Illusion of Certainty

Finally, it is definite what papers I will be taking next semester:

• ARTHIST 204 Contemporary Art and Theory;
• ANTHRO 238 Musics of the Pacific;
• LATINAM 201 Latin American History and Culture Through Film;
• POLITICS 237 Security Studies

Sorry, Pie, I just thought ANTHRO 219 would have been too frustrating for me.

Lovely weather, isn't it? Auckland's been so lucky to have had this weather for practically all of the past week, especially considering what's been going on in the South Island -- eighteen days without power? As an Aucklander, I certainly would have trouble coping with that. Then there's been the snowfall in the central North Island that caused all of the main roads through there to be closed, which also makes me ponder, how might that have affected the skiing holiday of Pie and friends?

It's been very cold -- I don't remember a previous winter that has required me to wear several sweatshirts over the top of one another -- but the overwhelmingly sunny skies have made up for it. Last Sunday I went for an epic and emotionally refreshing walk along the Te Henga track from Muriwai to Bethells Beach (which I had attempted but aborted in the summer due to unpleasant cicada swarming), only to find that I had been walking for so long that I wouldn't be able to make it back across the cliff faces to where my car was before dark. I had to get Dad to pick me up and take me on the decidedly long circumnavigational trip to my ailing vehicle.

Since then, winter has also claimed my car -- not really surprising considering I've driven it for around twenty-five thousand kilometres since I bought it and it hasn't been serviced in that time. The people at the garage couldn't start it when it was left there -- they had to roll it into the workshop! This is after it stalled at a set of traffic lights on the way there (in its state of disrepair, the car required you to rev the shit out of it when stationary to keep the engine running) and had to be bump-started down a hill in reverse. I won't have it back until at least Tuesday, and the repairs are going to cost a lot, but that's the way it goes. I'm heading to reapply at Pak 'n Save as soon as I get the car back because I'm in such need of money. I am currently rationing seven dollars.

I hope everyone who had exams found them alright and are enjoying their new freedom now that exams are over. I feel good about my ethnomusicology and politics exam efforts, but not so much about my one in media studies -- I'm in limbo over that one and have no idea whether I am going to pass the paper. Roughly thirty-five per cent in the exam will pass me. Not that I'm too concerned. The main bother would be that I'd endured a semester of a terrible subject, only for my time spent to yield no fruit. Ooh yeah.