My Life in 500 Words

I thought I should write something about myself..

I was born in China in a small, um, small town? Geographically it is southeast China, across the sea from Taiwan and in the province of Fujian. Not that you'd care. Anyways, when I was about 3, my parents left me to come to NZ. Apparently I kept gazing out the window waiting for them to come back but, of course, they never did, well, sort of. So I spent my earliest memories with my paternal grandparents and did stuff that normal kids did. Which included stepping into poo in the wayyy crappy hole in the ground toilets that they had (and still have) in China. Once my parents settled in in NZ, my mum came back to get me (and attend granddad's funeral). That was in 1998.

My first impression of NZ (or Auckland cuz that's where we lived) was that it was much cleaner. There weren't rubbish everywhere, dirty, smelly open markets, chaotic roads, choking smog or very many asians. Oh yea, and I didn't see anyone pee in the gutter which I, am ashamed to say, did when I was desperate. But then I didn't know any better. I spent my next two or so years living in Manukau City (yea, south Auckland-wasn't too bad back then, or at least I didn't think it was) and attended Weymouth Primary School, which was much bigger than the primary schools I saw in my hometown. It even had grass, and heaps of it.

Afterwards, mum, my brother and I flew over to Sydney where we stayed from 2001 to end of 2005. There I attended Berala Public School, an even bigger primary school with over 1000 pupils. I can't remember much, just that it was pretty fun most of the times. Then I went to Sefton High for two years. It is a semi-selective school (I was a selective student :D) and I made some really good friends there. I hope I will remember them. Sydney left a fairly good impression on me, being a decent sized city, although still a big crowded, and have REAL malls, not the one story row of shops that we have here trying to pass as a mall. I also liked the train system there and the city centre was fun. My last two creative writings were based on my experiences in Sydney.

And now I'm in Christchurch. Christchurch is considerably smaller than Sydney. But incredibly cleaner, most likely because it has much less people. What I like about Chch though, is that its close to the ski field :). So no overnight stay is required unlike when I was in Sydney. What I don't like is the lack of shops here, not that I go shopping, but when I want something, they don't have it here... There is also NOTHING to do in Chch (this is where shopping is meant to come in). I hope to travel back to Sydney again, maybe even study there. I also want to see more of the world instead of being stuck in an isolated country that is somewhat behind in everything.

Bapitismy Aty Lakey Tekapoy

"This is the way we go to church,
Go to church,
Go to church.

This is the way we go to church,
Every Sunday Morning..." (to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)

So yea...the bus trip to Lake Tekapo was horrendously long and boring, though not nearly as bad as the bus trip to Dunedin.

Anways, there were a great many snow capped mountains flanking the green of the Canterbury Plains on the way to the lake. There were a wide range of trees, some green, some orange, some yellow and orange. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

Lake Tekapo itself was a beautiful shimmering lake surrounded by low mountains powdered with snow. The weather was perfect-not too much sun, not cold and not windy. The perfect day for baptism.

Yup, baptism.

Apparently someone in the church refused to be baptised unless it was at Lake Tekapo. So the pastor said "Ok. You said it yourself. We are going to go to Lake Tekapo so you could be baptised." Everyone probably thought they were joking. Apparently not.

We bumped along to the side of the lake, collapsed out the bus and crowded around on the sandy lakeside. We formed a cresent shape around the four who are to be baptised and they sang songs and prayed. After the singing and praying, the pastor asked each of the to be baptised two female and two male whether they believed with all their heart that Jesus is the Lord and Saviour etc, to which they answered with "I do"--which appeared to me like a marriage--Will you take Blah as your wedded wife etc...

The actual baptism was amusing too. They waded into the lake and were made to lean back into and under the water. The throng of onlookers must've been like WTF, cause I know I would've.

The best part of the trip was skipping stones. I had great fun skipping stones for about a quarter of an hour. I think my stones bounced a max of 9 or 10 times. I was mightily pleased with meself XD.

Oh yea, the scenery was quite good. It was a rather large silvery-blue lake with two snow mountains sprawled out across the horizon. Rows of green, red and orange hugged the mountain sides, and to the right of where we were was a small stone church that resembled a cute country cottage.

On this particular outing, we also had to watch some video of a random Reverend delivering a sermon/seminar/whatever. I was, well, terribly bored by it.

The highlight of the return trip was, well, the return. Or maybe the beautiful sunset that was occassionally visible through the shadows of the the trees surrounding acres and acres of farmland in the country. During which the clouds, now dark because the sun was behind it, was lined with orange and radiated with gold. The whole landscape seemed to be enveloped in its warm, golden blanket.

The it got dark.

And then we got back to Christchurch.
It was Saturday.
The 11th.
Of April.