Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder-

Yes, in a previous life ( so it seems ) I went to Middle Earth. You know, Lord of the Rings Country. That was in January 2004. For QVSS - Queenstown Violin Summer School. I was fifteen soon-to-be-sixteen.

Actually the fact that I did manage to go was nothing short of a miracle. We found out about a month before it started. Sent in the audition tape a week later with a letter apologizing the late entry, and precisely one and a half weeks, the letter of acceptance came in through email.

Before I knew what was going on, I was at the airport....with a ten-hour journey ahead of me.

This being my virgin-solo trip, I was desperately trying to remember the loads of advice my parents gave me. What to do when this happens. Who to call. Plus the century-old parental admonishment - "Don't talk to strangers!"

I think the best advice came Joshua - "Whatever you do, make sure you board the right plane."

Did I mention I had to switch flights? Yep.

Anyway, I got to Auckland in one piece, with one minor disaster. While in Brunei, my flight to Auckland was delayed for three hours. I had to tell my parents so that they could inform the people picking me up at Auckland. So they wouldn't have to wait three hours for me. I ignored the "Don't talk to strangers!" saying and bravely approached a lady with a handphone. I took about an hour to muster up the courage.

And the first thing my dad said when he recognized my weak hello was, "Why aren't you on the plane?!"

^^Everyone in NZ was in the Lord of the Rings fever. This huge wall poster of the two hobbits was in the the waiting room inthe Auckland airport.

Oh! And during my traveling, people kept sneaking furtive looks at me. Guess they thought I was carrying a machine gun aka my violin case. Haha!

I stayed with a Chinese family in Auckland. They were really nice. Three kids. All younger than me.

Sure, it was colder than Sabah, but it was the pleasant kind of cold. I thought to myself, "This isn't too bad."

I had my camera on the flight from Auckland to Queestown. I took some pictures of the
scenery. It's very different from Malaysia, I can tell you that!

^^Touchdown on Queestown!

It so was freaking cold! The cold air hits you like a wall. And the wind just whips around you, flapping your clothes and significantly lowering the temperature.

Being a tropical bunny, I was, no doubt, in for a 'great' time.

By the time I reached the "Holiday Park" ( That's where the students were staying ) I was shivering.

I was introduced to my Japanese roommate, Tomoko. She was a really fun person. Spoke English perfectly well.

I was the mystery girl in the whole school. You see, all of the students knew each other already. Then here's this Chinese new girl.

Seeing that I looked different from them, they assumed that I didn't speak English well.

"Hi."
"Hey."
"Um...do you speak English?" (very very slowly)
Pause. "As a matter of fact, yes, I do speak English. And wow, so do you." *patronizing smile*

Silly people.

For our lessons and practices, we had to walk to this cathedral.

Which was down a long road.

Past a huge and wide parking lot.

And up a high and steep hill.

^^The slant of the hill is absolute hell!

Quite a trip. Plus we had to lug our books, violins and music stands.

So that was that. Every night, we had mini concerts - fellow students as the audience and critics. And a showcase concert on weekends for the public. And a finale conert at the end of school.

Studywise it was fun. I learned a lot, and worked hard. Everyone did.

The other students. I wasn't very social for the first few days. Basically because I didn't know what the heck they were saying! The Kiwi accent is hard to get used to.

My roommates- Tomoko and Regina ( she's Korean ) were fun. They were real nice and we had a great time. After a week, Anna from Australia moved into our room, saying that she didn't fit into her roommates. Anna and I turned out to be close friends. We were always together.

The guys. Well, basically I only talked to Daniel and Josh from Dunedin, Ben, Alex from Christchurch. Yeah...I was a shy-ish one.

And yes, there was drama. Between Ben and I. Benjamin Morrison, the star of the school. He's made a CD and is famous and all that.

What really happened? Well, I know this is a walk down Memory Lane, but...I'll keep that to myself.. Haha..

the beauty exposed ;