So..

I was planning to go back in March with Jetstar - this was before Air Asia came out here. However, I couldn't get a work visa under the Graduate Job Search as I could only apply under that section once. I wasn't too worried at first. Then the second quake happen and I could postpone my flight to later in the year. Then the timing changed and I could get a refund. Which was awesome.

I just read my previous posts and do wonder at how my goal changes. I do know my deadlines will change. The reason why I try to say "tentatively". In November, I got offered a part time administrator job in church. I accepted the job. I really enjoyed working in church and as I was a part timer - my time was quite flexible.

I was offered a full time job in April as a Children's and Family Ministry Administrator in church and I accepted too. I prayed and prayed about it and I think this is where God wants me to be currently. I am in the process of applying for a work visa as my current visa will expire in August.

One big adventure that happened for me this year was the Abel Tasman kayaking trip! The trip, the view, the company, the experience. The 6 of us went away for 4 day 3 nights of kayaking and camping. The February earthquake happened on our 3rd day away. I actually felt for Christchurch. It felt really surreal coming back after the trip.

The sunrise on our last day - that was so cool! I really felt really very sleepy too :)

The five of us sitting on a log on our first beach.

It was so cool that we got to camp right at the beach front. I have never gone on a real camping trip before - setting up tents, sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking on a portable stove thingy, planning.

I went on a "camp" before. But we had other people looking after us then and I can't remember much of what happened. But that trip was really awesome possum! Yup, we met a possum on our last night :D

So..

I finished exams about a week ago.

Then I packed to go to Wellington for a national TSCF conference and now I'm back.

Conference was awesome. Among the things we learnt was how to study for the glory of God, what is our world view and does that clash with Christian's worldview, money, being aliens in a foreign land, living in end times, being an Asian and reading the Bible. All this from the book of Daniel.

It was really cool meeting people from all over the world and nationally. Canterbury (the uni where i'm from) did a musical about Daniel based on Sound of Music during talent night which was hillarious. We experience living like people in India did. We had just lentils and rice for lunch and it was a small portion. And among all that, its just good to be reminded of how big God is and He is in control over everything.

I don't have camera so I don't have pictures. One big daunting thing that I had to do was to speak publicly. Because we have campus reports every main meeting to pray for and I was the only Canterbury ICFer there so I had to do it. If you knew me, I really really really hate public speaking. Its worse than piano exams mian! But God was good, I didn't get too nervous walking towards the stage and I delivered my speech by looking down at the paper most of the time. Haha.

So.. now its back to uni and ICF and church and life. I'm trying to think of something to do for ICF cause we were suppose to be doing something this holiday but I can't come up with anything :( Daniel suggested watching movie which I like. He's suppose to organise but he haven't come back to me. So ya..

One thing that I wanted to say is that when I woke up this morning the song Once Again - Matt Redman was stuck in my head. When clicked play on my iTunes (its on shuffle), that song was the first to be played! I mean how amazing is that.

Camp and what nots

Camp was fun. At first I was quite scared as I would be leading an English group in a Chinese camp. And it is the first ever English group for camp. The talks weren't much compared to conference. But I did have fun cause it was more of a games camp.

Agnis | Joey | John C | Jas | Jessie | Emma

And my group won an award for best drama and something else that was related to the drama. I also won best supporting actress. Haha. However, overall our group got second which was surprising and sad.

WZ | Mer | Lee | Em | Jon | Jas

Jonathan's group got first and Wei Zheng's group got third. At first I thought my group would win cause we won an award for best drama (and we were the ones who finished the fastest as well!) but because Jon's group got the CSI game correct so they won. But for the last few awards, all three of our groups was on the list of choices which I thought was funny.

I went to the library on Sunday night after Mosaic to teman Merilyn as she needed uni's computer to finish her assignment. We stayed until half past 3 when we packed up and went home. We wanted to go to Denny's but I guess everybody else was very tired.

I have two tests coming up on Wednesday and Friday. Its maths first then tax. Not looking forward to tax.

I'll add a seperate post on cave stream and white water rafting. Its a bit mean to put them two together. But I can tell you, both of them was awesome!

The place where the scholars receive their certificates

Also, I went to Shah's graduation :) Cause otherwise Liyana would be all alone. I met Oli and Allen there as well and took pictures with them. Heh.

Mer | Shah | Em

On the Thursday that Jas was away at her field trip, Mer, WZ and I celebrated the invention of Nachos as Irene and Jas (both whom don't like Western food) were away. We found out from wiki that there is a International Day of Nachos which is celebrated on October 21.

To Ignacio Anaya!

Now I'm just waiting for the photos to be uploaded. Its getting so sloww. I also 'sprain or twisted' my ankle. I think. I'll be going over to the clinic soon after I finish this post to have it look over as its quite swollen and at times painful. At first I thought I could tahan the pain but I thought wrong.

Queenstown

In the early morning of last Monday (8th of April), I arrived at church with Jonathan and Wei Zheng. We only left at around 8.30am if I am not mistaken.

On the way, while everybody was sleeping: I was so bored!
So, I started taking pictures:

Everybody was sleeping except me.
That's Wei Zheng's head right in front.

That's the beautiful scenery outside.

The scenery was the same throughout the whole journey.

I take quite good pictures.
Liyana said so.

The many sleeping bags:

There were more underneath the bus.

We arrived at around 5pm. We were given time to unpack then go for dinner.
We had games after dinner and straight to bed after that.

That's where I slept for the four nights. Underneath.
Notice my beautiful shower cap on upper far left.
I was quite rajin. I showered all mornings and for the first two nights. The last two nights, I was too sleepy to be bothered.

I woke up early the next morning to shower. We were suppose to be in the hall by 7.45am and I woke up at 6.30am. Mostly because I want to use the toilets next to our rooms rather than going 'downstairs'.
I took a few pictures cause I was early.

The room that I share with two others is the second from the left.

One of the girls is the president of YAG if I'm not mistaken. The other is a non-Christian.Yeah. U noticed right?
My surname is wrong :o(

The front part.

I did not really take alot of pictures.

First, it was because I was malas.
Secondly, I don't see the point of taking pictures.
Third, there was more than enough people taking pictures of everything.
The only trouble is I have to go get them from people.
But maybe I won't even do that.

Look at the next picture:
This is on the other side of the lake. Lake Wakatipu its called.

tipu in Malay = lying
wakaka = evil laughing

WakaTipu = the whole town is laughing because we're dungus

I thought my picture below is also good.
Thats when the sun was rising.

Our basic routine was
7.45am - Exercise
8.00am - Devotion with group
8.30am - Breakfast
9.30am - Worship
10.00am - Talk/Sermon
11.30am - Free time
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Free time
1.30pm - Games/Queenstown
5.30pm - Free time
6.00pm - Dinner
7.00pm - Free time
7.30am - Worship
8.00pm - Talk/Sermon
9.30pm - Free time
12.00am - Lights out

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we went to Queenstown.

However, on Wednesday we actually went town to play a 'game'.
We were given 43 'clues' and we had to find the place/thing and take a picture with it and it had to be done following the order of the question. Our group took a long time answering the first question. So, we just randomly took pictures with whatever was in our way and went to Startbucks.
Haha. Other groups were jealous that we got to drink a cup of coffee.
Well, we didn't win anything but we had fun and that is the main thing right?

=)

My whole group at Lake Wakatipu.From left to right:
Malachi Sam Camille Emma Kevin Lee Lily Daniel

The funny thing is everybody has an English name. Except for a few. Wait! That's not the funny thing. The funny thing is how they prounouced the name. Only when its English. Like my name.
Emma.
You're suppose to pronouce it Emma and the ma is like mer but without the r.
But people at camp pronouce it Em MA. And the intonation goes up. Its really hillarious.
The only people who has their name pronouced correctly is people with Chinese name.

Lily - one of my translator, in my group, from Taiwan
(i've been getting rides from her to YAG this year)
Camille - my roomie, from Taiwan, not Christian
I seriously need to learn how to smile.
Maybe I should practice it in front of the mirror.

I found Queenstown very normal. Its just like another small touristy town. The things that you can do over there is many. But other than that, I don't understand why do people rave about it.
Maybe that is the only reason.

I didn't really have the mood to go bungy jumping and all that (+ no teman) and it was camp. If I were to do jumping and all that, I would purposely plan something for that.

On the way back.
In Arrowtown.

I saw the orange flowers on a green tree and thought of Yan Ling.
:o)

Another good picture, aye?
We arrived at around 7pm in church.
It was snowing when we left Queenstown.

All in all, I thought the camp was ok.
The speaker was ok. I guess its because all the things he said I already knew. And the camp was mainly filled with non-Christians so I guess they don't know.
We did not use the Bible at all during camp. Goodness knows why they ask us to bring it.
I know Jonathan said Pastor Jack said that because there were non-Christians so they didn't want to use the Bible. But there were references in the talk.
By the way, our speaker is Pastor Terrance Lau originally from Hong Kong but am residing in Australia now.
He spoke mainly in Mandarin but Eric was my translator.
I am really grateful to both Eric and Lily for translating for me. It must be hard to listen and at the same time thinking of the English words.

The food was ok. I'm quite sick of 'bak choy'. And Chinese food in general. I like the Chinese pancakes in the morning though.

I know one thing.

The amount of Chinese I heard this week is more than the amount of Chinese I have listened to in my 19 + years of life.

Dictionary:
rajin - hardworking
malas - lazy
dungu - idiot (in a 'nicer' kind of way)
teman - companion(s)

p.s. its funny. i have rajin and malas right after the other.

i'm going to shower then eat. have to clean room first before blogging about yesterday.