[ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 26.09.2007 06:03 CET
Last weekend we had the ball for all the year 13s at Wellington Girls' College. Big thing! Being at a girls school it is of course a big issue what boy you should take to the ball. What dress to wear is of course always a hard question :P And since it is the last ball for us leavers everything becomes twice as important! Well, to sum it up: people got really excited WEEKS before the ball. Everyone was talking about boys they could possibly take – because you kind of have to, don't you?! – what they were going to do with their hair, the dressmaker they went to, to get their dress made and perfectly fitted(!) etc. Some were even discussing if they should get a fake spray teint or not! Some of the girls spent so much money on this ball! Its unbelievable! They even get their make up done by some professional. I was going to wear my black dress that I never got to wear to a ball in
Norway
, so I didn't need to worry about that :) And I really needed a haircut anyway so the ball was the perfect reason to finally get one. I got to borrow some shoes from Hannah Waddington's sister and I was fine doing my own make up! All good :) And I didn't really feel like taking a boy. So I had it all worked out.
So, at about 6 pm on the 22nd of September I was finally ready to go (don't ask how long it took me to actually get ready :P). Elise was having a preball at her place. We got champagne and strawberries and sushi and other things to nibble on. Everyone looked absolutely gorgeous! And we were all really excited :) Most of the girls in our group had partners for the ball and they looked really good as well! Alice, Hannah Farrely and Elise took their boyfriends Dough, James and Matt. Hannah Stern and Waddles took Louis and Ricardo, exchange students from
Spain
or something. Brett came with Emma and Sal took Oscar to the ball. At 7 we took shuttle taxis to the ball. It was held in the ballroom at the Duxton Hotel. Fancy! The theme for this years ball was Casino Royal. There was a stage where a jazz band played and in front of the stage there was the dance floor and in front of the dance floor there were lots of tables. Every table had candles and it was decorated with poker chips and cards. It looked really formal :) There was a buffet at one end of the room. Really good food! They had also put poker tables out, but no one used them :P Looked good anyway. After we had said hello to everyone we knew, we went to get some food from the buffet and sat down at our table. After dinner we went outside to the foyer where there was a professional photographer to take photos. I saw the photos yesterday and there are some really nice ones! They had golden pistols you could have in your photo if you wanted :P Hannah Stern, Alice and Doug took a really cool kind of Charlie's Angels looking photo :P For the rest of the night we were just dancing. They had changed out the jazz band with a DJ. Had great fun :D At 11 it was over, but we still had an afterball to go to. It was organized by two girls from school and it was in The Underground Arts near Cuba Street
(it is usually a tattoo studio). In between the ball and the afterball we went to Hannah Waddington's dad's work in
Cuba
to get changed out of our dresses. At about 12 we went to the afterball. The building itself was not that nice, but the music and the people there were absolutely great! It was so much fun :D Stayed at the afterball, basically dancing all the time, till 4 in the morning. We went into town then, but I didn't really enjoy that much. I was just too tired! No wonder though. Had been dancing for about 11 hours in total!! (And I am not even counting ballet I had earlier that Saturday) I left together with Hannah Stern and Oscar at about 5 am. Hannah and I shared a taxi home. The other girls stayed even longer! Went to bed at half past 5 that morning! Wasn't too bad the next morning, I mean later that morning, actually. Although 11 hours sounds like a long time it didn't feel that long so I was a bit sad when it was all over, but it had been a great night! The best ball I have been at till now :) [ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 26.09.2007 05:52 CET
Last Wednesday Alison and I went to WOW, World of Wearable Art Awards Show. It only happens in
New Zealand
. It started in Nelson but now it is always shown in
Wellington
. You can have a look on the website: www.worldofwearableart.com People send in costumes, really amazing once, like a tree, or a squid or a cake! It is a really big thing in NZ and they started advertising for it ages ago. This years show had 7 different sections. They started with a children's section. Some really cute costumes but there was so much on the stage you had trouble to follow everything! I found that section quite confusing because there were not only costumes competing for the award involved, but lots of other costumes just there to make it look better as well. The next section was a random section with lots of different costumes. Really good! At that time I understood why everyone gets so excited about WOW. Some amazing costumes on stage! The third section was the
Pacific
Island
one. Costumes inspired by Maori culture and the culture of the Pacific Islanders. Some really nice costumes there as well! The funniest section was the man section :D Incredible! Loved that one :) I also really liked the white section. Beautiful costumes! The sixth section was the illuminated one. They turned off all lights and put on UV lights only. They had people spinning around in the air in glowing suits and other bright colored things running around on stage. They had some really cool peacocks and the funniest costume in that section was a plate of spaghetti bolognaise chased by a spoon and fork :P The last section was an Avant Gard one. It was all shimmering and glittering. And throughout the show they had incredible dancers on stage (lots of boys!) and people coming down from the ceiling all the time. It was just amazing! Such a good show :) [ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 26.09.2007 05:42 CET
Megan and Emma had their 18th birthday party at Megan's house on the 15th. I went there about 6.30 dressed up in a cocktail dress as I was told to do. They had also asked us to bring a torch, a baby photo, warm clothes and shoes that we were able to walk in! We had no idea what we were going to use all that for :P Emma and Megan served us champagne when we first got there and there were some things to nibble on. When everyone had arrived they made us play the chocolate game! :D You know the game where you have a dice, a bar of chocolate and some clothes to put on. Everyone throws the dice and when someone gets a six you have to put on all the clothes and then start eating the chocolate with a knife and fork while everyone else tries to get another six so you don't get to eat that much chocolate! It is so much fun :D People (I'm not thinking of anyone in particular Hannah Stern!) got really into it :P When we were all sweaty and the effort of looking nice for this birthday was all wasted, Emma and Megan asked us to stop. We were now going to be divided in two teams, they told us. All the baby photos we brought were put in a box and everyone had to draw one and then guess who it is on the photo. The two people who got Emma and Megan were the team leaders and had to draw their teams. My team consisted of Elise, Kate, Evotia, Erin and Alice. The other team was Hannah x4 and Maggie :P We got a map each and then we had to wait for a text with a question. The first question was “What number is the Italian Embassy?” We ran there, checked the number and texted back. Then we got the next question, and so on. We were doing really well but then they asked something about Mansfield Drive and we just could not find it. We met the other team after a while and they were also looking for that drive. In the end we found a drive called Marryfield and thought they might have got the name wrong. After a couple more texts we just went back to Megan's. Emma was there and she asked where the other team is, because we were meant to be coming back together. We had no idea where the other team went. Then Megan came and told us we had to find out one more thing before we could be pronounced the winners. “What is the prize of diesel?” So we ran down to the bp station but we couldn't find any prizes. After we had spent ages there and even asked people, we just went back to Megan's again. This time there was a note on the door saying “Follow the light” and there was a light around the corner of the house. We walked down there and then into the garden behind the house. There were lights everywhere and a big and beautiful decorated table and music and it was just amazing!! It looked so romantic :D The only reason they sent us on the treasure hunt had been so they could put out everything in the garden and they made up the questions just then and didn't even know if the places they asked about existed, which explains the Mansfield Drive :P The other team arrived shortly after us and they were just as amazed by what they saw. It was seriously gorgeous :) We sat down to have dinner. Felt like in the movie “Chocolat”. Not only because it was so beautiful around us and so romantic but also because everything they served had chocolate in it! EVERYTHING! We got roasted vegetables in chocolate cover, beef with chocolate sauce, pizza rolls with chocolate inside and much more. It was really nice! We mixed some drinks as well and put lots of chocolate sauce in them of course :P After dinner we started dancing. Not good! Felt quite sick for a while, but then it was all fine :) For dessert there was more chocolate :P At about 2 we decided to go into town. Stayed there until 5 and took a taxi back to Megan's where we stayed the night. For breakfast the next morning there was chocolate cake :P and really nice fruit salad! Such a nice birthday :D
[ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 26.09.2007 05:34 CET
After school on Wednesday the 12th of September all year 13 biology classes at Wellington Girls’ College went to Wellington Zoo for a sleepover! (The website is www.wellingtonzoo.com) We arrived at about 7 pm and two guides from the zoo showed us to our rooms. My group got to stay in the “teaching room” where there were lots of skulls, skeletons, stuffed animals (amongst others a lion that used to be in the zoo!) and animal furs. Quite amazing! And there were real animals there as well. Two chinchillas and two geckos. After we had put all our gear in our rooms the guides took us on a night walk through the zoo. While we were walking in the dark we could hear the lions growl! Scary.. We could hear the kiwis as well, but unfortunately we did not see them. We saw the lions, wild dogs, tigers and some big hedgehogs that I can't remember the name of. So cool! We also saw frogs, bats (actually flying foxes. They were amazing!) and lots of different geckos in the old elephant house. And spiders :S The guide also showed us their food house. We got to see what kind of fruit the animals eat and he also showed us dead mice, a whole goat (!), fish and rabbits! :( That was disgusting... After the tour we went back to our room where we put out mattresses and then we had supper. Some people started watching the movie North Country, but I didn't really follow it. We were talking a while and then at around 11 we went to bed. I was sleeping right next to two people horribly snoring, the chinchillas were biting on their cages all night long, the mattresses didn't really provide any softness and the gibbons started making terrible much noise at 6 in the morning! So I didn't have the best sleep of my life :P But it was fine. Had to get up at about 8 in the morning. We cleaned up the room and then we had a classroom session where we learned about the differences between a human skeleton and that of an ape. Also talked about evolution in general. Really interesting! After that we got another guided tour through the zoo and we had a closer look at the chimpanzees (so amazing how similar they are to us!), gibbons and other monkeys. Saw lots of other really cute animals as well. But they all have so little space.. Quite sad. At 10 am we had to go back to school, all smelly and dirty :P Was a great sleepover though :)
[ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 10.09.2007 05:35 CET
Last Friday Wellington Girls' College had a quiz night for fundraising for the Class of 2007 Magazine (a magazine for all the year 13 students who are leaving school this year). Most of my friends from school went and they asked if I wanted to be in one of the teams. My team consisted of Hannah W, Elise and her sister and me. It was a very hard quiz and in the end we came 6th. Not too bad considering there were 14 teams participating. At one point we were 4th even! It was a lot of fun anyway and it was for a good cause :)
The rest of my weekend apart from ballet and babysitting on Saturday (I was babysitting the cutest kids!) was rather quiet, luckily! Alison took me to a French bakery for breakfast on Sunday morning. That was very nice :) I was able to sleep heaps this weekend :D So now I'm ready for the next to weekends. They'll gonna be so busy!
[ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 09.09.2007 09:14 CET
Nei å nei, da var det september allerede! Tida går altfor fort..
1. september var jeg endelig tilbake på dansing :D Utrolig deilig! Fikk ikke til å gjøre alt like bra som før, men jeg fikk nå til det meste. Kjenner at kneet blir sterkere og sterkere for hver dag som går. Det er en veldig god følelse! Snart er jeg forhåpentligvis tilbake til der jeg var før jeg skadet meg.
På søndag den 2. september dro Alison og jeg til St. James Theater sammen med noen andre venner for å se The Royal New Zealand Ballet vise Cinderella. Hadde jo allerede sett deler av forestillingen den gangen på TePapa, men med kostymer på, hele koreografien på plass og scenegreier i bakgrunnen ble det hele så klart ti ganger bedre. Forestillingen var helt fantastisk! Skikkelig fantasifult og eventyrlig. Kostymene var helt utrolige og dansinga var topp. Veldig morsomt var det også, spesielt de onde stesøstrene :) Ganske så romantisk til tider også selvfølgelig. Alle sammen var veldig fornøyd med kvelden :)
Dagen etter ble det enda mer dansing på meg. Jeg dro til byen etter skolen for å se på Dance Explosion, en forestilling med mange forskjellige dansegrupper fra hele Wellington. Veldig mye bra! Det hele ble arrangert i forbindelse med festivalen Dance Your Socks Off som holdes i Wellington i september. Masse gratis dansekurs man kan prøve ut og forestillinger man kan se på, så en god del for meg å gjøre denne måneden :D
Danskeskolen min er involvert i festivalen også. Deidre fikk oss til å vise frem noe på lørdagen. Vi fikk på oss blå tutus og ble “jaget” ut på gata. Vi viste frem deler av Svanesjøen som vi har jobbet med de siste månedene. Det var utrolig kaldt, veldig glatt og musikken var så lav at vi nesten ikke hørte noen ting, men det var ganske morsomt forde. Kom sykt mange folk for å se på. Kanskje ikke så rart når vi faktisk befant oss i den mest populære gågata i Wellington.
[ General ]
by Miriam Christ
@ 09.09.2007 09:02 CET
On Friday the 24th August it was the Victoria University Open Day. Victoria, or Vic as the students call it, is one of Wellington's two universities. The other one is called Massey. On the open day you can visit the campus, listen to different talks about courses they offer at Vic, have a look around and talk to students and teachers. Although I won’t be going to university in New Zealand I went to the Open Day together with some of the girls from school. We listened to talks about French, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Law and Biotechnology. It was actually really interesting! I didn't know about all the opportunities you have when you've got a degree in French, and how great it would be to do law in Wellington where you've got New Zealand's High Court and Parliament just across the road from the campus! The Earth Sciences and Biotechnology sessions were really good as well. There is so much interesting to research in those areas. The chemistry talk was the only boring one, but mostly because of the guy who was talking rather than the topic itself. At the end of all the sessions we went to get a free sausage and then we went to Alice's house and sat outside in the sunshine for the rest of the day :) Felt like the summer holidays! We even made smoothies :D
The following Saturday Alison, Kelda and I went up to Waikanae to have lunch at café Relish. The café is in the house where Alison and Kelda used to live, so we had our lunch in Kelda's old room. Strange :P Some of Kelda's friends from Paraparaumu came to eat with us and to say good bye to Kelda before she leaves. It was very nice :)
So yes, on the 30th August it was time for Kelda to leave. The day before Anna Ker who's going to France for 6 months left. I went to the airport to say good bye to Anna and on the 30th I had to go to the airport again to send Kelda off. Kelda's boyfriend and her friend Alexandra came with us as well. I wasn't actually that sad because I was so excited for her. I knew she had a great year ahead of her :) I cried anyway when Kelda walked away… There was a big group of girls from school at the airport that day to farewell some other students going overseas with AFS. Kelda has arrived safely in Innsbruck and she seems very happy :) If you're interested in how she is doing her blog is www.keldainaustria.blogspot.com
The same evening that Kelda left I was invited for dinner at Rhiannon's new flat. We made really nice beetroot stew and then we had a really girlie discussion about Harry Potter and Roald Dalh's Witches with one of her flatmates. Lots of fun :)
