Sunday, September 18
This morning I went to St. John’s with Rayce. It was raining, but it was good to get out of the hostel for a bit.
After lunch, I went to the library to do research for my linguistics assignment. We have to analyse part of a transcription of a conversation. I am getting an early start on my assignment because I have two essays due the same day.
Tonight was Te Puni’s Talent Quest. There were about ten acts. A few featured singing and guitar playing, there was a girl who did Irish step dance, a guy signed a song (in Universal Sign Language), and two people did a Disney medley in the midst of telling a silly story. Everyone did a really good job, and it was a very entertaining show.
After the Talent Quest, the choir had a super-short practice, just running through each song once. I am excited for Thursday’s competition.
Tuesday, September 20
Today after dinner, I checked my mail and saw that I got something from my parents. Inside the envelope was an envelope addressed to me from the Negleys (friends from Maine)! It was so much fun getting a piece of mail, and this one included pictures! I am excited to go back to Maine and see the Negleys again.
Wednesday, September 21
In the afternoon, I went with one of my friends to her English class. They had just read a play (I don’t remember which one), and some people were performing it in the lecture hour. The acting was surprisingly good, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a nice way to break up my day.
This evening, the Te Puni choir performed in the dining hall at the very end of dinner. It was our dress rehearsal, so everyone was dressed nicely. The performance went well for being our first one in front of a live audience. We were supposed to have a practice in the venue from 12 midnight to 1am, but we couldn’t book the room.
Thursday, September 22
Today was the inter-hall choir and chamber music competition. There were seven choirs and four chamber groups who participated. The choirs and chamber groups were dispersed throughout the program, so there was a nice mix. At the end of the night, it was announced that Te Puni won the choir competition! We were all super excited and happy. The Te Puni chamber group was beat out of first place by half a mark. The choir received a silver cup trophy to take back to our hostel. I had so much fun participating in choir, and I’m really glad I had the opportunity.
Friday, September 23
Tonight I went to the inter-hall Battle of the Bands. It was held in Hunter’s Lounge, which worked out really well. A girl from my hostel and I went together. There weren’t as many people there as I thought there would be, but we got a great spot on the balcony looking down over the stage. Apparently the band that was supposed to represent Te Puni had some last-minute issues, and some of the members couldn’t make it to the performance. They ended up performing the Disney medley from the Talent Quest. Some of the bands were pretty good, and others I thought were just really loud. But it was fun to get out of the hostel and see some uni bands.
Saturday, September 24
Today was spent working on my children’s literature essay and reading for my children’s literature tutorial on Tuesday. It was not very exciting, but it was moderately productive, so that’s a good thing.
Tonight I went to Hunter’s Lounge and watched the All Blacks play France with Rayce. It was a really good match, probably the best I’ve seen yet. France and New Zealand were the two best teams in this pool, and the All Blacks on 37-17.
