Under the Weather

GOOD DAY ALL.

Long time no updates aye. I have just been that busy with essays, portfolios, presentations and stuff. It has been a long 3 weeks.

So, what has happened? Damn. Seems like nothing’s happened and same time like so much has happened. The only good points I seem to remember were rugby practice and… yeap that’s it. Kamau and I combined epically yet again to set up tries between us each week.

We’ve basically had 2 weeks of thunderstorms. I think of the past 14 days, we’ve had at least 8 lightning storms. Kyle, Raymos and I sprinted from the cafeteria to our hostel (no short distance- about 400 metres at least I think) in the middle of a thunder/lightning storm. It was epic, funny and scary. It felt like a lord of the rings sequence or something. It was also probably a little dangerous. But we had work to do. Our lives are not as important as our homework obviously. Hahaha. But honestly, do you think teachers will accept ‘stuck because of the lightning’ as an excuse?

Leavers party

Sometimes it feels like our life is based on school work and examinations doesn’t it? Are exams that good a way of evaluating us anyways? Is it really possible to reflect 2 years (730 days and nights or 731 on a leap year) in just 3 hours or less? I think this is really stupid. At least, I think unlimited time should be given for papers. Think about this. The point of exams is to find out how much we know. Not how much we know in 3 hours and under immense pressure. We should be able to show how much we know altogether. Unlimited time. Agree? Also, I think exams are not a great reflection on how much we know, it is a reflection on how well we can cram/how well we can study. Just saying.

Just to give a good reflection of lightning storms here: I was standing at the window of my room in the middle of one, and decided to count the number of strikes a minute. (If you don’t know me well you should know I do things like this). I counted the number of strikes in 5 different minutes. The number of each minute was 17, 21, 16, 25, 22. That’s more than 20 a minute on average. Or one every three seconds. And remember, most of these were forked lighting, down to the ground (not always on campus though). Ok, obviously the one we sprinted through was not this intense. We’re not THAT crazy! When its not a thunder storm at night its depressing fog.

Who agrees with me? There is NOTHING wrong with going to sleep at 4:30pm and being woken up at 10:30pm to check into boys hostel, then going back to sleep again. It’s a free world right? J If Emily decides to bang on my door and I don’t hear it, how can you blame me?

Tiredness... happens

The last two weeks has been maths portfolio week. We had an interesting maths project, with which we basically have to prove stuff, make up formulas and come up with mathematical conjectures and stuff on a topic. The feeling of getting rid of it handing it is so liberating it is hard to describe. Wow. We were like French snails- continually stressed!

Our second years have left the hostel. They are done with their IB. We will miss them (or will we? Sometimes I think the unpleasant truth no one admits is that we will simply forget them). Hostel is unnervingly quiet now.

Mats Portfolio... isn't it beautiful?

Guess what? I am finally a First Aider! The test was the most informal thing ever. Especially since the supervisor gave us some answers! But yeah. Cool aye? Now we can try out even more life-threatening stuff at home!  This DOESN’T mean you can start having near death experiences around me now ok? (Though near death experiences make cool stories afterward)

Eish, this Swazi economy is kallas. No paisa left. The government can’t even pay its own civil servants. Someone told me they were about to print more money. If that is true this place might turn into a new Zimbabwe! (and I am taking my money out of this country!) Even our school is too scared to keep its money in Swaziland. I guess this is what happens in monarchies. But I heard a very interesting quote about democracy the other day. Not that I agree with it (and don’t let it spread around Fiji- we already seem to have enough trouble grasping democracy) “Democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding on dinner” Hmmm. Food for thought much?

Table tango. Yeap. It exists. Dancing on a small a space as possible (on a table). Tests your turning skills and balance. It’s quite fun. Speaking on tango, we re-did the performance in front of cameras, so now we should shortly be getting a pretty cool (and edited!) video!

(yay)

All right. Time to go. Sevens season starts this week. Come on Fiji! Thanks for the last title. You really, REALLY made my week. Particularly beating the ABs in the final.

Not everything we do has a point. Sometimes it’s just fun. :)

DKN

Putting the 'Dan' in Dance

Heya peoples!

How is things going in Fiji? Things in Swaziland are pretty cool. Exams are over. Think they went ok, but I am not going to talk about them (especially maths). I take pride in my maths, and my maths mark is almost as important as my total mark. Ok, I promised Tango pictures this time eh? I got plenty! I put some at the end of this post. Proof that Daniel Naidu does tango. Hahaha. Haters.

Part of the performance... Girls being checked out by the guys lol

Raymos after the maths exam: ‘Bros, we’re never going to mention that paper ever again. Agreed?’

Love it!

Hey, ALL BLACKS WON THE WORLD CUP! Mr Tinney, our rugby coach invited the rugby team over to his house to watch the match (at 10am Swazi time!). Most people were behind All Blacks, but I am sure I was the only genuine supporter! Steven was going for All Blacks because he was still so incensed that France squeezed past his beloved Wales team!

Watching the match was fun, with popcorn, crisps, soft drinks, etc and the rowdy rugby players. We had all anticipated a beating, but it turned out to be so so close and nailbiting! Everyone was laughing at me, I was just a little ball of tension and stress on the sofa! When we won, I jumped up and screamed. To put into perspective, this was the first time the All Blacks won the world cup since I have been alive on this earth!

Why do we say on this earth? Are there other earths? I actually mean on earth.

Moving on (for Marcus’ and Itu’s and Sekaia's sake) Eli the American and Leo the German have started pulling off absolutely massive pranks on each other. It all started when Eli spread a facebook rumour about Leo having herpes. Leo changed all the contacts on Eli’s phone to Stone. Eg. Stone 1, stone 2, stone 3, and tied string all around Eli’s room so it was barely possible to walk through. At the moment, we’re at this:

now note, more than half of these cups, which are filled to the brim with water are stuck down with blue-tack

It must be said, this is pretty darn epic.

Emily and I have exactly the same mindset, seriously. It’s quite brilliant. We were studying maths the day before the paper the event which was very foggy and lightning-y. Conversation after about 3 hours of hard studying:
Emily: Let’s go for a walk. To the dam.
Dan: Wait WHAT? In this weather? Are you serious?
Emily: Yeah I’m serious.
Dan: Ok! J
We went out to the dam, which was a less brilliant idea than it seemed back in the hostel, and the lightning started to intensify. When Emily gets worried that’s when you should be worried! We slinked on the side of the field, and got stuck near the music room, where we were stranded for about half an hour. Just one of many crazy adventures between us two!

Some songs I’m listening to now: Need you now, I love a rainy night, I’m Yours (my stress relief song), the Lazy Song (my theme song), Leaving on a Jet Plane (by Justin Timberlake).

We (as in Stephen, Eli, Emily, Ingrid, me) watched the new Johnny English on Sunday at the Gables, which is about 40 minutes by kombi (minivan) from town. Loved it, we were laughing the whole way through. Good thing about the only cinema in Swaziland, its ALWAYS empty! :D Hahaha. 

Er, yeah. This post is incredibly unstructured. I don’t have anything particular to write about that’s why. We are performing the Tango number again this week in assembly for some very rich Germans. When I say very rich Germans I mean Germans who are providing two billion Euros to help fund the new United World College in Germany. So yeah, big pressure much? Hahahaha. Looking forward to it.

Stephen bet me today that he could land a drop kick from 40 metres out. I told him I would shout him a pizza if he did (initial reaction: ‘what’s shout?’ LoL).  He missed the first one, and asked for three chances. He actually landed the third one, to my dismay. I’m usually the better one at drop kicks, and he gave me three chances to imitate the feat to get the pizza back. I missed the first two but landed the third one. 40 metres! Now THAT’S not bad! :D (barefoot as well)

A view of the school from up the mountain. THere's the rugby field, our hostel is
to the bottom left there. The classrooms are at the top right.

Have I ever mentioned what is the United World College? They are basically about 13 colleges around the world, in places like Wales, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Canada, Swaziland and other random locations where students from around the world attend, and usually provided with scholarships. There is (supposed to be) no discrimination in race, colour, sex, socio-economic status and so on. It is really cool.  Meet crazies from all around the world!

Ok. I'm looking for a funky way to sign off but don't have one.

Stay safe! (but not TOO safe!) J

Moce

DKN

Me displaying some soccer skills. ;)

My beautiful partner Ximena Buller and I...

     

Opening move, and here's me praying I can control the ball!

            

The final pose; Stephen is dead, noone else really cares!

"Just like in practice!"

Ingrid and Eli in the dress rehearsal.

10 Reasons why the All Blacks will in the Rugby World Cup

1- We just beat the world's second best team by 14 points... with our third choice fly-half.

2- Graham Henry has finally come to his senses and started putting Weepu as first choice halfback.

3- France can't even score a try against a 14 man Wales team.

4- France don't have Ma'a Nonu.

5- We have never failed to win it when we have hosted the World Cup. Ever.

6- The All Blacks haven't lost to Tonga recently.

7- Even the All Blacks don't choke 6 times in a row.

8- They have finally learnt to drop kick (and the number 10 is not putting the 'crud' in cruden anymore!)

9- A Northern team cannot win the World Cup.

10- Wayne Barnes is not the referee.


And here's 3 reasons France will snatch it:
1- France played bad against Tonga, good against England, bad against Wales, they're due for a good showing.

2- We said the ABs will get it last time, and in 2003, and 1999, also 1995, and 1991 too.

3- We are underestimating France again :/

***********************************************************************
G'day to you.
We are in the middle of exams at the moment, and I have finished four. No more exams for six days now! I would tell you how I thought I did but thats not what this blog is for.

This is what happens when
we're on First Aid Duty

All Blacks in the final! Yeee-ees! Finally! We are gonna MAUL France this week! So, what has happened in these last two weeks? Well the tango performance went awesomely well. Don't have any pictures yet I will get some, and maybe a video too. Everyone performed flawlessly, and it was really nice after several month's work. I DIDN'T kick the soccer ball off the stage by mistake, and my partner and I didn't make a mistake. We may well be the only Argentinian Tango group in Africa, according to the teachers. I know Africa has tango as well, but is different somehow.


There was a mini-food fight at the cafeteria last night. It all started when Leo stole Kyle's spoon. Kyle then stole Stephen's spoon and Stephen ended up stealing my spoon! I got it back when I almost poured Fruit Salad on his head, and ran away to another table (with my spoon). He responded by putting a bread-roll into my water. ( I won't go into further details) but yeah, we're so mature. :P

Red Light District. See if you can find me

We held the IB2s (second year) leavers party as well. The theme was Arabian Nights, and our corridor (Red Light District) went as genies! The leaver's party was great, it was all arranged by the IB1s (my year group). I helped make the desert. Unfortunately I ate so much I forgot to leave room for it! Weilei.

We were talking to some new students who are joining the school next year on Facebook. I am the (Fijian) cannibal, Anna is a transvestite, and Stephen has grandchildren. I'm sure they can't wait to meet us!

GUESS what? I just got 24 episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway on my laptop! Yeap! Leo, Stephen, Emily, Kasper all love it. Well I got it from Emily so obviously. Leo and I spent up to 1am the other night watching it. Exam the next day as well! (don't worry dad, the exam was at 1:30pm!). I thought I did pretty well in that paper anyways. If you haven't watched Whose Line is it Anyway before, watch it. You will laugh. A lot.

It was Stephen's birthday on Tuesday. In the middle of exams. Awkward. Despite the French exam the next day,  more than 10 of us raged into his room at midnight and started beating him up with pillows, before he was ceremoniously carried by four people into the shower, fully clothed, as is tradition here at Waterford. I see Fay's birthday is coming up soon... (hint hint)

IB Class of 2012

I really hate poetry. Let me rephrase. I really hate studying poetry.I just find it so pointless. If a poet wants to express his feelings, let him. He'll understand. Noone else really wants to know what he is saying. And E E Cummings should really never have been born. That guy doesn't write poetry he writes bullsh*t that people try to fit into themes and stuff. I got better things to do than trying to figure out what some guy whose long dead was trying to say. 

Stephen: 'I don't care who wins the final, as long as it's the All Blacks!"

I had good fun talking to the rugby coach, who was making all sorts of remarks about Fiji's performance at the World Cup. He's South African! :P All fun and games of course.

Ok. That's enough.

Good luck in your exams! If you can't answer a question, yes, the wall will help.

I read this somewhere, I think on facebook (if I'm stealing your line I'm really sorry, it's too good not to share!): 'Don't fill your life with days, fill your days with life'. Love it!

DKN

When It Kinda Sucks to be from Fiji

HEya guys! I realize its been a long time since I last blogged. Its been a heck of a two weeks, or three. Whatever. But I have just been as flooded with work as New Zealand is with Samoans.

Anyways, I’ve missed a lot of exciting stuff! Anna’s 18^th birthday, and the rugby tournament come to mind first.

Thats Leo about to spray deoderent
at the camera. Classically Leo!

Oh and what was the deal with Fiji? Oh my gosh. 66-0? 66-0? I wish there were capital numbers so I could shout that.  Come ON man! And if you think you had it bad, I was watching with two mad Welshmen! You think that’s bad yet? Ok, get this. I trashed talked Wales before the match as well. I was reminding them of the 2007 World Cup. Yeah. At least they are my two close friends. I don’t know what was worse, the match itself or the time between the match and now. I think the worst bit was that Fiji were so pathetic that they didn’t even feel like taking the mickey out of me after the match, they rather felt sorry for me! I felt sorry for myself.
My friends, and even my teachers have been asking me ‘What happened to Fiji?’. I am still looking for a good excuse. Anyone got one? I still wonder why Nicky Little and Vitori Buatava got onto the first team… ANYWAYS that’s over now.  Let’s talk about something more not depressing aye? Lets hope Fiji regroup and sack this coach and get back somewhere near the top ten. Hope there are some tvs in Fiji that are still in one piece!

Invader Zim! 

Oh oh has anybody watched Invader Zim? That is the funniest cartoon ever. Like really. Emily Morris showed it to me, and gosh I’ve been hooked since. Ok, me and Em have a different sense of humour maybe. She’s definitely part Fijian somewhere along the line! There are two types of people in the world. Those that love Invader Zim, and those that dont! :D

On the 24^th of September was a rugby sevens tournament. Two other schools, and we played each other twice. (That makes four matches, for the mathematically impaired.) I played all the matches except the first and last ones. We won three games and lost one, and came second (again). I was playing at scrum half, oddly. I thought I did an ok job, especially since I learnt the lineout calls while I was on the field, which was quite impressive. If the rugby jerseys less resembled cloaks then I might have had a couple of tries. But those stupid kids from SIsikelo school kept grabbing them.

So yeah. Second. Not bad. Out of three. We are a new team after all. And the star fly half WAS stuck at the scrum half position! Anyways the same day was Anna’s birthday. After the tournament we went to Milwane Game Reserve for a night. By we I am talking about me, Emily, Anna (no duh, its not like we’ll leave her out of her own birthday celebration), Kyle and Stephen. Anna brought along a couple of drinks. She was legal after all. We had a fun night in the dorm, which was all ours to ourselves. Oh and no, I DIDN’T get drunk OR tipsy. Stephen says I was tipsy, but I wasn’t the one misspelling the word ‘beer’!

At the Milwane backpackers. Bubbles. Plenty bubbles. :)

Stephen’s Welsh accent causes him to often say ‘her’ when he actually wants to say here. (Like ‘hey come her’)
Dan: (to Stephen) Why do you say ‘her’ when you mean here, but not ‘ber’ when you mean beer?’ Stephen: ‘Well, beer is spelt B-A-R…’
(Everyone laughing)
Stephen: ‘no no, what I meant to say was ‘B-A-E-R…’’

So what else happened that weekend? We got told off for making noise, though it was only ten oclock pm. Well, the next morning Anna almost got charged by a warthog, oh and we saw a crocodile on the bank of the river, less than 30 metres away.  

Oh, and we had our first lightning storm of the season last week Thursday. Whooo. Before it was fully intensified and pouring down Kyle and I braved the cold rain and lightning to make it to the cafeteria for dinner (Stephen, Emily and Anna and Sofia were being wusses). It was crumbled chicken for dinner after all. We don’t usually get crumbled chicken. Ok, the lightning storm wasn’t such a severe one. But I tell you, I wouldn’t walk across the playing field for a thousand emalangeni if there was an intense storm on. Phew. The intense storms, one might find a strike on our mountain about 20 times a minute! (NOT kidding).

Tango practice with Ingrid (great shot
Stephen!)

Our tango performance is really taking shape now. It has a really cool storyline, about a party where one bad guy steals a girl from another guy and in the end the bad guy is killed. We perform for the school next week, and I must learn to wear a tie in that time. But its going to be really cool. I’ll try to post the pics on Facebook sometime. Being taught tango by your maths teacher is not as creepy as it sounds. But we do have a really cool maths teacher though!

Anyways, I’m done for now I guess. Don’t know when I’ll next post I’ll let you all know, but I got exams in two weeks and I am busy trying to finish my work so I can start studying sometime soon.

 Life is like a trigonometric function. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re at the bottom, but there is always a turning point! :D (or an asymptote)

Moce. Go All Blacks!            

DKN

In The Other Kingdom

Dumela.

It is the end of week 2 already at Waterford Kamhlaba and I'm already under a lot of strain. 10 homeworks over the weekend. Bleugh! But I've settled in and back into the rhythm of school. The weather is not so cold as last term and I have been able to be in shorts a lot. That's nice.

At this time last week I was chilling in Lesotho.This time last year I was in Fiji. I am now in Swaziland. Interesting ain't it? Anyways, why was I chilling in Lesotho? Well we had a French trip to this other little kingdom in Southern Africa. Now thats a lot cooler than the French trip at home! At home Garden City ga call it a French Trip hahaha. Oh and we were to spend 4 days in French. Interesting.

Lesotho. Click to enlarge.

We left at 6:00am on Friday (read: 7:00am) and had a Loong trip ahead of us. With me were Sofia, Anna, Emily, Yuscah (Mozambique), Ousman (Senegal) and Sandi (Swaziland) among others. Most of the trip would be cutting across South Africa to get to Lesotho. Lesotho is an odd little country that is completely surrounded by South Africa. Its like Fiji only the Pacific Ocean is South Africa. Crazy aye?

Basti (Germany): "Women love the simple things in life... For example men."


Sitting at the edge of a huge cliff



Where was I? Yes, well we got throught the South African border smoothly, and the long ride through South Africa began. We passed through the towns of Amsterdam, East London, Bethleham and Standerton. Don't worry, we were still in South Africa! (Lesotho is not THAT far!)

Its still pretty darn far though. It was supposed to be an 11 hour ride. Naturally it ended up being a 14 hour ride, including two stops and two border stops. At the border of Lesotho I got that old excitement of entering a new country I had never been to before. We entertained ourselves by dressing an egg like Dimitri and pretending it was Emily and I's child, like those American sex-education classes (according to Sofia). We set ourselves a target to keep him safe throughout the weekend. He lasted almost four hours before I chucked him out the window.

Only in Swaziland moment: Stephen, Basti and I are coming back from town, toward the huge Waterford hill. As the taxi is going up the hill, the driver seems to be struggling to control it. I ask the driver if we should walk, but he shakes his head, turns the taxi around and reverses up half the way. At least a kilometre. Hahaha. Where there's a will there's a way

So at 9pm we arrived finally, in Moricha, an hour from the capital city (Maseru) to the guest house where we were staying. The French owner greeted us jovially in French and we introduced ourselves. I got the usual 'ooooh' when they heard I was from Fiji Fidji. We had a delicious dinner of some French meat and crashed to bed.

Over the next four days we climbed two mountains, saw dinosour tracks, had a picnic, swam in a lake, visited Maseru and the Alliance Francaise, as well as an IB school in Maseru, where we met our fellow IBs, and spoke a lot of French. We learned a bit about the country as well. Unlike Swaziland, the King has no power, and the people love him apparently. It also looks a very poor country, and the landscape is amazing. Just mountain after rocky mountain, and valleys. That seems to be all the country is made of.

It was a loong ride...
sorry you have to tilt your head
for this one i cant make it straight

In Lesotho, playing 30 seconds, a game kinda like charades but with speaking instead, Sandi's turn. Sandi: 'What is something that we really want since we got here?' Theresa and Relish at the same time 'MEAT!!
(The answer was Facebook)
After four lovely days, on Tuesday, we had to go home. :(  Awww. We said our goodbyes (in English) and headed to the bus. Sigh. Stuck in the bus for another 13 hours. It passed pretty fast. We arrived back at Waterford Kamhlaba at around 9pm. Uneventful journey, spent telling jokes and making up jokes. My joke made up:
What did the Stop sign say to the Give Way sign? any guesses? I'll mention next time anyone who can get the right answer. ;)

Sooo back at Waterford. We had rugby training today. Played sevens. Gosh, I am not physically fit at all.
 Do you know that feeling of intense hatred of that person who is walking slowly in front of you and blocking your way? They seem like real idiots sometimes don't they, and you just wanna take a blunt knife and stab them or something.

Rugby tournament last term.
Waterford Kamhlaba

Fiji has just lost 49-3 to SOuth Africa. But I thought they actually played alright, apart from a couple of periods in the game. We were really taking it to them at some stages! Go Fiji! Do us proud! Stephen is worried we gonna get Wales. We might. Remember, last world cup we almost lost to Japan + got thrashed by Australia before beating Wales. ;) Wales suck. I prefer dolphins.

Ok. Got to go now. Look out for post cards!
Enjoy the week. Relish the stress.

DKN

THe Difference Between Boarding and Planking

Hello!
This is my 15th blog post, and 1st for this term. I know it looks like there are only 14 but since I'm superstitious there's no 13. I know that technically makes number fourteen number thirteen but if the hotels in Hong Kong can do it with their floors so can I. Nyah!

I'm back!

It's been a while but I'm finally back at Waterford after an awesome time in Fiji. Fiji included tennis, an interesting birthday, university lectures, hibiscus festival and of course seeing my family and friends. The trip back was really long, but interesting at the same time. I really am sad to leave.

My family saw me off at about 8am on Saturday morning at Nadi, and the plane departed on time in the rain. It seemed Fiji was crying(of sorrow) that I was leaving! And let's face it, why wouldn't it?


Fazil's text to me just before I boarded: 'js dnt board, u shud plank cz boarding is boring!'. That's why he is my friend hahaha.

I boarded the 767 jet, and my idea of sitting beside a hot girl for 10 hours did not happen when instead a young Indian guy sat beside me. But hey, at least he spoke English this time! 

On planking, has everyone heard of this? In my opinion its the stupidest idea ever. Why do people want to behave like a plank? Planks are boring. If you have to imitate something make it an aeroplane or something. Not a plank.

Planking. Or dead.

Anyways, after watching Rio(again), and reading the Air Pacific magazine, I arrived in Hong Kong 10 long hours later. The steward was typically Fijian, giggling at everything and making us laugh. Oh yeah, halfway through the flight another plane passed by ours, heading in the opposite direction. It was pretty close! I could actually see the design on the tail, and probably could have read the words had it not been going so fast. Anyhow, we landed safely in Hong Kong. Smoothly as well.

In the Hong Kong airport, there must have been someone famous, as there was a rather large crowd surrounding him/her. I didn't really get a glance, but as it was unlikely to be a tennis player, since the US Open is currently on in New York, I didn't really mind.

The boys taking a break during tango class

I went into town again. (Do you really think I'm going to spend 9 hours at an airport in a foreign country?)Most people probably don't know this about me, but I am a total space geek. Since I was young I have always been fascinated by the universe. And why wouldn't I be? It is totally amazing. I therefore got off at Kowloon and took a taxi to the space museum. (If only one of my chinese friends was here to translate!) The museum was quite small, but interesting all the same.

Imagine the electricity bill

I spent the remainder of the time mucking around at the harbor, watching the lights on the buildings turn on. 

Anyways, after about 5 or 6 hours in town I headed back to the airport. I checked in using the automatic check in, and I felt so proud and Asian when I finally succeeded! By the time I had got to the gate, it was about 10pm. 

I just want to clarify this, to answer some peoples' questions: Every word on this blog is my own, unless I say so. Promise! Not cheating! :) (though not all the pics are mine)

I used the free fast wireless internet and I was so very extremely tired at this point. After a 10 hour plane trip and 5 hours in Hong Kong, and with it being 2am Fiji Time, you can't blame me! Thank you Fay for keeping me up again through Facebook! And to Shu as well.

my English gets gooder as I spend more time in
Swaziland

Apparently I was illegally staying in Fiji the whole time. When I left Fiji with my NZ passport, it seemed I had never legally entered the country. The guy at the airport seemed really suspicious until I remembered I had entered the country on my Fiji passport!

I met Dilys who lives in Hong Kong. She came to the gate, and we boarded the plane together. Dilys hadn't done any homework at all, which made me feel a little better about myself. We had a good catch up session, until after take off at least. I fell asleep, and remained asleep for the next 9 hours! Apparently I gave my dinner to Dilys. But I can't remember this at all. 

I woke up finally, breakfast was served, and I watched a movie called Going the Distance. Cathay Pacific has those little TVs on each seat. (Hint hint Air Pacific). It is a pretty nice movie. 

Well, we landed finally in Jo'burg early in the morning. Back in Africa. The Waterford kids trickled in during the day, and we had great catch up time. Emily had been drinking until 4am the previous night and had apparently narrowly avoided a fight. (It's not Emily without the whacko stories!) By the way this is Emily Morris and NOT Emily Lo! Don't confuse.

As I said, US Open is on. I still think Roddick has a shot. Don't laugh. I met someone in Fiji who reckons Australia are going to win the World Cup. Go Roddick! Go Fiji! Go All Blacks!

Random at the hotel hahah

So Emily slept most of the way back, as did most people. I don't really like sleeping on buses so I stayed awake and probably annoyed most of the people around me. When I was done with that about 4 hours into the trip I went to the free seat at the back and talked to Dimitri instead, who was also not asleep.

We arrived in school at about 9:30pm after 6 hours of travelling. I was shattered at this point. >50 hours of travelling, arrived at 9:30pm, AND there was school the next day! What the hell. Tuesday's a public holiday that's why.

I went, had my first shower in 50 hours and then fell asleep. It is now end of Monday. I had an ok day at school. Tomorrow is a public holiday so that's nice. Some people are so jet lagged. I'm not. Impressive no?

That's all for now I think. I am going to Lesotho this weekend on a French trip! Will be awesome! (Except for the French part). Let you know how that goes next time. Lesotho is another country in Southern Africa by the way, just in case you haven't heard of it. 

Remember: Grow old, but don't grow up! ;)

DKN

Bula Macau

Heya! :) This will be my last blog post. I couldn't end the term with a post on Justin Bieber!

Johannesburg from the air

Hong Kong

Well, this term has flown by. It's quite funny how the days and classes seem long yet the weeks seem so short.

Well, the trip from Swaziland to Johannesburg was interesting enough, particularly after the luggage trailer broke and spilt some of the luggage onto the road! Apart from that there were not many setbacks and the long 7 hour journey went quite smoothly. Anna, Emily, Dimitri and I decided to become smart and start making up our own jokes. Most were so stupid and unfunny they became funny.
Q: What can be Black or White, and gives milk?
A: The milkman! :)


Q: What car does spongebob drive?
A: A Waterford! :D 
They were funnier on the bus.

Macau

Kasper and Dilys and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast as we were flying out the next day. That night we went to the mall near the airport. The mall is like Mbabane but supersized! The shops were amazingly huge. Especially the supermarket. It was bigger than the mall in Swaziland! Hmmm... Apartheid IS over, right? Its just that as we were sitting down at a restaurant for dinner, Dilys suddenly pointed out that she and I were the only two non-White people there, and that all the workers were Black. (awkward). We three played a game: spot a mixed group. At the end of the night, noone had. We watched Harry Potter. GOOD film. Just the ending. Anticlimax! Doh!

funny signs in Macau

Ximena and I thought it would be a great idea to throw in some Bollywood moves into tango. The teacher shook his head at the sight, and not in the Indian way!

Dilys and I had a loong flight the next day to Hong Kong. I watched Inception(watch it!), Rio, part of Lilo and Stitch and some documentary about the moon. And part of Bambi. (What? its my childhood!) We arrived 13 hours later at 730am Hong Kong time, not sure what day it is. Oh I forgot to mention, my parents had come to Hong Kong 3 days earlier! So we went to their hotel after fare-welling Dilys. After some rest we visited Macau. Cool place. Seriously. But I am not going to bore you with every step we took.

The view out my hotel room which
was on the top floor!

Oh oh and guess who'll be doing the opening solo in the Tango performance in next term's concert? Yeah. Me. And Rudi. With a soccer ball! How cool would that be, tangoing with a soccer ball? When Fazil first heard of it his response 'is it tango or ballroom dancing?' Weilei.

THe picture says it all

Next day we went to the peak of Hong Kong, and wow. The tram was pretty cool. Anyways as our plane was leaving at 4 we had to go to the airport. I really didn't want to fly again. We did fly again. Not as bad as I expected, cause I was tired and SLEPT! haha. We landed in Fiji and hey, I was home! Sunny Fiji! :) No huge buildings, no nice roads, but its home.


I am writing this from home. Weird. Anyways I am not making anymore blogs until next month. Byeee! (Hellooo!) 

DKN

If I was Justin Bieber

Kia ora! (I was born in New Zealand. Going back to my ROOTS)

This is what IB feels like.

As this term draws to a close, the IB machine has been cranking up and is about to attack us next term. I am glad to be able to take a break soon. Phew! On the bright side, I spent the whole of Thursday in a T shirt and shorts until 6pm! (say: wow!)

Well, last week wasn’t that bad, since we had Friday off as a public holiday. The late King Soubhuza II’s birthday.

Swaziland must be the ONLY country in the world where the entire country’s internet can go down for 20 hours due to ‘upgrading’! Hahahaha.

Some stalls at the fete 

Last Saturday, we held the annual school fête … A big event in Mbabane apparently. -(‘Anything is a big event in a country like Swaziland’- Amilcar of Mozambique.)- It was great, with tens of stalls up selling all sorts of food and games. It was not as big as it was hyped up to be, but it was a great event all the same. 
To that person who pinched my precious Wimbledon wallet: I don't like you.

Last week I had several pieces of work/tests. I studied for Maths and French, and did quite miserably. However, in the economics test, I DIDN’T study, and got 27/30! My 1500 word TOK essay, which I had just winged during two hours of mid-term came back as 18/20. Lesson learnt: Don’t study, get bad results. Last minute study, get 90%. XD

What else did I get to this week? Well I have started coaching beginners/intermediate tennis. Coached Rori last week, and I must say, I was very impressed with how much she learned in the first session. She was hitting perfect forehands after one hour, having started with nothing. (What I am really saying is I was very impressed with my coaching skills :P ). The activity is supposed to expand to about 3 people next week.

Yeah... This is what the net looks
like after my serves... oops :/

Last week, to de-stress I went to the tennis court by myself and just served. Served like crazy.. As if the ball was Mrs Kissun’s head (KIDDING). It was such great stress relief,and I was serving absolute BOMBS. Over about 45 minutes I hit about 112 serves roughly. Erm… The tennis net here is not up to standard. (right) 

Oh yeah, by the way, I was reading the news of rugby. Apparently at the RWC England are going to play Argentina in their away strip. Which is Black. NZ media and public got so mad at this… Um… I don’t really see the issue here. I don’t think England are trying to annoy or ‘play mind games’ with the All Blacks. (who would?) Even Richie McCaw said its no big issue. Calm down NZ media! But come on All Blacks! This year is your year! We gonna take the World Cup!

Oh by the way, someone keep some EGG SAUSAGE for me eh! Hahahahaha. Yes, I still read the Fiji Times from here now and again! :P How does it taste? I was laughing when I read that!

Speaking of the media, I wish I could become a celebrity just so I could attack the media. I read an article about Justin Bieber in Hawaii with Selena Gomez. (Don't judge me. There's a reasonable explanation). Is every single move documented and analyzed and scrutinized? One of Justin’s twitter updates got torn apart by a newspaper HALF AN HOUR after it was published! Poor guy. And to all those girls who are furious at Selena Gomez as if she stole JB from them personally, sorry, but GET REAL. Ok, I don’t know how the heck I started talking about Justin Bieber but while I am, I’d just clarify I’m not a huge fan of him, but I’m not a hater. He gets so much hate from everyone, but I’ll be different. His music is not bad. I’ll admit what most people won’t. He’s a pretty chill guy too. Just saying.

Gosh was last week THAT uneventful that I’m talking about Justin Bieber? Thank God it’s nearly end of term!

On a more serious note: Some things just make me lose hope in humanity. But then almost always that hope is revived by actions of others. The bomb blast and shooting in Oslo were shocking. At least 90 people, mainly teenagers shot dead. Some of the Norwegian students here lost friends. I don’t know what sick minded person can shoot an eleven year old kid dead, but… The Norwegian community here was understandably in shock. Everyone else is feeling a bit down in general. But out of this terrible event, I think one of the most beautiful things I have seen was the support and care given here by students of different races and religions and regions of the world. If only the world was a bit more like this. It would be a better place.

Thoughts and prayers to those in Noway.

Ok. This might or might not be my last update from Swaziland this term. (Yes yes, I know, that last sentence had no point at all). I'll try one from Hong Kong. It’s been a great term, from bushfire to the 24 hour run to the fete to the rugby tournaments. Not done yet though unfortunately! Moce for now. ;)

:-DKN

Mrs Kissun must not read this.

10 Ways you could die in Swaziland

what?

1-      You decide to go swimming in the river and a crocodile suddenly NABS you.

2-      You go out during the day in your t-shirt and shorts, and come back late to find the hostel/house locked and you can’t get in and you die from hypothermia during the night. (you don’t have any credit on your phone because of MTN's ridiculous rates)

3-      You live on the food of Waterford Kamhlaba.

4-      You get into a kombi with not enough money, and when you can’t pay they shout something like 'find your own way to Manzini!' and throw you out in the middle of nowhere, and then suddenly a lion turns up and EATS you.

5-      You go to a nature reserve and lose your map. You spend days trying to find a sign of human civilization in vain.

6-      The kombi driver insists on fitting 20 people into a 15 passenger kombi (really happens!) and eventually oxygen runs out and you suffocate.

7-      *starts raining outside* ‘RAINBATH!’ :D

(I should mention Swaziland has the highest death by lightning rate in the world)

8-      You assume traffic will stop at the red light in Mbabane.

9-      You are playing rugby, and some idiot tries to chip and chase but kicks the ball deep into the bush and someone has to go get it. You go to get it and then get bitten by a poisonous snake and an ambulance is called which is on ‘Swazi time’ and by the time arrives it you're dead.

10-   You climb a mountain and bet your mates you can reach the bottom first and run all the way down not taking into account that mountains here are a bit taller/steeper/rockier than at home and you fall and break your neck and die.

Special mention- you do the I.B. programme.

Hello! J

All these things could really happen you know. Maybe I’m being a little paranoid. Anyways, do you see the risks I have to put up with every single day? Yeah. It’s a dangerous place.

Me, Ximena and Eli on the way to
 community service (term 1)

Oh by the way, its quite funny. You know how we have ‘Fiji time’? (no not the newspaper) Swaziland also has its own thing called ‘Swazi Time’ as well! At least I am used to it! :)  (though some of the Europeans are not!).

So, what happened this week? Not really much. All my closer circle of friends are out on trips. Stephen, Emily, Anna and Kyle are on a Geography trip to Durban, while Dimitri and Sofia are on the Wilderness tour. It’s been a quiet week, but sometimes a quiet week is nice.

hey! Remember these things?

Maths is very difficult, I am still enjoying it though. I wanted to change higher maths to higher English at one point, but the poor English teachers are ‘overworked’. Mr Pugh has fifteen students in his class! He said he took SEVENTEEN (17!) last year and almost died! Oh life is so hard. I wanted to tell him my old English teacher had 40 students, while she probably got one third of his salary. Pffft. The teachers here wouldn’t last a week at home.  Anyways, I have decided to go on with higher maths. For now. I could work a little harder.

icy field

Tuesday got so cold that the playing field frosted up! Serious! Gosh. Never seen that before.

InFocus is a group of students I have joined. Every Thursday evening, from 9-10pm someone presents their country. It was my turn last week, and I thought I did an ok job of it. Thanks Sekaia for the Suva pictures! Very nice! Got a few laughs from the audience. I talked of history, economy, politics, and culture. When it came to sports, I gave a proud talk of the rugby (and netball), but I used the soccer team more as a joke.

TOK class: A man is lying dead in a field, an unopened parcel beside him. There is noone else in the field. How did he die? 

Jennifer: 'paper cut?'

Teacher: -_- 'his parachute didn't open'
LOL

bloody aussies

Speaking of sports, FIJI LOST TO JAPAN? Wow. Great. Good luck against the All Blacks next week. Two red cards, and on top of that three yellow cards? Must have at least been entertaining. Come on, I would love to see them have a good showing against the Kiwis!
 I hate it when I am forced to support the Crusaders, and they STILL lost! Courageous effort from them, playing ALL their games away from their own stadium. That’s very impressive. Well done to the Reds though.

I don’t believe I have anything left to say. Oh yeah! I watched Pirates of the Carribean today with some mates. Loved it! The cinema here ain’t that bad, though its 40 minutes away. Not nearly as good as Village 6 though. 

this page needs a sentence in PURPLE!!!!!!

Oh, if anyone wants a souvenir from Swazi, do let me know. If you want something from Hong Kong, er... yeah. Let me know. And I'll let you know if I can afford it. I'll be back in about a month. Didn't actually expect to be back so soon, but I can't wait. It's not the place, it's not the people. It's the work! Argh.

Anyways. Moce for now. Bizu, I'm practising for that game of pool! Nathan, I am gonna beat you in tennis.


Remember: Chill sometimes. (Its not that hard.)

DKN