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First Weekend Trips

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19-20 May was the first full weekend we had here in Hamilton. With Mary being an ardent fan of Lord of the Rings, we decided to visit the Hobiton Movie Set in Matamata, which is about 60km away from where we are staying. It was an interesting experience for the rest of us who may or may not have watched the various LOTR movies and Mary gave us a quick summary of what the movies are about as we were on the bus ride from the Shire's Rest Cafe to the actual movie set. The guide was sharing with us about the various scenes that were shot at that location and what amazed me the most was how particular Peter Jackson, the director of LOTR, was regarding the props and background settings. He even planted a fake tree, with hand-painted leaves, to replace the one that had died and was cut down. On Sunday, our airbnb hosts were kind enough to bring us to Tauranga for the day. In a 2 car convoy, we drove to Tauranga in the morning which is about 110km away from our house. Bel...

Week 1 in Fairfield College

Fairfield College is a secondary school that is very different from secondary schools in Singapore. I had a huge culture shock when I entered the school on my first day on Monday not because of the school environment or the teachers but because of the students. The first class I sat in, a Year 9 Mathematics class, was still considered not too bad. The students were generally very playful, talkative and disruptive, but they eventually still got their work done during the lesson. However, the bigger shock for that day came during the second lesson I sat in, a Year 13 Mathematics class. As the lesson was held in the Computer Lab, the students’ biggest distraction was the Internet. As the teacher went through the format for writing a report on timeline series, which was needed for the assessment the following week, majority of the students were not paying attention. They were either playing online games, watching videos on Youtube or talking among themselves. Despite being reminded to do...

Day 4 of South Island Road Trip

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Day 3 of South Island Road Trip

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Day 2 of South Island Road Trip

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Day 1 of South Island Road Trip

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