Hiatus

I realise that I have totally fallen behind on this blog. I never put up those pictures I said I would (partially Picasa's fault it didn't work that time!), and I have yet to blog or do anything about my trip. And now I'm back home in Arcadia, and you'd think that would mean that I would do these things since I am unemployed and home most of the time. But no. Esther is too lazy for that. And gets too easily frustrated with her slow computer.

So, classic Esther move, I am putting this site temporarily on hiatus. Not like it wasn't before, seeing as the last post was last year, but now it's official. I'll post on estherkimchi if when I post here again. Sorry!!! Hopefully I'll become less lazy once I get a job? o.O

Tying Up Loose Ends

Warning: this is going to be somewhat long (although perhaps not so detailed), so be prepared :P

PICTURES
I have finally gotten to editing and uploading all my pictures from this month.
[At the moment they are not yet up. Stupid Picasa is having issues. DAMN THEM. I will update this entry with pictures once the pictures go up. Perhaps you would like to come back then? Or you can just read now. Up to you.]

Parnell
I mainly followed what was written in Jasons Auckland Guide in regards to Parnell. I started off with the two "Historic homes" listed: Ewelme Cottage and Kinder House. Unfortunately, I got to both of them before they were open. Haha. I then went to Old St. Mary's Church and Holy Trinity Cathedral. Then I hit the Parnell Village Shops. The guide book made it seem like Parnell would be amazing.. but in reality, it's not that great. Or maybe that's because I'm too poor to afford most of the merchandise TT_TT

[pictures]

Auckland Domain
I attempted to go in a complete circle around Auckland Domain, following the map that I had of it. I took a lot of pictures of the flora since they had an amazing hot house and cool house. It was sad because I knew my mum would have loved it, since she loves plants and flowers and has a green thumb. Poor mum will have to live vicariously through my pictures, which so do not do justice to the actual flowers themselves.

[pictures]

BLOGGING
Now to write about the events of my life since my last post!

saturday
Joseph picked me up in the morning and we met up with his sister Elizabeth and then his friend Jimmy. We then drove over to Half Moon Bay to take the ferry since there is no parking in the city. Unfortunately, since we were unable to find the loading dock quickly enough, we missed the noon ferry and had to wait until 12:30pm. But that one didn't actually leave the bay until 1, and it was the slow cheap one, so we didn't get to Waiheke Island until 2pm -_____- We walked along the street, had lunch, and then went to the beach. Left around 4, 4:30ish and then killed time at the ferry stop waiting for our 6pm ferry. We were only out on the island in the sun for 3 hours maybe (it actually was CLOUDY!), but wow.. New Zealand sun is fierce. Stupid hole in the ozone. My whole face got burned. Not so badly burned that there's any peeling skin (thank goodness!), but it's STILL noticeably red right now (4 days later!). Since my skin never burns or tans in LA (or Korea, or Europe), and since I'm very lazy, I don't use sunscreen.. at all. Yeah.. now I have learned to regret the folly of my ways. I have bought SPF 55 sunblock for my tour. Haha.

[pictures]

After the ferry and dropping Jimmy off, Joseph, Elizabeth, and I went to CocaCola's Christmas in the Park. Thanks to the utter lack of parking and the fact that we were already behind schedule, we didn't get there until 8:05pm.. when it started at 7:15 TT_TT And, of course, luck would have it that the break started right when we sat down. I think the first half was more lively and fun, because the second half wasn't that great. But at the end they had a fireworks show ^^

[pictures]

sunday
Church, of course. My last church service for a while. After service I went to the mall and got my ears pierced. RE-PIERCED. That's right. Why? Because Saturday morning, while in Joseph's car, my right earring accidentally got flicked off. And his car is.. filthy. So I couldn't find it! And by the time I got home at night (around 11:30pm), my hole had already pretty much closed. Damn thick fat ear lobes TT_TT So I got my ears repierced. The good thing is that these huge studs seem like they won't fall out *knock on wood* The lady said to leave them in for 6 weeks, so I'm just going to leave them alone until I go home. I can't believe I've had to get my ears pierced three times. But like they say, third time's the charm! And this time they used a gun so I feel better about it ^^ And at night Pastor Yang invited Jeffrey, his friend Hakyung, another boy named Halim, and me over for dinner. It was fun hanging out with the guys, especially since we played poker after dinner. Fun times were had *^^*

monday
After I took the train to the city, I paid a visit to Stray Travel and then tried to find out about Australia tours (read posts at my other blog). I then went to Sylvia Park and New Lynn to look at the shopping malls and figure out what the prices were for the things I needed to buy for my tour. The Sylvia Park mall is HUGE! I have forgotten how big American malls are, but compared to the malls I've been going to in Auckland so far, this is by far the biggest. They had quite nice Christmas decorations~ Afterwards, I went to LynnMall in New Lynn. Not so big, but not bad. Outside of it was their War Memorial.

[pictures]

tuesday
Went to the city and began my shopping spree. I was upset because the previous night I had tried to buy a 4GB SDHC card for $101 total and the site wouldn't let me because I had an American credit card. And neither JB Hi-Fi or Dick Smith Electronics offered them. But as I was walking along Queen Street, I found Camera & Camera. I bought the 4GB SDHC card from them for $105 and also a card reader for $20 (JB Hi-Fi offered it for $57). I was so happy! And then I walked out and saw that there were two more places offering cheap camera stuff TT_TT Bond + Bond was offering a $149 4GB SDHC card.. with a free camera! But I told myself that I don't need a camera, and walked by. Didn't want to even go in and see if they had cheap card readers. Don't want to risk regretting my purchase. Haha. I then went to Glassons and bought swimwear. They were having sales regarding bikinis, but my fat can't handle that. So I bought halter top, bottom, and boardies. I then moved the rest of my money from HSBC over to ANZ and closed down my savings account. So now all the money I have in the world is in my ANZ cheque account. SADNESS. I am broke. Went to Henderson and finished my shopping there. Bought walking shoes, jandals (kiwi word for flipflops) for the shower and beach, sunblock, insect repellent, shampoo/conditioner, and the LOTR Location Guidebook. And at night, I finally found my 512MB SD card! YAY!

today
I'm spending all of today in my room getting ready for the tour. Pastor Yang was supposed to stop by this morning to drop off his huge travelling backpack, but he didn't. And he won't answer my phone calls TT_TT Hopefully I can get it from him later today. Packing is so overwhelming. As is trying to figure out my itinerary and what I should do in all the places that I go. Matching up all the brochures and flyers and guides that I have with the Stray Everywhere itinerary makes my head want to explode.

EXTRA!
1. Just wanted to remind you that I do blog at my other blog, quite often recently, so don't forget to check over there occasionally as well.
2. Remember before when I vaguely mentioned another site I was working on? Well, now I am giving you the link! Please go read and comment ^^ And if any of you want to also post there, just tell me and we can become co-authors ^^

CUTE, SWEET, AND SEXY
http://cute-sugar.blogspot.com

I hope you guys like it *scared of criticism*

Giving Up

"I give up, I'm through with trying"
"I give up, I've done all I can do"
from Roy Orbison's "I Give Up"

I don't even know who this Roy Orbison is. According to Wikipedia, Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988), nicknamed "The Big O," was an influential Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, guitarist and a pioneer of rock and roll whose recording career spanned more than four decades. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1989, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I just wanted to find some lyrics about my giving up, so I Blingo'd "lyrics give up" and his song came up in one of the results.

And, like the song says, I give up. I'm through with trying to get a job, and I feel that I've done all I can do. Well, I kind of don't feel that way, but I should. Having submitted over 100+ resumes in the past 5 weeks, I say that I've done enough. The job searching is over. Tourist season has begun.

Wednesday and Thursday were quite uneventful. It rained for those two days, which gave me a chance to stay in my room without feeling guilty. Especially since I was in quite some physical pain during that time. Now that I think about it, maybe it was my old age and my body becoming all achy because of the rain. Haha. I really am old.

Last night was when I first tried to get into action. If you read my other blog, you know that I gave myself until today to get a job or become a tourist. Last night, knowing with my superpower that I would not become an employed kiwi, I started to look at all the brochures and guides that I have picked up along the way. There were so many, they covered my bed.. in layers. I started to go through them, one by one, writing down where to go in what cities, what to do, etc etc etc.. until my head exploded. Being the anal perfectionist that I am, I want to do everything. I want to go everywhere that's mentioned, see everything that can be seen, and do everything possible so I can leave this country without an ounce or gram or miniscule amount of regret. But that is IMPOSSIBLE. There is just so much.. too much. It does more than boggle the mind.. it makes it explode. So, yet again, I gave up. I decided to go for the tour option. They decide where to go, what to do, where to stay, and they take care of transportation, which is a big issue for me. I decided I wanted a hop-on, hop-off tour, since I'm sure the tours won't include everything that I feel is a must-do and won't stay as long in some places as I would like, but that still left me with several options. And with an exploded head, I was in no state of mind to decide what to do.

So today I went to the tourist information centre, went up to one of the ladies at the counter, plopped down all 5 of my tour flyers, and asked which one I should do. The lady (her name is Alyson) was really nice and went through all my options with me. She discussed what certain tours offered that others didn't, why I might prefer one over the other, so on and so forth. She was very helpful. In the end, I decided to go with Stray Travel's "Stray Everywhere" plan, which takes you pretty much everywhere in New Zealand. I'm too lazy and tired to go into detail on the plan, but if you go to their website and look up their Stray Everywhere tour, you can find out for yourself! So with Stray Everywhere, and Stray Beds (vouchers for accommodation, which is not included in the cost), and my YHA card (Hostelling International Card), the total came out to $1950. Wowza. I will be getting on the bus that departs from the city at 7:45am (which means I have to leave the house around 6:15am TT_TT) on Thursday, so a little under a week from now.

At its shortest, the tour will take 32 days. But since I will probably want to stay in some places longer than the tour has planned, I'm thinking that it'll be 5-6 weeks for me. Closer to 5 than 6, but somewhere in that range. And taking into consideration that there are still places in Auckland that I need to see when I come back, I'm thinking that I'll probably leave at the end of January to go back home.

I'm excited, yet terrified. I don't know what to pack. I don't know how to pack. I don't know how to prepare. I just.. don't know what to do. I think the terror outweighs the excitement. Oh the horror of it all.

Anyway, after all that jazz, I finally went to Auckland Domain and walked around. Saw the duck pond, the tropical house, the gardens, etc. Took quite a few pictures of all the flora. These pictures, along with those from Parnell, will be uploaded eventually, I promise. I just can't say when. Am currently not in the mood to even get out my camera from its case :P

Ahhhh, speaking of camera.. I lost my 512mb SD card! I put all my edited photos to print out on that card.. and now I can't find it! I know it should be in my room somewhere, but I searched everywhere and I can't find it. Please pray that I find it soon!!!

Anyway, tomorrow Joseph is taking me along on a trip with his sister and a friend to one of the neighbouring islands. I forgot the name of the island ^^# But that should be nice. And at night is CocaCola's Christmas in the Park. Jeffrey was supposed to go with me, but he already has plans with his friend for tomorrow. He said he thought this was "next week." Hmmph. But I think I'm going to be able to talk Pastor Yang and his wifey into going with me, so I won't be alone *^^* I probably won't be blogging about it tomorrow, since I won't get home until around 11pm, but I will try to on Sunday.

As you can see, things are--just possibly--starting to look up. And on that note, I will leave you with lyrics from a happier song that I found on my lyrics search, and a song that I personally love: Josh Groban's "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)"

Don't give up, it's just the weight of the world
When your heart's heavy, I will lift it for you

Don't give up, because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you, I will break it for you

Everybody wants to be understood
Well, I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up, because you are loved

Don't give up, it's just the hurt that you hide
When you're lost inside, I will be there to find you

Don't give up, because you want to burn bright
If darkness blinds you, I will shine to guide you

Everybody wants to be understood
Well, I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up, Because you are loved

You are loved
Don't give up
It's just the weight of the world
Don't give up
Everyone needs to be heard
You are loved

A New Month

Can you guys believe it's December already? I've been here for over a month now o.O I wanted to blog earlier, but I didn't really have much to blog about. And then when I did, I was either not in the mood or too busy. But here I am!

The pictures from Mission Bay have been uploaded and are the last pictures for New Zealand: November.

On Friday, I didn't really do much. I had some errands to run in the city and in the mall, so I did those. I actually ran out of money in my cheque account at ANZ, so I had to withdraw some money from HSBC and deposit it at ANZ. When I was at ANZ to deposit, I found out the necessary info I needed to transfer money from HSBC, but I have to go do it in person.. so I will do that later.. someday. Haha. I also informed the owner of the sock shop that I wouldn't be working for him.

On Saturday, I basically ran some more errands and spent the rest of the day in my room. But I was not alone! Well, I was physically, but I was chatting with Tasha and Gardy online, which was very nice. I actually don't have AIM on my computer anymore since I never go on (and meebo.com helps when I need to), but I do go on MSN every now and then, so give me your username so we can chat! ^^ (Mine is estherkimchi at hotmail dot com)

Sunday was church, as usual. I spent all night working on another blog of mine that I am setting up, which will showcase items of interest (read: links I used to post on Facebook) and pictures/news of hot celebrities and such. I know, it sounds like the millions of other websites out there, but this way I can keep track of all the links that I am interested in and such. I'm not done with it, but when I am.. I will post the link here so there will be some visitors, haha.

I spent yesterday in my room. I wrote some Christmas cards and then worked on pictures that I wanted to get printed out, which I was going to do today. Looking through pictures, I got sentimental and decided to make a wallpaper of the pictures of my friends and family. In the end, however, I ended up getting really frustrated because the spacing between the pictures wasn't working out very well but I was too lazy to go back to the actual picture and change the dimensions. And I had to take some pictures out because it was just getting too clumpy in some areas. But I tried my best to include everyone! Can you find yourself?

I saved the image for web and in medium quality, so it's not that great. But you should still be able to find yourself! Winamp is playing a Backstreet Boys song that I have fallen in love with, "Something That I Already Knew."

Today I went out to the city. I don't know if you guys remember, but I mentioned a while ago that I might go back to Parnell to see the sights that I missed, which were listed in Jasons Auckland Guide. So that's what I did. I saw Old St. Mary's Church, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Ewelme Cottage, and Kinder House. And walked along Parnell Road. This will probably be the last time I go to Parnell. Pictures will be uploaded at a later date.

I then tried to print out pictures at Camera House in the Henderson mall, but failed. The kiosks couldn't read my USB drive! I've put them on my SD card now, so I will try again.. tomorrow? Maybe. Then I went to the post office and mailed all my Christmas cards out. It's annoying because they won't actually mail it for you--they sell you the stamps, which you have to put on yourself, and then you have to go around back to the mail slot. If you sent me your mailing address, then you have a card on your way right now (I also sent a confirmation email). It was annoying because it's $2/card, but they ran out of $1 and $2 stamps so I had to buy books for 50c stamps.

For dinner, Jeffrey and I were invited to Pastor Yang's for spaghetti. It was nice hanging out with them. Although after dinner, they ended up making my head hurt. Specifically, Pastor Yang. He's very passionate about Korean politics, and it seems like Jeffrey's quite interested in it too. American politics already makes my head hurt, but talking about it in Korean about Korean people I've never heard about before.. made my head spin. But I have survived. And am here now.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I promised my mum that I wouldn't stay in my room anymore*, so I'm thinking about redoing Ponsonby Rd and K'Rd, buying whatever I was interested in, and crossing them off forever. And then doing Victoria Park Market, and maybe Chancery as well. We'll see how quickly I get tired.

*I talked to my mum on the phone yesterday, and it was quite.. draining, emotionally. I have also come to yet another decision regarding my stay in New Zealand. I thought about blogging about it here, but I decided to blog about it at my other blog. You can read about it there.

Let Go

Today was unexpectedly quite an eventful day.

I was dropped off this morning at the Westfield here. I figured I'd spend a couple hours, max, walking around and getting the things that I wanted. Ha! How wrong I was. I bought more stickers for the scrapbook, along with a sharpie, a mouse for my laptop since it currently hates the one that I have now, and bug spray for my insectophobic paranoia. I also tried to figure out how much it is to print photos. The "Kodak" store is ridiculously expensive. If only printing out 1-30 prints, its 99c. The cheapest price is 69c, when you print 100+ photos. Camera House is cheaper, but still pretty expensive: 59c a print for regular members, 39c if a gold member, and 29c if a gold member printing out 100+ photos. Hopefully The Warehouse will offer cheaper prices.

When I called the pastor to have him pick me up, he told me that Pastor Yang called so I should probably stop by his store, which is across the street from the mall. So I went over. Pastor Yang wasn't there, but his wifey was. Apparently Joseph, a guy from church, was going to come and meet me since Pastor Yang feels bad that I don't have any friends to go out with and so yelled at him to take me out somewhere. Joseph, however, apparently has no sense of time so he actually ended up coming over two hours after he was supposed to. I was going to just go back to the house and have lunch and apply for jobs, but nope. Ended up staying, having lunch when the pastor got back, and then getting a job.

Yes, you read correctly. A job. Well, a part time job. And I'm not keeping it.

What?! Yes, quite confusing, I know. It's working a cart-esque store in the mall that sells socks. The owner had asked Pastor Yang and his wife if they knew anyone who could work there, and the pastor's wife ended up bringing me over there. They want me to work from Mon-Wed until Christmas, and then Tues-Thurs afterwards. $9/hr in cash to start, eventually to go to $10. Apparently that's good money here. RIDICULOUS. I have realised, again and again, as I look through job ads and talk to people, that it is impossible to earn decent money in New Zealand. Job ads searching for marketing people with 3-5 years experience usually offer around $40-50K. Do you realise that $50,000 NZD is not even $37,000 USD?! For 3-5 years experience?! It boggles the mind.

Anyway, being incapable of saying no to older Korean people, I accepted the job. But I didn't want it. And after talking to my mum, I am definitely going to go back and say no. I feel really bad, but I can't take that job. Apart from transportation issues, It's quite a thankless job--sitting there by yourself for hours just watching to make sure no one steals anything. Not my cup of tea. Even if I am desperate for a job.

But I am grateful that I went over and talked to them, for I learned one quite important thing. I knew that the government didn't want people holding a Working Holiday Visa to work in one place for more than three months, but I thought it was just a.. strong suggestion. Apparently not. It's actually illegal for an employer to have a Working Holiday Visa holder work for them for over three months. NO WONDER no one wanted to hire me! I always thought it was weird. I know the visa's only good for 1-2 years, but I could always want to stay longer.. and the company could always get me a work visa later on. But now I get it. Why even look at a person who can only stay up to three months?! And they wouldn't give work visas to just anyone~

My mum told me to just give up. Not entirely, just my dream of finding a good job in New Zealand. Of making decent money while I'm here. To just let those dreams go. We have decided that I am instead going to find a temp agency to work for. Do temp jobs and travel in between jobs. Just make enough money to support my travels and adventures. So that is what I'm going to do.

She also wants me to return to LA in May, before students graduate from uni. So I can apply for jobs before the students take them all from me. Which is a good point. Except.. I don't know if I want go to work in LA so soon. My dreams here have shattered, but I am still entertaining thoughts of working in Korea. But then again.. who knows what I'll be thinking next year. My mind is in a whirl.

But anyway, today does not end there. After all that, Joseph finally kept his promise to take me to Mission Bay, which is something he was supposed to do a couple weekends ago. Mission Bay is really nice. It was sprinkling, so the weather wasn't very good, and the beach isn't actually all that nice, but I still really enjoyed it. I was feeling really shitty after that sock shop stuff, and going to Mission Bay helped. It was very refreshing. I felt like I could breathe again when I was there. It was nice ^^

Pictures, what few I took, will be uploaded later.. probably tomorrow. I'm still in a daze. I really hope things will finally start to work out.

Holy Sheet!

I follow up my productive week with a not so productive week. It's only Wednesday, so perhaps it's a little early to say that, but I've been spending a lot of time in my room. Just wasting time. I have gotten through quite a few episodes of Korean dramas and anime, so that's good. Haha.

monday
Monday was a sad day. Well, at least the first half of it was sad. Why? Because Aquent called. And I didn't get the job. It's at times like these that I feel like God plays with me. Why dangle a position in front of me and then take it away?! I know He's not playing with me.. but still. I want a job gosh darn it! So I went online and applied for more jobs. There are less and less jobs that I can apply for now, since I've applied to pretty much everything available. There are only so many new jobs that can get posted up every day. Quite depressing TT_TT But for dinner the whole household plus Pastor Yang and his wife went out to dinner to say goodbye to Jeffrey's mum. We went to a seafood + Korean BBQ buffet. Pretty nice. So that lifted my spirits a bit. You know how I love food :P

tuesday
Went in the morning with the pastor to take Jeffrey's mum to the airport. She was nice and gave me some money *^^* I was sad to see her go. I'm going to miss that lady. Now I'm back to being by myself. It was so nice to finally have someone to go out with.. and now she's gone. The only other significant thing I did that day was watch the Korean movie Soo. That was tragic. My poor Ji Jin Hee. But alas, not a recommendable movie.

today
Today I went out into the city! The pastor's wife is now working. Yes, the lady who does not care about working has gotten a job, while I remain unemployed TT_TT Haha. She's helping her friend out for the next two months because her store is really busy. She's in charge of inventory or something like that. Not a job I would care for. But it means she will be heading out into the city--well, to Ponsonby, a neighbourhood near the city--for the next two months. So I headed out this morning with her.

The LINK bus goes through Karangahape Road and Ponsonby Road, so I've seen the main streets before. Told myself I would have to come back someday and see the stores, so I decided that today would be the day. The pastor's wife was actually just working until 1pm today (she starts working full-time tomorrow), so I had a little more than 3.5 hours (we arrived around 9:15am). So I walked all along Ponsonby Road until I hit Karangahape Road (aka K'Road), walked all along that until I hit Queen Street, and then headed back.. on the opposite side of the road of course. The two streets weren't as great as I had hoped they would be. Although, I think K'Road is supposed to be more lively at night, since most of the businesses there were nightclubs and bars. Anyway, I got back to where I started a little past 11am.

To make things easier, if you've noticed, I try to make the first picture I post in the blogging the first picture I've added, so you don't have to go through the entire album to get there.

I decided to kill time by going to Starbucks, but that only killed around half an hour. So I decided to go into the city, which is something I should have done before. I took the LINK bus, the long way around, so I didn't arrive at the Westfield until 12:30pm. For time's sake, I should have taken the other route, but I'm glad I went the way that I did. Riding the bus and looking around helped me put into perspective the routes that I walked and saw on the map, and now I'm truly getting a map of the city centre and the nearby neighbourhoods in my head. Quite helpful. So I ended up just staying on the bus and going back to Ponsonby. Turns out that a complete circle takes an hour. I then headed over to Gifts 2 U, which is the store that the pastor's wife is helping out at, and actually bought some stuff there. I bought stickers for the scrapbook that I am planning on making. Now I just need to actually get some photos printed out..

I spent most of the time in my room today doing stuff on deviantART. Uploaded a few pictures, created a new ID. Check them out~ ^^ But what has the most impact on you guys is that I changed the album name for my pictures. So the URL is now http://picasaweb.google.com/kimcheese/NewZealandNovember

I didn't think ahead when I first created the album. It seems like I will be needing an album for each month that I will be here. So if you ever just go straight to my pictures, there is now a NOVEMBER at the end of the address. Let me just say, it was quite a pain to go back to all my past bloggings and change all the URLs for the pictures. Not fun.

Productive Week?

I have been lazy and not posting about my week! My apologies. ^^# Not like you guys care, but still.. I am self-centered and must share my life with the world! :P

This week, I have been quite productive in watching stuff on my computer. I finally finished Season 1 of Burn Notice and am looking forward to the next season next summer. It's nice to see Jeffrey Donovan in a happier role here than in his tragic role on The Pretender. As I blogged about earlier, I had also finished watching the Korean drama Resurrection. And last night I finally watched Ocean's Thirteen. Brad is still oh so hot *^^*

But I've also gone out a lot, thanks a lot in part to Jeffrey's mum being here and wanting to go out. Haha. What am I going to do when she leaves?! TT_TT

wednesday
Went out to Newmarket with Jeffrey's mum. Walked around, she did some shopping, then went back to the city for lunch. After we came back to Henderson, we went around with the pastor's wife running errands.

thursday
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Except we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. TT_TT I blogged about my sadness over this at my other blog. I also uploaded videos to YouTube and blogged about it. And I finally started to watch the Korean drama Queen of the Game, which stars my love Joo Jin Mo. I was so happy watching the beginning because it was shot in New Zealand!!! I recognised the parts that were shot in Auckland, such as the Sky Tower, so that made me happy. And then they went to Queenstown, and the shots were so beautiful. And wow, I had forgotten how hot JJM was. IS. He is so heartbreakingly hot. And this drama will break my heart. Which is why I'm currently stuck on episode 3. It hasn't gotten to the heartwrenching part yet, but I know it's coming! Haha. I'm such a chicken. TT_TT

friday
Went out to Newmarket again with Jeffrey's mum because she wanted to make an exchange at Ralph Lauren. I'm constantly reminded of this, but Jeffrey's family must be really well off. Not only does she talk the talk, but she walks the walk. She bought a one piece from Ralph Lauren for $200-something, a dress in Newmarket that was on sale for $150, a very expensive bag from Louis Vuitton, and a wallet from Gucci. It boggles the mind. Anyway, we had Subway for lunch and I was so happy. It made me nolstagic ^^# I then blogged, uploaded pictures to Picasa, and also uploaded some pictures to deviantART. I am trying hard to be more active on dA. Next I must edit and upload pictures from Muriwai Beach. I also finally went to the church's Friday night service since the other pastor called and asked me to earlier that day. It was.. not something I want to go back to. Not that it was bad, just not my scene.

saturday
Yesterday I went out to the city with Jeffrey's mum.. and Jeffrey! We spent quite some time at the Westfield, where we also had lunch. I had McDonald's again, but this time I ordered it LARGE! And it finally came out the way I was used to seeing it back home. I also finally bought a scrapbook. I am determined to scrapbook my time here in New Zealand. Now I just need to get my pictures printed and buy stickers and do all that scrapbook stuff. Haha. Man, there's a reason why I didn't do this stuff before. Too much work! Wish me luck~

We also went to DFS Galleria, where I discovered that not only is Jeffrey's mum a high roller, but that Jeffrey is like that too! He wants a Ballys bag (which is priced at over $1000 at duty free!) and clothes from Ralph Lauren and Burberry. It's odd to see a boy who does not flinch when he reads that the price tag for a shirt is around $150 or more. Being around them makes me think that the $305 LeSportsac bag that I want is not all that expensive, since LeSportsac is pretty much the cheapest brand I have looked at in the Galleria with them. Which is horrible! I buy $15-$20 bags! I need to go back to Korea where I'm not only surrounded by like-minded people but where I can also actually buy the cheap stuff that I want~

today
This morning Jeffrey and his mum had to go back into the city because Jeffrey's mobile, which he bought yesterday, is malfunctioning. Today is actually going to be the Santa Parade in the city, but it's at 2pm and so will be during church service. Damn. But it's okay--the city is doing a lot for Christmas. And since this is Jeffrey's mum's last Sunday, she is buying everyone pizza after service. I look forward to that. Yum. ^^