Chronicles of Auckland - Part II

Safety of Auckland.

One Malaysian friend, Tanya, told me that she was mugged just outside her apartment. So, hmm…Further, Daryl was telling us that he witnessed a bad case of vandalizing in broad day light outside our apartment. A few people wanted to rob/vandalise (intention uncertain) a car and they aggressively tried to shatter the glass by using a spiked hammer. They were creating a big ruckus but no one came to stop them and this is in consideration of the fact that the Auckland police headquarters is just 50m away from our apartment! So, the safety here in Auckland leaves much to be desired. It is really inconvenient for girls because it’s unsafe to walk alone at night and hence u will always have to trouble someone to send you back if u’re coming home after 8pm. So far, I’ve been pretty lucky in that my friends would offer to send me or walk me back to my apartment.

Warmth.

Not the warmth of the people here but the place. It’s so queer that there are no heating systems in many (almost all) of the buildings here. And even more queer is that they turn on the air conditioning in winter!!!! How practical is that man...I am very sure that it’s not a ventilator because u can actually feel the power of the cold air blowing out from the vents (which look like the air-conditioning vents in Singapore). Furthermore, the lecturers confirmed that there is air-conditioning. One time, I was in the public library and I was actually shivering inside, even though I had my 3 layers of clothes on, my t-shirt, my sweater and my big jacket. Similarly, in lecture theatres, I have to wear 3 layers to keep warm. It’s so absurd! It’s bad enough that there are no heaters in the building but the very least they can do is to switch off the air-con!! So, Kor was wrong about how if u are feeling cold, u just hop into the nearest building. Doesn’t work this way and in fact, sometimes, my lecture theatres are colder than outside.

Speaking of lecture theatres, the tables are not the individual kind but rather rather just one long piece of laminated wood (sth like LT5 in Hwa Chong). Hence, it is impossible for one to get out of their seat without everyone beside that person getting out of their seats first and making way. It’s interesting what the ppl here do to get around inconveniencing the people beside. They just step on the table top and walk from table top to top until they reach the aisle. Or, sometimes, they go under the tables. I haven actually witnessed this but Daryl told us that this girl (who was wearing a mini-skirt mind you), actually got onto the table top and crawled all the way on the table top until she reached the aisle. People can do the weirdest things.

Ok, now the warmth of the people.

I think generally, from the people that I’ve met so far, they seem pretty nice. But as usual, the same phenomenon applies. People in the suburbs are friendlier than the people in the city. In the suburbs, you will actually have people on the streets chatting up with you. In the city, it’s really difficult. People are in too much of a hurry. Haven had much opportunity to really form deeper friendships with the kiwi kiwis. I know quite a number of Asian Kiwis though. Just in case you are wonder the difference, Kiwi Kiwis are the Caucasians while Asian Kiwis are those who lived in NZ almost all their life. Most of the kiwi kiwis I’ve met so far are from Student Life and they are all very friendly. I’m hoping to get to know more kiwis next semester when I stay in hall.

After much rationalizing and calculating, I have finally decided to stay in hall. Haha.. it’s much cheaper to stay in a self-catered apartment like WSA. The difference in price is $50 a wk. When you calculate the difference for a semester, it comes up to quite a large sum, $850 for a semester. My heart aches just thinking about the money. $850 can be spent on a few short ski trips!! But, I want to try the hall life here esp since I’ve done a semester of flatting. Also, as there are quite a no of exchange students staying in International House (the hall I plan to stay in), it’ll be easy to find mates to tour with during the wkends. Most of the students here are doing their degrees and are unlikely to burn their wkends like that. It's easier for exchange students because we only have to pass our exams. Whilst there are exchange students, the hall consists of 50% kiwis so, it's a good mix. The final and most important consideration is that as most of you might know, I’m the sort who gets homesick easily and so I always need people around me. Hall will provide me with this.