Deadlines and Farewells

I and deadlines weren’t friends since ages… So I somehow got my deadline for my study project in the last five minutes extended from 5pm on Monday, 12th of November till 13th of December… But I had my presentation and the will to finish everything on Friday, so I bugfixed my report till Thursday noon. This left me just an afternoon, an evening, a night and a morning for my presentation and the printing of my report… Don’t ask me how, but without going once through my slides, I talked for almost an hour without anyone sleeping in and handed in the report afterwards.
So I was free again, had a party with just my flatmate and was keen to leave Auckland the next day in the morning to cruise up north for a sweet as kite event. Since I had so much stuff, it took me ages to get everything sorted out and I managed to leave at 4.30pm. It was an amazing feeling, having no home anymore, leaving Auckland – forever… ?
Well, I had to come back after the weekend to drop my friend of who crashed his brand new 4WD into a power line mast, so I spend one night in Auckland until I left to Raglan, the Hawaii of New Zealand. Consistent as waves, really cool community and a kitespot at a rivermouth where you almost don’t need wind at all coz of the current.
But Auckland got me back one more time, and made it really hard to say good bye: with temperatures and wind speeds (knots) in the upper twenties, it was such a sick time, that I stayed for almost one more week. And there were some packages to be sent back home.
Finally, everything is sorted out and I am on the way down south, will try to get a ferry tomorrow morning and conquer the south island.

Some visual impressions can be found here:

2007.11.17 Roadtrippin Northland

2007.11.20 Roadtrip Raglan

2007.11.24 Back at German Guesthouse Rose Rd

Oh, almost forgot to say, at my old flat we found some pussy magnets (a.k.a. backyard babies). One more cause that made it a little harder to leave Auckland… They are lookin for a new home around New Years, if anyone is interested. Postage to Germany, Canada or whereever has to be arranged somehow.

2007.11.19 Auckland again

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In the Crosshair of the Detective

Another stupid saying translated from German into English (im Fadenkreuz der Ermittler).
Well, seems like it’s almost over, my exams are finished, my virtual paper airplane has departed and now there is just a big amount of white paper to be printed some Masters project report upon… and a little presentation to be given…
So all I do at the moment is hitting the keyboard and trying to formulate some senseful sentences. And what do I do in my spare time? I write my blog and hit the keyboard again… Well, in a minute I put a little lamb on the BBQ and relax a little, so no worries. The sun is still shining and it’s getting warmer with every day.

Well, back to topic. Last Thursday I got a call from the Examination Officer. He wanted to interview the students who wrote Computational Fluid Dynamics, he told me. I didn’t mind visiting him, wasn’t suspicious at all. He talked to me for quite a while holding a sheet in his hands: MY sheet where I wrote all these stupid little formulas on, that you can hardly remember… shize, I thought… he talked and talked, still holding this sheet in his hands, how he had looked through all the exams and find the hightest matching with my exam…. no big effort, I think my writing is pretty unique. The paper was found after all students had left the room on the floor, he told me.
So it was my turn to explain myself…
I thought about having that paper in my pocket, but since I just had a t-shirt on, it would have been a little too risky. So I wanted to get rid of it, before the exam started, but my backpack was on the other end of the room. So I just put it behind the backpack on my side of the room and … forgot it there.
Well, he seemed to trust me, but it was a really interesting experience of getting ‘in the crosshair of the detective’. I had to write that whole story down and it has to be approved by my professor.

It is also quite interesting, how cheating is frowned upon here, noone dares it. I (and most other German students) still see it the way, that cheating is allowed as long as you don’t get caught. Well, just related to exams and doing other gruff nuisance (grober Unfug).

By the way, I already enjoyed my first Milka chocolate Santa Clause and some gingerbread already!
And I promise you, the next news is gonna make you a bit more jealous, coz then it’s time to hit the road.

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