Time to say goodbye

"God works in His own timing. Just be patient and trust that He will come through. Remember you always have a family here."

~Pastor B's parting words to me at church yesterday. 

How fast the three years have passed and here I am at the threshold of goodbye. Boy will I miss his fatherly hugs every Sunday, and my Every Nation church whanau (family in Maori) here. Not to mention friends who've come and have stuck by me through the whole time I was here. They have really been my family away from home.

It's been a good journey so far. And God's blessings have been poured on me time and time again throughout. All I can say at this point is, Thank You. It has just been amazing to have had this opportunity to grow as a person, learn more about who I am, who God is, how to deal with tough situations and so many more things that one unconsciously picks up on this road to adulthood.

I still have a long way to go and so so so much more to learn. But NZ and my uni life will always be something that I'll look back and fondly recall "those days when we did this and this...". A phase of time made sweeter by the love and presence of the people who have been a part of my life here.

Onward to new land!

Stunning New Zealand

Seems like another year is coming to an end. I've been busy first with Celta, then with my family coming over and going around the South Island with them... I don't think I've really noticed how the year went from middle aged to become a tottering old man on his last legs. Oh well, new things are always being born, and 2013 is just biding it's time before coming out and bringing us new hope, new resolutions, and all the good things a new year can bring. 

 As I said before, my family came over primarily to attend my graduation, but of cos to do some sightseeing as well. I think New Zealand is beautiful in every season, but to be honest, I think it's its' showiest during Summer. (On good days) the sky is as blue as it gets, the landscape is alternately a very lush green, or vividly yellow and brown in the bush areas. Purple and pink hued flowers bloom all along the highways and even the sheep and cows seem more frisky. But best of all, it's warm enough for us to wind the window down while driving so I don't feel carsick. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of driving along the highways here, especially the inland scenic road; where it does live up to it's name of being very scenic, because I always arrive at the destination feeling like jelly and all green in the face. But this time around, there was hardly any feeling of motion sickness so Praise the Lord! That was a happy trip.

Akaroa. How wallpaper-like the view is. 

Among the flowers (whatever they're called) at Lake Tekapo

The majestic mountain range (I think they're called the Incredibles) at Queenstown.
If I'm not mistaken, some scenes from LOTR were filmed here.

My sister likes feeding the birds here but freaks out when they come close. Hmm...

Pesky seagulls

A half and hour hike to the Devil's Punchbowl

This is actually in a church in the tiny village (population 50) of Arthur's Pass.
Isn't the view delightful? It must be lovely for the congregation to have sermons in this building. 

parents and technology

Ever since my parents got into the whole smartphone/ ipad technology fad...
They've gotten so cute! HAHA dad just sent me his picture with Charlie Brown in front of the cafe.
Or possibly it's because they're on their own now that their flock has left the nest. So it's like back to their courtship days again. Well, not for long, I'll be back to make it more crowded again soon ahaha.

Anyway, as I was saying... ever since dad got his tablet, he's been sending me pictures of him and mum in front of restaurants, at scenic places etc, and also heaps of pictures of the dog. Recently they were visiting China. and as someone once said "I feel like I went to China with them as well!". The 'family' group on whatsapp was inundated with pictures of their travel. But it's a good thing. Technology has definitely kept us closer especially since we're all at different places now. I think out of all of them, I post the least pictures and
update the least. Guess they've now surpassed me :O

But seriously! My mum really needs to learn to use skype properly. It's really annoying to have to teach her to use skype through skype... especially if the line is bad or she can't hear me because of some reason.

Ok, time for bed. Goodnight evelibawdy

a narcissistic post

happy that my hair is growing out, and on good days I even have a natural wave :) 

let's see how long I can keep this up until I get the itch to change my hairstyle yet again. 

The event-filled month of October

Mid-Autumn lantern walkabout 

Retro themed Night of Stars 

 Malam Malaysia 

Random fun day 

These days...

Hi guys...

So I'm almost done with 3 years of uni life. I only need to know the results for my final paper and graduate to make the end official. I don't really want to get all emotional and retrospective just yet, will save that for later when I'm feeling blue about leaving. Sigh, time to move on into another phase of life. What lies behind the bend in the road? 

Right now, I'm just steeling myself to face one month of torture in the form of the Celta course (a certificate to teach English to speakers of other languages), which I have been told over and over again is REALLY intensive, and gruelling. Not looking forward to it, but I know it will be useful to me by and by, so just going to grit my teeth and go through with it, and hope I emerge a month later without too many injuries. I can do it.... right? 

You know the feeling when you have so much to do that you don't even want to start anything? But feel so uncomfortable about procrastinating? I have this list of stuff I have to get done before I start the course next Friday... but have been putting them off continually. I should get them all done. Soon. Hopefully... Man, I wish I could just sleep and when I wake up, all the boring and difficult chores would all be magically done for me :D Now THAT would be my fairy tale. I don't need no Prince Charming to rescue me, or a fairy godmother to get me a guy. Just help me complete my errands and we're good to go. 

This was quite a pointless post...

Well I was going to link a video of TVXQ's dance which I thought was pretty impressive, but... I know many of you are not Kpop fans so neh-mind. Later I kena kutuk. Hahaha 

Byeeeee 

lonely Denise

it's spring now and the flowers are blooming, and the baby animals are being born, and also, people are getting together. and now I fully understand why someone once vehemently said "lovey-dovey couples make me sick!". sigh... nothing like your previously single friends who are now not so single anymore to highlight one's blessed singlehood. don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they're happy with their partners, and I love attending weddings and matchmaking people. but let's be honest here... people in relationships, are Boring! well, from a single person's perspective anyway. They never want to go out anymore, they are always with the new someone, you rarely see them around anymore, and there's just no one to enjoy being single with together anymore.  I know I was way back when I was still in one... I was probably one of the most boring 'in a relationship' friend to my other single friends, always unavailable for outings and stuff. looking back, the single me would have been really peeved at the attached me. but the worst part is that couple friends will want to make sure you join their side and therefore will always try to set you up with people, thus making your single state sound even more piteous.

that said, I hope I don't offend anyone... this is meant to be taken with a pinch of salt (think of this as froth and not to be taken seriously at all like all my posts). To all my happily taken friends, you know I love you <3 I'm just in a mood to complain tonight (perhaps this blog should have a new name: Denise's Rants... or something like that haha). spring is a lonely time for singles such as yours truly, so have some room in your heart to forgive someone who is still occasionally grapples with the blessings of being alone.

haha I bet these will be the words that might possibly come to your mind after reading all of those:

"wow she sounds so desperate/lonely/sad",  
nah I'm not really... I'm usually a happy-clappy person who embraces singlehood relatively well. I just get a bit lonely sometimes ok... I'm still human with human needs for interaction.

"don't worry, you will find someone eventually" 
That ever elusive and vague EVENTUALLY...

"if you don't think about it, it will come"
How not to think about it when everyone around me are holding hands etc? Close my eyes and block my ears around them??

"I don't think I can hangout with Denise anymore"
No I beg you, please still stay friends with me! I would like to attend all of your weddings and have your kids call me Aunty Denise.


Finally, to all my single friends... keep your heads up and keep on going. Think of all the things you can achieve without a millstone around your neck (jokes!), and don't just stay on the shelf waiting for that "someone" to come, but go out, do what makes you happy, and indulge yourself while you have the means to do so.

goodnight!

Spring!

Passion and Language

Passion really changes things. To do something mediocre or ordinary and do it with passion will make people forget that it was ordinary in the first place.

Today we had a guest lecturer from Cambridge come speak at my sociolinguistics class on some aspects of language change. It was a warm day, and I had just been doing a cross-country in my uni (I must've walked from one end to the other and then some), yes I am ashamed to say I lost my way again after having been at uni for almost 3 years now, and had to rely on the GPS to get to my destination. Next time, I won't try to be smart and use shortcuts to unfamiliar places. Anyway, as I was saying, it was a warm day and I was nodding off in class during her lecture, but when it got to the Q&A part, well, let's just say I found it really interesting because she was just so passionate about the topics she does. That's what I like about some professors here, they might teach you boring stuff, but ask them about something related to their research and they immediately become very animated about their work.

Passion really plays a big deal, because her passion in the subject of language death and revitalisation got me interested in it as well. Which got me thinking about my own language: Bahasa Malaysia. I remember those times in school where we would complain about learning all our subjects in BM, because "it's a useless language, we won't be using it in the 'real world'". But in all honesty, I have to say that more than once, I was thankful that our education system forced me to learn BM for 11 years. Especially here in New Zealand, where a lot of people only speak one language: English. I think, coming from Malaysia where it's so multiracial, we take being bilingual, or even trilingual and so on, for granted because it's fairly common. Most people I know speak at least two different languages. Even a 'banana' like me is able to understand a bit of mandarin, and canto, and hokkien. And it helps so much in the Linguistics field to know another language to compare and understand your language better. Also, I just only found out that I HAD to take a foreign language paper to major in Linguistics. But since my academic advisor knows I know BM, I am exempted from it. Although, had I known about that earlier, I would've chosen to do like, German or French.

So, in today's class, we had a scenario of a native Maori Speaker who when doing Maori in school (they have to take Maori as a second language in schools here), didn't get high marks because his dialect of Maori was not the same as the standard Maori they teach in schools. Which got me thinking, no one actually uses the BM we learn at school, except for schoolkids who have to pass their exams, and politicians. Right? I mean, native BM speakers usually have their own dialect or use short forms while speaking it. Of course, the main structure of the language remains the same, but let's be honest here... the BM that we learnt at school is so rigid and weird to use in normal day-to-day conversation. At the moment, I'm learning a bit of Kelantanese malay because we're performing a dikir barat for our Malam Malaysia. And, it's tough enough for me to memorise something in BM, let alone in BM that doesn't even sound half like the one I'm used to. Like I still haven't figured out what "atah jula moktey" means. Does anyone know?

Anyway, just a little bit of a geeky post here. People ask me what I do in Linguistics, well, here's a little bit of what I do.

should there be a ribbon cutting ceremony?

Hey everyone who still follows me,

Firstly, kudos for being this loyal: for browsing through my old blog (more about that later) eventhough I haven't been blogging in a very VERY long time. I hope you were a little bit disappointed to find no new posts each time you came to check. Well... anyway, a girl can always hope right? Loyalty is hard to come by these days, people just stick with you until they find something newer and better.

Ok, at the risk of starting my new blog with a sad, pseudo-angry, rant about the dysfunctionality (i think i just made the word up because spellcheck is giving me an angry red line to tell me I spelled it wrong, but whatever) of the world... so, why do I have a new blog?

The thing is... Blogger or Google+  just refuses to allow me to log in to my old blog for some reason. It has happened in the past but somehow I still managed to get control of my old blog. But this time I couldn't remember what I did back then and gave in to them. Yes Google+, you win! Maybe it's time to move on with a new blog anyway. The old one is...6 or 7 years old already. I can't remember. Although, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll still be doing these days.

Anyway it's good to be back here. Mental note: must redesign blog and make it more ME. What does that even mean? The older I get, the more I realise that I don't fit in anywhere. Some people think I'm good, the good ones think I can be bad, I'm not that brainy, not that cool, not that nerdy, not that popular. So yeah, it gets confusing... but I'm enjoying being me, in my own little niche. Wonder if other people feel the same way as well. Probably lots of people do. Was having a chat with a friend about being hipster and mainstream, and he said he couldn't place himself in either one category cos he thinks he's a bit of both. So, I guess you can be a little bit of everything afterall. We're all created unique by God that way :)

Actually, I meant to have a good rant here but what kinda first blogpost starts of as a rant right? I mean, I don't usually complain right? haha. Sure.

Instead, I should tell you all about my current Korean "hallyu" wave which hit me when I started watching Running Man. I won't go on about it because most people know about it by this point, especially those who talk to me on facebook or whatsapp, cos I'm almost always watching it while chatting to them. haha sorry if I was somewhat distracted. Long story short, Running Man is great when you're all tired out and just want to laugh and be amused. The characters are really funny and endearing, and the challenges are pretty cool. It does get a bit boring and monotonous halfway through (I'm at like episode 80-ish now), but still... good. So, through Running Man, I got to know singers, bands, actors etc. Which got me listening to korean music (calling it K-Pop just makes it sound so lala and frothy), like Leessang, and CN Blue (fine, I concede that CN Blue is a kpop band, but they make good music. Plus one of the singers is cute. Yeah, so what if I like the singers AS WELL AS the music they play). And then, korean dramas came next. I used to watch them when I was still in school, but stopped for a long while since. I'm currently watching this one called 'Big', which is about this 18 year old boy switching bodies with a 30 year old guy in an accident. In his new older body (which is this totally hot tall doctor by the way), he falls in love with the doctor's fiance who also happens to be his teacher. Complicated or what? Now if you happen to know even a little bit about korean dramas (the rom-coms anyway), you'd know that it usually starts off funny with the hero and heroine always getting annoyed at each other and eventually they fall for each other, and then they have to hide their feelings for each other because of circumstances (eg: parents disapproval, can't decide between 2 people), and then it becomes sad and slow and sappy... I'm at the slow sad cry cry cry part at the moment. Seriously, just get together guys... Most of the time is spent with me rolling my eyes exasperatedly at why they are still hiding their feelings for each other, and yelling at them to "hurry and get together already cos you guys are perfect together CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?!" haha... ok maybe I exaggerated it a little bit. But I get a bit impatient when they overplay the sad parts.

So yes, you can tell I'm a little bit obsessed at the moment.


Ok, if I want to keep your attentions, I should stick to shorter posts. This has gone on waaaaay too long than I initially intended it to be.

Bye for now~