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--cherlyn

With a blink of an eye (ok not really that fast...but still!), it has been 9months since i have been here in new zealand. It feels like a long time to me so the number 9 does not bring justice to what i have gone through during my time here. Well, it has been a truely humbling experience to be out of my little tiny world back in singapore where all i do is aimless studying, eat, exercise, watch tv, sleep and basically laze around. All these were done during the 1 year break that i had. Perhaps thats why i must say that i'm really pretty ill prepared for new zealand! The least i could do was to google Studying in New Zealand, or student life in New Zealand. But guess what? Close to nill preparation was done. That's what i get for being so ill prepared. That being said, coming to this country with absolutely no pre-formed ideas, perceptions have really changed my mindset tremendously. It's just so hard to put everything down in words.

Maybe i can start off by the notion that "asian people will tend to clique together". Well, that may not be entirely true because people from other asian countries are ultimately still different. In actual fact, i would say very different and there's just so much to learn and explore from their diverse backgrounds. But they are the ones that I can actually have a conversation and feel as though...ya..this conversation is going somewhere. That being said, i have made a conscious effort to get to know the Kiwi culture. Some have surprised me by their colour-blindness and simply tried to connect. On the other hand, i can totally understand why some people just simply will not talk to me because it's like the exact same behaviour that i will display when i see for example an Italian dude in a campus in singapore because firstly i can't really speak italian and most importantly, WERT AM I GONNA SAY? Fortunately, over the past 9 months i have somehow roughly and weakly grasp the idea of the varying topics that people here talk about. bottom line = i have so much to say but it is so hard to put everything down in words. I am just so intrigued by everything. No time to get emo over petty stuff already. Need time to firstly focus on my study and study with the right mindset AND get out of my box one step at a time. i know i want to... but it will take a while..one step at a time.