Proof not all my friends are Indians!

So let me set the scene! I'm procrastinating from exams, and skimming through some old photos when I notice something!

My life looks like some sort of United Colours of Benetton commercial!

For all you kiwis out there, I didn't know much about United Colours of Benetton (hereby referred to as Benetton or UCoB =p) till a few months ago when I was in Delhi. They are a clothing store that sells semi upmarket stuff (hard to tell what the stuff would be priced if here in NZ, cause I was in India at the time hehe).


Their advertising is based around providing controversy from my knowledge. Back in the 1980s they started using advertisements of people from all different kindsof races, which sparked lots of racial critisms. But now the brand has that element constant throughout their catalogues, with people of different cultures modeling their clothes!

Now I don't mean that my photos look controversial like a Benetton ad! I mean that as I look through all my old pics I see more and more different people all throughout my life. Diverse in cultures, but also in skills, personalities, ages, and backgrounds. It's pretty cool, I'm learning how wrong I am about so many things everyday.

Anyway here are some of my UBoC moments! See look look I'm living diversity! (All the AIESEC'ers roll their eyes =p)


Thank you all for making my life different everyday =) Now if only I was good at keeping in contact with all of you! =p Know you're all in my thoughts wherever you are! Especially during the exam time! Stop distracting me from my study you bastards!

Love ya all! =)

BBB

Good Indian boy ... or not?

Hey Everyone!

The news comes slow from this side of the computer as exams roll around =) There is nothing funny to post about, so I end up writing these sad depressing posts, which I think best to keep to myself =p

Anyway, so I was sitting around studying today, and during that time my mind started drifting off into far far away lands. Eventually my thoughts drifted back to some of the arguments that I used to have with my father.

He used to say when I didn't do so well on a test "So what do you want to be HUH? Do you want to be a New Zealand boy or an Indian boy!?!"

The implication was that if I wanted to be an Indian boy, I should stop screwing around, go study, and parents will pay for anything. While if I wanted to be a New Zealand boy, I could continue screwing around, but then I had to go get a job or something alone those lines. I used to have some well thought out response about how things aren't as black and white (no racist connotations implied) and that I was part of both blah blah blah.

Anyway, that got me thinking what exactly IS an Indian? How can I tell if I am Indian? Then I found this checklist an old friend sent to me and I decided to check out just how Indian I am.

You know you're an indian if...

1. Your mother does all your housework for you if you are male.
2. You do all the housework and cooking if you are female.
3. You call any older person you have never met before "Uncle".
4. Your relatives alone could populate a small city.
5. Everyone is a family friend,
6. You study Law, Medicine, Accounting or Engineering at University.
7. Your parents worry what other people might think if you are not going to be Doctor/Lawyer/Engineer/Accountant

8. You went to a University as far away from home as possible.
9. You still come back home to live with your parents after you finished.
10. You say you hate Indian movies / songs but secretly watch / hear them with your parents.
11. You always say "Open the Light" instead of "Turn on the light"
12. You avoid public places when a member of the Opposite Sex is there.
13. You secure your baggage with a rope.
14. You're walking out of customs with your trolley at the airport and you see all 25 members of your family who have come to pick you up.
15. You ask your father a simple question and he tells you a story how we had to walk miles barefoot just to get to school.
16. If you turn 25 and Still remain unmarried your parents start wringing their hands and proclaim that its too late.
17. You have never met half of your extended family.
18. Your mother measures wealth either in gold or diamonds.
19. A horoscope must decide your wedding date.
20. You are sick and tired of answering questions about "The Dot".
21. You could not explain your religion to anyone even if you tried.
22. Your parents push the concept of arranged marriage on you and try to demonstrate how well it works whenever they are not fighting.
23. Your parents compare you to all of their friends' kids.
24. No one every seems to call ahead of time to say that they are coming over for a visit.
25. Your parents always say "It's Cheaper in India!"

Hmm so how well do you think I did? How Indian am I exactly!?

Well, out of this I had the following answers:
1. Yes =p
2. N/A
3. Yes! Although not on AIESEC meetings =p
4. Yes, and they sort of already do hehe
5. No! Used to be but I broke away from the Rec centre crowd!
6. No! BCom/BProp
7. Yes they worry all the time hehe.
8. No! I'm only 15 mins walk away!
9. Well I'll answer Yes cause I'm still at home =p
10. Yes =p Amy got me hooked on those stupid Bombay Rockers!
11. No!
12. No! Unless they are scary!
13. No! Only when roadtripping with AIESECers across India hehe.
14. Yes! Oh definitely 100% Yes!
15. Another 100% OMG "That's the Story of my Life!" Yes!
16. Yes! My brother just turned 25, and I can tell my parents are crying on the inside =p
17. Yes!
18. Sortof Yes!
19. No thankfully!
20. Yes! Makes it worse that everyone else thinks a chicken pox scar on my nose is for a nose ring hehe.

21. No!
22. Hehe Yes Yes Yes!
23. Yes!
24. Used to be a Yes! So I'll count that as a yes hehe
25. Yes!

So that means out of a possible 24 answers (taking out the female question #2), it means that 16/24, or 66.67% of answers I answered "I'm Indian!" for...

Ahhh well being Indian's not all that bad. While I was Indian I learned many useful things from the Indian people.

I learned about the "Indian Stare!" which is useful for making any foreign woman feel like you are a seedy dodgy man!
Also learned the great Indian lesson on how to be entrepreneurial and persistent!
Negotiation Simulation, Indian style!:

Random_Indian_01 "Friend!"
Tourist walks away quickly
Random Indian_01 "Friend! Friend!"
Tourist picks up the pace, avoids eye contact and keeps walking!
Random Indian_01 "Wait Friend! Chess Set! Friend!"
Tourist finally looses Random Indian

Random Indian_02 "Friend!"
Tourist says to himself, "Ahh crap!"
Random Indian_02 "Friend, I have a chess set for you!"
Tourist "Not interested sorry!"
Random Indian_02 "Friend! It's good quality! I'll give you good deal cause we're friends!"
Tourist ignores Indian and keeps walking

Random Indian_03 "Friend! Friend! OMG Friend!"
Tourist starts to cry.
Random Indian_03 "Ohhh, why you cry, Friend? I know what will cheer you up! Good quality Chess Set!"
Tourist Runs away!

Random Indian_04 "Friend! Friend!"
Random Indian_04 blocks tourist's path and jumps up and down!
Random Indian_04 "Friend I have a chess set for you! Only 500 Rupees!"
Tourist starts to walk away
Random Indian_04 "Ok 400 Rupees!"
Tourist keeps walking.
Random Indian_04 "Ok 300 rupees! Ok 200 Rupees for a friend! Ok 100 Rupees!"
Tourist thinks of buying a chess for the sole reason of fending of the next 15 other random Indians that are waiting down the street, so that he can say, look I'm sorry I already have a chess set. So he turns around to face Random Indian_04.
Random Indian_04 "Yes friend! I give you good price!"
Tourist "I'll take it for 50 Rupees"
Random Indian_04 "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 100 rupees is cost price! I am giving it to you! Because You and I are friends!"
Tourist starts to walk away.
Random Indian_04 "Ok 90 Rupees! Ok 80! Ok 70! Ok 60! Ok wait wait! 55! 54!? 52!? Come on 52!?!? That is the same as 50 basically!"
Tourist "Ok so then give me 50!"
Random Indian_04 looks all angry "Ok fine! You can take for 50!"
Random Indian_04 pretends to look all upset and offended so you give him more money.
Tourist pays then walks away.

Random Indian_05 "Friend! Chess Set!"
Tourist "Sorry buddy! Already have one!"
Tourist waves around his chess set.
Random Indian_05 "Ohhh Ok! How about sunglasses! They're good quality friend!"
.... so the cycle continues!


Here is my imitation of the "Chess Sets! Chess Sets! 200 Rupees! 200!!" chants that followed us down the street.

Ahhhh such fond memories! Hmmm if Chinese New Zealanders can be Chiwis, there must be something cool that us Kiwi Indians can be called? Kindians? Kians? Indiwis? Hmmm nothing seems to be working.

Anyway back to study! Since I guess I am 66.67% the good Indian Boy and as Dad says good Indian boys study!

BBB

The truth about cats and dogs ...

It has always been a firm belief of mine that Dogs are a tool from God to spread love, happiness and joy throughout the earth.

Cats on the other hand were created by Satan!

They are seriously evil! At least my cat is! Anyone who's been to my house and interacted with my cat comes out of it going "hmm, David I don't really like Pussy" ... My cat's name is Pussy by the way ... =p

When I got home today, I opened the door to let Sophie (my doggie woggie! (dog)) into the house. As dogs do she acted like she hadn't seen me in over year, tail wagging, jumping up and down! The cat however who was already in the house was sitting quietly on one of the steps. Eyes squinting, nose up in the air. I could imagine him thinking "Oh look...it's the dog..."

So Sophie turns her back towards the cat, and her tail was wagging so furiously that it started smacking pussy in the face. The cat, gets angry, walks around Sophie, and smacks her on the face!

So now my poor little Sophie has these tiny scratch marks on her nose! Evil Cat!!

Here is a picture where I tried to re-create the scene. Stupid cat just stayed still! But at least he had the squint! If you look closely you can see his claws too!


This is a cartoon I found from Gucomics.com. I edited out all the parts that were specific to this online game I used to play. A perfect representation of what really goes on behind the scenes in the mind of a cat.

Slow updates =)

I'm sorry for being so slack on the updates! (That is if anyone cares that instead of posting everyday, I post every 3 days like normal people =p)

I've been doing a combination of studying, shopping and hanging out with friends over these past couple of days! Once I get pictures I'll post something!

Ooooh good news! I expanded my shoe wardrobe by 100%!! That's right!! I bought two pairs of shoes this weekend!!

Anyway updates coming soon!

BBB

NZLDS 05 Line Dance Video

So the other day after LC meeting we put on that Gwen Stefani song for the NZLDS 2005 DT Line Dance. Apparently it was from IC 2005 as well, so some of you internationals may recognize it =)

Anyway! So everyone looks at me because I'm now the resident Line Dance Guy of the Auckland LC (3 girls on the EB and I'm the only one who seems to remember the moves to anything) =p

So the music is playing. We're doing the dance. Then we start getting all out of time, Jens is sitting in his chair going "No! No! No!", and I'm going, "Hmmm!". Everyone then starts throwing tomatoes and stones at me!!

Ok, so it wasn't that dramatic, but basically we were all just looking around at each other going, hmm yeah what were we supposed to be doing here again?

To solve this problem! I decided to upload the line dance here, because my guess is that I'm not the only one looking like a retard when trying to bring this line dance back to our respective LCs =p

Just download the file from here, its 5mbs.

BBB

Look who I found!!

So I was going through my parents room looking for an old CD when I stumbled across this guy!!

Ohhh what a reunion! This little mogwai bought back lots of flashbacks to the 90s where they used to show that movie the Gremlins every year! Gizmo and I have had lots of good non dodgy times together! Feel the chemistry in that photo!

Ohhhhh sooo cute!! Little pot bellys and all!

I miss all those shows you could count on seeing every year on NZ TV. Movies like "The Gremlins", "The Neverending Story 1", "The Neverending Story 2", "The Neverending Story 3", "The Neverending Story 847","The Labyrinth" and The Goonies"! Where is all the family fun! I think this all links together with the banning of the goodnight kiwi that Amy Frazer talks about on her blog.

What is NZ coming to? First these shows no longer appear, then Winston Peters becomes our foreign minister, who know's what's coming next? At the rate things are declining its probably going to involve a comet hurtling towards earth!

Anyway! I couldn't help posting about our cute little mogwai friends who have been absent from TV way too long =)

Night all!

BBB

Project David

Hey Everyone!

Today was my last Monday of lectures this year!! I know so sad!!

I actually got kindof sad thinking about this semester of classes winding down to a close =( But then I picked up my contiki tour tickets from the travel agent, which got me all happy again! I can't wait to get out of here into Europe! Today I found out that apparently both Louisa and Arina are going to be in Berlin on New Years Day!! Berlin's the place to be for 2006!! =) Lets hope nothing apocalyptic like Y2k happens!

While hanging out in the office Vina came in for a visit! It's been so long since I've seen her around, so it was good to catch up! Of course I had to take a picture!

Also Ozge (The NZ MC member who is in charge of Finance and the link for Auckland) came to visit town! Was awesome having her around! She had wanted to meet up with everyone while in town, so she had a jam packed full schedule. By the time she got around seeing me she had already been talking to people for the past 6 hours straight. (She said she had lunch ... but that was with Tihana hehe).

She looked a little drained but she made an effort to be as responsive to me as I talked about bank reconciliations and audits! All the fun stuff!!

We went out for dinner at this Korean place afterwards. I don't think I've ever had so much food in my life. Even now as I write this blog I'm patting my belly in content hehe.

Earlier in the day I was hanging out in the office when it was bought to my attention that there was something called "Project David". After some strategic interrogations it was discover that this project involved getting David drunk, and either laid, or to a strip club (Sorry it's hard not to refer to myself in the third person while telling this story!). Needless to say as the innocent Indian I am, I was both shocked and terrified. I spent the rest of the night and car ride home trying to convince the organising committee of "Project David" to leave me alone! But my cries only seemed to get them more excited. There was a point in the night where they suggested turning the project into a PBox and bringing in exchange to "service" me as the stakeholder.

... Someone please help me ... I'm scared ...

BBB

What happens when creative people get bored...

Hey Everyone!

Ok Please ignore this blog post unless you have attended Auckland University at some point in your life =p Otherwise you will just be concerned about my sanity and quite possible never visit this blog again =p

So anyway! The other day I was up late at night, probably updating my blog =p When Lama pops on MSN! We chat for a while and then she says she's bored and wants to chat for a while.

It turns out that she created this song about Cecil (the online student interface thingee at Auckland University www.cecil.edu)

She sang it to me, and I couldn't stop laughing for like 20 minutes. Apparently I'm the only one who gets to hear the musical version (yay I feel special!) Maybe buy her some beer to get the song out of her!

Anyway! Here it is! For the first time on the blogosphere! Cecil! By Lama!

Ohhh cecilll

I wish you were reallll

I wish you know good you made me feeeelll (badadadadadadada drums)

I woke up this morning, yearning for your burnin

Appetite for life yea yea yea yea, you make it seem

like life is a dreAaAam and you gimmi more spice than asian rice!

oH yeaahhhhhh cecillllll

Oh yeah cecil you make me feel realll

Oh yeahhhh your so nice, bring sum of that ollllllld spice

Splash it on ma face, take me back to your place…....

(music break)

|-)

And gimmi more than after shave.

Laa la lala lalalala ceceillllll you make meee feel frreee

Drinking more than Spanish tea… .... I like the taste

of your tooth paste… .... and you'’re appetite for life .... makes it worth more strife .... just to know ….... what it feels like… ..... to be with youuuuuuu

Cecil cecil… ....

Hehe! It actually sounds pretty good as well!

Night everyone!

BBB

Woooo!! Bank Reconciliation!!! Yeeeehaaaa!!

I'm the happy happy finance director of AIESEC Auckland =) Which means that I get to do all the cool financy stuff like roll around in the money, and embezzle.

But occasionally I have to do things like bank reconciliation! Scary!

I met up with Leon to finish my MYOB transition (MYOB is an accounting software used in New Zealand to manage a business's finance). Until now I've just been keeping lists of all the transactions in the past, but after this transition I will finally be able to put it all in the program and make cool fancy reports.

So I get to the office and Leon starts walking me through some of the problems I'd had with entering data into the program over the last few days.

Then we get onto the bank reconciliation. He tells me its best to do it month by month (a quarter has passed, so three months). I was like sure that can't be too hard.

The first month comes out straight away, so I'm like "Yay! This is fun!"

Second month has like an $800 difference between the final amount and what it should be. So I'm like "ummmm". Leon walks me through some of the common mistakes, and we manage to get everything to balance! SO yay!

Then Leon goes, "Ok you do the last month by yourself while I just do some work on the computer".
I'm like "Sure!", so I put everything in, check the numbers, press enter and then bam. There is a $10 difference somewhere.
I spend the next 20 mins checking I hadn't done some stupid typo, and finally had to whine to Leon about how I needed his help hehe.
Leon had a little bit of trouble finding out where I'd screwed up =p He managed to spot some other mistakes in the meantime ehhe. But finally he spots this one transaction for $10 which I'd missed entering. Which happened to be a direct credit deposit into the bank account from Leon himself!

So tragic =p

Anyway! I'm off to steal some more money away from the AIESEC accounts!! *Evil Laugh!*

BBB

My sad sad lecture...

So my alarm rings at 6am, being the morning person I am, I hit sleep, and wake up at 7:30am.

While lying in bed I'm debating with myself about whether or not I should go to my Management class. Before you go "tsk tsk David, you should go to all your lectures" you don't understand! Don't be so quick to judge! This class is one of the worst papers in the history of mankind. The lecturer is a nice guy, but honestly he really just doesn't know what he's talking about. He always talks in a monotone voice, and basically rambles about things which have nothing to do with management.

I decide to get up, because I was actually feeling pretty rested.

Head into Uni, arrive 20 minutes late to my management lecture. The lecturer is still rambling on, and he is still on the first introduction slide which says (Prop Mgmt - 14-10-05 etc). He's been rambling on for 15mins about random admin stuff.

As I walk in I'm silently thinking how glad I am that I got that extra sleep in. I sit next to a friend, who is looking extremely bored. The class has 140 people registered to take it, but currently a max of 40 people are present (see I'm not the only one that doesn't like the class!)

Anyway!

My lecturer then says "Yeaaaah, so we were supposed to have a guest speaker today from the university, but he took early retirement, yeaaaah, sooooo, I'm going to say what he would have said, but I won't do it justice."
I whisper to my friend "ohhhh this should be really good!"
The guy puts up all these slides on the history of the building that the lecture is in currently for about 20 minutes.
A girl in the background puts up her hand and then says "So could you please tell us what this has to do with anything about the course?"
The lecturer "Ummm, yeah, well like I said we were supposed to have a guest speaker, yeah, so yeah, blah blah, ramble ramble"
The class finished an hour early and needless to say all of us walked out going "What the hell?". As hard as I tried there was absolutely no material that I could have taken notes on. Everyone left the class saying that was a huge waste of time.

Ok that's the end of my little random rant hehe.

After that I just did lots of little errands =) Was a very nice simple day =)

So how about you guys? Ever had the lecturer from hell that did not stimulate your interest in the topic even a little bit? So many people fell asleep during that class it wasn't funny hehe.

To spice up this post (so it's not so depressing) here is one of those great demotivator pictures!

BBB

*Yawn*

So today was a pretty quiet day =)

I was up till 3:30am doing my assignment (last assignment of the semester! woo!). Then I had to wake up at 8am to get to uni by 9am (needed to hand in the assignment) =) Basically slept through my 10am lecture.

Was feeling pretty overwhelmed today with the thought of all the work I had to catch up on for Uni, but I guess we all do at some time. I was talking to Leon the other night (over Movenpick!) and I said, "Maaaan, I'd have so much more time if there wasn't AIESEC! I'd be able to concentrate on this other stuff!" and he was like "Naaah. You get alot of AIESEC as well, nothing would really be different."

He has a good point =p We all get burnt out at sometime when the work piles up, and the mark of a capable person is how they deal with it when it comes to crunch time. If I can't deal with the stuff now, do I really think that everything would magically solve itself once I had another couple of hours everyday. We have to carefully choose what we do with that time.

I was looking through some of my old files and found this thing which is a scan of something Susan (LCP 04-05) gave the new EB at changeover party 1st July 2005.


It may seem stupid, but it helped me realize that there have been hundreds of EB before me, hundreds around the world right now, and hundreds in the future, who have been in the same position as me. They have/are/will face the same challenges as myself, so much so that a survival kit has been designed for them =) A pretty cool one at that =) After having a little trip down memory lane and reading the survival kit Susan gave me 3 months ago I got a little spring in my step again =) Susan's still giving me energy long after she's gone hehe =)

Straight after that I took a nap for 4 hours =p

BBB

Ahhh the EB =)

So after three months, the EB finally got together after the LC meeting on Monday and took a photo with each other.


Now as simple a task that may seem, it has been suprisingly difficult. Either we have no time, no Eb director, no camera or no memory! Even this photo took five attempts! (Of course I didn't hold people up being the incredible photogenic person with one face expression that I am =p)

This morning we had a meeting with our Board of Advisors. It was actually the most productive meeting i've ever had with them. It wasn't just a one way learning process, where I learned about some interview techniques (We reviewed our marketing strategy with the BoA). But the BoA learnt more about how we deal with companies, and the challenges we face every day.

Amy unfortunately wasn't able to make the EB meeting which lead to our second great EB photo of the week.


She had two assignments due that day, and an extreme lack of sleep =) Before you feel too sorry for Amy, Ying had an awful night as well. I was meeting up with Leon to do some MYOB transition last night, when we both had the urge to get some Movenpick ice cream. We borrowed Ying's car, got the ice cream, then forgot to turn off her car headlights. This lead to her car batteries being flat, which lead to Ying (at 4:30am because she was staying at uni doing her assignment) finding her car wouldn't start. So she got no sleep before our BoA meeting =p

I was hanging around the office today as well when I got a visit from my old LCP Susan! Old Old Old LCP =p OK she's not that old =p she was the LCP before Ying, and was the LCP during my first term on the Executive Board. I hadn't seen her for a good two months, so made her take a photo with me!


My last EB story for today involves Amy. We were both hanging out in the office watching this video from the net when we decided to go crazy =p For more info download the video here! (its 4MB)

I know what you did last weekend...

Ok =p So I finally managed to get the photos off James about our little endeavors last weekend!

That's right boys and girls! It's time to show how you take care of your MCP whenever he/she comes to town!

Firstly I'd like to post this photo showing just how happy we were when we found out Ryan was coming to Auckland!!


That's right! Talk about cheesy smiles!

Before I go any further, I'd like to say that this post is not as "intense" as it could potentially be, because Papa Rowlands scared me when he said..."Never post anything about your dodgy night outs on the net. Because once it goes on, it never, ever comes off".

So yeah that's kindof scary! Thanks James!

Anyway!

We started off going to a korean place for dinner with a huge number of people from the LC. Then afterwards we went to the Occidental, had some fun. Then afterwards we went to the mexican cafe and had some more fun =p Yay for Salsa dancing! I think I injured Edris!

At first glance this photo shows just how innocent an Indian I am! While everyone else is crazy, my face remains calm and peaceful. Of course what you don't see, is the line of around 10 tequila shots in the background! Muwhahhaha!!


So after a few rounds! We went to this bar in Sky City! I think it is called Bar 3 or something like that. Now this is where the party really got started!

This is because originally Rengee had alot of friends over at Mexican Cafe, and she said they were drinkers. When I bought them all a round of shots, not many of them seemed to take anything. Of course I was disappointed. I said to Rengee "Man, I'm so disappointed! You Malaysians don't drink at all!"

Boy was that a mistake.

In Bar Three I get pulled aside by one of Rengee's friends and he's like "You bought the right man a tequila shot". In front of me were 20 shots of some unknown substance. I tried to run, but they are very persuasive!

David "Wow that's alot of shots. I don't think I can take any!"
Rengee's Friend "ohhh, come on!"
David "Ok!"

Lots of valuable selling techniques to pick up from those guys!

Oh yeah! This post is supposed to be about our MCP! SO anyway while I was over there, Ryan was chilling out with James in the corner. They were having a "few" beers. When I joined them after my multiple rounds of shots (they poured out 20 shots something like three times during the night!) I said to James.... "Umm yeah. So I'm going to text you my address .... you know just in case!"

After a "few" this is what our wonderful MCP looked like.


Ok so a little scary!

We then headed off to the casino. The 4 of us (Ying, Ryan, James and I. I have the feeling there might have been someone else I'm forgetting but if you had seen the state I was in you'd forgive me =p) all put down $20 each onto the Roulette table.

Everyone else lost their money! This was because Ryan would keep saying things like "Guys! I feel it's going to be a 15!!" ... wheel spins ... turns out to be a 2. Ryan says "ohhh. Ok it's going t be a 12 this time!" wheel spins ... It's a 28. You get the idea =p He had lost all credibility by the time he actually called a number correctly.

By the end of it I was the only one left with $35 (woo stingy Finance director makes a profit!).

I felt sorry for the other guys, gave them $5 each. In one spin of the wheel. They all lost the money I'd given them! I decided to be sane and cash the money, so walked away with no profit/loss =p hopeless gamblers! =)

We the headed back into Bar 3. Had alot of fun, took some photos! Rengee's friends pulled me aside yet again!

This photo was apparently the "spot the David photo!" cause I didn't show up at all! Damn seedy bar lighting!

Us three guys then ditched the girls and head off down into the viaduct to meet some of James's "hot friends". To cut a long story short, James was fed incorrect information!

Two bars later, and very disappointed we decided to head out into the city to look for some food. We walked along a street before suddenly I realized they were trying to take me to Showgirls! (I said earlier that night that I didn't want to go =p)

I protested and whined abit! Everyone was impressed I had morals even when I couldn't think straight.

We decided to end the night in a famous kebab place that has a picture of the old MC on the wall. Ryan told James and I a wonderful story of three wise men who searched far and wide across the land of Auckland for good looking females only to be disappointed by vile witches at Float. It was like a bedtime story and I swear my head and half my kebab almost slammed into the table three times while the other two happily played coin rugby.

We finally got back to my place at 5:30am. My parents were out of town, so Yay! But I had EB Meeting in less than 5 hours, not so Yay!

Fast forward a few hours to 7am. My alarm is ringing. I'm sleeping. James who is in the next room, wakes up because he hears my alarm from down the hall and ends up being the person to wake me up!

Fast forward an hour. Go to EB Meeting. That was really productive! James heads into uni as well cause he has an assignment and for some reason is fine! He went into his theory about how if you mix stuff you get a hangover but otherwise you're fine. I tuned out...must have been the fact I had two hours sleep. =p

We arrived home to find Ryan fast asleep in my lounge on the couch....Ohhh! How adorable! Our MCP relaxing after a hard night out. Of course we should let him rest....

Yeah, or not.

So there were about 4 of us there. James pulls out the camera. We scream "Hey AIESEC!" and this is the reaction we get from our MCP!


This is him halfway saying "What the....."! Great timing!

All in all was alot of fun! Was really great having Ryan up in Auckland! Any excuse to party!

Ahhhhh assignments!! =p

BBB

Monday's a happy day!

So! I know you all love reading about what I get up to! So I think I will tell you about what I did today.

I had a group assignment meeting today at 12 for an assignment that is due in tommorow. So I'm waiting for them by the entrance to level zero, when I get a paniked call from Susan.

David "Hello, David Benjamin speaking"
Susan "Ahhhhhhhh!!"
David "Hey Susan! How are you doing?"
Susan "Ahhh!! Ahhh!! Ahhhhhhhh!
David "You want me to buy the tickets for Coldplay cause you are at work?"
Susan "Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhh! ah ah Ahhhhhh!"
David "Ok Cool! I will keep you updated with what's going on!"

So Susan was stressed because the ticketek site was overloaded, meaning that you had to repeatedly click on this button to get into the site to Purchase tickets. I finally get into the site at around 12:15pm (tickets started going on sale at 12:00pm) and the stupid things aren't letting me pruchase seats together. I kept trying over and over again but couldn't get five seats together. I ended up buying 6 tickets randomly across the stadium, which took me like 20 minutes, then spent the rest of the hour spamming the site trying to get 5 seats together.

Still no luck! Was so sad. I called Susan to tell her, but there was just more "Ahhhh!" on the phone =p

I bump into Leon later that day (he's one of the 5 that are going) and he tells me that when he was on the site he managed to get 5 gold tickets together (which were the ones I really wanted, instead of the 6 crappy silver tickets across the stadium). So we logged back onto Ticketek, and it turns out they released another concert for Coldplay. I managed to get 5 tickets to that one, but they were still crappy silver tickets (at least we'll be sitting together though).

So now I have 11 tickets to Coldplay =p Yay for ebay hehe.

We also had LC meeting today. My last LC meeting till 2006! So sad!

Went out for dinner tonight and were joined by Stefan, one of our Auckland interns.


Here we are being very serious! He taught us some cool german phrases, which we need to try out on Jens! I would type them out here, but I'm afraid my blog may attract some bad german traffic searching for dodgy stuff.

Dinner tonight was filled with many posers as certain members of the LC tried to model like Tyra Banks.


While I was talking to Stefan they managed to take nearly 100 photos of themselves! There were flashes going off every few seconds with Lama screaming "Take off your glasses! Yes! Yes! Look naughty! That's it! Yes!"

Anyway! Assignment due tommorrow! I'll keep you updated!

BBB

Europe! Europe! Europe!

Ok So I'm excited!!

"How excited David?" I hear you ask!

I am so excited that I downloaded a real crap map, pulled out a crappy editing program, and using the pencil tool, marked out where I'll be going!

Here is that extremely budget map, which probably won't even show up properly!



Because this is a blog, I thought I would be real annoying and post exactly all the cities I'll be going to! There is a purpose! In a few weeks when I leave (I can't believe its in like 5 weeks!) I'll make sure to post photos on this blog so you can stalk me through my Europe trip!

I'm really excited because I wanted to head to Poland to hang out with a friend I met at You Can. His name is Polska...err I mean his name is Maciej. But I didn't tell him that I actually could spend Christmas with him till yesterday, and he said that it should be cool to head on over! How cool is that!! Christmas in Poland!! Anyway =p He's probably reading this going "Hmm, David's a little too excited" =p.

Anyway here are my plans

NZ to UK
So I leave NZ on the 13th November (I think =p)
Head to Dubai, Land in the UK on somewhere around the 14th/15th
Italy
Have to be in Rome by the 19th to start Contiki tour, so until then I have no idea what to do =p May go chill out in Rome by myself for a while, or visit an AIESECer somewhere along the way =)
Contiki tour - Italy, France, Monacco, Spain
Contiki tour starts on the 19th Nov, goes to Florence on day 3, Pisa day 5, Nice day 6, Riveria on day 7 (also see Monte Carlo Casino ! woo!), Avignon on day 8, Barcelona on day 9, Madrid day 11 and it finishes on day 13. So yay!
By this time its somewhere around the 3rd December! Chill out in Spain for a while.
France
Head to Bordeaux on 5th December, then Tours 7th Dec, Blois 8th Dec, Chartres 9th Dec, Mont St Michel 10th Dec, Paris on the 11th Dec, will be here till around the 14th Dec. Dijon on the 15th Dec.
Switzerland (woo Chocolate and Watches!!!)
16th Basel, 17th Interlaken, 18th Zurich
Germany
20th Stuttgart, 21st Munich
Poland (yay!)
23rd - 30th Dec. Times/Dates depend on how long Maciej can put up with an annoying Indian =p Haven't confirmed anything with him yet =)
Back to Germany
31st Dresden! Woo new years day! 1st Berlin. Will be in Berlin to the 4th, which means that my 21st birthday (3rd January) will be in Berlin!! Woo!! Courier all presents there! =p
5th Jan Leipzeig, 6th Frankfurt, 8th Mosel, 9th Cologne.
Belgium (Woo more chocolate I think =p)
10th Brussels, 11th Brugge
The Netherlands! Home of AIESEC!
12th and 13th in Amsterdam! I'm not going to smoke any weed no matter how legal it is =p I imagine I'd be way too hyper =p
UK back to NZ through like 4 stops hehe
Back to UK, and then flying out on like the 14th so that I can get back to NZ in time for conference

So that's my trip! I can't wait!

OK I should do some work =p

David BBB

New Zealand weather! Gotta love it!

So if you've lived for any period of time in NZ. Which I know most of you who are reading this would have =p You would know what I'm trying to illustrate by this picture.

You wake up in the morning, sun is up and shining! Go into the bathroom, brush your teeth, come out and there is friggin hail smashing against your window!

This morning when walking to Uni, Sun is shining as I'm leaving my house, 2 minutes later I'm getting pelted by gail force winds and rain, by the time I reach uni the sun is smiling happily on me. So I reach uni, I'm drenched, I'm shivering and I'm late for my group assignment meeting. You can tell I that my day started off perfectly!

You gotta love it though. At least you know the sun is coming out soon whenever the sad mean thunder clouds roll across town.

On the days where it keeps raining the whole day, this happens to my house...


...for those of you who haven't been to my place, usually there is a driveway somewhere underneath all that water. Our poor little puppy's home was flooded that day so she had to spend the night with us. No beastiality occurred, I promise.

Ahhh well I guess I learned I should always carry around one of those little umbrella thingees, no matter how weak it is. Ahhhh memories of the Umbrella Lama and I bought before a corporate meeting...


Literally five seconds after we bought the umbrella from the University Pharmacy, we walk outside and boom it folds inside out. Great quality craftsmanship =p The shattered remains of the umbrella were then left in a corner of the office for a good few months (adding to the brilliant mess) before someone had the sense to throw it out! Shhh, no one knows it was mine =p

OK I've had quite a few pictures in this post =p I should calm down and go study or something!

BBB

New look for the blog!

So I had some free time because I was procrastinating and I decided to make the blog a bit more personal!

It has now ended up that my face just appears everywhere =) Lots of me! It's all about me me me me me!

No wonder my EB says I have no sympathy when all that I can see is me!

OK, I'll shut up now =p Was alot of fun going through photos and seeing how many people there around the world who I call friends, I recommend doing it sometime, really cheers you up hehe.

I didn't end up walking the dog because it was raining! But I did go on the treadmill for a bit while watching Futurama (see I'm not that lazy!). Anyway to make this blog more colorful here is a picture of one of my most favorite girls in the whole world!


This is my dog Sophie! Isn't she cute! Ahh crap now I feel guilty for not walking her. I'll do it tomorrow!

Anyway I should head off to bed now =) cya all later

BBB

The end of another week

Yay its Friday! That means a fun filled weekend of sleeping awaits me...oh wait thats right exams and assignments will keep me from doing that =(

Today was the last day of my property buddy program. I was working in Jones Lang LaSalle. It was a really good experience, and was alot of fun =p Got to meet some other people from the prop class to break out of my usual hermit ways =)

While working there I realised how much I just wanted to do some work! Get out there in the real world. Then after that I realised how much AIESEC work is waiting in my Gmailbox, carefully starred for future reference =p Enough work to last me a mini lifetime! Hopefully I'll start looking for some part time property internships next year.

Here I am posing in the office. Marvin was nice enough to take the photo. Look how clean the office is! I can actually put my folder down on the table without wading through a pile of rubbish!


I've got an episode of Lost and Martha Stewart apprentice waiting for me now! So I have to decide whether to chill out and watch them, or take the dog for a walk! An epic battle between what is lazy (feels good now), and what is tiring (but good in the long run)!

I'm reminded of this while writing these past few sentences:


All right all right! (starts to tie up his jogging shoes)

I'll keep you updated! See I'm being good and writing in my blog!

BBB

Ahhh...another day!

So I forgot to hand in my passport application! I'll have to do that soon!

So today's been a good day!

I was feeling pretty bad a few days ago because I had forgotten to follow up on a company contact, and I hadn't had the nicest grant application meeting!

But today I met with that company (got a positive response! yay!) and also found out we received the grant money! Hooray again! I can sleep easy again hehe.

So what was my random learning from today. It is really hard to top yesterday's learning of "be prepared for a passport photo!"

I learnt a little bit about always seeking more =) Everyone already knows that learning, but I got a little taste of that today.

I'm constantly someone who just sits around and is pretty happy with whatever I'm given. If anyone is leading me in a team, you will rarely hear me ask for help. Not because I don't need it, but rather I either don't know I should ask for it, or would rather just work through the problem myself. This is not always a good thing, because it filters down into other areas of my life. Because I don't ask for help I don't always see when other people need it. Not only that but I don't tend to pry deeper into conversations, because I'm pretty happy with the surface level of information I've already been given.

Today I had experiences of both of these.

Someone needed help and I just didn't see it. Also someone went alot deeper than I usually do (not a smash comment =p) into a conversation. Both of these helped me realise I need to be a little less complacent!

I think I win the vague award for 2005! =)

I need to find some fun stuff to post!

BBB

I'm going to Europe!!

So I suck at keeping up to date with blogs =) Ahhh well! Life goes on =) I should try and make it so I have to post at least one thing from my day before I go to bed!

So horay its finally done! I've got my tickets to go to Europe!

I've always wanted to go, and now I'm going to be there for two months!! =) I'm trying to keep my expectations low, so when I get there I'll be floored. But till then I'm hopping up and down in my chair!

Not 100% too sure of what I'm going to be doing when I first get there, but other than that I'm going to be travelling around with some friends from high school. I'm thinking of spamming a whole bunch of people and doing an AIESEC tour!

So what is my random thing to remember from today.

Well I had to pick up my passport renewal application from the travel place because my passport is going to expire in Dec (a good excuse to stay in Europe!) Without thinking I went straight down to the pharmacy to get my passport photo taken. It was only when I was taking off my jacket when I realised, "Crap I need a mirror!"

Of course I didn't want to seem like a woman, so I just let the lady take the photo instead of running to the bathroom. After the camera flashed, I was like "erm, excuse me ma'am, could I .. umm... have a look at the photo...please!"

Anyway so this is my passport photo...

Ok so it's not awful! But it sucks not having a smile photo and having a mini afro! Stupid passport rules!

Anyway! That was my random moment of the day...

BBB

Who would you rather work for?

So who would you rather work for?

They now both have their own apprentice shows. Because I watch waaaay too much TV , I am following both of the apprentice shows which have just started in America (both of them are 2 to 3 episodes in).

I have to say that I am really impressed by Martha Stewart. She doesn't seem to be the showman that Trump is. She just has this aura that she knows what the hell she's talking about, and she doesn't have to be a bitch to get it.

In the boardroom you will often see Trump cutting off people, but Martha listens and comes back with some well thought out responses. You also don't seem to see so much of the dubbing that you do in Trumps version.

There is this one episode in Martha's version where she doesn't accept who the Project Manager calls into the boardroom. So she calls back everyone in the group and fires the person who deserved to be fired. She didn't accept the politics of the game, rather she knew who deserved to go, and took it upon herself to implement that iniative.

She also doesn't do the whole "you're fired" tag line thing. She is alot more nice about it. She says things like "I'm sorry but you just don't fit in" or "I'm sorry, goodbye" while shaking their hand. After that you see her write a handwritten letter to them, and a narration plays explaining her decision. I think it's a much better process.

It's really cool seeing a leader who isn't overly aggressive. Although there are parts of the show which seem to be planned portraying her as a nice person with a good image, there are also alot of parts that show just how genuinely effective she is as a businesswoman and leader.

If you know me and are in Auckland just contact me if you wanna see the show =)

BBB