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

Back from Macau and Hong Kong!

Merry belated Christmas to you all! I hope that you have all spent a joyful Christmas with your loved ones! I know I certainly have :)

I just came back from a short yet very memorable trip with my extended family (a humble size of 8) to Macau and Hong Kong! We spent 3 nights at the lovely Venetian hotel in Macau, and two nights enjoying the (insane) crowds and bustling cityscape of Hong Kong <3

Needless to say, I absolutely enjoyed every single day in both cities. I had some of the best egg tarts, generous confectionery samples, humongous mall/hotel-hopping, free-shuttle-hogging, most desperate free-WiFi-hunting, and agitating "ohmigod-I wish-I-spoke-Cantonese" moments in my life, and many more that I'm looking forward to share with you. Also there were plenty a hilarious family moments xD

How did you all spend your Christmas? Have you ever travelled in Macau and Hong Kong? If so, I would love to know how your experience was! 

See you in the next post!

アリシア

Now listening: 無題 (夜想曲) - 渡邉武尊

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

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.

Rotorua-Wellington Family Trip Winter 2014

Hi all!

It's been two weeks since I came back to school for my second term. I've been so stumped up with schoolwork (the struggles of being in fast-track) that I haven't been able to post here for the past two months :(

My family came to visit nearing the beginning of my winter break. They spent two weeks here while I was still in school, and got to spend one out of three weeks of winter break with me. In that one week, we went to Rotorua and Wellington (to extend my passport but was promptly declined because it was too early to do so :P)

Mt Ruapehu! We didn't go skiing there this time due to lack of time :P

 

The Luge ride at Rotorua! Absolutely loved it! As they said, once is NEVER enough. My brother and I got to get on it twice, first time in the beginner's track, and second in the intermediate track (it started raining then!). The second ride, coupled with the rain, was definitely the more exhilarating experience! <3

Going up after the second ride!

Hobbiton! We got really lucky that it didn't rain during our tour. It started raining after we returned to the starting point. We got to know some tricks they used in the movies, and got some drinks at the Green Dragon Inn.

Skies of Auckland

I've been in Auckland for about four weeks now. Moving towards Week 5 at school, we've had out first two common tests at school - expecting three more next week. The Queen's birthday's on Monday, so we're expected to spend our long weekend studying for the tests O:)

Today at sixth period we had a school-arranged quiz event for under-18-year-olds (whee! :D). We got divided into groups according to our birth months, the dean asked us questions related to movies and New Zealand. My team, Girls on Fire, got third place. The prize for us was a box of assorted Cadbury chocolates ;)  My friend's team, who won first place, got movie tickets! They also had A TON of snacks and drinks laid out for us to munch upon, and later smuggle home. Our not-under-18 friends came along after last class of the day ended (quiz participants weren't considered absent because it's a school-arranged event) and helped us clean out the snacks. Another friend of mine happily bagged all the chips and dips in plastic bags from who-knows-where, and with a half-full bottle of three-litre tropical juice in one hand, walked happily home in jandals.

All in all, life's been just awesome here, although I always find myself falling into the temptations of food like churros and cookies. Things are bloody expensive here, and apparently Kiwis think so too. 

Well let's leave it there for now. Here are some random pictures I took over the weeks since I came here :)

 Sky Tower

 Future university's clock tower

Aotea Square

 

 Town Hall

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

Super Easy Uiro Mochi 【ういろう作ってみた】

Yesterday I tried making uirou （ういろう）which is a Japanese traditional sweet, or wagashi （和菓子）. Uirou, a specialty of Nagoya, is a mochi-like confection that is firmer than mochi (it holds the shape of its mold better), and has been said to be somewhat similar in texture to konnyaku.

The recipe was ridiculously simple - mix and microwave. It was so simple that I was convinced it would turn out to be a fabulously troublesome monstrosity of goo, but no. It actually did become what I believe it was supposed to become. Boy was I fascinated when I took my wobbly Ditto out from its mold :3

My uirou may be pink but don't be fooled - it's vanilla-ish flavoured. I added pink food colouring on a whim. Here's what my uirou looked like, all cut up and ready to serve ↓

The ingredients I used were as follows:

★ 80g of all-purpose flour (you can also use rice flour)
★ 60g of sugar
★ 250ml of water
★ A pinch of salt
★ 1/2 a tablespoon of a flavouring of your choice (I used vanilla xD)
★ Pink food colouring just for fun.

1. Sift all dry ingredients together in a bowl, then gradually mix in water while whisking. Mix until all lumps are gone.

2. Strain the mixture into a heat-proof container (I used a round Pyrex container). I think it's better to use a square one if you have it. Make sure the liquid sits a few inches away from the top of the container.

3. Cover the top of the container with plastic wrap (leave some parts unwrapped on any two sides of the container) and pop it in the microwave. Mine was cooked in 6 minutes using a 700W microwave.

4. Let sit to cool completely then refrigerate, and you're done! :)

To make these, I took reference from these two recipes:
http://lunulata.tumblr.com/post/54725914806/uiro-an-easy-delicious-japanese-confection-you-can
https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/189420

It's a really simple recipe, and really fun to make and eat. You can try it out with all sorts of flavourings - matcha, strawberry, chocolate, red beans, etc. I wish I had matcha powder on hand! This would have been perfect xD

昨日「ういろう」作ってみました！
意外と作り方は簡単すぎて、上手く出てくるのかなって不安がありました。笑
見た目は微妙ですが味とテクスチャーはよく出てきました（＾＾）
材料はシンプルで、簡単に電子レンジで作れます！

詳しいレシピはこちらです↓
http://cookpad.com/recipe/189420

作るのは簡単で楽しいんで、みんなさんも作ってみてください♬

アリシア

Now listening: I Swear - All 4 One