oh-so-fun Halls Day Out today, complete with inflatables, live DJ music, and more barbecque!! :D

I realised how unfit I was. :-/

The week ended with a fireworks display that also marked the end of the Auckland Lantern Festival. What an amazing view, right from my window :')

That's a wrap for O-Week! Uni starts tomorrow. Godspeed for all of us.
I look forward to what the future brings! Thank you so much everyone who has been a precious part of my orientation week :)

I am planning to do a separate post about the Huia Residence, so stay tuned! ;)

アリシア

Study in New Zealand - Day in Life Campaign Launch!

Hello everyone!

After yet another hiatus due to finals (two more to go, actually), I'm back here, absolutely ecstatic to share with you my campaign video for Education New Zealand.

The campaign has just been launched today! The videos are up on YouTube, and also on the campaign's official page (http://studyinnewzealand.com/day-in-the-life/). I'll leave the YouTube version down below. Make sure you check out the other students' videos as well! Everyone has a different story to share :)



I would like to thank everyone who has supported me, namely my family, all my amazing friends I've found here in ACG and my besties in Indonesia, いつも応援してくれる渡邉武尊さん, and of course, the lovely crew of Clemenger BBDO, whom I got to work with during filming. I think we can all agree that they have done a beautiful job with filming and editing the videos. Words cannot express how grateful I am to have been chosen for this opportunity (as if my life in New Zealand hasn't been memorable enough so far <3 data-blogger-escaped-:="" data-blogger-escaped-blog="" data-blogger-escaped-br="" data-blogger-escaped-by="" data-blogger-escaped-for="" data-blogger-escaped-humble="" data-blogger-escaped-little="" data-blogger-escaped-much="" data-blogger-escaped-my="" data-blogger-escaped-so="" data-blogger-escaped-stopping="" data-blogger-escaped-thank="" data-blogger-escaped-to="" data-blogger-escaped-too="" data-blogger-escaped-you="">
So, if you aren't already considering New Zealand as your international study destination, here's the link to the Study in New Zealand website to get you started!↓↓

http://studyinnewzealand.com/

Well. Unfortunately, I hear that accounting practice paper calling me...
I will be back after the remaining two battles have been won. Yes I am looking at you, Accounting and Biology.

Hope you enjoy the videos! I wish you all a lovely week!

Much love and thanks,

アリシア

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

My First Two Weeks Studying in NZ

Finally I'm back to this blog! I've just gone through my second week of school in Auckland, and I can honestly say that I have simply been LOVING it! :)

Of course, I was overwhelmed at first - new environment, new house (homestay), new people, new city, new school. I was actually more than ten minutes late to orientation day (my school's very strict on punctuality), so when I encountered my then-future-classmates for the first time, my hair was flying in all directions, my face flustered, my clothes untidy due to rushing down a hilly road.

Lucky for me, I've met amazing people in my programme, and it doesn't feel like I've only known them for two weeks. I've met people from countries like China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, and even Fiji!

The teachers are experts in their fields and all have varying teaching styles which . Then there's homework. On orientation day I selected Statistics, Accounting, Biology, and Economics. I also have to do English because I have no IELTS history but whatever. All but one of my subjects regularly keep us busy with homework - some daily, some weekly. The first week was insane, but I'm starting to get used to everything, and it's going even better and quicker than I ever expected.

As for my homestay, I'm blessed to be staying with a very friendly family. I have a housemate as well, who stays in the room across mine. The location of my house gives me the option to commute via train and bus. I'm a train person, but I catch the bus to go to school because the trains rare and crowded in the morning. Plus, my host mom makes delicious salad and pasta, and our three big cats are adorable beyond words. I never thought I'd grow to be fond of cats. Ever.

One of my friends' birthday is on this weekend, so we all gathered during a mutual free period, grabbed some lunch from McDonalds down Queen Street, and went for a picnic at a park behind our school. Before this I'd never known that our school had a park right behind it -_-" Long story short, it was an awesome outing that involved a prank, a victim, a dare, and lots of laughter :)

I've taken some photos of Auckland, and I'm going to post them here so stay tuned! :D

Last but not least, happy birthday Teri!! :3

アリシア

Singapore Once More!

Hi! How's everyone doing?

My family and I flew to Singapore to attend my cousin's wedding last week :) To say the least, it was an exciting four nights and four days for me, which included meeting up twice with one of my best friends studying there, roaming around a bright bustling city, indulging in amazing food - once at sinful hours, and so much more.

First off I'll start with some pictures of the infinity pool on the 57th floor of Marina Bay Sands, where I stayed for the first two nights. The hotel was crowded with tourists as it is all-year round, a big percentage coming from countries like China, Japan, and Korea.

Night view

The first night I was there, I decided to bring my phone with me to the pool after seeing other people do the same (i.e. risking their fancy iPhones' fragile little lives). Silly idea, but yolo, I thought.

I didn't know the pool was shallow enough for me to just walk across it, so I swam my way to the edge of the pool, holding my phone above my head with one hand, the other submerged under water to paddle. I didn't want to soil the leather-like casing either. I got some pics, but due to the darkness none of the pictures came out presentable. In the end I splashed some water inside the cable port, but thank goodness my phone was still alive :X

To top it off, they kicked me out literally right after I made my way to the edge of the pool because it was closing time. No regrets though.

The next day, I decided to bring my phone into the pool once more, clutching it high above my head with two hands as I walked carefully across the pool. Having figured out this critical information from experience the other night proved to be of contribution to my rather silly yet rewarding decision. I still ended up dropping one of my hands in the water though, so it was another one-handed picture-taking sesh. Yet this time I produced much better results - accredited to sufficient daylight ↓


Spoiler/destroyer of visual illusions and fantasies: The infinity pool actually has an edge D:

Here are some photos I took from the Skypark! Lesson learned, btw: Always wear pants under your skirt in Singapore. The winds will show no mercy! Apparently it's bad enough on sea level (as I found out while walking along Orchard Road), but the wind did not spare me the trouble of having to repeatedly pull my skirt down whilst attempting to walk around at 57 storeys above ground level.

Also I managed to meet up with one of my best buds, Lala, now a JC student in Singapore. We had a lot of fun just walking around, loitering in arcades, eating, and talking about school, life, and other nonsense.

We'd come across a food fair at Tampines Mall during our first meet-up, and among one of the stalls that were there, one was advertising brownies. We tasted the samples and they tasted great! Maybe a little too sweet for my taste, but still delicious anyway. The attendant proceeded to tell us that their main branch offers message writing services on brownies, that could be done in minutes depending on size. That's when the lady said to stop by for our next birthdays, so she literally spoke an idea to my head. LL's birthday's coming up (it's in two days!), so our visiting that stall was like fate xD

So the next day we were to meet, I made my way to the branch at Dhoby Ghaut and later surprised her with a personalized "Happy Birthday" brownie. It turned out much lovelier than I'd expected :D

 Birthday celebration in advance <3

Then I moved on to Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa for the last two nights, where the wedding took place. The resort was beautiful! They had monkeys and peacocks roaming around as well. I never actually saw any monkeys, but my aunt had heard their chattering one morning. I did see two peahens, though. One had chicks trailing behind her :3

「日本語」 日本語で初ポスト

皆さん、こんにちは！アリシアです。

日本語で投稿したことありませんので、今回は初めてです(*^▽^*)
前から日本語でポストを書きたかったのですが、自信がなくて今さらやってきました。
ミスも 結構あるはずですが、これからも日本語をもっと勉強したいと思います！
いつかペラペラになりたいです～

最近雨は少しずつ止んできました。今日も晴れでした！
今日は二人の友達と美術センターのスタジオでダンスの練習をしてみました。
ある大学のダンス部のメンバーの友達はモダンダンスが大好きで、彼女から教えてもらっていました。
その友達のかっこいいダンスを見てて、ずっと感動していました！
私は他の友達と二人でダンサーの友達を必死に従ってみてて・・・ちょっと情けないでした。笑 
いっぱい練習しないと体が堅くなっちゃうのでいけないって聞くと、ダンサーって大変だなぁと思ってました。
疲れていますが、楽しかったです♪

あと、もうすぐ旧正月なんですよ(^０^)
親戚と再会して一緒に旧正月をお祝いすることを凄く楽しみにしています！
美味しい食品もたくさん食べられます。もちろん全部手作りですね～
今年もレッドパケットいっぱい貰ってくれるのかなー？笑っ

今回はここまでです。
短くてつまらない投稿でしたが、読んでくれてありがとうございました！！
そのうちまた、日本語で投稿していきたいと思いますから
またこのブログに来てくださると嬉しいです！\(≧∇≦)/

アリシア

聴く中： めぐり逢い - アンドレ・ギャニオン (素敵な曲ですなぁ！）

Pigging Out in Singapore Twenty-Thirteen

"The only time we're not eating is when we're on the move somewhere." 
- Clarita, my loyal travel companion and local guide in Singapore

Last week (November 14-17), I went on a weekend trip to Singapore to visit my good friends who are studying there (and to eat, duh).

I stayed at my friend's friends' acquaintance's place. They had wi-fi. The place was close to the MRT station. But being the filthy rich EZ-Link cardholders/lazy peeps that we were, we would take the bus (only to get off at the next station) more often than not. We got bread for breakfast and had access to powdered drinks. It was even better because my long-time best friend was staying out with me. When you put two best friends, some air-conditioning, and the almighty Internet in one room, needless to say, sleepless nights were inevitable.

 And selfies too (size has been diminished to ensure readers' sanity).

If I learned something from trying to wake up at a somewhat reasonable hour after staying up so late, NEVER use your favourite song at the time as an alarm. Chances are you won't ever be able to see it the same way again.

If I were to sum up my trip to Singapore, it would look something like this: 65% FOOD, 25% friends, 6% sightseeing, and 4% shopping. Of course I actually ate every single thing with my best friend so that actually makes the "friends" part 99%.

Among the many delicacies we indulged in during those four days of awesomeness were the infamous one-dollar ice cream, Garrett popcorn, Ladurée macarons, Lao Ban bean curd, IKEA's Swedish meatballs (35 meatballs plus two chicken wings), Tip Top curry puffs, and A LOT of Japanese food (curry, mostly).

My Christmas Eve

Hello world!

It's a bit late, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May good tidings come to you and all your kin!

May there be joy and peace on Earth!

I wish this was my Christmas tree, but no.

We went ice-skating on Christmas Eve <3 

We don't have snow here, but we do have ice. Everyone wanted to get in the mood though, so it was really crowded. If you plan on visiting Sky Rink at Mall Taman Anggrek, you may want to come on a weekday, not on a big holiday or on weekends. The rink is always crowded, but chances are there will be less kids falling over, and less reckless people zooming in and out. We didn't have too much trouble with the crowd though. So if you're a pro (I'm not saying that we are in any way ;P), you'll have no trouble finding your path around the ice. There's always people-free spots on the ice. Teehee!

In the morning, we went to a local beauty parlor and got manicures together. This was my first time getting a manicure. We all picked our designs from my friend's iPod. I went for tribal designs partly because I'm fangirling over a tribal video game character these days I think tribal designs are cool.