All 9 entries tagged University

Not Homeless

I have a place!
In exactly the same place as before!

Let university commence!

(and also regular updates to the blog on my travels)

James Riley : 23 Feb 2007 12:37 |  Tags: Life University |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Amusing…

...that I have accommodation pretty much sorted out for 2007/08 back in Warwick, yet I have no idea where I am going to be staying in a fortnight when term starts again in Auckland.

Hmm.

James Riley : 12 Feb 2007 13:13 |  Tags: Accommodation University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Arrivals/Departures

The past week or so has been a little manic to say the least…

A firework beach bonfire party farewell – revising and taking final exams – packing and moving rooms – saying goodbye to friends I’ve only just made friends with – having to plan my parents holiday here in the coming week – planning my own travels for the next three months – deciding what I’m going to take with me for the next three months – finding out how I’m going to pack it – deciding what I’m going to with the rest of my stuff – and then finding out how I’m going to pay for it all.

It’s been pretty stressful but I can’t possibly describe how excited I am about the next three months. My parents and I are going to drive around the North Island while there here, and we then head off to Sydney for a few weeks staying at a friend’s house. I then make my way back to New Zealand where me and two friends are to trek around the North Island, this time with the intent of doing as many hikes as possible. After Christmas in Napier, I ferry myself to the South Island to meet the English girls in Kaikoura for New Years’ celebrations, before I’m let out for the rest of the holiday to explore the rest of the island (completely unplanned as of yet, and slightly scary).

Over the next few days I hope to finish off (by that I mean blog :P) all of what’s happened this semester to get it out of my head and get ready for what’s hopefully going to be an amazing time… fingers crossed.

James Riley : 16 Nov 2006 03:02 |  Tags: Friends Life Travel University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect (or Dancing About Architecture)

The lecture period is over, and the time for revision has already begun. Seems weird seeing as only three months ago I was relieved at fighting the last lot of exams off yet I’m already back to the grindstone again.

Me and Loh were a bit lazy one evening and headed for a Malaysian take-out and came to chatting about his course, architecture. What immediately comes to mind when you think about architecture (don’t say you haven’t thought this) are drawings of buildings. I guess that’s what immediately came to mind when I was looking at courses over three years ago. If I’d actually looked into it, with hindsight I probably would’ve taken Architecture as a course. The course is so much more diverse than I ever expected, looking into Philosophy, Sociology, Finance and Psychology as well as expected areas of Art, Science and Technology. I never really thought about why I’ve chose Engineering other than I thought I’d be pretty good at it, which I guess has turned out to be mainly true. I’m not saying I’ve made the wrong decision, I just wonder sometimes what would’ve happened had I taken a different course.

Then again, the hideous workload I’ve seen him encumbered with is enough to shake my head of the idea and make glad that I’ve picked a course that still gives me a fair amount of breathing space for at least some parts of the year, whilst also leaving me time to explore all these other subjects at will rather than be forced upon them. I suppose if I’d taken another degree I’d probably be saying the same thing about Engineering… ahh well!

James Riley : 26 Oct 2006 06:28 |  Tags: Life Ramblings University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Tasty Tales of Tapas

It’s one thing that people seem to get along here at the Railway Campus (in some sort of scarily friendly UN type of way) but it’s another thing that the phenomenon we like to call Tapas Night has taken off to reach astronomical world record breaking sorts of dimensions. Well almost.

If you’re unfamiliar with tapas, its definition is simply small amounts of food given out for free. So in essence, what happens is lots of people turn up with a plate of some random delicacy (or disaster, but that doesn’t happen much) to share with everyone else. This leads to a rather punishing ordeal on your stomach as you move between homemade nachos and tacos, pizza breads and cornbread, pancakes and fruitcakes, fried rice and rice sticks, chicken nuggets and coconut fondue; a fantastic array all upon each other meaning I put down my stubborn picky tastebuds for an evening and try something new.

The tapas night has been slowly building from a small collective to an almost fullblown party every week, and there’s usually some showcase culinary dishes that highlight each particular evening. The most notable one was Mattias and Sam’s unbelievably huge burger. Containing at least 2.5kg of meat this was one behemoth of a dish, requiring them to bake their own bread as well as split the meat to make it a double burger. To top it all off, it was bloody delicious…

There’ve been so many other strange delights which have included blue cornbread (look! proof!) and some gorgeous gumbo from Jaime (I think) that its impossible to list them all here (plus I’ve forgot a lot). Matt and I tried our hand at adding some traditional English cooking into the mix with three (self-made, woo! look at us!) huge Yorkshire puddings served with gravy and roast potatoes which turned out pretty damn good.

Last week, me and Josh decided to spice things up a little by creating some Vodka jelly. Three packets and over half a bottle of vodka’s worth. Rather amusingly it was also the night that Imelda (sp?) was creating Hot Toddy’s and also the night when someone decided to make alcoholic chocolates. Needless to say it was a good night.

Scarily, it’s coming to the end of the school term already, which is a blunt reminder that people are going to be leaving (most people seem to be around for only one term). Though I doubt anybody will forget the legendary tapas nights, it’ll be sad to see them disappear…

James Riley : 13 Oct 2006 07:07 |  Tags: Drinks Food University |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem